The Nasdaq has fallen nearly 56% from its peak in March of 2000. The Wilshire 5000, which is a broader market, is also down by about 22%. Also a factor in dropping consumer confidence is the fear of more layoffs by major employers. The media has paid a lot of attention to large layoffs of companies, yet the labor markets still remain fairly tight. The natural rate of unemployment in the US is approximately 5%, which is higher than the actual rate... ... middle of paper ... ...ints on congress never materialized.
With credit harder to get, consumers have cut back on their spending, which is very bad for the economy since around 72% of economic activity comes from consumers (Gross 2). Retail sales dropped .4% in December, which is disturbing because usually December is the biggest month for retailers. Other factors that show the economy is slipping are that inflation was at 4.1% in December and has steadily been rising (Fox 3). In 2007, food prices rose almost 5% and gas prices rose almost 30% from the year before. Unemployment rates also went up above 5% this month, which is the highest they have been in over 2 years (Fox 3-4).
Now we have a seventeen trillion dollar debt deficit and we are wasting more food and material items now than we ever have. The debt crisis in late 2007 had people searching for jobs and finding out they might just not be able to provide. When tough times like these occur the government assistance and the states help is necessary. If half of the country is on some type of government assistance then how is half of our country covered by things we waste? During the end of 2007 the unemployment rate spiked from just under five percent to over seven in the course of one year and was expected to spike in the coming months.
As the economy moves according to the business cycle, there are booms and recessions, and this is reflected in output and unemployment over the last 20 years structural unemployment has fluctuated accordingly due to the lack of capital, with recession in the early 1990's and high structural unemployment and booms in recent past with low structural unemployment. The lack of employment at this time is due to the lack of money to invest and expand, and as a result output is greatly reduced. However, nowadays, unlike the past 20 years, credit is now available much more easily for companies through banks and building societies so not as many employees are affected by structural unemployment. Demand deficient unemployment is caused by a lack of demand. Keynes believed that unemployment had more to do with the goods market than the labour market.
The crash has started; everyone began selling because the earnign ratio was so high, but no one was buying. The more that was sold, the less the value, and bankers had to buy the stocks as they fell to try and slow them down before they hit rock bottom. The root cause of this was Dow Jones Industrial, one of the leading companies to invest in at the time. Because of their fall, many Americans lost money, everyone was trading. The market sold 12.9 million shares lost $5 billion dollars, and this was all over the course of one day.
Nearly fifty million Americans live in poverty, and a vital reason is the diminishing value of the minimum wage. First established during the Great Depression, under the Roosevelt Administration, the federal minimum wage was designed to lift millions of American workers out of poverty. Unfortunately, it was has not developed to cope with today’s rising inflation and modern increasing standard of living cost. Since its inception , the nation wide minimum wages has risen from twenty-five cents to seven dollars and twenty-five cents per hour. Despite the increases, inflation has diminished its value returning held in 1968 .
During 6 years of recession Croatia has already lost 12.3% of its output. Slowly progressing in structural reforms and Croatia’s dependence on the economy of the European Union the growth... ... middle of paper ... ...abour market, which decreased their chances of re-employment. Social policy regarding poverty is to aim at preventing short-term unemployment from becoming long-term unemployment. Unsurprisingly, deteriorating public finances resulted in annual deficits and a rise in public debt. Croatia’s general government deficit reached 5% of GDP in 2012, and the overall government debt was 55.5% of GDP.
Penalties were forced upon lending companies who refused to succumb to these destructive ideals, and we as a country entered into another Golden Age. Fast forward to 2009. The economy of the United States has failed dismally. Millions have lost their jobs, and many more have felt the pain as they watch their retirement funds plummet, and the cost of living skyrocket. In the first quarter of 2009, our GDP had dropped over 6%.
Nevertheless, even with a check consumers can not get into a lot of trouble. If more money is spent then the shopper has on the current account, the last written check will be rejected and account will be suspended until the balance is paid off. With credit cards however, every year more and more people get into debt. According to American Bankers Association (ABA), Americans owe more then $387 billion on their credit cards. This frightening number, averaging about $3,900 per family, is just as bad for the economy as it is for the consumers.
Unemployment has become an issue that is still arising today with a slow rate of change. By most measures, the economy has not improved: Unemployment is up, consumer spending is down, and financial markets have not regained the ground they lost in the 2008-09 financial crisis. Due to the occurrence of the Great Recession in 2007, the employment rate has drastically dropped disabling thousands of Americans to live up to the cost of living. It is obvious that the Great Recession can merely be the cause of the high rate of unemployment. This particular financial crisis has hit the American labor market forcefully, creating a large despair of inequality, which further affects different portions of society.