globalnews

Sunday, 30 March 2014

UK current account deficit far bigger than forecast

Cargo containers at Felixstowe port – Britain's huge trade deficit is bad news for the government. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Britain was warned over the sustainability of the recoveryafter official figures showed the country's trading position was much worse than expected and separate data suggested consumers were running down their savings as real incomes fell.

The current account deficit – made up of the trade deficit, plus losses on overseas ventures – came in at £22.4bn in the fourth quarter last year, far above forecasts from City economists and down only slightly from a record £22.8bn deficit in the third quarter.

It was well above a consensus forecast of a £14bn deficit in a Reuters poll of economists. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit was 5.4%, down from 5.6% in the third quarter.

Separate data confirmed GDP rose 0.7% in the fourth quarter, as expected, but detail showed the percentage of household savings fell to a five-year low in 2013 while real disposable income slipped 0.1% in the last three months of the year.

The current account gap underlined fears about imbalances in the UK economy, said Philip Shaw, economist at Investec. Describing the currrent account figures as "very poor" he said: "As a proportion of GDP, the current account positions in Q3 and Q4 last year represent the largest two quarterly deficits in the history of the UK (5.6% and 5.4% respectively) and sit uncomfortably with hopes of an external rebalancing in the economy."

For 2013 as a whole, the ONS said the UK was a net borrower of £65.7bn, up from £55.4bn in 2012. "This was mainly a result of increased deficits in income and current transfers, partially offset by a decreased deficit in trade," it said, which will be of some comfort to George Osborne as he vows to raise net exports and boost Britain's trade performance.

ONS chief economist Joe Grice underlined the net trade situation in a statement alongside Friday's figures. "As a percentage of GDP, the current account deficits over recent quarters represent some of the largest on record. However, relatively little of this is due to deteriorating net trade. Most of the decline stems from falling income from UK assets overseas, compared with income from foreign-owned assets in the UK," he said.

But Rob Wood, chief UK economist at German bank Berenberg, said: "This looks like a domestic recovery and it is quacking like one. Hence the UK's colossal balance of payments deficit is showing no signs of closing … The UK is storing up big problems for the future."

Separate data confirmed economic growth of 0.7% in the fourth quarter. While unchanged from the previous two Office for National Statistics estimates, this release provided more detail on the nature of that growth.

Samuel Tombs, UK economist at the thinktank Capital Economics, said the details painted a mixed picture on rebalancing. "On a positive note, a bigger proportion of the 0.7% rise in GDP in the fourth quarter is now thought to have come from net exports. Business investment is also still thought to have grown by 2.4% quarter-on-quarter. But as we feared, the 0.4% quarterly rise in real household spending was funded by households saving less."

Providing more evidence people were having to dip into their savings after years of falling real wages, the ONS said there was a drop in households' saving ratio, which estimates the amount of money households have available to save as a percentage of their total disposable income.

Suggesting that Osborne's bid to turn things around with his "budget for savers" this month will face big challenges, the savings ratio slumped to 5.1% in 2013 from 7.3% in 2012. For the fourth quarter alone, the savings ratio dropped to 5% from 5.6% in the third quarter.The ONS also revised down its estimate for growth over the whole of 2013 to 1.7% from a previous estimate of 1.8%.

While recent growth and the outlook from many forecasters puts the UK ahead of many other advanced economies in terms of the pace of GDP expansion, comparisons with how it has regained ground since the global financial crisis are less favourable.

Britain's GDP remains 1.4% below the pre-downturn peak. While the government has pushed for a rebalancing towards more manufacturing and exports and less reliance on consumer spending, the shape of the recovery so far suggests little progress.

The ONS said on Friday that the dominant service sector had surpassed its pre-crisis peak in the autumn of last year. However, the production industries remain 12.1% below their pre-downturn peak, with manufacturing 8.9% lower. Similarly, construction remains 12.5% below the peak.

FCA inquiry into 'zombie funds' hits industry but may help millions of savers

The Financial Conduct Authority says that twice as many businesses as originally thought might have been affected. Photograph: David Levene

"The FCA board acknowledges the concerns of the market regarding today's press coverage ... The board will conduct an investigation into the FCA's handling of the issue involving an external law firm, and will share the outcome of this work in due course."

Earlier in the day, the FCA confirmed that it would begin an investigation into zombie funds this summer as part of a wider inquiry into the possible mistreatment of longstanding customers. It came a week after George Osborne dealt a blow to the £14bn-a-year annuity market by declaring in the budget that pension savers would be able to do what they liked with their cash from next year.

