A Quote From 1776 That is Just As Relevant Today

"But don't forget that most men without property would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor." (1776).

That quote is the clearest example of what I am trying to bring to the surface. The Middle Class is disasppearing as a result of voting against your own best interests. As I have said over and over you can't vote for where you hope to be you must vote where you are or it will become impossible to get where you want to go.

The Real American Economy

No longer able to turn their homes for cash, Americans are increasingly using plastic to meet their basic living expenses. But many can't afford to pay the bills.

These days, more and more people are saying "Charge it."

Finding themselves strapped for cash and unable to use their home as an ATM, Americans are increasingly turning to credit cards to cover gas, groceries and other living expenses.

But many find themselves struggling to pay the burgeoning bills at a time when even the basic needs are growing costlier.

"Other sources of money for a lot of Americans are drying up," said Dick Reed, regional counseling manager of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, who sees more clients with mounting credit card debts these days. "Consumers just don't have a place to go to get money. They are digging themselves into a deeper hole not only to pay for normal living expenses, but to make minimum payments on outstanding debt."

I have often said that the American Middle Class as we knew it back in the 60's and 70's has been replaced by a working class with a credit line. This report solidifies that belief for me.

Those who are truly middle class are disappearing at an alarming rate. Just like our government that is borrowing what it needs to keep running so are average Americans.

Government and agency statistics illustrate this troubling trend. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that Americans' credit card debt jumped 6.7% in the first quarter of this year to $957.2 billion, This spike comes despite the fact that nearly one in three banks is tightening guidelines for credit cards.

In Atlanta, debtors calling the agency in the first quarter of this year had an average of $29,300 in unsecured debt, primarily on credit cards, up from $25,700 in 2007. They spent $335 on groceries and $242 on gas, on average, in April. A year earlier, those outlays averaged only $291 and $181, respectively.

For many people, racking up credit card debt is not a choice they want to make, experts say. Not too long ago, they could have tapped into the equity in their homes through loans or lines of credit or refinancing. But this debt, which usually carries lower interest rates, is no longer as widely available with the collapse of the housing market.

This is the result of a nearly uninterrupted 28 years of bad economic policies started by Ronald Reagan. The only period that saw a reversal of fortune was during the 90's and the economic boom of the Clinton administration. There philosophy was that a rising tide raises all boats. The Republican idea is that if you give the rich enough they will be gracious enough to piss some down on you. That is a failed concept and one that was helped along by the so called Reagan Democrats. They in effect helped to destroy their own economic futures.

House OKs Controversial Housing Plan

The House on Thursday passed a contentious foreclosure-prevention package, which still faces a veto threat from the White House and an uncertain fate in the Senate.

In a 266-154 vote - with 39 Republicans voting in favor - lawmakers approved a proposal, sponsored by House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., to let the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insure up to $300 billion in new loans over four years if lenders agree to reduce the mortgage principal.

To qualify, the lender would have to cut the debt to no more than 85% of a home's current appraised value. If the FHA-refinanced loans went into default, the FHA would pay the lender the remaining principal owed.

While 1.4 million loans are likely to be eligible for such a program, the Congressional Budget Office estimates such a measure would end up insuring 500,000 borrowers. The CBO estimates the FHA expansion program would cost taxpayers $1.7 billion.

"This bill is very time limited and limited in specifics to a subset of mortgages and meant to mitigate a market failure," Frank said during the floor debate on Thursday.

Opponents of the FHA expansion contend it's a bailout for lenders, investors and "speculators" who took on imprudent risk. And because participation in the program would be voluntary on the part of lenders, critics contend lenders would only unload their riskiest loans into the federally backed program.

Supporters note that the program is limited to loans for owner-occupied residents, not speculators. They also make the case that lenders and investors would be taking a loss on every loan, and that the borrower would be paying higher-than-usual premiums to the FHA to insure the loan and would share equity in their home with the government.

"No borrower who goes through this process will say at the end of it, 'Boy, that was fun. Where do I buy a ticket to get back on Space Mountain?" Frank said.

Supporters also say if the borrower still can't afford the loan when it's written down to 85% of appraised value, their loan won't qualify for the program. If the bill is a bailout for anyone, they say, it's a bailout for communities across the country, which suffer when home values and property taxes go down because of foreclosures.

Earlier on Thursday, the House passed a bill that would send states $15 billion to buy and fix up foreclosed properties - a measure the White House also opposes.

Frank's bill also includes elements intended to attract the support of Senate Republicans and the White House. Two key ones: modernization of FHA guidelines - for which both the House and Senate have already passed their own bills - and more stringent oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that guarantee the purchase and sale of home mortgages in the secondary market.

Nevertheless, late Tuesday, the White House issued a statement threatening to veto the bill in its current form. Analysts see the move as a tactical one intended to give Republicans more leverage in the negotiations.

That leverage is seen in the Senate, where Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and ranking minority member Richard Shelby, R-Ala. are negotiating a housing package that could include GSE reform, FHA reform, and a Dodd FHA rescue proposal similar to Frank's.

When asked if Frank's proposal is something he could support, Shelby told CNN's Jeanne Meserve, "I'd have to evaluate it - how we're going to pay for it., what it's really going to do, do we really know if housing prices have bottomed out."

When asked if it was possible Congress would end up doing nothing, Shelby said, "The best of me says we ought to try to work this project out, see if we can have GSE reform, see if we can have FHA reform, and see if we can reach some kind of accommodation on housing."

It should come as no surprise that the White House would object to helping the homeowner. 30 Billion for Bear Stearns is fine but trying to keep people from becoming homeless could be vetoed. There is a reason that this fool is the most unpopular President in history. Its too bad it took the majority of the American public all these years to see what was obvious from day one.

