According to the NY Times, the economy shrank at the rate of 6.1% the first three months of this year instead of the predicted 4.7% decline. This steep drop is evidence of the task before the country of putting the economy back on track, and the numbers behind the number don't look good to me (with my 3 decades old undergraduate Econ training. Business spending plummeted
Companies slashed their capital investment at an annual rate of 38 percent, and cut their inventories at a pace of $103.7 billion as they rushed to reduce their costs. Business investment in software and equipment declined by an annualized 33.8 percent, and investment in new structures was down 44.2 percent.
Economists are quoted as saying that unemployment numbers, currently at 8.5 (and by the most optomistic set of numbers, not the realistic books) will rise to 10%. The impact of the auto industry's troubles is being exacerbated by the loss of spending power which is compounding the loss of the auto industry jobs.
Already, more than five million workers have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Businesses that began to cut costs with furloughs and pay freezes are laying off workers in large numbers. Earlier this week, General Motors announced it would slash another 21,000 jobs in the United States.
This current dive into a depression will not be cured by half measures, we need to rachet up the drive to get single-payer health care, it will be cheaper in the aggregate and for millions of us who get our health-care through our jobs, whoopsie, no job. For millions who are retired, whoopsie too.
The pressures to keep bailing out Wall Street are top-driven, we need to make sure that the plight of millions rings as loudly in the decision-makers ears as the sound of gold does from the plutocracy.