Category Archives: La Crisis

The Sky is Falling, for real this time.

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theskyisfalling

Today is my favorite time of the month. Today is August 7 and  it’s the day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out who got fired aka the employment situation, economic news release. This is where all of the media gets the numbers that they spin. Why don’t they just provide the numbers with no commentary? I guess that would be boring. Here is my entertaining spin on the pieces of clouds that are hitting me on the head.

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 247,000 jobs (we needed 100,000 jobs a month to continue to employ the job market BEFORE La Crisis, so don’t let the corporate people lie to you and let you think everything is ok now since last month it was higher, it’s not ok, it’s nowhere near ok.)

“Another way of looking at the above task is to determine how long it will take the nation to return to full employment — basically an economy in which everyone who wants to work can find a full-time job to match their skill set and experience. It’s no minor task: the U.S. economy has to create about 200,000 jobs per month — a roughly net 100,000 job gain over the monthly gain needed to keep unemployment from rising — for the next 5.5 years to replace the roughly 6.8 million jobs lost during the recession.” Joseph Lazzaro, Daily Finance.

Also there are now 796,000 discouraged workers up by 335,000 over the past 12 months.

And there are now five million people who have been unemployed longterm (longterm is more than 27 weeks.)

On Chart A12 section U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached   workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.. is now 16.3%.

The Employment Situation for August is scheduled to be released on Friday,
September 4, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).

–Edited by Browne Molyneux

re: Bratton

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anarcoming
(One can dream!)

I’m going to keep mum about what I really think, mostly because I never cared for Bratton. Politicos and most media sources are falling over themselves to heap more praise, which is to be expected. But La Crisis is intensifying, not diminishing. Crimes of necessity are going to come back in style.  And I bet that pesky little narco war is going to spill over into LA sometime soon. Rich folks need their supply of fun.

But this is what I really think: he is leaving now because things are about to get really bad. Better to leave before the stats turn negative.

Discuss.

August 11-18. RAM LA. Free root canals, glasses, pap smears, minor med procedures (including cataract surgery,) blood lab work and MORE!!

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ram_la1

*Dates:*

August 11-18, 2009

*Location:*

The Forum
3900 W. Manchester Blvd.
Inglewood, CA 90305

*FOR PATIENTS*

*How to Receive Treatment:*

All of our services are free and are provided by volunteers. The doctor is
free; the dentist is free; the eye doctor is free. Please arrive early,
bring a snack, and be prepared to wait. Your wait may be long; chairs will
be provided for your comfort.
Continue reading →

Casa de Sousa getting evicted

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photo1

When I stop and think about days of future past and dealing with landlords evicting my family and I from our home/apartment, I remember what it felt like. To have to turn off everything in the house/apartment to make it seem like no one was home. Getting on all floors and looking through the crevace the bottom of the door waiting for the shadows to leave all the while hearing knocking on the door and the manager say, “when are you going to pay your rent ? I know you’re in there. You need to pay soon or else I’m going to have to kick you out of the house/apartment.” I felt that same feeling of uncertainty when I was talking to Conchita Sousa and Fernando Cruz about Cafe Casa de Sousa receiving an eviction notice from the manager in charge of the Placita Olvera merchants and stores.  However the circumstances and reasons for Casa de Sousa receiving that eviction notice last week still remain unclear because no one from the management has given them a proper reason for the notice, even after Sousa and Cruz tried talking to them to come to reasonable out come and work things out civily. No dice. Continue reading →

El Banquetazo

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el-banquetazo

Most of us know that East L.A. has a unique and colorful character all of it’s own. I thought I’d seen everything in Do-It-Yourself entrepreneurship in my old Barrio, until today. “La Crisis” has spawned so many forms of creativity to make financial ends meet that nothing really surprised me anymore. That is until I heard the latest “Chisme” while visiting my Mom in the Eastside. “Have you heard about those people down the street who are running a full on restaurant on their front lawn?” she asked. “Holy Crap!“, I gasped. “This I gotta see“….. Continue reading →

I Feng Shui’ed by Desk!

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img_2508

I love oriental ancient wisdom and philosophy—it amazes me that parallel to western ways, there’s a non-abrasive system to work on the whole physical body, including its surroundings, and (the best part) most of it cost nothing. I know for some who have been deeply ingrained with Christianity, there is nothing more a poor unconnected person can do, but suffer and die. I made up my mind early in life that suffering was not my identity. I began to dabble in many non-traditional ways of creating good around me and using whatever methods I could for manifesting positivity.

