Monday, January 27, 2014

Newspapers give Labour's 50p tax rate proposal the thumbs down

Newspapers give Labour's 50p tax rate proposal the thumbs down

Mai  
The Daily Mail's page 4 coverage of the 50p tax rate announcement by Ed Balls The announcement by Ed Balls that Labour will reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax for those earning over £150,000 went down very badly with the majority of today's national newspapers.
Several carried news stories nosing off on the negative reaction from business, such as the Financial Times. Its splash was headlined "Businesses blast 50p tax plans by Labour". Columnists railed against Labour's decision. Most leading articles were hostile.
The Times's leader, Less tax, more growth, recognised that it would have political benefits, pointing out that 60% of the people polled in recent research supported a 5% increase in the top rate.
But it thought the rise "stupid" from an economic point of view because "it will raise little if any extra money for the exchequer, while punishing those entrepreneurs who cannot go elsewhere and sending an unmistakably hostile signal to those who can." It concluded:
"A return now to punitive taxation would be downright perverse. Whatever the precise effect of Labour's 50% tax experiment, there is every reason to believe it inhibited overall growth. To reintroduce it when Britain's recovery will still be fragile would be at best unwise, at worst disastrous."
The Daily Telegraph, which carried a page 1 story headlined "Bosses blitz Labour's 50p tax rate", agreed.
Its leading article, Labour turns back the tax-and-spend clock, argued that Balls's "attack on commerce is a reminder that Labour is no more pro-business than a burglar is pro-private property."

It thought "the pledge to put the tax rate back to 50p is emblematic of Labour's failure to develop a coherent economic policy now that its attack on the government has been blunted by signs of recovery" and continued:
"As David Cameron will say to the Federation of Small Businesses today, we rely on the country's wealth creators to produce the jobs on which our long-term security relies. It is, frankly, insulting of Mr Balls to suggest that the high earners who provide most of the tax revenues have not played their part in the recovery.
He denied on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Labour was going back to the Eighties and Nineties. That's true – it is reverting to the high-tax era of the Sixties and Seventies instead."
The Independent was unimpressed too as its editorial, "The politics of Ed Balls's pledge to reintroduce the 50p rate may be sound. But the economics are not", made clear.
It recognised that "taxing the rich would go down well with Labour's core vote" but believed there was "a whiff of desperation" about the announcement:
"Ominously for Mr Balls, Lord Myners, a former Labour minister under Gordon Brown, has already condemned a return to the 'politics of envy'... But the real problem about restoring the 50% top rate is not so much that it is a sop to the envious; it is that it would not do as Mr Balls claims...
Judging by figures supplied by HM Revenue and Customs in 2012, the 50% band failed to meet that criterion. The yield was almost statistically insignificant when compared with Britain's total average tax revenue of more than £150bn annually."
The Daily Mail devoted a news page to "The 50p tax backlash" and a commentary by its City editor, Alex Brummer, headlined "Economic vandalism". And its leading article, "The politics of envy", saw Labour's decision "to increase the top rate of tax to 50%, higher even than in the People's Republic of China" - as "a sign of desperation."
It accused shadow chancellor Balls and Labour leader Ed Miliband of resorting to an old tactic: "when all else fails, pander to core Labour voters' envy of the rich."
In so doing they "remain in blinkered denial of the folly of their old-fashioned, business-bashing, tax-and-spend socialism."
The Sun ("Labour tax con") contended that Labour's "popular ideas" - "freezing energy prices, ordering the break-up of the banks, and now increasing taxes on the rich" - all unravel once "put under the spotlight." It said:
"Almost every business leader in the country agrees that sticking the rate back up will damage our competitiveness. And in the ruthless global race for investment — in other words, jobs — any self-imposed handicap is madness.
Worst of all, it won't even make any real difference to the amount of tax that's paid in to the Treasury...
Ed Balls's pledge to put the rate back up to 50p isn't about fairness. It's just another cynical piece of electioneering."
Though the Daily Express (news story: "Angry backlash as Balls defends his 50p tax hike") didn't carry an editorial, its leader page was dominated by a piece by its columnist Leo McKinstry, "Labour has learnt nothing from the disaster it made."
He called the rate rise pledge "economic illiteracy" and "a dramatic symbol of how far Miliband and Balls are trying to pull Labour to the left." He continued:
"No matter how it is dressed up, the confiscation of wealth by the state never works. Such an approach undermines enterprise and breeds depression."
Then, after reminding his readers of Britain's dramas under Labour in the late 1970s, he wrote:
"Blind to history Balls and Miliband want to take us down that road to misery again at the very moment when the Tory-led coalition is presiding over the fastest-growing economy in Europe... If our national revival is to continue the two Eds should not be allowed near office again."
So, was there any support for Balls? The ever-loyal Daily Mirror was delighted to greet the initiative, calling the "fatcats and millionaires parading their personal self-interest as vital to the national economy, including some of Labour's wealthier supporters... pathetic."
Its leader said: "Particularly distasteful are those who greedily defend their own high earnings while lecturing the working poor to tighten their belts because welfare cuts are needed, again supposedly in the national interest."
The 50p rate "will raise funds to cut the deficit. It is both fair and popular. Opponents should be required to declare any financial interest."
The Guardian, in an editorial headlined "More than small change", argued that "the commitment to a new tax rate is warmly welcome" despite no-one knowing "how much will be raised." It continued:
"Taking an extra 5% of the top tranche of incomes over £150,000 will not on its own do more than dent the total black hole. Its significance lies, first, in Labour's newfound willingness to trample on two post-Thatcher taboos.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, its manifesto will not be able to contain a line saying 'no rise in income tax rates'. That opens the possibility of a more rational discussion about how we sustain public services that are currently set to be savaged by the coalition's lopsided retrenchment.
Second, it gives some meaning to otherwise-empty words about fair sharing of the pain. If a clear mandate to raise tax at the top end were secured, additional possibilities for levies on land and wealth could be unlocked.
As the recovery finally arrives, hard times are only just getting going for many poor neighbourhoods that rely on tax credits and other support. The argument for fair sharing of pain will become more, and not less, salient."
None of that will change the minds of those who will be required to pay the new rate should Labour win the general election.
In a two-paragraph letter to the Telegraph, more than 20 self-described "business leaders" said "higher taxes will have the effect of discouraging business investment in Britain... a backwards step which would put the economic recovery at risk and would very quickly lead to the loss of jobs."
Among the signatories were Karren Brady, Anya Hindmarch, Luke Johnson and Sir Stuart Rose.

