We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.
Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.
The increase ”“ from 26.5 million in 2007 ”“ is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.
And what was the total population in the 60s when the food stamp program was inaugurated? The article depicts an America in food lines, but the examples cited are temporary or hard-luck cases. The increase in food stamp usage is 5.6%, more in harder-hit states like Michigan, whose problems are chronic, and less in healthier economic zones. This hardly sounds like the Great Depression.
Wait – when did unemployment get back above 6%? The number that was considered “full employment” during those halcyon days of the 60s?
In macroeconomics, a recession is a decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year. A severe or long recession is referred to as an economic depression.
Since we have had only three ‘bad’ months, this article doesn’t pass the dictionary or smell tests. What is the agenda behind THE (not-so) INDEPENDENT?
If you’re a trader, articles like these are a great sign it’s about time to go “long” the greenback … especially against the Pound, BTW. Of greater fascination to me, however, is that a good cow can be had today for about two ounces of gold. And a good cow in the time of the prophets could be had for, you guessed it, two ounces of gold.
Or if you work back the OT prices for barley it comes to about $3.30 per bushel. The 2006-07 average price for barley was $3.50. Hey, I farm for a living, so of [i]course[/i] this stuff interests me.
Even more important than the consistency of true economic values since Bible times is the consistency of human nature, and the consequent consistency of Biblical answers for human life. As a particularly cogent example n 2008: “Put not your trust in princes nor men of power, for they will lead you astray for their own purposes.” Psalm 146:2 [paraphrase version] The same could apply to newspapers, especially left-leaning pubs from Europe.
Bart–You write about “good” cows. You are benighted. They are naughty cows–emitting much methane through the centuries back to the biblical times you cite.
Dear Elves: Please, please, please. It [i]is[/i] April 1st and all.
[i]LOL! Too funny. You win on this one 😉 [/i]
Gator, you’re right about those cows dating back to Biblical times. And didn’t God say that he owned the cows on a thousand hills? So all that methane is His fault! Maybe that’s another reason why Kate doesn’t like the OT, or the NT for that matter.
If there is other intelligent, technological life elsewhere in the Universe — remember, “I have other sheep, not of this fold” at least leaves open the possibility — they will eventually know there is life on Earth because our spectrum is far too rich in methane.
And once our electromagnetic wavefront reaches them, beginning with ‘I Love Lucy,’ they will rapidly conclude it is not [i]intelligent[/i] life.
Gator,
A sense of humor at The Independent is an hypothesis requiring strong evidence.
Both cows and barley [i]should[/i] cost less now because of increased productivity. The fact that they cost about the same as they did about 2400 years ago is not good. Increased productivity should cause prices to go down. We have definitely had an increase in productivity, yet prices are stagnant. There actually is a problem.
Our families are smaller, we are a culture of specialists, we are automated, we have improved agricultural processes, improved soil conservation, improved irrigation, genetically engineered seeds, etc.; yet, the prices are the same. There is a problem.
Well for starters, in the US alone, we need more food in one year than the entire total of what was produced between the Revolution and 1900.
Increased productivity [i]has[/i] caused the prices of some commodities to decline in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. In constant dollars corn is worth about one-sixth of what it was two generations ago.
On the other hand a “good” cow these days is vastly more productive than one in biblical times, and what you’re buying is the relative value of her lifetime productivity. IOW, milk may be cheaper because there’s more of it, but the good cow is not, because she produces so much more.
There are also many stewardship issues arising from this issue, but that is a long post unto itself.
Leave to say for this post that the “poor” today are better off than about 98% of Americans a century ago, and according to the IRS well in excess of half the bottom quintile move out of it within ten years.
Dow up 312 points on news of Great Depression!
I am still not certain about all this Recession talk. It might very well end up being the case. On the other hand, the Dow Jones is still hovering around 12000 which is above the mark when “irrational exuberance” was proclaimed back in the 1990s.
As I recall my economics, a “recession” is when there is a 20 percent overall drop in the stock market which is usually slower to develop and longer lasting. A “market correction” is a 10 percent drop but is usually due to some headline like so-and-so company doesn’t meet expectations, etc., which causes an immediate sell off. When the fear of the headline wears off. usually the market correction pans out in the end.
I don’t see either of these things really at play, as of yet. It may very well become a recession, but I am not convinced that all this hand wringing is a wag the dog phenomenon where if you proclaim something lot enough and loud enough, i.e. “We’re in a recession!”, people believe it to be the truth even if it is not.