Political Economy category archive

Dave Johnson explains “workplace loans.” A nugget:

This new loan scheme is being promoted as a “service” by unscrupulous employers working in cahoots with predatory lenders. The employee can ask for an “advance” and the loan is included right in the paycheck. These loans are great for the lender because payments come straight out of the employee’s paycheck. The loans are terrible for the employee because payments come straight out of the employee’s paycheck.

Workplace loans have very high interest rates, as much as 165% per year, and are repaid directly out of wages. So far only about 100,000 workers are being offered these scams by their companies, but at least half a dozen companies are marketing this “service” to employers.

Addendum, Later That Same Day:

Juanita Jean reports on a new twist to the scam in Texas. Not surprisingly, Rick Perry’s mitts are all over it.

Llewellyn King, successful television producer and ex-unemployed person, explores how the “Haves” use myths of the “undeserving poor” to justify cruelty to the “Have-Nots.”

Being unemployed isn’t a vacation. It’s not a glorious excuse to watch television at home and snigger at working stiffs who get a paycheck, have savings, take vacations, hope for promotions and whose children will be able to afford to go to college.

Unemployment means cold economic fear . . . .

Do read the rest.

Or not, because the poor must be punished.

When it was initially discussed as a rude repercussion of a bungled budget deal, the prospect that 1.3 million Americans would lose long-term unemployment benefits just days after Christmas was bad enough.

Now, that the day has come, however, it stands as a stark reminder of the extent to which the United States has regressed from the days when Franklin Delano Roosevelt greeted the Holiday Season with a celebration of the fact that: “Today neighborliness no longer can be confined to one’s little neighborhood. Life has become too complex for that. In our country neighborliness has gradually spread its boundaries—from town, to county, to State and now at last to the whole Nation.”

A little better.

Jobless claims declined by 42,000 to 338,000 in the week ended Dec. 21, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.

(snip)

The jobless claims report showed the four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, rose to 348,000 last week from 343,750.

Robyn Blumner ruminates on the real meaning of A Christmas Carol.

It’s not what the “Christmas Special” complex would have you think.

Merry Christmas.

Jobless claims climbed by 10,000 to 379,000 in the period ended Dec. 14, the most since the end of March, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decrease to 336,000. It’s best to focus on the four-week average during the holiday season to determine the underlying trend, a government spokesman said as the figures were released.

(snip)

The data tend to be volatile around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as seasonal adjustment is difficult to calculate, the Labor Department spokesman said last week.

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, climbed to 343,500, the highest in a month, from 330,250 in the prior week.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits increased by 94,000 to 2.88 million in the week ended Dec. 7.

Still foreclosure-based.

Last month, the price (of a house–ed.) fell 5.5 percent to $188,000 from $199,000 a year earlier, according to data released Friday by Virginia Beach-based Real Estate Information Network, the region’s multiple-listing service.

Fluctuations in median price largely depend on the share of sales that are distressed, said Vinod Agarwal, an economics professor at Old Dominion University. Distressed sales occur when a home is either lost to foreclosure or sold for less than what was owed on the mortgage.

Nearly 27 percent of November sales were distressed in Hampton Roads, the listing service reported – down from 28.4 percent the same month a year ago.

Diana Wagman volunteered for “Operation Santa 2013.” Volunteers read letters to Santa and can choose to send the writers a gift and a response as Santa.

It was not the innocent, heartwarming experience she expected. A nugget:

What I found were pleas from parents. A mother out of work said her family would eat, but there wouldn’t be any presents. A dad wrote that his kids needed school supplies. Parents with two kids, three kids, maybe more, were hoping for help with what they couldn’t provide. A dad just out of prison wanted to make Christmas special for the kids he hadn’t seen for so long. A disabled grandmother asked for a church dress for her granddaughter.

I was overwhelmed. Many of the letters _ even the ones from kids _ asked for groceries and shoes, clothing and shampoo. One child wrote: “Please bring my mommy some food. She’s been good this year.”

