Dollar At All Time Lows

The dollar just keeps dropping. Our currency is near free fall.

The dollar sank to an all-time low against the euro Wednesday with new reports showing consumer prices heading higher and construction of new homes plunging in March to the lowest level in 17 years.

Inflation also rose overseas. The euro reached $1.5968 after the EU's statistical agency Eurostat said that annual inflation rose on higher prices for transport fuel, heating, dairy products and bread. It was the quickest rise in 16 years.

The problems effecting the United States economy are quickly spreading to other countries. What we all need to understand is how the sinking dollar is playing a major role in this worldwide downturn.

Oil is paid for in dollars. With a declining dollar it takes ever more dollars to purchase a barrel of oil. The higher oil prices are fueling a worldwide explosion in commodity prices. That in turn is leading to higher prices for everything including food.

Those higher food costs are causing political turbulence and riots throughout the world. I know that is a very simplistic explanation but it is one that can be easily understood by most people. How did we get to this place economically? A major part of this problem started with banks and mortgage companies that felt loaning huge sums to those that could not afford it was a good idea. Those bonds were sold worldwide and losses related to them just keep coming.

Those most hurt by those losses are the poor and middle class with the executives of those companies raking in millions. Does that sound at all fair? We need a fundamental change in our policies and our thinking. All too often people vote based on where they hope to be economically instead of where they are. that often makes getting where you want to go impossible. The middle class needs to understand that they are helping in their own demise.

Inflation Soars

Hey don't worry as long as you don't eat or drive its not that bad.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its Producer Price Index, which measures wholesale prices, jumped 1.1% in March, the second biggest gain in the past 33 years and much higher than forecasts.

The so-called "core" PPI number, which excludes food and energy prices, rose a more modest 0.2%, in line with expectations.

See what I mean about eating or driving? Just cut those two things out and your finacial house will be fine. With obesity such a problem in the United States we should look at this as a sign from God. Since we won't stop eating so much on our own we are getting a helping hand from the Federal Reserve.

The Fed has slashed interest rates numerous times since last September to try to get the economy out of this severe funk. But so far, the most notable consequences of the rate cuts are a drastically weakened dollar and surging commodity prices.

Oil prices hit a new record high Tuesday, as did the prices per gallon of gas and diesel fuel.

In the past twelve months, sugar prices are up 27%. Corn prices have surged 67% and wheat prices have shot up 73%.

The argument that economists should look more at "core" inflation has to ring hollow with consumers who are taking a big financial bite every time they go food shopping and fill up their car's gas tank.

The economy is a mess yet John McCain is even in polls with Clinton or Obama. Have the American people lost their minds? Have they forgotten the peace and prosperity of the 90's. Are they really that stupid to want to continue these disastrous policies? We are closer to depression era financial conditions than at any time since the great depression. Wake up before its too late and everything that has taken so long to build will be forever ruined.

Worldwide Riots Over Food

Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.

"This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States."

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.
"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.

Just how bad is it for the world's poor?

"In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family."

The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said -- meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.

"This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.

"If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.

He added that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment ... so that at the end of the day most governments, having done well during the last five or 10 years, will see what they have done totally destroyed, and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also."

The world is on the brink of major economic and social upheaval. This is the result of Conservative policies that never saw the benefit of alternate energy sources. Those policies have strengthened the very countries that want to destroy us and placed our own nation on very shaky economic footage. When will people finally realize that these Conservative policies have damaged the world and left the United States more vulnerable than ever to terrorism. Is there anyone who believes you can stifle fanaticism while people are struggling to survive? 4.00 per gallon for gas seems like a minor issue compared to the billions who are struggling to fill their stomachs.

When will we understand that our inattention to our own political system has worldwide implications. The riots in other lands as a result of skyrocketing prices can easily be tied back to political decisions here in the United States. Right now a child is dying from starvation as a result of the conservative movement in the United States. Remember that when the images of the worldwide riots and starving children are broadcast while you eat the dinner that they will never have.

