US fiscal situation unsustainable: Obama

US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign-style town hall meeting at the headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, California

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176083.html

US President Barack Obama says his country faces "unsustainable" financial situation amid concerns over Washington's failure to tackle the national debt and budget deficit.

Obama, who has kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign, made the remark during a meeting at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, where he struggled to convince the audience that his deficit reduction plan can solve the financial woes of Americans, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

"We have an unsustainable situation," said Obama, adding that "We face a critical time where we are going to have to make some decisions -- how do we bring down the debt in the short term, and how do we bring down the debt over the long term?”

On April 13, Obama unveiled a wide-ranging deficit reduction plan aimed at slashing the country's budget shortfall by $4 trillion within 12 years by curbing domestic spending and reducing excess health care expenditures.

This is while the White House and House Republicans have offered separate plans to reduce cumulative budget deficits by $4 trillion, over 12 years and 10 years respectively.

The US budget shortage hit a record $1.65 trillion this year --10.9 percent of GDP -- according to figures in Obama's 2012 budget.

US Standard & Poor's rating agency said last week that the agency's attitude toward America's overall economic condition has changed from "stable" to "negative," mainly due to lawmakers' inability to reach a consensus over the budget crisis.

According to a recent poll by American Research Group, 53 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's performance, up from 47 percent in March. This is while 42 percent of respondents stated that they approve of Obama's job performance.

'US economic status declining'

Standard & Poor's warns of a decline in the US economic status

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175599.html

US Standard & Poor's rating agency (S&P) says America's economic status will likely decline unless lawmakers in Washington take proper measures to control its growing debt.

The agency's attitude toward the United States' overall economic condition changed from “stable” to “negative,” while the S&P experts said they would deny the federal government the AAA rating, which identifies the US as one of the world's safest locations for investments, the Washington Post reported Monday.

The S&P report also reflected a slight decline in the stock prices, as the United States currently faces a nearly $14.3-trillion debt.

“We believe there is a material risk that US policy makers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013,” said the S&P.

“If an agreement is not reached... this would, in our view, render the US fiscal profile meaningfully weaker.”

However, the US President Barack Obama's administration says the agency is acting like a political pundit and that anyone else could also come up with a guess similar to that of S&P's.

“We believe S&P's negative outlook underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation,” said Mary Miller, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets.

“Addressing the current fiscal situation is well within our capacity as a country,” she said.

There are disagreements in the House of Representatives on how to tackle the nation's widening budget deficit.

Obama earlier devised a budget plan that would cut $4 trillion from the deficits over the next 12 years, while the House Republicans laid out a resolution that would come up with a $4.4-trillion cut over 10 years.

Standard & Poor's, along with Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings, make up the Big Three credit rating agencies in the United States, whose assessments influence the investors' decisions worldwide.

NYC homeless rate at all-time high

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174900.html

Nearly 115,000 in New York City have become homeless in the past year as homlessness in the city marks a record high, according to a new report based on local data.

The report, conducted by the Coalition for Homeless, holds that close to 115,000 residents of America's largest city, including some 40,000 children, have fallen victim to homelessness, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The coalition blames the climbing homeless rates on Mayor Michael Bloomberg, arguing that he cuts off housing assistance to poor residents that cannot afford to pay rent in the city.

“He replaced the federal programs with a series of time-limited subsidies that give you only one or two years of housing assistance, then cut you off even if the family is too poor to afford their rent,” said a coalition officer, Patrick Markee.

City officials have slammed the report as unrealistic. Markee, however, has defended the validity of the report by pointing to the city's data that reveal a 37-percent increase in homelessness since 2002, when Bloomberg became mayor.

One of the homeless men in the city emphasized in a conversation with a Press TV correspondent that New York's homeless rate was based on the number of people that actually check into shelters, noting that it excludes many homeless individuals that do not seek such services.

“There's never going to be enough money to help the poor buy school books, but there's always enough money to go start a war in a country we have no business being in,” added the homeless man.

Bloomberg has failed to follow through with his vow to reduce the city's homelessness by two thirds during his first term.

IMF urges US to solve debt crisis

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174455.html

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the United States to begin addressing its budget deficit before causing another global financial crisis.

On Monday, in its 2011 World Economic Outlook, the IMF said if the US does not take more meaningful action to restrain its growing budget deficit, rates could rise independent of central bank tightening, AFP reported.

The US budget deficit will hit a record $1.65 trillion this year, or 10.9 percent of GDP, according to figures in President Barack Obama's 2012 budget.

