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PARIS — France and Mexico have angrily demanded prompt explanations from the United States over new spying allegations leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden. French daily Le Monde and German weekly Der Spiegel said in separate reports published Monday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) secretly monitored tens of millions of phone communications in France and hacked into former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s email account. The allegations come on top of revelations already leaked by Snowden and published in June that the US had a vast, secret program called PRISM to monitor Internet users, which French prosecutors...

Price appreciation is largely driven by the degree to which demand exceeds supply. While the best short-term measure of the housing demand/supply balance is months of supply of homes on the market, the best long-term measure is the ratio of household formations to new home construction. Since household formation data is highly unreliable, we use job growth as the best proxy because there are typically 1.2 jobs per household. Affordability, confidence, and demographic factors determine whether that household rents or buys. We have a great demand model that estimates that demand by price and rent range. Consider the following: *...

Recent claims of an excess supply of high-skilled workers in the STEM occupations of science, technology, engineering and math are at odds with anecdotal and empirical evidence. While it’s difficult to definitively conclude whether or not there is a shortage of workers in any field, publicly available government data and common sense reject the notion that there are “too many” high-tech workers in the United States. More importantly, this entire discussion misses a larger point—high-skilled employment isn’t a zero sum game where a fixed set of workers are competing for a fixed set of jobs in an economy free...

The White House accused Republicans of a political distraction Wednesday after House committee chairmen asked President Obama to release a State Department cable that they said would prove Hillary Rodham Clinton, as secretary off state, signed off on security cuts at the diplomatic post in Benghazi ahead of the attack Sept. 11. According to the committee chairmen, the April 2012 Clinton cable denies the U.S. Embassy in Libya’s request for more security. Five months later, the outpost in Benghazi was attacked and four Americans were killed, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Amid the myriad questions and theories behind the ammunition shortage currently being experienced across the country, manufacturers have gone on the record to say they are producing as much as they can and are working to produce even more. Hornady ammunition, makers of some of the most popular self-defense ammo for concealed carry applications, explained it this way: "We are producing as much as we can, much more than last year, which was a lot more than the year before, etc. No one wants to ship more during this time than we do." The demand for Hornady's ammo is so...

Angelica Velazquillo's fight for mental health care for undocumented immigrants began not in a hospital room but in a busy downtown Charlotte intersection. In September 2011, Velazquillo, then a 25-year-old undocumented woman brought to the U.S. when she was 4, joined nine protesters who blocked traffic, chanting "undocumented and unafraid." Charlotte police arrested the group, charging them with impeding traffic and disorderly conduct, offenses that sparked their deportation proceedings. Their deportations were later dropped and they were ordered to perform community service, a decision the group credited to the public interest in their case. "It was a turning point," she...

CBS: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on why they'd like to have some questions about the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi answered, ideally, before the vote to confirm John Brennan.

More than 20,000 protestors from around 160 organizations will swarm the National Mall Sunday in hopes of intensifying the pressure on President Obama over climate policy. The president has not yet detailed the specifics of how he will address the issue, aside from a pledge made in the State of the Union address to take executive action on climate if Congress fails to make progress. Demonstrators are likely to offer plenty of loud suggestions in what green groups are branding the largest ever United States climate rally. “We’re really past the point of playing games with any of this stuff,”...

Hundreds of fast food workers at New York City branches of McDonald's, Burger King and other big-name chains have staged a walk out in protest of low wages. The strike, organised by pressure group New York Communities for Change (NYCC), was part of an attempt to gain union recognition for staff at fast food outlets in the city. "So many people in our neighbourhoods work at fast food restaurants and make poverty wages so low people can't put food on the table, put clothes on their kids' back or even afford the train ride to work." The group staged a...

Demand for US factory goods fell unexpectedly in June, reflecting a drop in corporate investment and the biggest decreases in non-durable goods orders for over three years. Factory orders fell 0.5 per cent, compared with analysts’ expectations of a 0.7 per cent rise, US commerce department figures showed yesterday. June’s fall followed a downwardly revised 0.5 per cent increase in May, after sharp declines the two previous months. Economists fear a slowdown in momentum, given that manufacturing had been regarded as the mainstay of a US economic recovery. The sector accounts for about 12 per cent of the economy.

