San Francisco Schools 450 Job Cuts

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Facing another year of funding cuts, the Board of Education will vote tonight on whether to issue preliminary layoff notices to 450 teachers, administrators and staff.

The board is legally obligated to notify employees of potential layoffs by March 15. In previous years, the majority of layoffs were rescinded by the time the board voted on a final budget.

School officials were hoping to reduce the tally of layoffs this year with help from The City’s rainy-day fund. But while the district could expect as much as $24 million a few years ago, in recent years that fund has been depleted.
Last year, the district also used $9.5 million in federal stimulus money to help prevent layoffs, but that money was a one-time grant.

Also tonight, the board will vote on the rules by which teachers will be laid off. While the district is required to base layoffs on seniority, it will attempt to protect the jobs of math and science teachers, teachers who are bilingual and those who focus on special education.

From: http://ping.fm/E6ox6

Greece to Miss Deficit Targets Despite Austerity – CNBC

Greece will miss a deficit target set just months ago in a massive bailout package, according to government draft budget figures released on Sunday, showing that drastic steps taken to avert bankruptcy may not be enough.

The dire forecasts came while inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, EU and European Central Bank, known as the troika, were in Athens scouring the country’s books to decide whether to approve a loan tranche. Without that installment, Greece would run out of cash as soon as this month.

The 2012 draft budget approved by cabinet on Sunday predicts a deficit of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2011, well short of the 7.6 percent target.

The 2012 deficit is set to meet a nominal target of 14.6 billion euros, but at 6.8 percent of GDP it falls short of a target of 6.5 percent, because the economy will shrink further.

“Three critical months remain to finish 2011, and the final estimate of 8.5 percent of GDP deficit can be achieved if the state mechanism and citizens respond accordingly,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

European officials are scrambling to avert an abrupt Greek bankruptcy, which would wreck the balance sheets of European banks, jeopardize the future of the single currency and potentially plunge the world into a new global financial crisis.

European Union officials say the troika’s assessment of Greece’s future prospects could determine whether it needs to demand more debt relief from private creditors, a measure that could effectively amount to default.

From: http://ping.fm/b30RE

Markets: Markets Still Have Further to Fall, Say Analysts – CNBC

After a week in which stock markets around the world suffered, analysts and strategists are predicting further gloom in the weeks ahead.

The eurozone will continue to be in focus, with no let-up for European banks after recent downgrades, share price falls, and the news that up to 20 need recapitalizing.

The 16 banks which ended up with core tier-one capital ratios of 5 percent to 6 percent during the last set of stress tests are under pressure to recapitalize earlier than planned, according to a report in the Financial Times Friday.

“It’s not clear to me that these 16 banks are the only banks which need significant recapitalization,” Alastair Newton, senior political analyst at Nomura, told CNBC Friday.

“The stress tests didn’t address the worst-case scenario and that remains a sovereign default in the eurozone. “We don’t have the EFSF agreement yet. We don’t have persuasive stress tests,” he added.

From: http://ping.fm/TXJdU

U.S. stocks dive at the start on Fed’s gloomy take – MarketWatch

INDEXES PLUNGE! NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks thudded lower at Thursday’s start, with investors picking up on the Federal Reserve’s gloomy take on the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -3.17% fell 313.78 points to 10,811.06. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -3.18% declined 30.96 points to 1,135.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP -3.17% shed 65.98 points to 2,472.21

From: Ping.fm

IMF: World economy enters ‘dangerous new phase’ ? USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON – The world economy has entered a “dangerous new phase,” according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.

