Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"

[Soul Crusher]

More suburban, middle class slide into poverty
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | Updated: October 24, 2011 6:23AM | Francine Knowles

Posted on Monday, October 24, 2011 7:40:46 AM by Graybeard58

Fourteen months ago, Aurora resident Prentiss Bailey was going about happily living his life as usual.

He was employed at a printing company where he’d worked for 10 years—a job that paid $17 an hour and that with the consistent overtime and $4,000 and $5,000 annual Christmas bonuses he got, enabled him to take care of his family and enjoy what he considered a middle income life.

Today, he and his 10-year–old daughter live in a homeless shelter.

So does 33-year-old Robert Estes, also of Aurora.

They’re among the nearly 193,000 people who’ve been added to the ranks of the poor in Illinois since the Great Recession began and among the nearly 440,000 that have been added since 1999, bringing the state total to 1.73 million, according to the latest 2010 Census data.

The numbers reflect many newly poor people like Bailey, who previously held good paying full-time jobs that were cut; and folks like Estes, who was low-income, but had heretofore been able to make ends met. Both are now left unable to support themselves and their families without help from social service agencies and non-profits—among many people in that same boat.

The latest Census numbers also paint a picture of poverty that continues to spread beyond urban areas to suburban communities in Chicago and across the country that are ill equipped to handle the growing population of poor.

“I had a job; we had what we needed,” said Bailey, as he sat inside the Hesed House shelter in Aurora where he now resides.“I was able to pay my rent. We were middle class.”

That was before he was laid off 13 months ago.

“Now there’s a lack of opportunity, a lack of jobs,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be this hard finding another job.”

Bailey, who for the first time in his life is receiving public aid, has lived at the shelter for about five months. Initially, he and his daughter slept on mattresses in a gymnasium-like room with others. Now the two share a small room in the transitional housing section of the shelter furnished with bunk beds.

“It was hard at first, but I’m glad I took that step,” he said, noting he’s receiving guidance on getting back on his feet from a case worker at Hesed House. He plans to enroll in truck driver training program to improve his prospects of landing work.

Estes, who’s been at the shelter for about six weeks, says after losing his $12.50-an-hour job at a local grocery store where he’d worked for two years, he hasn’t yet been able to find another one.

The economy is “pretty horrible,” he said. “You have people here of all ages that are struggling. Some people tell me how they used to make $20 bucks an hour, $25 bucks an hour. Now they’re here. Nobody wants to hire them.

“I always had my own place, my own car, bought my own food,” he said. “I was making it paycheck to paycheck. Then this happened, and it’s like a slap in the face. I’ve been working and paying taxes my whole life, and now all of a sudden I can barely get into the door for an interview. I’m a strong guy. I can work. I know I don’t belong here.”

The shelter sits next door to the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, where on a recent Monday morning the parking lot was packed as people arrived seeking food.

“When I first started here in ’08, if we had 80 families, 90 families come in one distribution day, that was a big day,” said Marilyn Weisner, executive director of the pantry. “Now we have routinely 260, 280 families come,” said Marilyn Weisner, executive director of the pantry.

“One of the things that we’ve noticed is the family sizes have increased. We’re wondering if people aren’t moving in together because they’re struggling to survive.”

Census data suggests that is occurring. The bureau recently noted the poverty rate among young adults ages 25 to 34 living with their parents nationally was 8.4 percent, but that rate would be 45.3 percent if the poverty level was determined by their own income.

“We often hear, ‘I lost my job or my husband lost his job, my daughter lost her job and now she’s moved in with me and now I need some extra help,’” Weisner said.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago Chief Executive Officer Monsignor Michael Boland said among trends he has observed among the clients the group assists are “a lot more people coming today who have never come before to Catholic Charities or to a social service agency, people that are unemployed, underemployed. I think the recession has really hit a lot of people who were probably doing okay, but now are put below the poverty line. People are coming to us for emergency assistance, food, shelter, clothes. The numbers are extraordinary.”

At the Christian Outreach of Lutherans Food Pantry in Waukegan and Ingleside in Lake County, pantry operations manager Gayle Olson said she’s seeing more “people that don’t know where to go, how to get help, people that had been employed all their lives and now they can’t find a job and they don’t know how to get the resources they need like food stamps and medical coverage for their children, or help with the mortgage, rent or utilities.”

Many of the clients receiving help through Chicago-based Heartland Human Care Services’ Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program in Chicago “in the past, they had their own social safety networks of family and friends they could turn to for help if they fell on hard times,” said Lisa Mayse-Lillig, Heartland’s director of housing services. “Those things just have been exhausted for a lot of households because everyone is on hard times.”

Social service providers say they have seen dramatic increases in requests for help from the growing number of poor in Chicago’s suburbs.

New census data shows the rate of poverty in Chicago rose 2.9 percent from 1999 to 2010. In Chicago’s suburbs, it rose a bigger 3.7 percent.

The poverty rate, stood at 21.2 percent in Chicago 2006, the year before the recession began, but climbed to 22.5 percent last year. By comparison, in the suburbs, the rate rose from 7.3 percent to 9.3 percent.

Boland noted Catholic Charities has seen requests for food in some Chicago suburbs rise anywhere from 110 to 150 percent, compared to about 25 percent in Chicago.

A Brookings Institute poverty study released last year by University of Chicago researchers looking at 30 Chicago suburbs found most of those suburbs experienced more than 50 percent increases in the number of poor from 2000 to 2008.

The study also found that few suburban communities have the social services infrastructure in place to address the challenges of poverty.

The rise in poverty in Illinois and nationally can’t simply be attributed to the recent recession, said Amy Terpstra, associate director of the Social Impact Research Center at Heartland Alliance said. She noted poverty rates have risen significantly since 1999 as median household incomes have dropped and added the poverty numbers include people who work full-time, year-round, but are still poor. The drop in income is affecting the poor, and middle-income families.

The U.S. Census Bureau sets the poverty level as:

†One individual: $11,344

†Two adults: $14,602

†Two adults and one child: $17,552

†Two adults and two children: $22,113

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

An analysis of Census data done by the center shows that in Cook County, the median household income last year was $51,466, down $8,625 from 1999 and down $3,351 from 2006. In DuPage County, the median was $72,471, down $16,362 from 1999 and down $7,203 from 2006. In Lake County, it was $74,705, down $12,932 from 1999 and down $6,583 from 2006.

