A grim report just issued by the Finance Ministry that is circulating in the Kremlin today says the United States Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) has ground to a virtual halt signaling that a major global economic collapse is currently underway and could very well likely enter into the dreaded “freefall zone.”

Virtually unknown to all but the global financial elite, CHIPS is the main privately held clearing house for large-value transactions in the United States, settling well over $1 trillion a day in around 250,000 interbank payments that together with the Fedwire Funds Service, which is operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, forms the primary US network for large-value domestic and international US dollar payments where it has a market share of around 96%.

The cause underlying the collapse of CHIPS, this report says, is due to the “unprecedented” demand for immediate liquidity relief being sought by the largest banks in the US and EU that are being crushed under of the combined debt of both the United States and Europe said to total near $39 trillion.

Important to note is that what is currently happening is a virtual repeat of the 2008 Financial Crisis that the United States Senate’s Levin–Coburn Report found “was not a natural disaster, but the result of high risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.”

Grimly echoing this Ministry report is the latest data [see chart 2^nd photo left, or click on link] from The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) that is a number issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange and shows it in freefall dropping 65% in the past 30 days alone, a terrifying amount of loss not seen since the dark days of late 2008.

Not restricted to Baltic Sea countries, the BDI tracks worldwide international shipping prices of various dry bulk cargoes that has collapsed so severely global shipping has all but ceased thus leaving our world’s largest transport ships anchored and empty off the coast of Singapore in what is described as“the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history whose numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined.”

During the 2008 Financial Crisis an outright global economic catastrophe was only averted after the US Federal Reserve secretly gave out to US banks and corporations, and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland, over $16 trillion that was only discovered due to an amendment to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by the American Congress that called for their being audited for the first time in their 99-year history.

Note: To place that $16 trillion into perspective, remember that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States is only $14.12 trillion, and the entire national debt of theUnited States government spanning its 200+ year history is “only” $14.5 trillion.

Curiously, the aforementioned amendment to the Dodd-Frank law only called only for a one-time audit of any emergency lending facility established by the Federal Reserve since 1 December 2007 and ending with the date of enactment of the law when it was signed by President Obama on 21 July 2010 thus keeping hidden from the American people who is getting their money.

To if anyone in the world, even the powerful US Federal Reserve, has the power to avert this coming catastrophe, this Ministry report warns, it is unlikely due to the cascading collapse of the global derivative market due to the mounting gridlock in liquidity that US billionaire and Obama confidant Warren Buffet warned back in 2003 were “financial weapons of mass destruction.”

Though the word “derivatives” sounds complicated and technical, understanding them is really not that hard.  A derivative is essentially a fancy way of saying that a bet has been made.  Originally, these bets were designed to hedge risk, but today the derivatives market has mushroomed into a mountain of speculation unlike anything the world has ever seen before.  Estimates of the notional value of the worldwide derivatives market go from $600 trillion all the way up to $1.4 quadrillion.

$1.4 Quadrillion is roughly: -40 TIMES THE WORLD’S STOCK MARKET. -10 TIMES the value of EVERY STOCK & EVERY BOND ON THE PLANET. -23 TIMES WORLD GDP.

Failing to be noticed by the Western peoples about this global economic collapse is that it has been, in all probability, a “planned event” due to occur so as to initiate a New World Order that has long been sought after by the elites, but was condemned by the ancients who warned that the uniting of our world as an economic dictatorship would lead to every human being having to obtain the Mark of The Beast thus bringing this present age to its end.

In a Western world devoid of morality, and lacking the knowledge of the ancients, it is beyond doubt that this coming economic collapse will take them by complete surprise (as the last one did) as they have been trained like dutiful slaves to only adhere to those voices leading them to their doom.

But for those who know the truth, the time is nearing an end for preparing… it will come much sooner than anyone will believe.

February 1, 2012 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com.

2012 is shaping up to be a very tough year for the global economy.  All over the world there are signs that economic activity is significantly slowing down.  Many of these signs are detailed later on in this article.  But most people don’t understand what is happening because they don’t put all of the pieces together.  If you just look at one or two pieces of data, it may not seem that impressive.  But when you examine all of the pieces of evidence that we are on the verge of a devastating global recession all at once, it paints a very frightening picture.  Asia is slowing down, Europe is slowing down and there are lots of trouble signs for the U.S. economy.  It has gotten to a point where the global debt crisis is almost ready to boil over, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.  The last global recession was absolutely nightmarish, and we should all hope that we don’t see another one like that any time soon.  Unfortunately, things do not look good at this point.