Daft Punk get lucky at Grammy Awards

Daft Punk get lucky at Grammy Awards

Alastair Leithead looks at who won what at this year's awards

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French dance duo Daft Punk have taken top honours at the Grammy Awards, winning five prizes including album and record of the year.
Hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took four awards - best new artist plus best rap album, song and performance.
Justin Timberlake won three, while New Zealand teenager Lorde picked up two including song of the year for Royals.
Sir Paul McCartney was among the other double winners and also reunited with his Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr.
The pair teamed up for Sir Paul's song Queenie Eye during the ceremony, which is known for its heavyweight on-stage collaborations.
The show was opened by Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, while Madonna joined Macklemore and Lewis during their anti-homophobia anthem Same Love, as 33 same-sex and heterosexual couples got married on stage.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited on stage
Macklemore, Mary Lambert, Madonna, Ryan Lewis and Queen Latifah Madonna joined Macklemore, Mary Lambert, Ryan Lewis and Queen Latifah
Other collaborations included Metallica performing with pianist Lang Lang and Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams being joined by Stevie Wonder to perform Get Lucky.
Get Lucky, which featured producer and singer Pharrell and disco guitarist and producer Rodgers, was one of the biggest hits of 2013.
As well as scooping album and record of the year, Daft Punk won best pop duo/group performance for Get Lucky and best dance/electronica album for Random Access Memories.
The album was also named best engineered album, non-classical, which was credited to its engineers.

KEY GRAMMY WINNERS

Lorde at the Grammys
  • Album of the year - Random Access Memories, Daft Punk
  • Record of the year - Get Lucky, Daft Punk feat Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
  • Song of the year - Royals, Lorde (above)
  • Best country album - Same Trailer Different Park, Kacey Musgraves
  • Best pop vocal album - Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars
  • Best rap/sung collaboration - Holy Grail, Jay Z featuring Justin Timberlake
  • Best rock song - Cut Me Some Slack, Sir Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear
  • Best pop duo/group performance - Get Lucky, Daft Punk feat Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
  • Best new artist - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
  • Best rock album - Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin
  • Best alternative album - Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend
  • Best music film - Live Kisses, Sir Paul McCartney
  • Best music video - Suit and Tie, Justin Timberlake
  • Best R&B album - Girl On Fire, Alicia Keys
  • Best R&B song - Pusher Love Girl, Justin Timberlake
  • Best rap album - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis,The Heist
  • Best rap song - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Thrift Shop
  • Best rap performance - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Thrift Shop
  • Best dance/electronica album - Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
More selected Grammy winners and nominees
The dance pioneers, real names Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, never appear in public without their trademark robot helmets.
So they left the acceptance speeches to their collaborators. "Well, I suppose the robots would like to thank..." joked Pharrell, who also won non-classical producer of the year.
"You know honestly, I bet France is really proud of these guys right now."
As well as performing, Sir Paul McCartney picked up the trophies for best music film and best rock song for Cut Me Some Slack, a collaboration with the surviving members of Nirvana.
It beat The Rolling Stones' Doom And Gloom, from their 50th anniversary album GRRR!, as well as tracks by veteran metal band Black Sabbath, stadium rockers Muse and US singer-guitarist Gary Clark Jr.
Black Sabbath did scoop best metal performance, while Led Zeppelin won best rock album for their live recording Celebration Day.
Other British nominees included Ed Sheeran and James Blake, who were both up for best new artist, but lost out to Macklemore and Lewis.
Rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, who found fame after self-releasing their album The Heist, won four awards from seven nominations.
"We made this album without a record label, we made it independently and we appreciate all the support," Macklemore told the audience.
Seventeen-year-old Lorde's debut single Royals earned song of the year and best pop solo performance after catapulting her to the top of the charts around the world last year.
Jay-Z started the night with the most nominations, up for nine awards. He won best rap/sung collaboration for Holy Grail, featuring Justin Timberlake.
Timberlake, Pharrell and rapper Kendrick Lamar were among the acts who went into the ceremony with seven nominations.
Other winners included Adele for her James Bond theme Skyfall, which won the prize for best song written for visual media, and Scottish percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, who won best classical instrumental solo.
British hitmaker Calvin Harris was up for best dance/electronica album for 18 Months and best dance recording for Sweet Nothing with Florence and the Machine's Florence Welch, but lost out on both.
UK acts Duke Dumont and Disclosure were also unsuccessful nominees in the dance categories.
David Bowie had been nominated for best rock album and best rock performance for his 2013 comeback, but missed out in both categories.
Beyonce and Jay-Z Beyonce and husband Jay-Z performed together to open the ceremony

New Orleans: houses can be rebuilt, but can trust in central government?

New Orleans: houses can be rebuilt, but can trust in central government?

