tagged w/ Unemployment rate
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by Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger
Next week, the debate over financial reform will begin in earnest when Congress returns from its Easter break. Both political parties are gearing up for a major fight, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. An out-of-control banking sector has cost the economy over 7 million jobs since 2007, and without major reforms, Wall Street could repeat this disaster in just a few years’ time. But thanks to Wall Street’s lobbying might, all of the necessary reforms are currently in jeopardy.
Key Reforms
Writing for The Nation, Christopher Hayes offers a useful primer on financial regulation, highlighting three reforms that are crucial to any bill.
* With no effective regulation of consumer protection issues for years, the existing banking regulators were more focused on preserving bank profitability than on going to bat for ordinary citizens. If banks could make big profits with unfair gimmicks (or even fraud), regulators usually looked the other way. The solution is a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) charged with nothing but protecting consumers from banker abuses, an agency with the broad authority to both write rules and enforce them.
* We need to rein in the $300 trillion market for derivatives, the complex financial contracts brought down AIG. Unlike ordinary stocks and bonds, derivatives are not traded on exchanges, so nobody really knows what is going on in this tremendous market. When something goes wrong, like with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, nobody can tell who the problem will effect. Without information, markets panic, and the entire financial system can collapse within a matter of days. Fortunately, this problem has a simple solution: require all derivatives to be traded on exchanges.
* Too-big-to-fail is too big to exist. The U.S. has never had banks as large as those that exist today, and their size gives them enormous political clout. It’s part of the reason why regulators didn’t make banks obey consumer protection laws, and why banks have been so effective in derailing reform. It’s been almost two years since the Big Crash, yet we are still wrangling over reform because giant banks deploy giant lobbying teams, and have almost unlimited resources to devote to their lobbying efforts. If we can’t scale back the banks’ power by breaking them up into smaller institutions, it’s unlikely that other reforms will be effective.
As Margaret Dorfman emphasizes for American Forum, a strong CFPA would help protect small businesses, since a huge proportion of them are financed with credit cards and home equity loans (Dorfman is CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, an advocacy group for women that should not be confused with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—a nasty lobbying front for a few hundred high-flying executives). As Dorfman notes, small businesses are where most new jobs come from– if a regulator can ensure that these businesses are not pushed around by abusive banks, they can help repair our jobs.
Unfortunately, all three reforms are in real jeopardy as the bill moves to the Senate floor for a vote, as Simon Johnson notes in his Baseline Scenario blog carried at AlterNet. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) hasn’t included any language on breaking up the banks, he has significantly watered down the CFPA proposal President Obama put forward, and derivatives reform was almost entirely gutted in the House.
What’s at stake
So what’s at stake? For some perspective, consider last week’s jobs report. As Steve Benen notes for The Washington Monthly, the U.S. economy added 160,000 jobs in March, the first significant monthly gain since the start of the recession, and the best jobs report in three years. But while it’s good to see the economy actually adding jobs, at the March rate, it would take more than three-and-a-half years to win back the 7 million jobs lost since 2007.
This jobs disaster was not caused by faceless and unpreventable forces—it was the direct result of a reckless and unregulated banking system. Without major reforms, banks will always have this economic leverage when that recklessness overpowers them: bail us out, or watch your economy collapse.
This is an issue of basic democratic fairness, as Noam Chomsky explains for In These Times. Wall Street has purchased the right to bend public policy to anything that benefits banks—the rest of society is not their concern. The bailouts of 2008 and 2009 make that clear. After wrecking the economy to enrich themselves, bank executives then looted the public coffers with the threat of still further economic havoc.
And the political clout of America’s largest banks insulates them from criticism when they profit from abuses—particularly when those activities don’t spark wider economic crises. As Andy Kroll highlights for Mother Jones, J.P. Morgan Chase is currently making a killing by financing mountaintop removal mining (MTR). MTR is an ecological nightmare—literally a bombing campaign in which entire mountains in Appalachia are destroyed to make way for cheap coal. That’s meant billions in profits for J.P. Morgan, and an environmental catastrophe for the United States.
