Unemployment Rises To 9.8%; Number of Unemployed Reaches 15 Million
Theofficial unemployment rate in the U.S. rose to 9.8 percent last month. The Labor Department said 263,000 jobs were eliminated in September bringing the total number of workers unemployed to 15 million. Another nine million people have been relegated to part-time work because their employers had scaled back their hours or they simply could not find full-time jobs. The unemployment rate has doubled since December 2007.

Economist Mark Vitner: “Not only did we have a larger than expected decline in non-farm payrolls, but it was incredibly broad based, and you have to really comb through this report to find anything to be optimistic about.”
Some economists say the job picture may be even more dire because of shortcomings with the government’s model for calculating payrolls. On Friday the Labor Department announced it had severely underestimated the number of jobs lost between March 2008 and March 2009. The Department had originally said about four point eight million jobs were eliminated during that period but now officials admit an additional 824,000 jobs were lost.


Consumer Bankruptcies Up 41 Percent
Consumer bankruptcies soared 41 percent in September from a year before. Nearly 125,000 people filed for bankruptcy last month, the fourth highest month since the bankruptcy law changed in 2005.


Poverty Rate Rises to 13.2 Percent
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports the nation’s poverty rate has rise to 13.2 percent, the highest level in eleven years. The number of people classified as poor has jumped to nearly 40 million.


A Hidden $34 Billion Bank Subsidy? Study Exposes How Taxpayers Are Subsidizing Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Other Large Banks
One of the key terms to come out of the nation’s economic meltdown has been “too big to fail.” The government has funneled billions of dollars to large financial firms by arguing that their collapse would deal an irreparable blow to economic recovery. A new study has calculated the tab of the “too big to fail” approach, and it amounts to a far larger taxpayer-funded subsidy than previously thought. The Center for Economic and Policy Research says the bailout has allowed “too big to fail” banks to pay significantly lower interest rates than those paid by smaller banks. According to one estimate, that’s meant a subsidy for the nation’s eighteen largest bank holding companies of $34.1 billion a year. That amount represents nearly half these companies’ combined annual profits.


Goldman Sachs to Make $1 Billion If CIT Files Bankruptcy
The Financial Times reports Goldman Sachs stands to receive a payment of $1 billion if embattled commercial lender CIT files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the same time, US taxpayers would lose $2.3 billion. The Goldman Sachs payment stems from the structure of a rescue finance package that Goldman extended to CIT in June 2008, about five months before the Treasury bought $2.3 billion in CIT preferred shares to prop it up at the height of the crisis. If CIT does file, it would be the fifth largest bankruptcy filing, by assets, in US history.


Paulson Criticized for Misleading Public about Health of Banks
In other business news, the inspector general who oversees the government’s bailout of the banking system is criticizing the Treasury Department for making misleading public statements last fall and raising the possibility that it had unfairly disbursed money to the biggest banks. A new report by inspector general Neil Barofsky found that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other officials deliberately created the impression last year that banks receiving huge government cash infusions were healthier than was the case. But privately, officials worried about the health of several of the banks.


Obama Puts Off Meeting with Dalai Lama
For the first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will visit Washington this week and not meet with the President. The Obama administration reportedly pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month. The Washington Post reports the Obama administration’s decision to postpone the meeting appears to be part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China’s human rights and financial policies, as well as backing efforts to elevate China’s position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund.


Ohio Postpones Four Executions
In Ohio, four executions have now been postponed as the state revises its lethal injection procedures. The review began after a failed execution on September 15, when the state attempted to kill Romell Broom. Broom’s execution was put off after technicians spent over two hours trying to maintain an intravenous connection in order to inject him with lethal drugs.


Two Men on Oklahoma Death Row Released
In other death penalty news, two men in Oklahoma have been released from prison after spending fifteen years on death row. A federal judge had dismissed the men’s convictions in 2006, after it was revealed that the prosecutors made a secret deal with a key witness.


