Summer Recovery Had Me a Blast

Previously, on last season's FIN TRUTH, the country was optimistic entering June when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proclaimed “The Summer of Recovery.”

Happy Days are here again, the skies above are clear again, let us sing a song of cheer again, Happy Days are here again....

The discussion in the Treasury went something like this in June:

Tim “the Fonz” Geithner: This is the 'Summer of Recovery,' Ben. Dig it?

Fed Chair Ben “Richie” Bernanke: The economy is unusually uncertain, Tim. Why do you think it will recover this summer.

“Fonz” Geithner: Because I'm the Treasury Secretary....aaaayyyy (thumbs up).

However, with August unemployment at 9.6 percent, and the U-6 number (Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force) at 16.7 percent, we remained far from recovery.

Back at the Department of Treasury:

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke: Tim, I thought you said this was going to be 'The Summer of Recovery.”

Geithner: Well, uh, I was wrrrr....I was wrrrrr....I just wasn't quite right.

Yes, Tim “the Fonz” Geithner spoke out of turn...as did Biden. CBS News in June reported that Biden later said "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.”

What do these guys think? Do they think they live in some television sitcom where whatever they say is true? That they can snap their fingers and the economy recovers...or hot-looking girls come running?

Fast forward to today:

In today's New York Times, Motoko Rich's For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again, said: “Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record, more than double what it was at the beginning of the latest recession.

“After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy’s recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes.”

And we continue to see signs of the bifurcated society—the haves and have-nots.

Bloomberg today reported Census Bureau statistics today that show most people earn more than 2.5 percent LESS than 12 YEARS ago. Median income in the United States is $1,323 lower than in 1998. For the bottom 10 percent of workers, median incomes are down 5.2 percent and for the bottom 20 percent, they are down 3.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the top 5 percent of workers make 3.6 percent more than in 1998. They make 11.4 times more than the poorest 10 percent, compared to 10.4 times more than the poorest 10 percent in 1998.

The poverty rate also rose to a 15-year high to 14.9 percent—now classified as poor.

And, Washington, D.C., Congress, is busted—a polarized, uncompromising body of politicians that can only agree on watered down legislation because they listen to their wallet with money from special interest groups and large corporations.

“We've seen it from the oval office to the Mayor's office, politicians are deeply unpopular these days and this new data from the Census Bureau and the Fed suggests the reason why. Even though the vast majority are working, the numbers show it is getting them nowhere. The American Dream of working hard and improving your lot is fading, and that shows in the new Census figures,” said Mike McKee, economics editor at Bloomberg.

McKee added that household wealth dropped 2.8 percent in the second quarter as home prices started to stabilize because the stock market tanked by $940.4 billion.

The fact is, Siemens recently announced 4,200 jobs lost by cutting its Siemens IT Solutions subsidiary, including 2,000 jobs lost in Germany.

Is Europe really not in fear of default? Nice stress tests for European banks since they did not count sovereign debt--still no explanation for that.

Then, there's Fedex, which announced earlier this month that profits doubled, and it was such positive news that they also announced 1,700 layoffs to reduce its trucking operations to save money.

But, there is good news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up this morning after three straight weeks of increases as CNBC says all is well. The Dow is at 10,635 this morning on Wall Street—Money Never Sleeps, opening this Friday at theaters near you.

And now, the season premiere of FIN TRUTH.

Robert Michaels