World oil prices are continuing a downhill slide amid fears the world economy is slowing and could go back into recession.
Brent crude oil fell to near four-year lows and the US standard, West Texas Intermediate, lost more than a dollar. Brent has lost almost 28 percent of its value since June.
The slide comes as economic news makes it appear the world is facing another slowdown or possible recession. China’s consumer inflation fell to a five-year low this week and prices for U.S. producers fell for the first time in a year.
Also, US crude oil inventories rose at a level almost four times higher than previously estimated by analysts.
The news led to downward rallies on Wall Street with the Dow losing hundreds.
World leaders from oil producing countries are calling for emergency meetings to try and stop the slide in oil prices. The International Energy Agency is cutting predictions for oil growth in 2015 as a result of the recent conditions.
A report from a Wall Street analyst says that the government’s unemployment numbers are grossly underestimating the percentage of Americans who want work but can’t find it.
David John Marrotta said in a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner hat the true unemployment rate in the U.S. is 37.2%, almost five and a half times the 6.7% rate that has been touted by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.
“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work. Policies that remove the barriers to employment, thus decreasing this number, are obviously beneficial,” Marrotta wrote.
The major factor in the government’s number is that they remove anyone from the index who says they have stopped looking for work because they’ve been frustrated at their inability to find a job.
The memo also said that the Misery Index, which is calculated based on inflation and unemployment, is much higher than government reports. The official government statistics put the misery index at 7.54 while the true numbers have the number at close to 14.7, higher than during the Ford administration.
Arrests are being carried out in over 10 states as part of an investigation into a massive Social Security fraud scheme.
The joint federal and state investigation alleges that over $24 million has been dispersed in fraudulent disability payments. At least 102 of the people being arrested are beneficiaries that claimed to be unable to work a job or leave their home but were witnessed leading very active lives.
In addition, lawyers, disability consultants, and recruiters are facing multiple charges for their parts in the scheme including coaching people to defraud the government.
A source told the Wall Street Journal a number of former NYPD and NYFD members will be arrested as part of the fraud.
The Social Security Administration has been focusing on fraud under pressure from Congress to tighten up the disability process. Six months ago, investigators arrested 70 people from Puerto Rico on similar charges.
JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, has shocked the financial community by reporting a two billion dollar loss on investments made by the bank’s traders.
Officials with the bank blamed “errors, sloppiness and bad judgment” for the losses and stated that it was possible another billion dollars could be lost because of the strategy that has been in place for investors.
The bank’s chief investment office will lose an estimated 800 million dollars in the second quarter of the year even when accounting for gains in other investment areas.
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