Tag: Unemployment

Real Costs Of Unemployment

We have all heard the stories, the horror, the spin and the outright lies about unemployment….we have heard what it is doing to the economy, to Wall Street and the resty….but what is the “true” costs of unemplyment?

A new New York Times/CBS News poll offers a glimpse of the devastating human impact of the US unemployment crisis.

The poll and interviews illustrate some of the measures taken by unemployed workers to survive. About one quarter of those surveyed have relied on food stamps and one fifth have received help from food charities. Half said that their spouse has taken on extra hours or another job to supplement family income, and 53 percent have borrowed money from family members in order to make ends meet.

Sixty percent have liquidated money from savings and retirement accounts. Among these is Lee Daves, 54, who worked as a machinist making $13 an hour in Springfield, Missouri, until he was laid off in January. His unemployment benefits, which are soon to expire, are not enough to pay for his modest lifestyle. To pay bills, he was forced to sell off his 401(k) retirement account.

One of the survey’s more striking revelations is that nearly half of the unemployed workers in its sample have received no unemployment benefits through the nation’s restrictive jobless insurance system. Among those who have, 61 percent say that this has not been enough money to pay for mortgages, health insurance, food and other expenditures.

Fifty-four percent of those polled by the Times/CBS say they have cut back on medical treatment or visits to the doctor, and forty-seven percent are without health care coverage.

Unemployment is causing anxiety, stress, and other mental disorders, the poll finds. Nearly 70 percent of respondents reported being “stressed more than usual,” while 55 percent reported suffering from insomnia. A quarter have sought help from mental health professionals. Forty percent say that as a result of unemployment they have noticed changes in the behavior of their children.

Now we see what the real costs of unemployment is……it goes far beyond the spin that the financial media would have you believe….it is disastrous to families and sanity….

Repubs On Jobs Creation

FLASH!  Zip!  Bang!

We have heard all the big ideas from the President and his boyz….he will put America back to work with the use of the left over TARP funds…..but what about the Repubs?  Do they have any ideas on how to end the rising tide of unemployment?

Ask and thou shalt receive……

Yesterday the Repubs in Congress offered up their plan for the creation of jobs…..(may I have a drum roll please)……..and their plan is………

Republican lawmakers Wednesday presented President Barack Obama with their plan to tackle unemployment, proposing a freeze on tax hikes until the jobless rate falls below five percent.

The plan also calls for more domestic production of energy, including oil, as well as corporate tax cuts intended to encourage firms to repatriate earnings collected abroad and the approval of pending free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Tax cuts?  Approval of free trade agreements?  Wait!

The GOP is becoming more pathetic as each week goes by…..tax cuts?  That is their answer for a failing economy, the health crisis and now jobs…..it is tired and a proven failure…….oh then, we have the approval of free trade agreements…..think about that for a moment…… (insert pause of contemplation)…….. did not the out sourcing of American jobs overseas basically begin with the NAFTA debacle?  How many jobs did that piece of manure save or create in the US?

I cannot figure out why it takes Repubs so long to come up with a statement on any given issue……seeing how they have the same idea no matter the situation….TAX CUTS!  Maybe they, the Repubs, should spend less time playing golf or slinging insults at the opposition and try to come up with a REAL plan to save jobs……Just a thought……

A Jobs Summit?

Oh Please!

Jobs…..Jobs….Jobs!

Are you kidding me?  After a year of losing jobs and economic clout, the White House wants a jobs summit?  Let me see….for a year now it has been important to make sure that the banks get their backing for the gambling …..than to make sure that John Q. Public fed his family…and NOW it is important……excuse me if I feel that this is a bit late in coming….or is it just a response to the political attacks from the Right?

As written by Jerry White wrote for wsws.org:

Indeed, the administration has provided unlimited resources to stabilize “the financial system,” i.e., the bankers who are responsible for the financial collapse. But this has had nothing to do with a revival of lending, let alone slowing the wave of foreclosures and personal bankruptcies. On the contrary, the big banks have used the public funds to extend their grip over the financial system, hand out billions in bonuses and resume the same type of reckless speculation that produced the economic catastrophe.

Obama then declared that the Recovery Act had “created and saved more than a million jobs”—a claim that has been exposed as a wild exaggeration. And even if it were the case, the number pales in comparison with the more than 3.5 million jobs that have been lost since the stimulus package was approved last February.

In reality, the administration is pursuing a deliberate policy of high unemployment and reducing workers to a state of perpetual insecurity. The constant threat of job losses is being used to force workers to accept a drastic and permanent reduction in their living standards and a sharp increase in exploitation. US corporations have already seen a nearly 10 percent increase in productivity this year, as they force fewer and fewer workers to produce more and more.