Shares in Phoenix Group, which controls 5m policies sold under brands such as Pearl, Royal & Sun Alliance and NPI, tumbled 11.5%, while Resolution, which has Friends Provident and Axa Sun Life under its umbrella, plummeted 7%. However, both recovered from even steeper losses in early trading that saw about £3bn wiped off the value of the sector.

The FCA issued an urgent clarification of its plans, saying that it would be examining "how people in closed accounts are being treated", but that it was "not planning to individually review 30m policies, nor do we intend to look at removing exit fees from those policies".

The centrepiece of the FCA inquiry is likely to be millions of pension and investment policies sold in the 1980s and 1990s, in which savers are allegedly trapped by penalty charges of 10%-12% and, in some cases, more than 20% if they want to move their money. Many were sold by salespeople who earned commission of £1,500 to £2,000 a policy, with the first two years of contributions by savers sometimes taken out as charges, followed by annual charges of as much as 4% a year.

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As the review is not looking at sales practices, compensation on the scale of the multibillion-pound payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal will not happen.

David Smith, of wealth manager Bestinvest, said: "Almost every week we see customers with policies from Allied Dunbar [now part of Zurich] where penalty charges of 10% are not uncommon, while some older NPI policies have the double whammy of a penalty to transfer out plus what's called a 'market value adjuster', which adds up to 20%. They may be trapped in funds where the annual bonuses have often fallen to zero and where they can't effectively get out until retirement age."

The FCA said its inquiry would be a "supervisory piece of work", which would study a sample of the 30m policies. "These accounts have been closed for many years in some cases, but there are still valid issues to be looked at around the question of the service that consumers receive in relation to those accounts. Are they getting the right information? Are they getting the right level of service? Are these investments still appropriate?" it said.

The latest potential mis-selling inquiry has rocked a sector that over the past 10 days has been battered by regulatory changes. The annuity market is expected to shrivel to just a quarter of its former size in the wake of the budget, while earlier this week, the government imposed a 0.75%-a-year cap on the charges pension companies can levy.

"It's quite incredible just how much good news has hit the pensionsindustry over the last 10 days," said Smith. "However, today's news could be just as momentous, as it may free the millions trapped in underperforming high-charge funds and drive a stake through the heart of zombie funds once and for all."

Legal & General, one of the worst hit by the expected collapse in annuity sales, issued a statement to the stock market as its shares fell 3.5%, calling for the FCA to bring forward details of its probe, amid what it called a "disorderly market".

Aviva, which saw its shares fall 2.8%, said the FCA's inquiry would at most apply to £200m of its policies, but added that it "has no material exit charges applying to its legacy book".

In a statement, it said: "Aviva believes that its treatment of customers has been fair and appropriate, and therefore any impact on the group's profits should be minimal, if at all."

Phoenix said it was confident that its historic charging structures, including exit charges, "have been compliant and in accordance with our commitments to our policyholders", but said the pensions charges cap could have a £40m impact on the group's embedded value – a measure used to value insurers.

However, financial advisers warned that insurers would now come under intense pressure to make it easier for customers to leave. "People may say, 'Now I've realised what you're charging me, I'd like to leave,' so I think they will need to give them the option to do so," said Tom McPhail, of Hargreaves Lansdown.

Patrick Connolly, a certified financial planner at Chase de Vere, said the inquiry was "not before time", as many people were locked into inflexible products with "extortionate" exit penalties.

"While times have moved on and those taking out pensions more recently should have benefited from much lower charges, insurance companies have been reluctant to address their older contracts and offer a fair deal to policyholders," he said.

Who is affected?

You may be affected if you are one of the millions of people who bought £150bn worth of pensions and investment policies from life companies in the 1980s and 90s. The investments in question include personal pensions, endowment policies and "whole of life" insurance policies, and are all in funds that are now closed. The pensions under the spotlight are personal funds, set up by individuals, rather than workplace schemes.

Some of the products have high charges and hefty penalties if you want to withdraw or move your cash, while some will have guaranteed payouts that couldn't be achieved today, so people should not withdraw their money without taking advice.

Will the review mean big PPI-style payouts for customers?

