Little Hope and Not Much Change

The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University has published an updated working paper, Categorizing the Unemployed by the Impact of the Recession, detailing the results of surveys conducted from August 2009 through August 2011 of American workers who lost a job during the height of the Great Recession.

According to the report, most of those polled have seen little evidence of the "recovery" that Washington and Wall Street keep harping on about.

Just 7% of the unemployed initially contacted by the Heldrich Center in the summer of 2009 have made it back to where they were before the recession. And just another 23% are on the way back — they have experienced a minor downward change in their quality of life that they believe will be temporary. Another third of those participating in the initial August 2009 survey can be thought of as downsized. Many here (11%) have taken a minor quality of life hit and say their financial situation is poor, but believe they will work their way out of it in time. Another 10% are in at least fair financial shape but report a minor downward change in their lifestyle they believe will be permanent.

The remaining 36% speak of cataclysmic effects of the Great Recession on them and their families. They comprise two groups, both of whom can be said to have been devastated. We consider 21% to be devastated because they are in poor financial shape and have suffered a major quality of life change, even if they believe it to be temporary. Also included in this group are respondents who report being in fair economic shape, but who have experienced a major decline in their lifestyle they expect to be permanent. Finally, there is a sizeable 15% who appear to have been wrecked by the recession. They are at the bottom on all three measures — they are in poor financial shape, have suffered a major change in lifestyle, and believe this new state of affairs will be a permanent condition.

I bet those folks just love hearing repeated assurances from Obama et al. that "the economy is continuing to heal" -- right?

Comments

[On the corner of Hope and Change a soup line starts]

She knows it....man is she pissed!

A Powerful Interview with Ann Barnhardt

http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2011-1201-1.mp3

[Eyes completely shut]

Kyle Bass on Permanent Job Loss, The End of Growth & the Coming Unaffordable Debt Writedowns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V3kpKzd-Yw&feature=youtu.be

Wake Up America!

"But here is something else that is alarming. The police state this country has turned into. I have brought out similarities to the old Soviet Union in the past but here is a comment left by a reader that makes some comparisons to a more modern non democratic republic in Russia."

http://www.goldmansachs666.com/2011/12/wake-up-america.html

[Gross Inequality]

Bill Moyers Essay: Plutocracy and Democracy Don’t Mix

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/12/bill-moyers-essay-plutocracy-and-democracy-dont-mix/?

[Life's a bowl of cherries when your backstopped]

Ry Cooder: No Banker Left Behind

Inspired by a news headline about the Wall Street bailout, Cooder began work on Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down with the track “No Banker Left Behind” (below), an ode to the corrupt few spared from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/12/ry-cooder-no-banker-left-behind/?

[Is that Hank Paulson at the top?]

Hank Paulson's Crony Capitalism

In July 2007, Bush tapped Paulson, then the head of Goldman Sachs, to guide the nation's economy. To his nomination ceremony Paulson invited his friend and hand-selected successor to helm the investment bank, Lloyd Blankfein. And as the financial crisis unfolded, Paulson repeatedly acted as though he were still a partner at the firm that made him a $700 million man.

According to Paulson's own memoir, Blankfein kept on him on speed dial. On a Saturday morning in mid-March 2008, the chairman of Goldman Sachs called the Treasury secretary, at his home, to demand the Bush administration find a buyer for faltering investment bank Bear Stearns — to whose debt Goldman was significantly exposed.

"Lloyd went over the market with me," Paulson writes, "His conclusion was apocalyptic. The market expected a Bear rescue. If there wasn’t one all hell would break loose." Goldman got its wish, Treasury married off Bear to rival JP Morgan — after agreeing to make taxpayers responsible for up to $30 billion in Bear’s bad debts, then a record bailout.

Three months later, during a state visit to Moscow in June 2008 that coincided with a Goldman board meeting in the Russian capital, Paulson invited his former partners to his room at the Grand Marriott for an off-the-record — and off-the-official-calendar — powwow. "Let’s keep this quiet," Paulson’s chief of staff told his Goldman counterpart, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book Too Big to Fail. Paulson greeted Blankfein & Co. with bear hugs and proceeded to give his old firm an insider briefing on Treasury’s overview of the state of the economy and the likelihood of further bailouts. His ex-colleagues pressed him for details on Lehman Brothers.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/hank-paulsons-crony-capitalism-20111201#ixzz1fWequkC0

[Kick'em when they're down, Kick'em when they're up]

Newt’s War on Poor Children
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: December 2, 2011

Nearly two weeks after claiming that child labor laws are “truly stupid” and implying that poor children should be put to work as janitors in their schools, he now claims that poor children don’t understand work unless they’re doing something illegal.

First, as I’ve pointed out before, three out of four poor working-aged adults — ages 18 to 64 — work. Half of them have full-time jobs and a quarter work part time.

Furthermore, according to an analysis of census data by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent or more of the population is poor — nearly a third live with at least one working parent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/opinion/blow-newts-war-on-poor-children.html

[Liar, liar, their net worths go higher]

60 Minutes: PROSECUTION Is Overdue

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198550

[Not exactly an efficient allocation of resources]

Daily Show on "Free Money"

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show went after the Bernanke Fed last week following the disclosure by Bloomberg of $7.7 trillion lent to US banks on which they made billions of dollars in profit, at no risk.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/12/daily-show-on-free-money.html

Yet....

Over 46 Million Americans On Foodstamps For The First Time Ever

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/over-46-million-americans-foodstamps-first-time-ever?

[Nike Shox sale]

change in their quality of life that they believe will be temporary. Another third of those participating in the initial August 2009 survey can be thought of as downsized. Many here (11%) have taken a minor quality of life hit and say their financial situation is poor, but believe they will work their way out of it in time. Another 10% are in at least fair

[Uggs on Sale]

children should be put to work as janitors in their schools, he now claims that poor children don’t understand work unless they’re doing something illegal.

First, as I’ve pointed out before, three out of four poor working-aged adults — ages 18 to 64 — work. Half of them have full-time jobs and a quarter work part time.

Furthermore, according to an analysis of census data by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent