A B C D E F G H I J K L
  ELITES, JOBS, AND RICH-POOR INCOME GAP NEWS: 1-JAN-11 - 31-DEC-11    
From 01-Jan-11 Copyright © 2011 by Macroknow inc. All Rights Reserved.
To 31-Dec-11  
Days 365  
News Items 2076
Date Event Category Authors Title X Event Source URL Item
8-Jan-11 PRO FOOD JOBS Overnight PRO in Algeria leave two dead Algeria: sporadic protest against food price increases and unemployment; 2 killed BBC News 1
9-Jan-11 PRO ECON JOBS Tunisian Government: 14 Killed as PROing Continues Tunisia: protest against unemployment and high food prices; 14 killed VOA News 2
11-Jan-11 PRO VIO JOBS Dozens killed' in Tunisia protests Tunisia: violent protests over unemployment; ≥35 killed BBC News 3
12-Jan-11 ELITE POL ECON New Report Warns Current Global Governance Systems Lack Capacity to Deal with Global Risks World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2011, 6th Edition: "The financial crisis has drained the world’s capacity for dealing with shocks. The frequency and severity of risks to global stability have amplified, while the ability of global governance systems to deal with them has not" World Economic Forum 4
12-Jan-11 ELITE FIN ECON Kristel Van der Elst; Nicholas Davis (Co-Editors) Global Risks  2011, Sixth Edition Report published in cooperation with Marsh & McLennan Companies, Swiss Reinsurance Company, the Wharton Center for Risk Management and Zurich Financial Services World Economic Forum 5
14-Jan-11 PRO ECON JOBS Lisa Bryant Tunisian President Leaves Country Amid Unrest Tunisia: protesting over unemployment and high food prices; dozens of people killed; state of emergency declared  VOA News 6
18-Jan-11 ELITE FIN DEBT Over US$ 100 Trillion Additional Credit Needed to Support Global Growth More Credit with Fewer Crises: Responsibly Meeting the World’s Growing Demand for Credit, a report released by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey & Company: "Credit levels will need to double over the next 10 years, growing by US$ 103 trillion, to support consensus-projected economic growth" World Economic Forum 7
19-Jan-11 ELITE FIN ECON World Economic Forum Annual Meeting to Focus on Shared Norms for the New Reality 41st World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 26-30-Jan-11: theme of the Meeting: “Shared Norms for the New Reality” World Economic Forum 8
20-Jan-11 ELITE FIN ECON New Report Identifies Most Important Global Issues for 2011 The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2011 report:Most Important Global Issues for 2011: Global Power Shifts; Economic uncertainty; Resource scarcity; Institutional weakness World Economic Forum 9
22-Jan-11 PRO FOOD JOBS Tunisian PM Mohamed Ghannouchi under pressure to quit Tunisia: thousands protest against the government BBC News 10
22-Jan-11 PRO FOOD JOBS Police, Demonstrators Clash in Algeria Algeria: protest over high unemployment and food prices VOA News-AFP-Reuters 11
23-Jan-11 ELITE FIN ECON Jack Ewing At Davos, Long List of Problems Awaits World Leaders "Leaders in business, politics and academia from around the world will gather in Davos, Switzerland, this week to try to rescue the planet. It’s a safe bet that, for the 41st year in a row, they will fail" NYT-DealBook 12
24-Jan-11 ELITE FIN ECON Andrew Ross Sorkin A Hefty Price for Entry to Davos Price tag for an annual membership in the World Economic Forum at “Strategic Partner” level (up to 5 invitations): $527,000-$622,000 NYT-DealBook 13
25-Jan-11 GOV JOBS Remarks by the President in State of Union Address President Barack Obama, State of the Union address: "Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t even there yet. NASA didn’t exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. . . "
 Whitehouse.gov 14
30-Jan-11 PRO RPIG David D. Kirkpatrick; Mona El-Naggar Rich, Poor and a Rift Exposed by Unrest Egypt: extreme rich-poor income gap trigger class warfare; rich people “afraid for their money” support Hosni Mubarak  NYT 15
15-Feb-11 GOV BANK ELITE Paul B. Farrell Fed dictator Bernanke needs to be toppled Paul B. Farrell: "Fed boss Ben Bernanke is the most dangerous human on earth . . . Bernanke rules a monetary dictatorship that will trigger the coming third meltdown of the 21st century. . . Bernanke is the final egomaniac in America’s bubbling 30-year wealth gap, where the top 1% went from owning 9% of America’s wealth to owning 23% during this dictatorship" MarketWatch 16
17-Feb-11 ELITE FIN ECON Report Highlights Personal Data as New Economic Asset Class World Economic Forum report: Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class World Economic Forum 17
17-Feb-11 GOV TECH ELITE Top Silicon Valley Execs to Meet with Obama USA: President Barack Obama to dine with top Silicon Valley executives at the home of a venture capitalist NYT-Bits 18
3-Mar-11 PRO ECON JOBS Nathan Morley North Cyprus Demonstrators Direct Anger at Turkey's Austerity Measures North Cyprus: ~30,000 Turkish Cyprus protested at Turkish government's austerity package (cutting salaries; increasing taxes) and the potential for high unemployment VOA News 19