Income Gap Widens

Incomes fell for poor and stagnated for middle-class families since late 1990s, making it tougher for them to weather economic downturn.

Poor and middle-class families are entering the recession in a precarious situation due in part to declining or stagnant income growth, a study released Wednesday has found.

Incomes, on average, have declined by 2.5% among the bottom fifth of families since the late 1990s, while inching up by just 1.3% for those in the middle fifth of households, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, two liberal think tanks.

The wealthiest slice of Americans, however, saw their incomes rise by 9%.

This is what happens when people vote based on where they hope to be economically. People need to understand that in order to get to that promised economic lands they must vote where they actually happen to be. Conservative Republican policies have destroyed the middle class with the help of those in the middle class who simply don't understand that they are voting against their own best interests. Do you think I am wrong?

Unlike what happened during the economic boom of the 1990s, lower- and middle-class families did not share in the prosperity of recent years, the report found. In fact, the United States has had its longest jobless recovery and slowest rate of payroll growth during this decade.

"We're worried about the impact of the downturn on the families whose incomes haven't recovered from the last recession," said Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute senior economist and co-author of the report.

Wages have not kept up with inflation, families have loaded up on debt and homeowners have seen the value of their largest asset decline, he said. The situation will only get worse during the economic downturn.

John McCain who wants to continue the economic policies of the Bush administration and who wants to make the tax cuts permanent, would be in effect a third Bush term. Can we afford more of those failed polcicies?

The income gap between the rich and the rest of the population is widening. In 22 states, the top fifth of families made more than seven times what the poorest fifth took home, according to the report. In the late 1980s, only one state - Louisiana - had such a spread. Meanwhile, in more than two-thirds of the country, the wealthiest saw their income grow more than twice as fast as the middle-class over the past two decades.

We now have the second widest income gap in the world after Brazil. Is this really what we want? We have made it nearly impossible that the next generation will live as well as our generation unless of course if you are rich then the good times just keep right on rolling.

Fed Sees "Severe and Protracted Downturn"

Minutes from central bank's last meeting show fear of 'severe and protracted downturn'

Some members of the Federal Reserve are worried about the possibility of a "severe and protracted downturn" in the U.S. economy that could last into next year, according to the minutes of the central bank's latest meeting released Tuesday.

The Fed said its staffers now expect the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink in the first half of this year, the clearest signal yet from the central bank that its members think the economy could be close to entering a recession -- if it hasn't already. Many Fed policymakers indicated that a downturn in the economy in the first half of the year "now appeared likely."

The minutes from the March 18 meeting show that some Fed policymakers are concerned the problems in the "housing sector had deepened and that considerable uncertainty surrounded the outlook for housing."

The release of the minutes come a week after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said during Congressional testimony that a "recession was possible." He also said that real GDP might grow slightly in the first half of the year but conceded that it could also contract.

It is nice to know that the Federal Reserve is finally catching up to the American public who have known for some time that things were getting very bad out there.

"Several participants noted that the problems of declining asset values, credit losses, and strained financial market conditions could be quite persistent, restraining credit availability and thus economic activity for a time and having the potential subsequently to delay and damp economic recovery," the Fed said.

I am sure whatever recovery happens will be at the corporate level and the middle and lower classes will continue to burden the brunt of the downturn. It will be yet another jobless recovery. The Federal Reserve will continue to cut rates which will in turn place even more pressure on the already depressed dollar. That will only cause higher commodity prices and even higher oil prices but hey the corporations will once again make record profits but you will need a full time job just to afford the cost of commuting to work.

If people vote for more of these insane plolicies that have driven us to this point then they deserve the financial ruin that is sure to come as a result.

80,000 Jobs Lost, Unemployment Spikes

The Bush legacy of failure continues unabated.

U.S. employers slashed jobs for the third straight month in March and unemployment rose to a nearly three-year high, offering the latest signs that the economy has fallen into a recession.

