Anderson@Large

Recovery Trick or Treat?

The gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter of this year. With that, the economic recession is “officially” over.

Try telling that to the 15.1 million Americans who are officially unemployed. Or to the nine million Americans who are involuntary part-time workers.

And don’t even think about spreading the, er, good news to the 2.2 million Americans who have grown tired of looking and are “marginally attached to the labor force.”

Today, state reports on the number of jobs created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be posted to Recovery.gov.

But with tens of thousands of reports posted, data are still missing about whether the more than $160 billion in stimulus funds awarded to the states are being used to help those most in need.

Tech Insider reports:

Recovery.gov on Friday will sport a few improvements and a lot more offerings, but perhaps one piece of valuable information will be missing: the demographics of the people receiving money.

The Web site, a clearinghouse of results from the $787 billion stimulus effort, will release all reports collected through Oct. 20 from aid recipients, adding to data about federal contract recipients that came out Oct. 15. However, none of the information on job creation, project status or funding amounts will tell users whether the recovery is benefiting segments of the population suffering the most -- reportedly Blacks, Hispanics and men. Federal reporting requirements do not cover such criteria.

Trick or treat?

Philly by the Numbers

1: The number of World Series games won by the Phillies.

$157 million: The amount of direct stimulus funds awarded to Philadelphia.

52: The number of jobs saved.

0: The number of jobs created.

The Philadelphia Daily News recently reported:

MORE THAN six months after President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package was passed into law, the city of Philadelphia has spent less than $1 million in recovery money and retained just 52 jobs.

The data was laid out in a memo sent to Mayor Nutter from Budget Director Steve Agostini, and obtained by the Daily News. Agostini, who was recently assigned to oversee the city stimulus program, also reported that the city’s efforts to manage stimulus dollars have been hampered by limited communication between departments.

The news comes as the local unemployment rate continues to climb. The Philadelphia jobless rate hit 10.7 percent in August.

(215) 686-2181: The number to call to ask Mayor Nutter what is he waiting for?

Rap Session: Is America Post-Racial?

Next week will mark the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s historic election as the first African American President of the United States.

It seems like yesterday I was standing in front of the White House with thousands of young people screaming for President Bush to get out of Obama’s house.

I LOL that the outdoor lights had been turned off so that photographers and videographers wouldn’t be able to get clear images of Americans offering to pack up Bush’s sh stuff and send him back to Texas.

The euphoria of Election Night 2008 has given way to reality. A year ago, the black unemployment rate was 11.3 percent. Today, it’s 15.4 percent.

And even with President Obama’s commitment to increasing opportunities for minority business enterprises, African American-owned businesses are still fighting for access to procurement opportunities on stimulus-funded projects.

So life and race matters go on.

The question of whether America is “really post-racial” is the topic of a town hall meeting tomorrow at one of my favorite places, the Museum of the City of New York. A diverse panel of scholars, artists and activists will kick around race, post-race and whatever:

During the 2008 presidential primary, the word "post-racial" emerged as a watch word to describe one of the leading candidates and by extension an entire generation of young people. But what does it mean to be post-racial in the hip-hop generation? Hip-hop, the youth culture of our time, has become synonymous with race even as it appeals to global cultures. Likewise, have we truly arrived at a post-racial era when the n-word is daily prevalent in hip-hop lyrics and culture?

The post civil rights generation is American's most global and heterogeneous ever. At the same time, as the historically weighted n-word suggests, we still struggle with our country's unreconciled racial history. “Is America Really Post-Racial?” is a town hall meeting that attempts to answer the important question, “how has the election of Barack Obama and the increased participation of young people in electoral politics changed the racial climate in the U.S.?”

The interactive town hall is free but reservations are required. To RSVP, call (917) 492-3395.

In Praise of Responsible Fatherhood

Today on Capitol Hill, Rep. Danny K. Davis and members of the Congressional Black Caucus will convene a forum focusing on the need to create economic opportunities for low-income Americans, particularly black fathers, families and underserved communities.

The forum, “E3: Black Fathers, Families and Communities” is a call to action and push for passage of H.R. 2979, “Julia Carson Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2009.”

