'Nationwide, house prices have plunged 30 percent in nominal value since the peak and 40 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. In wealth terms, declines in housing prices have reduced homeowners' equity by more than 50 percent in total across the U.S. since the peak of the housing boom, wiping out more than $7 trillion in household wealth. More than 12 million or one in five households with a mortgage are now underwater. This has led to decreased spending; some estimates suggest that households reduce spending by $3 to $5 every year for each $100 in housing value lost. In total then, reduced consumer spending ranges from $200 to $375 billion annually related solely to the dropping value of residential real estate. On top of that, we have to add the spending lost by savers who have seen the return on their fixed income investments plummet to near zero. This has a ripple effect throughout the economy; less spending means lower sales for corporations which results in lowered investments in both mechanical and human capital (i.e. jobs). Since the housing construction sector is intimately related to housing sales, it has suffered the most.'
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/02/ben-fed-and-americas-housing-market.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FtTbKB+%28Viable+Opposition%29
'The year-over-year drop in unemployment is the one "bright" spot in the State of the Union. The headline U-3 unemployment rate has dropped from a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.4 percent in December 2010 to 8.5 percent in 2011. While that is marvelous news for those individuals who actually regained employment, the broader U-6 rate (which includes persons that are unemployed, those who are marginally attached to the labor force and those who are working part-time for economic reasons plus those who are marginally attached to the work force) is still a rather high 15.2 percent, down from 16.6 percent one year earlier. Part of the drop in unemployment is related to a drop in the size of the labor force, which has reached its lowest level since the early 1980s as shown here.'
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/01/state-of-union-in-screen-captures-2012.html
