'An Absurdly High Number'

If this is what a moderately growing economy looks like (as per the Fed), I'd hate to see the alternative.

"Report: Child Homelessness Up 33% in 3 Years" (USA Today)

One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.

The numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.

"This is an absurdly high number," says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. "What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing."

The report paints a bleaker picture than one by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which nonetheless reported a 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010.

Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor of social policy, says HUD's numbers are much smaller because they count only families living on the street or in emergency shelters.

"It is a narrower standard of homelessness," he says. However, Culhane says, "the bottom line is we've shown an increase in the percentage of homeless families."

Good thing Uncle Ben is on the case -- right?

Comments

[Hope and change not working]

Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end

Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.

At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.

A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.

Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.

Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/11/us-usa-economy-jobless-idUSTRE7BA0BG20111211

[stevefraser]

Any chance the tens of millions of illegals are part of this stat. Send them home and the Republic's terrible unemployment and "poverty" problems are solved.

[There's a place for us]

Ron Paul furious over indefinite detention act

With the approval from the Oval Office the only thing keeping a terrifying law that will allow for the indefinite detention and torture of Americans from passing, presidential hopeful Ron Paul has finally unleashed on the legislation.

Although President Barack Obama had originally insisted that he would veto the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin revealed recently that the bill in its current wording was drafted after the current administration asked for changes.

Already making its way through the House and Senate, the Act in its current wording will allow for Americans suspected of any “belligerent” act to be detained in Guantanamo Bay-style military prisons indefinitely for any alleged crimes without trial. With it now being revealed that the president put forth suggestions to draft the latest version of the legislation, Levin told the press Monday night, "I just can't imagine that the president would veto this bill.”

"I very strongly believe this should satisfy the administration and hope it will,” added Levin.

http://rt.com/usa/news/defense-ron-paul-detention-745/print/

[You can rely on MSM or get smart and shut it off]

Sharp Decline in Withholding Tax Receipts Signals Imminent Recession

The forward indicators that produce the most reliable signals with respect to recession forecasting continue to indicate that a return to economic contraction is highly likely in early 2012. Our computer models have been predicting the likely start of a new recession in the US for the past several months and the data trends continue to weaken as we approach the end of the year, suggesting that the recession scenario is becoming even more likely. One indicator that has weakened significantly during the last two months is the trend in Federal withholding tax deposits. Economist John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics discussed the deterioration in this data set in a recent commentary.

A sharp downturn in the annual change in withholding tax receipts by the U.S. Treasury is signaling a deterioration in personal income. The shift in tax revenues began to surface in Treasury reporting of October 2011 and has continued through the latest available numbers, as of December 7th.

http://www.jsmineset.com/2011/12/13/jims-mailbox-829/

[Bob]

80% of children born in the inner city are illegitamit.
There are no "parents"- normally just a single mom, trying to make ends meet.
No wonder a lot of these kids go hungry.

[Juvenal]

@bob...you're part of the problem...your mind is starved

Occupy Endgame: law enforcement arrests 1%’s War & economic criminals

The first criminal arrests will be for War Crimes and financial fraud. The most notable will be “leadership” of both US political parties and from the largest financial institutions involved in mortgage and “investment” frauds.

Importantly, the “criminal 1%” include corporate media who are criminal accomplices to enable and cover-up the murder of millions, deprivation of billions, and looting of trillions of our dollars. Their manipulative voices will be removed from power, quickly facilitating public communication of the objective facts of the depth of state crimes, and the inspirational future humanity enters.

Occupy’s victory means peace from criminal wars based on obvious lies, economic security and sufficiency for 100% of humanity, and unleashing suppressed technologies that transforms what it means to be human into unimaginable status.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/12/occupy-endgame-law-enforcement-arrests-1s-war-economic-criminals.html

[Absurdity squared]

Corzine Grilled Over MF Global Collapse After Witness Suggests Knowledge of Misused Funds

We speak with Nomi Prins, a former investment banker turned journalist. "We’re listening to someone try to dodge his way out of responsibility and accountability, which is very much what all the CEOs have done through the subprime crisis and through past crises," Prins says. "When you see 5,500 arrests across this country for the Occupy movement and you see zero on the part of CEOs and senior executives from Wall Street who took trillions of dollars out of our economy, out of the European economy, [and] are going around the world doing the same thing to Asia now, it is absolutely heinous."

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/14/corzine_grilled_over_mf_global_collapse

[Rocky]

If things are so bad for the poor and not so poor, why do they keep electing conservative politicians who are more interested in slashing the social safety net than in closing tax loopholes? I wonder if George Parks (first comment) voted for Senator Pat Toomey - R PA in 2010? The Senator is among the more conservatives members of the US Senate. I guess former Senator Spector was too liberal for the people of PA. Now they will have to live with the consequences.

[Absurdity squared]

@ Rocky..the religious right vote?...and btw who says elections are honest.

[Rocky]

Absurdity: Yes, the religious vote. Maybe they think that saying a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers will solve everything. At least that's what Catholics are always told to do in the movies. So what do Evangelicals do? And as far as ultra Orthodox Jews go, they went to their deaths by the millions in WWII. God must have been off duty during the Third Reich.

[Benjamin Skinner]

Yeah, I'm not really sure elections are honest either... and "absurdly high number" hardly scratches the surface of the impact of that number.

[MB111111]

Can't argue with you're facts Mr. Panzner. What are you're thoughts on anchor babies? They too, are starving our economy.

[Doable Finance]

You mean our future is homeless? That's a bummer.