Recession

Once Again, Congress Will Let Wall Street Pillage Main Street

May 10, 2020 Leonard C. Goodman, PopularResistance. Educate! Bailout, Congress, Recession, Workers

Over the last decade, Congress’s approval ratings have hovered around the mid-teens or low 20s, reflecting the reality that our representatives in Washington, D.C., serve the needs of big donors while throwing an occasional rhetorical bone to the “essential” workers who actually make the country function. Congress’s handling of the current crisis of the pandemic is unlikely to improve its ratings. Working Americans are facing an unprecedented disaster. Before the virus hit, half of them lived paycheck to paycheck and didn’t have $400 saved for an emergency. Now they have been ordered to stay home. Many have no income while their rents, utility bills, student loans, and credit card debts are accruing. The small businesses—restaurants, gyms, and stores—that provide half of the nation’s jobs were ordered to shut down. Their rents are accruing. And with no income coming in, many have little chance of repaying what they owe when the economy reopens.

Bank Of England Warns Economy Could Contract By 14% In 2020

May 8, 2020 By Michael Settle, The Herald. Educate! Depression, Finance and the Economy, Recession

The Bank of England has warned the UK economy could, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, shrink by as much as 14% this year, which would be the biggest slump in 300 years. In the current quarter, the contraction to the national output of GDP could be as deep as 25 percent. Britain was already in recession, having contracted, the Bank suggested, by 3% in the first quarter. Covid-19, it explained, was "dramatically reducing jobs and incomes in the UK". The unemployment rate is expected to double to around 9%. The predicted contraction would be the sharpest since the South Sea Bubble of 1720 when stocks crashed. However, the Bank also suggests the economy could bounce bank next year, growing by 15 percent. In what it calls an “illustrative scenario,” it says this “incorporates a very sharp fall in UK GDP in 2020 H1 and a substantial increase in unemployment in addition to those workers who are furloughed currently.

Reopening The Economy Will Send Us To Hell

May 6, 2020 Mike Davis, LA Progressive. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Reopen Economy, Working Class

As we head into the fifth month of the outbreak, millions of working families feel like they have been kidnapped and sent to hell. As unemployment (officially reported) soars toward 30 percent or more, an estimated 20 million more people will fall helplessly below the poverty line. In a recent Pew poll, 60 percent of Latinos reported losing jobs or wages, as did more than half of all workers below the age of 30. In addition to their jobs, millions will lose everything they had spent their lives working for: homes, pensions, medical coverage, and savings accounts. Most of us have already lived through a brutal preview of economic collapse: the 2008-09 “Great Recession.” In a span of 18 months a majority of Black and Latino families lost all their net wealth and college grads from non-privileged backgrounds found themselves marooned, seemingly for life, in the low-wage service economy.

The Disconnect Between The Stock Market And The Real Economy Is Destroying Our Lives

May 6, 2020 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Wall Street, wealth inequality

In the month of April—as 30 million Americans filed for unemployment, and destitute small businesses closed forever, and rent strikes were demanded, and city and state governments forecast years of grim austerity—the U.S. stock market had its best month in more than 30 years. Day after day, we were treated to stories of absolute ruin in the real economy, right next to another glorious rise in stocks. After a sharp selloff in March, the S&P 500 index has bounced back to where it was in the fall of 2019, as if that little devastating global pandemic were nothing more than a fleeting, momentary annoyance. The glaring disconnect between the real economy, of working humans with jobs and bills to pay, and the investor class economy, embodied by the stock market, is one of the most brutal and devious political issues of this age of crisis in which we’re living.

How The Super Rich Are Cheating The United States

May 5, 2020 Paul Bucheit, Nation of Change. Educate! Billionaires, COVID-19, Recession, Universal Basic Income, wealth inequality

Media outlets keep telling us that we’re all together in this pandemic. But we’re not. The super-rich have separated themselves from the rest of us, with concierge medicine, private travel accommodations, isolated but well-stocked resort homes, and a variety of other advantages that allow them to look beyond the hardships endured by average Americans. A few billionaires have contributed to the fight against Covid-19. But Luke Hildyard, Executive Director of the High Pay Centre, says, “Very generous individual grants can obscure the fact that on the whole, wealthy people’s charitable giving is pretty minimal.” In the most flagrant example of disregard for the rest of us, one company has installed private ‘doomsday’ bunkers in New Zealand with “luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges, gyms, theaters and surgical beds.”