The report said the huge government deficit will limit Washington's ability to address problems such as slack domestic demand, high unemployment and still-depressed housing prices.

"The United States stands out as the only large advanced economy where the cyclically adjusted fiscal deficit is expected to increase in 2011 compared with 2010 despite the ongoing economic recovery," the IMF said.

It also urged the US not to try to borrow and spend its way back to economic health.

Obama's top priorities have been the budget deficit and debt and his budget proposals go a long way to meeting the administration's international commitments, the US Treasury Department has said.

"What we have observed is there has been a significant loosening of policies in 2011," said Jorg Decressin, a senior researcher at the IMF.

"And that makes attainment of the objective for 2013 much more difficult, because it will require a large fiscal withdrawal over 2012-2013," she added.

Treasury officials admit that it will be a difficult task, but say the government will not give up.

The United States federal budget for 2011 is $3.8 trillion, up $2 billion from last year.

White House wars of econ. Armageddon

White House spokesman Jay Carney

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174342.html

The White House has expressed grave concerns in case the congressional Republicans fail to raise the $14.29 trillion dollars debt limit by May 16, which would harm the country's crushing economy.

“The consequences ... of failure to raise the debt ceiling would be Armageddon-like in terms of the economy," AFP quoted White House spokesman Jay Carney as saying on Monday.

Carney added that the US President Barack Obama regrets his vote as a senator against raising the debt limit in 2006, adding that the issue is critical to both the US and the global economy.

In case the US's Republican-led congress fails to raise the amount the Treasury is allowed to borrow by May 16, the government would default on its interest payments.

Meanwhile, Republicans at the House of Representatives say that Obama has to agree to further budget cuts, other than the $39 billion agreed on Friday, in exchange for his demand over raising the debt limit.

On April 8, just an hour before the deadline to reach a compromise on spending cuts, Republican and Democratic lawmakers found common grounds on the issue to avert a government shutdown over the next six months.

If an agreement had not met before the deadline, the shutdown would have left some 800,000 federal workers unemployed, while affecting US nationals at home and abroad with heavy cuts in their paychecks.

UK to face more anti-cuts protests

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173909.html

The British government is to face another series of nationwide protests starting on April 14 against spending cuts.

Next Thursday, April 14, has been chosen as a national day for scores of anti-cut campaigners to demonstrate in Bristol, Brighton, Leeds, London and Poole.

They are to protest against the cuts in housing benefits, disability, education and social services.

Britain has been facing massive protests recently against its international and domestic policies. British people mostly oppose the country's engagement in wars and the financial deficit.

"People with disabilities, illness, the unemployed, single parents, carers, the low waged, part-time students, volunteers, homeless people and college students are all likely to see a devastating drop in disposable income with many slipping even further below the poverty line," said a spokesperson.

"Meanwhile poverty pimps like Atos Origin and A4e are set to rake in hundreds of millions on government contracts to bully and intimidate people from claiming the pittance handed out in benefit payments.

"The poorest and most vulnerable are being asked to pay for the mistakes and extravagances of the richest."

US braces for record federal budget cuts

Congressional Republicans and Democrats have been at loggerheads over the 2011 Fiscal Year federal budget, which is set to expire on April 8.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/172948.html

US Democratic Congressmen have proposed to triple cuts in social spending for the remainder of the fiscal year 2011 as the deadline for an agreement looms.

The administration of US President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are preparing deep cuts to social expenditures, bringing it to an estimated $30 billion from $10 billion, which if agreed would mark the largest-ever federal budget cuts in social spending in a single year, reports said on Sunday.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats have been at loggerheads over the 2011 Fiscal Year federal budget, which is set to expire on April 8 amid consensus on the fact that any further extension, with the fiscal year more than half gone, is unlikely.

In order to avert shutdown, Obama had previously ordered temporary budget extensions of two weeks and three weeks respectively, adopted by Congress in February and March.

On Saturday, Obama called on Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to reach a resolution to the stalemate in Congress.

There has been continuing bickering between the two parties over the starting point for the process of "splitting the difference" between the $61 billion demanded by the Republicans and the budget proposals from the White House.

Boehner and other top House Republicans initially proposed cuts of $32 billion in current spending, but fierce opposition from Tea Party groups, who demanded $61 billion in cuts, ultimately scuttled the initial proposal and the Tea party numbers were passed in February.

US Republicans have demanded steep spending cuts, but Obama has warned that cuts that are too deep could put the country's fragile economic recovery at risk.

House Republicans had previously attempted to cut funding from the new healthcare law, Planned Parenthood and environmental protection laws such as regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, when the budget bill died in the Senate last month.

Obama has insisted on leaving areas like education, innovation and infrastructure off the spending cuts plan.

US home prices hit 9-year low

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171141.html

A report by the US National Association of Realtors shows that home prices in America have dropped to their lowest level in nearly nine years.

According to the association, home prices plunged nearly 10 percent in February, a Press TV correspondent in Washington reported on Monday.

Nearly four million US homes are likely to be lost in foreclosures by 2012, says the report. That is in addition to nearly seven million homes that have already been foreclosed because owners could no longer afford to make the monthly mortgage payments.

“We are heading for a double dip in the housing market at the national level; actually we are already there,” economist Jacob Kirkegaard told Press TV.

The Americans do not feel that they are out of the recession yet and “that is going to affect their willingness to go and consume, their willingness to take risks, starting new businesses, and it is basically going to perpetuate these very poor economic conditions,” he added.

A new Gallup poll has revealed that nearly three out of every four Americans say they are a lot more worried about the economy than other issues in America.

According to the US Department of Labor, things are not much better in the job market, with unemployment climbing in nearly all major cities in the United States.

“We need to get in two to three thousand new jobs per month to really create a self-sustaining recovery at the job market, and we are clearly not there yet,” Kirkegaard said.

“You do not have the construction sector; you have lower consumer spending, and as a result of that, you have lower business spending. So, that is really the link,” he pointed out.

Kirkegaard predicted that the shadow inventory of foreclosed homes will continue to pull down the US economy for another 12 to 18 months

20,000 teachers get pink slips in CA

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170337.html

California has put an estimated 20-thousand teachers on notice that they will lose their job unless the state budget improves.

Teachers across the state are protesting the layoffs, saying the cuts will devastate California's already failing school system.

The layoff notices come as California leaders struggle to find a way to fill a 27 billion dollar budget deficit

State officials say the only way to deal with the deficit is to impose massive cuts across the board, including education.

But over the past three years, the state has already cut 20 million dollars from education and laid off an estimated 40-thousand teachers and school employees.

Experts say these reductions are a main reason why California no longer has a leadership position in education in America.

The state is also expected to limit the amount of money available for higher education.

It's estimated that public universities will lose more than a billion dollars if the deficit is not filled.

But the universities have already seen a triple-digit increase in fees over the past few years and many are already being priced out of college.

Los Angeles has the second largest school district in America.

More than 7-thousand L-A teachers have been issued layoff notices as the district struggles with a more than 400 million dollar deficit.

David Goldberg is an L-A teacher and a member of the California Teachers Association.

Goldberg says working together is the best way to improve the state's education system.

For their part, state leaders say the layoffs and cuts will only occur if the budget does not improve.

Leaders say California residents can prevent the layoffs by voting to approve a series of tax extensions.

They say these extensions would generate more than 12 billion dollars toward reducing the deficit.

Feds waste billions on overlapping programs

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/168096.html

A new report by the auditing arm of Congress, the General Accountability Office Finds several billion taxpayer dollars are being wasted on redundancy in at least 82 federal programs….

According to the GAO, US taxpayers are being cheated out of billions because Congress allows duplicaton of federal programs….

At this hearing of the House Government Oversight Committee, witnesses told lawmakers they are to blame for voting money to different government agencies That carry out the same programs…

In addition to duplication, on the revenue side The GAO report says 53 billion dollars are being lost to tax subsidies for large oil companies, and that the government fails to collect nearly 300 billion dollars in taxes its owed….

Exchange between Congressma n Kucinich and Tax lady from Taxpayers for Common Sense

Ask Citizens against government Waste, and they'll tell ya that at a time when the US government is reeling from trillions in debt, its taking no steps to consolidate similar programs because of government agency bureaucratic turf battles and congressmen who create programs to please constituents even if it repeats programs

Already in existence…

Taxpayers are not surprised to hear their government wastes money but half a trillion dollars on failing programs the average taxpaying American pays for twice, and uncollected tax revenue lost to the Treasury ?

Members of the committee promised to propose new legislation to consolidate and Cut double paying for essentially the same government programs, but seasoned Capitol Hill observers say they don't expect all the talk to result in actual reductions

In wasteful spending, given they say the history of how the bureaucracy protects its own and somehow manages to grow larger each year.

