Since then there has been nothing. What do you think? Did everyone suddenly get happy? Is there Censorship? Does the press not cover riots and protests anymore?
Something happened to the people of the world during March 2009...
It is not that there aren't things for people to be upset about, they are just not taking to the streets or, if they are, the pictures aren't getting out:
2009.12.06 Radio Liberty: "Workers at Russia's Molot arms plant haven't seen their salaries in nearly six months. Unable to meet payroll, management has resorted to passing out food parcels to its increasingly angry and desperate employees." "This is partially related to the devaluation of the ruble and the accompanying rise in inflation. The buying power of workers has fallen approximately 40 percent. We don't see this situation improving."
2009.12.09 AFP: "GENEVA (AFP) – Unemployment in Switzerland soared to a five-year high ..." "The Swiss government said last week that it would halve from next year its quotas of permits for workers from outside Europe in a bid to curb unemployment."
2009.12.07 Washington, D.C. - infoZine - "The global financial crisis is having a devastating impact on families in emerging Europe and Central Asia, with the risk of the region giving back a fifth of the poverty reduction gains of the past decade, according to a new World Bank report. By 2010, there could be over 10 million more poor people in the region, and close to an additional 25 million more who were almost middle class but now just above the poverty line with the potential of losing their homes, jobs, and basic services."
2009.12.07 New York Times - "BANGALORE, India — In the United States and Europe, people worry that their well-paying, high-skill jobs will be, in a word, “Bangalored” — shipped off to India."
2009.12.08 The Vancouver Sun - "Financial markets tumbled on Tuesday as credit rating agencies slashed Greece and Dubai government-related debt and contemplated the potential debt rating downgrades of the United States and U.K., as both countries struggle to deal with large fiscal imbalances and accumulated debt that have resulted from the global crisis. "Anybody who thinks we are through this credit collapse is delusional," said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto. "It is ongoing."
2009.12.09 Bloomberg - "Greece’s socialist government, elected in October, plans to cut the budget deficit to 9.1 percent of GDP next year from 12.7 percent this year. In contrast, Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will announce plans today to cut spending by 6 percent in the face of the worst recession in Ireland’s modern history." “There’s certainly an element of panic and hysteria,” said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank AG in London. “The ECB will bend over backwards to ensure that one of the countries within its orbit doesn’t default."
2009.11.07 New York Daily News - "President Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law... The law provides another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people who have exhausted their benefits... in states where the jobless rate is 8.5% or more get an additional six weeks. The extra 20 weeks could push the maximum a person in a high unemployment state could receive to 99 weeks, the most in history."
HERE ARE SOME PICTURES FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE DECEMBER 2009 MARKET REPORT (Click to enlarge):
No social unrest in the US because the government continues to subsidize unemployed workers. Now you can get benefits for almost a full two years. The unemployed are staying unemployed longer than any time in US history.
Of concern is the fact that even with continued extensions of unemployment benefits, continuing claims are dropping. Since total unemployment has not improved and continuing claims are falling, this can only mean people are falling through the US social safety net.
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