The forum is designed to:

• Educate: debunk myths about black fathers, families and communities and expose deep-seated institutional inequities and disparities, and public policies that have a disparate impact;
• Empower: explain the inner-workings of TANF and how it exacerbates inter-generational structural and cultural constraints; and
• Engage: advocates, activists, researchers and concerned citizens in the legislative process to transform TANF from an entitlement program to an empowerment program that removes barriers to responsible fatherhood and promotes healthy families.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation will release a position paper entitled “Responsible Government: Investing in the Well-Being of Black Fathers, Families and Communities.”

The forum is free and open to the public. The event will be held from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm in the Cannon Caucus Room.

For more info, call (202) 225-5006.

More GOP Census Nonsense

Stupid is as stupid does. And some members of the Stupid Party are, well, stuck on stupid.

First, there was the nonsensical Vitter/Bennett Amendment, which would toss out the Census count of illegal immigrants for the purposes of Congressional reapportionment. Sure, they are residing illegally inside the states, but the Constitution does not distinguish between legal and illegal residents.

Article I, Section 2 mandates that an “actual enumeration” of the populations of the states be taken every 10 years, period.

Now, the Georgia Republican Party has sent out a political mailer disguised as an official Census survey (h/t Think Progress). The mailer sows confusion and will likely increase the non-response rate.

Given that the hard-to-count population tends to vote for Democrats, perhaps Republicans are not so stupid after all.

To preview the 2010 Census form, go here.

This Is It

With less than half of the stimulus funds spent, Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the stimulus package is, well, spent.

In testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Romer said the economic recovery is what it is.

The New York Times reports:

Although the stimulus program will help the economy grow faster than it otherwise would have done, the effect of the stimulus will not be as pronounced as this year.

In addition, she warned, American companies have registered big productivity gains during the recession, just as they did during the downturn in 2001, and employers may be even more restrained than usual about rebuilding their workforces.

The economy has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession began almost two years ago, and economists say it needs to produce about 100,000 jobs per month just to keep up with increases in the population. All told, Ms. Romer said, the United States is about 9 million jobs short of where it should be.

The black unemployment rate is 15.4 percent and this is it?!

I need an escape.

Will Work for Stimulus Check

There is more bad news on the employment front. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment rose in 23 states in September. Fifteen states, including California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina, have unemployment rates above 10 percent.

In light of the “jobless recovery,” Sen. Arlen Specter says the federal government must get serious about job creation:

It is time for the government to take more direct action to stem the tide of joblessness that is hampering the recovery and demolishing the hopes of millions of unemployed workers.

A tax credit to encourage employers to create new jobs or extend hours worked is just the kind of direct subsidy that worked so well with the cash-for-clunkers program. That was about cars. This is about jobs and people, an unquestionable priority. The moral imperative to act aggressively is clear.

Consider the STAR Coalition’s analysis of the reports filed last week by federal agencies on the job impact of the $16 billion in direct federal stimulus spending:

The now cleaned-up national spreadsheet just posted on Recovery.gov summarizes a total of 9,102 reports from prime and sub-recipients of federal ARRA contracts. Of these, 919 describe the status of the work as “completed.”

One would expect that a completed project would have generated some job creation or job retention, yet 335 of these recipient reports list a zero in the column for “number of jobs.” These same recipients have received a total of $87 million in payments.

Some of these recipients have apparently slipped through a loophole in the job reporting system. In some cases, companies that received Recovery Act contracts to provide goods to federal government say they made use of their existing workforce to fill the order and thus created no new jobs. A major example is Chrysler, which reported getting $52.9 million to supply “Light Passenger Vehicles Orders Under Stimulus Plan” but added: “No jobs were created. Existing employees were utilized to fulfill award orders.”

A jobless recovery presents a “jobs nightmare” for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. So House Democratic leaders reportedly are considering a second stimulus on the QT.

The bottom line: A jobless recovery is no recovery at all for out-of-work taxpayers who are paying for Wall Street banksters' outrageous bonuses.