6-Mar-11 ELITE Rhonda Garelick (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) High Fascism John Galliano, Christian Dior’s creative director, reportedly to a woman in a Paris bar: “Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead”; Christian Dior fired Galliano NYT: Op-Ed 20
9-Mar-11 ELITE MON The World's Billionaires The World's Billionaires The World's Billionaires: Top 5: 1. Carlos Slim Helu & family, $74 B; 2. Bill Gates, $56 B; 3. Warren Buffett, $50 B; 4. Bernard Arnault, $41 B; 5. Larry Ellison $39.5 B Forbes 21
28-Mar-11 BUS DEBT JOBS Lynn Thomasson, Whitney Kisling; Editors: Nick Baker, Nick Gentle CEOs Tap Record Cash for Payouts as M&A at Post-Lehman High Consequence of ~0% Federal Reserve interest rates and unemployment rate kept at ~26-year high: record $940 billion buildup in corporate cash Bloomberg 22
29-Mar-11 GOV BANK ELITE Neil M. Barofsky Where the Bailout Went Wrong Neil M. Barofsky, on the bank bailout (Troubled Asset Relief Program): " . . . billions of dollars in taxpayer money allowed institutions that were on the brink of collapse not only to survive but even to flourish. These banks now enjoy record profits and the seemingly permanent competitive advantage that accompanies being deemed “too big to fail”. . . That program has been a colossal failure, with far fewer permanent modifications (540,000) than modifications that have failed and been canceled (over 800,000). . . As the program flounders, foreclosures continue to mount, with 8 million to 13 million filings forecast over the program’s lifetime." NYT: Op Ed 23
9-May-11 BUS RPIG Joann S. Lublin. Contributor: Joe Light CEO Pay in 2010 Jumped 11% Study for The Wall Street Journal by Hay Group: the median compensation (salary, bonus and incentives) for CEOs of 350 major companies surged to $9.3 million (up 11%) WSJ 24
14-May-11 MON RPIG Andrew Ross Sorkin Rich and Sort of Rich According to a study on economic equality by Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) and Emmanuel Saez (University of California, Berkeley), "the rich have gotten richer — income for the top 1 percent rose by $261,930, or 30 percent, from 2002 to 2008 — while the bottom 90 percent saw their incomes drop by $1,170, or 4 percent, on an inflation adjusted basis" NYT 25
17-May-11 GOV DEBT ELITE Barry Wood Buffett’s silly talk about the U.S. debt; Commentary: U.S. isn’t special and can’t avoid default forever Warren Buffett: “The United States is not going to have a debt crisis as long as we keep issuing our debts in our own currency. The only thing we have to worry about is the printing press and inflation" MarketWatch 26
17-May-11 ELITE SEX Stephen Clarke Droit du Dirty Old Men 15-May-11: New York: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested on sexual assault charges; the French elite is horrified [on the impunity of "chauds lapins"] NYT-Op Ed 27
19-May-11 PRO ECON JOBS Lauren Frayer Inspired by Arab Protests, Spain's Unemployed Rally for Change Spain: inspired by the Arab Spring thousands of demonstrators protest high unemployment and lack of opportunities VOA News 28
21-May-11 PRO JOBS Lauren Frayer Thousand Defy Protest Ban to Rally Ahead of Spanish Elections Spain: tens of thousands of Spaniards demonstrated against high unemployment despite a protest ban VOA News 29
26-May-11 BUS ELITE POL Evelyn M. Rusli; Peter Lattman Facebook Taps Joel Kaplan to Head Washington Office Facebook hired Joel Kaplan to head the company’s office in Washington NYT-DealBook 30
29-May-11 BANK ELITE Graham Bowley At I.M.F., a Strict Ethics Code Doesn’t Apply to Top Officials Double ethics codes at IMF: one for "rank-and-file staff" and one for "elite executive directors." NYT 31
3-Jun-11 ECON JOBS The Employment Situation -- May 2011 BLS: U.S. labor statistics for May-2011: unemployment rate, up to 9.1%; number of unemployed persons, 13.9 million; labor force, 153.7 million. Bureau of Labor Statistics 32
4-Jun-11 ECON DEBT JOBS Andrew Martin For the Jobless, Little U.S. Help on Foreclosure Andrew Martin: "the primary cause of foreclosures is unemployment" NYT 33
7-Jun-11 GOV LAW RPIG Dr. Vandana Shiva The great land grab: India's war on farmers Dr. Vandana Shiva on "the great land grab" in India: "In India, the land grab is facilitated by the toxic mixture of the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894, the deregulation of investments and commerce through neo-liberal policies -  and with it the emergence of the rule of uncontrolled greed and exploitation. It is facilitated by the creation of a police state and the use of colonial sedition laws . . . The World Bank has worked for many years to commodify land. . . Thus the state could forcibly acquire the land from the peasants and tribal peoples and hand it over to private speculators, real estate corporations, mining companies and industry."
