U.S. Economic/Financial News

Poverty and Homelessness Hit U.S. Children Hard

Oct. 19 (EIRNS)—On Sept. 28, the Census Bureau released the results of its 2009 American Community Survey which found, among other things, that the overall poverty rate in the United States rose from 13.3% to 14.3, between 2008 and 2009, or an increase of about 3.5 million people. Now it's even worse. Local particulars provide horror stories, especially regarding conditions of poverty and homelessness among children, showing the social disintegration of whole communities as a result of the economic collapse.

* Washington, D.C.: Public schools have started serving dinner to an estimated 10,000 students, because the high poverty rate among African-American children means that many don't eat at home. According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate among D.C. African-American children is now 43%, up significantly from the 31% reported in 2007. Many children are in the custody of the school system from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and principals and teachers are telling officials that not only were many children hungry for the last few hours of the day, but some of them weren't eating much at home.

* Nebraska: On Oct. 4, public schools reported 2,210 homeless students last year, 458 more than the year before, an increase of 26%, according to the Department of Education. Omaha schools reported 661 homeless students, an increase of more than 20% in one year. The homeless coordinator for Lincoln public schools estimates that about 5% of the total student population is homeless, or about 1,300 children.

*Utah: State officials report that there were nearly 12,000 homeless children in schools in January 2010. This is 2% of the total enrollment of about 529,000, but it is a 50% increase over the 8,016 counted in 2008.

* Wisconsin: Rock County was home to the Janesville GM Assembly plant that closed in 2008, directly costing 2,600 jobs. Two-thirds of the district's students qualify for free or reduced-prices lunches, and have needed donated clothes, shoes, and classroom supplies. Some can't afford bus fare to get to school.

According to the Census Bureau, 16.7% of children were listed as living in poverty in the state, and Rock County had the second highest rate in the state, at 20.2%, exceeded only by Milwaukee County, where 29.9 percent were officially in poverty.

Fed President Admits Hyperinflation Is a Done Deal

Oct. 23 (EIRNS)—St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard let it be known, this week, that if the Federal Reserve decides to "ease monetary conditions," he would favor the Fed buying Treasury notes in $100 billion increments, without any upper limit on the total spent. This statement was followed by a Reuters interview with the St. Louis Fed's director of research, Christopher Waller, yesterday, in which Waller indicated that such an inflationary policy has already been decided on for the Fed's Nov. 2-3 meeting, and the only questions that remained are how much, and how to implement it.

"The likelihood we do something is probably pretty high," Waller said. He indicated that the approach under discussion is that the Fed would buy $250 billion in Treasury securities from one meeting to the next, which is said to be the equivalent of a .25% drop in the interest rate. The total of such purchases over the next year could be $1.5 trillion, but there is that elephant in the room: Fed officials are worried that purchases in that range make it look like the central bank is printing money to pay for the U.S. budget deficit. "That scares people," Waller said.

Time Magazine Warns of Bernanke's and Obama's Hyperinflation: "Will the Federal Reserve Cause a Civil War?"

Oct. 20 (EIRNS)—Some people obviously realize the horror of the policies Obama and Bernanke are carrying out. In an ominous sign of the times, an article posted on Time magazine's business blog by Time senior writer Stephen Gandel, poses the question of whether the Federal Reserve will actually destroy the nation.

Gandel says that the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Nov. 3 could be the most important meeting in Fed history, and he points to a warning on the ZeroHedge.com website that Bernanke's (and Obama's) hyperinflationary scheme could lead to armed conflict within the U.S. The ZeroHedge posting in question, by Tyler Durden, reports that Bank of America economist David Rosenberg believes that the Fed's "quantitative easing" (QE2) strategy "positions U.S. society one step closer to civil war if not worse."

Gandel says that ZeroHedge justifies its predictions of violence as follows: "In a very real sense, Bernanke is throwing Granny and Grandpa down the stairs—on purpose. He is literally threatening those at the lower end of the economic strata, along with all who are retired, with starvation and death, and in a just nation where the rule of law controlled, instead of being abused by the kleptocrats, he would be facing charges of Seditious Conspiracy, as his policies will inevitably lead to the destruction of our republic."