Economic news on the street

Avert your eyes from Wall Street to see what is happening to America. These statistics are part of a terrifying article by Elizabeth Warren, who serves as the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the banking bailouts:

Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can’t make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.

There are many other statistics in this article. For instance, fully employed males haven’t seen a pay increase since the 1970’s. Warren also presents banks as villains in her story:

Boring banking has given way to creative banking, and the industry has generated tens of billions of dollars annually in fees made possible by deceptive and dangerous terms buried in the fine print of opaque, incomprehensible, and largely unregulated contracts.

Share

Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Avatar of Jay Fraz
    Jay Fraz

    BUT WHY ISN'T IT TRICKLING DOWN!!! Isn't that how it works, we make a few people billionaires, they make a few millionaires, and then we all are rewarded according to our ability and effort?

  2. Avatar of Tim Hogan
    Tim Hogan

    The whole structure which spun the world economy into the abyss because of the credit crisis is still in place to this date, and he perps are still at it even as we speak.

    We need an endless perp walk of the purveyors of the crediit crisis. Until Obama starts prosecuting the counterfeiters of credit default swaps and the Wall Streeet wonders which repackaged sub-prime mortgages into AAA bonds we are at their continued mercy.

    The next credit crunch will be where the ultra-rich spin the world economy back into the Middle Ages and we will all be their thralls and serfs, forever!

  3. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    Elizabeth Warren wants us to scrap the current foreclosure assistance program, which is almost a total failure:

    Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor-turned-crusader for Main Street and the middle class, to the growing list of experts calling for the Obama administration to scrap its failed foreclosure-prevention plan in favor of one that would actually help troubled homeowners keep their homes.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/09/bailout-

Leave a Reply