Obama to Inherit Legacy of Neoliberalism's Crash

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars thrown at banks large and small, the U.S. economy is in a free fall, just weeks before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, analysts say.

"Most measures of economic and financial activity look like they fell off a cliff in September and October, and have been deteriorating at an alarming rate ever since," says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.

The bank bailout, which now stands at $335 billion, was supposed to ease credit lending, and jumpstart the economy. But U.S. businesses and individuals report that they are still unable to get loans from banks, and new reports show the economy in very bad shape.

"The bailout hasn't succeeded. The problem is the diagnosis of it as a 'financial crisis.' It is a toxic stew of subprime mortgages that is the problem, and its consequences are to poison the well of finance. Pouring capital into the banks doesn't fix it," Jamie Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas, told reporters recently.

Galbraith and 120 other economists, progressives and labor leaders sent a letter to Obama urging him to spend $900 billion or more starting in the new year, to stimulate the economy.

"This crisis is unprecedented since the Great Depression. It will take unprecedented measures," Galbraith said.

Government figures released Tuesday show the overall economy has almost stalled, and between July and September grew at an annually adjusted rate of 0.5 percent, as measured by the gross domestic product. Healthy GDP growth for the United States is considered to be 3 percent or more per year.

Economists estimate that the current GDP is declining at 6 percent.

New unemployment claims for the week ending Dec. 20 were 586,000, the highest since November 1982, according to the U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday. About 4.3 million people nationwide are already receiving unemployment benefits, said to be just a fraction of those actually unemployed, due to the restrictions placed on receiving benefits.

The public cut spending in November by 0.6 percent, after cutting spending 1 percent in October, according to the Commerce Department on Wednesday.

More than 2 million people have been thrown out of work this year, and it's estimated that 12.5 percent of previously fully employed people are now "underemployed." One out of 10 mortgages are delinquent in payments.

"The United States is now officially in a recession that started in December 2007. Japan and many European countries are in the same boat," Behravesh says, adding that markets in the developing world will "decelerate dramatically."

"We are experiencing a fundamental collapse of the basic mechanisms of trust and exchange at the heart of the credit system," Galbraith said.

Obama has said he wants to stimulate the suffering U.S. economy by delivering hundreds of billions, possibly close to a trillion dollars, in infrastructure projects with the goal of creating 3 million new jobs over two years, and tax cuts, plus food and unemployment programs for those who need it.

"My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America's middle-class and working families," Obama said Sunday.

Incomes of working people didn't increase during the George W. Bush years of 2000 to 2007 -- they decreased by about $2,000 each, Obama has said.

More recently, those with 401(k) retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion this year, as the stock market has plunged 40 percent, Obama noted.

Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are putting the finishing touches on the package and working with the Democratic leadership in Congress to craft a bill that will pass Congress and land on Obama's desk for signing within days of him taking office on Jan. 20. Congress returns Jan. 6.