China fears unrest – with good reason.
Chinese riot cops.
As much as I dislike China, more specifically the Chinese government, I have to admit they’ve been pretty consistent and candid about one fact: They have to keep GDP growth at at least 8% or risk facing wide-spread social disorder.
In an article on the McClatchy News site, Tom Lasseter notes the unease Chinese officials and other observers are feeling:
Lots of export factories will be shut down, and a lot of migrant workers will lose their jobs,” said Ma Yang, the director of a Beijing-based migrant workers advocacy group called On Action. Ma paused and considered his words: “If the government does not provide assistance to help them through this economic transition, it will create a lot of social problems.”
As a side note, this weekend I was in an REI store (not by my choice) and I happened to notice that all of the products on offer were made in China. ALL of them. At last, I found a flashlight made in the good ol’ USA, albeit with a caveat attached: “Some” of the parts “might” be imported. SIGH!
Four Yemeni soldiers killed as unrest swells
Violence widens in Yemen.
By Hammoud Mounassar (AFP)
Many of the demonstrators have been protesting against poor living conditions in the region.
SANAA — Four Yemeni soldiers were killed on Tuesday when armed men attacked a checkpoint in the restive south, in the latest in a series of violent incidents rocking the country, a security official said. Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arab world, is an Al-Qaeda target and mired in a rebellion by Shiites in the northern province of Saada as well as an upsurge in violence in the south. The growing strife has led parliament to question the government’s ability to tackle the country’s problems. The security official said it was unclear who was behind Tuesday’s attack, which took place on the road linking the provinces of Abyan and Hadramaut and which also left another soldier wounded. A website linked to the defence ministry reported that 10 armed “saboteurs” ambushed the checkpoint. The army has launched a manhunt for the assailants, it quoted a security official as saying.
Labor Strife Roils South Africa
Cops are shooting protestors with rubber bullets.
(See also the CSM HERE.)
Protesters chant slogans during a strike in Johannesburg July 27, 2009. REUTERS
South Africa’s government faced more violent protests on Tuesday as police fired rubber bullets on marchers as a strike by tens of thousands of municipal workers entered a second day. Police broke up a demonstration in an informal settlement in the Mpumalanga province where some 500 residents angry over a lack of service delivery burned down a clinic, a library and a fire engine. They also stoned police, landing a policeman in hospital.
“We had to use rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, I believe there are some injuries but they have not been reported as yet,” said provincial police spokesman Abie Khoabane.
In Thokoza, a Johannesburg township, police dispersed 200 residents with rubber bullets after they blocked off streets and stoned a police cordon in a protest over the lack of service delivery by the municipality. Thokoza has been a hotspot of rioting as a series of service delivery protests have swept South Africa in recent weeks. Rising discontent over wages and slack service delivery have increased pressure on the new government of President Jacob Zuma in the midst of a recession.
Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death
China Unrest: Chinese riot police get into position as Uighur protesters gather during a demonstration in Urumqi, earlier this month.
Thousands of workers had gathered in northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs.
Chinese state media confirmed Monday that a steel factory executive was beaten to death after thousands of workers gathered to protest the takeover of their company.
Chen Guojun, an executive at Jianlong Steel Holding Co., died Friday after an angry mob in the northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua beat him and then blocked ambulances from reaching him, according to the China Daily.
The protesters worked at the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which was going to be sold to Chen’s privately owned Jianlong Steel. Chen sparked the riot by announcing 30,000 workers would be laid off, the newspaper said.
They dispersed later only after they were assured by authorities the sale would not go through.
– David Pierson
Huge Regional Thrift Set to Collapse
Guaranty Bank, the second largest in Texas has been ordered to turn itself over to the FDIC.
Bank Failure Friday – Thursday Edition
Back from a holiday hiatus to find 7 (seven) banks failed. Normally, they close them on a Friday, but I guess the holiday gave them the opportunity to put the key in the door on these guys a day early. Interestingly, 6 of the 7 are in my home state of Illinois. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Bank Failure Friday!!!
A whopping 4 5 (four – FIVE – they slipped another one in on me after I posted) banks bit the big one today! Read ‘em and weep, kids!
Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA
Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA
Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA
AND
This makes a total of 45 (forty-five) banks closed this year by the FDIC.
The End of Empire – The BRIC is hitting the fan, folks!