The Labor Department's much anticipated report, released Friday, showed a net loss of 80,000 jobs last month. That marks the third straight month that jobs have fallen - the longest period of decline since early 2003.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that payrolls would fall by 50,000 in the latest reading.

The new report also pegged job losses in January and February at 76,000 each month.

Those revisions added an additional 67,000 job losses to previous readings. The Labor Department now estimates that the economy has shed 232,000 jobs in the first three months of this year.

"The revisions are the real surprise in the report," said John Silvia, chief economist for Wachovia. "If we had known it was anything like that, there would not have been any debate going on about whether we were in a recession. It's pretty stark."

The job losses were widespread, with the battered construction sector losing 51,000 jobs and manufacturing employment falling by 48,000. But there were also losses in key service sector industries. Retail employment dropped by 12,000 jobs, and business and professional service employers cut staff by 35,000.

Oh and lets not forget the unemployment rate which we have been told is so low. Too bad they don't tell you that once your benefitshave expired you are no longer counted. What is the true unemployment number?

The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8% in February. The new reading is the highest level since September 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Economists had forecast that unemployment would rise to 5%.

Hurricane Bush has destroyed everything in his path and the destruction can be felt in almost every household in the country except of course his rich cronies who have made out like bandits during his reign of terror.

The mess being left for the next President is enormous and the damage from this administration could be felt for generations. We can not afford to get the next election wrong.

Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected

Can we call it a recession yet?

New filings for unemployment claims surged in the latest week to the highest level since September 2005, according to a government report released Thursday.

The Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits rose to 407,000 in the week ended March 29, up from a revised 369,000 claims in the previous week.

The last time claims were this high was in the week ended Sept. 17, 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

A consensus of economists polled by Briefing.com had expected initial jobless claims to fall to 365,000 from the originally reported 366,000.

"There has been a slow deterioration in the labor market," Paul Kasriel, chief economist with Northern Trust, said. "We're starting to see a speed-up in this deterioration," he added.

The surge in jobless claims comes a day before the government's closely watched March employment report. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect that report to show a decline of 50,000 jobs.

The job market has suffered from the deepening economic slump. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that a "recession is possible," and that the economy could contract over the first half of the year.

Come on Ben can you please be straight with us? We are in a recession already no matter how you try to spin this. The American people are suffering economically but hey there is a silver lining to this. The illegal immigrants are going home. This should make every immigrant hating fool feel better. We have finally found the way to stop our illegal immigration problem. If we just kill the economy entirely they will all leave and Mexico will have to build a wall to keep Americans out.

Banking Industry To Lose 200,000 Jobs

Financial research firm says cuts will appear over 12 to 18 months as subprime crisis hits other areas of the banking industry.

The U.S. financial industry has been shedding jobs at a record clip, and some analysts predict the pace will only accelerate over the next year-and-a-half as banks cut costs in the face of the housing market slump and the weak economy.

Analysts at the financial research firm Celent LLC said in a report Tuesday that they expect the U.S. commercial banking industry - essentially, all companies that lend or collect deposits - to lose 200,000 of its two million jobs over the next 12 to 18 months.

An annual loss of 200,000 jobs at the nation's commercial banks would be an unprecedented number.

That is 10% of the banking workforce. These are white collar jobs with good benefits. Those that oversaw this nightmare will never have to work again but those who did nothing will pay the price. It appears the American public has finally woken up and can see their standard of living decreasing but did they wake up too late?

This second period of the robber barons in our history has once again caused financial hardship not seen since the Great Depression. It seems though we never learn from history and just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

A True Story of One Family

When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.

It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.

"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard."

Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills.

Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied.

"I never used the system. I've been working since I was 15-and-a-half. I needed it now and it turned me down," she said.

Stories like Guerrero's are becoming more common as middle-class Americans feel the pinch of an economic downturn, rising gas prices and a housing crunch, especially in a state like California that has been rocked by foreclosures.

On Wednesday, a key government report on the battered housing market found new home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February, suggesting the nation's housing market is still struggling.