The guy has zero college and walks out of high school and is making 90-grand," said a Williston, N.D., teacher with a master's degree, speaking to The Associated Press about a former student who's working in the Oil Patch. "To me, that seems to be an injustice." Say what? Neither justice nor a degree entitles a person to a higher income. That's one of the fundamental truths of the labor market, and people in Williston and elsewhere should understand why.

If you think privacy settings on your Facebook and Twitter accounts guarantee future employers or schools can't see your private posts, guess again. Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of personal information hiding behind password-protected accounts and privacy walls just too tempting, and increasingly, they are demanding full access from applicants and students. In Maryland, job seekers applying to the state's Department of Corrections have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall.

Does increasing the minimum wage increase GDP? Bloggingstocks' Joseph Lazaro outlined the theory that it might back on 1 August 2009, shortly after the U.S. federal minimum wage reached its current level of $7.25 per hour (emphasis ours): ... the U.S. Federal Reserve will be monitoring prices and costs to see if the higher minimum wage is creating inflation havoc at a time when U.S. businesses least need another concern to deal with. Businesses have enough to worry about; and some are struggling just to maintain operations for another quarter or two -- the recession has been that damaging. But...

...A supply glut has pressured natural gas futures for most of 2011, as production from dense rock formations (shale) – through novel techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – remain robust, thereby overwhelming demand. As a matter of fact, natural gas prices have dropped more than 25% from this year’s peak of about $5.00 per million Btu (MMBtu) in June to the current level of around $3.70 (referring to spot prices at the Henry Hub, the benchmark supply point in Louisiana). Of late, a mild autumn weather has driven a string of above-average inventory builds, indicating a grossly oversupplied...

Anthony Weiner tonight dramatically announced he is seeking professional help and has asked for temporary leave from his seat in Congress.The beleaguered congressman finally buckled just hours after the most senior figures in the Democrat party demanded he stand down.A spokesman for the New York Democrat said he has left for professional treatment and will focus on 'becoming a better husband and healthier person'. His decision is the culmination of days of intense pressure following his public admission

Memorial Day normally kicks off the summer vacation and heavy driving season, but with gas prices at the pump more than twice as expensive as they were two years ago, American families are being forced to stay close to home and pull back on normal family expenses.   The cost to fill up the tank is consuming 40% more of the family budget than it did last summer.  According to AAA, 17 cents of every consumer dollar is spent at the pump, up from 12 cents one year ago.  That has consequences, of course.  "Dining, shopping, museums, and gambling are taking...

For all Zero Hedge readers who have long waited for their chance to ask Mr. Scott Alvarez of "Have The Federal Reserve Or Prime Brokers Ever Tried To Manipulate The Stock Market?" fame a question about life, the universe or why the CME decides to hike ES margins in an environment of rising realized vol, here it is. Tomorrow, at 2PM, Ron Paul will lead a hearing by the Financial Services Committee, which will luckily be carried by C-SPAN meaning one will be actually able to hear the dialog (alas, the House continues to believe that investing in microphones for...

Energy prices have been coming down this spring as fears of a Middle East blowup fade. But persistent global demand, tepid supply growth and easy money mean it may not be long till the next damaging spike, Goldman Sachs economists say. Oil prices could surge again by the end of 2012, economists Jan Hatzius and Andrew Tilton wrote in a note to clients this past weekend. They say the snail-like pace of global oil supply expansion – which Goldman projects at 1% or so annually – can't keep a petroleum-addicted world economy rolling without prices rising, perhaps sharply. So don't...

JIM ROGERS ON COMMODITIES: The Bull Market Will Go Up, Consolidate, Go Up, Consolidate, Go Up And Consolidate For Years Gus Lubin May 7, 2011, 8:56 AM Jim Rogers didn't buy or sell anything during last week's commodity sell-off. He says he isn't good at market timing. What he does believe is that we're in the middle of a commodity bull market where everything will go up for years. Rogers tells the Economic Times: "5% correction in gold is meaningless. These things correct 10-15-20-30% every year. Nothing unusual about that. That is the way the markets work. I do not...

Inventories The Department of Energy reported that in the week ending December 24th, 2010, U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 1.3 million barrels, gasoline inventories decreased by 2.3 million barrels, distillate inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels, and total petroleum inventories decreased by 9.1 million barrels. After a brief pause last week, the total petroleum surplus resumed its downward trend. Stocks are now 56.2, or 5.5%, above the 5-year average, down from 6% last week. Back during the middle of September, the surplus was almost double what it is now at 111 million, or 10.7%. Crude oil inventories fell seasonally,...