We are all aware that the powers that be announced in June 2009 that the recession was over. Things will start looking up, they crowed. What most Americans didn't realize is that the pundits had a very narrow definition of these "things". What they really meant is that the high finance world of Wall Street was headed for better times. They weren't talking nor thinking about the condition of small businesses or the vast majority.
Consider, for example, that about 1 in 7 people (my family included) uses Food Stamps each month to insure there is enough to eat. That's 14% of the population in this nation! This number has been steadily climbing for quite a while.
Does that indicate we're headed in the direction of "better times"?
The housing picture isn't much better. Foreclosures continue to swallow up people at a horrifying rate. We set a national all-time high in 2010 and most economists are certain we will eclipse that record this year.
Home values aren't doing very well either. As Robert Reich explains,
And, despite the funny math employed by the US government, the job outlook continues to look bleak. Only 36,000 jobs were added in January -- 140,000 was the prediction -- yet we are concurrently told that the jobless rate fell from 9.4% to 9.0%. Of course, the reason the Labor Department keeps lowering the monthly rate, even when jobs don't keep pace, is that more and more of the unemployed are giving up looking for jobs that don't exist.
Does this picture support the notion that we're headed in the direction of "better times"?
Almost every indicator a person can pull up shows very clearly that we are not heading in a good direction -- at least not a good direction for 90% of the population. The fat cats may indeed be smelling roses; but that's not the scent the rest of us are smelling!
Consider, for example, that about 1 in 7 people (my family included) uses Food Stamps each month to insure there is enough to eat. That's 14% of the population in this nation! This number has been steadily climbing for quite a while.
Does that indicate we're headed in the direction of "better times"?
The housing picture isn't much better. Foreclosures continue to swallow up people at a horrifying rate. We set a national all-time high in 2010 and most economists are certain we will eclipse that record this year.
Home values aren't doing very well either. As Robert Reich explains,
According to the Wall Street Journal’s latest quarterly survey of housing-market conditions, home prices continue to drop. They’ve dropped in all of the 28 major metropolitan areas, compared to a year earlier. And remember how awful things were in the housing market a year ago! In fact, the size of the year-to-year price declines is larger than the previous quarter’s in all but three of the markets surveyed.Does this kind of information indicate we're headed in the direction of "better times"?
Home prices have dropped most in cities already hard hit by the housing bust – Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago. But declines increased in other markets that had before escaped most of the downdraft, such as Seattle and Portland...
And, despite the funny math employed by the US government, the job outlook continues to look bleak. Only 36,000 jobs were added in January -- 140,000 was the prediction -- yet we are concurrently told that the jobless rate fell from 9.4% to 9.0%. Of course, the reason the Labor Department keeps lowering the monthly rate, even when jobs don't keep pace, is that more and more of the unemployed are giving up looking for jobs that don't exist.
Does this picture support the notion that we're headed in the direction of "better times"?
Almost every indicator a person can pull up shows very clearly that we are not heading in a good direction -- at least not a good direction for 90% of the population. The fat cats may indeed be smelling roses; but that's not the scent the rest of us are smelling!
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