The following are 22 signs that we are on the verge of a devastating global recession….

#1 On Thursday it was announced that U.S. jobless claims had soared to a six-week high.

#2 Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

#3 Sears recently announced that somewhere between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores will be closing, and Sears stock has fallen nearly 60% in just the past year.

#4 Over the past 12 months, dozens of prominent retailers have closed stores all over America, and one consulting firm is projecting that there will bemore than 5,000 more store closings in 2012.

#5 Richard Bove, an analyst at Rochdale Securities, is projecting that the global financial industry will lose approximately 150,000 jobs over the next 12 to 18 months.

#6 Investors are pulling money out of the stock market at a rapid pace right now.  In fact, as an article posted on CNBC recently noted, investors pulled more money out of mutual funds than they put into mutual funds for 9 weeks in a row.  Are there some people out there that are quietly repositioning their money for tough times ahead?….

Investors yanked money out of U.S. equity mutual funds for a ninth-consecutive week despite a bullish 2012 outlook from Wall Street and a December rally that’s carried over into the New Year.

#7 There are signs that the Chinese economy is seriously slowing down.  The following comes from a recent article in the Guardian….

Growth had slowed to an annual rate of 1.5% in the second and third quarters of 2011, below the “stall speed” that historically led to recession.

#8 The Bank of Japan says that the economic recovery in that country “has paused“.

#9 Manufacturing activity in the euro zone has fallen for five months in a row.

#10 Germany’s economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.  At this point many economists believe that Germany is already experiencing a recession.

#11 According to a recent article by Bloomberg, it is being projected that the French economy is heading into a recession….

The French economy will shrink this quarter and next, suggesting the nation is in a recession as investment and consumer spending stagnate, national statistics office Insee said.

#12 There are a multitude of statistics that indicate that the UK economy is definitely slowing down.

#13 The credit ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Austria all just got downgraded.

#14 It is being reported that the Spanish economy contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.

#15 Bad loans in Spain recently hit a 17-year high and the unemployment rate is at a 15-year high.

#16 According to a recent article in the Telegraph, the Italian government is forecasting that there will be a recession for the Italian economy in 2012….

#17 Italy’s youth unemployment rate has hit the highest level ever.

#18 The unemployment rate in Greece for those under the age of 24 is now at39 percent.

#19 Greece is already experiencing a full-blown economic depression.  About a third of the country is now living in poverty and extreme medicine shortages are being reported.  Things have gotten so bad that entire families are being ripped apart.  According to the Daily Mail, hundreds of Greek children are being abandoned because the economy has gotten so bad that their parents simply cannot afford to take care of them anymore.  The note that one mother left with her child was absolutely heartbreaking….

One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.

Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: ‘I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.’

#20 In Greece, large numbers of people are simply giving up on life.  Sadly, the number of suicides in Greece has increased by 40 percent in just the past year.

#21 In many European countries, the money supply continues to contract rapidly.  The following comes from a recent article in the Telegraph….

Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors said “narrow” M1 money – which includes cash and overnight deposits, and signals short-term spending plans – shows an alarming split between North and South.

While real M1 deposits are still holding up in the German bloc, the rate of fall over the last six months (annualised) has been 20.7pc in Greece, 16.3pc in Portugal, 11.8pc in Ireland, and 8.1pc in Spain, and 6.7pc in Italy. The pace of decline in Italy has been accelerating, partly due to capital flight. “This rate of contraction is greater than in early 2008 and implies an even deeper recession, both for Italy and the whole periphery,” said Mr Ward.

#22 The major industrialized nations of the world must roll over trillions upon trillions of dollars in debt during 2012.  At a time when credit is becoming much tighter, this is going to be quite a challenge.  The following list compiled by Bloomberg shows the amount of debt that some large nations must roll over in 2012….

Japan: 3,000 billion
U.S.: 2,783 billion
Italy: 428 billion
France: 367 billion
Germany: 285 billion
Canada: 221 billion
Brazil: 169 billion
U.K.: 165 billion
China: 121 billion
India: 57 billion
Russia: 13 billion

Keep in mind that those numbers do not include any new borrowing.  Those are just old debts that must be refinanced.

As I mentioned at the top of this article, things do not look good.

The last thing that we need is another devastating global recession.

As I wrote about yesterday, the U.S. economy is in the midst of a nightmarish long-term decline.  The last major global recession helped to significantly accelerate that decline.

