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The economy keeps on chug, chug, chugging along at a poky, yet steadily poky, pace.
While President Obama's been breaking up G-20 tiffs, the rest of us are still paying our bills and hoping things get better. Here's a little update on where things may be:
-- The NYTimes does a poignant interview with three folks in Columbia, SC who have lost jobs in this recession, and what they are doing to make ends meet while looking for work.
-- In the "duh" column, the WaPo reports that new polling shows Americans are worried about the recession. Color me shocked.
-- Maybe it has something to do with the fact that unemployment numbers are still rising? According to Dept. of Labor:
In March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 694,000 to 13.2 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has grown by about 5.3 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points. Half of the increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate occurred in the last 4 months.
More dire prognostications from Bloomberg, Forbes, and Barrons -- expect upward revisions since the numbers did not exceed predictions. A little good news among the bad, I s'pose.
-- But...but...home sales went up a little. Par-tay.
-- Unless you are on the KB Homes board, I suppose. Not so par-tay.
-- Calculated Risk talks about corporate office space dumping. And it ain't pretty.
-- Questions are arising on mortgage balancing when homeowners with a second mortgage apply for Part II refinancing. Don't expect a solution any time soon in this edition of "when bank interests collide."
-- Looks like BofA won't be paying up any time in the near, near future, despite vociferous CEO boasting to the contrary. Again, shocker.
-- But the news isn't all bad. If you've lost your job, you are now eligible to compete in the "unemployment Olympics." Love it. You have to laugh occasionally to stay sane.
-- Or you can share in the fruits of your "austerity garden," once you figure out how expensive those fruits may be once you tally the initial outlay.
On the upside for me, I got my garden box built yesterday and filled with lovely compost, mixed with peat moss, a little vermiculite, well-composted manure and some humus. But I didn't complete it until late yesterday evening, so none of my seedlings went into the ground. It's lovely, friable, ready for planting...and it's pouring the rain down outside this morning.
At least it will be well watered by the time I get to plant, I suppose.
In the meantime? Do give this splendiferous smackdown from Wolcott a read. (H/T digby)
No matter how bad things look, there is always room for a giggle or two. And lord knows we could all use something uplifting these days. What's catching your eye in the news?
UPDATE: cbl points out that 1 in 10 Americans now using food stamps to fill the gap.
Tagged as: economic crisis, unemployment, econopocalypse
Christy Hardin Smith is a former attorney, who earned her undergraduate degree at Smith College, in American Studies and Government, concentrating in American Foreign Policy. She then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of political science and international relations/security studies, before attending law school at the College of Law at West Virginia University, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review.
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