As regular readers know, I have been talking about the true unemployment rate. The official rate by the Department of Labor is 7.2% but this is a deception. Today, another article asserts that if unemployment was calculated as was done in the Clinton Administration, the unemployment rate would be 18%.
If the government was still calculating the unemployment rate using the same criteria and methods that had last been used during the Clinton administration, the “official” unemployment rate today would be closer to 18%.
The U.S. government cannot be trusted as they continue to lie about the true unemployment rate.
America is doomed.
The only opinions you hear on media is from the Haves — they have jobs or sufficient wealth that generate income. There is no voice for the Have Nots who have lost their jobs, had homes foreclosed on, worried about caring for their children, can’t find new jobs, and are afraid of the future. In LA, another mass self killing of a seven member family (the fifth this year) occurred because the husband and wife concluded that life was just not worth living after losing their jobs.
This morning I hear more Haves talking about how companies need to lay off more workers to boost their profits. Profits! Could their be a more uncompassionate word in the language? Who get the profits? Of course, share holders after executives skim millions of dollars off in excessive executive compensation and careless spending (e.g. $1.2 million bathrooms). Share holders receive the profits because of their assets and wealth — another group of Haves.
The Haves rarely think about the plight of the Have Nots. The Have Nots are invisible, except in the occasional statistic. Like, the 6.5 million people receiving unemployment benefits that was reported today. Nobody counts the people whose benefits have expired. None of the unemployed would be counted if the government didn’t pay unemployment benefits and tax the Haves in order to do so. Of course, nobody can live or even sustain themselves on unemployment benefits but clearly it is better than zero and it makes the politicians feel better.
So, there are 6.5 million people receiving unemployment benefits but there are 11 million people unemployed and another 20 million underemployed. So, 31 million people struggle to support themselves and the U.S. work force is only about 100 million people. Some Have Nots are getting unemployment, some are getting food stamps, but many are getting nothing. Government programs are being cut because state governments are going broke. As the Have Nots increase there is less taxes. Less Taxes results in more state government cuts and more Have Nots getting less.
For the present, the Federal government continues to incur more debt, mostly to the benefit of the Haves. Really, if you are a Have Not, would really cares if the banking system goes belly up or is nationalize. None of that matters if you are struggling to survive. Yes, the government is working for the Haves, at least for the moment.
The Haves frequently think that socialism is their biggest fear — redistributing the wealth among all the people. They are wrong. If things continue with a greater and greater number of Have Nots, the Haves should fear revolution and a collapse in the country. Revolution is what historically happens when the number of Have Nots gets too large. The Have Nots organize, riot, take control, and attack the Haves. It has happened many times in human history and the U.S. is not exempt. Countries are always surprised at just how vicious Have Nots become when they are suffering and without hope.
It was interesting to see how the Haves were afraid after 911 because two buildings were destroyed and 3,000 people lost their lives. By the way, the Have Nots were not afraid. They struggle every day to survive and eventually see death as a benefit. Yet, 911 was accomplished by a relatively small number of Have Nots from other countries. What could the 33 million Have Nots do that live in the U.S.? Sure, maybe a good portion of the Have Nots will just suffer and die without a word but I suspect another sizable portion of the 33 million Have Nots will not go quietly to their demise without inflicting some suffering on the Haves.
America is doomed.
The Obama Stimulus bill just passed the House without a single Republican vote. After all the Republican crap that ended up in the stimulus bill, the House Republicans told Obama to fuck himself. Hopefully, this will be a wake up call for Obama to forget about trying to please Republicans. Republicans are irrelevant and today’s votes makes it clear.
Republicans are partisan even with millions of Americans without jobs. The Republican party of giving money to the rich and screwing everybody else has cause the current financial crisis.
Clearly, Republicans have a strategy to disavow themselves from what Obama is doing so they can take “credit” when these policies don’t work. That is some idiot kind of credit they want to own, ala Russ Limbaugh’s hope “Obama fails”. With the country in the midst of a Great Depression, Republicans want to be able to say Obama was wrong as the Depression deepens.
The Republican strategy is not a good plan because in all scenarios the Republicans will continue to be the minority party. If the country does better under Obama, everybody will know how the Republicans tried to stop the polices that lead to recovery. If Obama’s policies fail everybody will know how much worse it would be with Republicans rule — the country has 40 years of examples, including the dismal current financial crisis.
In the end, American capitalism will have to be abandoned. All that is happening now is a few experiments before the inevitable occurs.
America is doomed.
The U.S. economy is getting worse as evident from the nearly 40,000 layoffs that were announced TODAY. This morning I listened to the CNBC financial channel (owned by the idiots of GE) and the bozos talking how things were bottoming and going to get better. Cramer, the super buffoon, has been predicting a bottom in housing for June of this year. It doesn’t matter if housing bottoms or not because housing is dead for a decade, probably longer.
