32 states borrow billions from feds to cover unemployment benefits...

Unemployment benefits extension in tax-cut deal only goes so far
While Bipartisan tax Legislation signed by President Obama on Friday reinstates Unemployment Benefits for about 1 million it doesn't provide any additional help for those who have exhausted all 99 weeks. The $858 billion measure provides for an extension of federal Unemployment Benefits through the end of 2011 but only for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless Insurance or who are working their way through the federal tiers. The White House, Democratic lawmakers and advoca...

1 in 7 Americans rely on food stamps
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The use of Food Stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the Federal Government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population. The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That's about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans. Email Print Comment In some states, like Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon,...

1 in 7 Americans rely on food stamps
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The use of Food Stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the Federal Government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population. The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That's about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans. Email Print Comment In some states, like Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon,...

States Scramble to Repay Feds for Unemployment Insurance LoansPlus Interest
Thanks to the stimulus bill, the 31 states that have borrowed more than $41 billion from the feds to pay Unemployment Insurance to jobless workers have not had to pay interest on those loans so far, as we’ve reported. That will change, however, when the provision that waived interest payments expires in the new year. The Federal Government estimates the collective interest on the outstanding loans will total about $2 billion in 2011, while continued state borrowing is expected to stretch t...

Who Will Struggle in 2011
For many Americans, the Recession is finally over. Economic Growth in 2011 is likely to exceed 3 percent, and perhaps even hit 4 percent. That would be the best performance in more than a decade. Workers who held onto their jobs during the Great Recession can finally exhale, with growing confidence that their Job Security is improving. Companies are grudgingly starting to hire back a few of the unemployed. And the latest stimulus and tax-cut plan out of Washington will put cash into practicall...

Go "long on women" for profits, BofA Merrill says
WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:25am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Recession wounds are healing faster for women than for men, so there is money to be made for companies that cater to women, Economists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday. The Unemployment Rate for women is almost two full percentage points lower than the rate for men, and women dominate fields such as healthcare that are expected to see the biggest job growth in the next eight years. Women also earned the majo...

31 States Have Borrowed Money From Federal Government To Cover Unemployment Benefits
Over the weekend CBS ran a fantastic piece about the impending financial collapse of State Governments. Add into the mix this report indicating that 31 states have now had to borrow money from our bankrupt Federal Government, which in turn is borrowing it from international creditors, to pay the bill for expanded Unemployment Benefits: Since the current Recession began, 31 states have borrowed just under $40 billion from the federal government to fill their depleted Unemployment trust funds. It ...

31 States Have Borrowed Money From Federal Government To Cover Unemployment Benefits
Over the weekend CBS ran a fantastic piece about the impending financial collapse of State Governments. Add into the mix this report indicating that 31 states have now had to borrow money from our bankrupt Federal Government, which in turn is borrowing it from international creditors, to pay the bill for expanded Unemployment Benefits: Since the current Recession began, 31 states have borrowed just under $40 billion from the federal government to fill their depleted Unemployment trust funds. It ...

Obama's tax deal: read the small print | Dean Baker
President Barack Obama was forced to sign the bill on Tax Cuts and benefit extensions last week, despite admitting that he opposed some of its provisions. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images The enthusiasm of the US business press for the Compromise tax package worked out by President Obama and Republicans in Congress led to a mini-euphoria of upbeat economic projections for 2011. While The Economy will do better with this tax package than if no deal were forthcoming, much of the discussi...

Guest Post: America's Childlike Desire to Avoid Making Trade-Offs
America's Childlike Desire to Avoid Making Trade-Offs The U.S. is childlike: we refuse to make trade-offs, as these require analysis, judgment, sacrifice and maturity. The key characteristic of adulthood is the ability to make trade-offs. The child and the adolescent want everything that they want, now, and they soon learn (at least in America) that whining, cajoling, bargaining and guilt-tripping will get them what they want without having to make difficult choices between less-than-perfect o...

Question #10 for 2011: Monetary Policy
by CalculatedRisk on 12/21/2010 12:57:00 PM Over the weekend I posted some questions for next year: Ten Economic Questions for 2011. I'll try to add some predictions, or at least some thoughts for each question - working backwards - before the end of year. Remember, I have no crystal ball and I'm sure many people will disagree. Also many of the questions are interrelated. The question on Monetary Policy depends on Inflation (question #9) and the Unemployment Rate (question #6). And the unemplo...

Will 2011 Bring Economic Recovery or More of the Same?
If The Economy improves in 2011, the surest sign of this might be an increase in the Unemployment Rate. That is not a typo. An increase in the Unemployment rate could be an indicator that The Economy is improving and that a recovery is taking place. This will be one of several indicators to keep in mind as 2011 unfolds and Americans (and pollsters for both parties) wonder whether or not this is the year that The Economy shows signs of recovery. A higher Unemployment rate could mean that the wo...

From laughing to judging in fifty years
A new study from NBC reveals how emotions generated from TV shows have mirrored American society. And 'judgment' is the current king of the charts. If you're on TV, whether in a drama or reality show, chances are that Americans are sitting on their couches, silently judging you. Those are the findings from a new study conducted by NBC Universal, which examined the top 20 broadcast programs (via Nielsen Ratings) of each year, over the past 50 years. NBC asked nearly 3,500 heavy TV-watchers, ages...

