Unemployment in the US rose ‘unexpectedly’ last week. Economists had ‘expected’ and ‘predicted’ a slight fall. In fact unemployment ROSE by 31000. That is another 31000 people who have to look at their family and say – “there is no money coming in. We might lose our house. “
That is the crisis! The bankers on the other hand are feeling unfairly treated because people just don’t understand that talented bankers need VERY BIG bonuses.
The average length of time each of these 31000 people can expect to remain unemployed is now 7 months. How many of them have 7 months mortgage and living expenses saved up. Do you?
When each of them applies for a job they will find that there are 6 other unemployed people applying for the same job.
I saved the best for last.
By March 1 million of the US unemployed will come to the end of ALL unemployment benefits. They will have NO dole money. Think of it. By June the number grows to 5 MILLION. 5 Million families with NOTHING. This WILL happen unless Congress extends the legislation that temporarily increased the number of weeks people can claim. Not only renew the legislation which is due to expire but ALSO increase again the length of time people can claim.
Where will the money come from for these payments? Well apparently not China any more.
How long will people sit and allow shit to be poured on them? I don’t know. But the reality for the US government and Treasury is that they are caught between creditors who don’t want to lend and their own people who face destitution by the million.
All figures from the National Employment Law Project. Their figures are generally considered reputable and reliable.
Well, I do feel for all those unemployed having experienced it first hand several times over my working life. I've not dug down into the stats but it looks like the younger folk are disproportionately affected in the UK at any rate. As an older member of the workforce I was convinced (and still am actually) that there is rampant ageism at least in the IT sector. Perhaps they will be the spark that sets off a revolution?
Slightly off topic, I would like to recommend a couple of commentators. One is on CiF as 'TheThunkWorks' who gives a good analysis of how things are. Another is a professional commentator in the FT (which is surprisingly open with views) John Kay. One column that was well written gave an analogy to the banking crisis being like a tailgating driver. They make lots of small gains (getting there faster) but when things go wrong it is a big pile-up. As other commentated they don't even pay for the car or petrol either! Here is the name of the comment to look for from Jan 19 2010.
'Tailgaters blight markets and motorways'.
Dear Golem XIV, the question of how long the people will take it, naturally leads into the question of what should the people do once they don't anymore. I vote in favour of an entirely new social contract, where one of the key elements is reigning in the financial sector by any, in absolute terms any, means necessary to ensure that "lender of last resort" is a purely theoretical concept. I suspect that this will entail that people's dreams of making fast profits from transactions in inflated assets, must be killed off. A revolution is perhaps needed, but it's very tricky finding a way to channel people's fury into creative action. That is why your ideas are so valuable. What are your thoughts about the process (revolution?) and the new state of affairs to arrive at "post-revolution".