About a month ago, after having a sore throat for months and huge piles of projects that I hadn’t gotten to, on my desk—it struck me that I had forgotten to use my non-traditional knowledge for assistance. I could create the peace I wanted in my life by creating a serene work environment using Feng Shui. Feng Shui (pronounced “Fung-Shway”) is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven/astronomy and Earth/geography to help improve one’s life by bringing in positive energy called qi (pronounced “chee”). Continue reading →

The Real Number of Unemployed Nationally: 16.5 %

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I'm glad we agree, this is not a job. Pic by Steve Schwartz

I'm glad we agree, this is not a job. Pic by Steve Schwartz

Often when my friends and I talk about issues of unemployment a question comes up. How do we know if this number that we read in the paper is including everyone?

What about your friend who hasn’t had a job in two years and has just stopped looking?
What about people who work temp jobs, so they sort of have a job, but not really?
What about people who got a job at the mall during the SUPER SUMMER SALE, but then got let go?

I found a table to answer those questions.

There is a table in the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. It’s table A12. It is the Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization.  (H/T to Jonathan Tasini of Working Life, I was actually going to work this number out the old fashioned way with pencil and paper, but you saved me time.) 

16.5% is the number of unemployed nationally if you take into the account all of things that we all wonder about in regards to true unemployment: Continue reading →

The new numbers & a list (a long one) of people who will be having a bad Xmas.

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Where is MY JOB!

Where is MY JOB!

The new unemployment rates for June 2009:

North Carolina: 11.0
Ohio: 11.1
California: 11.6
Nevada: 12.0
South Carolina: 12.1
Rhode Island: 12.4
Oregon: 12.2
Michigan: 15.2
Some unemployment numbers for the end of May for individual California cities.

Riverside: 13.0
Bakersfield: 14.0
Stockton: 15.0
Fresno: 15.4
Merced: 17.3
El Centro: 26.8

Facts from the BLS
Google reported 19% gain in profit, so when is our relief coming.
Didn’t Google just lay a bunch of people off?

When is the tech industry going to unionize, because they need to. That industry is highly exploitative.

Here’s the warning lay off list from July-December of 2009. It is a list that companies have to send to EDD so you can get your unemployment and food stamps!! The number represents the number of people being let go. The date is when it’s happening. Your boss knows when they are going to let you know, but they don’t tell you. You might take some pencils and staplers and you know how much those items cost to replace. Continue reading →

It is that bad.

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Maybe you can carry a rich lady's baby for money?

Maybe you can carry a rich lady's baby for money?

“Goldman posted the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history and, to the envy of its rivals, announced it had earmarked $11.4 billion so far this year to compensate its workers.
At that rate, Goldman workers could, on average, earn roughly $770,000 each this year — or nearly what they did at the height of the boom.
Only three years ago, Goldman paid more than 50 employees above $20 million each. In 2007, CEO Lloyd Blankfein collected one of the biggest bonuses in corporate history.

The latest headline results — $3.44 billion in profit during its second quarter ”
Seattle Times.

Yes you just read that Goldman Sachs had a record earning quarter. What about you? How have you done this quarter? How have your friends done this quarter? How has your family done this quarter?  In the past two weeks I have known FIVE people who have been laid off from their jobs. This does not include people that I know who have been out of work for months.

According to some facts from the Fight Back Article, US in Longest Recessions Since the 1930s by Adam Price this is what it looks like out there for rest of  the quarter that Goldman Sachs had record earnings.

The economy has lost almost 6 million jobs (4.1% of total jobs) since 12/07, the worst downturn since the recession of 1948. Unemployment among African Americans hit a depression-level 15% in April, unemployment for Asian Americans has risen the fastest. 8.5 million people are on unemployment. 10.6% of the US is on food stamps. People on average are out of work five months. More than one-quarter of homeowners are ‘underwater’ with mortgages greater than the value of their home during the first three months of 2009. Apartment renters are being hit as former homeowners are competing for a place to live, keeping rents up (I know of three people who have had rent increases in the last few months, I probably know of more, but haven’t asked) even with the rising unemployment. During the first three months of 2009, 15% of houses were vacant, or more than 19 million homes. Continue reading →