Category: United States

Long-Term Decline in US Standard of Living: Rockefeller Foundation

“Reform” Lets SEC Keep Its Own Nasty Secrets Buried

Regular readers of our site know how dubious we have been about the “reform” aspect of the 2400-page behemoth passed recently by the US Congress.

And we found an item today – thank you Richard Martin 😉 – that only confirms our doubts about this “whatever” in particular, and President Obama in general.

Surprisingly enough, it came from Fox Business News – you’ll be able to tell from all the self-congratulation below, seemingly justified in this case –

Rich Now Biggest Percentage Mortgage Defaulters in US

The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions

and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class

is now striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like Los Altos in Silicon Valley.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment,

the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

US Debt Collection “System” Almost Totally Broken, Corrupt

As millions of Americans have fallen behind on paying their bills,

debt collection law firms have been clogging courtrooms with lawsuits seeking repayment.

Few have been as prolific as Cohen & Slamowitz, a Woodbury, N.Y., firm that has specialized in debt collection for nearly two decades.

The firm has been filing roughly 80,000 lawsuits a year.

With just 14 lawyers on staff, that works out to more than 5,700 cases per lawyer.

In Office, Ex Labor Leaders Sing Different Tune

Stephen M. Sweeney, the president of the State Senate here, glowered with disgust as he described how

one New Jersey town paid out nearly $1 million to four retiring police officers for their unused sick days and vacation time.

Mr. Sweeney, a Democrat, also scowled about the estimated $46 billion New Jersey owes in pension contributions

and its $58 billion in liabilities to finance retiree health coverage for government employees.

Small Business Lending in US Collapsed in June

It’s a tiresome cliche that small business is the backbone of economic growth in the US.

But insofar as it’s true, what happened in June makes clear why America is still in such bad economic shape.

With the expiration of stimulus provisions that made Small Business Administration loans more attractive to borrowers and lenders —

and with efforts to renew those provisions stalled in Congress —

Plutonium Waste in US Likely To Be Triple Previous Estimates

The amount of plutonium buried at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State is nearly three times what the federal government previously reported,

a new analysis indicates, suggesting that a cleanup to protect future generations will be far more challenging than planners had assumed.

Plutonium waste is much more prevalent around nuclear weapons sites nationwide than the Energy Department’s official accounting indicates,

“Bankrupt” US States Could Get “Advances” from Treasury

The lack of coordination within the United States — and, equally important, the failure to recognize the states as macroeconomic players —

is a significant, but often underappreciated, reason for America’s so-called / alleged / self-styled sluggish  “recovery.”

In California, people tiresomely boast the state’s gross domestic product exceeds that of all but seven nations.

US Job Scene Disastrous, Even Doctored BLS Stats Show

The train that is the nation’s so-called / self-styled / alleged economic recovery has slowed noticeably,

unable to generate enough jobs in the last two months to keep pace with population growth,

much less reduce the vast numbers of unemployed Americans.

The United States added just 83,000 private sector jobs in June,

according to the monthly statistical snapshot released by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS.

Obama “Green”? Not According to Federal Housing Agencies

President Obama’s “green credentials” have taken a shellacking as a result of his seemingly indifferent attitude towards the Gulf oil spill,

and it certainly isn’t going to get any better once more people know about this little bit of news.

Two government-chartered mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are unlikely to accept loans on homes