Obama and Congress have a choice. They can play financial reform for campaign contributions, pushing a watered-down bill that will function as a set of reforms-in-name-only. Alternatively, they can do their jobs, confront a dangerous financial oligarchy head-on, and help build an economy that works for everyone.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger
Next week, the debate over financial... more
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Actual unemployment rates are at least twice what the government reports due to the inadequacy of their ability to poll all the people without jobs and not just those collecting unemployment insurance.
The more people become disqualified for unemployment but remain unemployed; the higher the actual rate will climb, the more people will be excluded from the official unemployment rate, and the less accurate and more understated the official numbers become.Actual unemployment rates are at least twice what the government reports due to the... more
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Expanding U.S. economy through immigration beats shrinking
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In an economy as bad as this one, it may take nothing short of disaster to bring about even a little immigration reform.
Responding to Haiti's devastating earthquake, the Obama administration is providing Temporary Protected Status to undocumented Haitians living in the U.S. As many as 200,000 people will be invited to stay legally for 18 months, receiving work permits to find jobs.
Even that modest humanitarian gesture has rekindled an emotionally charged debate about whether immigrants hurt the economic prospects of Americans.
With unemployment at 10 percent, this would be a risky moment for Congress to press ahead with sweeping new immigration policies.
Right or wrong, any move in that direction would invite a predictable backlash about immigrants taking jobs, crowding schools, filling emergency rooms and so on.
In many ways, linking immigration reform to the urgent goal of improving the nation's economic performance probably would be a stretch. But in one way, a high rate of immigration gives the U.S. economy a big boost, providing a "resource" that many other developed countries desperately need.
Babies.
More-- ( I recommend the discussion afterward as much the lead article )
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/burns-on-business/2010/01/growing-through-immigration-beats-shrinking.html
http://babywallpapers.net/images/wallpapers/Smiling%20Babies-1117.jpegExpanding U.S. economy through immigration beats shrinking
-( or is it a scam?)-... more
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Faced with the prospect of lay-offs at the office, Craig introduces Darren to the exciting world of Linked In.Faced with the prospect of lay-offs at the office, Craig introduces Darren to the... more
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Eighty years ago this week, the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression. We need to apply the lessons from that era to our own to relieve the needless suffering of the Great Recession.
In just two days, between Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, the stock market plummeted by 25 percent. Between September and November of that year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40 percent of its value. By July of 1932, the Dow had lost nearly 90 percent of its value.
By then the Great Depression was raging, with unemployment rates rising to 25 percent.
To combat unemployment and alleviate poverty, the federal government engaged in a massive public works and jobs program through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Private markets weren’t about to create jobs, and the public sector became the employer of last resort. The job creation from the WPA provided survival and sustenance for millions of American families. Where is the contemporary WPA?
Absent public job creation, it is likely that the economy will not fully recover. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.8 percent. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledges that the adjusted unemployment rate — including part-timers looking for full-time work, and those who don’t look for work because they don’t think work is out there — is as high as 17 percent. This means that one in six Americans does not have a job. Among certain subgroups — notably older Americans and blacks — the unemployment rate exceeds Depression-era unemployment.
To commemorate this anniversary of the Great Depression, the Obama administration ought to engage in Depression-era tactics to jump-start the economy. We have spent $700 billion bailing out banks and $787 billion in economic stimulus. But we have not focused on directly creating employment, on lifting people at the bottom.
more at link...
http://www.progressive.org/mpmalveaux102709.htmlEighty years ago this week, the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great... more
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Not exactly shocking news.
You can also expect the Oxycontin abuse rate to go up.
