Excerpts from “The Book of Jobs,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, Vanity Fair:
“There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling—the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997.”
“Policy makers struggling to understand the barrage of financial panics, protests and other ills afflicting the world would do well to study the works of a long-dead economist: Karl Marx.”
“The wily philosopher’s analysis of capitalism had a lot of flaws, but today’s global economy bears some uncanny resemblances to the conditions he foresaw.”
“As he wrote in ‘Das Kapital,’ companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an ‘industrial reserve army’ of the poor and unemployed: ‘Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery.’
The process he describes is visible throughout the developed world, particularly in the U.S. Companies’ efforts to cut costs and avoid hiring have boosted U.S. corporate profits as a share of total economic output to the highest level in more than six decades, while the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent and real wages are stagnant.
U.S. income inequality, meanwhile, is by some measures close to its highest level since the 1920s. Before 2008, the income disparity was obscured by factors such as easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle. Now the problem is coming home to roost.”
Who wrote that? The Senior Economic Adviser at UBS, the Swiss bank. Read it all:
“Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy,” George Magnus, Bloomberg
Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-b6j
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“Nobody goes to jail,” notes Matt Taibbi. “This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth — and nobody went to jail.”
It’s 2011; lower your expectations. Happy New Year.
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There will be ten fewer feet on the beat in Jeanette Pennsylvania. The small Westmoreland County town just laid off three police officers and a drug-sniffing police dog. The police department also lost three meter maids and a secretary.
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The National Bureau of Economic Research has declared the recession over. The Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that it offically ended in June 2009.
Let the feasting begin. Who’s got the food stamps?
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Bonuses for employees of Wall Street financial firms were up at least 17 percent in 2009. You remember 2009 — TARP, unemployment, foreclosures and all that (so tiresome).
More:
Market Watch: “Wall St. bonuses climbed 17% to $20.3 billion in 2009.”
New York Times DealBook: “The Big Money’s Back in Town.”
Goldman Sachs helped alleviate economic suffering by donating $16.2 billion to needy investment bankers. Its own. Company executives also committed a whopping 3% of that amount to help struggling small businesses. Strange; we thought New Yorkers always tipped 20%.
Goldman Sachs was saved from certain doom by the generosity of U.S. taxpayers, many of whom are now unemployed thanks to the machinations of Goldman Sachs. The company paid back the $10 billion in federal TARP funds that saved its assets. Why not? $12.9 billion of AIG’s federal bailout funds were paid directly to Goldman Sachs.
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This morning the federal government reports the latest unemployment figures, using a measure that seems increasingly irrelevant as more Americans remain among the long-term unemployed and underemployed. While we wait for dubious numbers and optimistic spin, let’s adopt the misunderstood, mis-attributed, and misquoted adage that “what’s good for General Motors is good for the United States” and turn our bloodshot eyes on Detroit.
Industry boosters are gilding the poison ivy, choosing to see last month’s slight bounce as the start of an upturn, but others wonder if the plunging sector has hit bottom yet. It’s only a matter of time before xenophobes and protectionists seize on the fact that Asian cars outsold Detroit buggies in God’s Own Country last year.
Job cuts continue among U.S. auto workers, and Con Chapman has identified a significant new economic indicator:
“As Auto Industry Shrinks, Crash Test Dummies Fear Future.”
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Unemployment is at a 26-year high, delinquent mortgages are at the highest rate in four decades, and Wall Street has bipolar disorder.
Never mind. Lottery ticket sales are up, according to state gaming officials.
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