Daily Spending Update:

Spending Daily |  July 6, 2012

Jobs Number Fail to Meet Expectations. The Wall Street Journal reports: “U.S. job growth barely picked up in June, the latest sign that economic growth has slowed. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 80,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The politically important unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, was unchanged at 8.2%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a gain of 100,000 in payrolls and the steady June jobless rate. … The slowdown in hiring shows that, three years after the recession’s end, the economy has failed to gain traction amid broad uncertainty related to Europe’s debt crisis, the potential for steep U.S. tax increases and spending cuts next year, andsigns of slower growth in developing countries.”

Recession Hits Young Americans Hard. ABC News reports:  “Whatever today’s numbers show the employment crisis for Americans under 30 may not be over for years. The unemployment rate last month for young adults in America was 12,1 percent, says Paul Conway, president of the non-profit group Generation Opportunity. “One out of two college graduates right now are either unemployed or under employed.” People under 30 are “desperately trying to find full time jobs, not just a series of part-time jobs,” says Conway. These numbers could be warning sign for President Obama’s re-election campaign. His 2008 vote was fueled in part by strong turnout and enthusiasm among young voters.”

IMF Downgrades Economic Forecasts. Reuters reports: “The head of the International Monetary Fund expressed concern on Friday at a deterioration in the global economy, saying the outlook has become more worrying as developed and big emerging nations show signs of slowing down. The comments by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde came after the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and China’s central bank all eased monetary policy in a sign of the growing alarm over the health of the world economy. Financial markets will be glued later on Friday to news of U.S. jobs data for the month of June for the latest sign on the health of the world’s biggest economy, which has shown signs of losing momentum.”

“U.N. Calls for ‘Billionaires Tax’ to Help World’s Poor.” AFP reports: “The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries.

An annual lump sum payment by the super-rich is one of a host of measures including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, currency exchanges or financial transactions proposed in a UN report that accuses wealthy nations of breaking promises to step up aid for the less fortunate.”