So what will happen if this next global recession is worse than the last one?

Sadly, the people that will get hurt the most by another recession will not be the wealthy.

The people that will get hurt the most will be the poor and the middle class.

So what should all of us be doing about this?

We should use the time during this “calm before the storm” to prepare for the hard times that are coming.

As always, let us hope for the best and let us prepare for the worst.

But things certainly do not look promising for the global economy in 2012.

Source.

Time for the dominos to fall where they may: head of sovereign ratings at S&P Kraemer spoke on Bloomberg TV, and said the following:

• KRAEMER: GREECE, CREDITORS `RUNNING OUT OF TIME’ IN DEBT TALKS -BBG
• KRAEMER: EURO LEADERS HAVEN’T TACKLED CORE UNDERLYING PROBLEMS -BBG
• KRAEMER SAYS EUROPE MUST DEAL WITH IMBALANCES, COMPETITIVENESS -BBG

And the punchline:

• KRAEMER SAYS HE BELIEVES GREECE WILL DEFAULT SHORTLY – RTRS

The only thing he did not add is that the default will be Coercive. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but whatever it is it is certainly priced in. Also, let’s not forget that the inability of the market to react to any news ever again is most certainly priced in.

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Organised crime is the biggest earner in Italy – with a turnover of more £100 billion a year – according to a report by business chiefs.

Extortion and intimidation is used to extract millions from shopkeepers, restaurants, cinemas, construction companies and thousands of other businesses as the godfathers spread their criminal enterprises across the whole of the country.

As a result of the ongoing economic crisis the Mafia is also cashing in with its traditional money-raising means of loan sharking – charging extortionate interest rates to hard-pressed businesses who are unable to raise funds.

According to a report titled Criminality’s Grip On Business, the various Mafia groups across Italy make a profit of around £116 billion a year – a figure equivalent to seven per cent of the country’s GDP.

It is a massive amount of money leaving the economy and passing from businesses straight into the pockets of gangsters.

The report said that ‘every minute’ a business or commercial activity was directly affected by organised crime – with no part of the country escaping, and with a surge of activity in the capital Rome.

Marco Venturi, president of Confesercenti – an association of small- and medium-sized companies, and publisher of the report – described the Mafia as ‘the biggest bank in the country’ with liquid assets of more than £50 billion.

Mr Venturi added that, as a result of extortion and loan sharking, more than 190,000 businesses had been forced to shut in the past three years alone.

He explained that Rome was the prime city targeted by organised crime gangs, with the Sicilian Mafia, Naples Camorra, Calabrian N’drangheta and the Sacra Corona Unita from the Puglia region all having an active ‘financial interest’ in the capital city.

Only last year it was revealed that the N’drangheta were using several famous restaurants and wine bars along the famous Via Veneto in the centre of Rome for money laundering, as well as being targeted for extortion.

Loan sharking was also rampant in the Sicilian cities of Palermo and Catania – as well as Naples in the south and Reggio Calabria – with those who failed to meet repayments being subjected to violence and intimidation by mobsters.

ORGANISED CRIME IN ITALY … THE MAIN PLAYERS

Sicilian Mafia: Also known as the Cosa Nostra, the 19th century criminal syndicate has been made famous by Hollywood – and its name is now a generic term for any organised criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests.

Camorra: A secret society from the region of Campania, it is one of the oldest and largest criminal organisations in Italy. Unlike the Mafia’s ‘Godfather’ pyramid structure, the Camorra clans act independently, making it more resilient when bosses are arrested or killed.

‘Ndrangheta: This 19th century syndicate from the Calabria region is considered to be one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the world – with a remarkable ability to migrate to other countries, including Argentina, the Netherlands and Australia.

Sacra Corona Unita: The youngest of the syndicates, set up in the 1970s, the SCU specialises in smuggling – from drugs and weapons to people. They charge other criminal organisations ‘landing rights’ to the Apulian coast in the south-east – a gateway to and from countries like Albania.

The report said extortionate money lending had become an easy and lucrative way to make money – compared to the more traditional means of drug running, arms smuggling, prostitution and gambling.

It added: ‘The classic neighbourhood or street loan shark is on the way out, giving way to organised loan sharking that is well connected with professional circles, and operates with the connivance of high-level professionals.

‘This is extortion with a clean face. Through their professions, they know the financial position of their victims perfectly.’