Americans also have been attending in large numbers foreclosure fairs where mortgage lenders, financial planners and counselors offer tips to hard-hit homeowners.

"Our economy is struggling, and families in the 'Inland Empire' and across the nation are hurting," California Rep. Joe Baca said, referring to an area of Southern California in his district.

"Our housing market is in a state of crisis due to rampant abuses of sub-prime lending, and unemployment is rising. At the same time, the cost of necessities such as gas, healthcare, and education continue to rise." Map: Foreclosures state-by-state »

Daryl Brock, the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization supplies food to more than 400 charities in metro Los Angeles, from homeless shelters to soup kitchens to an array of food banks. While the majority of people they help are working poor families, he said they have seen some major changes.

In the last 12 to 18 months, Brock said, the agencies he supplies have begun seeing more middle-class families coming to their doors.

"Our agencies have said there is an increasing number of people coming to them for help," Brock told CNN by phone. "Their impression was that these were not people they normally would have seen before. They seemed to be better dressed. They seemed to have better cars and yet they seemed to be in crisis mode."

He added, "The only thing they can do is give us anecdotal evidence that they think it's because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the housing crisis."

A former loan processor, Guerrero knows all about that, although so far she has been able keep her house.

She used her tax refund to help pay many of her bills for the first two months, but now that money's gone.

She says she's now in a middle-class "no-man's-land."

"It just happened so fast. It happened in a matter of -- what -- two months," she said.

She's eager to get back to work and to hold onto her home until the market turns. But for this single mom, every day it becomes harder to hang on.

"It's just depressing," she said. "For me, I just don't want to get out of bed, but I have to. That's my hardest thing. I have to."

What else can you add to this story? Possibly the former head of Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns or Countrywide Mortgage can help this family out. I hear they got rich on her misery.

Over 1 Million Ohioans Now On Food Stamps

This story must make the Republicans very nervous.

Steven Klinger rolled his rusted tan pickup truck to a stop on a cold morning, shutting off the engine at 4 a.m. After wrapping himself in a bright green blanket, he gazed at his girlfriend's photo dangling from the rear view mirror, snuggled deep into the driver's seat and waited 4 1/2 hours for the food pantry to open.

Fifteen cars were ahead of Klinger on this Monday, and by the time the sun peeked over the trees about 200 vehicles had lined up behind him, straddling the gravel berm and the potholed highway for nearly 2 miles. Scores of other vehicles would arrive in the next few hours, stretching the caravan's length.

Twice a month, every month, cars line up to get a box of food from the wooden pallets at the Smith Chapel Food Pantry in this gray southeast Ohio town. The only thing that changes is that the lines and the wait get longer and, alarmingly, the food gets scarcer.

All but forgotten in the compulsory presidential campaign pledges to fight for the middle class is the plight of growing numbers of people like Klinger and the crumbling system in Ohio that is designed to help 1.5 million residents whose status falls several rungs short of middle class.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said recently that the state's emergency food network "is on the verge of collapsing under unprecedented demand." Food donations, from private and government sources, are down, and in November, 1.1 million Ohioans received food stamps, the highest number in the state's history.

Why this story must be making the Republicans so nervous is not because of the horrible condition of our nations poor and supposed middle class it is that these people are finally realizing the connection between the lack of participation in the political process and their own political fortunes.

"I think people have drawn the connection between their problems—health care, the price of gas, losing their job, the cost of the war, the tattered social safety net—and the government," Frech said. "If we as a country saw people someplace else waiting in line for five hours for food like they do here, we'd call that a human-rights violation."

The lack of fair economic policies have finally woken the sleeping giant, those economically depressed that usually do not vote.

They have finally realized that the economic terrorism they have been subjected to is much more dangerous than the rise of radical Islam. They say as Ohio goes so goes the nation. The sleeping giant has been raised and the winds of change may rip the roofs off of both houses of Congress.

Jobless Claims Surge

Does anyone still think we are not in a recession?