After hurricane Katrina in 2005, it was clear just how unprepared the Louisiana city was. Since then, the Big Easy's regeneration has been mired in racial and state politics, and the crushing weight of federal bureaucracy
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Errol Joseph, a 63-year-old former resident of Forstall Street at his old home – that he has not been able to rebuild since Katrina. Photograph: Julie Dermansky for the Guardian
Click here to see our full gallery from New Orleans
"You wouldn't come back if you didn't love this neighbourhood. It's just not an easy place to live," says Laura Paul, as we drive around the lower ninth ward of New Orleans, dodging potholes.
In truth this was never an easy place to live, least of all on the morning of 29 August 2005, when the city's flood walls were breached as hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf coast. The water submerged and smashed houses, sending residents scrambling on to their rooftops and providing the world's media with the iconic image of a 200ft-long barge breaking loose from its moorings and landing atop homes and a school bus.
Now, more than eight years later, the Lower Ninth – the city's worst-hit ward, lying below sea level – offers a telling snapshot of New Orleans's recovery efforts. No longer resembling the flattened aftermath of a hurricane storm system, instead it appears to have been hit by a one-off tornado, with normal-looking houses abutting ruins, and occupied blocks next to empty lots, as if nature had sliced a serrated, serpentine path through this two-square-mile patch of land, 10-minutes' drive east of the French Quarter.
The state of each structure today depends on the motivations and means of homeowners, the vagaries of government regeneration efforts and, often, the assistance of organisations such as Paul's. The 43-year-old Canadian was on a roadtrip from Florida to California in 2005, broke it off to help aid workers in the months after Katrina, and ended up staying.
Paul is executive director of lowernine.org, one of several non-profits repairing or rebuilding homes to help displaced residents return to the area. She says her group averages 10 full home rebuilds each year, on a total budget of about $140,000 (£85,000). Paul lives in the area, a couple of blocks from the Mississippi. She estimates barely 30% of the 15,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned to the Lower Ninth's least-damaged parts, and only half that to the areas nearest the levee breaches. Census numbers suggest the ward's population was 2,842 in 2010 – about 71% of whom live in poverty.
Across the city, approximately 700 people died and 134,000 housing units were damaged as four-fifths of New Orleans was flooded. Katrina and her sister storm, hurricane Rita, caused an estimated $150bn in financial losses, only one-fifth of which was covered by private insurance. The $120bn in federal spending mostly went on emergency relief.
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Laura Paul, executive director of lowerline.org at a construction site in the Lower Ninth ward this year. Photograph: Julie Dermansky for the Guardian And so, on any given day now, up to two dozen volunteers still pay to sleep in the lowernine.org office, in youth hostel style dorms. Around the corner on the day of my visit, a generator brays outside a single-storey shell as half a dozen young people carry bags of materials and hammer at wooden slats. Like many other houses in the Lower Ninth, its front still bears a Katrina tattoo: a green X code spraypainted by search-and-rescue teams.
"Conservative estimates have the recovery of this community taking another decade," Paul says. "Studies suggest that communities of low wealth take three times longer to recover from events like this than communities of means, which makes sense."
Just to the east, St Bernard parish was also badly affected by Katrina but has rebounded more quickly and now bustles with traffic and commercial activity. "Persistence is the key to success," says a sign at the entrance to the Chalmette oil refinery. Not the only key, perhaps. "They're by far and away better off. Because this is a 98% African-American community and that is an 80% white community. That's my opinion," Paul says. "There are all kinds of factors, okay, but if I had to boil down my opinion … People say it's not about race, it's about class. At the end of the day, in this country that's the same conversation. This is a poor black community. That's why the recovery is slow."
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  Remains of a blighted home in the Lower Ninth ward, where reconstruction has moved in stops and starts, in 2014. Photograph: Julie Dermansky for the Guardian

Regenerating in patches, rebuilding in pockets

A mile to the north however, next to the Industrial canal, where the flood was 10-feet deep and the barge came to rest, men in high-visibility jackets are carrying out construction on a surprisingly grand scale.
With their jaunty angles, bright pastel colours, landscaped gardens and solar panels, the eco-friendly houses built so far by the Make It Right foundation would command a million-dollar price-tag if they were on the Californian coast. One is designed by Frank Gehry. Many have river views – or at least, a sight of the rebuilt concrete wall that now protects the Lower Ninth from any repeat storm surge. Co-founded by Brad Pitt, Make It Right is nearly two-thirds of the way to its target of building 150 new houses here. In May it will host its second gala fundraising evening; tickets for the previous shindig cost $1,000 and up. The project's ambition and achievements are admirable, but its self-conscious architecture and idealism seem jarringly aspirational in a place that would simply settle for being functional.
Often, all that remains of Lower Ninth dwellings are the front steps and the outline of the foundations. In certain blocks, the foliage grows more than 6ft high. Hundreds of unwanted lots are still owned by the city. But there is a school. Another is under construction, as is a fire station and a $19m-community centre with a swimming pool. Some $45m has been allocated for infrastructure repairs.
Cities: New Orleans 6, eco 2014 
  Modern eco-friendly homes made by Brad Pitt's Make it Right Foundation next to the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, this year. Photograph: Julie Dermansky/Julie Dermansky for the Guardian The Lower Ninth's fragmented recovery is visible in microcosm on Delery Street. A short walk north of the busy St Claude Avenue stands a brand-new, two-storey home painted nautical blue, with potted plants on the front porch. No more than 15ft away is the decomposing skeleton of what was once a shotgun house typical of the area: narrow, rectangular and raised. There are no walls left, only anaemic beams holding up the triangular roof. The guts of the house are gone, save for a white porcelain toilet. A note, dated 31 July 2013 and fixed to the front door, states that the gas service has been disconnected.
Behind a fence one block to the east, however, tanks and cannons stand in the yard of the vast Jackson barracks, home to the Louisiana National Guard and beautifully restored at a cost of $325m.
Such piecemeal regeneration gives the impression that there is no master plan for the area. In the months after Katrina, however, city planners certainly had one: turn the Lower Ninth into green space, abandon it as a viable urban centre, and save money by shrinking the city's footprint. Community pressure made that option politically untenable. New Orleanians are loyal to their neighbourhoods and protective of their history. But if the facilities aren't there, how can they move back?
"First-response disaster recovery was difficult and heartbreaking and terrible to see people in those circumstances – but it was easier to help then," says Paul. "Back then, people weren't asking: 'Are you kidding? How many of my tax dollars have been spent in Louisiana since that event? Why haven't you all rebuilt yet, what's the holdup?'"
As if to illustrate the point, repeated calls to city officials responsible for regeneration to comment on this article were met with silence.