That seems unlikely at the moment. The regulator has said it will not be looking at sales practices, so the review will not trigger repayments of premiums, unlike the PPI scandal. It has also said that it is not looking at applying current standards retrospectively – so it is unlikely that policyholders will get back years' of fees. However, if the review does discover that consumers have lost out significantly due to certain practices or products it is possible that ultimately firms could be forced to reimburse anyone who has been affected.

What do I need to do now?

For the moment, sit tight. The Financial Conduct Authority will begin its "supervisory work" looking at companies this summer and will not be reviewing individual policies, only practices. However, the news should be a wake-up call to consumers who have policies languishing in ancient funds. It is worth digging out paperwork to find out which firm now looks after your money, then checking how much you are paying to manage your cash. In many cases, exit penalties will prohibit you moving the money, but it may be worth taking advice.

If you think you may have been mis-sold the policy in the first place, you can take that up with the firm in question – and if it rejects your complaint, you can refer it to the financial ombudsman.

It is possible that pension liberation firms – which try to persuade people to move money out of their pension into their own scheme – or claim management firms could latch on to the FCA's action and see it as a sales opportunity. Consumers should be wary of any unsolicited offers of help.

The ghosts of America's long-term unemployed

US Money unemployment line job fair — A man waits in a line of job-seekers to attend a career fair held by the New York State department of labor. Photograph: Lukas Jackson/Reuters

America is filled with millions of ghosts: living, breathing human beings, who, for economic purposes, are completely unaccounted for and totally invisible.

A new report suggests that the long-term unemployed – those who have been out of a job for six months or more – are having no effect on the labor market, either good or bad. Their unfortunate unemployment situation “exert[s] little pressure on wage growth or inflation”, reports the Brookings Institute.

That's an enormous number of people without any kind of financial footprint. The number of those who have been out of work at least six months is currently 3.8 million, according to the US Department of Labor. That’s about one million less than last year, but still higher than is historically normal.

There's no easy way out, either. When Brookings checked in with those who had been unemployed for more than six months, now 15 months after their initial bout of unemployment, a third weren’t working and had given up their search. Another 30% were still looking.

Only one in 10 of those out of a job for longer than six months found full-time employment, found Brookings. For another 11% of the long-term unemployed, employment was sporadic.

If the long-term unemployed are not having an impact on major economic markers, it makes it less likely that Washington will feel any urge to create new policy responses. Republicans in Congress already oppose extending unemployment benefits to those who have been out of work for a long time.

That means the long-term unemployed will find that their troubles are unlikely to go away after they find a new job – which are often temporary, sporadic and part-time. In fact, only one in 10 is likely to find stable employment down the road.

"We have a huge problem of long-term unemployment. People have been out of work for at least six months, millions of them," says Justin Wolfers, senior fellow in economics at Brookings.

A series of questions remains for economists: What happens to the long-term employed? Will they ever find a job again? Have they lost hope?

‘27 weeks and over’

The Department of Labor measures duration of unemployment in weeks, ending with a vague category of "27 weeks and over", as if after six months of unemployment the unemployed weren’t worth measuring anymore. Yet not all long-term unemployed fall into a pit of despair.

Six months is a long time to go without a job. What's more, job searching in today's economy can be a soul-crushing process. As days pass, with resumes going out and no calls or responses coming in, job-hunters say it can be difficult to remain motivated, to keep sending out those resumes, to sound excited about a job prospect.

US money unemployed protest long term jobs — A man holds a "I want to work" placard as he joins a protest of several thousand people and unionists demanding jobs in Los Angeles. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Often the brief respite from long-term unemployment comes in form ofpart-time, poverty-wage jobs. Those, too, can be sporadic, often resulting in pay that barely covers basic bills.

Who are the long-term unemployed?

At 40%, millennials are currently facing the highest long-term unemployment of all age groups. Their entrance to job market has been rocky. Many still live with their parents and are saddled with college debt. Just one in 10 describe their job as a "career". In 2013, the underemployment rate for college graduates was 18.3%, as compared to 9.9% in 2007, according to Economic Policy Institute. Most can’t afford to be picky about jobs right now. After all, many reason, their college loans aren’t going to pay themselves and a small paycheck is better than no paycheck.

There might be an upside, however, to getting that expensive education. Brookings found that those who had an associate’s degree or bachelor degree or higher were more likely to be employed.

Also, more likely to be employed were those who were married,according to Brookings.

Fully 44% of the long-term unemployed were never married, while nearly 20% are either widowed, separated or divorced.”

If there ever was a motivation to find a job, having a hungry family at home was it.

Unemployed and forgotten

Well before the Brookings report described the statistics, the US Congress took steps to back away from the long-term unemployed, reasoning that unemployment benefits were an unnecessary cost to the government. In December, long-term unemployment benefits expired without being renewed. In the months since, lawmakers have unsuccessfully struggled to come up with a compromise. And while Senators Jack Reed and Dean Heller came up with a proposal thatSenate voted to open up for a debate earlier today, the Republican-held House still remains an obstacle.

Earlier this week, speaker of the House John Boehner said he will only consider the bill if it comes with provisions “that would actually help the economy and help people get back to work”. He then said: "Those conditions have not been met."

Detroit: bankrupt city readies for divisive $450m Red Wings arena

Detroit illitch — This corner at Henry St and Park between Midtown and Downtown Detroit will be part of billionaire Mike Illitch's new ice hockey arena and entertainment district. Photo: James Fassinger /The Guardian

Police have started handing out parking tickets outside The Comet Bar, a cozy if incongruous spot smack in the middle of the blighted deadzone between downtown and midtown Detroit. Not so long ago it was hard enough to get the cops to come for a shooting, says the Comet’s pink-haired barmaid, who goes by the name of Nine.

The ticketing appears to be part of a drive to prepare the area for one of the biggest urban renewal projects Detroit has ever seen. And one that is dividing the community. Soon the contractors will move in to start work on a sports and entertainment district at the centre of which will be a $450m arena for the Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team – funded in large part by this bankrupt city.

The Comet faces an uncertain future, but for now it sits in an area mainly visited by locals and the occasional adventurous tourist taking “ruin porn” photos of Detroit’s burnt out buildings. From the back of the bar, across empty rubble strewn lots, you can see two abandoned tower blocks. On the top floor of one someone has graffitied “ZOMBIELAND” in giant black letters.

There are few people on the street – most appear homeless. The city recently pulled up the remaining benches in the area, in an attempt to discourage people from sleeping here. Now they sleep on the ground.

In February, after a heated public meeting, the city approved a deal that gave Mike Illitch, the Red Wings' billionaire owner, 39 vacant lots in the area, valued at $3m, for $1. Illitch, who made his fortune with the Little Caesars Pizza chain, also owns the Detroit Tigers baseball team, who on Friday offered Miguel Cabrera one of the biggest contracts in Major League Baseball history: $292m over the next 10 years. Illitch is worth an estimated $2.7bn. Along with fellow billionaire and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, he has been snapping up huge chunks of Detroit at rock bottom prices for redevelopment.

Illitch’s Olympia group will pick up 42% of the arena’s construction cost. The rest will come from a complex financing arrangement using school and local property tax revenue to pay off state-issued bonds. The Detroit Downtown Development Authority (DDA) will own the arena and lease it to the Red Wings for an initial 35 years. The price tag for the entire project is an estimated $650m, $284.5m of which will come in the form of public investment.

The development is getting under way just as Detroit faces a final reckoning with its estimated $18bn in debt. The city declared bankruptcy last year and is about to undergo a painful restructuring which could see retirees' pensions and healthcare benefits slashed.

On Monday the city is expected to file its latest bankruptcy restructuring proposal as its emergency financial manager argues cuts to pensions are essential to solving the city’s crisis.

'All I want is a fair deal'

Half the city’s street lights don’t work; nearly a quarter of the city’s high school students dropped out before graduation last year, while the state dropout rate is one in 10. There were protests ahead of the stadium deal, with locals arguing the money would be better spent elsewhere. Three of the city’s nine council members voted against the sale under the current terms.

“It’s good that something is being done,” said Nine, the Comet bartender. “My fear is that all that’s going to happen is all the good people who lived through all the bullshit and the crack dealers are going to get kicked out. They talk like it’s going to save the city but they did that when Whole Foods opened. It’s just a grocery store. This is just going to be a sports stadium and some shops.”

Wayne Alexander, the Comet’s owner, said he welcomed redevelopment but said that the people who live and work in the area were getting a raw deal. He has run the bar for eight years and said he was offered $20,000 to go away.

“I pay all my taxes,” he said. “This has been a good business for me. All I want is a fair deal. Illitch is going to make millions off this and all he paid was a dollar.”

