Unrelenting Decline in US Home Prices

By Andrew Kliman.

The latest Case-Shiller home price figures, which came out this morning, indicate that home prices in the US fell by an average of 2.2% in March. Home prices have now fallen at just about this rate (between 1.9% and 2.2%) for seven months in a row; the pace of decline is not slowing down (see Figure 1). Read More

About New York

By Anne Jaclard.

May Day 2009: Immigrants, Jobs, and Politics in a Time of Economic Crisis; Haitians

We had two May Day demonstrations in New York City this year, one sponsored by unions and workers’ centers, the other dominated by the Left, both called by immigrants rights groups. The turn-out was largely Latino and heavily students. Many national and ethnic groups announced themselves with banners, and there were contingents of the unemployed and homeless.

Many signs and chants at both demonstrations, besides those calling for amnesty for the undocumented, were based on the view that government bail-out money should be used for education, housing, health care, etc. instead of going to Wall Street institutions. High school and college students asked for changes in the law to permit undocumented youth to obtain state aid for college, and asked for aid. One flyer by a Left organization consisted of a part telling students they need to demand more money for education, and another part of equal size denouncing the mayor on the sole grounds that he is very rich.

The prevailing view that real change can result from redistributing wealth hobbles the challenge we face in a time of economic crisis to have the inherent defects of capitalism understood and accompanied by a demand for its uprooting. We were sorry not to find clear openings to discuss this among the young and foreign born. Read More

April Unemployment & Employment Stats: “less disastrous than before”

By Andrew Kliman, Author of Reclaiming Marx’s “Capital“: A refutation of the myth of inconsistency.

Is the worst over?

A couple of hours ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of nonfarm payroll jobs fell in April by an estimated 539 thousand, and that the unemployment rate increased to an estimated 8.9%, from 8.5% in March.  So since employment peaked (and the recession officially began) in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 5.7 million.  Keeping in mind that the U.S. economy would need to have about 150 thousand additional jobs per month in order for employment to keep up with the growing population, or 150 thousand x 16 months = 2.4 million since December 2007, that makes for a shortfall of over 8 million jobs since the peak. Read More