Mr Venturi said: ‘There are parts of the country that are controlled by organised crime, and the ongoing financial crisis – coupled with the lack of money – has made this problem even more dramatic. The government is tackling the issue but more attention is needed to stop the shadow of organised crime spreading further.’

Italy’s Interior Ministry has a special department dealing with extortion and loan sharking. Called the Anti-Racket Commission, it is headed by former police chief Giancarlo Trevisone.

Chief Trevisone said: ‘Our objective is to reconquer the territory that is in the hands of the Mafia.’

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Ministers are considering draconian plans to prevent a flood of money and people heading to Britain from Europe if the ailing single currency collapses.

Experts fear that the collapse of the euro would lead to the widespread movement of both people and money – with potentially damaging consequences for Britain if left unchecked.

The Treasury has drawn up contingency plans to prevent investors shifting huge sums of cash from the Eurozone to Britain – amid fears it could lead to a surge in the value of the Pound.

And it emerged yesterday that Britain’s borders could also be temporarily sealed against economic refugees from Europe if the collapse of the euro sparks widespread civil unrest on the Continent.

The Foreign Office is also working on contingency plans for the emergency evacuation of thousands of British expats and holidaymakers from stricken countries.

Officials insist the plans are being drawn up as a precaution – and do not indicate that the Government believes the collapse of the single currency is imminent.

Despite repeated attempts by Eurozone countries to prop up the single currency, many experts believe the 17-member currency cannot survive the coming year intact.

British officials believe that one or more countries, such as Greece and Portugal, could be forced to drop out of the single currency in order to tackle the dire problems in their own economies.

Ministers fear the break-up of the euro could have a devastating effect on Britain, dashing hopes of a recovery and sending the economy back into recession.

Anecdotal reports suggest some wealthy investors and individuals from countries like Greece are already moving money to the UK and buying property in London.

The Treasury, which has a central role in drawing up contingency plans for the euro’s collapse, believes a break-up could send international investors scrambling for a safe haven.

The transfer of huge sums of money to London could send Sterling soaring – threatening to crush the fragile recovery in exports which is central to the Coalition’s plans to ‘rebalance’ Britain’s economy.

Earlier this year the Swiss government was forced to intervene after nervous investors transferred cash there from the Eurozone, sending the value of the Swiss Franc to unsustainable levels.

The Swiss authorities moved to peg the currency to the euro.

The Treasury is planning a different approach which will impose strict limits on the amount of money that can be moved in or out of the UK.

Treasury officials are also drawing up plans to deal with the impact on Britain’ s major banks, which have a combined exposure of £170 billion to the troubled economies of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

Elsewhere in Whitehall there are fears that a collapse of the euro could lead to widespread civil unrest – and even spark a flood of economic refugees.

Some countries are expected to ground all flights and effectively seal their borders to prevent the flight of people and money. British officials are said to be considering contingency plans to seal the UK’s borders in a worst-case scenario – although any attempt to prevent the free movement of people is illegal under EU law.

The Ministry of Defence has also been put on standby to help rescue British nationals stranded in countries that are plunged into chaos.

Other EU countries are also drawing up contingency plans.

Earlier this month reports in Portugal said the country’s borders would be temporarily sealed if the country drops out of the single currency.

Strict limits would be imposed on cash withdrawals and euro notes would be stamped with an escudo mark until the new currency was printed and distributed.

Source.

Banks around the world are preparing for the possible collapse of the euro as fears of the European debt crisis increase.

Several banks are even installing systems capable of coping with trading in old European currencies.

Meanwhile finance firms, corporations, and different governments have also turned to plans that aim at preparing them for harsh times.

Regulators have asked banks in the US and UK to provide updates on readiness levels in case of a possible euro collapse.

Some corporate firms have also started transferring their cash on a daily basis out of European countries, including debt-ridden Greece instead of once every two weeks.

Europe has for months grappled with an economic and financial crisis. Insolvency now threatens in-debt countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.

Since its formation, the European Union had been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.

The worsening debt crisis, however, has forced European governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms. Tens of thousands of Europeans are migrating from their homelands as a result of these difficulties.

There are fears that more delays in resolving the eurozone debt crisis could push not only Europe, but also much of the rest of the Western world back into recession.

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The world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump unless countries settle their differences and work together to tackle Europe’s deepening debt crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.

On a day that saw an escalation in the tit-for-tat trade battle between China and the United States and a deepening of the diplomatic rift between Britain and France, Christine Lagarde issued her strongest warning yet about the health of the global economy and said if the international community failed to co-operate the risk was of “retraction, rising protectionism, isolation”.