Gallup: US unemployment worsens

Gallup shows US unemployment is rising, not falling

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165926.html

A Gallup survey indicates that employment rate in the United States is not rising, thus damping hopes that the country's high levels of unemployment will reduce anytime soon.

The influential private organization's survey shows the unemployment rate rose to 10 percent in mid February from 9.8 percent at the end of January, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The rise in the under-employment rate was largely the result of a sharp increase in the number of people working part-time but seeking full-time employment, the study found.

The US unemployment rate stands near last year's level of 19.8 percent.

Dennis Jacobe, chief economist at Gallup, said the surge in under-employment is "troubling," as current conditions in the job market have barely improved compared to how they were this time a year ago.

"This is not much to show for a year in which many macro-economic indicators showed improvement," Jacobe was quoted as saying.

Economists say creating jobs is a key to jumpstarting the crisis-hit US economy.

"The fact [is] that the true unemployment rate in the United States, as [economist] Paul Craig Roberts has pointed out, is actually somewhere around 21 percent; not the 9 percent that has been advertised," former US Senate candidate Mark Dankof told Press TV.

Three years into the economic crisis, most economists still expect a painfully high unemployment rate of about 21% throughout 2011.

Inflation on the rise in America

Prices of US consumer goods undergo a hike.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165793.html

The US Labor Department has reported a price hike on all consumer goods in America, outstripping lower inflation rates that had been forecasted by economists.

The January figures show a 0.4-percent increase that has affected prices of everything from vegetables to unleaded fuel, AFP reports.

While gasoline prices have leaped over 13 percent in the past 12 months, grocery prices rose by just over two percent, a trend that has increasingly worried experts.

"Rising oil prices have been driving gasoline higher for some time, and now we are also seeing rising food costs filter through to the consumer," says Nigel Gault, an economist with IHS Global Insight.

"The January... figures point to what I believe is the beginning of a substantial uptrend in core inflation," says Stephen Stanley another expert with Pierpont Securities.

The inflation hits American consumers hard since it comes at a time when their real earnings have declined during the last three months.

US officials, however, have dismissed the rise in prices of common consumer goods as an “aberration.”

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has focused on low "core inflation," which strips out volatile food and energy prices, as a sign that demand remains weak due to persisting high unemployment.

In an effort to stimulate the American economy, the Fed is pumping USD 600 billion into the economy and has kept ultra-low interest rates on hold.

US budget deficit threatens economy

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159149.html


The US Federal Reserve has warned that the country's high budget deficit, unless lowered, will most likely further jeopardize the economy and the current unemployment crisis.

Speaking before the Senate Budget Committee, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged members to organize a credible program to lower the federal budget deficit.

Failing to do so would diminish investors' confidence, leading to further financial turmoil, he further explained.

The US Federal Reserve chairman also warned that the US government was on “an unsustainable fiscal path,” which could, in time, turn to financial disaster, AFP reported.

“The US economy will be moderately stronger this year than last, but it is likely to take up to five years for the jobs market to recover,” Bernanke went on to say.

Recent statistics showed that 103,000 new jobs were created in December.

During his first testimony to the new Congress, the chairman stated that an increase in evidence of a “self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold.”

The US Bureau of Labor's new statistics indicate that the unemployment rate has dropped from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent, but analysts have observed that these numbers could be affected by the fact that some unemployed people have stopped looking for jobs and are, therefore, no longer being on the unemployed list.

'US unemployment rate stands at 21%'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159260.html


While the recent drop in the official unemployment rate is attributed to the fact that Americans have given up looking for jobs, a former Senate candidate says that the actual jobless rate stands at 21 percent.

"When you look at the overall joblessness picture, and the fact that the true unemployment rate in the United States, as Paul Craig Roberts has pointed out is actually somewhere around 21 percent; not the 9 percent that has been advertised," former US Senate candidate Mark Dankof told Press TV.

As the aftermath of the great recession and the vaulting debt crisis continue to wreak havoc on the US economy, Dankof argued that less job opportunities that came along with "13 millions more immigrants that have come to this country to live… created a lot of tensions in the entirety of the situation."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday that “it could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully.”

Experts say that the US economy needs to create nearly 125,000 jobs per month to keep pace with the country's population growth and avoid a rise in the jobless rate.

Claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly dropped below 400,000 for the week ending December 25, the Los Angeles Times reported last week.

The fall was the first of its kind since mid-2008; however, it is attributed to the fact that 260,000 had given up looking for jobs, according to state-funded BBC.

US poverty higher than expected: Report

Senior citizens in the US

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158881.html


Statistics reveal that the number of poor people in America, particularly senior citizens, is millions higher than it was previously thought to be.

Recently released preliminary census figures indicate that one in every six Americans, mostly a senior citizen, is living in poverty.

The Census Bureau's new report shows that 47.8 million people in America are struggling with poverty, in comparison with the previous 2010 rate of 43.6 million, most of them 65 years of age and older.

Accordingly, over 16 percent of the 48 million people living below the poverty line are 65 years or older.

Poverty rates in the United States seem to be increasing among whites and Latinos aged 18 to 65.

An analysis done by the US Census Bureau reveals that medical expenses play a key role in the high percentage of those living in poverty.

These statistics point out that if the state had insured more citizens, poverty rates would have dropped to a 12 percent rather than the current 16 percent.

Figures released by the Bureau also show that poverty is on the rise in rural areas across the country.

Based on the figures, over 15 percent of rural Americans are living in poverty. The rate is higher than it is in urban and ex-urban counties.

'Europe threatens US economic recovery'

The US Federal Reserve building in Washington DC.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158692.html


The US Federal Reserve says the worsening of the brewing sovereign debt crisis and the banking failures across Europe could pose a setback for America's economic recovery as well.

According to minutes obtained on Tuesday from a meeting of the Fed's policy-setting panel, the Federal Reserve is keeping a wary eye on financial difficulties facing much of Europe, spelling concerns over the slow pace of the US economic recovery partly due to the debt crisis in Europe, combined with America's own devastated housing market, AFP reported.

"The recovery remained subject to some downside risks," members of the Federal Open Market Committee stated during their meeting on December 14.

The panel stated that the likelihood of weakening activity in the US market, lower house prices and the risk of potential fall-outs from worsening European debt crisis were among the risks threatening the economic recovery in the United States.

However, the committee members stated that the overall outlook for the US economy signals "a gradual pickup in growth with slow progress toward maximum employment."

Members of the panel also threw their weight behind the Federal Reserve's economic plan, devised in early November, to inject yet another 600-billion-dollar stimulus to spur the country's sluggish economic recovery.

Participants further outlined that 9.8 percent unemployment in the US and the dire state of the housing market were regarded as major setbacks for the economic recovery.

The Fed's policy-setting panel also expressed optimisms that European authorities would ultimately rise to the challenge of the gloomy economic conditions in the eurozone.

The euro zone, comprising of 16 European Union member states that use euro as their official legal tender, entered its first recession in the third quarter of 2008, following the global financial meltdown that broke out in early 2007.

The financial crisis wreaked havoc in Greece, forcing the EU and the IMF to supply the debt-laden country with a 110-billion-euro bailout in an effort to salvage its economy.

The contagious crisis has threatened to unleash a domino effect that could jeopardize other vulnerable economies in Europe and other banking systems across the world.

US national debt climbs to $14 trillion

The US national debt is fast approaching the statutory debt limit of $14.294 trillion set by the Congress

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158695.html


The US national debt has climbed to a record high of over $14 trillion amid concerns that the figure might surpass the debt ceiling set by the Congress.

The US Treasury reported on Tuesday that the national debt gained over $1 trillion since June, soaring to $14.02 trillion on December 31 from $13 trillion on June 1, as a fresh showdown between Democrats and Republicans looms large in deciding how the government should avert defaulting on its obligations, CBS News reported.

According to new statistics, the national debt stood at a whopping $14,025,215,218,708.52 - or $126,632 for every American taxpayer.

Meanwhile, concerns are running high that the increase could finally hit the statutory debt limit of $14.294 trillion set by the Congress and signed into law by US President Barak Obama in February last year.

Republicans, who have constantly campaigned on the platform of fiscal responsibility, have vowed to block an increase in the US debt ceiling, insisting that federal spending and unfunded government liabilities on entitlement programs should be slashed.

Last year, the US Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion.

However, if the Congress does not vote to raise the debt limit this year, the likelihood of the governments' default on its financial obligations would significantly increase.

The impact on the state of the US economy would be "catastrophic" if the federal government defaulted on its financial obligations, said White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee.

"That would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity," he emphasized.

The report comes as the worsening economic recession and vaulting debt crisis continue to wreak havoc in the US economy.

