The Consumer Price Index increased 0.3% for June, as gasoline increased by 3.4%. Eggs are the new gold as prices had a one month spike not seen since 1973. Energy overall was up 1.7%. Inflation without food or energy prices considered increased 0.2% for the month on soaring shelter costs. From a year ago overall inflation has increased 0.1%.
It's hard to understand why, with so many Americans still unemployed and looking for jobs, why additional work requirements and/or job training would be imposed on those receiving food stamps (SNAP) and/or welfare (TANF) to qualify for these benefits.
Our trade deficit increased by 2.9% in May as the value of both exports and imports decreased but our exports fell by a greater amount. The Census report on our international trade in goods and services for May indicated that our seasonally adjusted goods and services trade deficit rose by $1.2 billion to $41.9 billion in May from an April deficit which was revised from $40.9 billion to $40.7 billion.
Recently former Labor Secretary Robert Reich went on MSNBC's All in with Chris Hayes to comment on Jeb Bush's plan to have people work longer hours and increase their productivity. Hopefully, if Senator Bernie Sanders is elected, he'll recruit Robert Reich to be our Labor Secretary once again.
As usual, Congress will soon start bickering again over the budget, with all Republicans wanting more tax cuts for the rich and large corporations, and a lot less government spending. Whereas most Democrats will want to close tax loopholes, raise workers' wages, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and invest in infrastructure. But with a Republican Congress and a Democrat in the White House, the scenario will likely be another gargantuan political battle.
So far any explanation of a solution had to be finnessed, diluted, apologized , clouded, worded so the reader would think it was their idea or otherwise manipulated to get under the conservative radar. The simple explanation is that human rights has to displace profit as the goal of capitalism. Greece is not a warning shot. Greece needs to be the model for the solution. Money has to serve man. You don't have to rob the rich (although that is what it will be called) to give to the poor. Simply make money work.
In the report on May construction spending (pdf), the Census Bureau estimated that our seasonally adjusted construction spending would work out to $1,035.8 billion annually if extrapolated over an entire year, which was 0.8 percent (±1.5%)* above the revised estimate of a $1,027.0 billion annual rate in April and 8.2 percent (±2.0%) above the estimated adjusted and annualized level of construction spending of May last year
On Sunday, 61% of Greek voters rejected the European bailout referendum. The Greek financial situation has led many American conservatives (and neoliberals) to point to Greece as an object lesson in the failures of socialism. Focusing only on Greece’s spending habits, however, misses the underlying issue, and American conservatives need to understand this if they ever want to address the fundamental problem that besets ours and the world’s economy.
"The referendum of 5 July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.” Yanis Varoufakis, Finance Minister, Greece. Sixty percent of Greek voters rejected the financial bailout proposal offered by the European Union (EU) in Sunday’s referendum. The EU-IMF proposal relied heavily on austerity, which would have taken current financial hardships to nightmarish proportions for the vast majority of Greeks.
The June employment report brings some OMG, jaw dropping, are you kidding me numbers. Over 640,000 dropped out of the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate declined two tenths of a percentage point to 5.3%. The labor participation rate dropped by -0.3 percentage points to 62.6%. This new low of a labor participation rate has not seen since October 1977 when women and minorities were still were not in the workforce extensively.
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