news blog from Mendy

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PUNTO 1-Fiat, sciopero Fiom 21/10; per ora corteo non autorizzato

Lo ha annunciato il segretario generale della Fiom, Maurizio Landini, spiegando che al momento vi è solo il nulla osta per una manifestazione "stanziale" a Piazza Esedra.Landini si augura che la decisione definitiva della Questura non venga influenzata dai violenti scontri che si sono verificati nella capitale in occasione della manifestazione degli 'indignati' di sabato scorso.Spiega il sindacalista: "Ancora prima di sabato ci era stata negata l'autorizzazione a concludere la manifestazione a Piazza Navona [in linea con una ordinanza del Comune] e a Piazza Farnese, perché troppo vicina. Stamani, lunedì, in un incontro informale con i nostri delegati la Questura ha fatto sapere che ancora non ci hanno dato l'autorizzazione al corteo"."A maggior ragione dopo sabato vogliamo fare il corteo e insisteremo nei prossimi giorni per farlo. Se, come si legge, [gli infiltrati] si stavano organizzando da mesi lo hanno fatto per impedire a noi di manifestare. Non a caso è stata colpita Piazza San Giovanni, simbolo delle manifestazioni sindacali e politiche", ha detto Landini che ha precisato: "Noi condanniamo la violenza. Con noi si può sfilare solo a faccia scoperta e con le mani libere".A seguito degli scontri sono state 12 le persone arrestate, una settantina i feriti.FIAT: I DUBBI DI FIOM SUI MODELLI AUTO, PRODUZIONE BASSALo sciopero del 21 ottobre indetto dai metalmeccanici della Cgil riguarda i lavoratori del gruppo Fiat, della componentistica e di Fincantieri. Alla base della proteste le incertezze che, secondo la Fiom, ancora caratterizzano il piano Fabbrica Italia del Lingotto a circa due anni dal suo annuncio.L'obiettivo del piano era quello di produrre a regime 1,4 milioni di auto all'anno. Dal 1° gennaio al 30 settembre 2011, secondo la Fiom, sono state prodotte 486.190 auto compresi i Ducato (oltre 146 mila), cioè i veicoli commerciali."Molti prodotti [annunciati nel piano dell'Ad Sergio Marchionne nell'aprile 2010] sono slittati e hanno cambiato destinazione dopo. Altri sono scomparsi", ha denunciato il segretario nazionale, Giorgio Airaudo.Solo considerando gli stabilimenti italiani, secondo la Fiom, per il 2011 la produzione della Nuova Panda di Pomigliano è slittata di alcuni mesi; per il 2012 alla ex Bertone è prevista la produzione della piccola Maserati rispetto a un progetto iniziale di un Suv e di una berlina con partenza nel 2011 che slitta invece a fine 2012; per il 2013 a Pomigliano o in Polonia è prevista la produzione di una city-car, a Melfi è destinata la futura Punto ma l'attività progettativa è sospesa così come sono sospesi i progetti per la Mito 5 porte di Mirafiori e la nuova spider (Alfa-Chrysler) di Bertone. Nessuna notizia, sempre secondo il sindacato, nemmeno del progetto per il suv segmento D (Alfa) previsto per il 2014."Il time to market, cioè il tempo che passa fra il via libera di fattibilità e il lancio di un modello è di 18 mesi in Fiat", nota Airaudo, lasciando intendere che con tali incertezza non è chiaro quando le nuove auto andranno sul mercato.Landini torna poi sulla decisione di Fiat di lasciare Confindustria: "Non escludiamo di chiedere di essere sentiti dal Parlamento. [L'uscita di Fiat da Confindustria] non è un problema tra il dottor Marchionne e la dottoressa [presidente di Confindustria, Emma] Marcegaglia, ma un problema di politica industriale perché è finalizzata a non applicare i contratti nazionali e a un disimpegno dall'Italia".(Francesca Piscioneri)(Redazione Roma, [email protected], [phone], Reuters Messaging: [email protected])Sul sito www.reuters.com altre notizie Reuters in italiano. Le top news anche su www.twitter.com/reuters_italia

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Job gains ease recession fears but still weak

