The moneyed elite suffered a severe scare, particularly in the period between September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, and March 6, 2009, when the Dow hit a low of 6,547. The all-out mobilization of US government financial resources behind Wall Street, with a total potential liability of $23.7 trillion, has at least temporarily restored confidence in the financial markets and pushed stocks up 40 percent. But there has been no bailout for working people.
Unemployment has surged to a 27-year high, with the Labor Department expected to announce another new high Friday for the month of July, approaching an official figure of 10 percent out of work. The consultant firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that big US companies announced 31 percent more layoffs in July than in June. The 97,373 job cuts announced in July brought the total this year to 994,048, 72 percent more than in the same period in 2008.
The payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday that private employers overall cut 371,000 jobs in July, which the company called a “notable improvement,” since it was the smallest such total since last October. But ADP warned, “despite recent indications that overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is likely to decline for at least several more months, albeit at a diminishing rate.”
But it's okay so many people are out of work, for that drives down wages and salaries of jobs that can't be "outsourced."
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