Majority of tea partiers support extending tax cuts and unemployment benefits
So much for cutting the Deficit from those who said it was important to cut the deficit. So much for Democrats who opposed Tax Cuts for the rich. The poll question: Congress has passed and President Obama has signed into law a bill that would extend Tax Cuts for all Americans, reduce the Estate Tax, extend Unemployment Benefits, and reduce the Social Security tax that workers pay. Taking into account all of those provisions, do you favor or oppose that bill? Overall, 75 percent of respondents su...

Newt Gingrich Blames Nation's Problems On Unemployed People
Newt Gingrich, who is currently mulling a presidential bid in 2012, said at a political event in South Carolina on Thursday that most of America's problems can be blamed on the "leftist News Media," Hollywood, tenured academics, overpaid federal workers, and unemployed people. "I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing," he told the crowd of 250 cheering GOP Activists in a state with a 10.6 percent Unemployment Rate. The Los Angeles Times reports: Comparing Unemployment Benefits ...

Lame Duck Produces a Lame Economy
Floyd and Mary Beth Brow, FloydReports.com The Lame Duck Congress and President Obama are retarding the recovery. It’s tough medicine to medicine to swallow — ending Unemployment Benefits for people who have been out of work for three years — but it is necessary if we want recovery. The official U.S. Unemployment Rate has not been beneath 9 percent since April 2009, and it is unlikely to dip until much of the currently unemployed take jobs paying lower wages and benefits. Back in...

Hatch displays stunning lack of knowledge on unemployment insurance
Hopefully Orrin Hatch is reading the local, Capitol Hill news. Last week, he became one of the growing numbers of congresspeople who showed his vast ignorance on the topic of Unemployment Insurance. WASHINGTON -- Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said this week that extended Unemployment insurance "is well over 100 weeks now," making him the latest Millionaire member of Congress to publicly demonstrate that he does not understand the Unemployment Legislation he obstructs.... Hatch joins Sen.Joh...

Fed extends USD swaps with major central banks
By Sakari Suoninen Frankfurt | Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:58am EST Frankfurt (Reuters) - The world's major Central Banks said on Tuesday they would extend emergency supplies of U.S. dollar funding to money markets, in a sign that authorities remain concerned about financial instability as governments grapple with Debt problems. The European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank extended their U.S. dollar Liquidity providing operations with t...

The political fights the president chooses
When a president tells Congressional members of his own party that his presidency depends on a bill's passage, said president is holding back nothing. He is laying himself bare. That President Obama reportedly did so for the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts, the first-ever reduction in Social Security funding, and but a year's worth of Unemployment Benefits, reveals his political desperation. It also puts the lie to the claim often made by some of the president's most ardent defenders that he is ...

Ticket Replay: Spending millions on signs advertising spending billions on Obama spending
During the Holiday Season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on July 15, 2010: You may have noticed signs like these in your community. Since his impossible schedule prohibits Vice President Joe Biden from making it around to every stimulus spending project across the country, the government has come up with the idea of posting project signs to show your $787 billion of hard-earned futur...

Unemployment benefits extension in tax-cut deal only goes so far
While Bipartisan tax Legislation signed by President Obama on Friday reinstates Unemployment Benefits for about 1 million it doesn't provide any additional help for those who have exhausted all 99 weeks. The $858 billion measure provides for an extension of federal Unemployment Benefits through the end of 2011 but only for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless Insurance or who are working their way through the federal tiers. The White House, Democratic lawmakers and advoca...

Economics for Dummies (and Politicians)
The political debate is lately putting a lot of focus on the Bush Tax Cuts and the Unemployment Rate. I think these issues are overemphasized. We’re frantic in addressing symptoms, but we ignore the underlying disease. Consider the simplest economic model (and of course this will be an oversimplification, but we’ve got to start somewhere). There’s consumption and production. Goods can’t be consumed unless they’re produced. Therefore, the world is necessarily balance...

As Hiring Falters, More Workers Become Temporary
Temporary workers are starting to look, well, not so temporary. Despite a surge this year in short-term hiring, many American businesses are still skittish about making those jobs permanent, raising concerns among workers and some labor experts that temporary employees will become a larger, more entrenched part of the work force. This is bad news for the nation’s workers, who are already facing one of the bleakest labor markets in recent history. Temporary employees generally receive few...

Jobless Americans wary of losing their edge
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Since losing her job last April, Laurianne Dobbins has known one thing: she wasn't going to let her skills get rusty. So the 45-year-old mechanical designer bought a training edition of the drafting software she had used at work and practiced daily. "If you don't do it every day you can lose the skills," said Dobbins, from Rochester, New York. "I didn't want that to happen to me." She stopped her hobby of singing and missed out on outdoor pursuits with her family on weekend...

1 in 7 Americans rely on food stamps
Source: CNN NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The use of Food Stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the Federal Government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population. The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That's about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans. In some states, like Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon, one in f...