Women are still low on the economic totem pole. A new Census report shows nothing has changed, women still make 77¢ to a male's dollar when both are working at full-time jobs and if one includes part-time, the ratio is even lower, 71¢. Worse than that, women with families and no husband around make the lowest median income of all, $34,002.
The August state employment statistics show once again when breaking down unemployment and employment by states, there is little change. In spite of the national unemployment rate decline, 18 states plus D.C. showed their unemployment rate increased.
Did you know 15% of America lives in poverty and that income for households after adjusting for inflation has declined by 8.3% since 2007? That America is making 9% less in real dollars than in 1999? The latest annual Census report for 2012 shows America is still broken and poor.
The August Consumer Price Index increased 0.1% from July. CPI measures inflation, or price increases. Take away food and energy out of the picture and inflation still only increased 0.1%, mainly on housing cost increases and medical care. A 0.1% monthly increase is a low rate of inflation.
The Federal Open Market Committee is not going to stop quantitative easing just yet. This is no surprise considering the weak economic conditions and as we pointed out, an inflation rate below expectations. The risk of deflation is real.
The August 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows a 0.4% increase in industrial production. Manufacturing alone increased 0.7% for the month, but July manufacturing factory output was revised down to a -0.4% monthly change. Utilities fell again for the 5th month in a row and August shows a -1.5% decline, while mines increased 0.3%.
The very odd spectacle of President Obama personally lobbying for Larry Summers - his preferred choice to run the Federal Reserve – came to an end this week when Summers withdrew his name for consideration. The final blow for Summers came when a fourth Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, in this case Jon Tester of Montana, issued a statement in opposition to Summers.
The story which should be front page news but is not is income inequality. U.C. Berkeley professor, Emmaneul Saez studies income inequality and has recently updated his research with 2012 figures and the results are astounding. The top 1% breaking records for grabbing America's income gains should be what's blaring across the headlines.
August 2013 Retail Sales increased by 0.2% on auto sales, which increased 0.9% from last month. Motor vehicle dealers are having a good year. Their sales have increased 12.3% from a year ago. Without motor vehicles & parts sales, August retail sales would have been a 0.1% increase from last month. Building materials and clothing dragged retail sales down as they declined -0.9% and -0.8% respectively.
People are broke and hungry in America and the food stamp program has been the only thing between many and starvation. Food stamps are successful, it has an incredibly low fraud rate and most importantly, America doesn't have starvation filling the streets as a result. Yet for some reason House Republicans, with Majority leader Eric Cantor leading the charge, want to cut food stamps and force people to starve.
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