Pic: Sean Wilson (PD)
Organized crime controlling construction and waste disposal? That sounds familiar. Crime bosses in Japan are recruiting the nation’s homeless and paying them next to nothing to clean up the deadly remains of the Fukushima disaster.
Japan’s three biggest crime syndicates have established illegal recruitment under construction powerhouse Obayashi, a top contractor. Reuters speaks to one man paid by a gangster to collect potential homeless workers: Seiji Sasa would find men at a local train station and get them work through a number of smaller contractors that eventually reported to Obayashi (which has not been fingered in the scheme). The workers would be paid less than minimum wage after middlemen skimmed some and deductions were taken for food and housing; in other cases, those deductions were taken from their scant pay, leaving the workers with no money, or even in debt.
Slovenia needs up to 5 bln eur to clean up troubled banks - sources
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BRUSSELS
BRUSSELS Dec 4 (Reuters) – Slovenia is expected to need as much as 5 billion euros ($ 6.8 billion) to recapitalise its banks, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, a figure some officials say would not require an international bailout.
Slovenia’s government is determined not to seek international aid and one government official recently said that even were the bill for repair to reach 4.6 billion euros it would not trigger a request for help.
The banks are nursing some 8 billion euros in bad loans, equivalent to almost one quarter of economic output, raising speculation that Slovenia, with a population of just 2 million, might become the sixth euro zone economy to need outside help.
On Dec. 13, the government will receive the results of an external audit of the banks, which will say how much cash the government must inject to keep them afloat.
“The latest figure we have for Slovenia is 5 billion euros,” a senior euro zone official familiar with the situation told Reuters.
A second official said that 5 billion euros was likely to be the upper limit and that it could be as low as 4 billion euros. He said it was unlikely this range would require an international bailout for the ex-Yugoslav republic.
A source close to the government of Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek told Reuters last week that the country was able to cope with a gap of 4.6 billion euros.
Slovenia’s stock market suspended trade in its banks’ shares and junior bonds on Monday, until the publication of results of bank stress tests next week.
Credit-rating agency Fitch has said that under the worst-case scenario, Ljubljana will have to recapitalise its mostly state-owned banks with 4.6 billion euros – far more than the 1.2 billion euros it has set aside.
Despite the uncertainty, investors’ interest in Slovenia is increasing, with one single unnamed buyer snapping up a 1.5 billion euro bond issue in November.
But Slovenia could yet follow Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus in seeking a national bailout from the euro zone, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Slovenia’s economy was badly hit by the global financial crisis and relapsed into recession in 2012 due to a slide in exports, a credit crunch and a fall in consumer spending after budget cuts.
The government has embarked on a programme of reform including tax hikes, spending cuts and privatisations.
It is considering selling a number of state companies including Telekom. Germany’s Deutsche Telekom is a potential bidder.
ECB supervisor promises to come clean on banks" health
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* Nouy to take helm of ECB supervisor next year
* In public debut, Nouy concedes “mistakes” in crisis
* Supervisor pledges to tackle government debt risk
BRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) – The euro zone’s future bank supervisor on Wednesday promised a warts-and-all probe into the bloc’s still fragile financial system, conceding that she and other supervisors had made mistakes in the past.
Seeking the backing of the European Parliament to become the supervisor for euro zone banks, Daniele Nouy listed sovereign debt among the banks’ potentially riskiest assets as she laid down her ambitions for testing the health of lenders.
“What we will do is look at the most risky portfolios including sovereign risk,” she said, commenting on planned health check of banks next year. “We have to deliver a tough and transparent exercise to the market.”
Defending her role as French supervisor in the collapse of Franco-Belgian group Dexia, Nouy expressed regret over the “mistakes” she and her supervisory peers made in the financial crisis.
“Like many other supervisors, holding sovereign debt and assets linked to loans of local authorities, the risk wasn’t flagged and clear to us,” she said. “That was a mistake, no doubt about that. Perhaps we should have shown more authority.”
The euro zone’s debt crisis has been compounded by the dependence of many governments on banks buying their bonds, and by the banks’ dependence on their governments picking up the bill if loans go bad.
The 63-year-old French technocrat is now tasked with leading one of the biggest clean ups yet of European banks, billed by many economists as the bloc’s last chance to resolve a crisis that has dogged it for more than half a decade.
As head of the European Central Bank’s supervisory body, she will first lead an examination that aims to come clean on bank problems, pinpointing loans such as mortgages that may never be repaid.
But she will face immense hurdles in getting national governments to face up to the true scale of the losses and repair those banks, a step that could require taxpayer cash.
Then there is the problem of accounting more accurately for the risks of holding government debt. Unlike other forms of lending, banks are not required to set aside capital to cover possible losses on state bonds they buy.
Nouy told lawmakers in the European Parliament that banks should not be given a regulatory incentive to buy government bonds.
“We learned through this crisis that there is no risk free asset,” she said. Besides, she added: “We need the banks to finance the economy. If they increase their holdings of sovereign debt, they are less able to finance the economy.”
Nouy will also herald in a new era when more of the burden of salvaging or shutting failed banks will be shunted onto their creditors, a radical model tried out in Cyprus, where banks’ biggest depositors suffered losses.
Germany wants prompt rules to hit senior bank bondholders, a step that worries Spain and others. It will fall, in part, to Nouy to weigh the risks that such losses could upset market calm in deciding how radical such steps should be.
Her job will be as political as it is technical.
“She has to be a technical master and speak truth unto power,” said Graham Bishop, an advisor to the European Commission.
But on Monday night, it was the owner of a building in Queens who used a crew of painters to work overnight and paint over graffiti on a warehouse in Long Island City, wiping clean a canvas that was used by thousands of artists over the years to transform an otherwise nondescript, abandoned brick building in a working-class neighborhood into 5Pointz, a mecca for street artists from around the world.
By Tuesday morning, the work of some 1,500 artists had been wiped clean, the Brobdingnagian bubble letters and the colorful cartoons spray painted on the building’s brick walls all covered in a fresh coat of white paint.
“We are supposed to be the vandals, but this is the biggest rag and disrespect in the history of graffiti,” said Marie Cecile Flageul, an unofficial curator for 5Pointz.
The plan to convert the three-acre site into a $ 400 million development project that will include two glass towers and 1,000 new luxury apartments had provoked opposition from artists and their supporters. But after months of public debate, court hearings and political maneuvering, opponents had little left in their arsenal.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the development, they were hoping to have the building designated as a landmark. That option is now likely gone as well.
“I don’t know how you can erase 12 years of spectacular art,” said Hans Von Rittern, a guide who arrived with a busload of tourists, only to find the building’s art gone. “It’s cruel.”
The warehouse is scheduled for demolition by the end of the year.
The property has been owned by the Wolkoff family for over 40 years, and for most of that time they allowed artists to use the building’s facade as they liked.
It was the 1970s when Jerry Wolkoff bought the warehouse. At the time, people who tagged storefronts, subway cars and street signs were widely viewed more as menace than artist.
Today, graffiti is more mainstream than outlaw, used in commercials, sold at auctions and stamped on clothing.
The British street artist and presumable millionaire Bansky ended his recent monthlong residency in New York with the words “save 5Pointz.”
The Wolkoff family said they long planned to develop the site, but only in recent years has it become financially feasible.
As a concession to the artists, David Wolkoff, Jerry’s son, told the City Council in October that he would raise the number of affordable apartments to 210, from 75, and include 12,000 square feet for artists’ studios, up from 2,200 square feet.
He said he was a fan of the work of the people who turned his building into a work of art.
“The artwork is absolutely fabulous,” he said at the hearing. He did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Still, the painting of the building – which started after midnight and finished around 7 a.m., according to witnesses — was met with anger and surprise.
“Everyone was kind of shocked,” said Jeff Carrol, 33, who went to the building Tuesday morning only to find workers applying a final coat of paint.
Mr. Carrol said he moved to Williamsburg from Seattle in September, and, while he was not a street artist himself, 5Pointz “was on the list of cool things that I should see.”
He would return occasionally to check out what was new on the building, but he knew time was running out.
Tuesday morning, he said, he was greeted by a police officer stationed at the warehouse and was told that if he caused any trouble he would be arrested.
The graffiti was painted over before it could be formally celebrated, and supporters said they would hold a vigil Tuesday night.
Graffiti has long been ephemeral but Mr. Carrol said he had hoped that 5Pointz would be granted a “stay of execution.”
“I guess I got to see it just in the nick of time,” he said.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) challenged Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) contention Sunday that “there are not the votes in the House to pass a clean CR” and reopen the government.
“Well, first, the speaker said there aren’t the votes on the floor to re-open the government. Let me issue him a friendly challenge. Put it on the floor Monday or Tuesday. I would bet there are the votes to pass it,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week” appearing just after Boehner. “We have just about every Democrat, 21 Republicans have publicly said they would. There are many more Republicans who have said that they privately would.”
“So, Speaker Boehner, just vote. Put it on the floor and let’s see if you’re right.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney issued a similar challenge on Twitter:
The No. 3 Democratic senator also wrote off Boehner’s threats of default as “posturing” and predicted the Speaker will relent.
“I think there’s a bit of posturing going on here,” Schumer said. “To have us default could, and there’s a pretty high chance, send us into a recession deeper than the one in 2008. … I believe Speaker Boehner will not do that when push comes to shove.”
He accused Boehner of “playing with fire” and likened his stance to that of a hostage-taker.
“Speaker Boehner comes in and he says, basically, it’s sort of like this,” Schumer said. “Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage and then, says, let’s negotiate over the price of your house.”
It turns out that the “clean CR” Democrats are urging House Republicans to pass in order to end the government shutdown is much closer to the 2014 Ryan budget than anyone expected. Larry Kudlow, host of “The Kudlow Report” on CNBC, joins Chris Hayes to explain.
It turns out that the “clean CR” Democrats are urging House Republicans to pass in order to end the government shutdown is much closer to the 2014 Ryan budget than anyone expected. Larry Kudlow, host of “The Kudlow Report” on CNBC, joins Chris Hayes to explain.
Mud from flooding is shown covering the main street Sunday Sept. 15, 2013 in Estes Prk, Colo., after water and debris swamped the town when the Big Thompson River surged through Estes Park late Thursday and early Friday. In Estes Park, some 20 miles from Lyons, hundreds of homes and cabins were empty in the town that is a gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. High water still covered several low-lying streets. Where the river had receded, it had left behind up to a foot of mud. (AP Photo/Jeri Clausing)
Mud from flooding is shown covering the main street Sunday Sept. 15, 2013 in Estes Prk, Colo., after water and debris swamped the town when the Big Thompson River surged through Estes Park late Thursday and early Friday. In Estes Park, some 20 miles from Lyons, hundreds of homes and cabins were empty in the town that is a gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. High water still covered several low-lying streets. Where the river had receded, it had left behind up to a foot of mud. (AP Photo/Jeri Clausing)
Loaders scrape up mud Sunday Sept. 15, 2013, from the flooding that swept through Estes Park, Colo., that swamped the town’s main street when the Big Thompson River surged through Estes Park late Thursday and early Friday. (AP Photo/Jeri Clausing)
Carlos Duron, 3, and his mother, Vilma Maldonado, are evacuees from Longmont, Colo., staying at Mead High School with the Red Cross on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013 in Mead, Colo. The National Weather Service says up to 2 inches of rain could fall Sunday, creating a risk of more flooding and mudslides. (AP Photo/The Daily Camera, Cliff Grassmick) NO SALES
People rush into LifeBridge Church to escape the rain in Longmont, Colo., on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The National Weather Service says up to 2 inches of rain could fall Sunday, creating a risk of more flooding and mudslides. (AP Photo/The Daily Camera, Cliff Grassmick) NO SALES
A woman and little girl rush into LifeBridge Church to escape the new rain in Longmont, Colo., on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The National Weather Service says up to 2 inches of rain could fall Sunday, creating a risk of more flooding and mudslides. (AP Photo/The Daily Camera, Cliff Grassmick) NO SALES
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ESTES PARK, Colo. (AP) — As Colorado mountain towns cut off for days by massive flooding slowly reopened, shopkeepers in this gateway to majestic Rocky Mountain National Park worked to both clean up and remove salvageable goods from ravaged businesses for fear the swollen Big Thompson River would rise again.
“We have limited time to get as much out as possible,” Aspen Evergreen owner Tamara Jarolimek said as she and her husband, James, worked furiously Sunday.
Outside, crews plowed up to a foot of mud left standing along Main Street after the river late Thursday and early Friday coursed through the heart of town.
“I hope I have enough flood insurance,” said Amy Hamrick, who had friends helping her pull up flooring and clear water and mud from the crawl space at her coffee shop. Her inventory, she said, was safely stashed at her home on higher grounds.
Meantime, hundreds of residents and evacuees gathered for updates from the town’s administrator, Frank Lancaster, who said “we are all crossing our fingers and praying” that it won’t happen again.
Across town, comparisons were repeatedly drawn to two historic and disastrous flash floods: the Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976 that killed 145 people, and the Lawn Lake flood of 1982 that killed three.
“Take those times 10, that’s what it looks like in the canyon,” said Deyn Johnson, owner of the Whispering Pines cottages, three of which floated down the river after massive amounts of water were released from the town’s dam. Johnson said the only warning she and her husband had to evacuate their home and their guest cabins came from their cat, Jezebel, who jumped on her sleeping husband at 4:30 a.m., batting at him and yowling.
“I always thought we were safe unless the dam went,” she said. “I credit the cat with saving my family and the lives of everyone in the cottages.”
From the mountain communities east to the plains city of Fort Morgan, numerous pockets of individuals remained cut off by the flooding. Sunday’s rain hampered the helicopter searches, and rescuers trekked by ground up dangerous canyon roads to reach some of those homes isolated since Wednesday.
The surging waters have been deadly, with four people confirmed dead and two more missing and presumed dead after their homes were swept away.
Gov. John Hickenlooper said on NBC’s “Today” show that 16 or 17 helicopters would resume searching Monday for cut off residents. “Our primary focus is making sure we get everyone in harm’s way out of there,” he said.
“You’re got to remember, a lot of these folks lost cellphones, landlines, the Internet four to five days ago,” he said. “I am very hopeful that the vast majority of these people are safe and sound.” However, he said, authorities expect the death toll to rise.
Some 1,500 homes have been destroyed and about 17,500 have been damaged, according to an initial estimate by the Colorado Office of Emergency Management.
In addition, 11,700 people left their homes, and a total of 1,253 people have not been heard from, state emergency officials said.
With phone service being restored to some of the areas over the weekend, officials hoped that number would drop as they contacted more stranded people.
As many as 1,000 people in Larimer County were awaiting rescue Sunday, but airlifts were grounded because of the rain, Type 2 Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team commander Shane Del Grosso said.
Hundreds more people are unaccounted for to the south in Boulder County and other flood-affected areas.
Air rescue efforts are planned to resume in Boulder County on Monday with improving weather.
The Office of Emergency Management is urging people who are cut off by floodwaters and need to evacuate but have been unable to communicate by phone or other means to signal helicopters passing overhead with sheets, mirrors, flares or signal fires.
The town of Lyons, about 20 miles from Estes Park, was almost completely abandoned. Emergency crews gave the few remaining residents, mostly wandering aimlessly on Main Street, looking for status updates from each other, a final warning to leave Sunday.
One man, a bluegrass musician, has been visiting his home every day and taking photos. The house has a river running through it and he can’t get close.
Most of the town’s trailer parks were completely destroyed. One angry man was throwing his possessions one-by-one into the river rushing along one side of his trailer on Sunday, watching the brown water carry them away while drinking a beer.
In Estes Park, Lancaster called the flood a 500-year event. He said it was worse than previous flash floods because of the sustained rains and widespread damage to infrastructure across the Rocky Mountain Foothills. Major road were washed away, small towns like Glen Haven reduced to debris and key infrastructure like gas lines and sewers systems destroyed, meaning hundreds of homes in Estes Park alone could be unreachable and uninhabitable for up to a year.
The good news here in Estes Park and the Estes Valley, Lancaster said, was there appeared to be no loss of life.
Still, hundreds remained stranded in remote areas.
“We know there are a lot of people trapped but they are trapped alive,” he told people gathered at Red Cross evacuation shelter Sunday afternoon.
And rescues continued throughout the day Sunday any way possible, including zip lines rigged to hoist people and pets across swollen rivers and creeks.
That’s how retirees Jerry Grove and Dorothy Scott-Grove — and their two golden retrievers — were finally rescued Friday night from their vacation cabin in Glen Haven. Although they may not be able to get back to their new car for six months to a year, and they were still trying to figure out how to get home, Scott-Grove said they were glad to be alive and were now looking at the experience as a “great adventure.”
As many as 1,700 homes in the Estes Park area were under evacuation notice, Lancaster said, but the issue was more about lack of access because of washed out roads and destroyed infrastructure.
Even the town’s historic Stanley Hotel, a structure that was the inspiration for Stephen King’s “The Shining,” suffered damaged, despite its perch on a hilltop overlooking the town and the river. Front desk worker Renee Maher said the ground was so saturated that water was seeping in through the foundation, and had caused one suite’s bathtub to pop out “like a keg,” Maher said.
Ironically, the massive Estes Ark — a former toy store two stories high designed to look like Noah’s Ark — was high and dry.
“I don’t know if it’s open anymore, but soon it’s going to be our only way out,” joked Carly Blankfein.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney and guest Marc Morano falsely suggested higher truck sales in March translate into a rejection of more fuel efficient vehicles by American consumers. In fact, the driving force behind higher truck sales is a rebounding construction sector, and sales of more fuel efficient vehicles have also been robust.
