Developments Overseas
US crisis continues to worsen

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The current much-vaunted US economic "growth" does not present a picture of recovery but of the further intensification of the crisis within the US. This "growth" is marked by the intensification of production and the attendant intensification of workers' exploitation, suffering and oppression.

In October, the Bush regime announced a US GDP growth of 8.2% for the third quarter of the year, up from a mere 2% growth in the first six months of 2003. Thus, GDP growth for the entire year is projected to reach 4%, higher than the initial 2-3% estimate.

US statistics indicate that the growth has been pushed by greater consumption (6.6%) and investment (11.1%), mainly through an increase in the seasonal demand for consumer goods such as automobiles and other products. The demand for housing and other vehicles, (new airplanes in particular), has also risen.

In November 2001, the Bush regime declared the end of the recession because GDP grew by 2.6%, a rate that has turned out to be inadequate to sustain growth and fully eradicate the recession.

Economic growth slowed down to a crawl in the following months. Growth in the US' basic industries was insignificant. Industrial production remained sluggish. Production in the manufacturing sector�of consumer and high-tech products such as computers, semiconductors and communications equipment, in particular�grew by a mere 1%. On the average, the number of factories operating at present is still far below the level that prevailed 30 years ago.

Sluggish production has worsend the US' ballooning trade deficit. This November, imports further increased by $2.5 billion even as exports increased by $1.7 billion�swelling the trade deficit to $47.4 billion. Most of the imported products were consumer goods and automobile spare parts.

Amid the much-vaunted "recovery," no new or additional jobs have been created�which is why economists have come to regard it as "jobless recovery." In truth, jobs are being massacred on a wide scale and unemployment has further worsened in the US.

The reason behind this is the drive by big capitalists in the US to further increase workers' overall productivity and lengthen their working day in order to intensify exploitation using an even smaller number of regular workers.

Since November 2001, up to 400,000 on the average lost their jobs each week�even higher than the 305,000 who lost their jobs each week during the recession. Over three million Americans have lost their jobs just in the last two years. This August, the unemployment rate came to 6.1%�the highest in the last 20 years.

Even those with jobs have not benefited from this economic "recovery." Real wages have either remained pegged, or have fallen. Since November 2001, wages and salaries increased by a mere 0.8%. In the last few months, however, real wages fell by 0.65% even as corporations' net income skyrocketed by 40% (the steepest in 60 years).

07 January 2004
English Edition

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