Getting Worse.. Before Better

[G_j]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/30/726467/-Getting-Worse-Before-Better.-Senate-and-Specter-Fail-to-Help


Getting Worse Before Better. Senate and Specter Fail to Help
by Meteor Blades

Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 02:44:04 PM PDT

Josh Bivens over at the Economic Policy Institute points out that:

"The last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 together posted the worst half-year of GDP performance in over 60 years. While coming quarters may see a moderation in the pace of decline, it’s clear that this recession is already a stand-out in its severity and will only get worse."

An especially troubling sign was the cliff-dive of investment spending. Investment in non-residential structures fell 44% in the quarter. Non-residential investment has historically followed movements in residential investment with a one to two year lag. It had held up through the first three years of the residential housing sector meltdown, but shrank 9% in the last quarter of 2008. Its performance in the first quarter this year is a sign that it will be dragging on GDP growth for some time to come.

Following the 28% decline in the last quarter of 2008, investment in equipment and software dropped another 34% in the first quarter of this year. This is the fifth straight quarter of decline, with each successive fall being larger than the previous.

The residential housing sector posted its 13th straight quarter of decline, and its contraction was the steepest yet at 38%. Ironically, the decline of the housing sector has been so dramatic that the sector is now too small for it to put great downward pressure on overall GDP. Housing accounts for 2.7% of overall GDP now, roughly 43% of its peak size in 2005. Given that home prices fell at the fastest rate yet in the first quarter of 2009, it seems unlikely that this decline in home building will stop anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the Senate Thursday helped make things worse for working Americans by nixing the cramdown amendment:

The Senate on Thursday handed a victory to the banking industry by defeating a Democratic proposal that would have given homeowners in financial trouble greater flexibility to renegotiate the terms of their mortgages.

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[G_j]

1. THROW THE BUMS OUT - ALL OF THEM Senate Millionaires Kill Mortgage Assistance for Citizens

http://www.opednews.com/articles/THROW-THE-BUMS-OUT--ALL-O-by-Michael-Collins-090501-34.html

THROW THE BUMS OUT - ALL OF THEM Senate Millionaires Kill Mortgage Assistance for Citizens

by Michael Collins

The United States Senate took a swipe at the spirit of May Day in a spectacular show of callous indifference when it voted down a bill to provide limited assistance to citizens at risk for losing their homes. The final vote was 45 in favor, 51 opposed to Senator Richard Durbin's (D-IL) mortgage assistance bill. The original version of the bill covered some but not all of those requiring assistance. The final version was even more restricted. It applied to only homeowners currently in foreclosure as a result of actions prior to the start of 2009.

The denial of assistance to citizens by Senators is ironic given the fact that the origins of the current economic crisis came from Senate legislative actions in 1999 and 2000.

While their avarice knows no bounds, their memory suffers.

Apparently these multimillionaire aristocrats of the Senate "gentlemen's club" haven't been watching the news. The International Monetary Fund declared that the United States is in a depression almost three months ago. Delinquency and foreclosure rates around the country are rising at spectacular rates. Unemployment has jumped by 3.3 million in the last five months. Economic growth has declined at a rate of 6.3% in the first quarter of 2009.

What part of economic crisis can't they understand? Apparently all of it.


Memo to stingy Senators: Workers and their families are in serious trouble or about to be in trouble. That means they lack the money to pay for their homes (also known as shelter, a basic human need). These citizens did nothing to bring on this crisis.

You, the members of the Senate, are largely to blame and you know it.

One of the most revealing remarks came from Democrat Ben Nelson (D-NE) who said:

“Do I want to have my rate go up so that somebody else might be able to cram down” their mortgage payment?" asked Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who voted against the bill. Associated Press, Apr. 30, 2009.

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