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Xerox: Access to food stamp system is restored in the 17 states that were affected by outage


Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:01 UTC
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© AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves temporarily unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Xerox announced late in the evening that access has been restored for users in the 17 states affected by the outage, hours after the first problems were reported.

"Restarting the EBT system required time to ensure service was back at full functionality," spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said in an email. An emergency voucher process was available in some of the areas while the problems were occurring, she said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe underscored that the outage was not related to the government shutdown.

Earlier Saturday shoppers left carts of groceries behind at a packed Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford, Maine, because they couldn't get their benefits, said shopper Barbara Colman, of Saco, Maine. The manager put up a sign saying the EBT system was not in use. Colman, who receives the benefits, called an 800 telephone line for the program and it said the system was down due to maintenance, she said.

"That's a problem. There are a lot of families who are not going to be able to feed children because the system is being maintenanced," Colman said. She planned to reach out to local officials. "You don't want children going hungry tonight because of stupidity," she said.
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TV

Computer glitch blamed for nationwide EBT system shutdown on Saturday


CBS Boston
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:57 UTC
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People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.

At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers' EBT cards were not working in stores.

At 2 p.m., an EBT customer service representative told CBS Boston that the system was currently down for a computer system upgrade.

Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer released further details later in the afternoon in an emailed statement.

"While the electronic benefits system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon," Wasmer said. "Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients' patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible."
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Dollars

Despite government shutdown, Bidens on Vacation at Camp David

Daniel Halper
The Weekly Standard
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:42 UTC
Joe biden
© n/aJoe Biden on vacation
Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He's joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren.

The vice president is also there with "essential" government workers, who must work despite the government shutdown. That includes his Secret Service detail, as well as the Secret Service details assigned to the rest of his family, and other support staff. They are protecting the Bidens as they vacation -- but aren't getting paid because of the federal shutdown.

The vice president's public schedule simply reads:
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Wall Street

Best of the Web: Max Keiser on the truth about U.S. government shutdown: America is one giant hedge fund


RT.com
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:37 UTC
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Washington's struggle to govern itself has already cost the American economy hundreds of millions of dollars on the first day of the government shutdown. And things are likely to get even more expensive, with neither Republican nor Democrat lawmakers willing to back down from their stance on Barack Obama's signature health care bill.

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Propaganda

IMF Propaganda: U.S. Risks Joining 1933 Germany in Pantheon of Deadbeat Defaults

John Glover
Bloomberg
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 16:37 UTC
rainy 13th day
© Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesOn a rainy 13th day of a government shutdown with a possible debt default looming, the Senate comes into session but the House is closed, on Capitol Hill on October 13, 2013.
Reneging on its debt obligations would make the U.S. the first major Western government to default since Nazi Germany 80 years ago.

Germany unilaterally ceased payments on long-term borrowings on May 6, 1933, three months after Adolf Hitler was installed as Chancellor. The default helped cement Hitler's power base following years of political instability as the Weimar Republic struggled with its crushing debts.

"These are generally catastrophic economic events," said Professor Eugene N. White, an economics historian at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "There is no happy ending."
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USA

Best of the Web: Exceptionalism: A film that studies the origins of American exceptionalism


RT
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:38 UTC
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What is American exceptionalism? Where does the US's world monopoly on democracy come from? How does the US give itself license to do as it pleases?

"Exceptionalism" is a film by RT correspondent Anissa Naouai.

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Green Light

Best of the Web: The birth of the 'de-Americanized' world

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:32 UTC
de-americanized world
© Unknown
This is it. China has had enough. The (diplomatic) gloves are off. It's time to build a "de-Americanized" world. It's time for a "new international reserve currency" to replace the US dollar.

It's all here, in a Xinhua editorial, straight from the dragon's mouth. And the year is only 2013. Fasten your seat belts - and that applies especially to the Washington elites. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Long gone are the Deng Xiaoping days of "keeping a low profile". The Xinhua editorial summarizes the straw that broke the dragon's back - the current US shutdown. After the Wall Street-provoked financial crisis, after the war on Iraq, a "befuddled world", and not only China, wants change.

This paragraph couldn't be more graphic:
Instead of honoring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies.
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Stock Down

Losing faith: Global financiers look to de-Americanize


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:10 UTC
US dollar printing press
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP
A US debt default could hit on Thursday, and world leaders are second guessing the dominant role America plays in finance. Regardless of the final decision in Washington, confidence and credibility in the US has already eroded.

In an editorial published by the Chinese state-owned press agency Xinhua, a columnist says the US economy has 'failed' and put many countries who hold state assets in dollars at risk.

"To that end, several corner stones should be laid to underpin a de-Americanized world," the editorial read.

Last week China, the biggest US creditor, started to make preparations for a technical default on loans. The European Central Bank and the People's Bank of China (PBC) have agreed to start supplying each other with their currencies, avoiding the dollar as an intermediary currency. The currency swap agreement will last for three years and provide a maximum of 350 billion yuan ($56 billion) to the ECB and 45 billion euro ($60.8 billion) to the PBC.

In a further sign of growing distrust, China introduced a so-called "haircut", or a discount, on the value of US Treasuries held as collateral against futures trades.

Developing and developed nations are equally concerned, and institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have issued several warnings.
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Dollar

IMF chief propaganda: U.S. dance with the debt limit is 'very, very concerning'

Tom Howell Jr.
Washington Times
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 20:44 UTC
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© Alex BrandonInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde listens to a question during a media availability, during the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings at IMF headquarters Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013 in Washington
The chief of the International Monetary Fund says the U.S. government's stalemate over spending and its debt limit is "very, very concerning" and could roll back economic progress around the world.

Christine Lagarde, who took over the financial watchdog-and-rescue organization in 2011, said global finance ministers assembled for meetings in Washington last week feeling like Japan had finally turned the corner and that economies in the U.S. and Europe were on the upswing.

"And then they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue," she said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "They found out that the government had shut down and that there was no remedy in sight. So it really completely transformed the meeting in the last few days."

Ms. Lagarde, a lawyer from France, added a global perspective to the standoff that has roiled Washington for weeks and befuddled overseas investors who typically view the U.S. as a paragon of financial rectitude.
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Snakes in Suits

Hypocrites! Corporate leaders bemoan the default crisis created by Tea Partiers they funded

Joe Conason
AlterNet
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 20:33 UTC
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© Shutterstock
Now big-wigs are begging these yo-yos not to crash the economy.

America's great minds of business and finance have reached a consensus on the government shutdown and worse, the prospect of a debt default: While the latter is worse, both are bad. Those same great minds are well aware how the shutdown came to pass and why default still looms on the horizon, whether next week, next month, or next year.

Yes, the frightened corporate leaders surely know how this happened -- because their money funded the tea party candidates and organizations responsible for the crisis.

Consider Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., a tea party freshman whose outspoken stupidity on a default's potential benefits, such as an improved U.S. credit rating, has provided a bit of dark humor in these dark days. Yoho, a large-animal veterinarian, announced months ago that he would never vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Like most Republican candidates, he had no problem raising contributions from business interests, notably including contractors, insurance companies, manufacturers and agricultural processors. All of which presumably share the horror of default expressed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But no doubt Yoho parroted the usual right-wing cliches about taxes, regulation, labor, and health care, so all the business guys wrote a check without caring that Yoho is an ignorant yobbo.
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