Unemployment in the extreme south Chilean region of Magallanes was the lowest in the country during the April/June quarter, 2.3%, according to the latest report from the country's stats office, INE. This is 0.5 percentage points less than the previous quarter and 1.4 percentage points below a year ago.
The following article by Peter Eavis and Alexandra Stevenson was published in The New York Times and addresses the current litigation between Argentina and the speculative funds. The hedge fund firm of billionaire Paul E. Singer has about 300 employees, yet it has managed to force Argentina, a nation of 41 million people, into a position where it now has to contemplate a humbling surrender.
The crew of the Royal Navy warship HMS Portland returned home to a rapturous welcome in Plymouth on Friday after a successful seven-month deployment to West Africa, the Falkland Islands and the Caribbean. The vessel that was replaced by HMS Iron Duke in its Atlantic deployment spent four weeks in the Falklands.
The following piece published in The New York Times was written by Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and a former chief economist of the World Bank, and currently a professor at Columbia University.
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) on Friday declared Argentina in default, which could trigger payments worth up to one billion dollars on credit default swaps.
The Argentine Economy Ministry claimed on Friday New York judge Thomas Griesa has benefited “vulture funds” during negotiations over Argentina's defaulted debt with holdouts and asked the (Argentine) National Values Commission (CNV) to start an investigation over alleged “speculative moves”.
The leading Brazilian newspapers blasted Argentine president Cristina Fernandez as the sole responsible for the 'default event' which followed the failure of negotiations with holdouts in New York. This despite the fact Brazilian economy minister Guido Mantega denied Argentina was in default and strongly supported the Argentine government.
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department reported on Friday. However the unemployment rate edged up to 6.2% from 6.1%, somehow confirming the Federal Reserve concern about still weak employment.
Brazil's ruling Workers Party in Sao Pablo decided to expel representative Luiz Moura following his alleged ties to organized crime exposed by a police investigation. Criminal gangs in Brazil are powerful and are known to have connections with the political system.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who hopes to be re-elected for a second term in October’s elections, has defended her government’s industrial policy in front of the sector’s business leaders, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI).