Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Unemployment Holds Steady At 9.7%. Temp. Hirings Up March Job Figures (Politico)
President Barack Obama got the first unequivocally good news on the nation’s employment picture Friday, as new government figures showed the nation gained 162,000 jobs in the month of March.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. That’s the first time the nation has gained, rather than lost, in jobs since late 2007, with the [...]
Rep. John B. Larson: 7 New Tax Credits Now Available Through the Recovery Act
Tax cuts were the biggest individual component of the Recovery Act. Even though only half of taxpayers have filed so far this year, tax refunds are already up nearly 10% from last year due to the Recovery Act.
As you file your 2009 income taxes, you may qualify for a series of new tax cuts that [...]
WHAT MR. OBAMA FORGOT TO TELL YOU TODAY: Unemployment Rose In 43 States Last Month (AP)
1/22/10: Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market and illustrating nationwide data released two weeks ago.
The rise in joblessness was a sharp change from November, when 36 states said their unemployment rates fell. Four states — South Carolina, Delaware, Florida and North [...]
Robert Reich/Opinion: The Year Wall Street Bounced Back and Main Street Got Shafted (Huffington Post)
In September 2008, as the worst of the financial crisis engulfed Wall Street, George W. Bush issued a warning: “This sucker could go down.” Around the same time, as Congress hashed out a bailout bill, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the leading Republican negotiator of the bill, warned that “if we do not do this, [...]
Unemployment Fuels The Foreclosure Crisis
The country’s growing unemployment is overtaking subprime mortgages as the main driver of foreclosures, according to bankers and economists, threatening to send even higher the number of borrowers who will lose their homes and making the foreclosure crisis far more complicated to unwind.
Economists estimate that 1.8 million borrowers will lose their homes this year, up [...]
Rising Unemployment Accelerates Foreclosure Crisis
Relentlessly rising unemployment is triggering more home foreclosures, threatening the Obama administration’s efforts to end the housing crisis and diminishing hopes the economy will rebound with vigor.
In past recessions, the housing industry helped get the economy back on track. Home builders ramped up production, expecting buyers to take advantage of lower prices and jump into [...]
OVERLOOKED STORY OF THE DAY: White House Forecasts Higher Budget Deficit
The White House on Monday raised its forecast for this year’s U.S. budget deficit by $89 billion due to the recession, millions of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.
The new estimate predicted a deficit of $1.84 trillion, or 12.9 percent of gross domestic product, for the fiscal year ending September 30. It updated the White [...]
Cafferty/CNN Opinion: Time For Cheney To Go Hunting
It’s time for the Republican Party to tell former Vice President Dick Cheney to put a sock in it.
Here we are 100 days into the new administration of Barack Obama, and Darth Vader is still wandering around grumbling about why the new administration is all wrong.
Nobody is interested anymore, Mr. Vice President. You and your [...]
Adjusting To Job Loss – Workers Fight Back With Courage & Common Sense
Rob Noonan’s friends think he’s a sucker. Laid off from his $140,000-a-year construction management job when the credit markets froze, he still shows up at work, one man working without pay in a cluster of vacant cubicles, trying to make something out of nothing.
While friends are mystified that he would toil for the developer who [...]
Today’s Economic Report: Good News, Bad News For White House
Two economic reports delivered a mixed message Thursday.
The government said the number of newly laid-off U.S. workers signing up for unemployment benefits posted an expected drop last week, but consumer spending fell in March for the first time in three months.
The Labor Department says new applications for unemployment insurance fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 [...]