“That really points to a job quality issue,” Terpstra said. “We’re seeing the impact of job loss in the numbers, changes in our economy that have led to less stable and fewer good paying jobs.”

Many more people are in poverty “or just above poverty, not officially poor but still struggling with low income due to job loss, but not just a straight out job loss,” she added. “We’re seeing the effects of hours decline, people having to take part-time jobs instead of a full-time job because full-time jobs aren’t available. You see all of that stuff play out with this new data.”



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HOPE N F'NG CHANGE!!!!

[Soul Crusher]

Mexico: Sharp Increase in Number of Immigrants Leaving the US
Fox News Latino ^ | August 24, 2011 | Unknown



Mexico City – The number of Mexican emigrants who opted to return to their homeland from the United States increased sharply over the past five years to almost 1 million, according to census data.

The deputy secretary of Population, Migration and Religious Affairs, Rene Zenteno Quintero, told a press conference that that figure was 2.7 times higher than the amount registered in Mexico's 2000 census.

The exodus of Mexicans to the United States has likewise been reduced, "seen in a net zero balance between emigrants and immigrants who return to Mexico, meaning we're experiencing a historic moment," he said.

The official also referred to a recent National Occupation and Employment Survey that shows a 70 percent decline in the rate of emigration over the past four years.


(Excerpt) Read more at latino.foxnews.com ...


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[Soul Crusher]

Last week the White House picked a Virginia fire station as the venue for the president's principal campaign stop—er, legislative sales pitch. The choice was apt. At roughly the same time the president was lamenting how "cities and states like Michigan and New Jersey . . . have had to lay off big chunks of their forces," Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid declared, "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers."

Oh. Guess you can go home now, Wall Street occupiers! All those unemployment reports? False alarms.

To be fair to Reid—which may be more than he deserves—he was defending the part of the American Jobs Act that would appropriate $35 billion for state and local government hiring. That might help offset the savage cuts of the past year, except for one thing: The cuts have not been that savage. From September of last year to this past month, state and local payrolls have shrunk by 260,000 positions out of more than 20 million. That comes to roughly 1 percent of the work force.

The situation looks much worse for the private sector. It has added jobs at an anemic rate in the past few months, but it still has far to go before it claws its way back to the employment peak of November 2007. At that time total non-government employment stood at 124 million. It's now 109 million. Barack Obama has joined George W. Bush in a dubious category. They are the only two presidents besides Herbert Hoover to see the number of job-holding Americans decline on their watch.

The parallels with Hoover don't end there. It's commonly believed Hoover took a hands-off approach to the country's economic distress, and that his administration's tight-fisted refusal to spend prolonged the misery. But Hoover was about as stingy with a government dollar as "Jersey Shore" is with hairspray.

Hoover increased federal spending by more than 50 percent, signed the biggest peacetime tax increase to that point, lavished money on public works, and signed the disastrous Smoot-Hawley protectionist tariff. FDR slammed Hoover's "reckless and extravagant" spending and accused him of wanting to "center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, denounced Hoover for "leading the country down the path of socialism."

Hoover's massive government interventionism did not end the Great Depression. George W. Bush's rapid spending increases did not forestall the current malaise. And the massive government outlays of the past three years—federal spending has increased 30 percent; despite layoffs, state and local spending has grown, not shrunk—have not cured the country's economic ills, either. Yet the answer, say countless voices in the prestige press, is to stop Washington's ruinous "austerity" and start spending.

How many moons orbit the planet they're living on? If a $900 billion spending hike is austerity, what in the world does extravagance look like?

Actually, it looks something like the $440,000 Washington spent on a museum for antique bikes. Or the half-million-dollar federal outlay for beautifying decorative rocks. Those are some of the things Sen. John McCain recently urged Congress to stop using tax dollars for—along with the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky and a giant coffee pot in Pennsylvania—on the theory that maybe the money could be used better elsewhere. The Senate didn't buy it, and last Wednesday his colleagues shot down his proposal 59-39.

This kind of thinking shows why the congressional super-committee has deadlocked. The super-committee is supposed to hash out a deal by Thanksgiving to reduce the deficit. According to the narrative in the prestige press, blame for the impasse falls on the GOP's tax intransigence. Democrats won't agree to spending cuts until Republicans agree to revenue hikes, goes the story, and Republicans are fanatical. But that narrative—like Hoover's austerity and the austerity of this summer's recent budget deal—is a myth. Given the recent spending explosion, blaming the GOP for not meeting Democrats halfway is like blaming the victim of a mugging who hands over 95 dollars and then refuses to go halfsies on the last five bucks. Man, what kind of selfish jerk isn't willing to meet his opponent halfway?

As even The New York Times conceded a couple of months ago, "There is something you should know about the deal to cut federal spending that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday: It does not actually reduce federal spending. By the end of the 10-year deal, the federal debt would be much larger than it is today. Indeed, both the government and its debts will continue to grow faster than the American economy."

That story also noted, "The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal debt is likely to exceed 100 percent of the nation's annual economic output by 2021." Well. According to the latest figures, U.S. debt is on track to exceed GDP by Halloween—this Halloween.

Herbert Hoover would be proud.

A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This article originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

[Soul Crusher]

Underemployed And Hating Life (millions of smart, hard working folks are working dead end jobs)
The Economic Collapse ^ | 10/25/2011 | Michael Snyder




Today, millions of smart, hard working Americans are flipping burgers, waiting tables or working dead end retail jobs not because they want to, but because they have no other options. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 14 million Americans are currently unemployed and another 9.3 million Americans are currently "underemployed". During this economic downturn, a lot of Americans have been forced to take part-time jobs because they have been unable to find full-time jobs. For many, this can be a soul-crushing experience. It can be easy to become very bitter when you have worked very hard all your life and yet you find yourself having to take a job that only pays you a fraction of what you used to make. A lot of young college graduates end up hating life because the only jobs that they can seem to find do not even require a college degree and don't even come close to enabling them to keep up with their crippling student loan debt payments. Sadly, the underemployment problem continues to grow even worse. In September alone, the number of underemployed Americans rose by close to half a million.

There are other measurements that indicate that unemployment in America is even worse that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is indicating.

