Financial War in Iran, Riots in Greece and Jobless Conspiracies in the US!

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Welcome to Capital Account. The IMF lowered growth forecasts and warned of a world-wide recession in its World Economic Outlook report. This was the IMF's bleakest assessment of global growth prospects since the 2009 recession, according to the Wall Street Journal. Is the IMF late to the party? It upgraded growth prospects for only one major nation from its previous forecast: the US! Did the IMF take into account that the US is in a QE induced coma? We talk to Mike Shedlock about the meaning behind the IMF's report.

Also, the US jobs numbers released by the BLS last week are still making headlines. The downturn in the unemployment rate during the election season prompted some high profile people, such as former GE CEO Jack Welch, to suggest that President Obama's team manipulated the data. Our guest, Mike Shedlock, Investment Advisor for Sitka Pacific Capital, is here to dispel the conspiracy theories around the drop in unemployment.

In 2003 Austan Goolsbee, who later became an Obama aide, argued that in previous economic downturns "the unemployment rate has been low only because government programs, especially Social Security disability, have effectively been buying people off the unemployment rolls and reclassifying them as not in the labor force.'' He cites the loosening of the standards to qualify for disability payments in the 1980s and 1990s as a reason for the increase of those in the disability system, a form of 'invisible unemployment.' The trend of rising disability insurance has continued in this recent economic downturn. We talk to Mike Shedlock, author of the popular blog Mish's Global Economic Analysis, about factors that cloud and complicate the unemployment picture.

Plus, Angela Merkel is in Athens offering words of support for her Greek counterpart. Talk is cheap, far more expensive are the conditions for more bailouts and debt write-downs! Words of support don't pay the bills or reignite a stalled economy. Lauren and Demetri look at how the mainstream media has misrepresented the problems in Greece. Also, Iran faces hyperinflation...or does it? Lauren and Demetri discuss the economic impact of sanctions and price controls in today's "Loose Change."

• Category

  News & Politics

[EliteURBX]

Instead of everyone arguing and throwing around unsubstantiated claims about Greece, why don't you tools just provides some links to credible sources to back up claims. Personally I think Demetri is trying to defend the undefendable, but as someone who is "close to the action" Demetri should have a ton of sources to support claims made, yeah?

[CapitalAccount]

you can't put links into youtube comments. that's why i simply pointed to the Eurostat statistics to start with. You can easily find those yourself on the net, just enter a search into google. As for tax evasion, according to the latest numbers I can find from the Finance Ministry, some 900k people owe an estimated 41.1bn euros in outstanding taxes. Just 5% percent of them however, owe 85% of the total. Means that just 14,700 individuals, companies or organizations owe 37 billion euros.

[CapitalAccount]

And honestly, I don't know why this seems so crazy to anyone watching this show. Exactly why is it easier to believe that people are "rioting because they want more money" or protesting because they want their "30-hour work week?" I mean, is that a joke or something? I wonder if facts will satisfy anyone who holds this point of view...

[EliteURBX]

Demetri...when one is used to a particular situation, particular lifestyle, regardless of how unsustainable it may be, and then someone tries to take that away, then one is going to get pissed and "fight for it". That's just common sense. Look, it's a serious issue, and I don't have the in-depth knowledge to argue it, so I won't. I'm glad that you replied and can see that this is important to you. I do agree with you about Joe Scarborough being a knob.

[CapitalAccount]

I mean...I don't know if that's even true that people would start going nuts and burning shit just because they see a cut to their benefits. We have seen cuts in the US, and this has not resulted in similar action. The point I was trying to make was that Greece's economic and social predicament is far more complex than simply "austerity" or tax evasion or some inbred laziness. Yea, if Joe said that about any prominent minority in this country he would have been roasted on the coals.

[EyeWarnedYouB4]

How can the books NOT be cooked when BOTH parties are OWNED by the Banksters????

[TwistedMinded87]

no wonder she is a hot reporter!

[alshati]

RT = Russia Today

[nucsol]

Obama care! Bitch Pleeze. Over Population, Greed and System Suckers are the damnation of the world.

[RadicalAwesomeness]

Why do I constantly feel the need to punch RT news anchors in the face?

[NPDrecovery]

I agree, Joe Scarborough is a f*cking arrogant loud-mouthed idiot, MSNBC should be embarrassed of him - it is pathetic to have that idiot letting his verbal diarrhea out of his mouth

[spark300c]

Greece has 2 problems they have trade deficit and have they low economic freedom