News October 10
October 10, 2011
Six Proposals How do we change the system to work for all Americans, not just the top 1 percent? Sen. Bernie Sanders summed up six proposals on Politico: 1) Break up big banks that are "too big to fail." 2) Cap credit card interest rates. 3) Provide small businesses low-interest loans. 4) Stop Wall Street oil speculators from artificially increasing gas and oil prices. 5) Demand that Wall Street invest in the job-creating productive economy, instead of gambling on worthless derivatives. 6) Establish a Wall Street speculation fee on credit default swaps, derivatives, stock options and futures, LINK
World
Egypt A demonstration by Christians angry about a recent attack on a church touched off a night of violent protests here against the military council now ruling Egypt, leaving 24 people dead and more than 200 wounded in the worst spasm of violence since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February, The New York Times reported.
National
Incomes Keep Falling Household income declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. The New York Times said a new study by former Census Bureau officials found that inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, During the recession - from December 2007 to June 2009 - household income fell 3.2 percent.
Job Cutters and Jobs President Obama will meet in Pittsburgh on Tuesday with members of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, including Kenneth I. Chenault of American Express, which closed a facility in North Carolina and eliminated 550 jobs; Ursula Burns of Xerox, which cut 4,500 jobs in the first six months of 2011; and Jim McNerney, chief executive of Boeing, which is cutting 1,100 U.S. jobs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Vermont
Occupy Wall Street Vermonters are continuing to join what is becoming a nationwide movement to protest what some see as the excesses of the nation's financial industry. Several hundred people rallied Sunday in downtown Burlington to protest excessive compensation for financial executives, bank bailouts and other social issues, The Associated Press reported.
Health Care The Shumlin administration shipped another of its key players to the new, independent board created to oversee watershed reforms to the state's health care system. Anya Rader Wallack, formerly the special assistant to the governor, was named chairwoman of the five-member Green Mountain Care Board last month. On Thursday, administration officials announced that Georgia Maheras, deputy commissioner for health care administration, will leave her administration post to become executive director of the new panel, the Vermont Press Bureau reported.