 Al Jazeera 34
20-Jun-11 RPIG GOV ECON Paul Bentley America's pay gap shame: Inequality between rich and poor is worse than Cameroon, Ivory Coast and revolutionary Egypt America's rich-poor gap is worse than that in "Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and revolutionary Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen" [source: CIA's World Fact Book]; the top 0.1% of earners in the U.S. in 2008 took 10% of the total personal income; the top 1% of earners in the U.S. in 2008 took >20% of the total personal income Daily Mail 35
20-Jun-11 BUS JUST RPIG Wal-Mart Wins. Workers Lose. Workers lose: the Supreme Court makes massive class-action lawsuits against allegedly abusive large corporations (1) much harder to certify and (2) more costly NYT-Editorial 36
20-Jun-11 GOV FIN RPIG Anthony Faiola. Contributor: Eliza Mackintosh London’s poor facing squeeze amid housing-benefit cuts London, UK: cuts to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), a welfare benefit, may trigger a "population shift" of ~82,000 poor families from London to "American-style ghettos" Washington Post 37
23-Jun-11 ELITE POL Kevin Roose; Andrew Ross Sorkin (ed.) Wall St.’s Dinner With Obama: Hold the Scorn Pres. Obama meets Wall-Street supporters, including "a committee of bankers, private equity executives and hedge fund managers," at a $35,800-a-plate dinner event NYT-DealBook 38
30-Jun-11 BANK FIN JOBS Lloyds Banking Group plc Outcome of Strategic Review Lloyd Banking Group to cut 15,000 jobs and save £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) per year in 2014 Lloyds Banking Group 39
30-Jun-11 RPIG ECON Tuoi Tre Vietnam’s rich-poor gap widens - at 9.2 times Vietnam: General Statistics Office (GSO): the rich-poor income gap increased from 8.9 times in 2008 to 9.2 times in 2010 VietNamNet Bridge 40
1-Jul-11 PRO RPIG GOV Alexandra Wexler; Isabella Steger  Hong Kongers March for Elections, Cheaper Housing Hong Kong: tens of thousands (150,000 said organizers) protested against high property prices, undemocratic by-elections, and a soaring rich-poor gap WSJ 41
2-Jul-11 BUS ELITE RPIG Pradnya Joshi We Knew They Got Raises. But This? Study conducted for NYT by Equilar: median compensation for top executives at 200 big companies in 2010, $10.8 million (up 23% YOY); compensation of the average American worker, $752/week at yearend 2010 (up 0.5% YOY); U.S. unemplyement rate: >9% NYT 42
7-Jul-11 MON RPIG ELITE Brooke Sutherland; Dan Kraut (ed.) Buffett Donates $1.5 Billion in Annual Gates Foundation Gift Warren Buffett donated stock valued at ~$1.5 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bloomberg 43
18-Jul-11 BUS TECH JOBS An Update on Cisco's Action Plan Cisco: to reduce costs from FY2012 expense by $1 billion; to terminate ~6,500 jobs Cisco 44
20-Jul-11 GOV COMP JOBS Steve Lohr U.S. to Close 800 Computer Data Centers U.S.: the federal government to shut 800 of its 2,000 data centers; the number of jobs that will likely be lost is estimated at tens of thousands NYT 45
26-Jul-11 ELITE BUS FIN Jim Yardley; Vikas Bajaj. Contributors: Hari Kumar; Nikhila Gill Billionaires’ Rise Aids India, and the Favor Is Returned India's oligarchy: 55 billionaires own and control $250 billion in wealth (~17% of India’s annual economic output) NYT 46
28-Jul-11 BANK FIN JOBS Credit Suisse Group reports 2Q11 underlying pre-tax income of CHF 1.2 billion and underlying net income of CHF 835 million; underlying return on equity 10% Credit Suisse Group 2011Q2 results: core net revenue, CHF 6.326 billion (down 25% YOY); net income attributable to shareholders, CHF 768 milion (down 52% YOY); Credit Suisse to reduce total headcount of 50,700 by ~4% by the end of 2012  Credit Suisse 47
29-Jul-11 BUS FIN JOBS Merck Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results Merck 2011Q2 results: sales, $12.151 billion (up 7% YOY); GAAP net income, $2.024 billion (up 169% YOY); Merck expects to reduce its headcount, as measured at 31-Dec-2009, by an additional 12%-13% by the end of 2015 Merck 48
31-Jul-11 PRO ECON ELITE Robert Berger Israeli Gov’t Opens Dialogue with Protesters Israel's "middle class revolution": tens of thousands of Israelis protested against soaring prices of food, gasoline, and housing; the average salary in Israel is ~$2,500/month; the cost of a "modest" apartment in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv can be $500,000 (~200 times the average salary) VOA News 49
1-Aug-11 BANK FIN JOBS HSBC Holdings Plc 2011 Interim Results – Highlights HSBC 2011H1 results: revenues, stable at U$35.7 billion; pre-tax profit $11.5 billion (up 3% YOY); profit attributable to ordinary shareholders $8.9 billion (up 35% YOY); starting 2011, to reduce headcount by ~5,000 HSBC 50
1-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Aaron Smith HSBC to cut another 25,000 jobs HSBC to cut 25,000 more jobs in addition to the ~5,000 it started cutting earlier in 2011 CNN Money 51
1-Aug-11 BUS AUTO ELITE Christoph Rauwald [Dow Jones Newswires] UPDATE: Porsche Profit, Sales Surge On Rising Demand For Luxury Cars Porsche car sales: China, 11,712 cars (up 47% YOY); Europe, 18,853 (up 10.5%); North America, 15,466 cars (up 25%); Germany, 6,734 cars (up 0.9%); worldwide, 60,659 cars (up 37%) [Source: WSJ]. [According to U.S. News Rankings & Reviews, Best Cars, the price of a 2011 Porsche Cayenne is in the range $46,725 - $102,455.] WSJ 52
2-Aug-11 BANK FIN JOBS Julia Werdigier Barclays Reports Profit Plunge and Job Cuts Barclays to eliminate ~3,000 jobs in 2011 NYT-DealBook 53
2-Aug-11 ELITE FIN MON The top 1% Al Jazeera-Fault Lines "investigates the gap between the rich and the rest": "The richest one per cent of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40 per cent of its wealth" Al Jazeera-Fault Lines 54
