The Federal Reserve cut its growth forecast for the second half of 2012 and 2013 last week, raising concerns yet again about the potential for a "double-dip" recession. While some, notably the cycle watchers at ECRI, believe the U.S. economy is definitely heading for another recession (or already there), Gluskin Sheff's chief economist and strategist David Rosenberg goes a big step further.
"We are living in a modern-day depression," he declares.
This dramatic statement is based on several factors, including the record number of Americans living on Food Stamps — 46 million or 1-in-7 in 2011. Because these benefits are now given in the form of electronic debit cards, we don't have bread lines like in the 1930s, but they are there in virtual form. And that's just the most obvious form of government support for its struggling citizenry. (See: Marion Nestle on The (Big) Business of Food Stamps: "Here's Where the Profits Come In")
"Government transfers to the personal sector now makes up nearly one-fifth of total household income," Rosenberg writes. "Even Lyndon Johnson, architect of the 'Great Society', would blush at that."
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And then there are those of us who lost damn near everything but didn't qualify for 99 weeks of unemployment because we were self-employed and couldn't get food stamps or other aid because, well, we make just enough that is deemed "too much" and still have an "asset" like a house we are barely holding on to, but don't get to live in, but are renting for just over the amount of the mortgage.
ReplyDeleteI could go on...
Ai yi yi, I have long felt like the Obummer years are most definitely a depression.
Erinyes,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. We blew threw our savings and 401K paying for medical expenses for two autistic kids that were deemed "uninsurable" by a private plan and we made $20 too much a month for Chips. Meanwhile, the family of illegals next door with 4 kids are all on Medicaid and two are getting SSI.
All I can tell you is hang in there. It's got to get better.
Oh yeah, it HAS to. Jesus, we've held garage sales in thirty degree weather just to buy food for dinner. No bullshit, either. That was two years ago. And moving to Florida to try to find better opportunities (and to prevent us from being homeless in Oklahoma by initially moving in with a drunkass family member was like the Grapes of Wrath, including an overnight in Southern Georgia in a KOA campground sleeping on the ground.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was raised solidly middle class. My family just can't fathom what is happening so they stick their heads in the sand to avoid the unpleasant details. It's fucking bizarre, but I've grown accustomed to making do. Yesterday I actually got to buy a new pair of pants for work. Woohoo!
IT HAS GOT TO GET BETTER, but it won't until that cocksucker is out of office and people are comfortable spending money again and money starts circulating through society like it did during the Bush years.
Sorry for the rant, W/C. HWA: Hug those kids close. It will get better!