Friday, December 16, 2011
Russia Today
While it’s no surprise that nearly 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, new statistics from the US Census show that almost 100 million others are counted as low-income citizens, making half of the population of America officially poor.
The latest figures out of the US Census Bureau show that in addition to the 49.1 million Americans who fall below the official poverty line, those that rake in enough to be between that level and the income equitable to double it fall into a new “low-income” category, which counts an additional 97.3 million people. Altogether, that clump of nearly 150 million Americans living in dire economic standing accounts for around 48 percent of the US population...[Full Article]
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
CNBC
It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.
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Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.
The news comes as the Federal Reserve considers whether the economy has regained enough strength to stand on its own and as unemployment remains at a still-elevated 9.1 percent, throwing into question whether the recovery is real.It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.
Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data...[Full Article]
Labels: depression, economy, housing
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK—The dollar dropped after economic indicators pointed to a dismal U.S. employment picture and slowing economic growth.
First-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 25,000 to 429,000, indicating employers might have recently slowed their hiring recently. Economists were expecting claims to fall to 395,000.
At the same time, gross domestic product rose at a modest 1.8% pace in the first quarter, matching economists' forecasts. However, the pace of expansion is much weaker than it was at the end of 2010, when the economy was growing at 3.1% pace...[Full Article]
Monday, April 25, 2011
Commentary: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.
For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.
And it’s a lot closer than you may think.
According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.
Put that in your calendar...[Full Article]
Labels: China, economy, IMF, International Monetary Fund
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
SANYA, China (AP) -- The leaders of the world's largest emerging economies gather this week in southern China for what could be a watershed moment in their quest for a bigger say in the global financial architecture.
Thursday's summit comes at a crucial moment for the expanded five-member bloc known as the BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China, and, for the first time, South Africa.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma will attend.
With the G-20 group of major economies seeking to remake parts of the global financial architecture, it's time for the BRICS to test whether they can overcome internal differences and act as a bloc pursuing common interests...[Full Article]
Monday, April 11, 2011
At the pump, some early signs that Americans are conserving fuel as gas prices soar
ABC News / Money
With the price of gas above $3.50 a gallon in all but one state, there are signs that Americans are cutting back on driving, reversing a steady increase in demand for fuel as the economy improves.
Gas sales have fallen for five straight weeks, the first time that has happened since November, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending at 140,000 service stations nationwide...[Full Article]
Labels: economy, gas prices
Thursday, March 31, 2011
USA Today
U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.
The world's largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.
Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."...[Full Article]
Labels: economy, inflation, Walmart
Thursday, March 24, 2011
HONG KONG (AFP) – China could overtake the United States as the world's largest economy if it maintains annual growth of eight percent over the next 20 years, the World Bank's chief economist said Wednesday.
China, which last year overtook Japan as the number-two economy, has already set a growth target of eight percent for 2011, and is aiming for seven percent a year from 2011 to 2015...[Full Article]
Labels: China, economy, World Bank
Monday, February 14, 2011
PORTLAND -- Get ready to pay double or even triple the price for fresh produce in the coming weeks after the worst freeze in 60 years damaged and wiped out entire crops in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S.
The problem started less than a week ago, when our nation was focusing on the Superbowl and sheets of ice falling from Texas Stadium.
Farmers throughout northern Mexico and the Southwest experienced unprecedented crop losses. Now devastation that seemed so far away, is hitting us in the pocketbooks.
"We've had to double and triple some prices and consumers come in and it's quite a shock to them," said Rusty Peake, GM of Food4Less in Southeast Portland...
Labels: economy, food prices
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Free pizza for the unemployed: MyFoxORLANDO.com
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The unemployment rates in Central Florida are hovering in the double-digits and there hasn't been a lot of good news lately for job seekers. In honor of those who are working hard to get back to work, Pie-Fection is offering free pizzas to Central Floridians who have lost their jobs...