Illitch did agree to terms that should benefit the city – Olympia pledged to invest $200m in the area in new retail, offices and housing. At least 30% of contracts will go to Detroit-registered companies. A neighbourhood advisory committee (NAC) has been set up to give feedback from the locals. But there are no guarantees and no penalties if he fails to deliver.

“People are fed up with this,” said Stephanie Vaught, a legal analyst at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit. “There are no clawbacks if they fail to follow through with any of this. The NAC has no power. If you want to use public tax dollars, you should be held more accountable.”

Vaught said other companies had made similar promises about jobs and revitalisation in Detroit that had failed to materialise. City councillors recently rounded on Marathon Oil after it was revealed it had created just 15 local jobs since receiving $175m in tax breaks from the city.

“There’s this fear in Detroit that we can’t enforce requirements. That’s absolutely false,” said Vaught. She said critics of the project were attacked for dragging down a city already in crisis. “But the city’s first responsibility is to it’s residents. This is not a good deal.”

Mark Morante, senior vice-president of special projects at the state-funded Michigan Economic Development Corporation says opponents have mischaracterised the deal and missed the bigger picture.

“This is a transformational project,” he said. He said the new entertainment area would not only restore a blighted neighbourhood but would also free up the riverside space occupied by the Red Wings' current home, the Joe Louis Arena, for further renovation.

He said businesses did not like to have guarantees forced upon them as they needed the flexibility to change with circumstances.

“The Illitches have been in this city for a long time and have a very long track record of doing what they say and creating jobs in the city,” he said, adding that economic studies had shown the benefits of the project and criticisms were “ill founded and not based on facts”.

In a city known for its love of hockey, the venue will create excitement and at least 500 permanent jobs, Morante said.

'It’s almost impossible to think of a worse way to spend the money'

But worryingly for Detroit, there is a large body of evidence that sports stadiums rarely do anything positive for the local economy. Neil deMause and Joanna Caggan chronicle in painful detail the failed promises of sports stadiums in their book and blog, Field of Schemes.

“The odds that Detroit will make back anywhere close to the amount of money it is spending are astronomically small,” said deMause. “It’s almost impossible to think of a worse way for them to spend the money.”

DeMause points to the work of University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson, who memorably said: “If you want to inject money into the local economy, it would be better to drop it from a helicopter than invest it in a new ballpark.” Sanderson’s research found that new stadiums had a minimal impact on the home city’s economy.

Andrew Zimbalis, professor of economics at Smith College and one of the world’s most prominent sports economists, said some stadium investments pay off for some cities but that the Detroit deal looked like a dud.

“A stadium or an arena by itself does not promote economic activity,” he said. “Most of the funding in this case is going to hit the city budget, they will have to make cuts elsewhere or raise taxes.” Zimbalis said the money would have been much more effective had it been spent on the education system or repairing roads.

Morante disagrees. “Repairing potholes is important,” he said, but money was being put aside for that too. Critics were “second guessing the entire legislative process”, he said.

As the diggers move in, critics will be looking closely to see if Detroit can make its new stadium pay. So far they are unconvinced. In the end, said deMause, the real reason Detroit is getting a new stadium is probably more about ego than economics.

“Mayors and governors really like to have stuff they can point to and say, ‘Hey I built that.’ Filling in a thousand potholes, buying some new computers for schools or fixing the street lights just doesn’t have the same appeal.”

Cheerleaders make the NFL's billions. They deserve to be paid minimum wage

dallas cowboys cheerleaders — Last week, the US labor department declared the Oakland Raiders exempt from offering its cheerleaders the minimum wage because they constitute 'seasonal amusement'. Photograph: Ronald Martinez / Getty

Just why would someone ever want to become an NFL cheerleader? For the fleeting, half-baked fame? The camaraderie? Recognition for your athletic-aesthetic prowess? Or maybe it’s the privilege of being one of America’s Sporting Handmaiden – and all the charitable, community-serving femininity you’ll embody forever after. (Provided, of course, you don’t move on to stripping, or bring the NFL into disrepute while you represent it.)

Hopefully young women are looking for at least one of the above,because it’s certainly not the money, honey: as a brewing lawsuit brought against the Oakland Raiders by their cheer squad has revealed, NFL cheerleaders are some of the most poorly paid legal workers in America. With next to no labor rights and making nowhere near the minimum wage, they could use a cheer or two themselves.

