The Federal Reserve's Factory Production report shows a +0.8% increase for March 2011 Industrial Production, or output for factories and mines. Here is their detailed report. February had a 0.1% increase in industrial production. Industrial Production is still down 6.3% from pre-recession levels.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
We all know most of us have no representation from government and the great land grab of what's left of the money is still going to the super rich and multinational corporations.
The Consumer Price Index for March 2011 increased 0.5% from last month. For the year, the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) has risen 2.7%, the highest since December 2009. The February CPI monthly increase was also 0.5%.
We're not worth having around after 65, says Michael Collins. Why else would they want to kill us off?
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed a Medicare plan that combines Social Darwinism and a bailout for health insurance carriers, even larger than the one provided by the president's health care reform legislation.
The specific features of the program are less important than the overall effect. In summary, Ryan proposes a plan that will starve most of those sixty-five and older of health care. Here are the numbers, based on Congressional Budget Office projections and elaborated by Dean Baker and David Rosnick (in 2011 dollars) (Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 2011)
Initial weekly unemployment claims increased to 412,000, a 27,000 increase in a week. Last week was revised up to 385,000, from 382,000. The 4 week moving average increased to 395,750. We're going backward, the wrong direction for job growth.
The Producer Price Index for finished goods increased 0.7% in March 2011. The PPI measures prices obtained for U.S. goods. Intermediate goods prices increased 1.5% and crude or raw materials prices dropped -0.5% after rising 3.4% in February. PPI is often called wholesale inflation by the press.
The Federal government is about to settle the ForeclosureGate affair, according to a report in the New York Times on April 9. The Times noted that twelve million homes will be lost by 2012. Home equity values are down by $5.6 trillion since the real estate crash.
The draft agreement released to American Banker shows another corporate-friendly deal designed to maintain the incumbent perpetrators at the expense of the people. (Image: zoonabar)
The proposed settlement culminates an effort by federal prosecutors to address strongly supported allegations of widespread mortgage fraud perpetrated on as many as sixty percent of current mortgage holders. Homeowners were sold mortgages, serviced for the loans, and, in some cases, subjected to foreclosure and eviction based on fictional contracts and collections practices that violate the most basic principles of contract law and specific federal code pertaining to fraudulent debt collection.
The February 2011 U.S. trade deficit decreased $1.2 billion to $45.8 billion. The January 2011 monthly trade deficit was $47 billion, revised up from $46.3 billion. $26.7 billion of this deficit is oil related, $0.9 billion less than 1 month ago, and 44.1% of the total goods trade deficit. Both imports and exports dropped, with imports declining $3.6 billion, or 1.7% and exports dropping $2.4 billion, or 1.4% for February.
Whenever there is noise in the media machine, you can be sure some agenda the American people absolutely reject will be enacted. Such is the case with the Obama administration moving forward on three more NAFTA style trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. These are trade pacts multinational corporate lobbyists demand.
The South Korean trade pact increases the trade deficit and puts U.S. workers in more unfair labor competition. Even with a new biased USTR study, littered with fantasy tariff schedules and nebulous additional regulation requirements, cannot hide the fact this trade deal increases the deficit. The new report was requested by Republicans since they didn't like the dismal results of the previous study. Regardless of the spaghetti wording, the bottom line is imports, just in autos & parts, will increase $907 million while exports will increase $48–66 million. In other words, the Obama administration and Congress know this trade deal will increase the deficit and cause further job losses. They want it anyway.
(The image is a 2008 Obama campaign flier. All three of these trade agreements are structured like NAFTA.)
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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