Provided You Even Have a Job,

home prices are more affordable than ever.

But having an longterm income is key.
_____

Housing assistance is on the way, with a $75-billion housing plan being unveiled by the Obama administration.

No help for renters, of course.
_____

Meanwhile, the economy continues to slide. Auto sales have plunged 42 percent.
_____

Nearly 700,000 jobs were cut last month. The total was 697,000.
_____

The Booming Economy

AT&T--12,000 jobs to be cut.


A record number of Americans are using food stamps thanks to our great economy.

The Booming Economy

Circuit City files for bankruptcy.

DHL--9,500 jobs lost and service centers closed.

For the first time in its history, the USPS is looking at layoffs, with as many as 40,000 positions cut.

We shall see if Obama really has the stomach and acumen necessary to create a "new" New Deal, or if he is just another neoliberal who won't do jack to offend the elites.



Skilled immigrants are finding, like a lot of other people, they are either unemployed, unemployable, or they have to toil away at low-skill jobs.

Welcome to the new U.S. of A.

The Booming Economy

I haven't listed prominent layoffs recently, but the WSWS has in its article about job losses and foreclosures.

Some notable layoffs:

Chrysler, which announced an additional 1,825 layoffs on Thursday

• Goldman Sachs, which said it will cut 10 percent of its staff, or almost 3,300 jobs

• Pharmaceutical giant Merck, which announced it is shedding 12 percent of its workforce

• Biotechnology company Maxygen, which said it will cut nearly 30 percent of its workforce

• Money manager Janus Capital Group, which is sacking 9 percent of its workforce

• Xerox, which said yesterday it will cut 5 percent of its staff, or 3,000 positions

• Mining equipment maker Terex Corporation, which is laying off hundreds of its workers

• United Parcel Service, which announced plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs next year

• Fidelity National Financial Inc., which announced it will slash 1,000 jobs and cut pay by 10 percent

• Financial services conglomerate Popular Inc., which is cutting 600 jobs and closing more than a quarter of its branches in the US.

_____

Randroid Alan Greenspan actually admits he made a mistake while the rest of the country regrets the mistake he was EVER fed chairman.

The Booming Economy

Job cuts continue to mount in this sinking world economy.

The Booming Economy

There were 159,000 job cuts last month.


It is utter bullshit to argue, as Republicans do, that the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was responsible for the housing mess. They are cynically trying to blame blacks and even Bill Clinton for the problem THEY and their economic religion created.

It's deregulation that's the problem. It's Friedmanomics that is the problem. Milton Friedman was a crackpot whose economic theories should have been laughed out of every tenth-rate college in the United States. Instead, his and his fellow Chicago School crackpots were lionized by politicians of both political parties, especially the Republicans, and in other countries, and with ruinous results.

Friedmanomics needs to go in the trash can where it belongs.

(H/T to Cannonfire)