On Sunday, Oct. 3, the Greek Cabinet voted on a new budget proposal for 2012 that includes 6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes, including cutting 30,000 government jobs. This budget will go to the Greek Parliament on Monday, Oct. 4, in hopes of getting another 8 billion euros ($10.5 billion) from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in order to pay back German, French and other European banks that own large amounts of Greek bonds.
New York, NY – In a city of nine million people, protesters aren’t supposed to shut down a major traffic artery on a Saturday afternoon. But on Saturday, October 1, Occupy Wall Street did just that, blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and sending a loud message to the bankers and politicians from Wall Street to Washington D.C. to California that a new day is at hand.
On June 19th the *Washington Post* published “With Executive Pay, Rich Pull Away from Rest of America” by Peter Whoriskey. This very informative article connected the rise in corporate executive’s pay with the growing economic inequality in the United States, using the example of a large U.S. dairy company combined with recent research by economists on high incomes. At the same time the article only offered very vague explanations for *why* the rich are winning out at the expense of almost everyone else.
Chicago, IL – Over 3000 teachers, healthcare workers, janitors and community activists descended on the corporate leaders meeting here, June 14 outside the Midwest CEO/CFO conference. The protesters demanded jobs, homes and schools.
San José, CA – In the first week of June, two important reports showed a sharp slowdown in the U.S. economy. On Friday, June 3, the Department of Labor said that unemployment in May rose to 9.1%, while only 54,000 new jobs were created, far less than what mainstream economists were predicting. Two days earlier, on June 1, a report on home prices showed another drop of 4.2% in the first three months of 2011, bringing home prices to a new low since the housing market began to tank in 2006.
On Nov. 10, former Colorado Republican Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, investment banker and Morgan Stanley board member, released a draft report on deficit reduction. Both are co-chairs of the bipartisan deficit reduction commission appointed by President Obama. Their recommendations have been widely slammed by labor union and other progressives for good reason: The recommendations open the doors to even more austerity for working people while proposing lower tax rates for the well-to-do.
Members of the Network to Fight for Economic Justice have been leafleting and petitioning at unemployment offices demanding that Congress and state governments take action to extend and expand unemployment benefits.
San Bruno, CA – On Aug. 25, the Commerce Department reported that new home sales in July fell 12.4% from the level of sales in June, and were 32.4% lower than July of 2009. This report, which was much worse than most economists expected, followed a report by the National Association of Realtors the day before that sales of existing homes in July fell 27.2% from June, and were 25.5% lower than a year earlier.
