1 Eurozone slowdown cools bounce back hopes (Graeme
Wearden in The Guardian) Private sector growth across the eurozone has slowed
this month, bringing job creation to a standstill and dampening hopes that
Europe's weak economy will rebound robustly from its recent stagnation.
The latest monthly index of purchasing managers
(PMI) found that France's economy continues to struggle. French manufacturing
activity is falling at its fastest rate in 15 months. The composite PMI for the
eurozone fell to a two-month low of 52.8 this month, down from 53.8 in July.
Factory output weakened, with the eurozone manufacturing PMI falling to a
13-month low of 50.8, closer to the 50-point mark that separates expansion from
contraction.
Firms also reported that job creation had slowed to
near-stagnation in August, suggesting that progress in cutting eurozone unemployment
is stalling. Concerns over the eurozone have risen, after figures last week
showed that the economy stagnated in the April to June quarter, with German GDP
shrinking by 0.2%. August's PMIs suggest that the eurozone will only manage
modest growth in the third quarter of 2014.
America's factory sector appears to be growing
strongly this month: the US manufacturing PMI jumped to 58.0, the highest
reading since April 2010, as companies put last winter's slowdown behind them.
2 Bank of America in $17bn mortgage settlement (BBC)
Bank of America has agreed to pay a record $16.7bn to US authorities for
misleading investors about the quality of loans it sold. The loans were sold by
Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch before Bank of America bought them in
2008, at the height of the financial crisis. The associate attorney general
said "no institution is either too big or too powerful to escape"
punishment.
The settlement will cut the bank's third-quarter
profits by $5.3bn. Bank of America will pay a total of $9.65bn in cash and
provide consumer relief worth about $7bn, much of which will go towards
homeowners struggling with their mortgages. The case centred on Countrywide
Financial, the biggest lender at the time of the crisis, and Merrill Lynch
selling mortgage loans to investors but not explaining the full extent of the
risk involved.
3 Ferguson and the militarization of US police
(Khaleej Times) The death of teenager Michael Brown in a suburb of the city of
St Louis, in the state of Missouri, US, on August 9 has shone a harsh spotlight
on a development that has taken place beyond public scrutiny. That development
is the astonishing and dangerous level of the militarisation of local police
forces in the US.
“The St. Louis County Police Department’s annual
budget is around US$160 million,” Newsweek had reported. “By providing law
enforcement agencies with surplus military equipment free of charge, the
National Defense Authorization Act encourages police to employ military weapons
and military tactics.” The disastrous result of such a piece of legislation can
be seen in local American communities which have unknowingly inherited the
spoils of foreign wars — from Iraq to Afghanistan. It is the stockpiling of
uncounted tonnes of military hardware, the samples of which have appeared on
the streets of Ferguson amid increasing street protests.
Only this June, the American Civil Liberties Union
released a report that pointed to the acquisition of military equipment by
local police as proof that police forces in the US are being transformed into
something potentially dangerous.
If there is a small hope to seize upon in the tale
of Ferguson, Missouri, it is that the public protests there and all over the
US, in solidarity, may coalesce into a movement that reacts to why Americans
have been shocked. The message of the
protestors is that a violent state response against communities will not be
tolerated, and that ordinary Americans cannot rely on the political system
alone to address such a problem. Perhaps Ferguson will prove to be the spark of
the peace movement that America so desperately needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment