Tent city dwellers face eviction

US 'tent city' dwellers face eviction

High unemployment rates have forced many people in the US to move out of their homes. Some people have set up makeshift homes, using tents as a last resort.

One such community in Rhode Island is being run like a small town, with a committee that votes on how the camp is run. But now the state is trying to evict them.

Cath Turner reports.
Category: News & Politics
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tent city us recession eviction foreclosure economy crisis financial aljazeera cath turner

Saudi fraud case highlights Gulf banking flaws - 22 July 09

Two of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families are battling each other in a New York court over claims that one side stole $10bn from the other.

The fraud case has highlighted the lack of transparency in doing business in the Gulf, where banks are blamed for lending money to wealthy families almost solely on reputation.

Hashem Ahelbarra looks at the fallout for businesses in the region.
Category: News & Politics
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saudi arabia gulf financial fraud aljazeera

jim roger

US state budgets hit by shrinking tax take

By Nicole Bullock in New York

Published: July 20 2009 20:39 | Last updated: July 20 2009 20:39

Sharply falling tax revenues across the US have left states facing fresh budget shortfalls and threatening further painful spending and service cuts following previous multiple rounds of belt-tightening.

In the first quarter of the calendar year, tax collections dropped by 11.7 per cent, the largest fall on record, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Of 50 states, some 45 reported declines.

Early figures for April and May show an overall decline of nearly 20 per cent for total taxes, “a further dramatic worsening of fiscal conditions nationwide”, says the institute.

Billions of dollars of federal stimulus funds, combined with cuts to state employee jobs, school districts, healthcare and even the US prison system, have so far failed to close the budget gaps.

“The states are constantly trying to recalibrate their budgets to deal with a shrinking revenue base,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of state policy initiative at the Pew Center on the States.

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Economist: Expect Inverted Recovery

Julie Crawshaw
Moneynews
July 14, 2009
Economist Ed Yardeni predicted we will have an inverted head-and-shoulders recovery, and said the first shoulder has already happened.

Yardeni said the first shoulder of the formation came on Nov. 20, 2008, when the Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell to the year’s low of 752.44.

The index then rallied to 934.70 on Jan. 6, before tanking to an intraday low of 666 on March 6. Then it rebounded to this year’s high of 946.21 on June 12

“If it holds that level over the rest of the summer, then the resulting head-and-shoulders formation could set the base for the next leg up for stocks,” Yardeni told The Daily Press.

However, Yardeni said that his optimistic technical picture won’t be realized unless the fundamentals cooperate, in the form of an upturn in earnings.

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