------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 9, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SCROOGE, PART II: NO EXTENSION FOR UNEMPLOYMENT PAY By Gary Wilson It's the Scrooge story, part two. The TV news is filled with reports on how Wal-Mart and the other big retailers didn't sell as many goods this holiday season as they wanted. Their profits this year may not be as big as last year. Bah, humbug. But what about the Cratchits--that is, the workers--who got more layoffs for the holidays? And then the Bush administration threw in a cutoff in unemployment benefits, just for good measure. The White House and Congress knew that the cutoff was coming, but they refused to extend unemployment benefits before they went on their own well-paid holiday in December. Consider that the country is supposed to be mobilizing for homeland security. What could be more important to security than the protection of jobs? Yet the big bucks being doled out by the White House and Congress are going to big military contractors, big oil and other big businesses. The people, on the other hand, are getting the big minus. On Dec. 28, almost a million jobless workers were cut off unemployment benefits. Period. No more money. No job. Nothing. This comes on top of reports that unemployment remains at 6 percent or higher. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in November that there is a "stagnant job market" with "an unusually large number of people looking for work." November and December are a time when the jobless rate usually declines as retail businesses are hiring for holiday sales. After the cutoff, Bush quickly got on the radio and announced that "one of my first priorities for the new Congress will be an extension of unemployment benefits." When will that be? Not before the end of January, more likely February. Try buying a loaf of bread at Kroger's supermarket with that promise. The Bush administration is worried that a lot of people will start putting two and two together and come up with the answer that a war on Iraq isn't in their interests. It is a war by and for the rich oil barons, like Bush and Dick Cheney. The biggest war buildup in decades is taking place right now. If military spending could help a failing capitalist economy, then the U.S. economy should be booming. Instead, the economy is down and not going up. Globally, capitalism is continuing to contract. Germany, Britain, France and Italy are all in recession; Japan is in a depression. The European and Japanese capitalists had put off some of their decline by moving more of their investments into the United States. But with the full-force recession hitting the U.S. economy, those investments are being pulled out before they lose even more. Now, according to Antony P. Mueller, a professor of economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, European and Japanese capital are fleeing the United States because of the huge debt being incurred by the Bush administration in its war buildup. They believe that the war debt will sink the U.S. economy even further. Japan is turning its investments toward China, while Germany is turning its investments toward Russia and Eastern Europe. According to Mueller, the countries of the European Union, which had invested more than $107 billion in the U.S. in 1997, have reduced their investments so drastically that they will soon be near zero. Japanese investments in the U.S.--industrial, real estate and bonds--have seen a similar decline. This has resulted in a strengthening of the Euro and of gold in relation to the U.S. dollar. All this means that the recession in the U.S. economy is not going to end quickly. In fact, the wild military spending by Congress and the White House will surely make it much worse. The movement to stop the war--there's a demonstration in Washington Jan. 18--looks like it is also the best way to stop the economic crisis and put people back to work. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
