EUROPE’S economic problems are growing steadily worse, with unemployment in parts of the Continent now above the level reached in the United States during the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, policy makers dither over solutions. Last week, the European Central Bank cut interest rates by a meager quarter of a percentage point, akin to giving two aspirin to a patient with pneumonia. Meanwhile, pressure is growing to ease the emphasis on austerity and to allow larger budget deficits.
If it were only that simple.
United States of America
WASHINGTON, CMC - The United States Congress has started formal consideration of a sweeping immigration reform bill that creates a “path to citizenship” for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, including Caribbean nationals.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to finish work on the bill this week adopting Republican amendments aimed at stronger border security.
WASHINGTON, CMC - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Antigua and Barbuda has made “excellent progress” towards achieving its goal of restoring debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability.
An IMF mission headed by Geoffrey Bannister has recently completed a review of the 2010 multi-million dollar Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) to the island.
“On the fiscal side, the fiscal outturn for March 2013 was well above programme targets, surpassing the performance criterion on the overall fiscal balance and the indicative target for the primary balance by a wide margin.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – United States Vice President Joe Biden is due here at the end of May, the US Embassy has confirmed.
It gave no details on the proposed visit, but one local television station quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran as saying that the visit is aimed at improving relations and cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar shrugged off reports that relations between Washington and Port of Spain had deteriorated telling a public meeting of her United National Congress
NEW YORK, CMC – A United States-based human rights group has given the United Nations 60 days to reach a compensation deal or face a legal lawsuit from victims of Haiti's cholera epidemic.
The United Nations has already indicated it is legally immune from legal action over the epidemic that afflicted some half a million people.
But the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said it is ready to open legal proceedings in New York with claims totalling billions of dollars unless the United Nations adhered to the deadline.
NEW YORK, CMC - United States federal prosecutors have charged a powerful Caribbean American legislator with embezzlement.
New York State senator, John L. Sampson, who represents the largely Caribbean 19th Senatorial District in Brooklyn, had been charged with stealing funds from the sale of foreclosed properties and using the money to help finance his race for Brooklyn district attorney.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Caribbean countries will experience economic growth of just over one per cent this year, even as Latin America and the Caribbean will record half a percent economic growth in 2013.
The IMF said that the growth will be supported by stronger external demand, favourable financing conditions and the effects of earlier policy easing in some countries.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea’s continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said yesterday. The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang’s Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile.
WASHINGTON, USA — Fewer Americans are losing their jobs. Employers are struggling to squeeze more work from their staffs. The US is producing so much oil that imports are plunging, narrowing the trade deficit. A string of data Thursday raised hopes for stronger hiring and US growth in coming months. More jobs would spur spending and help energize the economy, which has yet to regain full health nearly four years after the Great Recession officially ended.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Twenty of the world’s most troubled countries have made progress in efforts that range from reducing poverty to improving the education of girls and cutting down on the deaths of women in childbirth, the World Bank said yesterday. The improvement is a big shift from just a few years ago for the 20 fragile and conflict-hit states.