2012-12-30

The Bernanke Put

French food aid NGO reports ‘explosion’ in demand
http://www.france24.com/en/20121229-france-poverty-restos-du-coeur

[a]fter an increase in duty has seen the price of heating oil double in two years.
Smog hits Athens as cash-strapped residents choose fire over fuel

Some 300,000 Brits had to choose between heat or food this Christmas season, while 9 million more are at risk of falling into 'fuel poverty' by 2016, a government advisory group has warned, calling on the PM for swift action.
http://rt.com/news/fuel-poverty-uk-rise-179/

Austerity Britain is experiencing a nutritional recession, with rising food prices and shrinking incomes driving up consumption of fatty foods, reducing the amount of fruit and vegetables we buy, and condeming people on the lowest incomes to an increasingly unhealthy diet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/18/breadline-britain-nutritional-recession-austerity