Children playing with stacks of cash in Weimar Germany.
Stop reading right now unless you are prepared to be massively depressed. Our empire has fallen. We are now, officially, the Romans. In a stunning, devastating piece at TruthDig, Chris Hedges puts together the cataclysmic chain of events to come that many of us have struggled to round up and articulate since September of 2007. It took a year after that for the situation to get so bad, on September 21, 2008, that the Congressional leadership was called together by the Fed and Treasury and told without a massive cash infusion of tax dollars the whole rotten movie set that was our economy was going to fall on top of us. Riot, mayhem, violence and disintegration were sure to follow. Out of that meeting was born TARP, TALF, AIG, GM, the stimulus package, etc.
The whole piece is a must read, but some snippets after the jump will curl your hair.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends 06/08/09
- Can’t make the payment? Light a match!
- Palin kicked out of Republicanist fund raising dinner – again.
- Right wing on the upswing in meaningless EU elections.
- ChiComs put Ray Nagin on lockdown in Shanghai. Has the mayor been “Shanghaied”?
- Apparently we’re letting some of the big banks pay back their TARP money. Let them give it all back, dammit!
- Laura Bush thinks Sotomayor is OK.
- Can’t afford your car payment? Torch the damn thing!
- Right Wing Israeli government stands in the way of Mideast Peace, while simultaneously claiming to have a new plan in the works.
- Canadian nurses meet to discuss possible violence surrounding flu pandemics. Now, they’re talking.
- Government selectively tracks the pig flu.
- Officials said to be preparing for second wave of flu. 1918 here we come.
- Coming to a jailhouse near you – Rikers Island overrun with the pig flu.
- I am irritated with the President on DADT, but I understand his strategery.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 06/05/09
- End of the line, Grasshopper.
- The WHO hold emergency meeting to avoid (again) raising the panic on pig flu to level 6.
- All of our strum und drang about bird flu apparently helps / will help us with the pig flu.
- Kung Fu’s death “may be accident” say genius cops. (Clue – No one commits suicide by strangling their yang.)
- Unemployment at at 25-year high.
- Department of Stoopid Criminals. AG DWI Homicide suspect busted boozing it up on Facebook.
- Sharon Tate killer, Manson Family member Susan Atkins, is dying, so she gets to have a parole hearing.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 06/01/09
- Silver American Eagle
- Silver has best month since 1987. Get it NOW.
- GM filed for bankruptcy today.
- Willfully asleep at the switch: Bush’s SEC thwarted regulation. “After Cox became SEC chairman in mid-2005, he adopted practices that undermined the enforcement division’s efforts to investigate cases of corporate wrongdoing and punish those involved, according to interviews with 19 current and former SEC officials.”
- Right-wing extremist held in slaying of Kansas abortion doctor. ‘Of Dr. Tiller’s death, Mr. Leach said, “To call this a crime is too simplistic,” adding, “There is Christian scripture that would support this.”‘
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 05/29/09
- Paul Krugman is not worried about inflation.
- My boy Berlusconi is in hot water again. L’affaire Noemi?
- GM Readies For Bankruptcy.
- While Confederate mushmouth Dick Shelby is ringing the socialism alarm bells - again, over the deal. His alternative? Let it fall.
- Gold on 3 month high. Silver closing in on $16.00 per ounce?
Day Old Bread – Odds & Ends – 05/27/09
- GM bankruptcy almost certain as bondholders tell company to stick their stock offer where the sun don’t shine.
- GM bankruptcy seen as a certain disaster for the economy.
- Survey of economists says Depression will end soon. Roubini doesn’t think so. My money’s on Dr. Doom.
- The contagion spreads while the WHO wonders if they jumped the gun on the pandemic alert number. These people will shilly-shally and fart around till we all drop like flies.
- The Dear Leader would like to re-start the Korean War.
Day Old Bread – 05/26/09
- The Swine flu is a particularly tricky bug.
- It looks like you could get both pig flu and seasonal flu at the same time. (By the way, please note, they’re really only telling the Chinese this, and not us.)
- Meanwhile, the World Bank is not being shy about the possibility of widespread civil unrest as a result of the Depression.
- Speaking of the Depression, many think it could go on for three more years.
The Economic Downfall and the Rise of Tent Cities
The Camp of the Bonus Army, 1932.
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