San Jose, CA – Over the past four years, retired workers have faced a double-barreled attack as companies do away with their retiree health plans and dump their pension plans. At the same time, the fall in the stock market has reduced the value of 401-k plans for older workers and retirees, forcing many to have to work longer. Now the Bush administration has declared that it will move forward with plans to begin to privatize Social Security, creating personal investment accounts with the money that used to go to Social Security benefits. This would be a windfall for Wall Street, which could collect up to $15 billion dollars a year from ‘managing’ and ‘advising’ these retirement accounts.
San Jose, CA – 2003 saw a record number of people filing for bankruptcy – for the second year in a row. More than 1.6 million people filed for bankruptcy last year, or one out of every 73 households in the United States. The percentage of credit cards whose users have fallen behind on their payments also hit record highs last year. The increase in bankruptcies and late credit card payments, despite low interest rates, show that more and more households are being crushed by almost $10 trillion of debt.
San Jose, CA – As Congress wrapped up its business for the holiday break, the Republican leadership sent a big lump of coal to millions of unemployed workers. By refusing to renew the federal extended unemployment benefits program, jobless workers whose six-month state unemployment benefits ran out after Dec. 21, 2003 will no longer be able to collect thirteen more weeks of unemployment benefits. This will affect about 90,000 workers each week.
San Jose, CA – In late September the Census Bureau reported that, for the second year in a row, household income fell, the number of poor rose, and more Americans lacked health insurance. Household incomes, adjusted for inflation, fell 1.1%. 1.7 million more people fell below the government’s official poverty line in 2002. In addition, 2.4 million more individuals went without health insurance than the year before.
San Jose, CA – In May, the unemployment rate rose to 6.1%, the highest level in nine years. Businesses have cut more than two and a half million jobs since the recession began in March of 2001. This drop in jobs is the longest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With so many of us out of work, it is taking longer and longer for the unemployed to find jobs. It now takes an average of almost five months to find work, the longest period of time in almost twenty years.
San Jose, CA – With the continuing decline in the stock market, private pension plans in the United States are now short $300 billion of the amount needed to pay future promised benefits. In addition, state and local government pension plans have also lost almost $300 billion over the last two years, leaving them with a $180 billion shortfall. These deficits, along with decline in workers’ 401(k) retirement accounts and company cutbacks in retirement health insurance, mean even more insecurity for present and future retirees. To make things worse, Bush and some state governments want to replace current pension plans and social security with private investment accounts.
San Jose, CA – In late September, people turned off their lights in Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires, and in much of the rest of the country. This latest protest was aimed at the foreign-owned utility companies that want to raise energy prices by 35 to 50%, and the telephone rates by as much at 275%. While the national government would like to let the utilities hike their prices, many people are calling for returning the utilities to public ownership, since there has been no improvement in service since they were privatized.
San Jose, CA – In February, President Bush sent Congress his budget proposal wrapped in a red, white and blue American flag. The winners? Wealthier Americans who will get almost $600 billion more in tax cuts over the next ten years (on top of the $1.5 trillion tax cut passed last year) and the military, which will have $550 billion more to spend over the ten year period.
San Jose, CA – While layoffs mount and cities report more hunger and homelessness, Wall Street is expecting the economy to boom in 2002. This has sent stocks soaring since late September. Wall Street expects the Federal Reserve Bank's eleven interest rate cuts this year, along with more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy being pushed by Republicans in Congress, to spark a recovery in corporate profits.