New filings for unemployment claims rose more than expected last week, matching the highest level since 2005, according to a report released Thursday by the Labor Department.

According to the report, 378,000 people filed for unemployment for the first time in the week ended March 15, up 22,000 from a revised 356,000 reported in the previous week.

The 378,000 reading, which is subject to revision, matched the number reported for the week ended Jan. 26. New jobless claims last exceeded that number on Oct. 1, 2005 when they hit 385,000.

A consensus of economists polled by Briefing.com had expected to see initial jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 360,000.

The level of new jobless claims can be used as a recession indicator. "I think it confirms that we're in a recession, or at least in a period of negative growth," said Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist for Lehman Brothers.

Don't worry about this. Don't you know everything will be better when you get that $600.00 check borrowed from the financial futures of your children? These people ruined this economy and have no idea how to fix it.

The war has cost us more than $500 billion with estimates going from 1 -3 trillion by the time it finally winds down. What did you get for your money besides a lot of death and destruction? Our financial system avoided an Argentina like breakdown with the bailout of Bear Stearns but that too will cost the taxpayers 30 billion dollars. The greed and corruption of this administration knows no bounds. Soon they will leave office and a mess of monumental proportions and go nicely into retirement. Too bad they aren't going to jail where they belong.

If stupidity was an Olympic event George W. Bush would be the worlds Gold Medal king instead of just the world's laughing stock.

Here Comes The Stagflation

This report did nothing to stop the Federal Reserve Rate cut.

Inflation at the wholesale level met most estimates in February, the Labor Department said Tuesday, but core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose more than expected.

Wholesale prices rose 0.3% last month, in line with the 0.3% expected by a consensus of analysts polled by Briefing.com.

Minus food and energy, wholesale inflation rose 0.5%, an increase from the 0.4% reported for January. Analysts had predicted an increase of just 0.2%.

The problem for the Federal Reserve is that a rate cut diminishes the dollar and raises the price of commodities, without a cut we face a deeper recession. The choices are all bad and the pain for the middle and lower classes is just beginning.

A financial crisis unmatched since the Great Depression, say analysts

Once again the Robber Barons have driven us over a cliff.

A century after John Pierpont Morgan rescued the New York stock market from a 50% sell off in share prices, his blue-blooded Wall Street bank was yesterday once again at the heart of attempts to contain the deepening global financial crisis.

In an echo of the "bankers' panic" of 1907, JP Morgan responded to what is being billed as a meltdown of historic proportions by agreeing to buy its stricken rival, Bear Stearns.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Fed and the man blamed by many for setting off the boom-bust in the US housing market, agrees with the man who broke the Bank of England. Writing in the Financial Times yesterday, Greenspan said: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

I for one am so sick of Alan Greenspan. he is one of those that favors self regulation. Where exactly has that gotten us? I will tell you. It has made the financial condition of the United States dangerously similar to the country of Argentina right before their collapse.

Why is it that we are forced to bail out Wall St. but have yet to even help the poor of New Orleans? Why is it that the heads of these financial firms who are responsible for policies that have nearly destroyed our economy walked away with millions when they should be facing jail time? Its all part of the larger narrative about money in politics and the dangerous game we are playing with our nations future. We are guaranteeing that the children of today will have a lower quality of living than the past generation. Surely we can do better. It is time to demand an end to money in politics and adopt a system of public financing of campaigns before we have lost this great nation once and for all.

Home Equity Below 50%

For the first time since at least World War II, Americans on average own less than half of their homes, the consequence of falling real estate values and rising mortgages as homeowners tapped equity to make other purchases.

That fact, reported Thursday by the Federal Reserve Board, comes on the heels of another report from the Mortgage Bankers Association that home foreclosures skyrocketed to an all-time high in the final quarter of last year. The proportion of all mortgages nationwide that fell into foreclosure surged to a record of 0.83%. In Wisconsin, the picture was a bit better, with 0.78% of mortgages falling into foreclosure, the association said.

