Economic Justice : Poverty, wages & unemployment |
Condition of the labor market and trends in real wages and income gaps between the wealthy and the poor; dislocations associated with movements of employment opportunities inside or between countries or regions.
12/28/08 WHAT'S IN A NAME? IF YOU'RE GMAC AND THE NAME IS "BANK HOLDING COMPANY," THE NAME COULD BE WORTH BILLIONS IN FEDERAL BAILOUT FUNDS. A deadline passes for the financial arm of GM to jump through the hoops required for this designation, but company officials hope still to rescue their agency and perhaps GM as its principal shareholder from bankruptcy.
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Analysis & views: 12/27/08 Prices on Toronto stock exchange show a "staggering" 40% loss over the last year. 12/26/08 New data show decade-long rapid decline in poverty and inequality measures in Venezuela. http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4064 12/24/08 Gift that keeps giving: a "gift card" from a foreign donor allows a Ruwandan child to purchase a goat whose milk she can use to finance her schooling. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7780607.stm 12/22/08 UK's central bank, the Bank of England, admits that it recognized but failed to control the "crazy borrowing" that led to current fiscal crisis 12/19/08 Archbishop of Canterbury condemns UK government's policy of dealing with credit crunch as like facilitating the return of a drug addict to the drug, calls for an alternative pulling back from the "greedy" pursuit of wealth as the only effective antidote. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/18/religion-creditcrunch 12/10/08 UK government is demanding that energy pass along to their customers decreases in their utility bills to accompany decline it their own fuel costs. 12/8/08 When shock therapy becomes shock resistance:. Naomi Klein, who "wrote the book" on world-wide imposition of regressive social measures by neo-liberalism in response to "national crises" notes with some excitement the possibility that people in Canada (her own country) have become immunized from shock effects by observing its failures elsewhere. The electoral failure of the Harper (Liberal) goverment is a sign of a new "resistive" political force in Canada that promises the growing influence of a coalition of more progressive political forces. http://www.alternet.org/democracy/110809/?page=1 12/2/08 Recession moves retailers in Denmark to hold "after Christmas sales" before Christmas. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/110096.html 11/22/08 UK's economic recovery package will involve temporary tax cuts but increasing taxes over the long run with large increases in public spending. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7743305.stm 11/19/08 Belgians are losing confidence that money used to rescue country's banks is actually going into making those banks the reliable custodians of their funds. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44748 11/17/08 Japan joins the procession of world countries in which a recession has been declared. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7732733.stm 11/17/08 The high cost of being wealthy in Mexico:. As drug war violence spins out of control and wealth disparity an ever-growing factor in the Mexican economy, well-to-do people must maintain constant vigilance by employing bodyguards to protect themselves and their families against extortionary kidnappings. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/world/americas/17mexico.html?th&emc=th 11/13/08 Economists in Germany say that country is now in recession, with an expected global impact of that assessment. http://news.bbc.co.uk/default.stm 11/13/08 15 of India's billionaires live in the city of Mumbai. 11/12/08 Unemployment rate in U.K. at 21-year high as it rises for 9th consecutive month. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/12/unemployment-jobs 11/7/08 Iin U.K., as in U.S., the panacea for economic woes is to lower interest rates:. A British writer comments on the "conventional wisdom" among economists that the way to deal with a financial crisis is to lower interest rates. While such actions may encourage would-be borrowers, they are inimical to the incomes of savers, and they encourage banks to make more loans of the type that got them into their current fiscal mess. 11/1/08 "The philosophy of laissez-faire simply does not work.": . So says South African economics professor, reflecting on current world economic crisis and the necessity for state "interference" with economies that, from a laissez faire viewpoint, should be "self-correcting." African countries like South Africa that have largely been insulated from that crisis will start to see its effects because of their dependence on exports revenues which are based on the prices of oil and other products on the world market. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44528 10/23/08 Stock markets in European and Asian countries continue their downward slide with the current recession. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7685639.stm 10/22/08 "THE GREAT INTER-WAR SLUMPS WERE NOT ACTS OF GOD OR BLIND FORCES. THEY WERE THE SURE AND CERTAIN RESULT OF THE CONCENTRATION OF TOO MUCH ECONOMIC POWER IN THE HANDS OF TOO FEW MEN." British Labour MP Tony Benn cites this passage from the 1945 Manifesto of the Labour Party, which document helped usher in the post-war program of government efforts to promote the public welfare, with the strong backing of the trade unions movement. Today, with the economy in yet another "inter-war slump," labor unions in decline and with bailouts to top banks helping the further "concentration" of economic power, it may be time again for another people's manifesto. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21062.htm 10/21/08 World stock markets respond favorably as governments around the world move to duplicate some aspects of U.S. financial stablization efforts. http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2008/10/2008102141924834297.html 10/19/08 Wealthier countries of the world made ambitious statements of support to Millenium Development goal of eradicating poverty in Africa; but few are stepping to the plate with concrete contributions. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44328 10/16/08 “Is the globalization of finance steering us towards heaven or hell?" Justin Podur quotes a line from a 1999 book in French from two former Wall Street operatives which describes the financialization of the world economy as a path to "heaven," while Podur takes the opposite tack and describes the hellish consequences of the pursuit of that particular road. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/the-financial-economy-and-the-real-economy/ 10/15/08 UN report says that a billion people worldwide are in hunger, with an "alarming" frequency in 33 countries. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44263 10/14/08 World "forces the hand" of U.S. Treeasury on Wall Street rescue:. "Aggressive" actions of European central banks over the weekend in "nationalising" banks by taking government ownership thereof is said to have forced an "injection" of U.S. taxpayer funds into American investments firms, lest they be out-competed by world financial institutions seeking investments. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/economy/14treasury.html?hp 10/14/08 World stock markets join NYSE in large jump in stock prices in wake of government rescue efforts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7668732.stm 10/13/08 Stock markets in Europe and Asia rebound sharply as investers seeking bargains pick through the carcasses of price-deflated banks and begin a spending spree that sends markets soaring. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7666608.stm 10/12/08 "Where will the money come from?" Indian writer notes that, in India as in the U.S.A.. there is a public outcry over any government appropriations that address the "agrarian crisis" that has created numerous farmer sucides in India, whereas the "financial crisis" that has afflicted these and most other world countries generates pressure for immediate and expensive bailouts, without regard to how these projects are to be financed. ttp://www.countercurrents.org/devinder101008.htm 10/12/08 U.K. may begin to bail out more of its banks today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7665823.stm 10/9/08 Shopping malls for the wealthy of India, featuring high fashion European clothing, are opening in New Delhi. http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/10/200810953622950708.html 10/6/08 Marxist take on the world financial crisis Nick Beams speaks in Sydney at 70th anniversity of Fourth International and describes the bail-out action in the U.S. as indication of a "government of, by, and for the wealthy. Not democracy and a land of laws, but a dictatorship of finance capital." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/nbe1-o04.shtml 10/6/08 As worldwide financial crisis continues, Europeans are finding that their economies are bigger than their political britches: , Bank failures and rumors of failures and mergers are rampant throught the continent, as there is not a central treasury in Europe with the financial resources to shore up sagging markets. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/business/06markets.html?th&emc=th 10/1/08 Indian writer sees no "up" side to the economic crisis highlighted by the ill-fated attempt to deal with the U.S. mortgage loan debacle.. 9/29/08 Euro bank Fortis gets partially "nationalised" by governments of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7641132.stm 9/28/08 Bradford and Bingley bank in U.K. is "nationalised." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7640143.stm 9/22/08 Another bank collapses in Denmark as international financial crisis reaches that country. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/109211.html 9/21/08 With soaring food prices in Argentina, soup kitchens in Buenos Aires are not able to keep up with demand. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43943 9/20/08 Could the moringa tree be the answer to sub-saharan Africa's hunger needs? Advocates believe that the leafs and seed pods of the "vegetable tree," traditionally grown and consumed in Africa and Asia, could become the staple on which the eradication of mal-nutrition is based. Skeptics awaits verification of the nutritional plant while some remember with disaste the "eat your moringa" demands of their parents. 8/21/08 Residents of a slum near Nairobi with one million people expect big things as one of "their own" assumes a role of power in Kenya's government. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43621 8/3/08 "Amid growing signs of famine and outrage, the entire chain of commodoties and resources of the world are now being cornered by giant corporations.": This is the premise of an article by Barbara Minton in which she describes how the "global food crisis" is reflected in the ability of multi-national corporations like Archer-Daniel Midland, Monsanto and Potash of Saskatchewan to control the market conditions for the distribution of seed and fertilizer, to their own great profit but to the impoverishment of the world's farmers and consumers. Oil and water shortages follow a similar dynamic of market control and manipulation. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/02/10770/ 8/2/08 Central bank of Venezuela tries to allay bank depositors' fears in wake of government's takeover of country's third largest bank. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/world/americas/02venez.html?th&em 7/19/08 UN food agency: Somalia sits at a "dire crossroads" as another famine impends:. The World Food Programme flounders in relief efforts as its agents are caught in the crossfire of conflict between Islamist militants and the government which was installed by an Ethopia-backed military operation. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=94267# 7/19/08 "Shack fire" displaces a thousand people in a Cape Town, South Africa neighborhood. Highlighting the housing, employment and immigration crises in South Africa, especially Capetown, 250 "shacks" are destroyed by fires in the Masiphumelele (a Xhosa word meaning "we will succeed") settlement with 90% unemployment and home to many refugees from xenophobic attacks on "immigrants" in May. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080719085736678C451188 FOR BACKGROUND ON MASIPHUMELELE, SEE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masiphumelele,_Cape_Town AND: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20080702055557256C238131 7/18/08 "Investors have to learn to bear losses as they do gains.":. An investment manager in Pakistan so lectures angry investors who spill into the street outside the Karachi stock market, which has been falling sharply for 15 days. As they throw street objects at the building, some of their spokespersons blame mismanagement by "investment managers" like the one lecturing them for the bear market situation. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?th&emc=th 7/13/08 As FDR might say: "Half a world; ill-fed, ill-housed, and over-crowded " IPS interview with UN Under-sectretary for Human Habitat highlights what she calls the growing "crisis" of 3.3 billion people, half the world's population, living in impoverished and over-crowded cities of the world. She calls for population control, empowerment of women and escalated infrastructure investment as keys to dealing with the crisis. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43157 7/2/08 Hunger is rampant in the horn of Africa, where millions in both Somalia and Ethiopia are suffering from warfare, escalating food prices and drought. 6/26/08 Growing income inequality has spurred a hot world market in the sale of corporate and private jets, as the very wealthy are able circumvent the economic problems of what is left of the "middle class" of people who are unable to afford the rising fares of public airline carriers, in the process circumventing as well concerns about the environmental impact of private air transportation. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/25/9864/ 6/14/08 Land greed of the world's wealthy is destryoing the planet's scenery: . And they are destroying much more, notes Barbara Ehrenreich, describing their invasion of Key West and the effect of their land hungriness as, for example, billionaire horse farms are forcing the rural poor into trailer homes, and expensive sky-boxes in football stadiums are putting "take me out to the ball game" a forlorn hope for most poor people. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/ehrenreich 6/11/08 High gas prices force shutdown of Meals on Wheels, in Victoria, B.C. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080610.wbcmeals10/BNStory/National/home 5/25/08 UN's Word Food Program is struggling to keep abreast of rising food prices in their quest to feed the hungry of the world. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0522/p01s02-wogn.html 5/22/08 Women in poor neighborhood of Asuncion, Paraguay deal with rising food prices by forming a cooperative and buying food in bulk. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42446 5/20/08 German President, former head of IMF, raises hackles in financial world with his accusation of international monetary industry's to indulge in too much investment with too little capital as responsible for world's financal crisis. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE20Dj05.html 4/28/08 War on rural poverty is succeeding in Latin American countries with direct cash subidies to the poorest of families. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42141 4/15/08 Globalization is "disappearing" the poor in India and around the world. The "cleaning out" of their poor sections by Beijing and Delhi in anticipation of international games is symbolic of the larger tendency for the poor as the "losers" in globalization's supposed benefits to be pushed out of sight and mind. What do losers do? Some oblige the desire that they just go away by taking their own lives, as have many debtor farmers in India. Others become the militants, terrorists and Maoists who refuse all efforts to disappear them http://www.countercurrents.org/seabrook100408.htm 4/13/08 IMF head warns of world hunger crisis as food prices rise. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7344892.stm 4/12/08 India's government tries to calm runaway inflation by barring cement export, with a similar ban on steel export also expected. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINDEL20646720080412?rpc=611 4/12/08 South Florida activists say food donations to hungry in Haiti is not reaching its intended recipients, and recommend cash donations instead of food. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flrndhaitian0412sbapr12,0,2783896.story 4/11/08 Worldwide war between the have's and have-not's is highlighted by food riots in Haiti: In many countries around the world, inflated food prices are creating a rising tide of hunger in the "developing" world as crops are used for fuel to help satisfy the ever-expanding consumption patterns of the wealthy, most recently among the well-to-do of Asian countries. The attacks in Port au Prince on UN "peacekeepers" may reflect a sense of some of the poor that the UN is an instrument for keeping "peace" to allow this wealth distribution process to proceed. 4/2/08 In an area of India heavily infected with farmer suicides, women's self-help credit systems are coming to the assistance of their widows. 4/1/08 Cuban tourist "apartheid" ends as Cuban nationals are now allowed to stay at tourist hotels, also to buy cellphones and other luxury products. 