She added: “This is exactly the description of what happened in the 1930s, and what followed is not something we are looking forward to.”

The IMF managing director’s call came amid growing concern that 2012 will see Europe slide into a double-dip recession, with knock-on effects for the rest of the global economy. “The world economic outlook at the moment is not particularly rosy. It is quite gloomy,” she said.

Since arriving in Washington in the summer, Lagarde has been forced to cut her organisation’s forecasts for global growth next year and is now putting pressure on countries outside the eurozone – including Britain – to play their part in containing Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

An IMF plan, agreed at the Brussels summit last week, involves obtaining €200bn (£168bn) from European countries and then asking the rest of the world to contribute. Beijing has so far proved reluctant to join in a rescue of the eurozone and has said it is up to Europe to sort out its own problems.

Speaking at the State Department in Washington, Lagarde said: “There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies, that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but escalating.

“It is not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It is going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking some action.”

Lagarde said that the scale of the eurozone crisis, and its implications for other countries, meant that Europe’s governments could not tackle it alone. “It is going to require efforts, it is going to require adjustment; and clearly it is going to have to start from the core of the crisis at the moment, which is obviously the European countries, and in particular the countries of the eurozone,” Lagarde said.

As Lagarde called for unity, there were strong attacks on Britain from both the French finance minister, Francois Baroin, and the governor of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, in what appeared to be a concerted attempt by Paris to escalate a war of words with London in the wake of Britain’s decision to veto a new EU treaty.

Noyer, speaking amid financial market speculation that the Standard & Poor’s ratings agency was about to strip France of its coveted AAA rating, said Britain’s credit rating should be downgraded first.

He said a downgrade for France (which would drive up the interest Paris pays to borrow, and make loans in the wider economy more expensive) “doesn’t strike me as justified based on economic fundamentals.

“If it is, they should start by downgrading the UK, which has a bigger deficit, as much debt, more inflation, weaker growth, and where bank lending is collapsing.”

In strikingly similar language, Baroin poked fun at David Cameron in a speech to the French parliament. “Great Britain is in a very difficult economic situation: a deficit close to the level of Greece, debt equivalent to our own, much higher inflation prospects, and growth forecasts well under the eurozone average. It is an audacious choice the UK government has made.”

Downing Street responded with restraint. Cameron’s official spokesman said: “We have put in place a credible plan for dealing with our deficit, and the credibility of that plan can be seen in what has happened to bond yields in this country.” Privately, officials said it was a “strange thing” for Noyer to speak as he did, but there was no desire in London to inflame the situation.

In another sign the financial crisis was deepening last night, Fitch cut its ratings on eight of the world’s biggest banks, including Barclays, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank. It warned that they all faced “increased challenges”, with potential losses hard to calculate.

John Bryson, the US commerce secretary, signalled that Washington would retaliate against Beijing’s decision to put tariffs on high-performance US cars imported into China. “The United States has reached a point where we cannot quietly accept China ignoring many of the trade rules. China still substantially subsidises its own companies, discriminates against foreign companies, and has poor intellectual property protections,” he said.

Britain has been given observer status on a working group set up by the Economic and Financial Committee of the EU to carry out technical work ahead of the full-blown negotiations on the treaty, boosting Cameron’s claim that Britain has not been marginalised by his move last week.

On Thursday Hungary and the Czech Republic raised doubts about the proposed agreement, saying they would not sign the new treaty if they had to give up their right to decide tax policy. Downing Street denied that Cameron was attempting to foment opposition to the treaty, and said that the prime minister was talking to all sides. But by Thursday the only eurozone leader he had spoken to was Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister.

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Top US military officer General Martin Dempsey said Friday he was “extraordinarily concerned” about the euro’s viability due to the potential for civil unrest and the breakup of the European Union.

“The eurozone is at great risk,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters, saying it was unclear whether measures taken so far “will be the glue that holds it together.”

“We are extraordinarily concerned by the health and viability of the euro because in some ways we’re exposed literally to contracts but also because of the potential of civil unrest and breakup of the union that has been forged over there,” Dempsey added.

His comments came as EU leaders banded together to back tighter budget enforcement with 26 of the 27 members signaling their willingness to join a “new fiscal compact” to resolve the crisis.

But a Franco-German drive to enshrine new budget rules in a modified EU treaty failed, when non-euro Britain refused to go along.

