The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

As we said in Part One of this series, a double-dip refers to a recession, followed by a short-lived recovery, followed by another recession. And there are plenty of signs that this second coming of an economic downturn has officially arrived in America, including the fact that our Gross Domestic Product has only expanded by 1.3%, while consumer spending is up a mere .1% in the second quarter of 2011. Add to that the fact that the national debt, and Congress’s current stalemate to raise it, is only exacerbating the U.S.’s economic problems.

So, let’s assume the U.S. has entered another recession—as shown in Part One, it’s probably not as bad as the first.  But try telling that to the many Americans who do not believe that the 2007-2009 downturn ever even ended.…

A double-dip recession refers to a recession, followed by a short-lived recovery, followed by another recession. And there are plenty of signs that this second coming of an economic downturn has officially arrived in America, including the fact that our Gross Domestic Product has only expanded by 1.3%, while consumer spending is up a mere .1% in the second quarter of 2011. Add to that the fact that the national debt, and Congress’s current stalemate to raise it, is only exacerbating the U.S.’s economic problems.

So, let’s assume the U.S. has entered another recession, it’s probably not as bad as the first.  But try telling that to the many Americans who do not believe that the 2007-2009 downturn ever even ended.…

At a time when a full-fledged recovery remains a distant prospect for many average Americans and their beleaguered budgets, the outlook is also pretty grim for the overall American economy itself.

As millions of men and women flood unemployment lines awaiting word of jobs that may never return, and with few signs that the federal government nor the nation’s central bank will make any further efforts to stimulate our flagging financial state, according to government estimates released Friday, the United States economy grew at a slower pace this spring than even previously thought.

A report on these estimates by The Huffington Post, says, “the news is grim for anyone looking for signs that the recovery has taken hold, and that hiring and expansion are on the way once more… The new figures arrive at a time when investors and analysts are increasingly weighing the possibility of a double-dip recession, following weeks of uncertainty in the stock market and anxiety over political gridlock in Washington.”

This grim report is coupled with more news reflecting high unemployment, dismal consumer confidence and a paltry housing market—all of which have been working in concert to stall the nation’s financial growth in the two years following the official end of the economic recession, and remain unchanged in recent months.…

U.S. Credit Downgrade Ramps Up Fears of Another Recession

Standard and Poor’s recent downgrade of U.S. government debt is capturing headlines across the country and around the world. And with the major agency’s actions to cut the United States government’s top credit rating, financial experts and commentators are finding themselves increasingly concerned that the American economy is headed back into another economic downturn.

According to a new repot from The Huffington Post, “The announcement that the rating agency had reduced the U.S. government’s AAA rating for the first time in history came after days of punishing declines in the stock market, and has now cast a shadow over economic prospects in the months ahead.…

As active duty service members come home from wars winding down abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are welcomed to friends, family and staggering unemployment. Now, tens of thousands of veterans are flooding the job market at a time when millions of civilians can’t even head back to work.

According to a new report from Reuters, unemployment among recent veterans grew to 13.3 percent in June, more than 4 percentage points higher than the national average. “From 2008 to 2010, that rate rose from 7.3 percent to 11.5 percent, and it’s expected to climb further as more troops come home this year — 10,000 from Afghanistan and, unless Iraq requests some to stay, the remaining 46,000 from that country.…

In this new “rough and tumble” economic era, 117,000 sounds like a lot.

$117,000 dollars. 117,000 shares of stock. 117,000 jobs?

Well, in all but one of those cases, you’d be right. In July, the American economy beat expectations by adding 117,000 new jobs to the current market and dropping the unemployment rate from 9.2 to 9.1%.

But what was truly great about this news of six-digit job growth was that it well eclipsed the paltry figures of positions added only one month earlier in June. Back then, economists had anticipated the June report would show about 120,000 private sector jobs added to the economy — barely enough to keep pace with population growth.…

Just when the financial experts said it was safe to call the economy “in recovery,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come.

Geithner reemphasized in an episode of “Meet the Press” that we remain in the midst of a very tough economy in which, for a lot of people, “it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.” He also revealed that he believed  President Barack Obama has rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will continue the hard work of trying to strengthen the economy.  Unfortunately, Geithner also predicted that it would be some time before many people actually feel like the country is recovering.…

In these rough and tumble economic times, cheery financial news can be hard to come by, even amid the economic recovery itself. This remains true at the midway point of 2011—a full two years following the official end of the economic recession—as a major indicator of the strength of the America’s economic machine is showing that we’re still in the throes of an economic downturn, at least for consumers.

According to Reuters, Global consumer confidence fell in the second quarter “to its lowest level in a year and a half as an uncertain economic outlook, a deepening euro zone debt crisis and rising inflation made people more cautious, a survey showed on Sunday.…

It’s been two years since experts signaled the end of our recent Great Recession. But based on the most recent job report, it seems like only yesterday. In fact, according to last week’s surprisingly dismal government labor figures for June, a true recovery from the economic downturn of the late 2000s could be a long way off indeed.

A new article from The Huffington Post, in collaboration with Patch.com interprets the data, finding:

“Economists had anticipated the report would show about 120,000 private sector jobs added to the economy in June — barely enough to keep pace with population growth.…

While a majority of economists and other financial experts firmly believe we are experiencing a modest economic recovery, a new poll reveals that a large, vocal minority of Americans feel that the economy will never fully recover from the effects of the recent “Great Recession.”

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 39 percent of people responding believe “the current economic downturn is part of a long-term permanent decline and the economy will never fully recover.” The survey is one of many revealing overall distress with the current state of the American economic picture. Back in June, a CNN poll found that nearly half of Americans believe another Great Depression is either “very likely” or “somewhat likely.”

According to a recent article by The Huffington Post, there are even more signs that a lot of the nation’s folks are feeling financially fraught.…

It seems like only yesterday that being termed “one in a million” was a good thing.

But that was apparently before the economic crisis.

Today, there are over one million Americans (1.4 million to be exact) who have been out of work for 99 weeks or longer. Deemed as the “very long-term unemployed,” this overflowing group of unfortunate unemployed workers tends to skew more mature, with little discrimination between those with (or without) a college education.

In fact, according to an article by The Huffington Post, “The CRS report shows that very long-term unemployment is more likely to afflict older workers than younger ones.…

When the Rolling Stones sang “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction),” or comedian Rodney Dangerfield spoke of getting, “No Respect,” they could have just as easily been speaking about today’s labor market, full of employees, in some cases, just happy to be employed, but far from content with where they are and what they’re doing.

A new Gallup poll, based on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, showed that 87.5 percent of workers were content with their jobs in April. And while that’s up from the low of 86.9 percent in July and August of last year, it remains below February 2008’s figures when 89.4 percent of workers polled said they were satisfied with their work.…

As temperatures heat up all across the country this season, so too are concerns about inflation, with rock bottom housing prices, and a weak labor market, adding fuel to the summertime fire. The result? Tanking consumer confidence in May, at least according to a private sector report released this week, and fears of something more economically-sinister a’ brewin.’

Based on a Reuters reading of the new economic data, “The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 60.8 from a revised 66.0 in April. The reading was below economists’ forecasts for 66.5. April was originally reported as 65.4.…

From Joplin, Missouri, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Raleigh, North Carolina, and everywhere in between, we’ve all seen our fair share of devastating storms, winds, flooding and tornados this season–whether they be on television or impacting in our own backyards.  But amid the reports of destroyed homes and rising death tolls comes another, less well-known casualty of these now-ubiquitous natural disasters: massive job losses. And, in the aftermath, these employment-killing storms leave whole communities shattered and unable to rebuild back to their former financial underpinnings.

As MSNBC.com contributor Eve Tahmincioglu reported this week, “The plant where Joe Wermuth worked in Joplin, Mo., took a direct hit and was wiped out by the massive tornado that hit the town May 22.…

Think high unemployment concerns have passed? Well, according to the Labor Department, these concerns are just as pressing as ever, with a paltry number of jobs added in May to keep up with the growing demand of an expanding labor force.

As Reuters is reporting, “Employment rose far less than expected in May to record its weakest reading since September, while the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent as high energy prices and the effects of Japan’s earthquake bogged down the economy. Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, with private employment rising 83,000, the least amount since June.…

Just released unemployment numbers in North Carolina are showing some promising signs of post-recessionary economic improvement. Unemployment officially dropped in 93 of 100 North Carolina counties from last month’s figures.The state’s adjusted unemployment rate is at 10.1%, with 36 counties at that level and the number of workers who found jobs in February up by16,500.

But another new report reveals that these new and improved numbers touting a rebounding labor market may be a bit premature: unemployment rates may be dropping, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

According to Bloomberg, “About half of the fall in the jobless rate during the last four months was caused by Americans who gave up looking for work and left the labor force — a development that he said isn’t something to welcome….…

Tens of thousands of jobless North Carolinians are wondering when the stalemate will end between a Republican-led state legislature and the Democratic governor—both wanting to pass a state budget, but with little to agree on other than that.

According to a new article from Arthur Delaney, entitled “North Carolina Unemployment Standoff Drags Endlessly,” a reporter who has been watching the now more-than-a month-long budget boondoggle play out in front of both local and national media outlets, the disagreements between the legislative and executive branches is unchanged this week despite attempts at concessions on both sides.

“North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) does not like the latest attempt by Republicans in the General Assembly to link unemployment benefits and budget cuts, which is bad news for the tens of thousands of jobless North Carolinians who want their benefits back.…

When markets crashed, home prices fell, and unemployment rates rose, many desperate debtors were left destitute, depressed and feeling without hope in the height of our recent Great Recession. And as you might imagine, and as researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed last week, some of these desperate Americans even took their own lives—in greater number—during the tough economic times of the 2000s.

These troubling stats were confirmed in the CDC’s latest study, published online in the American Journal of Public Health. According to Reuters, the new study was the first of its kind to evaluate suicide trends by age and business cycles, revealing that working Americans, aged 25 to 64, are significantly more likely to commit suicide when facing the feeling of insurmountable economic struggles.…

We talk a lot about the impact of the recent economic downturn on seniors: how hard is to retire, or even remain employed, as debt rises and dreams of post-career, golden years spent without worry fade as quickly as home prices.

But what about the millions of Americans who have yet to embark on careers, now facing a rude awakening that the jobs that used to pad their wallets and prepare them for college and the workforce, are now disappearing or filled by fellow workers twice their age? An underreported impact of our lingering economic malaise and changing job market is the impact on teenage workers.…

If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans working for state and local governments or other agencies, you may be one of the many wondering why so many so-called “financial experts” are saying the economic recovery is all around us. For you, it likely feels like the same old lingering economic malaise—especially as news emerges that your job may be on the chopping block in 2011, with even more cuts slated for 2012.

In fact, according to a new report from Reuters, times may get tougher on the state and local level before they get better as even larger government layoffs are expected next year.…