For example, a recent Gallup poll found that approximately one out of every five Americans that currently have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

In addition, according to author Paul Osterman about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

When you try as hard as you can and you still can't pay the bills, it is easy to end up hating life.

What some Americans are going through is absolutely heart breaking. Just consider the following story from a recent article on Fox News....

Damian Birkel, of Winston-Salem N.C., found himself in similar circumstances. He was a marketing manager at Sarah Lee in the early 1990s when he was downsized. Since then, he has been laid off from three other jobs, including one at a recruiting firm.

“I felt like I had ‘loser’ tattooed to my forehead, and ‘will work for food’ tattooed to my chest,” he says.

The hardest part was telling his young daughter that there might not be enough money to pay the bills -- among them, sending her to summer camp. “She brings her piggy bank and says, 'Daddy, why don’t you break into the piggy bank so that you can pay some of the bills.'”

How would you feel if your little daughter said that to you?

Unfortunately, the number of good jobs just continues to decrease.

There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

And the mix of jobs that our economy is producing continues to change.

Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

What that means is that the middle class is shrinking.

A lot of young people are coming out of college right now and are having their dreams absolutely crushed. Large numbers of them are entering the "real world" with nightmarish student loan debt burdens and only a limited number of them can find decent jobs.

A recent USA Today article told the story of one of these very frustrated young Americans....

Kate Wolfe chased a dream when she moved to New York after college, looking to break into acting while working as a maître d'.

Her $50,000 worth of student loans were a distraction she could handle. Then the uninsured 25-year-old was mugged last year, and the final indignity was the $30,000 emergency room bill.

We are pumping out tons of college graduates, but we are not pumping out nearly enough jobs for all of them.

If you can believe it, in the United States today there are 317,000 waiters and waitresses that actually have college degrees.

That is an absolutely horrifying statistic.

But the truth is that the lack of good jobs is hitting every age level really hard.

For example, the average American family is under a tremendous amount of financial stress in this economy. Once you adjust it for inflation, median household income in the United States has declined approximately 10 percent since December 2007.

Meanwhile, the cost of food, gas, health insurance and just about everything else a family needs has gone up significantly.

Our politicians keep talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs" but the number of decent jobs continues on a very clear downward trend.

Back in 1980, 52 percent of all jobs in the United States were middle income jobs. Today, only 42 percent of all jobs in the United States are middle income jobs.

Sadly, it now looks like even the low income jobs are starting to dry up.

Mall vacancies recently hit a brand new all-time record. Major retail chains all over the country are announcing layoffs. Things do not look very promising for the upcoming holiday season.

So what are our leaders doing about all of this?

Well, unfortunately they continue to fumble the football very badly.

According to a recent ABC News report, the U.S. government actually gave a $529 million loan guarantee to an electric car company that decided to make its cars in Finland....

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

If we don't figure out how to stop millions of jobs from leaving this country we are going to be in a world of hurt.

The trade policies of the federal government are neither "free" nor "fair" and they are causing the standard of living of American workers to rapidly sink toward the level of the rest of the world.

We are told that it is "inevitable" that we are going to be deindustrialized and that we are going to become a service economy.

But guess what?

Service jobs generally pay a lot less than manufacturing jobs do.

A "one world economy" where our labor force is merged with the labor forces of the rest of the globe is not a good thing for the average American worker and it is not a good thing for America.

But of course trade is not the only reason why we are losing good jobs. There are a whole bunch of reasons why this is happening. For many more reasons, just check out this article.

A lot of you that are reading this article are unemployed or underemployed right now.

Unfortunately, there is not much hope that the U.S. economy is going to experience a significant turnaround any time soon.

In fact, it is likely that things are going to be getting even worse.

Our economic system is dying. Now is the time to try to get as independent of it as you can.

Don't count on a job ("just over broke") as your only source of income. In this economy, no job is safe.

There are millions upon millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans that never dreamed that their lives would go so horribly wrong.

But they did.

Our nation is experiencing the consequences of decades of very bad decisions.

There is no help on the horizon and the cavalry is not on the way to rescue us.

You better prepare accordingly.

[Soul Crusher]

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USDA Predicts Surging Food Prices in Coming Year
The Blaze ^ | October 30, 2011 | Christopher Santarelli
Posted on October 30, 2011 9:55:00 PM EDT by JDW11235

The USDA has released their projections for food price inflation in 2011/2012, showing troubling forecasts that may send you to the grocery store today, before paying higher prices tomorrow. The report shows that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food increased 0.8 percent between 2009 and 2010, and is forecasted to increase 3.5 to 4.5 percent in 2011.

Items that are expected to inflate the most include beef, cooking oils, and seafood. Processed vegetables and beverages were projected to to see smaller changes in the CPI. The Wall Street Journal notes that “the midpoint of the new USDA outlook signals the sharpest acceleration in the food inflation rate from one year to the next since 1978, and makes the increase itself the biggest since 2008, when prices rose 5.5%.” While things may seem bleak for the rest of the year, the USDA projects that prices will rise only 2.5 percent next year.

(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Slouching toward the 1930s (We are headed for an unavoidable event worse than the Great Depression)

American Thinker ^ | 10/30/2011 | Monty Pelerin


The current economic crisis rivals the one of the 1930s.  Despite shameless propaganda by government and its cronies in the media, people understand that the situation is getting worse.  Consumer confidence continues to decline as does confidence in the future.

We are headed for an event that history will record as worse than the Great Depression.  It is unavoidable.

The Level of Debt

The principal reason for the dire prediction is the level of debt outstanding.  Current debt levels are simply not sustainable.  Assets and cash flows cannot support or service this debt.

No economic recovery can occur without massive debt reduction.  As shown below, current debt is much higher than the 1930s:




As a percentage of GDP, debt is at an all-time high.  Immediately prior to the Great Depression US debt was about 200% of GDP.  It rose briefly to 300% as a result of massive government interventions to combat the Depression.

At the beginning of the current downturn, debt was about 370% of GDP. It is about 400% currently.

Eyeballing the chart from 1870 forward, debt levels are generally in the range of 150% of GDP.  That appears to be the norm for the last 140 years.  Only in the 1920s and recently did debt exceed 180% of GDP.  Even funding World Wars I and II did not drive debt above 180%.




(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Source: Bloomberg

The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached a record 45.8 million in August, the government said.