Growing Hunger in America

A sobering look at the true economic distress in our country.

For Phyllis Bean, higher food prices mean going hungry so her 4-month-old baby girl can eat.

The Washington resident's $280 monthly food stamp allotment doesn't last very long these days, even though she gets a free lunch at a culinary training program at D.C. Central Kitchen. By mid-month, Bean is often reduced to eating canned ravioli and peanut butter and jelly so she can afford to buy milk and baby cereal for McKiya. By month's end, her refrigerator is empty.

"When I go to the counter, I have to put some of my food back so I can get her food," said Bean, 21. "I try to buy less meats and more starchy food that will last me - noodles, ravioli, rice, peanut butter and jelly."

Soaring food costs are putting a strain on many Americans' budgets. In the first three months of the year alone, they jumped 5.3%, and that's on top of a 4.9% increase in 2007.

But for those on food stamps, higher prices for milk, eggs, bread and other staples often mean tough choices and empty bellies. Many are forced to forgo fresh vegetables and meat, while loading up on pasta and potatoes. Others are turning to churches, food banks and other charities, which are already strained by the increased demand.

To alleviate the crunch on the nation's roughly 28 million people on food stamps, advocates are calling for Congress to pass a temporary mid-year boost in benefits. They are also fighting for changes in how the monthly allotment is computed to make it better reflect the expenses of today's recipients.

"It's been very tough for families," said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank. "They don't have the flexibility in their budgets so they just don't buy as much food or they buy cheap food or they skip meals altogether. Congress can and should act to help people survive the spike in prices."

One in 11 Americans receive food stamps, according to federal statistics. As the economy weakens, more and more people are turning to this support system. Households receive an average of about $1 per person per meal. Individuals' payments are capped at $162 a month while a family of four can get a maximum of $542 a month.

How can it be that the richest nation on earth has 10% of its population needing assistance to afford food while CEO's, even disastrous ones, receive millions.

The American Middle Class is on life support and without a clear understanding of this phenomenon it will continue to die off. The Middle Class votes against their own economic best interests all the time and the proof is in the growing numbers of hungry within the country.

Bush Disapproval Highest In History

Finally a vast majority realizes that this mental midget is an unmitigated disaster as President.

A new poll suggests that President Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon [22 percent and 24 percent, respectively], but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland said. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952."

He still has a 28% approval rating which absolutely stuns me. Who are these 28%. The only one I seem to know is that bottled blond bimbo Elisabeth Hasselbeck of "The View". She supports this war because its not her family dying in it. Her husband is a third string quarterback who could stay home and watch the kids while she enlists. People like her make me sick but its people like her that support this moron.

John McCain is just more of the same so if you think you didn't like the original wait to see what new found hells a McCain presidency would bring.

President Bush and his administration have single handedly ruined this great nation by destroying its finances, its reputation and its standing in the world. He should have a 100% disapproval rating but he still has time to get to that point. He is without a doubt the worst, most unqualified Presdient in United States history. January 2009 can not come soon enough but only time will tell if its coming too late.

Housing Prices Post Record Declines

Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix all saw prices plummet by at least 20%. And so far, there is no sign of a bottom.

Home prices have posted another record decline, as most of the nation's largest markets suffered double-digit drops over last year, a survey released Tuesday shows.

The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks 20 of the largest housing markets, showed prices plummeting by 12.7% in the 12 months ending February. That's the biggest fall since the index began tracking prices in 2000.

Of those 20 metro areas, 17 posted their largest year-over-year declines ever. Ten of the 20 cities posted double-digit dips.

The 10-city Case/Shiller index is down 13.6% year-over-year, the biggest drop since its launch in 1987.

Scalia "Get Over It"

Hey Scalia try telling that to the families of all those who are dead as a result of this Bush Presidency. Imagine if it was your child killed in a war based on lies started by a moronic asshole that didn't even win the election. I bet you would think very differently but hey your kids would never be there. People like you make me sick.

Disapproval of Bush Breaks Record

What I find amazing is that his disapproval rating is not higher.

President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.
In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Bush's rating has worsened amid "collapsing optimism about the economy," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.

Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup's history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval spiked to 90%. In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high, 63%, in the latest poll.

Are the 28% who approve of this moron actually living in this country? Anyone with a brain understand that this is not just a failed presidency it is a worldwide disaster that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands or people. The lack of oversight has led to the financial meltdown we are currently experiencing. The country needs to have a national holiday celebrating the end of this reign of terror and idiocy.

I for one can't wait for this fool to go back to his fake ranch so we can recover from his fake presidency.

The Trillion-Dollar Mortgage Time Bomb

Risks are rising that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need a government bailout that could cost far more than previous rescues.

Among the nightmares lurking around the corner for the already battered housing and credit markets would be a meltdown at mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Although few are predicting an imminent need for a bailout just yet, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's recently placed an estimated price tag on this worst case scenario -- $420 billion to $1.1 trillion of taxpayer's money.

Once again it will be taxpayer money used to bail out businesses that made bad business decisions. Can I send the government a bill for the lemon I bought some years back? If its good enough for corporations why not for the taxpayers? This bailout will make the bailout of the Savings and Loans seem like chump change.

This dwarfs how much it cost to help banks during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980's and early 1990's. That cost taxpayers about $250 billion in today's dollars.

S&P added that saving Fannie and Freddie might cost so much that the federal government's AAA credit rating, the top possible rating, might even be at risk. If that was lost, then all federal government borrowing would become more expensive.

The long term damage that has been done to our economy is overwhelming. The treasury has been raided for the past seven years and the next generations will pay with a reduced standard of living. This all happened while the people sat by and did nothing.

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.