But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent for a third straight month, keeping pressure on President Barack Obama and the U.S. Federal Reserve to do more to spur the recovery.Nonfarm payrolls rose 103,000 in September, the Labor Department said on Friday, but that included the return of 45,000 striking communications workers. Excluding those workers, employment increased by a meager 58,000."It underscores the belief that the economy has skirted a recession, but that's not to say it's out of the danger zone because there are significant risks out there," said Millan Mulraine, senior macro strategist at TD Securities in New York.Job growth is still falling short of the pace needed to pull down unemployment, though the report had a firmer tenor than economists had expected. Hourly earnings rebounded, the length of the average work week rose, and revisions showed 99,000 more jobs were added in July and August than initially reported.The unemployment rate also managed to hold steady despite a surge of new workers into the labor force.U.S. stocks snapped a three-day rally as a downgrade of Spain and Italy's credit ratings overshadowed the jobs report. Treasury debt prices fell for a fourth straight day, while the dollar rose marginally against a basket of currencies.Economists had expected payrolls to increase 60,000 last month, with the jobless rate steady at 9.1 percent. Employment growth has decelerated sharply from the first quarter of the year, when payroll growth averaged more than 165,000 a month.The weak labor market poses a critical challenge for Obama, who faces a tough battle to win reelection in November 2012.Obama has proposed a package of measures to spur jobs growth, but the plan has run into stiff opposition from Republicans, raising the prospect Washington will be unable to take decisive action."It's anemic growth at best, and you don't see anything from this administration that's going to turn it around," Rick Santorum, a former senator and a former Republican presidential hopeful, said on CNBC.White House officials conceded the jobs growth was not good enough."I would not say that we are satisfied in the slightest," National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling told Reuters Insider. "There still is a risk that this economy could stall out or even have a double-dip recession."The U.S. economy needs to grow by at least a 2.5 percent annual rate, with payrolls expanding by around 125,000 positions a month, just to keep the jobless rate from rising.RECESSION WATCHHealth care, construction, retail, and professional and business services all contributed to the rise in payrolls, while manufacturing was a drag for a second straight month.The closely watched report was the latest sign to suggest the world's largest economy was likely to skirt a recession despite weakness over the summer, although prospects for the nation's 14 million unemployed remained grim.Private employment increased 137,000 last month, an acceleration from August's mere 42,000. But government payrolls fell 34,000 as employment at the local government level fell 35,000 and the Postal Service shed 5,000 positions.The drop in local government payrolls included a loss of 24,400 education jobs.Recent reports on manufacturing, business spending and auto sales suggest the economy fared better in the third quarter after growing at an anemic 1.3 percent annual pace in the April-June period, although job growth did not pick up.Analysts warn that the economy is still not out of the woods, with Europe's debt crisis posing a threat that could derail the U.S. recovery. Industrial output in Germany -- Europe's biggest economy -- fell in August.PUSHING ON A STRINGThe Federal Reserve last month announced new steps to breathe life into the recovery by pushing long-term borrowing costs lower, but economists do not expect the effort to bear much fruit at a time many Americans are unable to access credit.U.S. consumer credit fell by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years in August, the Fed said in a separate report, confirming the retrenchment by households whose confidence was damaged by a wrenching political fight over the U.S. deficit and steep stock price drops.Uncertainty over the economic outlook has made businesses reluctant to hire aggressively."One of the main problems in the economy is the lack of confidence in economic policies here and in Europe," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University in the Channel Islands. "Most of the cards have been dealt and the politicians have been squabbling among themselves."While the jobless rate held steady last month, other measures of unemployment grew darker.The average duration of unemployment hit a record high of 40.5 weeks. and almost 45 percent of the 14 million jobless Americans had been out of work for six months or more, up from 42.9 percent in August.In addition, a broader measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up looking for jobs and those working only part time for economic reasons rose to 16.5 percent from 16.2 percent.But there were also some bright spots.Hourly earnings rose 4 cents after falling in August; the length of the work week rose to 34.3 hours from 34.2 hours; and job gains were widespread.Health care and social services payrolls increased by 40,800 jobs, construction added 26,000 workers -- possibly due to rebuilding after Hurricane Irene -- and temporary employment rose 19,400. Temporary hiring is sometimes seen as a harbinger of permanent hiring.But manufacturing, which has been the pillar of the economy, shed 13,000 jobs, the second straight monthly decline.

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How to reduce reliance on cash

When the financial crisis hit, the smart money went to cash. Literally, in the case of Mohamed El-Erian: On the Wednesday and Thursday after Lehman filed for Chapter 11, I asked my wife to please go to the ATM and take as much cash as she could. When she asked why, I said it was because I didn’t know whether there was a chance that banks might not open. I remember my wife sort of pausing and saying, “Are you serious?” And I said, “Yes, I am.” It turns out that this was a worldwide phenomenon. Here’s Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, in a speech last week (HT IK): Physical cash commands a premium during times of uncertainty. We saw this during the 2008 global financial crisis. Within the first month of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, there was an exceptionally large withdrawal of high denomination notes by banks in Singapore. Typically, 90 per cent or more of the high-denomination notes withdrawn from banks are re- deposited within the month. During the initial months of the 2008 crisis, only 70 per cent of the $100, $1,000 and $10,000 notes withdrawn were returned. This is understandable. But the fact is that cash is a very expensive payments mechanism: Handling cash is costly. According to a 2010 study by Retail Banking Research, the cost of distributing, managing, handling, processing and recycling cash in Europe is estimated at €84 billion. This is equal to 0.6 per cent of Europe’s GDP. For individuals, cash clears at par: if you give me a $100 bill, then I’m $100 richer and you’re $100 poorer. No one’s going to jump in and charge a fee for facilitating the transaction. And if I then deposit the $100 bill into my checking account, once again I see the full amount appear on my statement. But the fact that most people never get charged for cash transactions is corrosive, in its own way: it helps to impede the inevitable-yet-glacial move away from cash and towards more secure, easier, and cheaper forms of payments. Which is one reason why Bank of America’s $5 charge for debit transactions is so mindblowingly stupid. The more that people use their debit cards, the less they’ll use cash. And Bank of America spends billions of dollars every year processing heavy, dirty cash flowing in and out of its branches. If banks can persuade people to move to weightless forms of payment like debit, it will save them enormous amounts of money. After all, most of that 0.6%-of-GDP cost of processing cash is borne by retail banks. And much of the rest is borne by the government. Minting physical currency is expensive! And wasteful! (Menon reveals, in his speech, that those charity-donation buckets in airports are placed there largely at the behest of the monetary authority, to try to stop local coins from leaving the country and having to be re-minted.) Which means there’s a massive public-interest argument in favor of slowly phasing out cash in favor of other kind of payments. That’s never going to be easy, but it’s going to be pretty much impossible if the alternative payment mechanisms don’t clear at par. I don’t know what kind of payment mechanism the world will ultimately alight on; I suspect however that it will use NFC technology in cellphones, and that it will be owned and run by a consortium of large retail banks. In the meantime, however, it behooves everybody, from the government to the banks, to do everything they can to wean people slowly off cash. If cash transactions cost the US 0.5% of GDP each year, that’s $70 billion a year at stake — significantly more than all credit and debit interchange fees combined. Don’t any of our greedy banks see the opportunity here?