U.S. Economic/Financial News
Census Bureau Reports Galloping Poverty Under Bush-Cheney
The number of Americans officially living in poverty rose by 1.3 million during 2003, hitting children especially hard, the Census Bureau stated Aug. 26. The increase, since the beginning of 2001, is 4.3 million people, which is a 13% growth in poverty since President Bush took office.
Based on its ridiculously low measure of the poverty threshhold$18,810/year for a family of fourthe Census Bureau said that the nation's official poverty rate rose from 12.1% in 2002, to 12.5% in 2003. The number of people living below the official poverty threshhold rose to 35.9 million in 2003, up 1.3 millionwith 800,000 more children in povertyfrom 2002. For families, the poverty rate increased from 9.6% in 2002 to 10.0% in 2003, as 400,000 more families fell into poverty.
The states where the increase in poverty was concentrated are: South Dakota, Nevada, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, and Texas. (The ordering is descending, with the most severe case listed first).
In addition, the number of Americans lacking health-insurance coverage, according to the Census Bureau, rose in 2003 by 1.4 million to 45.0 million.
Battleground States Suffer Massive Job Loss Under Bush-Cheney
A report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported in the Wall Street Journal Aug. 23, shows hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in election battleground states, under the Cheney-Bush Administration. Twelve of the 16 states where the 2000 Presidential race was the closest, have lost jobs, since Bush took office, according to figures released by the BL. Overall, 16 "swing" states had a net loss of 315,900 jobs since January 2001. Hardest hit were the former industrial states: Ohio, lost 229,600 jobs; Michigan, down 245,200 jobs; and Pennsylvania, where payroll employment fell by 80,600.
LaRouche/EIR Economic Views Gain Growing Influence
The lead editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal Aug. 23 reflects the growing influence of Lyndon LaRouche's views on the collapse of the physical economy. Titled, "Income inequality continues to grow," the editorial shows the direct impact of the EIR feature on the collapse of the economy of Louisville in the article, "As the Economy Sinks, 'Bush Doesn't Give a Dam.'"
The editors assert that the disparity which exists nationally is present in Louisville, as well. "However, between 1970 and 2000, the metro area lost 20% of its high-paying jobs, while the number of retail jobs, which pay only about a third as much, have increased by 89%. And the number of service jobs has risen by 181% since 1970....
"What's ominous about that is not only that such jobs pay only about half as much as the manufacturing jobs that have gone, but that they rarely provide workers with health insurance or retirement benefits.
"Metro Louisville's 'long-term economic prospects are yet more daunting,' said Crouch [a local researcher], noting the aging of the local population and the prospect that retiring baby boomers who believe their retirement benefits are secure may be in for rude awakenings."
"So, the heat isn't just on American families in the middle and at the bottom of the economy. It's going to get increasingly hotter for the next generation of politicians, who will inherit and be expected to sort out what promises to be a wrenching change in Americans' economic security."
Oregon's Willamette Falls Locks To Close
The Army Corps of Engineers is closing the Willamette Falls Locks in Oregon, as of Oct. 1, due to zero Federal funding for fiscal 2005. The closure of the locks on the Willamette River, operated by the Army Corps since 1915, will be a huge blow to residents and businesses in cities such as Eugene, Salem, and Portland. A farmer along the river near Independence, was quoted as warning, "We need to find a solution soon before we all find ourselves out of business and in unemployment offices."
Wells Run Dry in California's Top Agricultural Region
In an area encompassing seven communities, 40-50 miles northeast of Fresno, Calif.in and near the Sierra National Forestwells have run dry again this summer, the Fresno Bee reported Aug. 22. Last year, some residents started buying trucked-in water on July 31. This year, two months earlier. For weekly, or more frequent deliveries, people are paying as much as $1,500 a month.
More than 500 families are in this plight. Many reside on 2- to 5-acre plots, built in the early- and mid-1990s. By the late-90s, as the current drought began, wells in the area started drying up in the summers.
Twenty years ago, the Fresno County government's general plan reported water problems: "The conversion from agriculture to rural residential development in this area results in a net increase in ground water consumption, resulting in water quantity problems." Fresno County is in the center of the San Joaquin Valley. Using extensive irrigation, the county claims the title of the most productive agricultural county in the United States. In 2000, county growers grossed $3.4 billion from some 200 commercial crops.
Top Bush Economist: 'Economy Good, Getting Better'
The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Gregory Mankiw writes, apparently from La-La Land, in a New York Times op-ed Aug. 22, that "the data are clear: the economy is good and getting better." Mankiw asks, "How is the economy doing? Some economists, pundits and politicians want you to think its in terrible shape," quoting Laura Tyson on the failure to end the unemployment crisis. But, he rails, "Nothing could be further from the truth." Unemployment is down to 5.5% he says and all that talk about people not looking for work is bunk: "The BLS has a little-publicized alternative measure of unemployment, called the U-4, which includes those discouraged workers," and it also shows only 5.9%.
And the claim that the new jobs are lousy jobs? More bunk, says the accountant: "The truth is that there are no data on the characteristics of the new jobs, only data on employment by very broad industry or occupation categories." He also lies that "The unemployment rate has declined for people with all levels of education, and among all racial and ethnic groups. As far as anyone can tell, the economy is creating all kinds of jobs."
Such jibberish will soon be impossible to sell, as the LaRouche team presents the real physical economy to the nation.
