Economic Tidbits

Please Pass The Bread & Water

When I was a young kid growing up in a single parent household, I would often have to ask before I randomly grabbed a snack from the kitchen cupboard. Mom was on a really tight budget in those days, and the weekly allotment of food had to last until the next paycheck. Of course, I never went hungry and didn’t even know how close to the edge we sometimes were. I guess I should consider myself lucky.

According to a newly released report by the American charity network, America’s Second Harvest, the number of Americans going hungry has increased 9% since 2001. Last year, more than 25 million American citizens turned to food banks, soup kitchens and shelters for meals. Perhaps even more striking is the fact that 36% of those people came from households that had at least one person holding down a job. What’s more, 35% already were receiving food stamps too.

But wait, you say…of course there were more people getting help. 2005 had two major disasters in Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Well hold your tongue. The surveys were actually done BEFORE the hurricanes hit. After the hurricanes, demand for help TRIPLED in the Gulf States.

In addition to this report, the federal government releases its own reports. Their findings? The USDA report released last year said 13.5 million American households, or nearly 12%, had difficulty providing enough food for their families in 2004. That number was 11% higher than in 2003.

Sounds like the economic benefits of the Bush agenda are working marvels, just like he says.

More Great Economic News

Following the reports about the increase in hunger in America, the Federal Reserve issued a report yesterday noting that after adjusting for inflation, the median income for American families suffered a setback, decreasing 2.3% between 2001 and 2004. But despite the hemming and hawing from corporate America, overall, businesses aren’t doing nearly as bad their employees:

“What's troubling about the economic recovery that we've been in is that all of the traditional indicators of employment, household income and poverty levels are lagging behind prior expansions,” said Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project, an economic think tank in Sacramento.

“The only indicator that is doing better than in prior expansions is corporate profits, which indicates that businesses aren't passing on what they are gaining to their workers,” she said.

Other economic indicators like net worth have risen, albeit very grudgingly, moving up only 1.5%- the weakest measured gain in a decade. By contrast, between 1995 and 1998 that increase was 12.3% and between 1998-2001 the increase was 17.3%. But those were years Clinton was in office, so while Bush II’s supporters like to give him credit for today’s economy, they say that the good times in the 90’s were inherited by Clinton from the Reagan/Bush I years. And now, of course, any bad news during Bush II’s term are remnants of Clinton’s economic policies. Nothing like having your cake and eating it too, I guess.

Oh yes, the net unemployment rate from early 2001 to August 2003 was negative- 2.7 million fewer working Americans. Damn that Clinton!