Tent cities on the rise in the USA

From Middle Class to Homeless: The Rise of Tent Cities

Tent city populations are blossoming across America. Areas that have had particularly high foreclosure rates and job losses, such as Sacramento, California, where the ‘newly homeless’ rate rose 15% from 2007 to 2008, offer the most dramatic views.

The tent city along the American River in Sacramento is not new. Two years ago the population averaged about thirty chronically homeless individuals. Today residents of the makeshift city, also known as a shanty town, report that anywhere between 20 to 50 newly homeless people are showing up every week. ...

Doom doom doom! - The Recession and the Flames of Change

Montreal Simon: The Recession and the Flames of Change < read the full post.

... The International Labour Organisation predicts that another 50 million or so will join the jobless queues around the world, out of a world workforce of around 3 billion. The wildcat strikes at refineries and power stations across the UK, and anti-government protests from Latvia and France to China and Mexico, may be just the beginning of much more radical, violent backlash against globalisation.
...

This budget won't lead Canada out of a recession...

James Laxer: This Budget Won’t Lead Canada Out of Recession: Ignatieff Should Defeat It

Depending on how you interpret the budget, the government is committing itself to direct new spending of about $10 billion to $12 billion, on infrastructure and housing, over the next two years. Some of this depends on matching provincial and municipal funds, which may never materialize. Much of it depends on how much the government actually spends, a crucial matter since the Harper government has left most of the previous infrastructure money it promised in earlier budgets unspent. At most, the new direct spending by the government amounts to about $6 billion a year.

These numbers may sound big. In fact, they are puny. The Canadian Gross Domestic Product totals about $1.5 trillion a year. Six billion dollars a year amounts to just over one half of one per cent of our country’s GDP. Economic announcements and forecasts tell us that Canada is on track to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next six months. The Conservative government’s planned spending would create, at most, about sixty thousand short-term jobs.

The various tax measures in the budget will be equally ineffectual in stimulating the economy.

Rents drop across the USA

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/106480/Rents-Drop-Nationwide-as-Vacancies-Spike

The economic crisis has opened up opportunities for apartment
tenants. The inventory of vacant apartments is expanding, and rents are
dropping quickly in major metros across the country.

For renters
with leases about to expire, it's time to negotiate. Landlords are
working extra hard these days to keep units filled.

Of course, your ability to hold on to an apartment—especially a
luxury unit—depends on how secure you feel about your own job.
Americans lost about 2.6 million jobs in 2008 (mostly in the final
quarter of the year) and are likely to lose millions more this year.
They are losing money on stocks and other investments and are cutting
back on costs by downsizing and moving in with family members or
roommates as they hunker down for a deep recession.

Landlords, as
a result, are forced to offer discounts to fill vacancies. Apartment
vacancies spiked in September after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and
the eruption of the financial crisis.

Food for thought on the coming recession.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Analysis And Comment: Deja Vu

Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty and Mark Carney assured us that the economic fundamentals in Canada are sound,
despite the current meltdown of international finance capitalism.
Wearing Bush/McCain like rose coloured blinders they refuse to admit
that Canada faces a pending recession and the government will likely incur a deficit. Something Harper and Flaherty denied during the election campaign. Instead they say steady as she goes.