Post by proletariat on Aug 26, 2010 8:56:15 GMT -6
www.rdwolff.com/content/whose-recovery-what-double-dip
by Richard Wolff.
PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 24, 2010
The graph shows that what "recovered" were corporate profits that had fallen from the crisis's beginning in late 2007 until they hit bottom late in 2008. After that, corporate profits "recovered" and rose to mid-2010 lifting the stock market with them. After the EPI graph ends around April 2010, this recovery of corporate profits and stock prices stalled and now threatens to turn down again. A second downturn of corporate profits would be that "double dip recession" feared by politicians, journalists, and academics who revealingly confuse what happens to profits with what happens to the economy.
A better measure of economic conditions is the number of paid jobs provided by the economy. The EPI graph shows that number to have begun its fall early in this Great Recession and to have continued that decline ever since. Jobs disappeared even as hundreds of thousands of young people finished their schooling and newly began looking for work. At the same time, reduced hours and involuntary furloughs deteriorated the qualities of many jobs that were not cut. So too did the widespread decreases in wages and benefits (pensions, medical insurance, holidays, etc.). Job insecurity rose for nearly everyone.
There never was a "recovery" for the mass of Americans. Business had a recovery and now faces a double dip. For the mass of workers, they face no double dip since their economic conditions never recovered. Their risk is that corporations would respond to a double dip in their profits by shifting still more of the costs of this capitalist crisis onto workers.
by Richard Wolff.
PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 24, 2010
The graph shows that what "recovered" were corporate profits that had fallen from the crisis's beginning in late 2007 until they hit bottom late in 2008. After that, corporate profits "recovered" and rose to mid-2010 lifting the stock market with them. After the EPI graph ends around April 2010, this recovery of corporate profits and stock prices stalled and now threatens to turn down again. A second downturn of corporate profits would be that "double dip recession" feared by politicians, journalists, and academics who revealingly confuse what happens to profits with what happens to the economy.
A better measure of economic conditions is the number of paid jobs provided by the economy. The EPI graph shows that number to have begun its fall early in this Great Recession and to have continued that decline ever since. Jobs disappeared even as hundreds of thousands of young people finished their schooling and newly began looking for work. At the same time, reduced hours and involuntary furloughs deteriorated the qualities of many jobs that were not cut. So too did the widespread decreases in wages and benefits (pensions, medical insurance, holidays, etc.). Job insecurity rose for nearly everyone.
There never was a "recovery" for the mass of Americans. Business had a recovery and now faces a double dip. For the mass of workers, they face no double dip since their economic conditions never recovered. Their risk is that corporations would respond to a double dip in their profits by shifting still more of the costs of this capitalist crisis onto workers.