US economy expands at 0.4 percent rate
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy grew at a slightly faster
but still anemic rate at the end of last year. However, there is hope
that growth accelerated in early 2013 despite higher taxes and cuts in
government spending.
By Lorraine Woellert & Jeanna Smialek -
Mar 28, 2013 12:18 PM ET
Jin Lee/Bloomberg
A job seeker speaks to a recruiter at a job fair organized by United Career Fairs in New York.
Confidence among U.S. consumers fell to a six-week low
and claims for jobless benefits rose more than forecast, highlighting
the risks to the economy posed by federal government budget cuts.
March 28 (Bloomberg) --
First-time U.S. jobless claims rose by 16,000 to 357,000 in the week
ended March 23, the highest level in more than a month, Labor Department
data showed today in Washington.
Separately, the U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 0.4 percent
annual rate, up from a 0.1 percent prior estimate and following a 3.1
percent pace in the third quarter, revised Commerce Department figures
showed. Betty Liu reports on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop."
(Source: Bloomberg)
March 28 (Bloomberg) --
Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ,
discusses U.S. initial jobless claims and gross domestic product data
released today.
First-time jobless benefits rose by 16,000 to 357,000 in the week
ended March 23, Labor Department data showed in Washington. Gross
domestic product rose at a 0.4 percent annual rate in the fourth
quarter, the Commerce Department reported.
WSJ: Food Stamps Swell as Economy "Improves"
8:44 AM, Mar 28, 2013
• By DANIEL HALPER
In an article titled, "Use of Food Stamps Swells Even as Economy Improves," the Wall Street Journal reports
that "The financial crisis is over and the recession ended in 2009. But
one of the federal government's biggest social welfare programs, which
expanded when the economy convulsed, isn't shrinking back alongside the
recovery."
The report continues, "Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, as the modern-day food-stamp benefit is known, has
soared 70% since 2008 to a record 47.8 million as of December 2012.
Congressional budget analysts think participation will rise again this
year and dip only slightly in coming years."
The biggest factor behind the upward march of food stamps
is a sluggish job market and a rising poverty rate. At the same time,
many states have pushed to get more people to apply for SNAP, a program
where the federal government picks up the tab.
But there is another driver, which has its origins in President Bill
Clinton's 1996 welfare overhaul. In recent years, the law has enabled
states to ease asset and income tests for would-be participants, with
the encouragement of the Obama administration, allowing into the program
people with relatively higher incomes as well as savings.
The new rules were designed to encourage people to take advantage of
the program before they became destitute. By expanding the pool of
potential applicants, they are redrawing the landscape of government
assistance. It is one reason why SNAP appears to have evolved from a
program that rose and fell with the unemployment rate to a more
permanent feature of the landscape.
The
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index dropped to minus 34.4 in the week
ended March from minus 33.9 as Americans’ views of the economy
deteriorated to the lowest point since early February. Applications for unemployment insurance benefits rose by 16,000 to 357,000 last week, the Labor Department said.
The figures represent a blemish for an economy that has shown signs of strengthening on the heels of a housing market rebound and a pickup in manufacturing. Federal Reserve policy makers are concerned the automatic reductions in government spending that began this month may impede the progress of the expansion after a fourth-quarter slowdown.
Has disability become a 'de facto welfare program'?
Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:09 AM EDT
By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News
When
President Clinton signed "welfare reform" into law in 1996, he promised
to end welfare as we know it. Now, some new reporting suggests we've
created a new kind of welfare -- only most Americans aren't aware of
it.
The number of people who depend on checks from Social
Security's disability programs has soared in recent years, according
to NPR's series "Unfit for Work: the Startling Rise of Disability in America." The
reports, which began over the weekend and continue this week, raise the
question: How disabled are the recipients, really? As you might
imagine, they have touched a nerve.
A
quick primer: the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides
monthly cash assistance to people who are poor and disabled, including
families with disabled children. The basic monthly SSI cash benefit is a
set amount -- currently $710 for an individual and $1,066 for a couple.
The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program also provides
monthly cash assistance, to disabled people who have worked in jobs
covered by Social Security. People who leave the workforce and go on
disability also qualify for Medicare.
After six months of investigation, NPR reporter Chana Joffee-Walt
concluded that Social Security's disability programs have become "a de
facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job
skills." In the past three decades, she reports, the number of Americans
who are on disability has skyrocketed: Read more here
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