Occupy North Dakota: They're Hiring

Protesters at Occupy Wall Street may not have a coherent list of demands but they have one central, unifying theme: jobs. More precisely, the lack of jobs.

From unemployed steel workers to recent college graduates, one message bubbles to the surface time and time again.

The American dream is about finding a good job and making a living, and in today’s economy that’s more difficult than it has been in decades.

True, other issues such as healthcare, the ongoing expensive overseas wars, and the financial bailout all loom very large in these protests, as do many other fringe issues.

But the real reason we’re seeing these protests now is the unemployment rate which has hovered around 9% for years now. And while it’s beginning to creep down, ever so slowly, for many Americans this is cold comfort at best.

So it may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that North Dakota has upwards of sixteen thousand job vacancies just waiting to be filled. Read More at Forbes

European Leaders Deal Directly With Debt Dilemma

With a new sense of urgency, the leaders of the 27 European Union nations grappled directly on Sunday with their thorniest financial and economic problems, and made progress that they promised could yield a complete package of measures within days.

The hope is that the seriousness of the leaders’ effort to finally solve the interrelated problems of Greek debt, weakened banks and a bailout fund in need of reinforcement will keep speculators at bay when the financial markets open on Monday morning. But now there is heavy pressure on the leaders to deliver the goods at their next meeting, set for Wednesday.

“Further work is still needed, and that is why we will take the decisions in the follow-up euro zone summit,” said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council.

Pervading the summit meeting on Sunday was a consensus that Europe had to attack fundamental issues and stop merely putting out the brushfire of the moment. “We all have a sense that the crisis in the euro zone is reaching very worrisome levels,” said Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, which now holds the rotating presidency of the union. “We have to be happy that the decision-making progress has gained some momentum, although we can’t say we have reached the finish line today.” Read more at NYTimes

How Does Europe Borrow Dollars From The Fed?

The European Central Bank tapped a foreign exchange swap facility with the Federal Reserve earlier this month, borrowing $500 million. In exchange, the ECB puts up collateral of Euros worth around $500 million.

The ECB wants the dollars so it can lend them out to European banks, which have been having trouble borrowing dollars at affordable rates due to fears about their financial health. 

But it’s worth taking a moment to pay attention to what actually happens mechanically. Because the way we talk about these swap facilities can create the illusion that somehow we’re sending boatloads full of dollars overseas and that the ECB is then sending us boatloads full of euros. Read more at CNBC

Why Investors Can’t Trust Anything Coming From Europe

A market tethered to hopes for a European debt crisis solution is likely to remain in a state of confusion, even if two upcoming summits exceed muted expectations.

As a result, market volatility will continue until there are some signs that the EU is finally getting its debt crisis under control. And the betting is now that it could take months or more for the situation to get resolved.

"Even if the Europeans come up with something very robust that shows they're going to try to deal with the crisis, this is going to be a long slog," says Bill Isaac, head of financial institutions practice at FTI Consulting in Vienna Va. "The problem is a bunch of countries are way overextended and somebody's going to have to take some losses."

A continuous torrent of vague, conflicting headlines has dominated the crisis, with Thursday offering more of the same.

Have France and Germany agreed on a bailout amount? How much will banks need for recapitalization after a Greek default? Is Italy really the problem and will a "Bazooka Bank" be needed to buy up all the risky debt in the euro zone? Read More at CNBC

Brazil Cuts Rates. Is China Next?

Brazil is one of the world's hottest economies. But even it is feeling a need to cut interest rates in response to a slowdown in the developed world.

Despite the fact that inflation is still a major concern in the land of Carnival, Brazil's central bank cut its benchmark Selic rate late Wednesday by half a percentage point.

Rates in Brazil are still a whopping 11.5%, a reflection of the strength of the oil-rich Brazilian economy. But the latest cut comes on the heels of another half-point cut back on August 31. And here's what is most telling. The decision to lower rates was unanimous.

Brazil's Comitê de Política Monetária, or Copom, said in a statement that the move was necessary to promptly mitigate "the effects stemming from a more restrictive global environment."

That's a big change from less than two months ago. The rate cut in August was met with some resistance. Two of the seven Copom members voted against lowering rates. (Richard Fisher and Charles Plosser apparently have friends in Brasilia. How do you say inflation hawk in Portuguese?)

The Greek debt crisis has only gotten worse in the past few months, leading to more calls for quick action in Europe to prevent contagion. And the economic data in the United States, while maybe not hinting at another downturn, is hardly encouraging either. Read More at CNN Money 

China's Economy: Afraid of a Bump

China’s economy is set to suffer hardship but not the hard landing that many fear. 

Perhaps the only thing growing faster than China’s economy is worry about the country’s economy. Figures released this week showed China’s GDP still expanding briskly by anyone’s standards except its own: it grew by 9.1% in the third quarter, compared with a year earlier. But fears for China also boomed, judging by the dismal performance of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong, the rising price of insurance against a Chinese sovereign default, and rare, downward pressure on its currency.

Some of this worry reflects problems beyond China’s borders or the government’s control. Chinese sales to the European Union, for example, plunged by 7.5% last month, their worst September drop since 1995. But in recent weeks China has become a net exporter of anxiety. Inflation is falling, but it has remained higher for longer than the authorities expected. The property market is also slowing. Sales have fallen sharply, as developers wait in vain for demand to pick up rather than flogging their properties at a discount. Read More at The Economist 

Greeks Start 2-Day Strike as Aid Vote Nears

ATHENS — Skirmishes between demonstrators and the police broke out outside the Greek Parliament at the start of a two-day general strike on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Athens in months, if not years. A crowd of dozens of youths took advantage of the moment to smash several storefronts and begin looting.

Local media put the crowd estimates at around 80,000 people; some news Web sites said more than 100,000. The police would not release official figures yet. The civil servants’ union said some 500,000 people were involved.

A spokesman for the Athens police said 16 officers were injured, one by stone-throwing demonstrators, and that three demonstrators were also hurt. There was no immediate information on arrests.

The protest, called by the country’s two main labor unions, aims at a new round austerity measures that the debt-ridden government must pass through Parliament on Wednesday night and Thursday to secure the next installment of aid from the European Union. Only that will avert a default next month that could shake the euro zone and reverberate through the global economy. Read More...