The figure was 1.1 percent higher than the previous month and 8.1 percent more than a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report on its website. Assistance rolls are increasing as joblessness remains at 9.1 percent of the workforce.

Texas had the most food-stamp recipients in August, at 4.12 million, followed by California with 3.82 million, according to the USDA. Spending was a record $6.13 billion.

The number of Americans receiving food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has set records every month but one since December 2008.




Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/u-s-food-stamp...

[Soul Crusher]

Syms, Filene's Basement file for bankruptcy
Bloomberg News ^ | November 2, 2011



Headline only as original source is Bloomberg News.


(Excerpt) Read more at crainsnewyork.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Fed Lowers Growth Forecast, Raises Jobless Projections
Reuters via CNBC ^ | 2 Nov 2011 | Reuters



The Federal Reserve on Wednesday slashed its forecast for economic growth, raised projections for unemployment, and suggested Europe's debt crisis posed big downside risks to the U.S. economy.

[Snip]

Policymakers did not see the jobless rate falling to a level they consider consistent with full employment even at the outer edge of their forecasting horizon, the final quarter of 2014.

Officials now expect the world's largest economy to expand by a tepid 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent next year, down from the rosier 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent they were expecting in June.

They saw the unemployment rate going no lower than 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent by the end of 2012, up from the more sanguine 7.8 percent to 8.2 percent range envisioned in June.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

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Economy: The rising cost of eating
Messenger Post ^ | Posted Nov 03, 2011 @ 09:48 AM | By Scott Pukos, staff writer
Posted on November 3, 2011 11:26:01 PM EDT by DeaconBenjamin

A surge in food prices this year is impacting local grocery stores and restaurants, which in turn affects the people buying food from these places.

But in many cases, owners of eateries and shopping venues say they have little choice but to raise prices to keep up with costs.

“Oh yeah, prices have gone up like crazy,” said Mike Hetelekides, owner of The Villager Restaurant and Diner in Canandaigua. “We can’t keep up.”

The U.S. Agriculture Department said last week that it expects retail food prices to increase 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year, after climbing just 0.8 percent in 2010.

Jo Natale, the director of media relations at Wegmans, said a couple factors have led to the increase.

“Higher commodity costs, higher energy costs and a greater demand for food globally has contributed to driving food costs up,” said Natale. “Cost increases are pretty consistent across the board.”

She said that specific commodity costs that have increased include wheat, corn, soy and anything that feeds on those three foods. Transportation costs are also up, she added, which factors into the pricing.

For restaurants, there are other things to consider, aside from just the price of the food specifically.

Hetelekides said his establishment changed its menus — and prices — just over a year ago, and as a result, hasn’t raised the prices again to keep up with the more recent inflating food costs. That’s mostly because it would cost too much to change the menus, he said.

But with the steady rise in flour, bread, meat and especially coffee prices, he fears they’ll have to change those menus sooner, rather than later.

“There’s nothing else you can do,” he said. “It’s easier for distributors to raise prices, but restaurants have to deal with customers.”

Some customers may still go to their favorite spots even with a slight increase in cost.

“We changed prices (over a year ago) because of the economy, but it didn’t take that much of a toll on our business,” said Helen Hendershot, a waitress at The Villager in Canandaigua. “We still have our regulars.”

Hetelekides said a majority of customers will understand why restaurants need to adjust pricing.

“Most people understand,” he said. “They’ll see the changes for themselves at the supermarket.”

However, some supermarkets — like Wegmans — have taken measures to combat those changes.

“We committed in February to keeping prices of 40 items frozen, and to keep those prizes frozen through 2011,” Natale said referring to “everyday items” like bananas, ground beef, baby-cut carrots and some coffee products. Spread out through different categories, flavors and varieties, this impacted about 200 products, she said.

Natale said she didn’t know where the prices on those products would stand after 2011.

“Beyond that, we do our best to consider prices for customers,” she said. “We check competitors’ prices regularly as well.”

[Soul Crusher]

Rock Bottom? Debt-Ridden Detroit Suburb Literally Rips-Out 1,000 Streetlights, Darkens Town
The Blaze ^ | 3 November, 2011 | Tiffany Gabbay
Posted on November 4, 2011 1:33:28 AM EDT by Watchdog85

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (The Blaze/AP) — As the sun dips below the rooftops each evening, parts of this Detroit enclave turn to pitch black, the only illumination coming from a few streetlights at the end of the block or from glowing yellow yard globes.

It wasn’t always this way. But when the debt-ridden community could no longer afford its monthly electric bill, elected officials not only turned off 1,000 streetlights. They had them ripped out – bulbs, poles and all. Now nightfall cloaks most neighborhoods in inky darkness.

“How can you darken any city?” asked Victoria Dowdell, standing in the halo of a light in her front yard. “I think that was a disgrace. She said the decision endangers everyone, especially people who have to walk around at night or catch the bus.

Highland Park‘s decision is one of the nation’s most extreme austerity measures, even among the scores of communities that can no longer afford to provide basic services.

Other towns have postponed roadwork, cut back on trash collection and closed libraries, for example. But to people left in the dark night after night, removing streetlights seems more drastic. And unlike many other cutbacks that can easily be reversed, this one appears to be permanent.

The city is $58 million in debt and has many more people than jobs, plus dozens of burned-out or vacant houses and buildings. With fewer than 12,000 residents, its population has dwindled to half the level from 20 years ago.

Faced with a $4 million electric bill that required $60,000 monthly payments, Mayor Hubert Yopp asked the City Council to consider reducing lighting. Council members reluctantly approved it, even in an election year.

“We knew it was going to hurt,” Councilman Christopher Woodard said. “We’re all hurting.”

In late August, contractors from DTE Energy began rolling through the streets, taking out two-thirds of the light poles.

“It is a winning proposition, but that doesn’t make it a winner with the citizens who find themselves in the dark,” Woodard added. “We had to watch our backs when we got out of our cars before. Now we have to watch them even more closely.”

Unless the government gets an unexpected infusion of cash or sees an uptick in its dying tax base, many parts of Highland Park will remain beneath a shroud every night.

The city’s monthly electric bill has been cut by 80 percent. The amount owed DTE Energy goes back about a decade, but utility executives hesitated to turn off the juice.

“We are extremely concerned with public safety,” said Trevor Lauer, vice president of marketing and renewables for the Detroit-based utility. “We recognize that street lighting is something that contributes to public safety.”

