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Yesterday, I wrote a rather passionate (and I admit, rambling – I have no recession of words)diary about the fact that I felt, instinctively, from reason posts at other sites, that the way we measure the economic health of this country just…doesn’t…work. And I said there:
"I’m not an economist, so I don’t understand how the NBER can miss all of these outsourcings, job losses, home foreclosures and people at homeless shelters. But they did. It is obvious to me that our system of ‘taking the economic temperature’ of this country is completely broken and perhaps never worked in the first place."
Interestingly enough, CBS reported today that the AP has done some number crunching and…hey…I think I am on to something..I really do:
"The Associated Press analyzed economic data from the 2,000 or so cities and towns across the nation with populations of 20,000 or more, comparing the 2005-2007 data to figures from the 2000 census.
Among the findings:
# Median household income dropped in 79 percent of the cities and towns. Incomes dropped in the wealthiest communities as well as the poorest. Charleston, Ill., home to Eastern Illinois University, saw the biggest drop – 31 percent – to a median household income of just under $21,000.
# Nationally, incomes dropped by 4.3 percent during the period, to $50,007.
# The poverty rate increased in 70 percent of the cities and towns. Athens, Ohio, home to Ohio University, had the highest poverty rate, at 52.3 percent, in the 2005-2007 period.
# Nationally, the poverty rate increased from 12.4 percent to 13.3 percent since the start of the decade.
# The unemployment rate increased in 71 percent of the cities and towns. Muskegon, Mich., a city of about 40,000 near Lake Michigan, had the highest unemployment rate, at 22.1 percent.
# Nationally, the unemployment rate increased from about 4 percent in 2000 to 6.6 percent in the 2005-2007 period.
# Median home values increased in 92 percent of the cities and towns studied – doubling and tripling in many cities, mainly in California. Nationally, the median home value increased 26 percent, to $181,800.
It’s not surprising that many communities were doing better in 2000 than they were mid-decade, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody’s Economy.com.
"The year 2000 was at the end of an incredible boom that lasted a decade," Hoyt said.
Incomes were up, unemployment was down and the dot-com bubble had not yet burst on Wall Street.
"We just didn’t have enough years of expansion" this decade, he said."
There is a very nifty interactive feature that will tell you on a state by state basis how this is all playing out.
Of course, again, this is a look at the macro level, using Census data; so individual cases are not seen. For those, I invite you to go back to read, as I do, "Blogging the Meltdown" at HuffPo.
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Digg is open, ladies and gentlemen.
There was a perfect storm at my house. One in which we have almost made it out of at this point. The first was that my husband, a union electrician got laid off. The second was the my ex quit paying child support suddenly after losing a custody battle that he started against me. (he quit his 150,000.00 a year job and moved to the state next door to start his own business. Can’t collect on that right way takes LOTS of time and paperwork). Third, I had a predatory lender so when I went two months late, they filed foreclosure, quit returning calls and faxes for the next 6 months, and began racking up the absolutely bogus fees, of which I could do nothing to stop. I was able to get the a.g of my state involved in regard to their lack of communication but he drew the line at the fees. Four, my company went to a 4000.00 deductible for health insurance. I tore my meniscus and it required surgery, which meant I owed 4000.00 in medical bills if I wanted to be able to walk.
I still owe on the medical, filed chapter 13 on the house (the cheating mortgage company says I owe more now than I did when I filed 3 years ago and are not accurately applying my payments. I have never missed a payment and pay an extra 50 a month. The bankruptcy judge CANNOT restructure the loans…no matter what you all want to tell me, what ever memo bushco put out has made it impossible for the judges to intervene on the fees. That what a corporate lawyer and my bankruptcy lawyer tell me. I have to sue the company and force them to court to prove my payment history but the fees…well I am told they can do what they want without regulation of them.)
My husband went back to work. So, we have doubled our income…I got my child support after 3 years of his non payment.
But listen to this. In the state of nebraska they use these debit cards to pay out child support and unemployment. I got one, and my husband got one. So I get a letter that my child support has stopped and is over and that they are closing my account. But 6 months later I get a letter stating that I owe the bank that holds the debit card 54.00$ because my account is empty. I got a letter on my husband as well when his unemployment was over. We have been reported to the credit bureau for not paying this bill. It turns out they have it in the contract (that you cannot refuse if you want your unemployment or child support) that the account must be closed properly if you want to avoid fees and that the charges accumulate when it is empty. So I call to get the account closed…but no..the state of nebraska has to do that.
This is the dirty kind of crap that these banks are getting away with. I am hoping in this climate that it won’t be allowed. I have to contact the state and I will be raising holy hell. This is ridiculous! How many people have had their credit damaged due to schemes like this?
It’s a mine field and I cannot imagine if I were a minority or one of the elderly. These fraudulent practices must be stopped and prosecuted. The financial sector of our country has gone completely bankrupt and I do not believe there is a single innocent bank out there anymore.
One of the things I’m hoping for by writing about this is to reduce the sense of shame and isolation that people feel. No one has to hide about this stuff – the vast majority of people did nothing wrong. They were not caught with their hands in the till, burned down the plant or anything like that. No one has anything to be ashamed about or for – and we all need to understand that we need to hold one another up right now..because even if we are doing ok(still have the job, the house and our health), you never know.
The fact is that most of these horrible predatory loans were made in 2005 and 2006 and the market started contracted around the same time is not a coincidence. I bought my home in Sept. 2003, which was near but not the peak of the housing market. Around the spring of 2005 I was checking the real estate section to gauge how much my home had increased in value and I noticed that comparable homes were no longer continuing to appreciate. At that point I was glad that I had opted for a 30 year fixed mortgage. I used to get calls every day from mortgage companies begging me to switch and I responded why since I had a mortgage at 5 3/8%.
We’ve been feeling the economy’s contraction since 9/11. When we returned to the States after a stint as happy expats, it took me 6 months to get a paid internship (ok, I was changing careers, but still. . .) The Mr. had to take a low paying gig that he was able to transcend and moved into management. That business closed.
So we started our own biz 2 years ago, borrowing on a house owned by family (that we rent). The biz is surprisingly healthy considering the economy, but because of the credit card and other debt we’ve acrued over the years our income does not cover our expenses. We can no longer pay rent!
The Mr. has taken 2nd and 3rd jobs. I have two small children to look after and cannot afford childcare. So as the economy circles the drain and our business makes less and less, the house that we borrowed against–that we don’t even own–could be in jeopardy. That’s not to mention the domino effect our situation has had on our family who live on income from rent.
If it’s been this bad for us–and we have lots of help and support from family–I shudder to think how bad it is for families less fortunate than we are.