Eurozone Recession Now Longest In Currency's History

PARIS — The eurozone is now in its longest ever recession – beating even the calamitous slump that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-9.

The European Union statistics office said Wednesday that nine of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the eurozone's economy contracted for the sixth straight quarter, slumping by 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months.

Elizabeth Warren to Obama Administration: Take the Banks to Court, Already!

On Tuesday, fierce consumer advocate and needler of banks Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called out Wall Street regulators for their habit of giving tepid punishments to misbehaving banks, and asked the agencies to justify their policy of settling with the wrongdoers out of court.

Warren sent a letter to the Justice Department, as well as to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, asking them for evidence on how a settlement that doesn't require a bank to admit guilt would be better policy than taking the bad apple to trial. If regulators at least show that they are willing to play tough, she argued, it will help deter bad behavior and allow regulators to negotiate bigger fines in the event of a later settlement.

Canada Interest Rate Hike Needed Now To Avoid Risk Of Crisis: C.D. Howe Institute

OTTAWA - Incoming Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is already getting advice on what to do once he takes charge next month — start hiking interest rates.

The C.D. Howe Institute says in report authored by economist Paul Masson, a former special adviser to the central bank, that after five years of super-low interest rates, it is time to take the anemic economy off its meds.

Alison Redford Severance Payments: Premier Won't Say Who Got Part Of $2 Million Payouts, Or How Much

Alison Redford's office has paid out more than $2 million in severance to former employees in the last three years, but the province is keeping mum on who received the payments and how many staff were paid out.

Opposition criticized Redford's refusal to disclose the details, after the story first ran in the Calgary Herald on Monday, and many are wondering why the secrecy.

"The question is is the premier hiring bad employees, or is she a bad boss, to have such high turnover in the office?” Liberal Leader Raj Sherman asked in an interview with CBC Edmonton.

Aboriginal education vexes Canada (and Paul Martin)

Former prime minister Paul Martin could have put up his feet after leaving political life, but relaxation is not part of his DNA.

Mr. Martin didn’t need money, so he embarked on projects that meant a lot to him and to the country, especially aboriginal education, a pressing long-term problem in Canada.

Why Mike Duffy should quit Canada’s Senate

OK. Here’s what I don’t get about the latest twist in the Senate housing-expense scandal. If auditors have confirmed that Mike Duffy doesn’t live in Prince Edward Island, how can the former journalist continue to represent that province as a senator?

Let’s be clear. Duffy is an amiable fellow who was a fine reporter. As a member of the Senate’s standing committee on agriculture and forestry, he may do sterling work.

Zabia Chamberlain: ‘That’s my whole life they took’

Zabia Chamberlain’s nightmare began in October 2007 when she accepted an executive job at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s national headquarters at Place du Portage in Gatineau.

Within days, her new boss, a director general at HRSDC, began a pattern of bullying and harassment that ranged from profane shouting and door-slamming to uninvited physical contact. Within eight months, his behaviour had driven her out of the workplace, terrified and traumatized. She hasn’t been back since.

Today, Chamberlain’s 22-year public service career is in ruins. It’s doubtful it can ever be revived. If anything, her health has worsened. She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and severe depression. Her voice often shakes and stutters, she fears public places and she drives miles out of her way to avoid Place du Portage which, since she lives in Gatineau, is a constant presence.

Strongbox and Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was not yet a legend when, almost two years ago, I asked him to build an open-source, anonymous inbox. His achievements were real and varied, but the events that would come to define him to the public were still in his future: his federal criminal indictment; his leadership organizing against the censorious Stop Online Piracy Act; his suicide in a Brooklyn apartment. I knew him as a programmer and an activist, a member of a fairly small tribe with the skills to turn ideas into code—another word for action—and the sensibility to understand instantly what I was looking for: a slightly safer way for journalists and their anonymous sources to communicate.

Introducing Strongbox

This morning, The New Yorker launched Strongbox, an online place where people can send documents and messages to the magazine, and we, in turn, can offer them a reasonable amount of anonymity. It was put together by Aaron Swartz, who died in January, and Kevin Poulsen. Kevin explains some of the background in his own post, including Swartz’s role and his survivors’ feelings about the project. (They approve, something that was important for us here to know.) The underlying code, given the name DeadDrop, will be open-source, and we are very glad to be the first to bring it out into the world, fully implemented.

Walmart's Bangladesh Factory Safety Plan Draws Skepticism From Worker Advocates

Walmart announced Tuesday that it plans to develop its own safety program to address dangerous working conditions in factories in Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment factory complex last month took the lives of more than 1,100 people.

In a press release, Walmart said it would conduct "in-depth safety inspections" at every facility in Bangladesh engaged in making its wares. The company pledged to make the reviews public within six months, while elevating "the entire market" to "a new standard" in worker safety.