What in the world are these people going to do? It’s not like they’ll be able to run right out and find another job. They’ll soon find themselves lying in some gutter with some damn republican kicking at them to move on.

Citigroup to cut another 53,000 employees

Banking giant struggling to steady itself after suffering big losses

Citigroup Inc. is cutting approximately 53,000 more jobs in the coming quarters as the banking giant struggles to steady itself after suffering massive losses from deteriorating debt. [...]

The company said total headcount is being reduced by 20 percent from its peak of 375,000 at the end of 2007; the company had already announced in October that it was eliminating about 22,000 jobs from those levels.

Seems our economy keeps spiraling endlessly downward. And those sick fucks Hannity and Limbaugh have already placed the blame on Barack Obama. There’s two people that needs to be run out of the country.

Economy sailing into rougher waters

U.S. business economists see economy shrinking more

WASHINGTON - The country is sinking deeper into an economic hole, and it’s likely to stay there for a while. [...]

Approximately 96 percent of the economists polled believe a recession has started, and nearly three-fourths think it could persist beyond the first quarter of 2009.

My heart really goes out to these people. Talk about sacrificing! They’ll just have to tighten up on the purse strings and live off the millions they made in previous years.

Goldman CEO, top execs give up 2008 bonus

Decision was made by the seven executives themselves — spokesman

NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein and six other top executives at the bank will not be receiving cash or stock bonuses for 2008, a spokesman said Sunday.

The decision was made by the seven executives themselves, said spokesman Lucas Van Praag, and approved Sunday by the Wall Street firm’s compensation committee. The executives made the decision “because they think it’s the right thing to do,” Van Praag said.

How far can we stretch this rubber band before it snaps?

Spending surge pushes deficit toward $1 trillion

Election promises could create biggest hole in federal budget since 1946

Congressional leaders and both presidential candidates are proposing billions of dollars in tax breaks and other measures to stoke economic growth, a surge in spending that could send the federal deficit soaring toward $1 trillion this year, creating the deepest well of red ink since the end of World War II.

The government already has embarked on an unprecedented spending spree to halt the implosion of the U.S. financial system and is borrowing money at levels that some economists fear could undermine the nation’s economic security for years to come. Congress could consider additional spending as soon as next month, potentially digging the nation’s hole even deeper.

“We’re going to make Ronald Reagan look like a piker in terms of deficit creation, I think,” said Rudolph Penner, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who served as director of the Congressional Budget Office during the Reagan administration.

The bleak picture:

Greenspan: Economy in ‘once-in-a-century’ crisis

In an interview Sunday, the former Federal Reserve chairman said that more financial firms will fail and that housing won’t stabilize until 2009.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. credit squeeze has brought on a “once-in-a-century” financial crisis that is likely to claim more big firms before it eases, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday.

Greenspan told ABC’s “This Week” that the situation “is in the process of outstripping anything I’ve seen, and it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go.”

“Indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes,” Greenspan said. He predicted that would not happen until early 2009, and said the odds of U.S. recession have gone up in recent months. [...]

While recent declines in the prices of oil and food may help avert a recession, he said, “I wouldn’t put my money on it.”

But it gets worse.

The man who once said that he knew little about how the economy works… well, in typical republican fashion, he’s done a flip-flop and is now saying he’s an expert on all things economic. Worser still, Americans are actually buying this crap!

An average of recent polls by Real Clear Politics gives McCain and running mate Sarah Palin a 48 percent to 45 percent lead over Obama and his vice presidential choice Joe Biden.

A poll released Thursday by the National Journal and Diageo gives McCain a 46 percent to 44 percent lead among 900 voters. That same poll showed 44 percent of the voters surveyed trust McCain on the economy compared with 43 percent for Obama.

When you knowingly accept lies over truth… when you refuse to open your eyes… you will get the president you deserve. And so do the rest of us.

Other than token rebate checks, Bush’s idea for combating the recession seems to be the opposite of Mr. Rall. Bush thinks we should throw more money to the rich so that they can store it in their off’shore accounts. Hey, you know what they say about rainy days and such.

The hell with the rest of us.

The economy has bled 3.1 million jobs since George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, the worst record since the Depression. The official unemployment rate, constantly re-jiggered to make the economy appear more robust, has risen to 5.1 percent. The long-term unemployment rate, which includes people who have had such bad luck looking for work that they’ve given up entirely, has doubled, to over 13 percent.

Meanwhile, inflation is approaching seven percent. Again, that’s the official inflation rate. Your mileage as an average American–who spends a third of your pay on housing and more and more on gas–will vary. But let’s not dwell on the irony of $4-a-gallon gas resulting from a war fought to steal oil.

Ted Rall. A great read!

It’s tough out there… and it’s gonna get lots tougher!

Highly Skilled And Out Of Work

Long-Term Joblessness Spreads in Middle Class

An unusually large share of workers have been out a job for more than six months even as overall unemployment has remained low, a little-noted weakness in the labor market that analysts said threatens to intensify the impact of the unfolding economic downturn.

In November, nearly 1.4 million people — almost one in five of those unemployed — had been jobless for at least 27 weeks, the juncture when unemployment insurance benefits end for most recipients. That is about twice the level of long-term unemployment before the 2001 recession.
[...]

“What has happened is a polarization of the labor market. It was very strong at the very top and very strong until recently at the bottom,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University. “But in the recent weak recovery, and now recession, demand has been very weak” for jobs in the middle.

To counteract the coming recession (which some say we’re already in), Bush has decided to give away free money. Again.

“I believe we can come together on a growth package very quickly,” Bush said. “We need to. We need to get this deal done, and get it out and get money in the hands of our consumers and our small-business owners to help this economy.”

Democrats are divided on Bush’s stimulus package. Those on the campaign trail assailed Bush, while house democrats, with Pelosi in front, lined up to lick his boots.

On Wall Street, however, the president’s plan did little to assuage investors, who are increasingly fearful about the possibility of a recession amid a severe housing crunch, high energy prices and stagnant job growth. More bad news hit the corporate world yesterday, including an announcement by Sprint Nextel of Reston that it is cutting 4,000 jobs after numerous customer defections, and a decision by Fitch Ratings to downgrade the country’s second-largest bond insurer.