Fox Business’ Stuart Varney: “Time For Uncle Sam, Maybe, To Slam The Brakes On Those Green Car Incentives?” On Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, guest host Stuart Varney noted the strong truck sales in March, and asked if it was “time for Uncle Sam, maybe, to slam the brakes on those green car incentives.” He went on to say that with high gas prices, “you’d think people are jumping into fuel efficient cars, but they’re not. They’re going for gas guzzlers.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/2/13]
Fox Guest Marc Morano: “Despite The Best Efforts Of The Environmentalists, Of Government Mandates And Subsidies And Discounts And Tax Breaks, The SUV And The Gas Guzzlers Reign Supreme. Varney’s guest Marc Morano, founder of ClimateDepot.com and Media Matters‘ Climate Change Misinformer of the Year for 2012, said that “despite the best efforts of the environmentalists, of government mandates and subsidies and discounts and tax breaks, the SUV and the gas guzzlers reign supreme in the American auto market. Which just says one simple thing. The Federal government, as all powerful as it likes to think, cannot mandate consumer choice.” He added that “Americans want cars that are practical, big, safe, have room,” not “little tiny electric cars.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/2/13; Media Matters, 12/27/12]
GM Sales Chief: “Sales Of Smaller Cars Have Been Robust For Some Time.” Agence France-Presse quoted GM sales chief Kurt McNeil as saying, “Sales of smaller cars have been robust for some time,” and adding that “the strength of the crossover market signals that America’s families are more confident about their financial health.” [Agence France-Presse, 4/2/13]
FoxBusiness.com: “Demand For Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Ramped Up” In March. A FoxBusiness.com article quoted Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service as saying, “Customers are buying our all-new Fusion and Escape in record numbers, and we are working harder than ever to keep pace with demand for these fuel-efficient vehicles.” When explaining the jump in March auto sales, the article said that “demand for fuel-efficient vehicles ramped up in the U.S. and pickup trucks rebounded.” [FoxBusiness.com, 4/2/13]
Hybrid Sales Were Up 32 Percent In January And February Compared With The Same Period Last Year. The Los Angeles Times reported that “Hybrid sales were up 32% in the first two months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to research firm Autodata Corp.” The Times cited “a combination of trends, including upward-creeping gas prices, a growing track record for reliability and the wider selection of hybrid offerings” as driving the change. [Los Angeles Times, 3/29/13]
FoxBusiness.com: Truck Sales Boosted By “A Steady Climb In Housing Starts.”FoxBusiness.com reported that truck sales improved “as the rebounding housing market encouraged construction companies to update fleets that in some cases were more than a decade old.” FoxBusiness.com noted that Alec Gutierrez, a senior market analyst of automotive insights for Kelley Blue Book, said that truck sales were boosted by a “steady climb in housing starts” that will “continue to support the truck market.” [FoxBusiness.com, 4/2/13]
LA Times: Truck Sales Were Strong “As The Truck-Heavy Home Construction Industry Continues To Recover In The U.S.” The Los Angeles Times reported: “Truck sales for Ford and the other Detroit automakers were particularly good as the truck-heavy home construction industry continues to recover in the U.S.” [Los Angeles Times, 4/2/13]
The Plain Dealer: “Growth In Truck Sales Is Closely Tracking New Home Construction.”The Plain Dealer reported that Michell Krebs, an analyst with consumer research site Edmunds.com, explained that “that the growth in truck sales is closely tracking new home construction.” [The Plain Dealer, 4/2/13]
Ford Economist In January 2013: “Recovery In The Housing Market Should Drive Pickup Sales In 2013.” In January, Reuters reported that analysts predicted truck sales would increase as the housing market rallied:
The beginnings of a recovery in the housing market should drive pickup sales in 2013, said Ford economist Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, citing a Census Bureau figures showing a sharp increase in people setting up new households.
“This is a fundamental physical foundation for housing recovery,” she said. “When you look at the housing recovery, it can put a twinkle in your eye every bit as much as 2013 sales forecasts do.” [Reuters, 1/14/13]
GM Treasurer: “There’s A Big Correlation Between Auto Sales And Housing Starts.” Reuters quoted GM Treasurer Jim Davelin as saying, “There’s a big correlation between auto sales and housing starts.” He added: “The pickup truck market share is at historic lows. We would expect that to come back.” [Reuters, 1/14/13]
Media Matters for America – Research Items