People continue to think that this economy is about housing because of the sub-prime problem that pushed the economy over the cliff. That view is wrong in so many ways. Although housing is important it is not the reason that the economy is as bad off as it is and certainly not the reason the economy will spring back.
The economy was actually pushed over the brink by derivatives, particularly the CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS which have nothing directly to do with housing. When Lehman Bros failed then the CDS market clambered for payoffs as dominoes crumbled. The U.S. government then nationalized AIG because of the CDS market, not because of housing.
The economy’s biggest problem is about the destruction and subsequent lacks of JOBS.
Has nobody noticed that JOBS are being lost in lots of industries that have nothing to do with housing. In fact, far more jobs are being lost in non-housing industries. For example, Pfizer has nothing to do with housing as it announced 8000 layoffs this morning. Those Pfizer idiots just bought another company for $68 BILLION and borrowed $20 BILLION of it from five banks. Why? To enrich executives at both companies! Will this merger create any new jobs? No, it will result in more layoffs. Meanwhile, the U.S. government lets these companies merge and acquire company after company as layoffs continue.
The problem is going to get much worse. In fact, we haven’t seen anything yet as Rebecca Braeu noted:
“We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg _ the big firms,” said Rebecca Braeu, economist at John Hancock Financial Services. “There’s certainly other firms beneath them that will lay off workers as quickly or even quicker.”
Last year the U.S. economy lost nearly 2.6 million jobs if you believe the idiot math of the U.S. labor department. This year the economy will probably be worse even with Obama’s stimulus package. Some things are good about the stimulus. The tax cuts for the poor are needed to help people but the stimulus should increase taxes on the rich and start taxing assets, not just income.
The reason so many jobs are being lost is because technology is destroying far more jobs than the government or private sector can create. And … nobody is talking about that. Instead, they are talking about tax cuts which is the ultimate right wing nonsense. If you cut corporate taxes, corporations may make more money but it won’t cause anybody to hire new employees. If you cut taxes on the rich then the rich have more money but no new jobs. In fact, look what happened with the U.S. government gave $350 BILLION to the banks. The banks took it gladly but no new jobs were created. Instead, the banks have announced hundreds of thousands of layoffs. Now, the banks need more money.
Corporations never hire employees for any other reason than to make more money. It has nothing to do with how much money the corporation already has made either. This is the reason Microsoft who made $4 BILLION of PROFIT in one QUARTER and whose PROFITS are likely to continue laid off 5,000 people in the same report. Corporations don’t care how many people are employed or how many lay offs are averted. They only care about making money. This is the reason corporations send millions of jobs overseas and lay off Americans. They will make more money.
Remember — the U.S. government’s goal SHOULD BE to put people back to work not for corporations and rich people to make more money. There has never been a correlation between rich people and corporation making money and employing more people — again, it is the other way around for them. If anything, corporations and rich people need to pay lots more taxes so that the government can spend it on industries which have a chance of putting people back to work — hint: not the banks. If that doesn’t work, the government can just redistribute this money to Americans so they can house and feed themselves.
American capitalism has failed and more and more people realize this every day. Unfortunately, not enough people seem to realize it yet. But … they will.
America is doomed.
The U.S. should greatly restrict to the point of banning all mergers and acquisitions, particularly when they are financed with debt or will result in any lay offs. In nearly every case when a merger or acquisition occurs there is employment losses and price increases. The basic reason for these transactions is to combine companies so that operations can be reduced, employees laid off, and increase profits. This is accomplished by eliminating competition and raising prices. These types of transactions are against public interest and should be eliminated.
Today, Pfizer wants to buy Wyeth for $60 BILLION and needs $25 BILLION in loans to finish the transaction. Many companies have made these types of transactions and the resulting debt has frequently crushed the companies. Banks have done that and now the U.S. government is bailing them out. GM acquired dozens and dozens of companies as they incurred more and more debt. Supermarkets have merged which resulted in eliminating stores, laying off employees, reducing competition, and raising prices.
For decades, AT&T was broken apart and then dozens of mergers and acquisitions resulted in the company being put back together again. Ultimately, the telecommunication industry had dozens of scandals (e.g. WorldCom), hundreds of thousands of layoffs, massive debt, financial companies booking tons of profits, and the country much worse off than if AT&T had been left unchanged. In fact, utilities should not even be “for profit” companies — they should be non-profit.
There are lots of financial analysts which are always trying to find the next “m & a” deal to pitch because financial companies make lots of money when these deals are done. In the end, ordinary Americans are screwed.
America is doomed.
