After nine years of work, $330 Billion in treasure, and nearly 1,300 American fatalities, bankers might ultimately do in Afghanistan what the Taliban could never accomplish.
Even as it battles a resurgent and spreading Taliban, the beleaguered government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is facing a more immediate threat: a run on the country’s largest banks.
This week, droves of depositors rushed offices of Afghanistan’s Kabul Bank, pulling out their money amid concerns that bank has lost millions of dollars. BBC News broadcast images of Hummers and SUV’s racing to the bank, a troubling sign of growing mistrust for Mr. Karzai’s already heavily criticized government.
Something in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 million in deposits have been withdrawn in just a couple days, about half of all the bank's assets. If the stampede continues for just a few more days the bank will fail.
So why is this important? Because the Kabul Bank is what the government uses to pay its teachers, police, and soldiers.
The August 2010 monthly unemployment figures are out. The official unemployment rate increased to 9.6% and the total jobs lost were -54,000. 114,000 temporary government census jobs were lost and private sector jobs increased by 67,000, which is misleading for 10,000 of the private sector jobs were returning workers, who were on strike. Minus the census jobs, total jobs created was 60,000. This is not enough to even keep up with population growth. Job creation in America is missing in action.
Below is the nonfarm payroll, seasonally adjusted. Notice the downward slope of the number of actual jobs.
The 50 U.S. chief executives who laid off the most employees between November 2008 and April 2010 eliminated a total of 531,363 jobs, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, a research group that works for social justice and against wealth concentration.
In “CEO Pay and the Great Recession,” the institute said the $598 million in combined pay for the 50 executives would have paid one month’s worth of average-sized unemployment benefits for each of the laid-off workers.
The top 50 layoff firms reported a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009, the report said.
“These numbers all reflect a broader trend in Great Recession-era Corporate America: the relentless squeezing of worker jobs, pay and benefits to boost corporate earnings and maintain corporate executive paychecks at their recent bloated levels,” the authors wrote.
Is that what it takes to be a corporate leader? The ability to screw anybody, anytime and put the money in their own pockets?
When else in history have we seen this? What happened when the people had enough?
Recent comments