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New York And Northeast U.S. May Experience 'Coldest Winter in Decade'

The U.S. Northeast may have the coldest winter in a decade because of a weak El Nino. Warming in the Pacific often means fewer Atlantic hurricanes and higher temperatures in the U.S. Northeast during January, February and March, according to the National Weather Service. El Nino occurs every two to five years, on average, and lasts about 12 months, according to the service.

“It could be one of the coldest winters, or the coldest, winter of the decade”

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

FCC To Support 'Net Neutrality' And Open Internet

The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwidth.

The move would make good on a campaign promise to Silicon Valley supporters like Google Inc. from President Barack Obama, but will trigger a battle with phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., which don't want the government telling them how to run their networks.

Treating Web traffic equally means carriers couldn't block or slow access to legal services or sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals.

» Reuters [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]
» Wall Street Journal
» Washington Post

Unemployment Hits 10.3% in New York City

In the year since the Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed and others had to be rescued from failing, the number of unemployed city residents has risen to more than 415,000, the highest total on record. The still-shrinking financial sector, which had been the main engine of employment growth in the city before the downturn, has essentially been declared to be in a state of emergency.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

UN Finds 'War Crimes' In Gaza Conflict By Israel And Palestinian Forces

While the long-anticipated, 575-page report condemned rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians, it reserved its harshest language for Israel’s treatment of the civilian Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, both during the war and through the longer-term blockade of the territory.

The report called Israel’s military assault on Gaza “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”

» BBC / NY Times [ PDF ] UN Report [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

NYPD looking through Queens neighborhoods for powders, gels, TNT and fuses

A neighbor said she saw FBI agents armed with what she called machine guns storm the apartment building, and that one of them emerged carrying a box.

» Reuters [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

New York Faces Dramatic Consequences of Crisis

The global financial crisis began in Manhattan, and its effects are being felt far more strongly there than elsewhere. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the situation is critical. Millions are fighting to keep their jobs. Is what is happening in New York today a harbinger of the fate of the rest of the world?

They still remember how things used to be. That's part of the problem. New York's heroes, the men and women who only yesterday considered themselves the knights and conquerors of Manhattan, remember all too well what New York was like in the 1970s -- the era before seven-figure salaries came to the Big Apple.

They remember -- and they see the signs. That's why they're afraid.

» Spiegel [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

NYC-Area Sea Levels May Rise Faster Than Other Cities

When major ice sheets thaw, they release enough fresh water to disrupt ocean currents world-wide and make the planet wobble with the uneven weight of so much meltwater on the move. Studying these effects more closely, scientists are discovering local variations in rising sea levels -- and some signs pointing to higher seas around metropolitan New York.

Sea level may rise faster near New York than at most other densely populated ports due to local effects of gravity, water density and ocean currents, according to four new forecasts of melting ice sheets. The forecasts are the work of international research teams that included the University of Toronto, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., Florida State University and the University of Bristol in the U.K., among others.

» WSJ [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

White House Econ Advisor: High Unemployment For Years To Come

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as having created a panic that caused the global economic meltdown.

» Politco [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Double-Dip Recession Still A Risk, Nouriel Roubini's Financial Times Interview

Economist Nouriel Roubini, the president of RGE Monitor who's often referred to as "Dr. Doom," recently sat down with Martin Wolf of The Financial Times, and said that the world faces a "rising risk" of a double-dip recession.

Earlier this year, he warned of a "perfect storm of rising oil prices, rising taxes and rising nominal and real interest rates on the public debt of many advanced economies."

In his interview with The Financial Times, Roubini was similarly pessimistic:

"I do agree with the consensus that we'll have a couple of quarters of strong economic growth. The question is whether the medium-term growth is going to be V-shaped a return to potential or anemic growth below potential. My view of it is that it's going to be anemic."

» Financial Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]