Cancel The Rents Activists Say Housing Is A Human Right

May 4, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Housing, Human Rights, Pandemic, Recession

There is a growing movement of people refusing to pay their rent whether they are not able to or whether they can but they are acting in solidarity with those who can't. In this recession, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. Support from the government is not reaching everyone who needs it. Thirty percent of people could not pay their rent in April. This is occurring in an environment where property owners are large corporations that seek profit even when it means people losing their homes during a pandemic. We speak with DC activist and co-host of By Any Means Necessary about the Cancel the Rent campaign, which calls on local government to put a moratorium on rent until the pandemic is over. Their long term goal seeks to transform the way housing is structured in the United States so it is treated as a basic human right.

Armed Right-Wing Protesters Are Extending The Economic Lockdown, Demonstrating White Privilege

May 4, 2020 By John Pavlovitz, Stuff That Needs To Be Said Educate! COVID-19, Economic shutdown, Physical distancing, Recession

As a white man watching the Michigan protests of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, all I could think was: Black people don’t get to do this Muslims don’t get to do this. Latinos don’t get to do this. People who don’t look like this don’t get to do this. They don’t get to swarm American capitol buildings in tactical gear with high-powered weapons, screaming in close proximity to police officers.They don’t get to dress up like Call of Duty cosplayers and attempt to physically intimidate politicians into bending to their wills. They don’t get to get to stop traffic in city streets decked out like they work at the Death Star and brazenly wield semi-automatic rifles. They don’t get to terrorize decent people and walk away. Only white people get to do this.

The Myth Of V-Shape Economic Recovery

May 3, 2020 Jack Rasmus. Educate! COVID-19, Depression, Recession, Wall Street

The spin is in! Trump administration economic ‘message bearers’, Steve Mnuchin, US Treasury Secretary, and Kevin Hasset, senior economic adviser to Trump, this past Sunday on the Washington TV talking heads circuit launched a coordinated effort to calm the growing public concern that the current economic contraction may be as bad (or worse) than the great depression of the 1930s. Various big bank research departments predicting a GDP contraction in the first quarter (January-March 2020) anywhere from -4% to -7.5%, and for the current second quarter, a further contraction from -30% to -40%: Morgan Stanley investment bank says 30%. The bond market investment behemoth, PIMCO, estimates a 30% fall in GDP. Even Congress’s Budget Office recently estimate the contraction in GDP could be as high as -40% in the 2nd quarter.

Update: Number Of Unemployed Now Over 30 Million

May 3, 2020 Economic Policy Institute. Educate! COVID-19, Pandemic, Recession, Unemployment

The number of workers applying for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits has risen to never-before-seen levels as a result of the coronavirus shock. In the last six weeks, nearly 28 million workers have applied for unemployment compensation. That is more than one in six workers, and over five times the worst period of the Great Recession. I should note that the Department of Labor (DOL) reports that 30.3 million workers applied for UI during the last six weeks on a “seasonally adjusted” basis, compared with 27.9 million on an unadjusted basis. Seasonal adjustments are typically helpful—they are used to even out seasonal changes in claims that have nothing to do with the underlying strength or weakness of the labor market, providing a clearer picture of underlying trends.

Boston May Day 2020 Car Rally

May 2, 2020 Yoav Elinevsky, Popular Resistance. Resist! COVID-19, Massachusetts, May Day, Recession, Sanctions

The Massachusetts Peace Action, MAPA, organized a car rally in Boston today to support national and international solidarity as the COVID-19 pandemic rages around the globe. More than 50 cars participated in the rally. The impact of the Corona-19 pandemic has been overwhelming in our country. It has been especially devastating for the poor and for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. At the same time, wealthy elites value their profits more than people's lives. Now is the time to imagine and act together for reorganizing society around the needs of all the people, especially of the poor and working people. We invite you to join us and magnify the potential impact of this message by distributing it and acting similarly locally and globally. Join us in support of the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres call to waive “the sanctions imposed on countries to ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and COVID-19 medical support.

May Day General Strike, A Strong Beginning To An Ongoing Campaign

May 1, 2020 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance Resist! COVID-19, General Strike, May Day, Recession, Workers Rights and Jobs

On May Day, the first day of an ongoing day of General Strike, there were actions all over the country supporting workers at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Fedex, Shipt and Instacart calling protective gear and hazard payfor essential workers. There were also demands for systemic changes like national improved Medicare for all, a universal basic income and a green new deal (see the graphics of the demands of the General Strike below). The strike required creativity on the part of participants because of the coronavirus pandemic and the physical distancing and stay at home orders but people found ways to get their messages out using a variety of tactics. There will be a General Strike national day of action on the first of every month so we need to learn from each other's creativity and find new ways to protest.

The Fifth Coronavirus Relief Package We Need

April 29, 2020 Howie Hawkins, Nation of Change. Create! Bailout, Congress, COVID-19, Recession

The coronavirus depression is fast becoming as deep as the Great Depression. The federal government’s response has been too little, too late. While sickness and death spread, while unemployment and small business failures soar, while health care and essential workers lack personal protective equipment (PPE), Congress is in recess until May 4. The childlike dummy, Donald Trump, spouts bad advice daily in his televised briefings. Thursday he said we could beat the coronavirus by injecting disinfectants or somehow shining ultraviolet radiation inside our bodies. Meanwhile, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is MIA. Is he sitting on a park bench somewhere feeding bread crumbs to pigeons? Since the lockdown started five weeks ago, 26 million people have applied for unemployment insurance.

US Coronavirus ‘Bailout’ Scam Is $6 Trillion Giveaway To Wall Street

April 29, 2020 Michael Hudson, Moderate Rebels. Resistance Report CARES Act, COVID-19, Recession, wealth inequality

Just think of when, in the debates with Bernie, Sanders during the spring, you had Biden, and Klobuchar keep saying, ‘What we’re paying for Medicare-for-All will be $1 trillion over 10 years.’ Well here the Fed can create $1.5 trillion in one week just to buy stocks. Why is it okay for the Fed to create $1.5 trillion to buy stocks to prevent rich people from losing on their stocks, when it’s not okay to print only $1 trillion to pay for free Medicare for the entire population? This is crazy! The idea that only the rich should be allowed to print money for themselves, but the government should not be allowed to print money for any public purpose, any social purpose — not for medicine, not for schools, not for personal budgets, not for full employment — but only to give to the 1 percent. People hesitate to think that.

The Struggle Against Neoliberalism Intensifies: Saving Our Postal Service And Workers

April 27, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast COVID-19, Food and Agriculture, Meatless May, Postal Service, Recession, Workers

The wave of worker, student, and renter strikes is growing into a campaign for a general strike that begins on May 1 and continues at the first of each month from there. The government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic collapse, a purely neoliberal money grab, has revealed that the only way we are going to survive and maintain social programs is by fighting for them. We speak with Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, about Congress' failure to provide necessary funding for the US Postal Service as revenue has fallen by 50%. The USPS faces the real possibility of going bankrupt and the administration is openly saying it will let it fail in order to privatize it. We also speak with Joe Henry, political director of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Iowa, about the Meatless May campaign for meatpackers and against factory farming.

Earth Day To May Day Protests Begin In DC With ‘Essential, Not Expendable’ Protest

April 27, 2020 The ShutDownDC Alliance, PopularResistance Resist! climate crisis, COVID-19, Earth Day, May Day, Recession, Workers

Three moving protests involving 135 people celebrated essential workers as well as to condemned employers and legislators for avoidable illnesses and deaths. They carried banners that read, “Essential, Not Expendable, and “Free Them All.” The three caravans – two consisting of cars and one of people on bicycles – visited grocery stores, hospitals, and government agencies, before coming together in Anacostia in SE DC, where they were joined by a live go-go band. The actions were organized by activists with Black Lives Matter DC, 1199SEIU, and ShutDownDC. The Essential, Not Expendable protest is part of the 10-day Earth Day To May Day action organized by the ShutDownDC alliance, which started on April 22, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

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