3-Aug-11 GOV JUST ELITE Egypt's Mubarak Pleads 'Not Guilty' in Historic Trial Egypt: start of trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak; Mubarak pleaded not guilty of ordering the killing of revolutionary protesters VOA News-AP-AFP-Reuters 55
5-Aug-11 GOV ECON JOBS The Employment Situation -- July 2011 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: the number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.1%) changed little in Jul-11 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 56
10-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Charles Stein; Christian Baumgaertel (ed.) BNY Mellon to Cut 1,500 Jobs, 3% of Workforce Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to cut 1,500 jobs (3% of its workforce) Bloomberg 57
11-Aug-11 ELITE LAW Emily Smith George Soros sued by ex-girlfriend over real estate dispute Adriana Ferreyr filed a $50 million suit against George Soros. New York Post 58
14-Aug-11 ELITE MON RPIG Warren Buffett Stop Coddling the Super-Rich Warren E. Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, on taxing the super-rich: "I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class . . . But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million . . . And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate." NYT-Op Ed 59
17-Aug-11 ECON DEBT RPIG Recession Increases Number of Children Living in Low-Income Families by 7% to 31 Million; 7.8 Million Children Lived With at Least One Unemployed Parent in 2010 KIDS COUNT Data Book: "The official child poverty rate . . . increased 18 percent between 2000 and 2009 . . . This increase means that 2.4 million more children are living below the federal poverty line. . . In 2010, 11 percent of children had at least one unemployed parent and 4 percent have been affected by foreclosure since 2007" Annie E. Casey Foundation 60
19-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Christina Rexrode. Contributor: Chris Rugaber BofA layoffs are the latest as an industry shrinks Bank of America Corp. to cut 3,500 jobs Yahoo! Finance: AP 61
23-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Julia Werdigier UBS to Eliminate 3,500 Jobs UBS to cut 3,500 jobs over 2.5 years. Other companies cutting or planning to cut jobs: HSBC, 30,000 jobs; Credit Suisse, 2,000 jobs; Lloyds Banking Group, 15,000 jobs. NYT-DealBook 62
26-Aug-11 BANK JOBS ABN AMRO Group reports substantial increase in underlying profit to EUR 974 million in H1 2011 and declares an interim dividend of EUR 200 million Despite a net profit of €974 million in 2011H1 (up from a €325 million loss in 2010H1), ABN Amro to cut 2,350 positions in the next 3-4 years ABN Amro 63
27-Aug-11 BANK ELITE RPIG Gretchen Morgenson The Rescue That Missed Main Street Gretchen Morgenson reporting on the "inequity" of the taxpayer-funded big bailouts of domestic and foreign financial institutions: the bailouts did not help Main Street; "Main Street is in a world of hurt, facing high unemployment, rampant foreclosures and ravaged retirement accounts" NYT 64
27-Aug-11 ELITE BUS Tiffany Reports Substantially Higher-Than-Expected Sales And Earnings Growth In Its Second Quarter Tiffany & Co. 2011Q2 results: worldwide net sales, $872.7 million (up 30% YOY) (sales in the New York flagship store increased 41%); net earnings, $90.0 million (up 33% YOY) Tiffany 65
29-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Nordea initiates negotiations with unions on staff cost reduction Nordea to cut 2,000 jobs (6% of workforce) by yearend 2012; Nordea aims for a return on equity of ~15% Nordea 66
29-Aug-11 BANK JOBS Andrew Ward Nordea to slash 6% of workforce European banks cut recently >60,000 jobs Financial Times 67
30-Aug-11 ELITE MON RPIG Julia Werdigier. Contributor: Elisabetta Povoledo Tax Me More, Europe’s Wealthy Say Europe: concerned about the potential for social unrest [protests in Greece, Spain, U.K], Europe's elites are calling for higher taxes for the super-rich NYT 68
31-Aug-11 ELITE BUS RPIG Chuck Collins; Scott Klinger  Release: CEOs Who Earn More Than Their Corporations Pay in Taxes Report from the Institute for Policy Studies: "Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging": "Of last year’s 100 highest-paid U.S. corporate chief executives, 25 took home more in CEO pay than their company paid in 2010 federal corporate income taxes"; "Gap Between CEO and Worker Pay Jumps: S&P 500 CEOs last year collected $10.8 million in average compensation, a 27.8 percent increase over 2009. The gap between CEO and average U.S. worker pay rose from 263-to-1 in 2009 to 325-to-1 last year." Institute for Policy Studies 69
13-Sep-11 ECON RPIG Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 U.S. Census Bureau: key findings in "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010" report: (1) real median household income in the U.S. was $49,445 (down 2.3% YOY); (2) the poverty rate was 15.1% (up 14.3% YOY; 46.2 million people lived in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ─ a 52-year record high); (3) the number of people without health insurance coverage rose to 49.9 million (up from 49.0 million in 2009) U.S. Census Bureau 70
16-Sep-11 PRO EDU JOBS Kate Taylor Bloomberg, on Radio, Raises Specter of Riots by Jobless Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, on the John Gambling radio show: “You have a lot of kids graduating college can’t find jobs . . . That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid . . . You don’t want those kinds of riots here” NYT 71
17-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE OccupyWallStreet: The American Revolution Begins Sept 17th OccupyWallStreet.org's mission: "On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. . . We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%" OccupyWallStreet.org 72