[Full Article]
Labels: economy, pizza, poverty, unemployment
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Food Prices Expected to Rise in 2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Food prices have been rising worldwide, as the cost of raw materials and agricultural products surge, contributing to political unrest around the globe.
In December, international food prices broke an all-time high when they rose 25% for the year, led by rising costs for staples like rice, wheat, and maize, the United Nations reported...
[Full Article]Farmers warn of food price rises
BBC
Big rises in food prices are likely over the next year, livestock farmers in Suffolk have told the BBC Politics Show in the East.
The farmers said the rises were likely because of the increased cost of breeding chickens and pigs, due to an increase in the price of feed.
This is partly due to the rise in demand for livestock feed from China.
Farmers told the BBC that the increased cost of feed had not yet been passed on to the consumer.
Pig farmer Peter Mortimer, who has 250 sows at Metfield in Suffolk, said: "It's unsustainable (not to pass on the costs), quite honestly, if we don't get an increase in prices before long, the industry faces a disastrous situation.
"Give it six months on and we will be in despair. I think that whole industry would if we don't get the extra money from the market place. Unfortunately I think it's the end of cheap food."...
[Full Article]Higher food prices coming, Metro says
The Star
...Sparked by Wal-Mart’s continuing expansion into grocery – 40 more stores are coming this year – this kind of retail competition, along with a higher Canadian dollar, has so far spared Canadian consumers the kind of food price inflation that threatens to erupt in violence in other parts of the world.
But Canadians can expect to see more food price increases in supermarkets soon, the country’s third-largest food retailer predicted this week.
“We do expect some cost increases to be processed through the system starting in February,” Eric La Flèche, president and chief executive officer of Metro Inc., told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday...
[Full Article]Labels: economy, food crisis, inflation
The Economic Collapse Blog
As if the world economy did not have enough problems already, now the riots in Egypt threaten to send the price of oil soaring into the stratosphere. On Friday, the price of U.S. crude soared 4 percent. A 4 percent rise in a single day is pretty staggering. The price of Brent crude in London closed just under the magic $100 a barrel mark at $99.42. The incredibly violent riots in Egypt have financial markets all over the globe on edge right now. Any time there is violence or war in the Middle East it has a dramatic impact on financial markets, but this time things seem even more serious than usual. Many believe that we could see an entirely new Egyptian government emerge out of this crisis, and the uncertainty that would bring would make investors all around the globe nervous. Financial markets like predictability, peace and security. If Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30 year reign is brought to an end, it will severely shake up the entire region, and that will not be good news for the global economy...
[Full Article]
Labels: economy, Egypt, riots, The Economic Collapse Blog
Friday, December 31, 2010
The entire middle class Americans will fall under the poverty line in five years, as the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in the United States, says an investigative journalist.
“The middle class, I am afraid, in the United States is not going to exist in another five years and everybody is going to be driven down to the lower poor class,” said Wayne Madsen in a Press TV interview.
“They are going to be working, as many people do, maybe two or three minimum-wage jobs just to feed their families,” he emphasized.
“I think it is all part of the steady drift of the United States into a corporate fascist type society. We have seen that through history before, when very small elite has most of the wealth,” Madsen added.
The journalist quoted a Democratic Party economic advisor as saying that the US commercial real estate will witness a huge collapse in the near future.
“When we see the commercial real estate market collapse, it is going to make the residential real estate market pale, in comparison with that collapse, and this promise is just going to keep compounding,” Madsen further explained.
A new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has revealed that the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is stretching, standing at its largest level since the survey began in 1962.
The report shows that the richest one percent of US households are 225 times richer than the average household.
According to the survey, the figure has almost doubled since the 1960s. The last survey, conducted in 2007, had indicated that the richest one percent had 181 times more money than the average household, whereas in the 1960s the figure reflected a 125-fold wealth gap between the richest and average household.
The global economic recession has also hit the average US citizens much harder, with their assets declining 41 percent since 2007. The rich only lost 27 percent in the same time period.
In 2009, the richest one percent had an average of $14 million, while the average household had average assets of around $62,200.