Together, the two reports raise a question about how quickly the nation will be able to reverse its economic slowdown.

The decrease in equity - the difference between what your property is worth and how much you owe on your mortgage - creates a "negative wealth effect" with people unable or unwilling to tap equity to buy consumer goods, said Carl Tannenbaum, former chief economist for La Salle Bank in Chicago and now an independent economist.

"We really can't afford another body blow to the category that accounts for 70 percent of our Gross Domestic Product," he said, referring to consumer spending. "How people react to what is happening to their property values will go a long way toward determining whether we have a recession or muddle through for six months."

After that, he expects the stimulus payments recently approved by the president and Congress to kick-start the economy into a higher gear.

The Fed said that in the fourth quarter of 2007, the average homeowner nationwide had equity of only 47.9% - the third straight quarter it had fallen and was under 50%.

According to newly revised numbers released Thursday, the 50% benchmark was broken in the second quarter, when equity was 49.6% - the first time it has fallen below 50% since the Fed started making the measurement in 1945.

You need to remember that it was after the end of World War II that saw the rapid growth of the American middle class.

Republican policies that encouraged greed with a lack of oversight has destroyed 60 years of progress. Remember that when you vote in November.

Job losses: Worst in 5 years

Is it just me or is it time to really worry?

Employers made their deepest cut in staffing in almost five years in February, the Labor Department reported Friday.

There was a net loss of 63,000 jobs, which is the biggest decline since March 2003 and weaker than the revised 22,000 jobs lost in January. Economists had forecast a gain of 25,000 jobs.

The weak report fueled already mounting recession fears and is likely to keep the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates further when it meets later this month.

"Based on today's Employment Report, if we are not in a recession, it is a darned good imitation of one," said Kevin Giddis, managing director of fixed income at Morgan Keegan. "We are in an unprecedented real estate and credit crisis that is whipping its way through the U.S. economy like a Midwestern tornado."

Job losses were widespread, reaching beyond the battered construction sector, which lost 39,000, and manufacturing, where job losses hit 52,000.

Retailers cut 34,000 jobs.

Temporary staffing firms cut nearly 28,000 from their payrolls, another warning sign of employers pulling back.

Hotels cut about 4,000 jobs, a sign that discretionary consumer spending could be on the wane.

Overall the private sector cut 101,000 jobs, with only a gain in government employment limiting losses.

"Job growth appears to have weakened across nearly every industry with the exception of health care and government," said Keith Hall, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which prepares the jobs report, testified Friday before a congressional committee.

Our financial system is in tatters as a result of greed and lack of oversight. How can we continue in our current political financing scheme which amounts to Legalized BriberyHow can we expect our elected officials to look out for the little guy when it is the large corporations that are funding the re-election efforts. We have seen the greatest redistribution of wealth in our history from the poor and middle class to the most priveleged in our society. Does that seem just? This excessive greed has caused our current situation. In many palces in this country recession has been around for years. What is happening to them now is depression like economic conditions. Will those same conditions spread to the entire nation? Only time will tell how severe this downturn will be but one thing is clear, the road ahead will be very bumpy and the pain being felt by the middle and lower classes will only get worse.

3 CEOs Made $460 million On Subprime Scheme

These crooks laughed all the way to the bank while families were being turned into the streets.

Three chief executives with ties to the mortgage crisis were paid $460 million over five years, according to a congressional report issued Thursday.

On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is set to examine CEO pay in light of huge losses in the financial sector stemming from the mortgage crisis.

The panel, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will hear testimony from Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup Inc.; Stanley O'Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co.; and Angelo Mozilo., chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender.

The committee asked each company for internal documents about executive pay. Committee staffers reviewed company email, board minutes and federal regulatory filings, according to the 23-page memo made public Thursday.

The memo states that the three companies combined lost more than $20 billion in the last two quarters of 2007, as investments related to subprime mortgages fell apart. Meanwhile, the stock of Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide declined drastically.

"The hearing provides a lens through which to examine whether the executive compensation and severance arrangements at these companies provided appropriate incentives to protect shareholders from these losses," the committee said.

The committee is also expected to look at how the compensation and severance packages of Mozilo, O'Neal and Prince were set and approved by their respective boards.

"In many cases, the consultants hired to advise on executive pay were simultaneously receiving millions of dollars from the corporate executives whose compensation they were supposed to assess," according to the memo.

Also scheduled to testify are Richard Parsons, chair of Citigroup's compensation committee and former CEO of Time Warner, the parent company of CNNMoney.com. The chairmen of the Countrywide and Merrill Lynch compensation committees are also set to address the committee.

Calls to Merrill Lynch and Countrywide were not immediately returned. A Citigroup spokesman declined to comment.

Damon Silvers, associate general counsel of the AFL-CIO, which is often critical of executive compensation, believes the hearing will have an important symbolic impact.

"We hope it will put pressure on folks to give some money back and send a signal to other execs that they can't get away with these perverse incentives," Silvers said.

Until the laws are changed and people are held accountable for their actions nothing will ever change. Who really thought it was a good idea to lend money to people who could not afford it and then bundle those bad loans into securities sold all over the world? It was the same executives that made millions while putting the US and other world economies on the verge of a worldwide recession.

Many argue that it was the deregulation of the banking industry that was the impetus for what is happening now. I could not agree more. Banks and brokerage houses should not be tied together. Our financial security is too important to allow this type of rogue investing. These CEO's rolled the dice and the American taxpayer lost. There should be an immediate call for the return of these ill gotten gains or a class action lawsuit that would cost them more in fees then they ever earned.

Company With Ties To Daddy Bush Defaults on Margin Calls

The Bush family has failed Savings and Loans under their belt, they have risen our national debt to astounding numbers and now a company with strong ties to Daddy Bush is defaulting on margin calls.

What a surprise that the first family has ties to bad business.

A bond fund managed by private equity firm Carlyle Group, revealed on Thursday that it has received a note of default after failing to meet several payment demands.

Shares of Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd. plummeted more than 50% on the news that it had missed four out of seven margin calls totaling around $37 million on Wednesday. A margin call is a payment to guarantee a much larger debt or investment.

Carlyle Capital said one creditor has issued a default notice and it expects to receive a second such notice, adding to market worries about forced liquidations of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Carlyle Capital's difficulties will have "no material impact on the Carlyle Group or its funds," Christopher Ullman, a spokesman for Washington-based Carlyle Group, said. Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private-equity firms with $76 billion under management, manages 55 funds in 21 countries.

As of last month, Carlyle Capital had a $21.7 billion investment portfolio of AAA-rated floating-rate capped U.S. mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Yields on some of those securities have plunged to their lowest levels in two decades after credit markets dried up.

Carlyle Capital Chief Executive John Stomber attempted to play down the situation, saying the past few days had created a market environment that did not fairly value the fund's assets.

"Unfortunately, this disconnect has created instability and variability in our repo financing arrangements," Stomber said in a statement. "Management is actively working with the company's repo counter-parties to develop more stable financing terms."

But the stock, which listed on the Euronext Amsterdam in July, dropped 58% to $5, giving the company a market capitalization of $255.4 million.

The fund originally sold shares at $19 each.

The company said that seven banks that help finance its portfolio of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae securities through short-term repurchase agreements, known as repos, had asked for an additional $37 million on Wednesday to keep funding in place.

It met the requirements of three of those, who it said had indicated "a willingness to work with the company during these tumultuous times."

It gave no detail on the banks in question or which one had issued the default notice.

Carlyle Capital as recently as Monday had reassured investors on its funding lines, saying it had $2.4 billion in undrawn repo lines and that it had increased a credit facility provided by the parent by 50%, to $150 million.

Do you think the ties to the Bush family will get media attention? I doubt it.

US Household Worth Falls For The First Time Since 2002

The Good news just keeps on coming.