Back in January, Oakland Raiderette Lacy T brought a suit on behalf of the entire squad. Factoring in practice hours, charitable appearances and the annual swimsuit calendar photo shoot on top of a 10-game commitment, he and her attorneys argued that the Raiderettes’ $1,250 annual wage worked out to less than $5 an hour. That’s a whole $3 below the state minimum. And it’s more than $5 below an increase the Obama administration has been seeking all year and said in a report last week would close the gender wage gap by a full 5%.

The Raiderettes are also required to fund their own travel and mandated cosmetics. They get fined by the team if they don’t sport the right underwear or the proper shade of fake tan. And in direct contravention of California labor law, these cheerleaders get paid at the end of the season, rather than every two weeks. And so the Cincinnati Ben-gals are joining the fight, too.

Yet last week, the US Department of Labor declared the Raiders exempt from having to offer its cheerleaders the minimum wage because they constitute “seasonal amusement”. Meanwhile, NFL attorneys claim that the Raiderettes never even had the recourse to real justice – that their contracts don’t allow them to sue in court anyway. Now, their case must head to arbitration, as so many matters of sport so often do. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who makes $44m a year heading up the $9bn marketing machine powered in no small part by cheerleaders and the fans they excite, will decide whether cheerleaders deserve a morsel more.

Make no mistake: cheerleaders are instrumental in generating revenue for the NFL. They feature prominently in in-house and television advertising, which will bring in an estimated $3.1bn between now and 2022. Sure, the players are on more commercials and have the skills to demand a low-end salary of $100,000. And, sure, the timeout routines may feature more closeup-ready shimmy than Bring It On-style tumble. But most NFL cheerleaders are trained dancers holding down college degrees or full-time jobs in order to pay for “the privilege” of cheering on Sundays. Even an NFL mascot makes a minimum $23,000 per season, while the women putting themselves out there for the National Football League make “salaries” more akin to that of a garment worker.

You don’t just have to follow the money. A week after the Raiderettes sued, a former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader leaked a list of that team’s draconian dictates from back in 2009. And the handbook had a distinct sexist inflection: no fraternizing with the players, including no discussion of wages or working hours; no jewelry, other than wedding bands and team-mandated earrings; no weighing a single pound more than you did at the beginning of the season; compulsory tans, fake or skin cancerous – the list goes on.

When the LA Times got handed a copy of the Oakland Raiderettes’ rules, their handbook recapitulated most of the above, with the addition of a full page of instructions on how to care for their Raiderettes’ medallion, plus details of the fine scale applied if a cheerleader misses an unpaid pre-game rehearsal.

Then come the rules on “moral behavior”. Back in 2012, cheerleader Malori Wampler was dismissed from the Indianapolis Colts cheer squad for attending a Playboy party in her painted birthday suit. Wampler claimed she was being fired on account of her race – she's Indonesian – but the NFL claimed it was about her disobedience. As officials reminded Wampler in court, her contract forbade “any act that will or may create notoriety, bring Cheerleader into public disrepute, or reflect adversely on Club or its sponsors” – and insisted that said behaviour should be “in accordance with socially acceptable mores and conventions”.

Forget that creating notoriety is the whole point of being a cheerleader. Given the notoriously misogynist allowances the NFL affords its male players – Darren Sharper is currently facing not one but two counts of rape, there was the Minnesota Vikings sex boat, the list goes on and on and on – you'd think the odd shimmy up to Heff would be permitted. The sexist, moral probity expected of NFL cheerleaders is even more unjust. A Double-D standard doesn’t even cover it.

And while the cheerleaders occupy a bizarre liminal space somewhere between Vegas showgirl and belle of the purity ball, at the heart of the NFL’s paternalistic grip is that these women must never, ever be seen as mere strippers. How ironic, then, that the NFL has adopted the punitive practice of fining the cheerleaders when they go off-message – a strategy taken straight from the strip clubs, where dancers are charged for wearing the wrong shoes or underwear. At the end of 2012,Spearmint Rhino dancers successfully sued the club chain to the tune of nearly $13m in back wages and compensation. Even strippers have more labor rights than cheerleaders.

From money to morals, as Raiderettes attorney Sharon Vinick points out, the greatest impediment is the lack of unionization – something with which NFL players themselves struggled for long enough, something thatfinally made its way into the college game last week. But if NFL cheerleaders can’t prove an employer-employee relationship with the NFL, they’ll probably be exempt from unionizing anyway.

