Last month, Burger King found horse meat at European supplier

Originally published January 31, 2013
Burger King announced Thursday that it had terminated its relationship with European supplier Silvercrest Foods after finding traces of horse meat in beef patties at a Silvercrest facility.

Silvercrest provided beef for Burger King restaurants in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. Burger King said that while samples of beef from restaurants in these countries showed no evidence of contamination, four samples from a Silvercrest plant in Ireland showed "very small trace levels of equine DNA."

Burger King said the tainted product was never sold in restaurants, and appeared to have originated from a sub-contracted supplier in Poland.

"[W]e are deeply troubled by the findings of our investigation and apologize to our guests, who trust us to source only the highest quality 100% beef burgers," Burger King's vice president for global quality, Diego Beamonte, said in a statement. Read more >>

Irish Banks May Need More Than Planned 6,000 Job Cuts, IMF Says

Ireland’s three surviving domestic banks may need to cut more than 6,000 jobs already planned as they struggle to return to profit, the International Monetary Fund said.

Allied Irish Banks Plc, Bank of Ireland Plc and Permanent TSB Group Holdings (IPM) Plc, based in Dublin, are lowering staff numbers after a real estate bubble burst in 2008. The lenders are aiming to reduce the 2011 combined job workforce of 30,000 by a fifth, the Washington-based fund said in a report on the nation’s bailout program yesterday.

Current plans “may still be insufficient,” the IMF said, adding costs for the banks are challenging. Ireland was forced to seek an international rescue in 2010, as its financial system came close to collapse. As the government seeks to exit the bailout program at the end of 2013, it’s pushing European leaders to deliver on pledges to improve the sustainability of its program.

“Given Ireland’s high public and private debt levels and uncertain growth prospects, inadequate or delayed delivery on these commitments pose a significant risk that recently started market access could be curtailed,” the IMF said. That could hinder “an exit from official financing at the end of 2013.” Read more >>

€100 Billion In Secret Funds Props Up Greek Banks

There has been no official announcement. No terms or conditions have been disclosed. But Greece’s banking system is being propped up by an estimated €100 billion or so of emergency liquidity provided by the country’s central bank — approved secretly by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. If Greece were to leave the eurozone, the immediate cause might be an ECB decision to pull the plug.

Extensive use of “emergency liquidity assistance” (ELA) to help banks in the weakest economies has been one of the less-noticed features of the eurozone crisis. Separate from normal supplies of liquidity and meant originally as a temporary facility for national authorities to use when banks hit problems, ELA proved a lifesaver for the financial system Ireland and is now even more so in Greece.

As such, it has given the ECB — which has ultimate control over the facility — considerable power to determine countries’ fates. Whether that power would ever be exercised is unclear. ELA is a subject on which the ECB is deeply reluctant to provide information — even on where or when it is provided. More...

The Governments Hidden $500 Billion Inflation Tax on Savings

Image by 401K via FlickrThere is a hidden and deeply unfair "tax" that is costing US savers in excess of $500 billion per year. Through forcing interest rates far below the rate of inflation, the government has effectively created a tax on savings that not only takes all real interest income, but quite deliberately confiscates wealth from tens of millions of savers every year - for the direct benefit of the government.

As will be demonstrated with step by step, simple illustrations, the government is imposing the economic equivalent of a 90% income tax on savers. The amount taken annually from savers is equal to more than half of all individual income taxes, and is nearly three times as large as total corporate income taxes.

The tax is not uniformly imposed, but instead targets older middle class savers in particular. The effects include invalidating decades of financial planning, and potentially impoverishing millions of current and future retirees. More...