U.S. household wealth fell in the fourth quarter for the first time in five years and borrowing slowed as home values plunged and lenders restricted credit, Federal Reserve figures show.

Net worth for households decreased by $532.9 billion from the previous three months, the first decline since the third quarter of 2002, according to the Fed's quarterly Flow of Funds report today. Housing-related net worth dropped by $176.4 billion.

Lower home and stock prices and reduced access to loans are prompting Americans to spend less and are driving up foreclosures. A slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy, threatens to push the U.S. into a recession.

How can the American consumer not cut back on spending? We are in a period of rising inflation, lower home values, job insecurity and a national debt that is the largest in the world. It amazes me how they still say we are the richest nation on earth. Its like that beautiful girl in high school who has let herself go but can't seem to see it for herself. It is time to face reality and prepare for a future not as an empire but as a benevolent nation whose goal is to better the world for all its citizens.

Foreclosures Hit An All Time High

Over 900,000 borrowers are losing their homes, up 71% from a year ago, and a record number of home owners are behind on payments.

More home owners than ever are losing the battle to make their monthly mortgage payments.

Over 900,000 households are in the foreclosure process, up 71% from a year ago, according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That figure represents 2.04% of all mortgages, the highest rate in the report's quarterly, 36-year history.

Another 381,000 households, or 0.83% of borrowers, saw the foreclosure process started during the quarter, which was also a record.

Additionally, the number of mortgage borrowers who were over 30 days late on a payment in the last three months of 2007 is at its highest rate since 1985.

"Boy, that was ugly," said Jared Bernstein, an Economic Policy Institute economist of the data.

"It's another reminder that anyone who thought we had hit bottom was wrong. This was a huge bubble, and when a bubble of this magnitude breaks, it creates a huge mess," he said." It could take a lot longer for the correction to work through the system."

Our economy is a mess due this subprime mortgage mess and who is being held to account? No one!!. The heads of these financial firms raked in the millions while knowing that the shit would eventually hit the fan. Now it has hit and its all over the entire population. The financial suffering is being unduly felt by the middle and lower classes while the rich have laughed all the way to the bank. It is time for a serious discussion of stricter regulations and stronger laws against this type of bubble creation. The heads of Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and the others that helped this debacle develop should be in jail not lounging around counting their ill gotten gains.

Manufacturing Lowest in 5 Years

The bad economic news just keeps coming.

A key index of manufacturing activity registered a decline in February and its weakest reading in nearly five years, according to a survey of purchasing managers in that sector released Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) manufacturing index fell to 48.3 from 50.7 in January. Economists were expecting a reading of 48, according to a consensus compiled by Briefing.com.

The tipping point for the index is 50, with a reading above that reflecting growth in the sector. A reading below 50 represents a decline in manufacturing.

The overall reading of the index is the weakest since April 2003, and it also marks the seventh of the past eight months that the index has registered a decline from the previous month.

"This was largely expected, but still not a good sign for the manufacturing sector," said Wachovia economist Adam York.

"It's just one more sign that there's economic weakness in the economy," added York, who believes that this report will give the Federal Reserve further incentive to cut rates at a meeting later this month.

Surveyed managers said production, new orders and inventories were relatively stable last month. The ISM index showed seasonally-adjusted production fell 4.5% in the month but is still just barely registering growth. New orders continue to decline and inventories contracted faster than the previous month, according to the index.

Though fewer managers said they expect employment to be lower in February, only 10% said they expected employment to be higher in the month.

York said the report should translate into a reading of about 2.3% growth in gross domestic product when compared to similar historical numbers.

"The report indicates that there is some overall economic growth, but it's still very slow," he noted.

Last week, the Commerce Department said its revised reading on GDP in the fourth quarter showed no change from the previously reported 0.6% annual growth rate. The nation's anemic economic expansion has economists worried that the country could easily fall into a recession.

We hardly manufacture anything in the United States as it is. To have it fall off even more indicates that the once high paying manufacturing jobs that build the American middle class are gone and may not return without a serious reversal of our current economic policies.