3/29/08 World food aid programs are said to be inadequately equipped to deal with the rising tide of food prices because of low supplies and high demands. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41780 3/12/08 Are Millenium Goals for poverty reduction being reached in Colombia? Depends on how you measure progress and where you measure it: most apparent progress is in urban areas as rural ones are left behind. http://www.latinamericapress.org/Article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5508 3/8/08 Canada for now bucks the U.S. recessionary trend while adding jobs to its work force while the U.S. is losing them. Experts think it may not last but will be Canada's "last gasp" before joining U.S. trend. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080308.wjobs08/BNStory/National/home 2/20/08 Changes in Cuban economy are on the agenda that must be addressed if Raul Castro is to succeed as his brother's successor http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41256 1/30/08 Post-election violence in Kenya; It's about more than ethnic rivalry and a bunlged vote count. As Kofi Annan tries to mediate the escalating violence, especially in the Rift Valley, experts point out that there is a strong social class dimension to the conflict there. Other tribes perceive the Kikuyu as having dominated land, water and housing in the area ever since Kenyatta's first government following independence from Britain. The opposition leader, though he's had a hand-shake conciliation with the declared winner, is unable to contain the disappointment of hopes of the poor of all tribes in Kenya for an amelioration of their poverty. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40968 1/28/08 Iis biofuel boom producing world hunger through a spike in commodoties prices? Corn and other producers are clashing with "food security" agencies in their assessments of how much influence the heightened demand for plants for ethanol and other bio-fuels has in pricing food out of the range of affordability for human consumption. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0128/p03s03-usec.html?page=2 1/21/08 Fears of U.S. recession producing panic on global stock markets http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7199552.stm 1/13/08 Emily Spence notes that the people of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, have consistently been rated among the most "happy" of the world's people. This leads her to reflections on the "unsustainability" of efforts to secure human happiness through the relentless pursuit of worldly goods. Will "success spoil" the people of the "developed" world? It already has. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/01/on-rejecting-the-system/ 1/5/08 In Canada, as in the U.S., only the very very rich are getting richer, while real income is stagnant or declining for rest of the population. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080104.wcoessay0105/BNStory/specialComment/home 12/30/07 In Central American "isthmus" of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, rapid economic growth masks a persistent poverty and growing inequality in these countries. http://www.latinamericapress.org/Article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5425 11/17/07 Congo Republic, an "oil-rich" country, is facing international demands for "accountability" in use of its oil resources for its people: Although the government claims to be responsive to those demands, its behavior suggests otherwise, as oil profits tend to fall into the hands of government-connected persons, and two activists promoting accountability are jailed on what critics claim are trumped-up charges of misappropriation of funds. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40091 11/9/07 The flip side of the "Irish Miracle". Canadian writer reflects on the human consequences of the rapid economic development of Ireland, a reputed Celtic Tiger in the world economy. He notes that this economic boom was based on a neo-liberal recipe of stagnant wages and diminished public services, as tax cuts for the wealthy cut into the country's National Health Service and other programs designed to reduce social inequality. The writer sees Canada as heading in the same direction and for the same reasons. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/08/5092/ 8/15/07 Indian sports writer for BBC returns to India after 40 years and finds the country "transformed"---for the 20% of those enjoying a wealthy existence, not the 80% still living in poverty. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6946800.stm 7/31/07 Monsoon wedding...er...birthday parties are all the rage among India's elite:In a country with a huge rate of poverty and "farmer suicides" making the news, the country's middle class, nourished by globalization profits, are extending the tradition of lavish weddings into extravagant birthday parties for their children. A party planner comments that India is the best place in the world to be rich, the worst place to be poor. 7/30/07 A long-standing government program of subsidizing bread designed to make it available to Egypt's poor has spawned a prevalent corruption in the creation of a black market which has escalated bread prices in bakeries and produced severe shortages in supplies available to the poor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0730/p06s02-wome.html?page=1 6/24/07 Organizations in Colombia are calling for the government to be put on trial for its role in the massive displacements of population within the country, which are seen as a land grab by country's economic elite. http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?IssCode=&lanCode=1&artCode=5168 6/10/07 "Rich people have jobs, poor people need work." With this simple (simplistic?) formula, economist Lance Pritchett encapsulates his controversial and thought-provoking argument for the "globalization of labor," including "guest worker" programs in the currently-stalemated immigration reform bill in the United States. His ideas offend thinkers from the left and the right; progressives because temporary worker systems create a permanent labor under class; conservatives because they challenge the Washington (and World Bank) Consensus that the development of the under-developed world is the key to the elimination of poverty. Love them or hate them, it's hard to brush his ideas aside. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/magazine/10global-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine 5/7/07 Mother of Indian film-maker criticizes her son for not "staying with the poor" in his film on a Delhi cabbie company. 4/22/07 Former official of World Bank argues that inequality in Latin America, contrary to some economic theories, does not promote development but discourages it when the poor are denied opportunities to participate in the benefits of development. http://www.bostonreview.net/BR32.2/birdsall.html 4/9/07 Chinese government looking for help from private social welfare agencies in its project to reduce poverty in the country. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-04/09/content_846173.htm 4/7/07 ZAMBIANS STARVE AS U.S. AGRI-BUSINESS FLEXES ITS MUSCLE. World food aid is largely dependent on U.S. participation; but U.S. law, supported by farm state members of Congress, limits aid to U.S.-produced food crops, forbidding cash payments for food grown in the countries being aided, so that piles of locally-growth corn in Zambia lie unused for lack of cash to purchase it for the benefit of the country's hungry. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/world/africa/07zambia.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 3/8/07 "Ownership society" comes to China in form of new property law. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6429317.stm 3/7/07 They call it "food insecurity", but more Palestinians are starving: World Food Programme notes 25% rise in number of people who are receiving food assistance. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0307/p06s02-wome.html 3/1/07 Think poverty is bad in America? It is, but check out Cairo, Egypt, where millions live in abject poverty in a "ruralized metropolis" in which there is a pervasive sense of government abandonment and they must live by their wits and their own devices. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/world/middleeast/01cairo.html?th&emc=th 2/22/07 Poverty cleansing in Vancouver. Am Johal: While hosts to 2010 Winter Olympics like to wave flags and trumpet their civic liberalism, the reality is that the city's political elites have indulged in a long-running effort to "clean up" its eastside downtown by depriving the residents there of a traditionally cohesive neighborhood. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=108&ItemID=12177 2/19/07 Wage increases in Denmark last year were at an unexpectedly low 3.2% and economists call this "good news." http://www.cphpost.dk/get/100500.html 12/9/06 Report by independent evaluation unit of World Bank says that poverty is not being reduced in most countries around the world; Bank management says the report is "overly glum." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1208-06.htm 11/25/06 Sounds like the old American WIC program: UK government's Healthy Start programe will soon be giving vouchers for poor families to obtain free milk, fruits and vegetables. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6182592.stm 11/13/06 Rise of the philanthropreneur, doing well by doing good: Gates, Bono and company challenge the Principles of Philanthropy .01 with its emphasis on foundation grants to an "upgraded" version of harnessing the free market to address problems of the poor of the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/us/13strom.html?_r=1&ref=giving&oref=slogin 9/24/06 Watchdog group warns that Paul Wolfowitz' "anti-corruption crusade" at the World Bank, supposedly designed to help the world's poor, may actually harm them by denying loans which legitimately help the poor, and turning a blind eye to the agency's own practices in making loans to corrupt dictators. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0923-03.htm 8/13/06 Center for Global Development calculate a "commitment index" to measure richer nations' level of contributions to alleviation of world poverty. The Netherlands (followed closely by Sweden, Denmark and Norway) is #1; U.K is #12, U.S.A. is #13: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0813-03.htm 5/28/06 Venezuela's economic boom continues, with declining inflation and unemployment, rising minimum wages. http://www.sfbayview.com/052406/inflation052406.shtml 4/24/06 Philippines poverty has many causes, with population growth chief among them: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=36643 4/9/06 World's super-rich have a new facility: a shadow boat, built in Ft. Lauderdale, for their mega-yachts; a "toy box" to carry their travel essentials like a helicopter and SUV: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2070429,00.html 4/1/06 Depleted soil and expanding population threaten Africa's food supplies: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8929-soil-health-crisis-threatens-africas-food-supply.html
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Websites: Economic Analysis and Research Network:
National Center for Children in Poverty: Urban Institute: Income and Wealth Distribution (abstracts of published research articles and papers): http://www.urban.org/economy/income.cfm
Analysis & views: 12/28/08 WHAT'S IN A NAME? IF YOU'RE GMAC AND THE NAME IS "BANK HOLDING COMPANY," THE NAME COULD BE WORTH BILLIONS IN FEDERAL BAILOUT FUNDS. A deadline passes for the financial arm of GM to jump through the hoops required for this designation, but company officials hope still to rescue their agency and perhaps GM as its principal shareholder from bankruptcy. 12/23/08 U.S. craft stores doing well in the recession of this holiday shopping season, as many cash-strapped shoppers are buying materials to make their own gifts http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/business/23craft.html 12/19/08 Homeboy Industries and community gardens: The poor can help themselves:. Shannon Prince describes some self-help approaches to poverty alleviation that move the "war on poverty" from programs on "behalf" of the poor to those actually adminstered by the poor themselves. Homeboy Industries is led by black mothers and is a mult-faceted approach to integrating the poor into the existing employment economy, while community gardens are an instrument of converting deteriorated urban spaces into an enterprise to the benefit of local residents. http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=941&Itemid=1 12/15/08 MORE BAILOUTS? U.S. STATES ARE SEEING THEIR SUPPLY FUNDS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE DWINDLE INTO INSOLVENCY. With record levels of unemployment applications, 30 states are facing the necessity of borrowing from the federal government or passing "solvency tax" levies on employers. Indiana and Michigan are leading the parade, having already reached the dead broke level in these funds. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/us/15funds.html?th&emc=th 12/14/08 U.S. food banks are having to find "creative" ways of enhancing their stock, including the salvaging of "inedible" foods as their supplies dry up. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-12-14-foodbanks-farms_N.htm 12/14/08 A new sermon theme is packing them into evangelical churches: "The theological meaning of the downturn.": Pastors across the country are adjusting their traditional sermons to reflect the economic anxieties of people; and at least in evangelical churches like one in a neighborhood in New York with yacht clubs and serving hedge fund manager residents, the message is being well received. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/nyregion/14churches.html?th&emc=th 12/12/08 Will the dominoes begin to fall in the U.S. auto industry? As Congress declines to buy the Big Three automakers bailout, these companies face insolvency and possible bankruptcy by the end of this month. Failing some other kind of "rescue," not only may these companies fail, but so may the parts suppliers to whom the companies owe many billions of dollars in unpaid bills. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12rescue-web.html?_r=1&hp 12/11/08 Dean Baker, often a critic of Obama economic policy, really likes his plan for spending on infrastructure for economic stimulus: His only complaint is that the plans do not go far enough in stimulating job growth. Funding should be found as well for such pressing needs as rescuing states and localities from their budget crises and a fully funded and truly universal health insurance program. Common Dreams critics post comments noting Baker's failure to provide any guidance on how these expensive programs are to be funded, except through massive borrowing and federal budget deficits; no mention for example of cost-cutting in the massive military budget. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/10-6 12/10/08 White House and Congress agree "on principle" to $15 billion "bailout" for Big Three automakers, with funds to be distributed by "car czar." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/07/national/w111246S40.DTL 12/9/08 Anheuser-Busch will cut 1400 salaried jobs across the U.S., 1000 of them in St. Louis. 12/7/08 Laid off workers in a Chicago factory, closed with 3 day notice after creditors refused the company's loans, protest by occupying the premises of the now-closed factory. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_bi_ge/workers_takeover;_ylt=ApyO_xt4B3VoMwDSGoCvPrtG2ocA 12/6/08 A bailout for Chrysler? It wasn't supposed to have been this way...:Unlike Ford and GM which are publicly traded corporations, Chrysler is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cerebrus Corporation, a huge conglomerate of corporate holdings in the auto industy and elsewhere. With Cerebrus supposedly having profits from its other holdings to subsidize any losses in Chrysler, it was assumed that Chrysler had its own "private equity" solution to its problems. Still, using its substantial government "connections" such employment of former VP Dan Quayle and former Treasury Secretary John Snow, Chrysler shows up along with "other two" in pleas for a government bailout. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/business/06chrysler.html?th&emc=th 12/4/08 During the late campaign, John McCain accused Barack Obama of advocating "socialism" by virtue of his plans for income re-distribution with adjustments in tax rates for different income brackets. The GOP Secretary of the Treasury, says economist Dean Baker, is engaged with taxpayer "bailout" money in a massive program of re-distribution of wealth, but it is re-distribution into the hands of shareholders of "failed" businesses to guarantee income that they would otherwise have lost as a result of those failures. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/02-6 11/24/08 CEO'S OF BIG 3 AUTOMAKERS MAY CAR POOL WHEN NEXT THEY GO TO D.C. TO BEG FOR BAILOUT. Suffering a P.R. disaster from their having travelled last week by separate executive jets to plea for congressional assistance, they now are organizing "carvans" of executives from Detroit to D.C. to demonstrate that they actually can cut production costs by reining back their own job perks. (One commenter says it may be "too little too late," and President-elect Obama says they had best do their homework and have a plan in mind before they come begging again.) http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/25/big_three_may_make_car_pool_to_dc/ 11/24/08 U.S. Treasury proposes to buy a $20 billion stake in Citigroup. http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.citi24nov24,0,956594.story 11/24/08 Sign of economic times: as shoe buying falters, shoe repair business is flourishing. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-11-23-shoe-repair_N.htm 11/22/08 Gates Foundation cuts back on its grant plans in response to economic downturn. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008422359_gates22.html 11/21/08 Faith-based Paulson: “I think our major institutions have been stabilized. I believe that very strongly.":." Secretary of Treasury makes that assessment with little or no evidence in support of that "belief," as stocks, especially those of major investment firms, continue to fall dramatically and investers apparently got little confidence boost from the bailout and the firms are using bailout funds to make their own investments in U.S. Treasury. (Maybe the Treasury is the only "institution" that has been "stabilised.") http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/economy/21norris.html?_r=1&hp 11/19/08 "How can he bail out those banks but not help the homeowners?" It's the refrain heard on the streets of Queens in New York City and in other foreclosure-stressed communities around the nation as President Bush and his Secretary of the Treasury try to explain the logic of putting more money into the real estate lending industry without establishing regulations to prevent the continuation of predatory lending practices like adjustable rate mortgages. 11/17/08 Only half of Houston residents who are eligible for food stamps are actually receiving them. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6116363.html 11/16/08 Christian Science Monitor writer says Big Three automakers may not be able to "afford" the $25 billion bailout that Congress is being asked to offer them. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1114/p25s07-usec.html 11/15/08 Congressional plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure? That would be no plan: Congressional hearings highlight the necessity of dealing with the current economic problems at their source (the housing crisis) but Congress continues to focus on corporate bailouts, in the next round on rescue of Big Three automakers, and any program of relief for stressed homeowners in paying their mortgages may be put on the table until the next Congress convenes in January. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44704 11/15/08 Philadelphia mayor goes to Washington to beg for emergency federal assistance for his and other U.S. cities. 11/13/08 "Oour society is so far out of economic whack...." David Glenn Cox, an Atlanta writer, decries the gross disparity between the desperate rescue of banks and industrial producers from economic bankruptcy, while in Atlanta many applicants for food pantry assistance are turned away as "ineligible" and one has to be "130% below the poverty line" to qualify for economic assistance because public agencies can't afford to rescue them. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21204.htm 11/12/08 Who are the architects of economic collapse? Michel Chossudovsky suggests that, in answering that question we should look very carefully at the roster of men currently being considered for President-Elect Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, all of whom have intimate connections with the Wall Street financial powerhouses that are arguably the causes of the collapse. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10860 11/11/08 As Thanksgiving approaches, food banks around the U.S. report they have less food available to feed an increasing number of those seeking it. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/giving/11FOOD.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 11/10/08 U.S. Treasury piles bailout funds on top of bailout funds for A.I.G. The insurance giant was already to have received $110 billion in bailout funding. Treasury and Fed jointly will be putting additional $40 billion into the A.I.G. bailout, in exchange for "partial government ownership" of the company. (Apparently this is all within the "discretion" of these agencies without Congressional approval.) http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-AIG-Bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin 11/10/08 Is the Wall Street bailout going to be another "fraud-free zone" like that of the CPA-sponsored "reconstruction" of Iraq?: Naomi Klein finds disturbing procedural similarities in the process of distributing bailout funds now being developed---and those in which Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority doled out no-bid and often non-fulfilled contacts Iraq in 2004. As another public "trough" is defined, new pigs are lining up to eat. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/09-6 11/9/08 Democrats in Congress want some of the Treasury's bailout money to be expended to help ailing automakers. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20081108-1118-bush-automakers.html 11/9/08 Just in time for Christmas, an economic stumulus boost? (well, maybe not Christmas 2008...): Hopes for Congress and the White House to enact a stimulus package that will have an impact on Christmas buying seem a little remote. Even if such a bill is passed, "Analysts already are skeptical about how much a $100 billion stimulus, the figure most often discussed, would move a $14 trillion economy." Those with rosier colored glasses suggest that even a token-level stimulus will give a favorable "psychological boost" for consumers (buy it now on the credit card, pay for it in January when we get a bigger "stimulus" check). http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55522.html 11/7/08 Will Barack Obama be able to deliver on his promises for an improved U.S. economy? Not, says Naomi Klein, unless he is able somehow to rein in the "bailout profiteers" who have been rewarded for their financial malfeasance with a budget-busting rescue package that will denude the Treasury of any capacity to heed the nation's demand for better schools, health care, wages and tax relief for the middle class. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/06-11 11/7/08 Maryland Governor announces that banks in the state will move toward adjusting mortages for homeowners threatened with foreclosure. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.mortgages07nov07,0,739630.story 11/1/08 Economists warning that drop in global demand for U.S. products may lead to higher unemployment and price deflation. 10/24/08 USDA scuttles Philly's "universal feeding program." The government agency decrees that the city's program of feeding all children without application from parents is making the program too popular, with twice the rate of participation in other cities in which such applications are required. Critics say families are intimidated by application forms and a "reformed" program will deprive many needy children of feeding. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/10/screwing-philadelphias-poor-while-stroking-wall-streets-elite/ SEE ALSO: 10/22/08 With the job marrket in the tank and student loans harder to get, panic sets in on college campuses: . A McClatchy newspaper report, as part of its series on how "Main Street" economy suffers as the "Wall Street" economy is bailed out http://www.mcclatchydc.com/333/story/54423.html 10/21/08 Predatory lending? Give some of the blame for that to the Supreme Court:. The Court is part of an overall U.S. court system which is stacked against consumer fraud complaints and in favor of financial institutions that may "prey" on them. This is reflected in Court decisions that uphold the "right" of businesses to, for example, charge unexpected "fees' on credit accounts because these help in the "financial stabilization" of those firms. (Sound familiar? When did this get into the Bill of Rights?) http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081103/lawless 10/21/08 "Iis it too much to say we are seeing the end of economic democracu and the emergence of a financial oligarchy?" Economist Michael Hudson, reflecting on Treasury Secretary Paulson's speech trying to explain the "bailout," thinks that such a likelihood of oligarchic development is certainly not "too much to say." The economic consequences of the bailout, he thinks, trend inevitably toward the increasing concentration of wealth into the hands of this "oligarchy." http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson10202008.html 10/20/08 The financial crisis and the outsourcing of suicide: A few commentators have asked: if the current Wall Street crisis is so traumatic, why aren't we seeing ex-millionaires jumping out of tall buildings in New York City? Nick Nurse tackles this question by a survey of local press coverage around the nation of men and women who have engaged in "extreme acts" including suicide, murder and defiance of authority, often centered around eviction incidents, that are typically reported only locally. Just as the bailout has allowed survival of Wall Street mortgage firms while foreclosures proceed at the level of the individual homeowner so, Nurse suggests, suicide has been "out-sourced" from Wall Street to Main Street. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/19174 10/18/08 The latest scheme for economic recovery has $250 billion of U.S. funds put into leading banks to improve the "liquidity" of these banks (their capacity to finance loans) without any regulation as to how or whether they will actually use these funds for the benefit of would-be borrowers from "Main Street." But wait, says William Greider writing for the Obama-supporting Nation: more exactly, wait for the next President (Obama), the knight in shining armor from the Land of the Little Guy who will swing his sword and compel those greedy titans of finance to use their largesse to the benefit of the masses. (How does Greider know this? Because Obama is going to give middle class tax cuts and create jobs at home. Never mind that Paulson comes from the world of Goldman Sachs, which happens to be his biggest campaign contributor and whom Obama said he would consider appointing as his own Treasury Secretary; never mind that both McCain and Obama forgot about the "regulation" of Wall Street in this week's debate.) http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081103/greider 10/18/08 When Micheal Hudson speaks, you might want to listen:. Linked here is a 1-hour interview by Guns and Butter of an interview with economist Michael Hudson, one of the severest critics of recent bailout legislation which he says will help create a new elite of wealthy "kleptocrats" comparable to those created in Russia from the handoff of collective assets into the hands of people whom people in the West like to call "oligarchs." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21041.htm 10/17/08 Paul Craig Roberts on the bailout: "Congress needs to restore fiancial regulation, not reward those who caused the crisis.": The former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury sees a rise of a new crop of "Wall Street billionaires" from the mis-guided project of rescuing mortgage firms without dealing with the root of the problem. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21034.htm 10/17/08 Will big banks that receive bailout funds loan out the money or sit on it as a cushion?, In a program to get credit "flowing" again in U.S. economy, this liquidity improvement depends on banks using new funding to make loans. But a New York Times analysis suggests that these banks may keep the money in reserve for at least "a quarter" to shield themselves from their recent heavy losses. The Comptroller of the Currency admits this possibility, but says that "economics" and the "court of public opinion" will dictate that they use the money to "unfreeze" the credit system. (With the public so poorly informed on monetary policy, how is that "court" going to work?) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/business/17bank.html?hp 10/15/08 "IN MANY RESPECTS, WORKING WITH (BARACK OBAMA) WILL BE VERY MUCH LIKE WORKING WITH PRESIDENT CLINTON....I THINK HE WILL BE JUST FINE." Glen Ford so quotes Clinton's former Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin who, along with Lawrence Summers and Alan Greenspan, worked with Clinton to provide legitimacy for the market derivatives practices that have formed the "mother of all bubbles" involved in the current Wall Street collapse. Despite Obama's making some populist-sounding gestures like offering 90-day foreclosure moratoriums to victims of mortgage broker malfeasance, Ford believes, anticipating an Obama presidency that "in January, the baton will essentially be passed from one finance capital team wearing red shorts to another finance capital team in blue." http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=838&Itemid=1 10/15/08 The U.S. Treasury will begin spending $250 billion to buy ownership shares in U.S. banks, half of that to a handful of the largest banks such as Bank of America in which they will invest $25 billion. So we the public will own a piece of these banks, but only temporarily, as the government hopes to re-sell these shares at a profit over their purchasing price so, to quote "Jules and Jim," we can "all go down to the seashore" with the wealth we gain from our brief brush with bank ownership. (Didn't a couple of characters from that movie drive over a cliff?) http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economics/story/53899.html 10/14/08 Rescue for the few, debt for thr many: This is the description by Michael Hudson, economic adviser to Dennis Kucinich, of the way the bailout project has worked. The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve have been operating beneath the radar of public awareness and now above it to "rescue" creditors while leaving debtors with unpayable debts. In so doing, they avoid the only real solution to the financial crisis: the cancellation of debts. Like Herbert Hoover, faced with a financial crisis from the unpaid reparations from defeated nations in World War I, they intone that a "debt is a debt" (while an inadequate capitalization of creditors is a cause for rescue from corporate bankruptcy). http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson10132008.html 10/12/08 New Bush administration plan to buy directly into the ownership of banks may represent a re-thinking of the approach of buying securitized mortgage loans. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/business/12imf.html?th&emc=th 10/11/08 Robert Cook on how to save the U.S economy:. The Global Research columnist says that the Wall Street bailout is NOT the way, that in fact: "the pumping in of credit or liquidity by Treasury or the Federal Reserve (is useless) because it is no more than new debt to roll over old debt." The scheme is based on thoroughly discredited "supply side" economics when in fact the world financial crisis is based on inadequate "demand" that would create truly productive enterprise rather than more debt. As a recipe for "saving" this economy, Cook advocates a program of demand-side measures that include not only tax cuts for people in lower income brackets but the once much-discussed "negative income tax" to provide tax "rebates" to those who don't pay income taxes. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10508 10/9/08 What happens on Wall Street doesn't stay on Wall Street. Peter Costantini reflects on the metaphors floating about concerning the current financial crisis, some of which compare the operation of Wall Street to that of a casino, since a great deal of "betting" takes place in both cases. Actually the metaphor is defective, says Costantini, since the casino management controls the situation to insure that the money the "gambler" loses will stay in Vegas. Wall Street has operated, by contrast, under a wild west mentality of anything goes as de-regulation has created instabilities that obviously do not stay on the Street as the effects have spread to markets around the world. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/08-4 10/5/08 Investment firms are bailed out to the tune of $700 billion, but what of the country's employment economy? Just released figures show loss of 159,000 jobs in September, highest monthly loss in 5 years, and these figures do not even reflect the most recent layoffs associated with financial institution failures. With job losses go income losses and reduced ability to buy houses even if all the "predatory lending" abuses of the mortgage loan business are stopped. 10/5/08 Craig Paul Roberts: Hank Paulson's bailout plan (now the law of the land) is a "fraud" The bailout starts at the wrong end of the chain of debts: from household to financial institution to U.S. Treasury debt that has produced the nation's financial crisis. Rather than a scheme to insure the viability of investment firms by committing the U.S. Treasury to massive borrowing from dubious creditors, what is needed is a rescue at the orginating end of this chain: the level of household income and individual homeowners' mortgage debts. President Bush says the scheme will succeed only slowly; Roberts doubts it can ever succeed. http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10032008.html 10/5/08 BY THE WAY, THE VOTE ON THAT FINAL MOTION THAT PUT THE BAILOUT BILL ON THE PRESIDENT'S DESK FOR SIGNING WITHIN MINUTES. This is in case you want to know which of your "representatives" in Congress caved in to the allurements of sugar in the package and, no doubt, the additional enticements/threats of Wall Street lobbyists and gave the middle finger to public opinion. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml 10/3/08 How could Christohper Cox be so wrong? This question is asked by a New York Times writer as he observes how the current bubble of bursting investment firms can be traced to March of this year when, just before Bear Stearns went bankrupt, the chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission said that “We have a good deal of comfort about the capital cushions at these firms at the moment.” Cox was apparently unaware of how the SEC had created condtions for market stability by an obscure "ruling" by the agency in 2004 that gave Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, headed by now-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., architect of the current bailout plan, an exemption from rules against excessive leveraging of debts without sufficient capital assets 10/3/08 With credit harder to get, fewer Americans are buying fewer used cars. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1003/p01s02-usec.html 10/2/08 William Blum "explains" the current and never-ceasing games of financial legerdemain that Wall Street agents play. The games are the buying and selling of incredibly insecure "securities" whose value is based on the "belief that something is worth something because it comes with a piece of paper with reassuring words and numbers written on it, because it's traded, rated, and insured, because someone will sell it and someone will buy it". The crisis comes when buyers say in effect "let me see the goods" and the "goods" capital behind the paper is not to be found. The saving grace of the crisis may be that it puts the lie to the libertarian/neo-conservative nonsense that "free market" adjustments will solve all problems if only government leaves the investing class the freedom to play their socially destructive games without any rules of the game. http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer62.htm 10/2/08 Senate slaps more band-aids on top of the bailout band-aid for U.S. financial problems: The same leaders of the White House, Congress and the presidential campaigns put together a revised version of the measure which includes such popular items as middle class income tax cuts and expanded medical care for the mentally ill, and it passes 74-25. With these "improvements," its sponsors hope that enough House members will reverse their dissenting votes and send the legislation to the White House for presidential signing. THE VOTE: 10/2/08 Opinion: Failure of leadership or success of democracy? Editor of Sun State Activist weighs in with a letter to the editor on House rejection of Wall Street bailout. 10/2/08 Glen Ford: With the current financial crisis, the country is headed toward a train wreck and both parties are on the fateful trip into oblivion: The Black Agenda Report editor sees the hand of a Wall Street "paymaster" behind the "pump and dump" transfer of $770 billion of taxpayer dollars into the Wall Street-generated crisis. He gives special attention to the black congressional caucus and how it, like Congress in general, is split down the middle between those who accept tickets on this train, a split that confounds the usual distinction between conservative and progressive parties and people. http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=806&Itemid=1 10/2/08 "This bill sends a message to Wall Street that if you play fast and loose for short-term profits, then the government will actually make up for your losses.": Florida's Senator Bill Nelson, one of the 24 U.S. Senators who voted against the "new and improved" version of a bill to provide "debt relief" for investment firms. http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=131050 10/1/08 Laura Flanders: On Monday in Washington, chicken little croaked:. The columnist for Nation comments on the overwhelming popular opposition to the Wall Street bailout despite leaders of both parties assuring them of dire economic consequences should the bill be defeated. With its defeat, the only thing that fell was a 777 point decline in the stock market, over half of which was recouped the next day. No the sky didn't fall, which for Nation would probably be defined as having happened if Barack Obama who supported the bailout along with all Republican and Democratic "leaders," were to fall from grace as the candidate believed to most competent to "handle" the economy. Flanders seems to breath this sigh of relief but calls on Obama to engage in some "transformational thought" on how actually to "handle" the situation. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/366691/the_day_chicken_little_croaked 9/30/08 Having predicted economic "calamity" if the grand ballout plan for Wall Street were not passed, supporters of the now-defeated measure "grope" for solutions to avoid the fulfillment of their prophecy as gloom descends on world markets. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30cong.html?th&emc=th HOUSE VOTE: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml 9/30/08 Want to understand how Wall Street banksters operate? You might want to view Martin Scorcese's classic film Goodfellas. Antonio D'Ambrosio notes how the petty gangsters depicted in the film use a lounge owner to house their fencing operations, load debt on him and then "bust the joint out" (burn it) when those operations are complete. Similarly, today's "banksters," buy-out billionaires who run companies into bankruptcies and then bail out on their golden parachutes are the "Goodfellas" of today's financial world. http://www.slepton.com/slepton/viewcontent.pl?id=2146 9/29/08 The United States - and the world financial community tied to it - is about to get a new financial czar. The agreed-upon "bailout" of the investment industry which will likely be approved by Congress and signed into law by the President will create an autonomy of the Secretary of the Treasury to make government investments in financial instruments (not just mortgages) with little effective "oversight" by any branch of government: executive, judicial or legislative; the constitutional balance of powers will become an equality of impotence. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bill.html?th&emc=th 9/29/08 2.6 million people on food stamps in Texas. Ft. Worth newspaper reports on situation locally and throughout the state. As Texans face rising prices and the loss of jobs, spouses and homes, the rolls of those receiving emergency food relief rise to the highest level since the Katrina-related crisis of 2005. While increases in allowances and lightening of the bureaucratic burdens of its administration have improved the program, many complain that the aid is just "not enough" given the escalated level of their needs. http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/938148.html 9/28/08 Should the almost-settled plan to rescue Wall Street be called the "Bush bailout"?" Not so, says Sharon Smith. Although many congressional Democrats feigned shock at the enormity of the cost of the plan announced by the Secretary of Treasury, those like Charles Schumer. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who expressed this shock are "fully complicit" in a long-running string of such bail-outs, their actions apparently influenced by the heavy financing of their political campaigns by Wall Street firms. http://www.slepton.com/slepton/viewcontent.pl?id=2139 9/28/08 "Blind eye to risk" said to be factor in financial collapse of A.I.G. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28melt.html?th&emc=th 9/26/08 Arianna Huffington notes how, in a stunning reversal of expected roles, McCain may be standing as the "maverick" against a Bush bill for a credit crisis bailout of Wall Street firms; while Obama's call for a "bipartisan" consensus in its support leads him to speak against deal-threatening provisos such as coupling the bailout with bankruptcy relief for the debt-stressed or to economic stimulus measures for the middle class. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/bailout-bill-obama-needs_b_129374.html 9/26/08 Republican conservatives stall investment firm bailout on grounds of fiscal irresponsibility. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080925-1932-financialmeltdown.html 9/25/08 Is this bailout realy necessary? James K. Galbraith, writing for Washington Post, says no. With the five big investment banks having disappeared or morphed into "regular" banks, the institutional defects behind the crisis can be "cured" (albeit slowly and painfully) with "old fashioned" remedies like guaranteed loans and a re-focussing of the national economy on such needs as infrastructure reconstruction, alternative energy development and a federal addressing of the revenue crisis of state and local governments 9/24/08 "Assume the position." Margaret Kimberley's succinct summary of what American taxpayers and workers are being asked to do in support of the bipartisan plan for a massive bailout of what she describes as the very Wall Street "criminals" who have precipitated the financial crisis that is now being "addressed," a plan which will allow the Secretary of the Treasury to make financial decisions not reviewable by Congress or the courts. http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=794&Itemid=1 9/24/08 Proposal to bail out Wall Street investment firms is the focus of intense debate in Washington. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/24cong.html?th&emc=th 9/22/08 With the current Wall Street meltdown, will a stake be driven through the heart of deregulation, the evil force that spawned it?: Not likely, says Alexander Cockburn, noting that the crisis is the product of a process of removing restraints from financial operators that is a truly "bi-partisan" affair that continued through both Clinton and Bush administrations and is likely to do so again with either a McCain or an Obama one. http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09202008.html 9/19/08 Working harder and falling behind: Lee Sustar's review of recent data on wages of American workers, showing that the "American Dream" of moving up the economic ladder as work experience is gained is being replaced by an employment "two-tier" wage system that keeps most workers, especially women and African-American ones, in a situation in which they cannot hope to attain the economic levels of their parents http://www.slepton.com/slepton/viewcontent.pl?id=2114 9/18/08 "The American practice of privatizing profits and socializing losses would be considered unacceptable in most other democracies.": A Canadian economics professor, in the wake of the latest "bail-outs" of over-leveraged financial institutions, blasts the practice, beginning with the Reagan administration and continuing through those of both parties, of "de-regulation" of those institutions (privatizing profits) engaging in taxpayer-funded rescues (socializing losses). (Maybe "most other democracies" don't have a two-party political system with both parties controlled by their financial giants.) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10232 9/17/08 $200 billion here, $85 billion there: This could start to add up to some real money: U.S. seizes control of American Insurance Group, providing $85 b in loans to the company, after last month's Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bail out with up to $200 b in investments from federal funds. Nancy Pelosi objects to the AIG bailout, saying: "An $85 billion loan is a staggering sum and is just too enormous for the American people to bear the risk." 9/17/08 Joe Biden "does" Holyoke; one part of it, anyway: . The Democrats' Vice-Presidential nominee takes a quick gallop from his car to the Log Cabin restaurant in the economically depressed Massachusetts city (once called the "Paper Capitol of the World") to attend a $2,300 a plate fund-raiser which raises $300,000 for the Obama-Biden ticket. The attenders feed a little more sumptuously than the nearly half of the population, largely Hispanic, who subsist on food stamps which cover $1 a meal in food costs. Biden thus cements a reputation developed as he supported a bankruptcy bill written by credit card companies that denied the bankruptcy privilege to many of their clients. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/two-worlds-in-one-city/ 9/16/08 As Wall Street goes into 500-point meltdown on the Dow, McCain and Obama bark loudly, but how strong will their bite be?: New York Times analysis indicates that the two candidates embody two different approaches to the problem, McCain railing against Wall Street "greed" and Obama complaining of the laxity of "regulation" on Street trading. Considering the views of their economic advisers, McCain's history as a "de-regulator," and Obama's heavy campaign funding by the same Wall Street firms which he would be regulating, the Times article suggests some skepticism about the "bite" of either candidate. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/us/politics/16record.html?hp 9/15/08 While you slept last night (9-14-08), two of your "storied" institutions bit the dust. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreed to be purchased by Bank of America at a small fraction of the company's value a few months ago. A hectic day on the "Street" is anticipated as markets open this morning. Monday trading is already underway in Europe and Asia and stocks in those markets fall sharply. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown EUROPE AND ASIA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7615961.stm 8/19/08 One family's foreclosure disaster is another family's bargain in Boston. http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/08/19/the_upside_of_home_foreclosure/ 8/17/08 Price increases will be seen in school lunches in many Kansas City area schools during this school year, as price in some goes up to $2 for a high school student meal. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/752050.html 7/26/08 Mother may I? In this game, minimum wage workers take baby steps forward and giant steps backwards. The federal minimum wage "stepped" forward by 70 cents an hour a year ago. Since that time the price of gasoline and food has gone nearly out of sight, so that the "real wages" of workers have had to take that "giant step" backwards. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/minimum-wage-raise-too-little-too-late/ 7/20/08 Shoppers in the Boston area, confronted with escalating food prices, put aside their "locavore" consciousness that has led them to farmers markets' and even their concern about food safety to buy their produce at the Haymarket, which provides cheap prices without regard to their region of origin and even without regard to whether they might be infected by salmonella. It may be dirty and environmentally unfriendly, but it's where they can afford to shop. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/19/bushels_of_bargains/ 7/17/08 Portland Oregon housing market: from full bloom to full swoon in one year. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1216263310107370.xml&coll=7 7/2/08 Food riot breaks out in a "third world city": Milwaukee, Wisconsin:. Chaotic conditions occur in a line of 3,000 people waiting to receive vouchers for food under an emergency food program, based on providing help for victims of midwest flooding. Most of those seeking food were not flood victims but victims of the chronic unemployment and poverty in the city, which is among the worst in the nation. Especially hard-hit are Milwaukee's children, 33% of whom live below the poverty line and who are deprived of school feeding programs during summer school recess. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/desperate-in-milwaukee/ 6/26/08 Who's behind the gouging at the gas pump? The "Wall Street goliaths." Mike Whitney says: According to Whitney, "supply and demand" is not the major cause as fuel supplies are actually plentiful and there has been no escalation of demand, rather there has been a dramatic increase in oil prices resulting from the speculative activities of investment firms, including many of the "goliaths" who control both political parties in the U.S. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/gas-pump-gouging-dont-blame-the-saudis/ 6/26/08 While private jet industry soars, public airlines warn darkly of possible "collapse." Industry leaders are urging Congress and the presidential candidates to give due consideration to their dire straits, as escalating fuel costs threaten to price travel on public carriers out of reach of most travellers. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0626/p01s06-usgn.html 6/18/08 New "housing alliance" is working to encourage mortgage lenders to "modify" at-risk loans rather than having borrowers fall into foreclosure proceedings. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p02s05-usec.html``` 6/12/08 A weak dollar, bad Fed policies, hedge fund speculators:. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of Treasury in Reagan administration, gives his assessment of the major factors driving the high oil and gasoline prices in the world. While "supply and demand" factors are certainly operative, monetary policies that encourage rampant commodities speculation are featured in Roberts' analysis. http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts06112008.html 6/12/08 As summer jobs for teenagers become more scarce in the "tough" economy of Detroit, the frequency of teen volunteering for public service jobs increases. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS05/806120419/1001/NEWS 6/11/08 Republican filibuster stops Senate action to hold oil companies "accountable" for high gas prices: . Senate fails to reach 60 votes needed for closure on a bill that would, among other things, impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies. The two parties immediately "frame" the result |