In other words, American workers must accept a harsh reduction in consumption as credit is reduced, homes are lost, social programs slashed and they are forced to live on much less. At the same time, the labor cost gap with Third World countries must be closed so the US can be transformed into a cheap labor platform to send US exports around the world.

If you believe that the admin is concerned about Main Street then I suggest to take another hit of the bong….you are delusional.  This should have been issue ONE from the very beginning…not some lame promises of a jobs creation that has not materialized….But a jobs summit?  A bunch of gamblers from Wall Street will get together and decide which direction the government will…all the while children go to bed hungry….what a country!

If Americans are not working, then Americans are not spending and it Americans are not spending then consumption sucks…..If we want a good consumer price index and want Americans spending, then JOBS should have been the answer 12 months ago…..not a second thought after throwing billions maybe trillions at Wall Street so that they could continue their evil ways……

It boils down to the truth…….banks had a feeding frenzy at the banquet provided by the taxpayer…..and in return they, the taxpayer, gets the scraps that was left by the banks..is that about it?  What a great thing for the country to do for its revenue base…..

The 10.2% Solution

No!  I am not talking about the cocaine injection used by the great Sherlock Holmes!

It is the latest figures released on the unemployment in the US….but if we figure in those who have come off the rolls or have just gave up on the prospect of having a job, then the figure would be closer to 20% or more.

Let me see….we threw money at banks….most are now stable…..most are once again giving those great bonuses to the idiots that cause this recession…..then the auto makers got their piece of the pie….although it was a smaller piece than the banks got….they are doing sort of okay….and now the rise in home starts….existing home sales….yada yada….we are being told, in some circles, the recession is over and that we must be patient and all will be good…….

How nice….but all is NOT good…..unemployment is still rising…foreclosures are still rising…..bankruptcies are still high…..consumer spending is still almost non-existent….but things are getting better….

I think that the banks have had enough good fortune….maybe the admin needs to come up with a 10.2% solution….it would solve a lot of the problems we “real” people have….we have had enough of “banks…banks” we need “jobs…jobs”!  Maybe some of that cash that has not been spent on the thieves could be spent creating jobs…just a thought!

One of my fav comments was made by the CEO of Goldman-Sachs, who makde about $68 million last year, that the bank is doing God’s work……think about that for damn minute…..doing GOD’S work….I bet you did not know that God was a capitalist did you?

Does that not sound a bit pretentious?  These banks are NOT creating anything but wealth for themselves…they are helping NO one out in this recession.  Actually, they are still making the same types of trades they did in the past that blew up in their face, but this time they are betting on the government again to cover their losses.

YOU are covering their losses and YOU a getting nothing in return….GET MAD!

So we need a 10.2% solution…it can begin with YOU….burn up the phone lines….reload their emails…..write a damn letter….let Capitol Hill know that it is time for them to get off their butts and STOP covering for the banks….YOU CAN DO IT!  But are you a wimp?  Stop bitching about everything and DO SOMETHING….even if it is wrong…at least you tried…..

However, please do not try to sell us the tired old argumnent that cutting taxes will create jobs…..if there is NO demand for products there will be NO jobs……the only demand that has been created so far is a credit demand with first time home buyers and cash for clunkers….the problem with those is if there is NO job…there will be little buying…..again…the creation of demand should be priority one.  For demand will create jobs and jobs will create more demand…..pretty straight forward stuff….

Jobs!….Jobs!….Jobs!…..

The news is not good on the job markets…..we keep losing job after job, but yet the recession is over……well that is crap to begin with….it may be over for investors but if you work for a living it still very much a threat to your life.

Sorry…I digress…….since the GOP has absolutely nothing to counter any Dem proposal on health reform, they have jumped head long into blaming Obama for the jobs lost and immediately equate that with a failed stim plan that he, Obama, had passed in the early days of his presidency.

Bloomber is reporting”

Republicans said the jobs data are evidence Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan and the administration’s other economic recovery programs are failing. The report put Obama on the defensive after previous economic reports signaled a recovery was gaining traction.

Within minutes of the release of the government’s report, Republicans began e-mailing statements faulting Obama’s policies.

“President Obama can either acknowledge that his economic experiments have failed and change course, or continue down this path and see even more Americans lose their jobs,” Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

House Republican leader John Boehner, who criticized Obama for traveling to Copenhagen, said Democrats’ pledges that the stimulus package would create jobs are proving false.

bama may soon suffer the political fallout from the recession, said political scientist Bruce Buchanan at the University of Texas in Austin. The president and his party would pay a price in next year’s congressional elections if the numbers continue to disappoint.