Now, he said, the company has “a municipal lighting customer I’m confident can pay its monthly bill.”

Most of the 500 streetlights still shining in Highland Park are along major streets and on corners in residential areas. DTE Energy has listed the city’s overdue bill as an uncollectable expense.

The leader of a nonprofit group that works to reduce energy costs for low-income families said he’s not heard of any other communities becoming so desperate to save money that they turned off streetlights. It might be a sign of things to come.

“If it works in Highland Park, I could not imagine other cities not looking at that as one option,” said David Fox, executive director of the National Low Income Energy Consortium in Alexandria, Va.

In its heyday, Highland Park was one of Michigan’s urban jewels, with large yards, spacious homes and tree-lined streets.

Henry Ford put his first moving assembly line here, and his factory eventually churned out a car every minute. By 1930, the city had grown to 50,000 people.

Ford later moved his primary manufacturing operations to River Rouge, southwest of Detroit, in search of room to expand. Highland Park survived that loss. But it never recovered from Chrysler’s decision in the 1990s to move its world headquarters 50 miles north to Oakland County.

“That took away $6 million” in taxes, Woodard said. “That was a lot of money to not have anymore. It was a major industrial operation moving out of here. When Chrysler moved out, things started to happen.”

Small businesses catering to Chrysler workers began to fail, and the city struggled to pay its bills. And like Detroit, which lost 250,000 residents from 2000 to 2010, people moved out, leaving hundreds of abandoned houses.

In 1980, the census counted 27,000 people living in Highland Park. By 2010, that number had fallen to 11,776.

The median household income is $18,700, compared with $48,700 statewide. And 42 percent of the city’s residents live in poverty.

“It’s pretty ghetto,” Cassandra Cabil said from her front yard. Voices drift in the darkness from down the street, but the speakers can’t be seen.

The 31-year-old short-order cook works odd hours and sometimes makes it home late at night. She watched recently as crews removed the streetlight and pole from in front of her rented home.

“It’s really dark unless people have their lights on,” she said. “There’s a lot of vandalism going on, people breaking into these houses.”

[Soul Crusher]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/extreme-poverty-is-now-at-record-levels-19-statistics-about-the-poor-that-will-absolutely-astound-you



Wow!!!!     hopey Changey is not going to like this. 

[240 is Back]

what % of the global depression do you attribute to Bush, and what % to Obama?

33, what say you?

(A lack of an answer will mean you cannot compare repub reign to dem reign... thus any endorsement of a repub ticket woudl be hollow).

[Soul Crusher]

what % of the global depression do you attribute to Bush, and what % to Obama?

33, what say you?

(A lack of an answer will mean you cannot compare repub reign to dem reign... thus any endorsement of a repub ticket woudl be hollow).

Obama took a bush mess and turned it into a global catastrophe. 

[Soul Crusher]

A Shocking 52% Of Unemployed Americans Have Exhausted Their Benefits (What next?)
Business Insider ^ | 11/06/2011 | Via AP
Posted on November 6, 2011 10:29:55 PM EST by SeekAndFind

WASHINGTON (AP) — The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits. Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise.

The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They've had no job for more than 99 weeks. They're no longer eligible for benefits.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

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US wealth gap between young and old is widest ever
Yahoo News ^ | 11/7/11 | Hope Yen
Posted on November 7, 2011 3:14:37 AM EST by floridarunner01

WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation.

The analysis reflects the impact of the economic downturn, which has hit young adults particularly hard. More are pursuing college or advanced degrees, taking on debt as they wait for the job market to recover. Others are struggling to pay mortgage costs on homes now worth less than when they were bought in the housing boom.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Most of the unemployed no longer receive benefits
Published: Saturday, 5 Nov 2011 | 11:13 AM ET Text Size
      
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WASHINGTON - The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They've had no job for more than 99 weeks. They're no longer eligible for benefits.

Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.

So could the government's disability rolls. Applications for the disability insurance program have jumped about 50 percent since 2007.

"There's going to be increased hardship," said Wayne Vroman, an economist at the Urban Institute.

The number of unemployed has been roughly stable this year. Yet the number receiving benefits has plunged 30 percent.

Government unemployment benefits weren't designed to sustain people for long stretches without work. They usually don't have to. In the recoveries from the previous three recessions, the longest average duration of unemployment was 21 weeks, in July 1983.

By contrast, in the wake of the Great Recession, the figure reached 41 weeks in September. That's the longest on records dating to 1948. The figure is now 39 weeks.

"It was a good safety net for a shorter recession," said Carl Van Horn, an economist at Rutgers University. It assumes "the economy will experience short interruptions and then go back to normal."

Weekly unemployment checks average about $300 nationwide. If the extended benefits aren't renewed, growth could slow by up to a half-percentage point next year, economists say.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that each $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates up to $1.90 in economic growth. The CBO has found that the program is the most effective government policy for increasing growth among 11 options it's analyzed.

Jon Polis lives in East Greenwich, R.I., one of the 20 states where 99 weeks of benefits are available. He used them all up after losing his job as a warehouse worker in 2008. His benefits paid for groceries, car maintenance and health insurance.

Now, Polis, 55, receives disability insurance payments, food stamps and lives in government-subsidized housing. He's been unable to find work because employers in his field want computer skills he doesn't have.

"Employers are crying that they can't find qualified help," he said. But the ones he interviewed with "weren't willing to train anybody."

From late 2007, when the recession began, to early 2010, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose more than four-fold, to 11.5 million.

But the economy has remained so weak that an analysis of long-term unemployment data suggests that about 2 million people have used up 99 weeks of checks and still can't find work.

Contributing to the smaller share of the unemployed who are receiving benefits: Some of them are college graduates or others seeking jobs for the first time. They aren't eligible. Only those who have lost a job through no fault of their own qualify.

The proportion of the unemployed receiving benefits usually falls below 50 percent during an economic recovery. Many have either quit jobs or are new to the job market and don't qualify.

Today, the proportion is falling for a very different reason: Jobs remain scarce. So more of the unemployed are exhausting their benefits.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has noted that the long-term unemployed increasingly find it hard to find work as their skills and professional networks erode. In a speech last month, Bernanke called long-term unemployment a "national crisis" that should be a top priority for Congress.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to continue the extended benefits by the end of this year. If the program ends, nearly 2.2 million people will be cut off by February.

