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Written by Karl Belin
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 |
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 For young workers, the so-called recovery is meaningless to nonexistent. Most of us have been facing a crisis from the very beginning of our working lives. We’ve been unable to build up even the most meager basis for establishing ourselves. Those of us who have tried to strike out on our own in our late teens or early twenties, the way our parents or grandparents did, have found it nearly impossible.
We’ve been faced with poverty wages and non-union jobs, no benefits and zero job security. |
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Written by Graeme Anfinson
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Friday, 02 October 2009 |
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For the last few decades, financial capital has trumped the “real economy” as far as making money is concerned. Given that they don’t produce any actual goods to exchange, Wall Street has to use “financial wizardry” to come up with its large profits. In other words, they have to continue to reinvent the shell game. The New York Times recently reported on a brand new financial invention that is taking Wall Street by storm. According to the Times, “The bankers plan to buy ‘life settlements,’ life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash -- $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to ‘securitize’ these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.” |
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Written by Brett Lubinski
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 |
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According to a much publicized study by University of California-Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez, the income gap between the rich and poor is at its greatest level since 1917. The top 10 percent of Americans now receive nearly 50 percent of all income. According to Saez, “Indeed, the top decile share in 2007 is equal to 49.7 percent, a level higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the ‘roaring’ 1920s.” |
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Written by Michael Roberts
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 |
 Article from the British Socialist Appeal website about the real rate of unemployment in the United States. |
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Written by Graeme Anfinson
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Thursday, 16 April 2009 |
 According to a recent CNN/Research Corp. national poll, only half of all U.S. homeowners are confident they can make their mortgage payments and less than forty percent are confident they can maintain their standard of living in the next year. Moreover, just one in four parents of children less than eighteen feel they can afford their child’s college education, and a scant one in five Americans who have yet to retire are very confident they’ll be able to save enough money to do so comfortably. |
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Written by Socialist Appeal
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Thursday, 02 April 2009 |
 The Workers International League's working class program for the current economic crisis. |
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Written by John Peterson
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Friday, 30 January 2009 |
 "Bloody Monday" ran the headlines, as jobs continue to hemorrhage from the U.S. economy with no end in sight. Since Monday, even more companies have announced layoffs. The list of companies laying off workers is a "who's who" of corporate America: 20,000 from Caterpillar, 10,000 from Boeing, 8,000 from Pfizer, 8,000 from Sprint Nextel, 7,000 from Home Depot, 6,700 from Starbucks, 6,000 from Intel, 5,000 from Microsoft, 5,000 from Schlumberger, 2,000 more from General Motors, 1,200 more from Ford, S1,000 more from United Airlines, 700 from AOL, 600 from Target, 350 from Brooks Automation, and on and on. |
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Written by Tom Trottier
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Tuesday, 13 January 2009 |
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 The present crisis of U.S. capitalism is now spilling over into a fiscal crisis for state and local governments. American Big Business, through its control of the Democratic and Republican parties, has set up a system where money for war is funded through the coffers of the Federal government in Washington, DC, while education and many other public and social services are largely funded by the states, counties, cities and towns. In the past year, as the private sector has shed jobs, state and local governments have been creating them, which has slowed the growth of unemployment. Now, however, the economic crisis is leading state and local governments to cut back on workers.
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Written by In Defence of Marxism Editorial Board
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Thursday, 18 December 2008 |
 The crisis of world capitalism is unfolding relentlessly and with gathering speed. First came the financial crisis (the so-called credit crunch), but now the second phase has begun - the crisis of the real economy - and it is accelerating as each day goes by. This is leading to sharp changes in consciousness, rising working class militancy and the beginnings of polarisation within the labour movement itself. |
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Written by David May
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Monday, 17 November 2008 |
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 This article makes note of General Motors facing bankruptcy, with Ford and Chrysler not far behind. GM is requesting a $25 billion bailout from the federal government, and in spite of this bailout, the automakers have announced severe cuts and additional plant closings. The only way forward is to nationalize the auto industry under democratic workers' control.
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Economy 
In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, both working families and the unemployed – whose numbers continue to defy economists’ calculations – are feeling the pinch of benefit cuts, wage freezes, forced furlough days, and austerity measures... With fully a third of the American population now living on less than $21,000 a year and the cost of living continuing to skyrocket, it should come as no surprise that basic necessities like nutritious food, decent housing, medical care, and winter heating are priced outside the means of so many.