Elizabeth Warren evicerates the myth of the “entitlement crisis.”

The “entitlement crisis” is a pretext to allow the rich to take from the rest.

Via Raw Story.

I missed the unemployment figures the last two weeks, being distracted by distractions.

I didn’t miss much, more of the almost same. But now ’tis the season.

Jobless claims surged by 68,000 to a two-month high of 368,000 in the period ended Dec. 7, exceeding the highest forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The 300,000 applications filed in the prior week, which included Thanksgiving, were the fewest since Sept. 7.

The data reflect seasonal adjustment volatility around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released. A report last week showed the unemployment rate fell to a five-year low and companies added more workers than forecast, pointing to further labor-market progress.

Here’s the other thing.

The folks who sling about charges of “commie” have no idea what Communism is or what it means.

For them, it’s just a convenient slur, a bogeyman with which to frighten the polity.

Communism is several things. One thing is an economic theory about concentration of wealth in few hands leading to a revolt by the poor–that part seems chillingly prescient.

Another thing is a mystical belief that, when the revolt is over, people will get governance right (they didn’t).

The third thing is that it is dead, dead, dead.

Via BartCop.

A little better.

Jobless claims in the week ended Nov. 16 dropped by 21,000 to 323,000, the fewest since the week ended Sept. 28, from a revised 344,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, decreased to 338,500 last week from 345,250 the prior week.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits increased by 66,000 to 2.88 million in the week ended Nov. 9.

Because real estate prices never go down . . . .

For all practical purposes, no change.

Jobless claims in the week ended Nov. 9 declined 2,000 to 339,000 from a revised 341,000 the week before that was higher than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, decreased to 344,000 last week from 349,750 the prior week. The reading compares with an average 328,750 at the end of August, before delays in processing claims in California caused the numbers to see saw.

California was among states and territories for which claims were estimated last week. The others were Virginia, Hawaii, Washington and Puerto Rico.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits was unchanged at 2.87 million in the week ended Nov. 2.

And they aim to keep it that way.

I do not agree with Thom’s statement that “we need to end globalization.” I don’t think that that’s possible.

Globalization is not fueled by policy; it’s fueled by technology (by which I don’t mean just computers–I mean communication, transportation, the whole ball of wax).

It may be possible and necessary to shape globalization into a less pernicious form (think “no more workers burning to death in clothing factories”) through policy, but end it? No.

Zombie charter school continues to scam after it has left this life.

The cash-strapped Philadelphia School District has been stuck with a $305,000 bill from a controversial cyber charter school that shut down last month.

Solomon Charter School on Vine Street agreed to surrender its charter to the state Department of Education on Oct. 30, in part because its program for seventh through 11th graders was housed in a building that shared space with a sex-offender clinic.

But Solomon also was under fire because it had enrolled 200 elementary students this fall – even though it was authorized to serve students only from the sixth through 11th grades.

The story goes on to report that zombie claims that it deserves the money because it does.

Heather Denkmire is not impressed by persons who decide to take the “SNAP challenge” and live on a foodstamp-sized food budget for a week.

A nugget:

Writing this column is difficult because I am upset about people who are essentially tourists checking out poverty, no matter how well-meaning they are. Intellectually, it reminds me of being in the sixth grade in West Hartford, Conn. We climbed onto a bus that drove over to Hartford for a tour of the city. We saw human beings living their lives in run-down housing on unkempt streets, and the adult at the front of the bus told us this was urban “decay.” We saw what I now would describe as gentrification and were told this was urban “renewal.” It took me 10 years to look back on that experience and realize how wrong it was.

Read the rest.

A little better.

Jobless claims decreased by 9,000 to 336,000 in the week ended Nov. 2 from 345,000 the prior period, the Labor Department reported today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, fell to 348,250 last week from 357,500 the prior week.

Economists’ estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 323,000 to 350,000. The prior week’s claims were revised from an initially reported 340,000.

In an almost-unprecedented aberration, Bloomberg’s “experts” got it right.