EconomicCrisis.US

The changes in the economy over the past 18 months have had profound effects on the lives of people across the country. Now, for the first time, a new PARADE survey shows just how dramatically Americans’ goals, hopes, spending habits, relationships, and even their attitudes toward trusted institutions have been transformed by the recession.

Do you believe the American Dream is still attainable? Take the poll!

Nearly four out of five respondents (79%) say that they’ve felt the impact of the financial downturn, with one-third saying that the turmoil has had a big impact on their lives. Most respondents haven’t had to turn on the TV to appreciate the scope of the declining economy—they’ve registered its toll in their own faces or those of friends, family members, and neighbors. Sixty-nine percent have lost a job, suffered a reduction in pay, or know someone who has experienced one of these. Close to half have had difficulty making their mortgage or rent payments or know someone who has.
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Why didn’t Wall Street firms tell potential investors that the bonds they were selling them were rotten? Why did their business partners, including subprime mortgage lenders, ignore glaring evidence that borrowers weren’t qualified and give loans to virtually anyone with a heartbeat?

The answer is simple: Because they could.

In many cases, no law or regulation prohibited these firms from doing what they did. In others, former regulations that might have impeded them had been rolled back.

After 30 years of a national political culture that damned government regulation and celebrated unfettered markets, the lions of Wall Street were free to practice the social Darwinism at the heart of their world survival of the fittest, and the winner feasts on the spoils. Smaller players down the financial food chain played by the same ethics-free ethos.
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US consumer spending fell for the first time in five months in September after a government program boosting auto sales ran out, official data showed Friday.

Personal consumption expenditures decreased 47.2 billion dollars or 0.5 percent last month, as expected by most economists, following a revised 1.4 jump in August, the Commerce Department said.

The fall in spending came as Americans’ income turned flat in September following a 0.1 percent increase the previous month, the department said.

The highly popular “cash-for-clunkers” program, which gave consumers a credit of up to 4,500 dollars toward the price of a new car or truck if they turn in an older vehicle with lower gas mileage, ended in August.
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The homeless population of Los Angeles fell sharply during the past two years, a study released on Wednesday found, confounding expectations that the recession would drive more people into the city’s streets and shelters.

Some credit went to better programs to keep people off the streets, but experts say the worst economic slump since the Great Depression may also have played a role as rents declined and created more affordable housing.

Others disputed that notion, asserting that recent waves of foreclosures invariably drive more people into homelessness.

According to the latest census performed every two years by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, an estimated 43,000 people are living on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings or in shelters and government-funded “transitional housing” facilities on any given night in greater Los Angeles.
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