17-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE Colin Moynihan Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked New York, NY: protest "as an expression of anger over a financial system that they said favors the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary citizens" NYT 73
17-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE Protesters in N.Y.C. blast money in politics New York, NY: groups inspired by the "Arab Spring" protests occupy Wall Street and stage their own protest against corrupt money in politics. CBS News 74
19-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE Colin Moynihan Wall Street Protests Continue, With at Least 6 Arrested New York, NY: the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street protest continues; ~200 people protested "to criticize a financial system that unfairly benefits corporations and the rich and undermines democracy" NYT-City Room 75
22-Sep-11 GOV RPIG MON Anjana Pasricha India’s New Poverty Definition Upsets Activists, Some Economists India’s new poverty definition: a person who spends ~$15/month on food, education and health in rural areas is NOT poor; for urban areas, the poverty threshold is $20/month; the World Bank’s international poverty threshold is $1.25/day or ~$37.5/month VOA News 76
22-Sep-11 ELITE MON The Forbes 400: The Richest People in America The Forbes 400: The Richest People in America: 1. Bill Gates, $59 bn; 2. Warren Buffett, $39 bn; 3. Larry Ellison, $33 bn; 4. Charles Koch, $25 bn; 4. David Koch, $25 bn; 6. Christy Walton, $24.5 bn; 7. George Soros, $22 bn; 8. Sheldon Adelson, $21.5 bn; 9. Jim Walton, $21.1 bn; 10. Alice Walton, $20.9 bn . . . Forbes 77
29-Sep-11 GOV BANK RPIG Kerin Hope Greek protesters occupy government buildings Greece: public sector workers occupy government ministries; the EU, the IMF, and the ECB want to reduce the salaries of 30,000 public sector employees by 40% Financial Times 78
29-Sep-11 BUS TEL JOBS Nokia continues to align its workforce and operations Nokia to cut 3,500 additional jobs by yearend 2012 Nokia 79
30-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE “OCCUPY WALL STREET” INSPIRES PROTESTS IN BOSTON Occupy Wall Street, which began on 17-Sep-11, has spread to Boston: “Our country is owned by the top 1%.  We are the 99%. Join the conversation!” Occupy Boston 80
30-Sep-11 ELITE MON RPIG James Oliphant Did Warren Buffett really disagree with Obama's tax plan? Warren Buffett, in a CNBC interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, regarding Obama’s tax plan: " . . . my program is to have a tax on ultra-rich people who are paying very low tax rates. Not just all the rich people. It probably would apply to 50,000 people in a population of 310 million.”
 Los Angeles Times 81
30-Sep-11 PRO MON ELITE Carolyn Weaver Occupy Wall Street' Protesters in NYC Decry Corruption, Greed New York, NY: hundreds of "Occypy Wall Street" demonstrators protested against bank and corporate greed; community organizer Naif Littles: "The top 400 richest Americans have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined." VOA News 82
1-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE Al Baker; Colin Moynihan; Sarah Maslin Nir. Contributors: Natasha Lennard; William K. Rashbaum; Elizabeth A. Harris  Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge New York, NY: "Occupy Wall Street" protest, began 17-Sep-11, continues; police arrested >700 demonstrators NYT 83
2-Oct-11 ELITE MON Susanne Craig; Ben Protess Others Go, but Buffett Stays on President’s Side 30-Sep-11: Warren E. Buffett hosted a fund-raiser for President Obama and raised >$1.5 million for Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee;  NYT-DealBook 84
3-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE Erik Eckholm; Timothy Williams. Contributors: Ashley Southall; Ian Lovett; Steven Yaccino Anti-Wall Street Protests Spreading to Cities Large and Small "Occupy Wall Street" rally against corporate greed has spread to many cities around the world; Javier Rodriguez, former student: “The monetary system is not working. The banks are here to steal from us. Everybody is in debt whether it’s medical bills or school or loans. People are getting fed up with it.” NYT 85
4-Oct-11 ELITE MON JOBS David A. Fahrenthold For some of the rich, budget and tax battles bring worries — of paying too little Some of the very rich in the U.S. are worried about the rich-poor income gap; concerns include potential loss of wealth, unfair taxation, the rich-working class income gap, murderous class warfare NYT 86
4-Oct-11 BUS AUTO JOBS Bill Vlasic; Nick Bunkley In Deal With Ford, Union Wins Wage Increases and Additional Jobs In a tentative 4-year contract with the United Automobile Workers union, Ford Motor Company agrees to create 5,750 entry-level jobs in the U.S. in addition to 6,250 positions it previously said it would add over the next 2 years NYT 87
5-Oct-11 PRO GOV JOBS Henry Ridgwell Clashes in Athens As Europe Fears Looming Bank Crisis Greece: thousands of Greeks protested against tough austerity measures imposed by lenders on Greece; violent clashes with police were reported VOA News 88
5-Oct-11 ELITE POL RPIG John B. MacIntyre (Chair, Board of Directors); Rahul K. Bhardwaj (President and CEO) Toronto's Vital Signs Toronto Community Foundation report: "Toronto's Vital Signs": 37% of Toronto's population live in low or very low income neighbourhoods; in 1 year, poverty in Toronto increased 22% and the rate of child poverty soared by >43%; the cost of feeding a family of 4 in Toronto rose to $715/month in 2010 (distribution of income for a family on social assistance: food, 37%; rent, 69%; other costs, -6%) Toronto Community Foundation 89
5-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE Steven Greenhouse; Cara Buckley. Contributors: Al Baker; Joseph Goldstein; Rob Harris; Colin Moynihan Seeking Energy, Unions Join Protest Against Wall Street Major unions join the "Occupy Wall Street" protest NYT 90
