Some of the poor refuse eviction while one writer rekindles George
Most news is bleak, but not all, and some do have answers
| Have we hit bottom? No, but we’re closer; it’s always darkest before dawn. And some find workable solutions. We trim, blend, append six 2009 articles from: (1) AP, Mar 17, on fraud by Alan Zibel; (2) Reuters, Mar 16, on output by Lucia Mutikani; (3) Reuters, Mar 19, on unemployment by Lucia Mutikani; (4) AP, Mar 17, on home starts by Martin Crutsinger; (5) Dollars and Sense, also posted on AlterNet Mar 19, on evictions by Daniel Fireside; and (6) Springfield News-Leader, Mar 10, on taxing land by Mark Braund, author of The Possibility of Progress. |
by Zibel, by Mutikani, by Crutsinger, by Fireside, and by Braund
- Mortgage fraud reports up 26%
Mortgage fraud incidents set a record last year. The number of fraud reports among loans made grew 26% from a year earlier. The increase came as banks stepped up their scrutiny of lending practices after a tidal wave of defaults.
- US output plummets, manufacturing at record low
US industrial output fell to its lowest level in almost seven years; compared with 2008 February, output slid 11.2%, with the index at 99.7, the lowest reading since 2002 April. From last month it fell 1.4%, following a 1.9 percent drop in January.
Industrial capacity utilization dropped to 70.9 in February, matching a 1982 December record low for the series, which dates back to 1967, from 71.9 in January.
Housing, which is at the center of the global economic and financial recession, remains at rest. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index was flat at 9 in March, marking a fifth consecutive month of single-digit readings.
- US workers on jobless benefits hit record high
The number of US workers drawing state unemployment benefits scaled another record high early this month. The number of people staying on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid surged 185,000 to 5.47 million in the week ended March 7, from 5.29 million the previous week. This was the highest on record and pushed the insured unemployment rate, the percentage of US workers getting jobless benefits, to 4.1% from 3.9% the week before, the highest since 1983 June.
Since the recession started in December 2007, over 4 million jobs melted away. The unemployment rate is at 8.1%, the highest level in 25 years.
The four-week moving average for new claims, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose to 654,750, the highest since 1982 October, from 651,000 in the week ended March 7.
JJS: After all the bad news, is there light at the end of the tunnel?
- Housing starts surge
Construction of new homes and apartments jumped 22.2% in February compared with January. Still, construction activity remains 47.3% below where it was a year ago. The up-tick in February was led by a big increase in apartment construction. All areas of the country reported an increase in February, except the West.
JJS: Apartments are taking up the demand of people who can not now buy a house. Until opportunities to find work or start a business open up, or people finally decide to share the commonwealth and quit taxing our efforts, there is something some can do now.
- Not Just Homeowners, But Renters Are Really Getting Screwed
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, renters make up an estimated 40% of families facing eviction because of foreclosure.
Tenants usually get a letter from a bank offering them a few hundred dollars if they leave in two weeks, and threatening to evict them within a month if they refuse and give them nothing. Those who leave usually lose their security deposits and any prepaid rent.
When people resist, especially tenants and former owners, the banks back off. Scores of tenants and former owners have stalled foreclosures, negotiated higher payout deals, and even forced banks to cut mortgages.
Housing advocates also pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to draw up new rules that stopped illegal evictions from buildings the federal lenders had foreclosed on. Now activists are pressing for the same rules to apply to private lenders.
JJS: While the desperate must do something right now, all of us must do what it takes for the long term.
- Dream eludes too many in America
When Herbert Hoover ran for president in 1928 he said, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." He was wrong, of course. The reasons for failure were explained by the American economist Henry George who studied the factor land.
Land values generally increase with economic advance, which means that landowners and mortgage lenders automatically get richer. George believed this unearned income was unjust, and the principal cause of the growing gap between rich and poor. He argued that it should be collected as public revenue and that taxes on personal incomes and corporate profits should be abolished.
So far no government has succeeded in eradicating poverty. As it struggles to emerge from the most serious economic collapse since Hoover's time, America has a chance to show the world how to create a just society, and to turn the American dream into one to which citizens worldwide may realistically aspire.
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Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics.
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Also see: The solution is reversing deficit spending
This period looks a lot like 1929-32
Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis |
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