The US military is revising its strategy to adapt to budgetary cuts designed to reduce the ballooning US deficit. Dempsey, the president’s top military adviser, spoke about his concerns for the euro as he discussed the strategic risks posed in different parts of the world.

In a study published Thursday, the Council on Foreign Relations ranked the eurozone among the main threats facing the United States.

It pointed to a risk of “intensification of the European sovereign debt crisis that leads to the collapse of the euro, triggering a double-dip US recession and further limiting budgetary resources.”

Other countries identified as priorities for US national interests included China, Iran, North Korea, Mexico, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

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Ever dream of leaving it all behind and heading out of America? You’re not the only one. A new study shows that more US citizens than ever before are living outside of the country.

According to statistics from the US State Department, around 6.4 million Americans are either working or studying overseas, which Gallup says is the largest number ever for such statistic.

The polling organization came across the number after conducting surveys in 135 outside nations and the information behind the numbers reveal that this isn’t exactly a longtime coming either — numbers have skyrocketed only in recent years. In the 24 months before polling began, the number of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 living abroad managed to surge from barely 1 percent to over 5.1 percent. For those under the age span wishing to move overseas, the percentage has jumped in the same amount of time from 15 percent to 40.

While the United States of America was at one point (and largely still is) a magnet for foreigners in search of work, the statistics makes it clear that an opposite trend is quickly picking up steam.

“There’s a feeling among more entrepreneurial Americans that if you really want to get anything done, you have to get out of country and away from the depressing atmosphere,” Bob Adams of America Wave tells Reuters. “There’s a sense of lost direction, so more people are looking for locations that offer more hope about the future.”

Many of those leaving the US have job skills that would transfer quite well in the American market. Instead, however, they chose to bring those out of the States, attracted instead to opportunities elsewhere.

While America offers some employment opportunities unmatched outside of the United States, the country has also seen dire economic statistics since the dawn of the Obama administration, with jobless benefit claims soaring in recent months, and only last week did the Department of Labor reveal an unemployment statistic below 9 percent. On the contrary, the number of Americans that want full-time work and have given up on finding it or unable to locate it is closer to double that figure, while at the same time many of America’s largest employers have outsourced positions across the globe. Banking giant Goldman Sachs announced earlier this year that in the wake of a recession, they would finally be creating 1,000 new positions, yet making them available only to workers in Singapore. Other industries, significantly American, have been relocated as well; the ending of NASA’s space shuttle program this year left many intelligent US citizens with little choice but to continue in their field outside of the States.

“We’ve pretty much outsourced everything else,” aerospace technician Giovanni Pinzon tells RT. He was left scrambling for a job after years working in America’s space program.

America Wave’s Adams adds to Reuters that the statistics prove surprising to him, but noted that it doesn’t exactly make sense to think that it is a fluke.

“They’re looking for work because of the sluggish economy, and they’ve lost confidence that the U.S. is going anywhere,” says Adams.

Source.

More than a quarter of small businesses struggle to find ‘suitably skilled’ staff despite rising unemployment, a survey revealed yesterday.

The report by the Federation of Small Businesses said many of its members were desperate to hire workers but could not find them.

It warned many school leavers and graduates lacked basic skills needed for a job.

These range from turning up on time for an interview to being able to write basic English or do the most elementary maths.

The survey of more than 1,500 small businesses showed a ‘worrying’ 27 per cent have ‘found it difficult to find suitably skilled staff’.

The issue will be investigated as part of an inquiry into entrepreneurship by the Federation of Small Businesses and MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Small Business Group.

Brian Binley, Tory MP and chairman of the parliamentary group, said: ‘Small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs are expected to be driving economic growth in support of Britain’s recovery.

‘But they are finding it difficult to get the right people to help them in that task.’

One of the big problems was ‘the poor performance in our primary and secondary schools, especially with regard to literacy and numeracy’.

Unemployment has jumped to a 17-year high of 2.62million, amid warnings it will continue to rise as the Government cuts the state workforce.

Despite the massive number of people looking for a job, there are still 464,000 unfilled vacancies, according to the Office for National Statistics.

To add to the problems facing small firms, the report also found 34 per cent had ‘difficulty securing finance’.

The Federation of Small Businesses is calling on the Government to create more competition on the high street to break up the dominance of the ‘big five’ banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander and RBS.

The Department for Education said the Government was ‘prioritising’ literacy and numeracy by ‘recruiting specialist maths teachers, introducing a phonics-based reading check for six-year-olds and restoring the rigour of GCSE and A-level exams’.

Source.