Watchdog Groups Expose Healthcare Industry Lobbyist Spending
New details have emerged about how the healthcare industry has been trying to sway the debate in Congress. A study by the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics has uncovered never-before-seen webs of campaign contributions from outside lobbyists and their clients to key members of Congress. Between January 2007 and June 2009, Max Baucus, the chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, collected contributions from thirty-seven outside lobbyists representing the pharmaceutical industry’s chief trade association, PhRMA, as well as thirty-six lobbyists who listed drug maker Amgen as their client. In all, eleven major health and insurance firms had their contributions to Baucus boosted through extra donations from ten or more of their outside lobbyists. Some thirty-two members of Congress got money from ten or more PhRMA lobbyists over the last two-and-a-half years. Amgen’s lobbyists did the same for twenty-four members.


Rep. Grayson: Healthcare Reform Needed to “End this Holocaust in America”
Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida is coming under criticism from Republicans after he said on the floor of the House that the Republicans’ healthcare plan involved wanting people to “die quickly.” Grayson has refused to apologize to Republicans.

Rep. Alan Grayson: “I would like to apologize to the dead, and here’s why. According to this study, ‘Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults,’ which was published two weeks ago, 44,789 Americans die every year because they have no health insurance…Let’s remember that we should care about people even after they’re born. So I call upon the Democratic members of the House, I call upon the Republican members of the House, I call upon all of us, to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those dying people and their families. I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”


Comcast Considers Buying NBC Universal
In business news, the nation’s largest cable television company, Comcast, is reportedly in talks with General Electric to buy just more than half of NBC Universal. Such a deal would give Comcast control of the NBC network, the Spanish-language Telemundo, cable channels including MSNBC, dozens of local television stations and the Universal film studio. The proposed deal would likely face scrutiny from regulators.


GM to Shut Down Saturn Division; 13,000 Jobs to Be Eliminated
In other business news, General Motors has announced it will shut down its Saturn division by 2011. The move will eliminate an estimated 13,000 jobs.


Bank of America CEO to Receive $125 Million Retirement Package
Outgoing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis is reportedly set to receive a retirement package worth $125 million. Lewis’s severance package includes $53 million in retirement benefits and $73 million in accumulated stock and other compensation. Under Lewis’s leadership, Bank of America received a $45 billion taxpayer bailout.


Settlement Offered In Oil Dump Suit
Trafigura, a British oil trader, has offered to settle a record court case by 31,000 Africans who claim injury from the dumping of waste, court records show. The Times of London said it was the largest personal injury class-action ever mounted in an English court.

Trafigura confirmed in London Wednesday that "a global deal" has been proposed. The suit had sought damages totaling 100 million pounds, about $164.8 million.

"We have reached a point where we are now in the process of putting a global deal to the claimants," Martyn Day, the claimants' attorney, said. The action resulted from the dumping of 400 tons of waste in the Ivory Coast by an oil tanker, the Probo Koala, in 2006, said to be one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history.

Trafigura used an independent contractor, which dumped the black sludge in and around Abidjan. Claimants said the toxic fumes from the waste made them sick. A settlement, without admission of liability by the company, would avoid a lengthy, costly court action due to begin at the High Court in London next month, reports said.--Officialwire.com


Flooding in India Kills 250; Leaves 2.5 Million Homeless
In southern India massive flooding has killed 250 people and left 2.5 million homeless. Over 1,200 temporary camps have been set up to shelter the displaced.


Rio Picked for 2016 Olympics
The International Olympic Committee has voted to hold the 2016 Olympics in the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro. Rio will become the first South American Olympic host. Rio is considered to be one of the world’s most dangerous cities and has a notoriously corrupt police force. Over 2,000 murders were reported in the city last year. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Rio police committed one in five of the murders. Executions by police death squads are considered common. In July, thirty police officers in Rio were charged with homicide, after an investigation that implicated them in the formation of a death squad and unlawful killings.

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