Winners and losers. And yet more losers

Many people never did come back. The population of New Orleans slumped from 485,000 in 2000 to an estimated 230,000, 11 months after Katrina, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Centre. By July 2012, it was back up to 369,000.
The school system, though, has been overhauled. Technology startups are clustering in the fashionable Warehouse District and hoping that a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit will spark a recovery into a renaissance. A huge, if controversial, medical centre is under construction near the French Quarter. The quarter was largely unaffected by Katrina, and its blend of charm and debauchery is still seducing tourist hordes. A University of New Orleans study found that 9 million people visited the city in 2012, only 1 million below the record set in 2004.
They spent $6bn – an all-time high. So, while urban blight is evident only a short walk from the city's photogenic core, the most-visited parts and desirable suburbs are prospering.
"For the people who were able to return, like myself, things are much, much better," says Sandy Rosenthal, citing the improved education system and more co-operation between black and white residents. "It's been absolutely amazing."
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A discarded sofa and other rubbish in front of a destroyed house in New Orleans, in 2014. Photograph: Julie Dermansky for the Guardian A petite 56 year old, originally from Massachusetts, Rosenthal founded levees.org, a blog, information source and grassroots pressure group. We meet on Bellaire Drive near the southern end of Lake Pontchartrain, in front of a plaque sponsored by her website. It reads: "On August 29, 2005, a federal floodwall atop a levee on the 17th Street Canal, the largest and most important drainage Canal for the city, gave way here causing flooding that killed hundreds." Pointedly, it adds: "In 2008, the US District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana placed responsibility for this floodwall's collapse squarely on the US Army Corps of Engineers."
Erected at the entrance of a large site where corps employees still work installing pumps, it may not be popular reading matter for the many who pass it each day. But it is a source of pride for Rosenthal, who used to work in marketing until she became consumed full-time by a simple goal: "I just wanted the BS to stop." With the help of activists and experts, she set out to prove that the city drowned because of engineering blunders, not bad luck. There were more than 50 levee breaches during Katrina. Badly-built walls cracked.
"I've researched this to death – nobody predicted the walls would break. That was just unfathomable incompetence, no other word for it," she says. "People don't sit back and trust the federal government any more. We used to just assume the corps was doing a good job. Not any more."
New Orleans' levees and floodwalls have been rebuilt over the past eight years at a cost of $14.5bn. New pumps at 17th Street and two other canals are the biggest unfinished projects, and will take three more years to complete. But despite Rosenthal's positive view of her city's regeneration, she is concerned that the rebuilding process has not gone far enough.
New Orleans is now protected by canal closure gates which shut when water reaches a certain height, relief wells, gauges to indicate problems, stronger levees and a pump system. The federal government has paid for a 350-mile network designed to defend the city from what is known as a 100-year storm surge – a flood with a 1% chance of occurring in any given year. But Katrina was estimated by the corps to have been stronger than that, and Rosenthal and others wanted a shield able to deflect a 500-year storm. Should such a massive storm stike today, it would cause more widespread flooding – although the defences are not predicted to crumble as they did with Katrina. The water might be up to people's knees, rather than their heads.
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Water surrounds homes east of downtown New Orleans, just after hurricane Katrina hit, in 2005. Photograph: Smiley N Pool/AP Indeed, the levees held convincingly when hurricane Isaac attacked on the seventh anniversary of Katrina – assuming, that is, you lived within the city. A couple drowned in their home in the outlying community of Braithwaite, just south of a new eight-mile, 30ft wall built to protect the St Bernard parish. A year after Isaac, homes in Braithwaite remain abandoned. Yet the starkest sense that this is a place in peril eminates from a sturdy, modern edifice: the Braithwaite auditorium, rebuilt in 2011 to leer over its surroundings. The floor is elevated on stilts to a height in excess of 19ft.
Several corps projects are underway in this area but local politicians are constantly pleading for more federal and state funds to bolster their limited defences, while the natural barrier provided by coastal wetlands erodes at a dramatic rate. "The political problems may dwarf the engineering problems," says John Barry, former vice-president of the state-created levee board that covers this region. "People realise that not everyone can be protected; that there are going to be winners and losers. But in the relatively near future, these losers are going to be identified. They're not going to be happy, and I don't blame them."
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People march along Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans during a funeral procession commemorating the fifth Anniversary of hurricane Katrina, 2010. Photograph: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Road Home paved with good intentions

In the wake of the flood, money surged into New Orleans. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided nearly $20bn to help Louisiana recover from Katrina and Rita, the hurricane which followed a month later. The state's Road Home programme claims to have channelled about $9bn in government funds to more than 130,000 residents. But Road Home was beset by administrative problems, and the subject of a discrimination lawsuit settled in 2011 because, typically, it handed out grant money based on a home's pre-Katrina worth, rather than the cost of fixing the damage. Which was advantageous to people who lived in more expensive, white areas.
"Eight years is a long time," says 63-year-old Errol Joseph, gazing at what remains of his home on Forstall Street in the northern, most barren, part of the Ninth ward. He has lived here for most of his life. The house is presently a carapace of interlocking wooden beams, with an oddly neat pyramid of rubble in the front yard.
"If I had not dealt with the Road Home programme, I would be back in my house," Joseph explains. A flooring contractor by trade, he thought he had the necessary skills and experience to complete his home. But despite insurance payouts and grants – or rather, he believes, because of them – Joseph's rebuilding attempts became mired in a sludge of bureaucracy. Years of delay ruined some of the materials he had bought, and caused faults with the elevated foundations that will cost thousands of dollars to fix.
Joseph feels betrayed and baffled by the system. "I can't afford to finish it," he says, doing the sums with a finger in the dust on the rear windscreen of his Chevrolet Astro van. Money paid, money owed, from this company, that agency – by the time he is finished, the glass looks like the whiteboard in an algebra class.
Joseph and his wife now have a house elsewhere in the city. So why will they not concede defeat and leave the wood to rot? Joseph gestures at empty lots, ghosts that give him a feeling of belonging he cannot find anywhere else; one somehow not obliterated along with the bricks and mortar, nor vanished into the potholes nor lost in the weeds.
"Miss Effie would make cornbread plates," he says softly. "Over here, the best cake you'd ever want to eat … This woman here, she'd give suppers. We'd play dominoes all night. They was family. I miss all that."
"This is home," Joseph adds, nodding to reinforce the words. "This is home."