8-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE Al Baker. Contributors: Rob Harris; Natasha Lennard; Colin Moynihan; Anna M. Phillips  Wall Street Protest Visits Washington Sq. New York, NY: >1,000 "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators march to Washington Square Park NYT 91
9-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE Paul Krugman Panic of the Plutocrats Paul Krugman on America's plutocrats: "So who’s really being un-American here? Not the ["Occupy Wall Street"] protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth" NYT: Op-Ed 92
10-Oct-11 GOV ECON RPIG Gordon Green; John Coder Household Income Trends During the Recession and Economic Recovery Sentier Research report "Household Income Trends During the Recession and Economic Recovery": key findings: "During the recession, real median annual household income fell by 3.2 percent, from $55,309 in December 2007 to $53,518 in June 2009. During the economic recovery, real median annual household income fell by an additional 6.7 percent, from $53,518 in June 2009 to $49,909 in June 2011"; "For the entire period from December 2007 to June 2011, real median annual household income has declined by 9.8 percent. A decline of this magnitude represents a significant reduction in the American standard of living" Sentier Research 93
10-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE David Brooks The Milquetoast Radicals David Brooks: "If there is a core theme to the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is that the virtuous 99 percent of society is being cheated by the richest and greediest 1 percent. . . Unfortunately, almost no problem can be productively conceived in this way. A group that divides the world between the pure 99 percent and the evil 1 percent will have nothing to say about education reform, Medicare reform, tax reform, wage stagnation or polarization. They will have nothing to say about the way Americans have overconsumed and overborrowed . . ." NYT: Opinion 94
14-Oct-11 PRO ELITE David Ignatius Around the world, rage against the elites David Ignatius, on the similarity between Occupy Wall Street and other populist movements (including the Arab Spring, protests in Britain and Greece, and anti-corruption protests in India): " . . . the protesters do share some basics: rejection of traditional political elites; a belief that “globalization” benefits the rich more than the masses; anger about intertwined business and political corruption; and the connectedness and empowerment fostered by Facebook and other social media. . . Much of the world’s neo-populist anger is justified, given the greed and folly of recent years" Washington Post 95
15-Oct-11 PRO FIN ELITE Cara Buckley; Rachel Donadio. Contributors: Jack Ewing; Nicholas Kulish; Joseph Goldstein; Elizabeth A. Harris, Colin Moynihan; Christopher Maag; Catherine Garcia; Raphael Minder; Ron Nixon; Ravi Somaiya Buoyed by Wall St. Protests, Rallies Sweep the Globe Global day of anti-capitalist protests: thousands of people in cities around the world replicated the Occupy Wall Street marches and rallies; protests spread to Rome; Madrid; London; Frankfurt, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Chicago, and Los Angeles; protests in Rome were violent NYT 96
17-Oct-11 PRO MON ELITE J. David Goodman He Made It on Wall St. and Used It to Help Start the Protests Robert S. Halper, a former vice chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), is reportedly the largest single donor to Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that ignited the Occupy Wall Street movement; Mr. Halper's last donation to Adbusters was $20,000; Mr. Halper has also contributed $2,500 to the Mitt Romney presidential campaign NYT 97
17-Oct-11 BANK FIN JOBS Atsuko Fukase MUFG-Morgan Stanley Venture Cuts 1,300 Jobs Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. to cut up to 1,300 jobs (~20% of its work force) WSJ 98
18-Oct-11 FIN ELITE SEC Kevin Roose Protests Are a Payday for Security Firms "Ultra-rich bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity executives" are worried and concerned about hostility and rage on Main Street; "executive protection" firms expect significant increases in revenues NYT 99
19-Oct-11 GOV BUS JOBS Laura Payton Halifax, B.C. yards win shipbuilding work Canada: the federal government awarded Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax a $25-billion contract to build 21 Canadian combat ships and Seaspan Marine in Vancouver an $8-billion contract for 7 non-combat vessels; "the contracts will provide 75 million hours of work and 15,000 jobs annually over the next 30 years" CBC News 100
19-Oct-11 ELITE RPIG PRO Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar; Ilyana Kuziemko; Michael I. Norton; Jerrold M. Post; Andrew Kohut The Psychology of Occupy Wall Street [originally posted on 18-Oct-11] An attempt to develop and discuss a psychological (psycho-political and psycho-economic) profile of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement NYT-Opinion 101
19-Oct-11 PRO JOBS ELITE ILO warns of a generation “scarred” by a worsening global youth employment crisis Key findings in the “Global Employment Trends for Youth: 2011 Update” report: "Between 2008 and 2009, the number of unemployed youth increased by an unprecedented 4.5 million worldwide" (up from <100,000 persons/year in the pre-crisis period (1997-2007)); Part-time employment rates for youth increased in all developed economies except Germany between 2007 and 2010" (17.0% in Ireland and 8.8% in Spain; "By the end of 2010 every other employed young person was in part-time employment in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway"; the "collective frustration among youth has been a contributing factor to protest movements around the world" International Labour Organization 102
