All media, politicos and especially FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate institutions) are proclaiming the end of the horrendous man-made recession which technically began in December 2007. Maybe it's over for those guys, but not for the rest of us.
The stock market extolls increased productivity, which basically means 1 person now has to do the work of 3. Economic recovery only seems to refer to the stock market and employers taking a chainsaw to their payrolls.
Even today the NYT's Business Section keeps cheerleading "green shoots" in the article, Fed Survey Finds Signs of a Slow, Fragile Recovery even though hidden within the article it's clearly obvious that employers are using their leverage to drive U.S. employee costs to developing nation levels. The only job growth at all is in temporary labor, sans benefits and protections.
Watch out for the head-on collision of the weak federal stimulus mixture of tax cuts and spending working against the cash-strapped states' obligation to balance their budgets with regressive tax increases and slashing social programs to the bone. To quote my friend Richard Wolff's paper: "Meanwhile, massive social needs go unmet (rebuilding center cities, providing daycare, health care, and eldercare to millions, repairing decades of damage to the environment, and so on."
California, with its economy as large as most countries, is a prime example. States are laying off or furloughing employees in such touted areas as education and health care, as property tax revenue decreases and hospitals go bankrupt.
Will the federal government step into the breach? Or will American become the New Serfdom?
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