Deputy Mayor for Social Services Now Has a Boss Who Shares Her Agenda

Deputy Mayor for Social Services Now Has a Boss Who Shares Her Agenda

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Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, head of health and human services. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Judging from the pictures around her old office last month, there is no question which New York City mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli has been most fond of. There was Edward I. Koch sitting pensively at his desk. There he was sitting on a sofa holding hands with her.
“I adored Ed Koch,” she said.
He was hardly the only mayor Ms. Barrios-Paoli worked for, and he was not especially engaged on the issues of poverty and social justice that have steered her career. But he stayed out of her way, she said. “Social services were not central to Koch’s vision,” she said, “but he understood the need and he allowed things to happen.”
That, it seems, was the best that Ms. Barrios-Paoli could hope for under the three mayors (Mr. Koch, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg) she served in a number of top personnel and human services jobs. Until now. As Mayor Bill de Blasio’s choice for deputy mayor for health and human services, Ms. Barrios-Paoli, 67, is expected to play a key role in addressing the issues of inequality and social welfare that drive his agenda and, she said, her own.
“For the first time in my life,” she said, “I’m going to be working for somebody who really, truly embraces the things that I do.”
A former nun, Ms. Barrios-Paoli, in her highest-ranking city job yet, oversees the agencies that deliver services to vulnerable populations like children in need of protection and the homeless. Deputy mayors are supposed to make sure their agencies carry out the mayor’s policies and vision, but Ms. Barrios-Paoli also brings an insider’s view. She has served variously as the commissioner of employment, personnel, housing, welfare and aging.
In her first month as deputy mayor, she has worked closely with Gladys Carrión, the newly appointed chief of the Administration for Children’s Services, on the inquiry into the death of a 4-year-old boy whose caregiver has been charged with abusing him. Ms. Barrios-Paoli — whose previous posts also include deputy commissioner of special services for children — helped draft recommendations arising from the inquiry, which found that case workers did not know that the child’s father had been incarcerated and was no longer caring for him.
“How do we build safeguards to make sure it doesn’t happen again?” she said.
Ms. Barrios-Paoli grew up in a wealthy family in Mexico City, where she was born to Cuban parents and where she said the divide between rich and poor was “very stark.” Her father was an advertising executive, and she remembers her stay-at-home mother collecting clothes among her friends and going to poor neighborhoods to hold giveaways from the trunk of her car.
The older of two daughters, Ms. Barrios-Paoli spent her novice years at the Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany and later joined the Madams of the Sacred Heart convent in Mexico City, where she did manual labor and taught boarding school girls. She quit after five years, feeling, she said, that she could do more elsewhere than as a nun; she entered college in Mexico City and soon married a classmate.
When Ms. Barrios-Paoli came to New York City in 1971 to get a master’s degree in anthropology at the New School, she joined the antiwar movement and other protests of the time, marching “my little feet off for everything,” she said. She had earned a doctorate, was divorced and was teaching at Rutgers University when the Koch administration hired her as director of management services for the Human Resources Administration, the city’s welfare agency.
Under Mr. Koch, she served as deputy commissioner of special services for children, as head of personnel and labor relations for the Human Resources Administration and then for the Health and Hospitals Corporation, and then as commissioner of employment.
Ms. Barrios-Paoli went to work in the nonprofit sector during the administration of Mayor David N. Dinkins — he never came calling, she said — but returned to government when Mayor Giuliani made her his director of personnel. She would subsequently run the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and later the Human Resources Administration.
But Ms. Barrios-Paoli was troubled by Mr. Giuliani’s welfare reform efforts, particularly new rules she found “punitive” such as fingerprinting.
“Instead of saying people are poor because of many circumstances, so let’s figure out where they are and let’s see how we can help them, what you’re doing is punishing them because you think they are doing this intentionally,” she said of the approach of making it harder to receive services.
Ms. Barrios-Paoli said she stuck it out because she felt responsibility for her work and because the administration did not want her to leave. She was eventually made executive director of the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, a move perceived by some as a demotion. But she and several former aides to Mr. Giuliani said the assignment to the hospital was not retaliatory. Randy M. Mastro, the former deputy mayor who recruited her, said that every position Ms. Barrios-Paoli had was “a measure of respect” for her abilities.
“She’s one of the best public servants the city has ever had, and Mayor de Blasio has chosen very wisely,” Mr. Mastro said.
Fran Reiter, another former deputy mayor, called her “a team player” despite the philosophical differences with some of Mr. Giuliani’s policies. Randy L. Levine, Mr. Giuliani’s former commissioner of labor relations, recalled that in difficult situations, Ms. Barrios-Paoli had a knack for saying “something that would lighten the room at the right time.”
She also has a reputation as a straight shooter and as someone who keeps communications open and listens. Jose Calderón, president of the Hispanic Federation and a member of Mr. de Blasio’s transition team, said that organizations in his coalition did not like it when Ms. Barrios-Paoli turned down requests for money when she worked as an executive at United Way, but that she was fair and had credibility.
“She’s always up front about what she can do,” he said.
Ms. Barrios-Paoli said she first crossed paths with Mr. de Blasio when he was a member of the City Council and the two bonded over their interest in Latin America and their shared interest in liberation theology, which espouses a Christian obligation to alleviate the plight of the poor. In his 20s, Mr. de Blasio helped distribute food and medicine in war-torn Nicaragua. At 18, Ms. Barrios-Paoli entered a convent looking, she said, for “a profession that would change people’s lives.”
But her candor raised eyebrows when, during the news conference at which Mr. de Blasio announced her new position, she criticized the Bloomberg administration for canceling a rental subsidy program and for “many things” she would have done differently. Some former Bloomberg administration officials found it a break of form, especially since she was still Mr. Bloomberg’s commissioner of aging.
“I don’t think they were particularly happy with me,” she conceded.
Jerilyn Perine, a friend who worked for Ms. Barrios-Paoli as an assistant and later as deputy commissioner at the housing preservation department, said Ms. Barrios-Paoli was just being herself. “That’s nothing she hasn’t told them to their faces,” she said.
Mr. de Blasio, she added, had better be prepared.
“This is Lilliam, and guess what? She’ll be the same with de Blasio,” Ms. Perine said. “She’s not a rubber-stamp kind of person. I think they know that.”

