What is the matter with people in Washington and New York? There is obviously a jobs emergency and they're talking about deficits -- and in the middle of a frenzy of worrying about deficits they are talking about cutting taxes for the rich! ?? And, to make matters even worse, at the same time as millions are out of work with unemployment checks ending, there is an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done modernizing our infrastructure, retrofitting homes and buildings to be energy efficient, and reviving our manufacturing base.
Is there a brain disease running loose that they aren't telling us about? Or is this really just corruption?
The Reagan/Bush debt and deficits are the fad subject of concern among our elites. The New York Times has a wonderful interactive "You Fix The Budget" deficit chart, where you can try different options (but only the ones the Times offers, few of the right ones that would work) to see how they lower future deficits. (Hint: the borrowing was caused by huge tax cuts for the rich and huge increases in military spending. Returning to pre-Reagan tax levels and pre-Soviet Union military spending are not options in the NY Times deficit game.)
Here's the thing. In New York and Washington the people in charge apparently don't know that unemployment in the country is 9.6%! Nine. Point. Six. Percent. That's only the official rate! And if you are not in New York or Washington you know that things are a lot worse than the "official" rate. If you are not in New York or Washington you know there are boarded-up houses, empty storefronts, and "For Lease" signs in front of every third or fourth office building. You know that people have used up their savings, moved in with friends and parents and go to the food bank. Americans are doing things people here never thought they would ever have to do.
In Washington and New York -- the cities that get the bank bailouts and military contract money -- they are not talking about the jobless at all. In fact, unemployment benefits are ending, and not being renewed. Instead of addressing the emergency they are talking about cutting our Social Security, making us work even longer (as if you can even get a job when you are over 50), cutting health care, and cutting the few other lifelines We, the People built for ourselves in this country over the decades. Bankers got bailouts and bonuses.
But get this. At the same time as they are in a hysterical frenzy about deficits, the other big discussion in New York and Washington is cutting taxes?
They are in a faint about deficits, and at the same time are talking about cutting taxes, and not talking at all about the emergency all of us as experiencing: jobs, jobs, jobs, JOBS, JOBS. JOBS? In what kind of brain does talk about cutting deficits and cutting taxes happen at the same time as a terrible, terrible jobs emergency is going on, without an epiphany of realization that the entire process has gone completely off the rails?
The country needs jobs and needs its infrastructure modernized. We have work that really, really needs doing. People that really, really need work. Borrowing money is really, really cheap. And investing in a modernized infrastructure makes American business more competitive, which helps us pay off the debt.
Washington and New York people: If you are not talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and JOBS then you are not talking about anything that matters. It is time for a bold jobs plan. The country needs it. The people need it.
Take Action: On Tuesday organizations will be pushing a congressional click-to-call campaign designed to flood switchboards with demands for a one-year unemployment-benefit extension.
The details: Click to call at www.usaction.org/call Or call toll free to 1-866-606-1189
Also, please visit unemployedworkers.org and sign the Petition: Tell Congress not to cut-off 2 million Americans from unemployment benefits this holiday season.
And: Tell Congress: Don't extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy!
Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.
There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.
The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.
The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.
Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.
And they're going abroad in search of customers.
Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.
So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.
But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.
Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.
Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.
Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.
One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.
And that means the bills aren't getting paid.
According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.
Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.
Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.
And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.
And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.
Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.
Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.
But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
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Can Mobile Phones Think?: Tech <b>News</b> «
Nokia's Beta Labs today released a new experimental application called Situations, and it portends a future where context awareness drives the mobile experience, and points to a time when our handsets will do the thinking on our behalf, ...
Xtina's New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com
Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...
bench craft company reviews
Miller returns to net tonight - Sabres Edge - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Can Mobile Phones Think?: Tech <b>News</b> «
Nokia's Beta Labs today released a new experimental application called Situations, and it portends a future where context awareness drives the mobile experience, and points to a time when our handsets will do the thinking on our behalf, ...