In calculating household assets, the EPI includes house ownership. The average US citizen has suffered far more from the impact of falling property prices than the rich, the report said.
ASH/MB/HRF
Labels: economic collapse, economy, poverty
Thursday, November 25, 2010
In an upscale enclave in the San Fernando Valley, there's a new neighbor on the block. He drives a big Mercedes, sometimes a fancy SUV and residents say he's been living in a three-story mansion, which was empty and going into foreclosure.
His name is Dawud Walli, and neighbors say he moved into a huge empty home last July, furnishing nearly every room of the house.
"We feel unsafe. We can't sleep. We have families," say some of the residents who live nearby.
They say Walli made this a party house.
Inside, we found booze and condoms scattered about. But no one really knew what went on here, because some of the windows were covered with tape and garbage bags.
"They don't want to make contact with the neighbors. They do not want to make eye contact with you. They do not talk to you," says someone who lives nearby.
Prosecutors say this is happening across Southern California.
They've caught squatters illegally living in homes in Bel-Air, Marina Del Rey and Winnetka.
"It's a huge problem and growing every day," says Los Angeles City Attorney Maureen Rodriguez.
"It's just amazing how nervy they can be: presenting false leases," says Rodriguez...
[Full Article]Labels: economy, housing, poverty, squatters
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Although it received very little coverage in the mainstream media, Barack Obama made some comments about globalism during his speech in Mumbai, India that were very eye-opening. As he was discussing the new realities of world trade in 2010, Obama warned against "those who see globalization as a threat" and he spoke of the "integrated world" in which we all now live. But is merging the entire globe into a one world economy, a one world financial system and a one world labor market really the best thing for the American people?
For the past two decades, all U.S. presidents have been heralding the benefits of merging the American economy with the rest of the globe. George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all steadfastly supported the emerging one world economy. These presidents have each used different terms to describe this process such as "globalism", "globalization", "an integrated world", "the global economy" and even "a New World Order", but they have all meant the same thing. All of these presidents have sought to integrate the United States even more deeply into the developing one world economic system...
[Full Article]Labels: economy, globalism, Obama
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The recession may be over, but the number of Americans using food stamps continues to soar, up 17 percent over year ago levels, according to a report posted on The Wall Street Journal's website.
A stunning 42,389,619 now use food stamps, up 58.5 percent from August 2007, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data from August cited in the story.
That means nearly 14 percent of American households are still relying on government assistance to buy food as the economy continues to batter families. The total was up 1.3 percent from July...
[Full Article]Labels: depression, economic collapse, economy, food stamps, poverty, recession
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The dollar is in danger of losing 20 percent of its value over the next few years if the Federal Reserve continues unconventional monetary easing, Bill Gross, the manager of the world's largest mutual fund, said on Monday...
[Full Article]
Labels: devaluation, economy, FFederal Reserve
WASHINGTON – The nation's homeownership rate is at the lowest level in more than a decade, hampered by a rise in foreclosures and weak demand for housing.
The percentage of households that owned their homes was unchanged at 66.9 percent in the July-September quarter, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That's the same as the April-June quarter.
The last time the rate was lower was in 1999, when the rate was 66.7 percent...
[Full Artcle]Labels: economic collapse, economy, foreclosure, homeownership
Saturday, October 9, 2010
"The lessons of history ... show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit."
These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation.
What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month.
A seventh of the nation cannot even feed itself...
[Full Article]Labels: economy, food stamps, poverty
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Grundy family seemed to be headed down the conventional path followed by American families: Daughter goes to college, graduates, gets a job and her own apartment.
Then something happened.
"She lost her job," Vel Grundy says about daughter Monika, 25. "She kept looking and got very, very discouraged. She moved back home."
Grown children returning home. Brothers and sisters moving in together. Families taking in grandparents. Friends living in the basement.
Fueled by the dismal economy and high unemployment, more Americans — friends and families — are doubling up...
[Full Article]
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