USA 2008: The Great Depression

The above caption is the actual headline from an article (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html) in The Independent, a newspaper in the UK. While today is April 1st, the article is not an April Fool's joke, but rather reports on what is happening to the USA's economy notwithstanding the delusional denial on the part of The Chimperator and those in the GOP who have been his enablers for the last 7+ years. Perhaps if they had paid more attention to issues that really matter and less time dividing the country, gay-bashing and endeavoring to intrude into the private lives of citizens, we'd not be in the mess that is overtaking the counrty.

Just the collapse of the residential real estate market has had a huge impact with a broadening ripple effect: home values are dropping, realtors, title insurance companies, appraisers, residential lenders, real estate law practices, construction material suppliers, etc., have all seen revenues plunge and have reduced work forces and expenditures. In some cases, companies have completely gone out of business. As all of this happens, consumer spending drops further. Add to this the loss of manufacturing jobs, the massive layoffs by financial firms and the exporting of jobs oversears and one gets a very toxic mix. Here are some story highlights:

We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.

Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.

Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 per cent increase in the past year.