22-Oct-11 ELITE BUS FIN Bruce Upbin The 147 Companies That Control Everything Bruce Upbin: "Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . . . discovered that global corporate control has a distinct bow-tie shape, with a dominant core of 147 firms radiating out from the middle. Each of these 147 own interlocking stakes of one another and together they control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 control 80% of it all." Forbes 103
24-Oct-11 BUS JOBS E-Commerce Shipments to Drive Record FedEx Holiday Volume: FedEx SmartPost holiday volumes to grow more than 30 percent year over year FedEx to increase its workforce by ~20,000 with seasonal positions in anticipation of a surge in holiday shipments FedEx 104
26-Oct-11 ELITE BUS FIN Contributor: Brendan Coffey The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything Brendan Coffey: "There may be 147 companies in the world that own everything, as colleague Bruce Upbin points out and they are dominated by investment companies as Eric Savitz rightly points out. . . the real power to control the world lies with four companies: McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor’s, Northwestern Mutual, which owns Russell Investments, the index arm of which runs the benchmark Russell 1,000 and Russell 3,000, CME Group which owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and Barclay’s, which took over Lehman Brothers and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, the dominant world bond fund index. Together, these four firms dominate the world of indexing. And in turn, that means they hold real sway over the world’s money." Forbes 105
31-Oct-11 BUS OIL ELITE Mark Maremont A Very Rich Adieu for Nabors CEO Nabors Industries Ltd. is paying its chairman and CEO, Eugene M. Isenberg, $100 million in cash for jettisoning his CEO title WSJ 106
1-Nov-11 BANK FIN JOBS Credit Suisse Group reports 3Q11 Core Results pre-tax income of CHF 1,036 million, net income attributable to shareholders of CHF 683 million, net new assets of CHF 7.4 billion in Private Banking, return on equity of 8.7% Credit Suisse Group 2011Q3: core net revenues, CHF 6.817 billion (down 8% YOY); net income attributable to shareholders, CHF 683 milion (up 12% YOY); Credit Suisse to further reduce total headcount by ~3% (1,500 jobs) Credit Suisse 107
2-Nov-11 ECON JOBS U.S. Private-Sector Employment Increased By 110,000 Jobs In October, According To Adp National Employment Report ADP National Employment Report: U.S. private-sector employment increased by 110,000 jobs in Oct-2011; small and medium enterprises added 111,000 jobs; large businesses lost 1,000 jobs; the manufacturing sector lost 8,000 jobs ADP 108
2-Nov-11 ELITE Nicole Perlroth (ed.); Michael Noer (ed.) The World's Most Powerful People Forbes: The World's Most Powerful People: 1. Barack Obama; 2. Vladimir Putin; 3. Hu Jintao; 4. Angela Merkel; 5. Bill Gates; 6. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud; 7. Pope Benedict XVI; 8. Ben Bernanke; 9. Mark Zuckerberg; 10. David Cameron Forbes 109
3-Nov-11 BUS TECH JOBS AMD Optimizes Cost Structure to Enhance Competitiveness and Accelerate Growth Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to reduce its global workforce by approximately 10% (~1,107 jobs) AMD 110
5-Nov-11 PRO RPIG BANK Mike O'Sullivan LA Protesters Blast Income Gap Occupy Wall Street protest spread to Los Angeles VOA News 111
9-Nov-11 BANK FIN JOBS Interim Management Statement Q3 2011 HSBC, 2011Q3: total operating income, $21.502 billion (up 14.8% YOY); profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company, $5.222 billion (up 65.6% YOY) HSBC 112
9-Nov-11 BANK JOBS Julia Werdigier HSBC Warns of Challenges Even as Profit Rises 66% HSBC to eliminate 30,000 jobs NYT-Dealbook 113
11-Nov-11 BUS JOBS Michael J. De La Merced; Ben Protess MF Global Lays Off Vast Majority of Broker-Dealer Employees The trustee overseeing the liquidation of MF Global’s broker-dealer unit laid off 1,066 employees; to rehire up to 200 employees NYT-DealBook 114
13-Nov-11 SEC RPIG Brazilian Police Take Control of Rio's Largest Slum Brazil: police take control of the largest slum in Rio de Janeiro; Rio has 1,000 slums VOA News-AP 115
14-Nov-11 MKT TECH ELITE Alex Crippen What Has Warren Buffett Been Buying? 'Harold' Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought $10.7 billion worth of IBM common stock (~5.5% of IBM) CNBC 116
19-Nov-11 ELITE RPIG Nicholas D. Kristof Occupy the Agenda Nicholas D. Kristof: "the richest 20 percent of Americans own more than 80 percent of the country’s wealth. And the poorest 20 percent own one-tenth of 1 percent [0.1%]" NYT-Sunday Review 117
21-Nov-11 PRO EDU ELITE Jennifer Medina California’s Campus Movements Dig In Their Heels The Occupy movement on campuses is focusing protest on increases in tuition; Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association: "we are turning the university into a place where really only the wealthy can go" NYT 118
22-Nov-11 BANK MON ELITE Gonzalo Vina; James Hertling (ed.) Barclays CEO Pay ‘Corrosive’ for U.K. Economy, Study Says U.K.: High Pay Commission: Former Barclays CEO John Varley was paid £4.4 million ($7 million) in 2010, 169 times that of the average worker in the U.K. Bloomberg 119
23-Nov-11 RPIG The Poor, the Near Poor and You U.S. Census data: 49.1 million Americans are "poor" (below the poverty line: $24,343 per family of 4); another 51 million are “near poor” (<50% above the poverty line) [Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernise]; the Editorial argues that poor and near poor households may have amenities ("refrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone . . . "), but the "requisites of modern life" ("education, health care, child care, housing and utilities") are increasingly out of their reach NYT-Editoial 120