The IMF expects the U.S. economy to grow just 1.5% this year and 1.8% in 2012. That’s down from its June forecast of 2.5% in 2011 and 2.7% next year.
To achieve even that still-low level of growth, the U.S. economy would need to expand at a much faster rate in the second half of the year than its 0.7% annual pace in the first six months.
STORY: Stocks end mixed
Most economists expect growth of between 1.5% and 2% in the final two quarters. Though an improvement, it wouldn’t be enough to lower the unemployment rate. The rate has been 9% or higher in all but two months since the recession officially ended more than two years ago.
“The global economy has entered a dangerous new phase,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist. “The recovery has weakened considerably. Strong policies are needed to improve the outlook and reduce the risks.”
The IMF has also lowered its outlook for the 17 countries that use the euro. It predicts 1.6% growth this year and 1.1% next year, down from its June projections of 2% and 1.7%, respectively.
The gloomier forecast for Europe is based on worries that euro nations won’t be able to contain their debt crisis and keep it from destabilizing the region.
“Markets have clearly become more skeptical about the ability of many countries to stabilize their public debt,” Blanchard said. “Fear of the unknown is high.”

From: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-09-20/imf-world-economy-dangerous-phase/50481072/1

Home Building Sentiment Worsens in September – MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes dipped slightly in September to remain in very low territory, according to an index released Monday. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell by a point to 14, on a seasonally adjusted index where readings above 50 are considered good. The index, which correlates closely with single-family housing starts, has held between 13 and 16 for the last six months. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 15 reading.

From: http://ping.fm/GG3Ak

Occupy Wall Street Global Revolution Livestream

Watch livestream the protesting of US citizens right in the heart of New York City – outside of Wall Street. The protesting started yesterday with more or less 50,000 people.
I wonder if they are going to continue tomorrow or if they are going to chicken out.

http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/globalrevolution?layout=4&color=0x006ccd&autoPlay=false&mute=false&iconColorOver=0xe4f2ff&iconColor=0xb5dcff&allowchat=true&height=300&width=450

Watch live streaming video from globalrevolution at livestream.com

Recession – US Economy Goes From Bad to Worse: Economist – CNBC

The US economy is going from bad to worse and will not fully recover until structural problems caused by the collapse of the housing market and the financial crisis are resolved, according to Capital Economics.

Predicting growth rates of 1.5 percent in 2012 and 2.0 percent in 2013, Roger Bootle, the managing director of Capital Economics believes there is a risk of the US economy falling back into recession over the next few years.

“Households have made only limited progress in reducing their debt burdens following the collapse of the housing bubble,” said Bootle in a research note on Wednesday.

“As the deleveraging continues, we expect spending to remain unusually weak over the next couple of years,” he said.

Investment by businesses remains one of the bright spots in the US, but Capital Economics believe renewed financial turmoil on financial markets risks future investment being put on hold by business leaders nervous about where this will all end.

“The crisis in Europe and a more widespread easing in global demand means that the export sector won’t be able to offset the weakness in domestic demand,” warns Bootle.

From: http://ping.fm/N6zpI

Moodys Downgrade Of French Banks Imminent, Risk Waterfall To Follow? | ZeroHedge

As regular readers may recall, back on June 14, before it became an even bigger pariah in the thoroughly discredited rating agency space due to its refusal to downgrade the US, Moody’s placed French megabanks SocGen, BNP and Credit Agricole on downgrade review, which means that at some point in the future the rating agency would have to cut the banks’ rating from its existing Aa1-2, to Aa3 or even a single A.
It is true that when it comes to downgrade reviews the rating agencies are notorious for being as unpredictable in their timing as they are conflicted in their rating: for example even though Belgium was supposed to be downgraded months ago due to the fact that it continues to be the longest running modern anarchy, nothing has occurred, as political interests are obviously pushing the raters to do as paying clients request, not as reality demands. Alas, for France, which is very sensitive to any inkling it may have a less than sterling rating (due to its sovereign AAA requirement without which the EFSF/ESM falls apart), the luck may have run out. Bloomberg reports that the abovementioned banks “may have their credit ratings cut by Moody’s Investors Service as soon as next week because of their Greek holdings, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

From: http://ping.fm/PZFmb

Bastard Bankers Quote of The Day

“This system is pure, utter insanity. I hate it intensely. It devalues labor. It pillages value. It destroys wealth. Bastard bankers and their central bank protectors ARE destroying the world, and they don’t give a flying fuck about me, you, or anyone.” commenter at zerohedge.com

GO MUSE!

http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xaj387
Muse – Uprising (Clip) por WorMee