McClatchy: On China's Yellow River, Human Corpses Now a Cash Crop

China's dark side: On Yellow River, corpses mean cash

NEAR CHANGPO VILLAGE, China — From his perch on an overhang above the Yellow River, Wei Jinpeng pointed to a fisherman's cove below and began counting his latest catch. He stopped after six, and guessed that perhaps a dozen human corpses were bobbing in the murky waters.

The bodies were floating facedown and tethered by ropes to the shore, their mud-covered limbs and rumps protruding from the water.

Wei is a fisher of dead people. He scans the river for cadavers, drags them to shore with a small boat and then charges grieving families to recover their relatives' corpses. Wei said he kept the faces submerged to preserve their features. Any dispute about identity makes it harder to collect his bounty.

Wei doesn't worry about how they got here, but he's heard tales over the years from relatives who've come to claim the bodies, haunting portraits of average people crushed in the extraordinary stress of China's economic boom.

While some of the 80 to 100 bodies Wei gathers each year are victims of accidents and floods, he thinks that the majority end up in the river after suicide or murder. There's no overt sign of a crime spree, though there's evidence of many people taking their own lives. Indeed, suicide is the leading cause of death for women in rural China, and 26 percent of all suicides in the world take place in the nation, according to the World Health Organization


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/16/100691/chinese-fisherman-on-yellow-river.html#ixzz100eaXnhE

Market Watch: U.S. Middle Class Already Running as Fast as Possible

The Secret List Of 10 States With Soaring Poverty Rates The Government Doesn't Want You To See

Yesterday the Census Bureau announced a big increase in nationwide poverty rates in 2009. CBS reported the news as “One in Seven in Poverty: 44 Million Americans”. When it comes to statistics it is always wise to be a little bit suspicious. We’re talking about poverty rates here and that makes me even more suspicious. The number of Americans who are below the poverty line is not 44 million, it is more like 39 million. The Census Bureau is using a flawed methodology. Here is why:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-states-with-the-highest-poverty-rates-2010-9#ixzz100e9aXMy

Bloomberg: New Jersey Considering Privatizing Roads as Funds Dry Up

State budget impasse hits some people hard

(09-17) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - --

Sudha Gupta hasn't received a paycheck since July 31, but each day she and the 22 other teachers at Creative Montessori Learning Center in East Palo Alto dutifully come to work to serve 200 mostly low-income preschoolers.

Gupta and her colleagues don't work for the state, but they are among a growing number of Californians whose everyday lives - and pocketbooks - are being impacted by the impasse over the state budget, which is now 79 days late.

Even though most bills are still being paid, California law prohibits state Controller John Chiang from making certain payments unless a budget is in place. The losers in the governor's and Legislature's delay in passing a budget include health clinics that serve the poor, college students who qualify for financial aid, and state-funded child-development programs, which serve more than 270,000 children statewide.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/16/MN5P1FDA73.DTL#ixzz100dUmesY

Business Insider: California to Make "Terrible, Absolutely Terrible" Cuts

Here Are The "Terrible, Absolutely Terrible" Cuts California Must Make To Balance The Budget

1) Borrow from pensions -- which Schwarzenegger has considered -- and count on a credit downgrade and a Greece-like problem.

2) Drop the axe on state services with "terrible, absolutely terrible cuts" -- as Schwarzenegger called them in May.

It's starting to look like we're headed for the latter.

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-terrible-absolutely-terrible-cuts-california-must-make-to-balance-the-budget-2010-9

Alternet: U.S. Population Coming "Completely Decoupled" from Reality

This Country Just Can't Deal with Reality Any More
As Election Day 2010 approaches, the consequences of the nation’s three-decade-old decoupling from reality are becoming painfully obvious.
September 16, 2010 |

As Election Day 2010 approaches – as the United States wallows in the swamps of war, recession and environmental degradation – the consequences of the nation’s three-decade-old decoupling from reality are becoming painfully obvious.

Yet, despite the danger, the nation can’t seem to move in a positive direction, as if the suctioning effect of endless spin, half-truths and lies holds the populace in place, a force that grows ever more powerful like quicksand sucking the country deeper into the muck – to waist deep, then neck deep.

Trapped in the mud, millions of Americans are complaining about their loss of economic status, their sense of powerlessness, their nation’s decline. But instead of examining how the country stumbled into this morass, many still choose not to face reality.

http://www.alternet.org/news/148206/this_country_just_can%27t_deal_with_reality_any_more/

UK Independent: U.S. Isn't Working, Rest of World Should be Alarmed

Economic Life: There are deep-seated concerns that the US workforce has too long a tail of less-skilled people doing jobs that can be done abroad by workers on lower wages

The "jobless recovery" has become a catchphrase to describe what is happening in the US, and could also be applied to Continental Europe. In recent months, employment in the US has inched up, despite what seemed at least to be decent growth, while (and this has really shocked me) the eurozone has created no net new jobs at all in the past three months. The UK has at least managed to create 300,000 over this period.

In a way the failure of the US to generate jobs is even more worrying than that of Europe. Levels of unemployment are broadly similar at 10 per cent. But Europe does at least have the "excuse", if that is the right word, of a relatively inflexible labour market. Employers in Europe can be expected to be reluctant to take on new labour as demand rises because they are not able to shed that labour if the rise in demand falters. But in the US there are fewer such inhibitions, or at least there should be. Yet the rise in employment this cycle has been the lowest since the Second World War. As a result unemployment has remained stubbornly high. Why?

The answer is complex, so we should be suspicious of pat responses, but it is clear that there are several forces at work. One is simply that the sectors that have shed most labour are in no shape to rehire. The main losses during the downturn were manufacturing, transport and construction, three industries that have been particularly savaged by the recession, as the top graph, above, shows.

Since the recovery began nothing much has happened in terms of additional employment in any industry, whereas in previous recoveries even the construction industries were busy rehiring.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-america-isnt-working-and-the-rest-of-the-world-should-be-alarmed-2081579.html

The 25 Countries That Will Be Screwed By A World Food Crisis

Concerned about whether you have enough food in your fridge? How about for the worst case scenario?

Japanese investment bank Nomura produced a research report detailing the countries that would be crushed in a food crisis.

Their description of a food crisis is a prolonged price spike. They calculate the states that have the most to lose by a formula including:

* Nominal GDP per capita in USD at market exchange rates.
* The share of food in total household consumption.
* Net food exports as a percentage of GDP.

We've got the top 25 countries in danger here and the list, including a major financial center, may surprise you.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nomura-food-crisis-2010-9#ixzz100agHEqm