23-Nov-11 BUS TEL JOBS Nokia Siemens Networks puts mobile broadband and services at the heart of its strategy; initiates restructuring to maintain long-term competitiveness and improve profitability Nokia Siemens Networks plans to reduce its global workforce by ~17,000 by the end of 2013 Nokia Siemens Networks 121
24-Nov-11 ECON ELITE JOBS Paul Krugman We Are the 99.9% Paul Krugman, on the super-elite: " . . . between 1979 and 2005 the inflation-adjusted, after-tax income of Americans in the middle of the income distribution rose 21 percent. The equivalent number for the richest 0.1 percent rose 400 percent" [source of data: Congressional Budget Office] NYT-Op Ed 122
28-Nov-11 PRO GOV ELITE Mattathias Schwartz Pre-Occupied: The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street Kall Lasn, founder of Adbusters, and the mind behind "Occupy Wall Street," on the decision to evict protesters from Zuccotti Park: “I just can’t believe how stupid Bloomberg can be! This means escalation. A raising of the stakes. It’s one step closer to, you know, a revolution.” The New Yorker 123
30-Nov-11 GOV FIN JOBS City releases details of 2,300 job cuts Toronto, Canada: the city to eliminate 2,300 jobs, increase property tax, and increase TTC fares CBC News 124
30-Nov-11 BANK JOBS Dan Fitzpatrick; Rob Barry Ax Falls at Smaller Banks 2,500+ banks cut their staff by 20,332 jobs (or 2.5%) during 2011Q3 WSJ 125
2-Dec-11 GOV BANK ELITE Jean-Pierre Stroobants Des dizaines de milliers de Belges manifestent contre l'austérité Belgium: tens of thousands of protesters (80,000 according to organizers; 50,000 according to police) demonstrated "against blind austerity" favoring bankers and the rich and against "market blackmail" Le Monde 126
2-Dec-11 ECON JOBS Jobless rate jumps in November: Unemployment rate rises to 7.4% Canada lost 18,600 jobs in Nov-2011; Canada's unemployment rate rose from 7.3% to 7.4% in Nov-2011 [source: Statistics Canada] CBC News 127
4-Dec-11 ELITE PRO Michael Lewis; James Greiff (ed.) Michael Lewis: Advice From the 1%: Lever Up, Drop Out Michael Lewis: To: the Upper Ones; From: Strategy Committee; Re: The Counterrevolution: "The rabble has been driven from the public parks. Our adversaries, now defined by the freaks and criminals among them, have demonstrated only that they have no idea what they are doing. They have failed to identify a single achievable goal. . . We have won a battle, but this war is far from over. . . We must inculcate, in ourselves [the Upper Ones] as much as in them [the Lower 99], the understanding that our relationship to each other is provisional, almost accidental and their claims on us nonexistent" Bloomberg 128
5-Dec-11 ELITE MON Chris Vellacott; Mike Nesbit (ed.); Mark Potter (ed.) Europe's rich move assets amid euro fears Europe: concerned about the fate of the euro and the sovereign debt crisis, rich investors are fleeing out of the euro into the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen Reuters 129
5-Dec-11 ELITE RPIG Sylvia Allegretto The few, the proud, the very rich  Sylvia Allegretto, labor economist and deputy chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, at UC Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment: "The share of wealth held by the top fifth is about 87.2 percent while the bottom four-fifths share the remaining 12.8 percent of wealth . . . And, the riches of those in the top 1 percent are about 225 times greater than that held by the typical family—it was 125 times in 1962. . . The combined worth of the Walton six was $69.7 billion in 2007—which equated to the total wealth of the entire bottom thirty percent!" The Berkley Blog 130
6-Dec-11 ELITE POL Paul B. Farrell Super Rich vs. 99%: Class war will explode; Commentary: But these 10 tricks will backfire with occupiers Paul B. Farrell: "Folks, the real problem from the occupiers’ perspective is the inequality gap between the Super Rich and the 99%. It’s economics. It’s behavior. It’s the unfairness of our democracy when the incomes of the 1% increased 265% in the past generation while the incomes of the 99% stagnated"; Farrell warns Republicans manipulative buzz words, such as those suggested by Frank Luntz, a conservatice pollster, will not sway the Occupiers MarketWatch 131
6-Dec-11 BANK ELITE FRAUD Jennifer Ablan; Joe Giannone; Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Sam Forgione; Leslie Adler (ed.) Highlights Day 2: Chanos bemoans failure to prosecute bankers James Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates LP, at the Reuters 2012 Investment Outlook Summit, said some Wall Street bankers "looted" their companies -- they collected big bonuses for peddling worthless securities Reuters 132
6-Dec-11 BANK JOBS Eric Dash Citigroup to Lay Off 4,500 Workers Citigroup to lay off 4,500 workers (1.7% of its workforce); Citi's workforce decreased by ~100,000 since yearend 2007 NYT-DealBook 133
6-Dec-11 BANK JOBS Sonia Sirletti; Frank Connelly (ed.) UniCredit to Reduce European Offices by Half as Italian Bank Slashes Costs Italy: UniCredit to cut European offices by half and its workforce by 6,150 employees through 2015 Bloomberg 134
7-Dec-11 BUS ELITE Christopher Stone Selected to Lead Open Society Foundations Billionaire investor George Soros appointed Christopher Stone as the next president of The Open Society Foundations; Stone currently is the Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice at Harvard University and director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. "The Open Society Foundations have been committed to promoting justice, human rights, health, and education around the world. Stone will oversee more than $850 million in annual expenditures." Open Society Foundations 135