Separuh Utang buat Mencicil

Kondisi RI Lebih Baik Dibandingkan Negara Eropa
Kamis, 27 Mei 2010 | 03:53 WIB

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/05/27/03531280/separuh.utang.buat.mencicil.

Jakarta, Kompas – Separuh utang yang diperoleh di sepanjang tahun 2010 akan dipakai membayar pinjaman pemerintah yang jatuh tempo dan mencicil pokok utang sebesar Rp 124,677 triliun. Utang yang jatuh tempo tahun 2010 melonjak dibandingkan dengan tahun 2009, tertinggi sejak lima tahun terakhir ini.

Demikian diungkapkan Kementerian Keuangan melalui dokumen Statistik Perkembangan Utang Pemerintah edisi Mei 2010 yang diterbitkan Direktorat Jenderal Pengelolaan Utang di Jakarta, Rabu (26/5).

Tradisi Jual-Beli di Pasar Wulandoni

Kamis, 27 Mei 2010 | 05:34 WIB

http://cetak.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/05/27/05342157/tradisi.jual-beli.di.pasar.wulandoni

Uang bukannya tak berarti di Pasar Wulandoni, Kabupaten Lembata, Nusa Tenggara Timur. Uang masih tetap bernilai, namun bukan sebagai sarana jual-beli. Di pasar yang berteduhkan dua pohon asam besar tersebut, jual-beli dilakukan dengan saling tukar barang atau barter dengan ukuran yang telah disepakati.

Truk yang dimodifikasi menyerupai bus menjadi transportasi andalan menuju Pasar Wulandoni pada setiap hari sabtu. Saat hari pasaran itu, para pengunjung pasar yang sebagian besar adalah perempuan membawa aneka hasil laut dan bumi untuk dijadikan barang barter. Seikat ikan terbang ditukar dengan tiga batang jagung, atau sepotong ikan pari dihargai sama dengan satu sisir pisang.

Global markets gyrate on fears of Europe’s spreading financial crisis

By David Walsh
26 May 2010

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/econ-m26.shtml

Global stock markets were extraordinarily unstable Tuesday, as fears about the expanding European financial crisis and the possibility of military conflict on the Korean peninsula combined to shake investors.

Anxiety is growing about the state of the European banking system in the wake of the Bank of Spain’s takeover of a savings bank this past weekend. A currencies portfolio manager in London commented to the Wall Street Journal, “The spotlight has shifted from Greece … towards Spain, Portugal and the banks.” The International Monetary Fund issued a stern report on Spain Monday, demanding that the social democratic government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero take on a “dysfunctional labor market.”

Greek debt crisis exacerbates problems in Eastern Europe and Balkans

By Markus Salzmann
26 May 2010

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/east-m26.shtml

The debt crisis in Greece is placing Eastern European states under even more pressure. Although most East European countries are not in the eurozone, they are being directly affected by its crisis.

According to analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley, the countries most at risk are Bulgaria and Romania. The fear is that the Greek banks will provide far less capital to their affiliates in the Balkans in the future and scale back on loans.

100 years ago: Chinese-Americans call for boycott of US-made goods in China

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/twih-m24.shtml#100

The US-based Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCC) called for a boycott of American goods throughout China on May 29, 1910. The CCC’s League of Justice issued the appeal to protest the creation of a detention center for Chinese immigrants on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Telegrams were sent by the organization to business associations across China requesting that they refuse to purchase US-made goods in an effort to pressure Washington to abandon its discriminatory practices.

The detention center at Angel Island was built to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. After the end of the California Gold Rush and the economic downturn that followed, the US government sought to strictly limit the number of laborers from China entering the country and whip up anti-Chinese sentiment. The law also prevented permanent residents from China already living in the US from receiving American citizenship.

Markets stabilise but “smell of fear” is in the air

By Nick Beams
24 May 2010

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/econ-m24.shtml

Global markets stabilised at the end of last week but there are deepening concerns that the turmoil resulting from the eurozone financial crisis is only just beginning.

The Financial Times cited one market analyst who wrote to his clients that “the smell of fear is in the air”. He had not felt this way since the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008.