Democrats at this point aren’t in danger of losing their majorities in Congress, he said. The political damage will be limited, “barring some peg to hang repetition on.”

When Obama took office in January, the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. September’s unemployment figure would have reached 10.4 percent if hundreds of thousands of Americans hadn’t opted out of the labor force because jobs are so hard to get, Rupkey said.

Unfortunately, the voter does not realize nor care that any job losses began a year before Obama took office….all they know is that their neighbors and friends are unemployed and the sitting president will have to suffer the consequences of someone else plunders.

The Repubs will attack and attack the Obama admin, and eventually they will hit on something that will resonate with the voter, whether it is true or not, the voter will take heed….and it appears that jobs may just proves to be that position that actually works and not backfires on the GOP.

Was It As Bad As They Said?

It has been a year since the massacre of last October, economic massacre that is…..but was it as bad as they all said it was?

The AP has published a pretty good list of then and now sort of stuff:

• $11.2 trillion: Total losses in the stock market from the Dow’s peak in October 2007 to the March 2009 bottom.

• $4.6 trillion: Total gains in the stock market since March 9.

• 6: The number of the 10 worst point drops in the 113-year history of the Dow that occurred in 2008. The 777-point drop on Sept. 29, 2008, ranks No. 1.

• 3: The number of the 10 worst percentage drops that occurred in 2008. The Sept. 29 decline of 9 percent is the third-biggest behind 22.6 percent on Oct. 19, 1987, and 10 percent on April 14, 2000.

• 92 percent: Decrease in Citigroup Inc.‘s share price from Oct. 10, 2008, ($13.90) to March 9 ($1.05).

• 341 percent: Increase in Citigroup‘s share price from March 9 to Friday’s close of $4.63.

• 18-20: The historical average for the Volatility Index of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, also known as the VIX, or “Fear Index.”

• 89: Where the VIX peaked last October.

• 23: Where the VIX was on Friday.

• 16 percent: The amount by which the Dow’s closing level on Friday was higher than its average close the previous 200 days. Earlier this month the number hit 20 percent, the highest since the early 1980s.

• $6.5 trillion: Value of assets in stock mutual funds at end of 2007.

• $3.7 trillion: Value at the end of 2008.

• $4.5 trillion: Value at the end of August.

• -$72 billion: Net cash flow (money put in minus money taken out) for stock mutual funds in October 2008.

• -$25 billion: Net cash flow in March.

• $4 billion: Net cash flow in August.

• $9: The amount, out of every $10 investors put into mutual funds in August, that went into bond funds.

• $855.40: The price of an ounce of gold on Oct. 10, 2008.

• $1,048.60: The price of an ounce of gold on Friday.

• 6.2 percent: Unemployment rate a year ago.

• 9.8 percent: Unemployment rate today.

• 95.2: Consumer confidence two years ago. Reading above 90 means the economy is on solid footing; above 100 signals strong growth.

• 25.3: Consumer confidence in February — record low.

• 53.1: Consumer confidence today.

• 2.8 percent: Decline in retail sales in October and December 2008.

• 2.7 percent: Increase in retail sales in August.

• 4.75 percent: Federal funds rate two years ago.

• 1 percent: Fed funds rate last October.

• 0 – 0.25 percent: Fed funds rate today.

• 4.81 percent: London interbank offered rate (LIBOR), the amount banks charge each other to borrow money for three months, at its peak, on Oct. 10, 2008.

_0.28 percent: Three-month LIBOR rate Friday.

• -0.5 percent: Personal savings rate in 2005 as home prices were soaring.

• 6.9 percent: Personal savings rate in May.

• $975 billion: Credit card debt held by Americans last September.

• $899 billion: Credit card debt held at the end of August, down 8 percent.

• 7 million: Home resales in 2005, a record year.

• 4.5 million: Home resales in January at annual rate.

• 5.1 million: Home resales in August at annual rate.

• $245,000: Median price of homes sold in 2006 — record high.

• $213,000: Median price of homes sold last October.

• $195,000: Median price of homes sold in August.

Like I said a pretty good list….but what does it all mean?  If you are rolling in money then all this means that you will probably make more money to bath in….but if you are human and have lost your job or are worried about your job then none of this means CRAP!  So they make the news for people with money….the rest of us know that it is unrealistic to say the recession is over…..go shopping and tell the world just how much you appreciate all the good economic news….

Is This Economic Good News?

As reported by AP on the newest unemployment figures.

The Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance dropped by a seasonally adjusted 47,000 to 522,000, the lowest level since early January. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected claims to rise to around 575,000.

A department analyst said the drop in new claims didn’t point to improvements in economic conditions. The second straight weekly decline reflected problems adjusting layoffs for temporary shutdowns at General Motors and Chrysler plants to retool for new models.

But then this news was dropped into the report:

The unadjusted figures actually showed that new claims rose by 86,389 last week, which would push the total to 667,534.

That blew a huge hole into the statement that this was the second week in a row with declines.  There are other things that seem to be overlooked when figuring the unemployment stats.  Right now the reports say that we are at 9.5% unemployment, but if you figure in those that are not counted we are not doing so well as 9.5%.  If one figures in the marginally unemployed, temp workers ands those who have ceased looking for a job…the reality is that the unemployment rate would be close to 20%….and that is a real figure not some trumped up stat to make the investors happy.

It Is All About Unemployment

The recent “optimistic” report on the employment scene was good news and then it was bad news…I know…I know…what the hell does that mean?

The number of Americans receiving claims for unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, adding to evidence the job market is starting to thaw.

And in the same report this was given:

Initial claims rose by 3,000 to 608,000 in the week ended June 13, in line with forecasts.

The average number of claims over the last four weeks fell to the lowest level in four months, an indication that the U.S. economy is stabilizing after the worst recession in half a century. Even so, companies are likely to be slow to hire new employees, sending unemployment rates higher, analysts said.

Okay…make up my mind for me….is it good or bad?

As usual no one wants to mention the poor bastards who have NO claims left…that have come off the rolls or just stopped looking.  This is the same type of reporting that goes on weekly……any good news is in the big type and the not so good is later in the report in small type.

Here is a truer judgement of the employment picture:

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate increases in May, the government reported Friday. One state registered a rate decrease, and one state had no rate change.Several states and regions posted their highest unemployment rate since the report debuted in 1976.

Over the year, jobless rates were higher in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Please stop believing all the crap they throw……things are NOT getting that much better….only for the guys and gals on Wall Street…they got their bailout while the rest of us can starve….makes NO difference to Washington….they have jobs.

Economist Says “The End Is Near”

“The macroeconomic data suggests that the worst is over,” said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at the Hartford. “There’s been a healing process in the banking sector.”

How nice….but sorry sir, most of us live in a microeconomic world.”The job market is bad, but not as bad as expected, and headed in the right direction. Monthly job losses averaged 700,000 in the first quarter and appear on track to lose [an average of] 500,000 in the second quarter,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for forecaster Moody’s Economy.com. “There will be another 2.5 million in job losses, and unemployment will peak at 10 percent by this time next year.”

Maybe if you are the manager of a hedge fund there is good news, but most of us working stiffs do not see the end anytime soon.

The long-term jobless now are more than 27 percent of all the unemployed, the highest ever since records began in 1948

But the good news is that we did not lose as many jobs as had been thought……(thinking)……try convincing the 500,000+ that lost their jobs last month…bet you will not find too many that are optimstic.

And then there are the foreclosures.

Home values in the United States extended their fall in the first quarter, with more than one in five homeowners now owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.

U.S. home values posted a year-over-year decline of 14.2 percent to a Zillow Home Value Index of $182,378, resulting in a total 21.8 percent drop since the market peaked in 2006, according to Zillow’s first-quarter Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value changes in all homes, not just homes that have recently sold.

No matter how one slices the info…..workers and working families are not fine and things are not getting better.

Please…someone show the working class the silver lining…….

Consequences Of A Recession

Massive lay-offs, uncertainity of employment and all around money problems has raised the concern a growing problem of violence.

Indeed, stories of workplace violence are filling headlines of late — the San Diego bus mechanic who killed two co-workers or the unemployed man in upstate New York whose 12 shooting victims included a receptionist and a teacher.

With such jarring tragedies, fears of violence fueled by financial worries are growing as the recession puts strain and stress on anxious workers, experts say.

Statistics on workplace violence in this recession will take years to compile and analyze, experts say. From 1997 to 2007, the most recent year for which data is available, there were more than 7,000 occupational homicides nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While most involved robberies, more than 1,000 involved work associates, the government agency said.

Whether or not the numbers will show a spike in economic-related violence, the fear is valid and significant, said Joel Shults, head of public safety at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado and an expert in safety awareness.

Elevating the fear is the fact that so many perpetrators in recent workplace shootings seemed normal, he said.

Violence is a by-product of the recession…..I fear that the worse is yet to come.