Medomsley Detention Centre: Victims lives were 'ruined'

Medomsley Detention Centre: Victims lives were 'ruined'

Closed gates at Medomsley Detention Centre  
Medomsley Detention Centre closed in the late 1980s

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Boys at a detention centre asked other inmates to break their legs in order to be moved elsewhere and escape being abused by staff, a former detainee has claimed.
Police reopened a 10-year-old investigation into abuse at a former County Durham detention centre last year when a former inmate said he was also abused. Since then the force said it has been contacted by more than 100 alleged victims.
Men who alleged that as boys they were the victims of sexual and physical abuse at the County Durham detention centre in the 1970s and 1980s have spoken of their memories.
"Some of the boys would lay at the bottom of the stairs and ask another boy to jump off the stairs onto their legs so they could break a leg and be removed from Medomsley Detention Centre in order to not be subjected to any more beatings," an alleged victim, who did not wish to be named, said.
Following the original investigation, Neville Husband, who worked at the detention centre as a prison officer, was jailed for 12 years in 2003, and Leslie Johnson, a store man, was sentenced to six years in 2005.
Both men have since died.
Ray Poar  
Ray Poar said he was made to "bunny hop to the showers naked"
Since the investigation was reopened in August Durham Police has received statements from 143 alleged victims of abuse.
Many of those sent to Medomsley were first-time offenders often detained for relatively minor offences.
Ray Poar was 17 when he was sent there for stealing biscuits from a factory and has waived his right to anonymity.
He said: "It's always in my head, the shame, it's ruined my life, it's completely ruined it."
'Kicking us about' On one occasion Mr Poar remembered being woken up after wetting his bed and being forced to bunny hop naked to the showers.
He said: "When I couldn't make it to the showers I was kicked.
"We knew we couldn't turn around to them and complain to them about what had happened with Husband because they were part of it, they were the ones that were kicking us about every day.
"The odd punch in the arm, the ribs, the back of the knees, every day they were doing it. You had nobody to talk to."
In 2003 Newcastle Crown Court heard Husband used his position of authority at the centre to systematically abuse his victims from 1974 to 1984. He was jailed after being found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault and one of a serious sexual offence after police said almost two dozen victims came forward.
Neville Husband  
Neville Husband was jailed for 12 years in 2003 and later died
One man who wished to remain anonymous said some of the worst violence he suffered was from fellow inmates but he alleges it was orchestrated by the prison staff.
He said: "They were telling you that you were worthless, that's why you were in there, you were no good, nobody wanted you.
"I was in the dorm, I felt being kicked and punched and slapped. When I've tried to look up, because I was in bed, I saw a prison officer at the door smiling.
"Then I realised he's put them up to this and I just curled up into a ball and took what they threw at us. I thought tonight it's my turn, it will be somebody else's tomorrow."
About 70 Durham Police detectives are working on the inquiry.
Det Supt Paul Goundry described the reports as "horrific" with those who were sent there faced with "what was effectively a brutal regime".
"If you ended up in the kitchens you would almost certainly be raped and sexually assaulted," he said.
Mr Goundry said the three key strands of the inquiry were finding out what happened at Medomsley over 20 years, to hold people to account if they were still alive and support any victims.
'I apologise' Tim Newell, who was the governor at Medomsley between 1978-1981, wrote reports about Husband including that he provided "an outstanding contribution to the running of the establishment".
Det Supt Paul Goundry  
Mr Goundry described the reports as "horrific"
However, in January, Mr Newell said in a statement he wrote the report about Husband because "he was an outstanding catering officer" and did not have a strong relationship with Husband.
Mr Newell said: "If I had any suspicions about sexual abuse or abuse of any kind I would have taken action. If staff knew about the abuse taking place I am very concerned they let the abuse continue."
Sir Martin Narey was director general of the prison service when Husband's crimes came to light.
He said: "Without reservation I apologise to people at Medomsley who were harmed by Neville Husband. We should have stopped him much earlier."
Durham Police asked anybody with information to come forward.
See the full story on BBC One's Inside Out on Monday 27 January at 19:30 GMT.

Connection failed: internet still a luxury for many Americans

Connection failed: internet still a luxury for many Americans

As schools put emphasis on computer use in class, school-age children without internet access at home suffer
The unconnected life: growing up without internet
internet wifi hot spot
Many have to seek internet outside their home. Photograph: Jim Mires/Alamy
Whenever homework was assigned in school, Destinyjoy Balgobin would be filled with anxiety. Not because she wasn't familiar with the material or that she had better things to do. Rather, it was that she had no way to do it.
As with most homework assignments today, Balgobin’s often required the use of a computer and internet, whether it be to do light research, read material, or type up an essay. With no computer or internet at home, Balgobin, who recently graduated high school, had to rely on publicly available resources to complete her homework. Often, she would end up doing it with the internet on her cellphone.
Among households with incomes of $30,000 and less, only 54% have access to broadband at home, says Kathryn Zickuhr, a research associate with Pew Research Center’s Internet Project. Members of these households are most likely to use internet access outside home – at work, school or a public library. Similar to Balgobin, about 13% of these household report accessing the internet on their cellphones.
A further look into poverty reveals more and more unconnected Americans. According to Pew Research, one-third of those making less than $20,000 a year do not go online at all. Another third go online, but do not have internet access at home. Of those making $30,000 or less, 45% of mobile internet users go online mostly with their cellphones.
The lower-income population that lacks internet access to internet can be divided into two main groups: the elderly and the young, says Zickuhr. While the elderly deem internet irrelevant or feel that it's too late and too difficult to adapt, those in the younger generation like Balgobin struggle to keep up with their peers.
internet phone blackberry
About 15% of 18 to 29 year olds have a smartphone, but no internet at home. Photograph: Michael Melia/Alamy
Just consider President Barack Obama's goal to bring internet to schools nationwide.
[I]n an age when the world’s information is a just click away, it demands that we bring our schools and libraries into the 21st century. We can't be stuck in the 19th century when we're living in a 21st century economy.
Even as some schools forge ahead by incorporating computers, many students are left behind due to the lack of connection at home. In a February 2013 survey conducted by Pew Research, College Board Advanced Placement program and National Reading project, 54% of teachers said that all or almost all of their students had access to digital tools such as computer and internet connection at school. Only 18% said the students had similar access to such tools at home. More than half of the teachers of the lowest income students, at 56%, said that students' lack of resources presents a major challenge to incorporating computers into their teaching. For teachers of students from mostly lower-middle income, that number was 48%.
Despite understanding that students face limited access, 79% of teachers said they have their students access or download assignments from an online site and 76% have students submit those assignments the same way. Other ways teachers ask their students to use internet include posting their work to a website or a blog (40%), participating in online discussions (39%), and editing their classmates' work through web-enabled sharing tools such as Google Docs (29%).
It’s difficult to make people understand how important internet access is when they aren’t without it, says Balgobin. In order to complete her homework, she often used the computer lab at school or at the public library.
Overall, two-thirds of those using internet at public library said that they did research for school or work, revealed a survey conducted by Pew Research. Out of all age groups surveyed, 16 to 17 years old were to group to access the internet the most. About 39% of them said that they had used library computer or Wi-Fi in the last 12 months. For 18 to 29 year olds, that number was 38%. For 30 to 49, it was 31%. For parents of minors, that number was 34%.
There are, however, limitations when it comes to using computers and internet at library. Oftentimes, the demand for computers in the library exceeds the number of devices available. As a result, public libraries require members to sign up for 30-minute windows in which they can use the computer. When it comes to completing certain homework assignments, 30-minute windows are hard to navigate and might not be enough time to actually complete the assignment, says Balgobin.
With some libraries closing as early as 6pm, parents and students have had to come up with alternate places to access internet. For those who have access to a computer, but lack internet connection at home, coffee shops like Starbucks and even fast-food restaurants like McDonald's have become after-school haunts. Other parents use their cellphones to create Wi-Fi hot-spots at home.
McDonald's internet wifi
Do you want Wi-Fi with that? As early as July 2003, many McDonald's restaurants in San Francisco began providing high-speed wireless access. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Unwilling to leave unconnected students behind, some schools have chosen to only assign homework that does not require use of computers and internet. Yet such policies are challenging, says Danielle Kehl, a policy analyst in the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation. By cutting out these tools from part of their homework, kids are losing out on valuable education.

