Friday, February 3, 2012
Europe braces for Russian Gas shortage. Supplies flow at 30%. Not Emergency yet.
European Commission put its gas coordination committee on alert today, but insisted the situation had not yet reached an emergency level since coordination between nations to help each other had improved and storage facilities had been upgraded.
Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said Russia was going through an extremely cold spell and needed more gas to keep its citizens warm.
Russia's gas contracts 'allow for certain flexibility in case they also need the gas. And that is the situation that Russia is facing at the moment.' The severe winter in Russia has seen temperatures drop to minus 35 C (minus 30 F).
US "labor force non-participation", the real unemployment rate, is at 36.3%.
A broad measure of unemployment, which includes workers only marginally attached to the labor force, fell to 15.1 percent, the lowest since February of 2009.
there may be 3 million long-term unemployed people who are currently not being counted as unemployed by the Labor Department because they have simply given up looking for work.
LinkWithin