US bankruptcies hit 5-year high in 2010

A report by the American Bankruptcy Institute says some 1.53 million consumer bankruptcy petitions were filed in 2010

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158698.html


The number of US consumers filing for bankruptcy protection in 2010 reached the highest in five years, as the US economy continues to face a bumpy recovery.

According to a report released by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) on Tuesday, some 1.53 million consumer bankruptcy petitions were filed last year. The new figure shows a nine percent increase compared to 2009.

It also puts the number of individuals filing for bankruptcy at an all time high since 2005.

ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said that such filings may continue to increase throughout 2011.

The dire prediction has been brought to the fore at a time when the US economy is riddled with a soaring debt crisis.

The US Treasury has reported that America's national debt, as of the last day of 2010, surpassed 14 trillion dollars. This has led experts to predict a grim outlook for the US economy in 2011.

“The debt is ... a reflection of the fact that we (the United States) are in the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression,” said economic analyst Ethan Pollack in a Press TV interview.

Democrats and Republicans will start to battle on how to resolve the debt problem this week in a highly bipartisan Congress.

Experts also believe that steps taken by Washington to handle the economic crisis, including money printing, have put the country on the verge of "bankruptcy."

This is while a recent study by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that around one hundred US banks that have already been rescued by the federal government are facing the prospect of bankruptcy again.

America's continuing financial debacle was triggered by the global financial meltdown that initially broke out in early 2007.

Poverty on the rise in rural areas of US

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158686.html


The latest figures show that poverty is on the rise in rural areas across the United States as the country grapples with the highest national poverty rate since 1994.

According to new estimates released on Tuesday by the US Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce, poverty in rural areas rose significantly between 2006 and 2009, to the point where over 15 percent of rural US citizens are living in poverty.

The figures also indicate that the national poverty rate was over 14 percent in 2009, its highest level since 1994.

Census figures show 43.6 million US citizens lived in poverty in 2009 and 19 million lived in extreme poverty.

The figures also show that one in five children in the United States lives in poverty, with almost half of them living in extreme poverty.

Meanwhile, the Working Poor Families Project issued a report based on the new data from the Census Bureau, bringing the issue of the financial predicament facing those on the lower economic rungs into sharper focus as the country struggles with high unemployment in the wake of the recession that began in December 2007.

In 2009, there were more than 10 million low-income working families in the United States -- up 246,000 from the previous year, the report said.

It also noted that nearly 1 in 3 working families in the US have difficulty meeting basic needs such as buying groceries and paying utility bills.

"Obviously, the Great Recession has taken its toll on low-income working families," said Brandon Roberts, manager of the Working Poor Families Project, adding that "this new data says we are heading in the wrong direction."

The new assessments also show that the number of working women with an unemployed husband more than doubled from 2.4 percent to 5.4 percent between 2007 and 2009.

"This means there is a growing proportion of working families in which women -- who earn less money, on average, than men -- are the primary breadwinners," the report stated.

2011, economic apocalypse for US?

US job seekers (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158375.html


US economy faces a grim outlook in 2011 as Washington's steps taken to handle the financial crisis, including money printing, have put the country on the verge of "bankruptcy," an expert says.

In an interview with Press TV's Max Keiser, Karl Denninger of market-ticker.org noted that neither Europe's austerity measures nor United States' money printing could solve their economic crisis.

"They are both wrong in that neither of these elements proposed in taking those people who made bad loans and holding them to account," Denninger said.

"You have to take these institutions like these banks or whoever has it, and forces them to take the writedowns and mark discredit off," he added.

"The problem is if you do that they are insolvent. So, we have a political system both in the United States and in Europe that is unwilling to stand up to these bankers and say you are bankrupt," Denninger argued.

He said that the US has suffered a "total systematic indebtedness to GDP" over the past 30 years that could shape a destiny similar to Greece and Ireland for the US.

"It's just a question of how long it will go on. And what happens Max is the same thing that happened to Greece and Ireland. Everything seems to be Okay one day and the next morning you wake up and bonds are blowing out and auctions are failing. That has been the history on this crisis and it's going to continue," he concluded.

A recent study has found that around one hundred US banks, which have been rescued by the federal government, are facing the prospect of bankruptcy again.

A total of 98 unsteady banks that were bailed out by Washington authorities and received more than $4.2 billion from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) are now sinking toward failure again, a recent analysis of federal data by The Wall Street Journal revealed.

According to the study, TARP was originally created in the middle of the US financial crisis to help only healthy banks.