Keeping up with Mooresville ...

So, how should the US handle this predicament? Are there proven policies that could be replicated nationwide?
“I wish there was a simple answer,” said Kehl.
Local efforts on a municipal level might prove more effective than a nationwide campaign. “Some communities have decided to make [connectivity] a priority,” said Kehl, pointing to Mooresville as a perfect example.
Mooresville came into national spotlight after it was highlighted by President Obama. Out of 115 school districts in North Carolina, Mooresville ranked in the bottom 10 when it came to spending but ranked second in student achievement. “You’re spending less money getting better outcomes,” said Obama, noting that “there is no reason why we can’t replicate the success you've found here.”
Yet keeping up with Mooresville won’t be easy. Thanks to a partnership with One-to-One institute, a national non-profit dedicated to implementing one-to-one technology in K-12 settings, the district began implementing a six-year digital conversion plan. By fall of 2009, all students in grades four through 12 received laptops for their use 24/7. By fall of 2010, the program was expanded to include third grade as well. In February of 2012, the New York Times declared Mooresville “a shining example” – a laptop success story.
Obama internet wifi school
Obama was shown digital learning programs during a visit to Mooresville, North Carolina. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
When speaking at Mooresville last year, President Obama laid out a lofty goal, promising that in five years’ time, FCC will have connected 99% of US students to high-speed broadband internet. According to Kehl, other lawmakers like West Virginia senator John D Rockefeller IV, California congresswoman Anna Eshoo and FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel have previously called for providing schools nationwide with one gigabit connection, something that almost none of the school have right now.

... and South Korea

“Only around 20% of our students have access to true high-speed internet in their classroom,” said Obama.
By comparison, South Korea has 100% of its kids with high-speed Internet. We've got 20%; South Korea 100%. In countries where – in a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn’t we have it in our schools?
If catching up to Mooresville seems difficult, catching up to South Korea might be impossible. More densely populated than the US, South Korea faced much lower costs in setting up its internet infrastructure, according to CNN. Furthermore, the country made internet connection its priority as early as 1990s.
One of the main obstacles facing US in its effort to catch up to South Korea is the funding necessary to make ConnectED a reality. The low-end estimates for the cost of the program are $4bn, according to The Washington Post. The White House has suggested raising the funds through imposing higher cellphone service fees, a plan that does not sit well with Republicans.
It's not just South Korea that seems to have a leg up on the US. Compared to the most cities around the world, US cities provide slower-speed internet for higher prices, says Kehl. According to her research, "the best deal for a 150 Mbps home broadband connection from cable and phone companies is $130/month, offered by Verizon FiOS. By contrast, the international cities we surveyed offer comparable speeds for less than $80/month, with most coming in at about $50/month." Same goes for mobile data plans, which cost twice as much in US as they do in UK. With prices like these, it's no surprise that many low income families opt to go without internet.
Ultimately, getting better internet access in schools won't make things easier for students like Balgobin, who have no access to computers and internet at home.
In fact, putting emphasis on digital tools in classrooms makes it even more likely that we will see likes of her in our local library, coffee shop or McDonald’s attempting to do the homework that many can and do at home.

Is China really running out of cash?

Is China really running out of cash?

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Published: Sunday, 26 Jan 2014 | 9:59 PM ET
By: Leslie Shaffer | Writer for CNBC.com
















Gordan Chang, Forbes.com columnist and Author of "The Coming Collapse of China," warns that China faces a new credit crunch as well as a domestic currency crisis.
Concerns a cash crunch might emerge in China resurfaced on Monday after Citibank's local website posted a notice that fund transfers of both dollars and yuan would be delayed, but it may just be a tempest in a teapot.
"This is part of our regular maintenance every year during the Chinese New Year period," Richard Tesvich, a spokesperson for Citigroup, told CNBC.
The fund transfer delay, initially reported in a Forbes column, spurred concerns of a potential nation-wide liquidity shortage. The link on the Forbes website appears to no longer be functional and several commenters on Twitter claimed the story had been removed.
(Read more: China's shadow banking woes are 'exaggerated')
"The specific reason given – 'system maintenance' at the central bank – is preposterous," Gordon Chang wrote in the Forbes column. "Today's 'system maintenance' notice is a sign of a fundamental problem. Banks, in short, need cash to rollover ever-increasing amounts of nonperforming loans and wealth-management products," said Chang, who authored the book "The Coming Collapse of China," in 2001.
However, a bank officer at Citibank China told CNBC that customers can still make transfers through the end of the working day on January 30, right before the long Lunar New year holiday begins.

Ian McKinnell | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images
The bank officer noted the system maintenance is scheduled to coincide with the bank holiday, with domestic transfers delayed through February 2 and foreign currency transfers delayed until February 7, the end of the holiday.

