Economics
Briefly: America's Financial Crisis: Week of July 5
Thu, 07/02/2009 - 08:57 — Dave Culver3 Items
David Culver, ed. Evergreene Digest
Tony Auth
Abyss of Joblessness: The Economy Can't Improve Unless We Put People Back to Work, Bob Herbert, The New York Times
Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.
Get Rich Cheating: The Crooked Path to Easy Street ~ Jeff Kreisler, The Serious Comedy Site
As good an explanation as any as to why the U.S., its government, large corporations, and just about any financial institution you can name are in the financial shitter.
What Madoff Really Needs is Company, and Lots of It, Richard Adams, The Guardian | UK, in Common Dreams
Don't get Madoff, get even: Bernie Madoff may deserve his 150-year jail sentence – but he wasn't the biggest crook on Wall Street
Abyss of Joblessness: The Economy Can't Improve Unless We Put People Back to Work
Thu, 07/02/2009 - 07:24 — Dave CulverEconomists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.
Bob Herbert, The New York Times
How do you put together a consumer economy that works when the consumers are out of work?
One of the great stories you’ll be hearing over the next couple of years will be about the large number of Americans who were forced out of work in this recession and remained unable to find gainful employment after the recession ended. We’re basically in denial about this.
There are now more than five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States. The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising and young American men on a broad front are falling into an abyss of joblessness.
Some months ago, the Obama administration and various mainstream economists forecast a peak unemployment rate of roughly 8 percent this year. It has already reached 9.4 percent, and most analysts now expect it to hit 10 percent or higher. Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.
Related:
Krugman: US "Depressed Economy" Could Last 5 Years, Associated Press, Huffington Post
The United States may emerge from recession as early as this summer, though further job losses mean a "depressed economy" could last as long as five years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said Tuesday (May 19).
'Green Shoots' of Recovery? Don't Fall for the Media's Economic Triumphalism
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 16:38 — Dave CulverA narrative is emerging that we're seeing the first signs that a recovery is around the corner, but the reality is less encouraging.
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Amid the most painful period of economic turbulence in generations, a narrative has emerged that a handful of less-than-catastrophic economic reports represent the first "green shoots" of a healthy return to growth.
When a slew of absolutely depressing economic data were released in late May, economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote: "These reports might have led to gloomy news stories, but... the media have obviously abandoned economic reporting and instead have adopted the role of cheerleader, touting whatever good news it can find and inventing good news when none can be found."
Related:
Green Shoots, Red Ink, Black Hole, Eliot Spitzer, Slate.com
Instead of focusing on the green shoots--dandelions, really, let's examine the macro data that will determine our national prosperity in the next generation. These data are terrifying.
Stay the Course, Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Time for some reality checks
Why This Crisis May Be Our Best Chance to Build a New Economy
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 15:19 — Dave CulverWall Street is bankrupt. Instead of trying to save it, we can build a new economy that puts money and business in the service of people and the planet—not the other way around.
David Korten, Yes! Magazine
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell
David Korten | Paul Dunn for YES! Magazine
Whether it was divine providence or just good luck, we should give thanks that financial collapse hit us before the worst of global warming and peak oil. As challenging as the economic meltdown may be, it buys time to build a new economy that serves life rather than money. It lays bare the fact that the existing financial system has brought our way of life and the natural systems on which we depend to the brink of collapse. This wake-up call is inspiring unprecedented numbers of people to take action to bring forth the culture and institutions of a new economy that can serve us and sustain our living planet for generations into the future.
The world of financial stability, environmental sustainability, economic justice, and peace that most psychologically healthy people want is possible if we replace a defective operating system that values only money, seeks to monetize every relationship, and pits each person in a competition with every other for dominance.
Related:
Briefly: America's Financial Crisis: Week of June 28
Sun, 06/28/2009 - 07:38 — Dave Culver5 Items
David Culver, Evergreene Digest, ed.
John Trever
Fixing Wall Street Won't Fix Our Economy, Sally Kohn, Movement Vision Lab, in AlterNet
We could have averted the current financial crisis by creating affordable housing and good jobs, strengthening public education and providing health care and child care for all families, to help hardworking Americans thrive in the middle class instead of being pushed into poverty.
Auto Task Force Outsources Jobs, Roger Bybee, In These Times
Obama’s recovery plan steers GM and Chrysler in the wrong direction. He has forfeited the opportunity to recast the current crisis into a fuel-efficient re-industrialization of America—right when the country needs the stimulus of high-wage green jobs the most.
Krugman: Out of the Shadows, Paul Krugman, The New York Times
President Obama’s plan for financial reform basically punts on the question of how to keep what went wrong from happening again.