by: BBC
As news emerged Friday of Walmart's decision to eliminate health benefits for new part-time workers and substantially increase premiums on existing plans, the retail goliath appears to be joining a larger, decade-long trend: the erosion of employer-provided health insurance.
The largest employer in the world attributed the decision for making the cuts to rising health care costs. Under the plan, new hires who work under 24 hours a week on average will not be eligible for company health coverage, while premiums for some existing plans may go up as much as 40 percent, along with other benefit reductions, The New York Times reported. Additionally, spouses of new hires who work less than 33 hours a week will no longer be covered.
"The current health care system is unsustainable for everyone and, like other businesses, we've had to make choices we wish we didn't have to make," said Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter. "Our country needs to find a way to reduce the cost of health care, particularly in this economy."
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by: Reuters
A "humanitarian crisis" is unfolding in an impoverished Greek city where the economic crisis has left thousands seeking food from an international charity more used to helping refugees and bringing aid to famine or disaster zones.
Once home to a thriving shipbuilding industry, the port city of Perama near Athens has seen its fortunes wane over the years, as buyers abandoned it for cheaper options outside Greece.
The country's financial crisis is the latest blow - pushing up unemployment in the area to 60 percent, triple the national average.
Without health insurance or money for fees at state facilities, many of the town's 25,000 residents have begun flocking to a free clinic set up by Doctors of the World seeking medical care and, lately, staples like milk and bread.
The clinic was set up two years ago to treat poor immigrants. Instead, it now finds that 80 percent of its patients are Greeks struggling to get by. Doctors say many of them cannot even afford the bus fare to the local hospital.
"We tell a lot of people that come here: 'Your child needs to go the hospital, we can't treat the problem here,' and they tell us: 'I don't have the 1.40 euros to take the bus and go to the hospital,'" said Liana Maili, a paediatrician at the clinic..
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by: BeforeItsNews
What was a fairly minor fuel shortage sparked when gas tanker drivers in the UK threatened to go on strike has developed into what UK officials are now calling all out chaos, as drivers across the country scramble to fill their tanks amid uncertainty about when transportation services will be up and running at full capacity again.
In what may be a glimpse into the future of other industrialized Western nations that are experiencing rising gas prices and labor problems, residents of the UK were queued in hours-long lines reminiscent of the 1970′s oil crisis in the United States. The lines of drivers waiting to get their daily allotment of gas are so long that they have led police to shut down gas stations in an effort to ease traffic and avoid delays.
For their part, government officials have asked drivers to remain calm, but may have inadvertently worsened the situation when Energy Secretary Ed Davey suggested that drivers concerned with running out of gas should be “topping up when their tanks go below, say, half-full… they should actually go the full hog and fill up when they can.”
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by: Wynne Parry
What would persuade you to sell a kidney to a stranger? For the 33 Bangladeshi kidney sellers interviewed by anthropologist Monir Moniruzzaman, the answer was simple: poverty. An illegal organ trade in Bangladesh connects wealthy transplant seekers with poor people enticed, often with false promises, to sell parts of their bodies.
Moniruzzaman uses the phrase "bioviolence" to describe the exploitation he found during his research. He linked it to the history of medical exploitation of the disenfranchised, from the Tuskegee syphilis studies, in which treatment was withheld from black study subjects, to the surrogacy market in which foreigners hire wombs in India to carry their babies. [7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments]
Moniruzzaman, an assistant professor in anthropology at Michigan State University, has published a description of his work in Bangladesh in the current issue of the journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and he is working on a book examining the violence, exploitation, and ethics of organ trafficking. LiveScience caught up with Moniruzzaman recently to talk about the prevalence of illegal organ trafficking and the stories of those involved.
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by: Ben Livesey And Cordell Eddings
Moody's Investors Service Tuesday cut the debt ratings of six European countries including Italy, Spain and Portugal and said it may strip France and the U.K. of their top Aaa ratings, citing Europe's debt crisis.
Spain was downgraded to A3 from A1, Italy to A3 from A2 and Portugal to Ba3 from Ba2, all with negative outlooks. Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta also had their ratings lowered.
"Policymakers have made steps forward but we do not think they have done enough to reassure the market that we are on a stable path," said Alistair Wilson, chief credit officer for Europe at Moody's in London. "What will guide long-term ratings is the clarity and the performance of policymakers and the macro picture."
The euro weakened against the dollar as investors shifted funds to safer assets after the rating cuts. Moody's decision highlighted the risk that the European debt crisis will deepen even as the region's finance ministers prepare to discuss a second aid package for Greece, following the country's approval of austerity measures.
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by: Josh Hunt
There is one word in my opinion that sums up the world in its current state, “corruption”. The word is now used so frequently that it has almost lost all meaning, we now use the word more and more, seamlessly, without really stopping to take notice of its definition. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word as “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery”. So where can we apply the words “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power” to the modern world? It doesn’t take long to find examples everywhere.
In the UK our tabloids are filled with examples of corruption, now on a daily basis. If we look first at our government, the MPs expenses scandal gave the public an incredible insight into the vast amount of corruption that goes on among those in power. Here are people the public are meant to look up to and respect as they fight for what is best for their constituencies and yet the sheer abuse of power and waste of public money was very clear for all to see. What was worse was the fact that the vast majority of those guilty never faced the justice system and have literally managed to escape any form of punishment, the average person on the street would’ve been jailed many years. However, this abuse of power and privilege is nothing when compared to many of the other atrocities we see globally.
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by: Lila Shapiro
The unemployment rate in the eurozone is now 10.7 percent. That is the highest the unemployment rate has been since the introduction of the euro. The unemployment rate in the eurozone never got any higher than 10.2 percent during the last recession. This is very troubling news. It was just recently announced that the eurozone has entered another recession, and already the unemployment rate is hitting new record highs. So how bad are things going to get in the months to come? The truth is that the problems for Europe are just starting. The European sovereign debt crisis continues to get worse, and another major global financial crisis is going to be here way too soon. The EU as a whole has a larger population, a larger banking system and more Fortune 500 companies than the United States does. When the financial system of Europe crashes, the entire world is going to feel it.
Some of the unemployment numbers coming out of Europe are absolutely staggering.
Unemployment in Spain is 19.9 percent. Unemployment in Greece is 23.3 percent. And when you look at youth unemployment the numbers are far worse. The unemployment rate for workers under the age of 25 is 48.1 percent in Greece and 49.9 percent in Spain.
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