This is the worst labor market since the Great Depression

[KissMy]

For those of you cheering on the Obamacrats great recovery.

Breaking news: Bernanke slams U.S. economy! What to do...

A momentous event just occurred this afternoon: For the first time in many years, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve went before Congress, set aside his rose-colored glasses, dispensed with most of his sugar-coated platitudes and made some hard-hitting statements about the U.S. economy.

Bernanke on jobs: “This is the worst labor market since the Great Depression.”

Bernanke on housing: “The market remains weak, with the overhang of vacant or foreclosed houses weighing on home prices and construction.”

Bernanke on fears about the future: “Most … viewed uncertainty about the outlook for growth and unemployment as greater than normal, and the majority saw the risks to growth as weighted to the downside.”

Bernanke on tight credit for small businesses: “Bank loans outstanding have continued to contract. Small businesses, which depend importantly on bank credit, have been particularly hard hit.”

And never forget: All this is coming from a man whose job invariably makes him extremely reluctant to admit to negative trends in any sector at any time — if Bernanke is saying things are bad, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re actually far worse

7/21 Bernanke said Wednesday in the United States in 2012 will be at 7.5%" (their 7.5 is more like 15% or more)

The Existing Home Sales drops and reverses previous reading

Transactions of all types of homes dropped 5.1% in comparison with a previous level standing at 7.6% growth. The Existing Home Sales report did, however, avoid the 9.9% fall expected by the markets.

In terms of quantitative measure Existing Home Sales annualized pace went down to 5.37M in June from 5.66M in May. Market forecast stood at 5.15M.

AISE SteelNews: World Crude Steel Production Dips 4.4% in June

Dollar extend its loss after bigger than expected rise in jobless claims filling

The greenback extended its earlier drop Thursday, snapping a two-day advance against majors as witnessed on the U.S. Dollar index, which sagged to 82.71 from the today's opening levels that were set at 83.19.

the Dollar depreciated due to the large rise in unemployment benefits that surged in the week ending July 17 to 464,000, compared with the median estimates of analysts at 445,000 and the prior revised 427,000. Still, the outlook for the U.S. economy is uncertain, as mentioned by the Fed chairman; Ben Bernanke yesterday.

Wow gold has been on a 3 week losing streak due to rising confidence in the euro. Now the US monetary easing & unemployment are killing the dollar. Time to buy more gold as it just snapped its losing streak. Bernanke just gave gold a $12 pop! This economy is failing so government is getting ready to throw serious money at it for a long time.

Bernanke: Fed ready to ease if economy weakens

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke stressed Thursday that the central bank was "ready" to take further steps to stimulate the economy if growth turns out to be weaker than expected.

"We are ready and we will act if the economy does not continue to improve -- if we don't see the kind of improvements in the labor market that we are hoping for and expecting," Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee in the second day of his summer report on monetary policy to Congress.

There was a debate after Bernanke's testimony on Wednesday about how high the bar was for further Fed easing. Bernanke's comments seemed to lower the bar a few notches. Bernanke repeated the options he said that the Fed is considering.

The first option was changing the Fed's forward guidance by providing more detail to the "extended period" language. The second option would be to reducing the interest rate on excess reserves. The final option would be adjusting the balance sheet by beginning to reinvest maturing GSE securities and MBS principal payments.

We have declining Employment, Baltic Dry Index, Dollar, Steel, Oil, Copper, PMI, Stocks, Housing & Business. How about doing a few more back-flips for Obama & blame Bush some more.

 

[topspin]

awh since when did wingnuts care so much about poor uneducated people.
Oh since Obama took office. LOFL

 

[william the wie]

awh since when did wingnuts care so much about poor uneducated people.
Oh since Obama took office. LOFL

You do realize you have just accused your opponents of being smarter and richer than your side, was that your intent?

 

[Charles_Main]

awh since when did wingnuts care so much about poor uneducated people.
Oh since Obama took office. LOFL

You stupid fuck tard if this keeps up we will all be poor and uneducated.

OMG such a moron.

 

[Truthmatters]

Thanks for creating this mess with your failed ideas.

This mess all hit a couple of months before Obama took office.

You dont turn the world economy arround in a year and a half

 

[sparky]

good point Truth, malignacies need time to grow

and many where seeded in this system we have long ago

funny thing about Ben B, i hear he's an acedemic re; the 'Great Depression'

I mean, the more i think about it, the more outrageous it is to think an insider , who's primary job is to not let the public see the man behind the curtain might have a level of historic clarity knawing at him to do just that.....