All of which means it’s still up to the good graces of Mr Goodell to afford cheerleaders a fairer share of his league’s mega-profits. The NFL does understand the basics of revenue sharing, after all. Time to share with the women on the sidelines. It costs a lot to be treated that cheaply, you know.

Suniula tries help US Eagles past Uruguay to 2015 Rugby World Cup

The USA full-back Chris Wyles is tackled by the Uruguay centre and try-scorer Joaquin Prada, left. Photograph: Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

The centre Andrew Suniula and his brother, the replacement fly-half Shalom Suniula, scored tries two minutes apart as the USA rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat Uruguay and earn a trip the Rugby World Cup in England next year.

Speaking on television after the game, the Eagles captain Todd Clever said: "I always though we'd get there. But it took longer than I expected and I'm proud of everyone in the team for sticking in there."

The Eagles took the home-and-home series after the teams drew 27-27 a week earlier, in Montevideo. Los Teros still have a chance to qualify for the finals, through the cross-continent repechage competition.

Playing before a boisterous crowd of about 5,000 at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta, the Eagles had fallen behind 13-3 by the break.

Uruguay took advantage of several calls against the US from the English referee, Greg Garner, getting a try from the centre Joaquin Prada in the 22nd minute while the Americans were short-handed thanks to yellow cards shown to Suniula, for a retaliatory punch, and the replacement prop Nick Wallace, for a technical scrummaging offence.

Uruguay's fly-half, Felipe Berchesi, knocked over a couple of penalty kicks from distance; Los Teros' hooker and captain, Arturo Avalo, also spent 10 minutes of the first half off the field, thanks to a dangerous tackle which presented the US full-back Chris Wyles with the first of two penalties. The Eagles were twice held up over the line – Andrew Suniula and the wing Blaine Scully were the men in possession.

Capitalising on the superior fitness of their professional players, the US came back strongly in the second half and the tighthead prop Eric Fry – part of an Eagles front row which was again conclusively outscrummaged by its South American opponents – scored a try from short range in the 46th minute, after a strong run by the lock Samu Manoa.

Fry's try provided the first five of 29 unanswered US points; the scrum-half Mike Petri put the Eagles ahead for good in the 61st minute, taking a quick tap penalty to score, before the Suniula brothers finished off the game. Wyles kicked 12 points, with two penalties and two conversions.

The Eagles will play in Pool B in England, with South Africa, Scotland – their opponents in Houston in June – Samoa and the Asia qualifier, which will almost certainly be Japan.

At the post-match press conference in Atlanta, coach Mike Tolkin said: "We're not backing down from anyone. Our goal is to get out of the pool.

Chris Christie may have been told of 'Bridgegate' lane closures

The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, may have been told about politically motivated lane closures on a key bridge linking his state with New York as they were happening, a report by lawyers he hired to conduct an investigation into the incident concluded on Thursday.

However, Christie insists that he does not remember being informed about the traffic realignment at the George Washington bridge, which inflicted gridlock on the town of Fort Lee, New Jersey, whose mayor is a political foe of Christie’s, last September.

The review heaps blame for the scandal on Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s then deputy chief of staff, who was fired after the extent of her involvement came to light. It concludes: “Governor Christie did not know of the lane realignment beforehand and had no involvement in the decision to realign the lanes.”

But the 360-page report does not rule out the possibility that Christie was told about the closures in Fort Lee while they were ongoing by David Wildstein, the Christie appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who orchestrated the closures for Kelly. Wildstein has claimed that he informed the governor about what was happening during an event to mark the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“Whatever brief exchange they had occurred in a public setting where they were surrounded by many, including other Port Authority officials, the governor’s wife, and a steady stream of spectators requesting photographs and handshakes with the governor,” said an endnote to the report. “Not surprisingly, the governor has no recollection of such an exchange.”

The report said Wildstein first claimed to have “mentioned the traffic study to the governor” during a dinner with Christie’s press secretary in December. Wildstein’s attorney claimed in January, after the publication of emails on the lane closure scandal had rocked Christie’s office, that “evidence exists” showing the governor was aware of the scheme.

But Thursday’s report said that “even if actually made”, Wildstein’s remarks “would not have registered with the governor in any event because he knew nothing about this decision in advance and would not have considered another traffic issue at one of the bridges or tunnels to be memorable.” Wildstein resigned from the Port Authority in December.