Congress has extended the program nine times. But it might balk at the $45 billion cost. It will be the first time the Republican-led House will vote on the issue.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Soul Crusher]

America’s Eight Worst-Performing Retail Chains
Posted: November 3, 2011 at 5:15 pm


Filene’s Basement and parent company Syms declared bankruptcy recently. The situation is so grim that Syms will shutter all 46 locations, and 2,500 employees will lose their jobs. The company, founded in 1959, was once an important discount retailer. According to the company, it has been suffering from competition as sales of big apparel brands have become concentrated at large retailers with hundreds of outlets.

Analysts predict that the holiday shopping season will be difficult for many retailers this year. The National Retail Federation reported that industry sales will be up only 2.8% to $465.6 billion, not enough to make up for three brutal years. Thousands of stores have been closed as a consequence of a drop in retail activity because of the recession. Stores closures for many retailers will continue.

Several of the largest retailers have consistently performed poorly between 2005 and 2010 for reasons that go beyond the recession. 24/7 Wall St. has identified the eight retailers that lost the most in total sales during that period. The stores that fared the worst have a great deal in common.

First, some specialty retailers compete with larger chains. This is certainly the case for Foot Locker because the big box retailers and most department stores sell high-end athletic shoes.

The presence of direct competitors that are similarly sized is yet another reason for the poor performance of some stores on the list. The office products retail sector is occupied by Office Depot, Office Max and Staples. Walmart’s Sam’s Club has created lines of merchandise that also compete in the same market.

The third reason that some of the retailers have done poorly is weak management. Robert Nardelli was a former Jack Welch lieutenant at GE. Nardelli was passed over for Welch’s job. He was hired by Home Depot to run the company after he failed to get the promotion. Between 2000 and 2007, Nardelli managed to alienate both employees and shareholders with poor results and his extravagant pay packages. JCPenney has had similar management problems. Poor merchandising decisions by CEO Mike Ullman, who has run the company since 2004, hurt revenue. He was recently replaced by the head of Apple’s retail store operation, Ron Johnson.

The retail industry has fared relatively well in the past five years, despite the recession, buoyed by strong sales during 2005 to 2007. GDP grew by 16% over these same five years. Also, most big operators have been able to increase revenue since the middle of the last decade. U.S. Sales at industry giants such as Walmart, Target and Costco have risen by 21%, 13% and 28%, respectively. With $600 billion a year in combined sales, the trio are a reasonable proxy for the entire industry.

To identify the large retailers in America with the worst sales, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data published by National Retail Federation’s Stores Magazine. We relied on “Top 100 Retailers” list to identify the retailers that had lost the most in annual retail sales from 2005 to 2010. Only public companies were ranked in order to demonstrate how declining sales affect the overall health of corporations. Because sales numbers can be distorted, companies with significant M&A activity were also excluded.

These are America’s eight disappearing store chains.

8. JCPenney
> Drop in sales: 5.9%
> 2005 sales: $18.8 billion
> 2010 sales: $17.7 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -59%

JCPenney is an iconic U.S. brand. It was started by James Cash Penney in 1902. At one point, it employed Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. JCPenney suffers from two problems. The first is that it is in the highly competitive middle-market department store business, which includes Kohl’s, Macy’s and Dillard’s. Poor management has allowed competitors to flank the company in store locations and merchandise selection. Mike Ullman, who joined the company as CEO in 2004, was the head of JCPenney during its decline. Problems at the retailer have been severe enough that the board has replaced Ullman with former Apple Store chief Ron Johnson. Looking to the future, Penney’s typical middle class customer may have little discretionary income for spending this year. JCPenney same-store sales dropped 2.6% in October.

7. The Gap
> Drop in sales: 9.4%
> 2005 sales: $16 billion
> 2010 sales: $14.5 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -3%

The situation at Gap has become more desperate recently. It announced it would close 21% of its flagship store locations by 2013. The Gap, which was founded in 1969, was the cool location for casual dress during the 1990s, capturing the nation with its slogan, “Fall into the Gap.” Until recently, the company had 3,100 stores, including Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic locations. The Gap’s competition has grown both because of merchandise decisions at large department stores and the rise of retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch. Gap has been through several CEOs since it fired its famed chief Mickey Drexler.

6. Foot Locker
> Drop in sales: 12.3%
> 2005 sales: $5.7 billion
> 2010 sales: $5.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -3%

In 1974, Woolworth, another famous American retailer, founded Foot Locker to take advantage of the growing interest in athletic shoes. Nike was started ten years earlier, and a surge in interest in athletic shoes had begun. Unfortunately for Foot Locker, Nike shoes are now sold by almost every department store and big-box retailer in the United States. Also, the parent company of Nike as well as Adidas and Under Armour have taken a larger part in building their brands, in some cases by having their own stores. Foot Locker’s sales did rebound in the second quarter of the year.

5. The Home Depot
> Drop in sales: 16.6%
> 2005 sales: $81.5 billion (restated to $77.1 billion due to HD Supply, August 2007)
> 2010 sales: $68.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: flat

The Home Depot is the world’s largest retailer of building materials and home improvement products. The company has over 2,200 stores worldwide. The chain has been badly damaged by the housing crisis, which began in earnest in 2007. Home Depot’s prospects were also hurt by the presence of Robert Nardelli, who operated the chain in the first half of the decade. One of Home Depot’s greatest challenges is that it has a large direct competitor in Lowe’s. The other is that the housing market has shown no sign of a recovery.

4. Office Depot
> Drop in sales: 16.8%
> 2005 sales: $14.3 billion
> 2010 sales: $11.9 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -89%

All three of the major office supply companies — the other two being OfficeMax and Staples — have done poorly for three reasons. First, there are too many competitors in the sector. Second, retailers from outside the sector, particularly the Walmart/Sam’s Club franchise, have further divided market share and depressed the margins. The last and most obvious challenge is the toll taken by the recession, particularly among the small businesses that frequent these stores. Office Depot’s last quarter disappointed Wall Street. Sales for the period were off by 2%.