(Read more: China central bank offers emergency funds to banks)
For his part, Chang isn't convinced by Citigroup's explanation.
"I know in the past they've had similar notices from the PBOC (People's Bank of China) before Chinese New Year. But they haven't been in the time of a credit crunch and therefore that's the critical difference," Chang told CNBC.
He noted there were similar moves in June during a credit crunch, with some large Chinese banks shutting down ATMs. "Clearly, then it was not a systems upgrade. It was a credit crunch. We saw a credit crunch in December. And so I'm saying that essentially we've got the same thing this time as well," Chang added.
Others have expressed skepticism of Chang's view.
(Read more: China's bad-loan skeletons to haunt markets)

"If there was really a serious cash crunch, why do this thing on the 30th of January, why not do it now," asked Vasu Menon, vice president of wealth management for OCBC Bank in Singapore, adding that not only does the timing coincide with the bank holiday, but that banks frequently do system maintenance over holidays.
Menon told CNBC he believes the country's new government would step in to prevent a potential cash crunch.
Some general bearishness on China may be spurring these latest concerns

"The cottage industry of who's going to be the caller for the collapse of China has expanded," said Peter Alexander, managing director at Z-Ben Advisors.
While this particular fund transfer brouhaha may just have been a false alarm, others did note general concerns about China's banking system.
(Read more: Cash crunch signals policy dilemma for China's central bank)

"We have heard in recent weeks of certain banks, out there in the region, the backwater, closing the doors because they're not able to provide cash for their investors," noted Gary Dugan, chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East at Coutts.
Gartman: China remittances more serious than EM rout
Dennis Gartman, Founder, Editor & Publisher of The Gartman Letter, describes the extent of his concern over a Forbes report that China has halted bank cash transfers.
He also noted news last week that one of China's high-yield trust investments appears set for what could be the first default on a principal repayment.
"There is a liquidity squeeze in China. We've had patches of this before, but the scale of what we're seeing at least on the screens at the moment is beyond the worst we've seen in the past," Dugan told CNBC.
Regulators' attempts to rein in excess liquidity in the system has spurred several large spikes in interbank lending rates in recent months, with the central bank needing to step in repeatedly to calm markets. On January 20, interbank rates spiked as high as 10 percent before the central bank intervened, from levels as low as around 3 percent in the previous week. It is currently around 4.65 percent.

Last week, China's central bank provided emerging funding support to commercial banks in response to a surge in cash rates before the holiday, following similar moves in December.
(Read more: Are China bank stocks cheap or just crummy?)

The People's Bank of China also expressed concern about some banks' over-reliance on short-term funding markets and urged banks to improve how they manage their liquidity.
"We'll never understand how difficult it is to control China, particularly its financial system," Dugan said. "Even a well-intentioned government, as we believe they are, is finding it very, very difficult to control all of the things that are happening within the financial system and these stress points (and) bringing them under control and keeping the markets' confidence."

China Halts Bank Cash Transfers

Gordon G. Chang
Gordon G. Chang, Contributor
I write primarily on China, Asia, and nuclear proliferation.
Op/Ed
Forbes takes down China article
1/26/2014 @ 4:19PM |9 243 views

China Halts Bank Cash Transfers


The People’s Bank of China , the central bank, has just ordered commercial banks to halt cash transfers.
This notice, for instance, appears on the online portal for Citigroup's C -2.74% Citibank unit for its China customers:
Important Notice:
1. Due to the system maintenance of People’s Bank of China, Domestic RMB Fund Transfer through Citibank (China) Online and Citi Mobile will be delayed during January 30th 2014, 16:00pm to February 2nd 2014, 18:30pm. As to the fund availability at the receiving bank, it depends on the processing requirements and turnaround time of the receiving bank. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
2. During Spring Festival, Foreign Currency Transfer Transaction through Citibank (China) Online and Citi Mobile will be temporally not available from January 30, 2014 18:00pm to February 7, 2014 09:00am. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
If you have any enquiries, please reach us via our 24-hour banking hotline at 800-830-1880 or credit card hotline at 400-821-1880. If you are calling from other parts of the world, please reach us at 86-20-38801267 for banking services or 86-21-38969500 for credit card services.
In short, there will be a three-day suspension of domestic renminbi transfers.  There will also be a suspension, spanning nine calendar days, of conversions of renminbi to foreign currency.
The specific reason given—“system maintenance” at the central bank—is preposterous.  It is not credible that during the highest usage period in the year—the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday beginning January 31—the central bank would schedule an upgrade and shut down cash transfers. 
A better explanation is that the country’s banking system is running dry.  Yes, there is an increased need for money in the run-up to and during the Lunar New Year holiday, but that is only a small factor.  After all, central bank officials knew this spike in demand was coming—it occurs every year at this time—and a core function of central banks is to manage seasonal liquidity fluctuations.  Moreover, the holiday has not started yet, and the PBOC, as that institution is known, could have added more liquidity to meet cash needs.
So what’s really going on?  This crunch follows similar incidents in June and December of last year.  In June, for instance, the central bank used the excuse of a “system upgrade” to allow banks to shut down their ATMs and online banking platforms.  As a result, they conserved cash and thereby avoided a nationwide meltdown. 
So today’s “system maintenance” notice is a sign of a fundamental problem.  Banks, in short, need cash to rollover ever-increasing amounts of nonperforming loans and wealth management products.  This month, cash needs are even higher than normal because of the impending default of the Credit Equals Gold wealth product scheduled for January 31.  Analysts are worried that the failure, if it occurs, will cause a China-wide panic.
Perhaps more important, the Federal Open Market Committee is holding its next meeting on January 28-29 so there could be an announcement on the 29th on the trimming of bond purchases.  The suspension of FX transactions means that speculators will not be able to dump renminbi and buy dollars.  Fed Chair Bernanke’s words on tapering, beginning in May of last year, shook emerging markets.  A FOMC announcement this time could undermine China, especially because of the darkening perceptions about that country.
Pundits, pointing to the nation’s $3.82 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, are fond of saying that Beijing has enough money to weather any situation.  Yet China does not have a foreign currency crisis.  It has a domestic currency one where dollars, euros, pounds, and yen are not much use. 
Banks are evidently scrambling for cash.  They have, in the past, resorted to desperate maneuvers at the ends of calendar quarters to meet regulatory requirements.  The current crunch is even more alarming because it cannot be occurring for quarter-end reasons.
Something is very wrong in China at the moment.  Banks’ apparent need to conserve cash, coming just weeks after the last incident, looks ominous.