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September: 263,000 jobs lost; unemployment rate to 9.8%
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This Friday, September’s job-loss total will be announced. Whatever the numbers, administration officials surely will tell us that life is better — because of them. “We brought the global economy back from the brink,” President Obama said at the close of the G-20 meeting last week. “(B)ecause of the bold and coordinated action that we took, millions of jobs have been saved or created; the decline in output has been stopped; financial markets have come back to life”.This Friday, September’s job-loss total will be announced. Whatever the numbers,... more
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With a very alarming rate of unemployment and homelessness in this current economic situation, Paris Hilton, hieress, bought her dogs a replica of her own home. With posh bedding, a black crystal chandelier and heater and air conditioner, these dogs have it much better than many Americans right now, not to mention most people in the world. I can't understand how anyone can think that this is okay to build for a few dogs and not donate to people who actually need to support themselves. Am I alone?With a very alarming rate of unemployment and homelessness in this current economic... more
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jam05
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2 years ago
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While China and India look to keeping more jobs available in their countries, Obama and the Democrats concentrate on Cap and Trade no matter how high unemployment goes in the U.S. as a result. If this bill passes in the Senate, Republicans may have a chance of regaining seats, if not gain control of that body again.While China and India look to keeping more jobs available in their countries, Obama... more
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At at time when jobs continue to disappear, the Obama administration is intimidating and paralyzing the small businesses that are the backbone of employment in the United States. Many are simply giving up, either selling out or just closing their doors. Others are exploring how to move their businesses, especially manufacturing, to foreign countries and exploring dual citizenship in preparation for the move.At at time when jobs continue to disappear, the Obama administration is intimidating... more
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Of the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs since the recession began, the gap between men and women who have become unemployed continues to widen. One reason may be because two industries--construction and manufacturing--which are male dominated account for half of the 6000 million plus job that have been lost.Of the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs since the recession began, the... more
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It's a terrible mistake to confuse the momentary solvency of the financial sector and the long-term health of our economy.
While we have addressed the credit collapse, we have not begun to tackle the far more daunting, and more significant, structural problems in the economy. Instead of focusing on the green shoots, let's examine the macro data that will determine our national prosperity in the next generation. These data are terrifying.
Start with the job front. Long term, nothing is more fundamental than good jobs to creating the middle-class wealth that must drive the economy. The creation of true middle-class jobs was the great success of our economy from 1950s through the mid-1990s. Consider the job data, in aggregate and by sector, from the past decade. (All data are from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.)It's a terrible mistake to confuse the momentary solvency of the financial sector... more
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http://breakroomlive.com
Vote for who you thinks deserves to be BreakRoomLive's Unemployee of the Month! The four weekly winners are reviewed in this segment, but you, the BRL fans get to pick the winner! Over the past month Marc and Sam have interviewed each contestant who lost their jobs in the recession.
BreakRoomLive w/ Maron & Seder is LIVE weekdays, 3-4pm from Air America's Break Room.
Catch comedy sketches, interviews, political & cultural discussions, & interact with hosts & guests live: 3pm, M-F @ BreakRoomLive.com!
BreakRoomLive w/ Marc Maron & Sam Seder is a production of http://airamerica.comhttp://breakroomlive.com
Vote for who you thinks deserves to be... more
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Last week, the California Employment Development Board announced that the state's rate of unemployment climbed to 9.3% over the last month. As ugly as this number is, it's deceptively low…the truth is much uglier.Last week, the California Employment Development Board announced that the state's... more
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A pretty disturbing thought. As if we don't have enough problems.
"The number of people unemployed throughout the world could rise by up to 25 million by 2010 because of the global financial and economic crisis, the head of the OECD Angel Gurria said on Monday.
"We're heading for a loss of between eight and 10 million jobs in the OECD area... and 20 to 25 million in the world as a whole between now and 2010," Gurria said on France's BFM radio.
Gurria said that the construction sector would be especially badly hit because its activities had "stopped in a brutal way," affecting in particular countries such as Spain and Ireland.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris brings together 30 countries, including all the world's industrialised economies. The group conducts research and publishes economic forecasts.
Gurria also suggested that European countries should spend more in their fiscal stimulus plans to kickstart their economies, considering the size of rescue plans in China, Japan and the United States."
The European Union should "go beyond" the fiscal stimulus plans already announced, equivalent to around 1.4 percent of GDP, since "all the other major countries are going beyond that," Gurria added.A pretty disturbing thought. As if we don't have enough problems.
"The... more
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NFUSA
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3 years ago
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Australia may cut the number of immigrants allowed into the country if the global financial crisis raises unemployment levels.
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans said a decision on reducing numbers would be taken after mid-year financial data is published next month.
Around 190,300 immigrants are forecast to arrive in Australia in 2008/09. Australia may cut the number of immigrants allowed into the country if the global... more
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