In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Christie said described the actions of his aides as stupid. He told interviewer Diane Sawyer: "When things were first reported, I said: 'This can't possibly be true. Because who would do something like that?' Sometimes, people do inexplicably stupid things."

He added: "And so that's what makes it so hard then to, as the guy in charge, you … none of it made any sense to me. And to some extent still does not."

The report was produced by attorneys with Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, a law firm that has significant ties to the Christie administration and other Republicans. The inquiry was led by Randy Mastro, one of the firm’s senior attorneys, who served as chief of staff and deputy mayor to former Republican New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Several Christie aides have previously worked for Giuliani. Another of the lawyers who conducted the inquiry, former US attorney Debra Yang, has publicly described Christie as a "very dear friend" and received a lucrative contract from him when he was the US attorney for New Jersey. John Wisniewski, the Democratic assemblyman leading a separate inquiry into the George Washington bridge scandal in the state legislature, said previously that Yang's involvement raised "serious questions" about the credibility of the internal review.

The inquiry is estimated to have cost New Jersey taxpayers at least $1m in legal fees.

“This is a vindication of Governor Christie,” Mastro said at a press conference in New York. “We found that what he had been saying all along was true.” Describing the scheme as “the actions of the few” in Christie’s office, he said: “It is sad that Bridget Kelly did what she did, it is sad that David Wildstein did what he did.”

The report added that Christie’s version of events “rings true” and said “he has conducted himself at every turn as someone who has nothing to hide.” Christie insisted at a marathon press conference on January 9 that he had no involvement in the lane closures and had been assured by aides the previous month that they had been part of a legitimate traffic study, amid press reports they were a deliberate assault on Fort Lee.

Subpoenaed emails released the day before Christie’s appearance had shown that Kelly had emailed Wildstein on August 13 telling him: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Wildstein, a former schoolmate of Christie’s, replied: “Got it.”

The closures caused hours of traffic delays for drivers between 9 September and 12 September. When reminded that buses carrying school pupils were caught up in the jams, Kelly wrote: "They are the children of Buono voters," referring to Barbara Buono, Christie’s Democratic opponent in his re-election campaign last year.

Thursday’s report said that the day before sending her now-notorious email, Kelly “reconfirmed” that Fort Lee’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, would not join a series of other Democratic figures in the state who were endorsing Christie’s re-election that year. Kelly and Wildstein orchestrated the lane closures “at least in part, for some ulterior motive to target Mayor Sokolich,” it said.

But the authors added: “What motivated this act is not yet clear. The common speculation that this was an act of political retaliation because Mayor Sokolich failed to endorse the governor for re-election is not established by the evidence that we have seen”.

The review said that Kelly attempted to cover up her involvement by asking a staffer to erase an email in which she responded to learning that Mayor Sokolich was “extremely upset” by the lane closures by saying: “Good.” However the staffer preserved a copy of the email, the report said.

The attorneys said that they found no evidence that anyone other than Kelly in Christie’s office was aware of the scheme to target Fort Lee. They also said that Bill Stepien, a former senior Christie aide who was running the governor’s re-election campaign at the time of the closures and was copied on some of the emails published in January, was under the impression that it was a legitimate traffic study.

It disclosed that Kelly and Stepien had become “personally involved” but claimed: “By early August 2013, their personal relationship had cooled, apparently at Stepien’s choice, and they largely stopped speaking.” After the bridge scandal erupted, Christie removed Stepien from a role he’d given him at the Republican Governors Association, which Christie currently chairs, and told him to abandon his bid for the chairmanship of the New Jersey Republican party, which he’d been expected to win.

“Like the others involved in the lane realignment, events in Kelly’s personal life may have had some bearing on her subjective motivations and state of mind,” the report said.

The report also said that after the emails were published on 8 January, Christie held an "emotional" crisis meeting with his senior staff, and recounted how "the governor, welling up with tears, expressed shock at the revelations, directed Kelly’s immediate firing for lying to him, and also decided to sever ties with Stepien."

The lawyers were given access to about 250,000 documents and to other electronic records, including text messages and emails stored on Christie’s iPhone. They also interviewed about 70 people from Christie’s office and the Port Authority.

Asked whether he was still considering a run for US president in 2016, Christie, who had been considered an early frontrunner for the Republican party’s nomination until the lane closure scandal, said: “Sure.”

He went on: “There’s certainly nothing that’s happened in the last number of months, since we talked about this the last time, that would make me think any differently about my ability to be able to pursue that job or to perform in it.”