3. OfficeMax
> Drop in sales: 22.8%
> 2005 sales: $9.2 billion
> 2010 sales: $7.1 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -83%

Office Max is the smallest of the three retailers in the office supplies industry, with a total annual revenue of $7 billion, compared with $25 billion for market leader Staples. Staple’s size and number of locations make it almost impossible for OfficeMax to gain market share. Its modest revenue also prevents it from having the purchasing and distribution leverage that its bigger rivals do. OfficeMax’s revenue fell 2.2% in the last reported quarter. The firm blamed weak back to school sales.

2. Dillard’s
> Drop in sales: 23.1%
> 2005 sales: $7.8 billion
> 2010 sales: $6.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: +82%

Dillard’s is another huge American retailer founded in the first half of the century that now finds itself in the crowded general department store sector, which includes Saks and Macy’s. All three companies have struggled to expand and have posted only modest net incomes. Dillard’s has staged a modest recovery recently. Same-store sales rose 8% in October.

1. Sears
> Drop in sales: 23.5%
> 2005 sales: $54 billion
> 2010 sales: $41.3 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -53%

Sears Holdings was created in November 2004 by a merger between Sears Roebuck and Kmart. Sears Roebuck was once among the largest retailers in the country and essentially created the catalog business. The merger was engineered by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert. Both of the chains were weak before the transaction. Kmart was in bankruptcy. Management has been unable to improve the company’s fortunes, which to some extent are hurt by the size and discounting power of Target and Walmart. Sears missed earnings expectations in the past quarter and said it had closed 29 stores during the period.

Douglas A. McIntyre


Read more: America’s Eight Worst-Performing Retail Chains - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/11/03/americas-eight-worst-performing-retail-chains/#ixzz1d1grubgd

[Soul Crusher]

http://www.lohud.com/article/20111107/NEWS05/111070317/New-Yorkers-need-food-stamps-spikes?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage



Hope and Change assholes.    Vote Obama in 2012 - a food stamp in every mouth! 

[Soul Crusher]

Obama Jobs Effort Boosts His Approval
 7-in-10 Blame Economy for Hiring Freeze
November 7, 2011



The Obama economy is so bad that 77 percent of small business owners do not plan to hire any more workers despite all of Washington's hype that the business climate is getting better. Worse: 64 percent of small business owners in a new survey provided to Whispers see the nation teetering on the verge of another recession.

Most shocking of all in the survey of small and medium sized business owners is that many would like to hire more workers but can't, and new financing rules imposed by hurting banks have made getting loans sharply more difficult than in the past. [Read: What Obama Can and Can't Do to Create Jobs.]

"Despite positive job numbers for the month of October, it is clear that business owners have a differing view of the economy," said Connie Certusi, executive vice president and general manager of Small Business Accounting Solutions, a division of Sage North America. Sage, a business management software supplier, conducted the survey among its 3.2 million customers. [See the 10 best cities to occupy.]

"The Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery survey found that 64 percent of business owners who participated in the survey believe that we are either already in a recession or are headed for one in the next six months," said Certusi. "Not surprisingly, 65 percent of respondents in the Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery said that the negative economy has had an impact on their own business." And, "The most telling statistic," she added, "is that 48 percent of business owners would like to hire additional employees but cannot due to issues related to the bad economy."

[Read about the president's proposed student loan rules.]

The survey will provide fodder to those in Washington worried most about the economic impact on small businesses, the sector Democrats and Republicans agree is key to creating jobs.

Sage broke its survey down by the numbers of employees businesses have. Below is the average response of all of those small businesses surveyed.

Key findings of the Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery:

• 64 percent of respondents believe that the U.S. is either in or is headed toward another recession.

• 65 percent of business owners believe the economy has had a negative impact on their business for the last six months; 45 percent believe the economy will have a negative impact on their business during the next six months.

• 45 percent of business owners don't feel the economy has an impact on the number of employees they have.

• 77 percent of business owners think they will maintain the number of employees they have; 7 percent believe they will increase their employee count over the next six months and 8 percent believe that they will decrease their employee count over the next six months.

• 48 percent of business owners would like to hire but can't because of various reasons including economic uncertainty (65 percent), lack of revenue (59 percent).

• 77 percent of small business owners have sought access to financing this year; 67 percent found it more difficult to obtain financing than in the past; 61 percent were able to obtain the financing they were looking for.

• When asked about the effect the U.S. debt downgrade would have, 31 percent responded negative, 41 percent said no effect, and 27 responded don't know.



http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/07/7-in-10-blame-economy-for-hiring-freeze

[Soul Crusher]

Generation Jobless: Young Men Suffer Worst as Economy Staggers
The Wall Street Journal ^ | NOVEMBER 7, 2011 | CONOR DOUGHERTY
Posted on November 7, 2011 8:30:01 PM EST by MinorityRepublican



Cody Preston, 25, keeps looking for work that will pay what he made installing granite counters.

PORTLAND, Ore.—Few groups were hit harder by the recession than young men, like Cody Preston and Justin Randol, 25-year-old high-school buddies who didn't go to college.

The unemployment rate for males between 25 and 34 years old with high-school diplomas is 14.4%—up from 6.1% before the downturn four years ago and far above today's 9% national rate. The picture is even more bleak for slightly younger men: 22.4% for high-school graduates 20 to 24 years old. That's up from 10.4% four years ago.

In contrast to those men, Messrs. Preston and Randol are old enough to have had some time in the job market. They worked together installing granite counters before the housing bust.

Mr. Preston married his girlfriend and settled into what he assumed would be a secure pattern of long hours on job sites and enough cash to travel and enjoy restaurants and bars. Mr. Randol at one point felt flush enough to buy a 63-inch television set and a 50-gallon fish tank for his apartment.

Then the recession hit. Neither man has found steady work since that pays as much as he earned before. Mr. Preston's marriage broke up and he moved back in with his parents, an increasingly common pattern for jobless young men. Mr. Randol has made do with help from girlfriends and by living in houses packed with roommates to keep the rent low.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...





Hope n fucking change! 

[Soul Crusher]

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Adobe to lay off hundreds of workers (750)
Mercury News ^ | November 8th 2011 | Jeremy C. Owens
Posted on November 8, 2011 8:54:20 PM EST by Cardhu

Despite predicting record-setting revenue for the current quarter, San Jose software company Adobe (ADBE) announced Tuesday that it will lay off up to 7.5 percent of its workforce.

Adobe is making a push for greater control of the digital media and marketing sectors, a decision that "will result in the elimination of approximately 750 full-time positions primarily in North America and Europe," the company said in a news release. Adobe reported at the end of its last quarter that it employed 10,040 people.

In an email, Adobe spokeswoman Jodi Sorensen declined to state how many employees will be laid off as opposed to eliminating open positions. She also would not say what divisions of the company would be targeted for layoffs nor how many of the layoffs will come from Adobe's San Jose headquarters.

"These reductions span our business units and geographies, and they reflect our shifts in investment toward the high-growth Digital Media and Digital Marketing categories as a result of priority changes and reduction in some projects," she wrote.

The move will cost the company $87 million to $94 million, with $70 million to $75 million going to employees as severance payments, Adobe reported.

Adobe stuck to its previous guidance for fourth-quarter revenue, which it said will be a record-setting $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic

[Soul Crusher]

From  To    Email Sent!You have successfully emailed the post.
Jefferson County Just Filed For The Largest Municipal Bankruptcy In U.S. History
Grace Wyler | Nov. 9, 2011, 5:42 PM | 325 | 3




A Vegas Bookie Says LSU-Alabama Could Be The Most Heavily Bet College Football Game EverState Tax Revenues Are Up Almost 11 Percent Compared To Last YearGOLDMAN: Property Tax Receipts Are Going Negative, And Local Finances Will Be A "Renewed" Source Of Weakness
 
Commissioners of Jefferson County, Alabama, voted today to file for the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy today, ending nearly three years of drama over the county's $3.1 billion sewer debt.

The decision comes less than two months after the county reached a provisional agreement with its creditors, that included $1.1 billion in concessions. But county officials have been unable to get signed commitments from its creditors before today's vote, according to Bloomberg.

Another factor in the decision was that the county's legislative representatives and the state legislature have not been able to unite behind bills that would help Jefferson County deal with its fiscal issues. Alabama's Republican Gov. Robert Bentley had promised creditors that the state would find a way for Jefferson County to increase its revenues.

Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies are rare, and tend to end poorly for all of the parties involved. In the case of Jefferson County, the bankruptcy could have disastrous consequences for the state — as Alabama's largest county, it is a major economic driver for the state. It will also likely result in millions of dollars in losses for the county's creditors, and could lead to major sewer rate hikes for the county's residents, something commissioners have sought to avoid.

Here's the full Bloomberg report >
Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Grace Wyler on Twitter.




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jefferson-county-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-history-2011-11#ixzz1dFiz8dJo

[Soul Crusher]

It Is 1931. We Are Austria. If The Fed Doesn't Save Us Here Comes Another Great Depression...
TBI ^ | 11-9-2011 | Henry Blodget
Posted on November 9, 2011 6:27:31 PM EST by blam

DELONG: It Is 1931. We Are Austria. If The Fed Doesn't Save Us Here Comes Another Great Depression...

Henry Blodget
Nov. 9, 2011, 5:21 PM

How does Berkeley professor Brad Delong feel about what's going on in Europe?

He's freaking out:

Time to Spread Foam on the Runway: The Federal Reserve Needs to Act Now to Firewall Off the Eurocrisis

I have been complaining for some time now that Reinhart and Rogoff think that the time is always 1931 and that we are always Austria--that the great fiscal crisis is about to erupt and send us lurching down toward Great Depression II.

Well, right now guess what?

The time is 1931, and we are Austria.

The Federal Reserve needs to buy up every single European bond owned by every single American financial institution for cash before the increase in eurorisk leads American finance to tighten credit again and send us down into the double dip. The Federal Reserve Needs to do so now.

Professor Delong cites professor Paul Krugman, who is also freaking out:

This is the way the euro ends.

Not with a bang but with bunga-bunga.

Seriously, with Italian 10-years now well above 7 percent, we’re now in territory where all the vicious circles get into gear — and European leaders seem like deer caught in the headlights. And as Martin Wolf says today, the unthinkable — a euro breakup — has become all too thinkable:

A eurozone built on one-sided deflationary adjustment will fail. That seems certain. If the leaders of the eurozone insist on that policy, they will have to accept the result.

Every even halfway plausible route to euro salvation now depends on a radical change in policy by the European Central Bank. Yet as John Quiggin says in today’s Times

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Heinz to close 3 more factories, cut 1,000 jobs
Pittsburgh Business Times ^ | November 18, 2011 | Paul J. Gough

Posted on Friday, November 18, 2011 11:33:31 AM by mdittmar

H.J. Heinz Co.said Friday that it would shutter three more factories and cut 1,000 jobs as it continues to cut costs worldwide.

The cuts are in addition to a previously announced plan to close five factories, including one in King of Prussia, Pa., and eliminate between 800 and 1,000 positions. H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) made the announcement in the release of its second-quarter earnings, which saw net income drop 7 percent on higher costs. A Heinz spokesman said the plan would help it "further accelerate long-term growth and help offset higher commodity costs."

The locations have not been determined yet, a Heinz spokesman said. Heinz would take a pretax charge of $55 million and 15 cents per share in relation to the new cuts.


Meanwhile, Heinz's net income dropped in the second quarter as sales rose in what the company said was tough economic times, particularly in the United States.

The Pittsburgh-based company had net income of $240 million, or 74 cents a share, in the quarter ended Oct. 26, down 7 percent from the $251 million, or 78 cents a share, during the same period a year ago. Sales were $2.8 billion in the quarter, compared to $2.6 billion a year ago. Costs increased 12 percent during the quarter, including a 10 percent rise in commodity costs.

Emerging markets, global ketchup and its top brands saw 8 percent sales growth in the quarter. Heinz said it would launch products in the United States and Europe that would be focused at price-conscious consumers and at a cost of between 99 cents and $1.99. That includes Heinz Ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, beans, Ore-Ida French fries and Heinz 57.

"Developed markets are experiencing low consumer confidence, high unemployment and economic uncertainty," said William R. Johnson, chairman, CEO and president of Heinz in a prepared statement. "As a result, Heinz is launching a number of innovative new products in the third quarter that have been tailored specifically to meet the needs of U.S. consumers with tight grocery budgets."

H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) was upbeat about its prospects despite conditions in the United States and Australia in particular. It said that it was "on track" regarding its outlook. Now more than halfway into its fiscal year, Heinz said Friday that it expected earnings per share of $3.24 to $3.32 on sales growth of 7 percent to 8 percent.