High Death-Rate Among Urban Elderly Found
Elderly Americans, living in urban areas, are dying today as a result of what used to be called "the urban penalty," at the turn of the 20th Century: congestion, poverty, crime, pollution, and lack of services. A study issued recently by the Detroit Area Agency on Aging, together with researchers from Wayne State University, found that area residents in their 50s were dying at more than twice the rate of people the same age in other areas of the state. Agency director Paul Bridgewater reported that, according to the last census, the area had lost 23% of its elderly populationnot due to "out migration," but to conditions in the urban areas themselves. Mortality rates for older people in 10 other urban areas across Michigan were also higher than in the rest of the state.
Another study by the Boston Partnership for Older Adults found that low-income elderly living in urban areas are at risk, due to smog, and lack of air-conditioning, which can exacerbate respiratory problems, and cause heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Housing also now exceeds the financial reach of many elderly city-dwellers: In San Francisco, for example, the average rent for a small one-bedroom apartment exceeds 200% of the monthly benefit under the federal Supplementary Security Income (SSI) program, a program for low-income people 65 or older. The June 2004 AARP Bulletin reports that rents are more than 150% of SSI in 17 of the U.S.'s housing market areas.
Case Study: Pennsylvania Economic Breakdown
* PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of US Airways, announced that it would eliminate more than 260 jobs at Pittsburgh International Airport this fall, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Aug. 25. PSA will close its pilot and flight attendant bases in Pittsburgh and Akron, Ohio, on Nov. 1, and furlough customer-service employees, largely because US Airways is cutting service by about one-third. In addition, by December, about 40 airline mechanics' jobs will be eliminated in Pittsburgh.
* Pennsylvania House Furniture, a manufacturer based in the Mount Pleasant Mills area of north-central Pennsylvania, shut down entirely as of Aug. 10. The shutdown wiped out 425 jobs. It came without advance notice, and had a huge local impact. One source reported that job losses from the outsourcing of so much of Corning's production (headquartered across the border in the Corning/Elmira corridor of New York, but drawing on a substantial employment pool in Pennsylvania) had already hurt the region severely.
* Pittsburgh Center for the Arts abruptly shut down Aug. 23, having been a cultural beacon, especially for poor and middle-class art students, for many generations.
N.Y. School Roof Collapses After Years of Underinvestment
The "catastrophic structural failure" on Aug. 1 at Taft Elementary School in Washingtonville, N.Y., involving a particular type of steel joist commonly used from 1900 to 1960, underscores the urgent need for Lyndon LaRouche's approach, as laid out in his Democratic Platform, to fix the dilapidated state of the nation's infrastructure, resulting from decades of underinvestment in repairs/upgrades. In response, the state Education Department sent out letters to school superintendents statewide, warning of similar potential dangers, and calling for thorough inspections.
"There's a lot of buildings in the state that are really crumbling," asserted Tom Robert, an architect with the state education department. "The fact that there was no indication that there might be a problem is what scared me the most. This could happen anywhere, at any time." The average age of school buildings in New York, outside of New York City, is 46 years, and some date back to the 1930s.
The steel joist had rusted because of prolonged exposure to water from a roof leak, a problem occurring in many schools nationwide. Washingtonville inspections conducted since 2000 had warned that Taft's roof needed repair.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, emergency repair work was begun on Aug. 10 to prevent sections of the disintegrating roof from caving in at LeClaire Elementary School in Edwardsville, after contractors found that the underlayment was deteriorated and wouldn't withstand the winter.
Budget Cuts Inflate Class Sizes in Michigan This Fall
Cuts in Michigan education budgets are swelling classes across the state this fall, the Detroit News reported Aug. 22. State-wide, 6,000 school employees were cut last spring, including teachers, classroom aides, and other support staff. In Dearborn, kindergarten classes, which had averaged 18 to 19 children, are expected to average 28. In the middle schools, some elective courses, e.g., music, will have 35 or more. Of 273 districts surveyed, 52 have already reported that class sizes will increase.
In Flint, one middle school teacher said, "It's 38 to 40 in some classes. It's outrageouseven in special education [instruction for children with learning disabilities and/or physical handicapsed.], they push you right to the limit." In Warren County, to keep class size down, middle school teachers now have five classes a day instead of four.
Michigan is struggling to meet Federal standards set by Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act," which allows for failing public schools to be run by private firms. A Dearborn mother said, "There's a lot more they [teachers] have to do under the No Child Left Behind Act.... There are all these demands, plus their class is larger now. Unfortunately, the kids that aren't doing well are just getting lost in the crowd."
Census Overstates Ohio County Household Income
Household income in Fulton county, Ohio is 20% lower than claimed in the 2000 census, according to a more accurate survey conducted by local officials. During an annual meeting in rural Fayette (located 55 miles west of Toledo), village administrator Tom Spiess said there are significant errors in the Census figures for household income, and that Fayette residents should be "upset beyond measure" with the inaccurate data, the Toledo Blade reported Aug. 26.
The 2000 Census figures claimed that the village's median household income jumped from $21,900 in 1990 to $32,115 in 2000, even as the village lost hundreds of jobs, and withholding tax revenues fell significantly. On the other hand, the local survey (with more respondents) documented that the median household income was actually $25,750about 20% lower than reported in the Census. Some 69% of the village's residents are in the low to moderate-income range, compared with 48% according to the Census figures.
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