Xtina's New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com
Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...
bench craft company reviews
What is the matter with people in Washington and New York? There is obviously a jobs emergency and they're talking about deficits -- and in the middle of a frenzy of worrying about deficits they are talking about cutting taxes for the rich! ?? And, to make matters even worse, at the same time as millions are out of work with unemployment checks ending, there is an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done modernizing our infrastructure, retrofitting homes and buildings to be energy efficient, and reviving our manufacturing base.
Is there a brain disease running loose that they aren't telling us about? Or is this really just corruption?
The Reagan/Bush debt and deficits are the fad subject of concern among our elites. The New York Times has a wonderful interactive "You Fix The Budget" deficit chart, where you can try different options (but only the ones the Times offers, few of the right ones that would work) to see how they lower future deficits. (Hint: the borrowing was caused by huge tax cuts for the rich and huge increases in military spending. Returning to pre-Reagan tax levels and pre-Soviet Union military spending are not options in the NY Times deficit game.)
Here's the thing. In New York and Washington the people in charge apparently don't know that unemployment in the country is 9.6%! Nine. Point. Six. Percent. That's only the official rate! And if you are not in New York or Washington you know that things are a lot worse than the "official" rate. If you are not in New York or Washington you know there are boarded-up houses, empty storefronts, and "For Lease" signs in front of every third or fourth office building. You know that people have used up their savings, moved in with friends and parents and go to the food bank. Americans are doing things people here never thought they would ever have to do.
In Washington and New York -- the cities that get the bank bailouts and military contract money -- they are not talking about the jobless at all. In fact, unemployment benefits are ending, and not being renewed. Instead of addressing the emergency they are talking about cutting our Social Security, making us work even longer (as if you can even get a job when you are over 50), cutting health care, and cutting the few other lifelines We, the People built for ourselves in this country over the decades. Bankers got bailouts and bonuses.
But get this. At the same time as they are in a hysterical frenzy about deficits, the other big discussion in New York and Washington is cutting taxes?
They are in a faint about deficits, and at the same time are talking about cutting taxes, and not talking at all about the emergency all of us as experiencing: jobs, jobs, jobs, JOBS, JOBS. JOBS? In what kind of brain does talk about cutting deficits and cutting taxes happen at the same time as a terrible, terrible jobs emergency is going on, without an epiphany of realization that the entire process has gone completely off the rails?
The country needs jobs and needs its infrastructure modernized. We have work that really, really needs doing. People that really, really need work. Borrowing money is really, really cheap. And investing in a modernized infrastructure makes American business more competitive, which helps us pay off the debt.
Washington and New York people: If you are not talking about jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs and JOBS then you are not talking about anything that matters. It is time for a bold jobs plan. The country needs it. The people need it.
Take Action: On Tuesday organizations will be pushing a congressional click-to-call campaign designed to flood switchboards with demands for a one-year unemployment-benefit extension.
The details: Click to call at www.usaction.org/call Or call toll free to 1-866-606-1189
Also, please visit unemployedworkers.org and sign the Petition: Tell Congress not to cut-off 2 million Americans from unemployment benefits this holiday season.
And: Tell Congress: Don't extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy!
Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.
There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.
The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.
The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.
Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.
And they're going abroad in search of customers.
Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.
So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.
But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.
Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.
Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.
Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.
One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.
And that means the bills aren't getting paid.
According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.
Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.
Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.
And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.
And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.
Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.
Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.
But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
bench craft company reviews
Miller returns to net tonight - Sabres Edge - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Can Mobile Phones Think?: Tech <b>News</b> «
Nokia's Beta Labs today released a new experimental application called Situations, and it portends a future where context awareness drives the mobile experience, and points to a time when our handsets will do the thinking on our behalf, ...
Xtina's New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com
Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...
bench craft company reviews
Miller returns to net tonight - Sabres Edge - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>
The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.
Can Mobile Phones Think?: Tech <b>News</b> «
Nokia's Beta Labs today released a new experimental application called Situations, and it portends a future where context awareness drives the mobile experience, and points to a time when our handsets will do the thinking on our behalf, ...
Xtina's New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com
Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...
bench craft company reviews
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