~S~

 

[Freedomfan1776]

The title of this thread is misleading. To compare our economic straits today to those of The Great Depression is way off base in my estimation. If you talk to anyone who lived through that time, they will tell you that the problems of today are no place even close to where they are today. People back then literally did go hungry. That is simply not what is happening right now.

 

[KissMy]

Oh, Oh, Wait! I have a great idea! Lets enact affirmative action based lending standards instead of credit ratings based lending standards just like Bill Clinton did.

New York Times September 1999 The danger was known.

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people.

...These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates...

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent. In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmL-lXNy64"]"BANK AFFIRMATIVE ACTION"[/ame]

What a great idea! Those damn credit scores are evil & racist. A study by Freddie Mac, confirming earlier Federal Reserve and FDIC studies, contradicts race discrimination arguments for Fannie, Freddie & CRA. The study found that African-Americans with annual incomes of $65,000-$75,000 have on average worse credit records than whites making under $25,000. This showed that the difficulty in qualifying was not because of race but bad credit records. Accordingly, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas entitled a paper "Red Lining or Red Herring?"

Who needs credit scores? When those evil republicans start screaming we must raise credit standards & reserve ratios at Fannie/Freddie we can just stick our fingers in our ears, call them evil racist & yell la-la-de-da-la-la I cant hear you.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&feature=related"]No Crisis at Fannie Freddie.[/ame]

 

[KissMy]

The title of this thread is misleading. To compare our economic straits today to those of The Great Depression is way off base in my estimation. If you talk to anyone who lived through that time, they will tell you that the problems of today are no place even close to where they are today. People back then literally did go hungry. That is simply not what is happening right now.

This is a direct quote from Ben Bernanke Chairman of the Federal Reserve when he went before Congress today. See story at link below.

Bernanke slams U.S. economy!

Bernanke on jobs: “This is the worst labor market since the Great Depression.”

 

[Freedomfan1776]

I apologize for that. I did not see his remarks. The fact that Chairman Ben makes that assertion is even more frightening. Particularly because one of two things is going on:

1. Chairman Ben simply does not understand what went on during The Great Depression or
2. Chairman Ben knows exactly what he is doing and is banking on the fact that people will take him at his word. The goal being: more power given to The Federal Reserve to prevent any more 'damage to the economy.'

I am inclined to believe that Chairman Ben is operating under choice 2. It amazes me how many people seem to just jump right over the economic downturns of the 1970's and early 1980's. I firmly believe that is because we got out of the situation due to tightening of the money supply under Paul Volcker, lower taxes, and less regulation under President Reagan. Since Obama and Chairman Ben are intent on doing exactly the opposite, we shall see what happens...

 

[KissMy]

I apologize for that. I did not see his remarks. The fact that Chairman Ben makes that assertion is even more frightening. Particularly because one of two things is going on:

1. Chairman Ben simply does not understand what went on during The Great Depression or
2. Chairman Ben knows exactly what he is doing and is banking on the fact that people will take him at his word. The goal being: more power given to The Federal Reserve to prevent any more 'damage to the economy.'

I am inclined to believe that Chairman Ben is operating under choice 2. It amazes me how many people seem to just jump right over the economic downturns of the 1970's and early 1980's. I firmly believe that is because we got out of the situation due to tightening of the money supply under Paul Volcker, lower taxes, and less regulation under President Reagan. Since Obama and Chairman Ben are intent on doing exactly the opposite, we shall see what happens...

Ben Bernanke is an academic who's major course of study was the "Great Depression"

Mr. Bernanke's interest in the Depression, which dates back to his childhood, is a guide to the evolution of his thinking. In particular, his groundbreaking research on how mistakes by the Federal Reserve compounded the catastrophe is likely to influence how he steers the economy. The Depression, he contends, has taught the importance of avoiding both deflation and inflation. It has also shown the threat that falling asset prices such as in housing and weakened banks can pose. Most important, it shows the damage the Fed can do when it follows wrong-headed ideas.

YOU HAD BETTER GET READY FOR A FLOOD OF CASH TO CORRUPT CORNIE POLITICIANS. THE GOVERNMENT IS GREAT AT BLOWING MONEY IF BERNANKE SAYS THATS WHAT WE NEED. The government always overshoots & forgets to sop up the excess liquidity once the economy gets going. They don't want to stop the party since it was so hard to get started. BUY GOLD!!!

 

[jeffrockit]

Thanks for creating this mess with your failed ideas.

This mess all hit a couple of months before Obama took office.

You dont turn the world economy arround in a year and a half

You definitely don't turn it around by adding even more to the deficit.