Nearly 900,000 new jobless claims in US as benefit cutoffs lead to spike in poverty

Shannon Jones



https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/16/jobs-o16.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws




New first-time weekly unemployment claims increased to 898,000 last week as the US jobless crisis shows no signs of easing some seven months into the coronavirus pandemic. The weekly total was the highest since late August.

Unemployment filings have been between 800,000-900,000 over each of the last four weeks, with a four-week moving average of 866,250 last week, up 8,000 from the week before. The weekly total may be greater since the state of California’s numbers are only estimates. The state has temporarily stopped processing new claims to clear up a backlog of cases.
Some 26 million workers are receiving some form of government unemployment aid including self-employed and “gig” economy workers. Meanwhile, small business closures are at catastrophic levels.

While new first time claims for unemployment benefits remain at historically unprecedented levels, the US Congress has thus far refused to restore supplemental unemployment benefits that expired July 31. A scaled down supplement authorized by the Trump administration has now been largely exhausted as well.

The criminally-indifferent response to the worst economic and social crisis since the Great Depression has a definite class logic. Whatever their differences, both corporate-controlled parties are using economic pressure to force workers back into unsafe factories and workplaces even as COVID-19 infections and deaths continue to rise.

The threat of a massive new round of layoffs looms. Officials in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, announced a new operating budget this week that includes the elimination of 659 jobs, including 130 health workers in the midst of a pandemic. Rutgers University is planning additional layoffs after the 900 layoffs and 6,400 furloughs it has already implemented. The Tropicana casino and resort in Las Vegas announced 828 layoffs while Rochester, New York schools are cutting 200 non-teaching personnel.

The predictable result of this has been hardship and poverty for millions of unemployed or partially employed workers. Several new studies have shown a significant growth in poverty, particularly in the period after the expiration of the $600 weekly unemployment supplement at the end of July.

According to researchers at Columbia University, using monthly data, the number of poor has increased by 8 million since May after falling by 4 million, due to the expanded aid to the unemployed included in the CARES Act. According to the study, while the stimulus checks and supplemental unemployment benefits lifted 18 million individuals out of poverty in April, by August and September that number had fallen to just 4 million. It noted that the number of those in deep poverty, defined as incomes less than 50 percent of the official poverty rate, has increased steadily throughout the pandemic.

Using a different methodology another study by researchers at Notre Dame and the University of Chicago found that the number of poor has increased by 6 million over the past 3 months. This number is surely understated given the absurdly low official poverty threshold of $26,200 for a family of four.

Bruce D Meyer, a University of Chicago economist, told the New York Times that the numbers “tell us people are having a lot more trouble paying their bills, paying their rent, putting food on the table.”

The Notre Dame and Columbia studies showed child poverty increasing sharply, with 2.5 million additional children living in poverty since May.

According to the analysis by Columbia University, about one third of those unemployed still do not receive any benefits either because they don’t realize they are eligible, or they have been unable to navigate overloaded and outdated state unemployment claims systems. In addition, undocumented workers are not eligible for government assistance, including their children.

A separate study by The Shift Project at Harvard University found that only 27 percent of cashiers, delivery drivers and other service workers laid off in April and May were able to collect unemployment benefits. The study found a wide disparity between states. For example, 77 percent of unemployed workers in Minnesota were able to collect benefits while only 8 percent in Florida were successful.

The study was based on a survey of 2,561 unemployed people who had been laid-off or furloughed from their jobs at over 100 large companies in the retail, food service, hospitality, grocery, pharmacy, fulfillment, or hardware sectors. Of those workers, 71 percent successfully completed applications but only 39 percent of the claims were accepted and only 27 percent actually received payments.

The consequences of not being able to collect benefits were often dire. According to the Harvard researchers, 26 percent of former workers “had gone hungry because they couldn’t afford enough to eat and 13 percent experienced housing insecurity—having to double-up or staying in a shelter or other place not meant for housing.”

Close to 18 percent said that someone in their household did not get medical care because of the cost. “Even larger shares had trouble paying essential utility bills (35%) or struggled to cover their expenses and pay bills (43%).”

Reflecting the poverty wages wide sections of service workers receive, the study reported that even among those working, 14 percent “reported going hungry in the past month because they couldn’t afford enough to eat, and 5 percent experienced housing insecurity.”

A new study led by McGill University in Montreal, Canada showed a link between deaths from COVID-19 and economic inequality. The report published in Social Science and Medicine analyzed data from 84 countries.

The study found that higher income inequality correlated with more deaths even when accounting for other factors such as the age of population or income levels. “Countries with a larger gap between rich and poor, like the United States, Russia, and Brazil are experiencing a more deadly pandemic,” McGill professor Frank Elgar said in releasing the results of the study.

The report concluded, “Our analyses revealed that country-level wealth and income inequality were positively and consistently related to mortality after other social factors were controlled.”

The possible factors leading to higher deaths in more economically polarized countries included low-wage workers being over-represented in service professions where social distancing is difficult and who have less access to health care.

Millions of unemployed workers face a cliff December 31 when extended unemployment benefits and other supports remaining under the CARES Act expire. This also applies to millions receiving benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for self-employed and so-called gig workers who are generally ineligible for state unemployment benefits.

Meanwhile, Congress and the Trump administration have shown no urgency in extending further support to the unemployed. For all the internecine warfare in the presidential campaign, neither one of the corporate-controlled parties will do anything to seriously address mass poverty and joblessness.

ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "I Melt with You" by Modern English

 

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Global surge in COVID-19 cases as governments abandon efforts to contain the pandemic

Benjamin Mateus



https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/16/covi-o16.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws

Global coronavirus cases will top the 40 million mark sometime this weekend, and the number of new cases is approaching 400,000 a day. The grim progression of the pandemic can be charted in these numbers: new cases first reached 100,000 a day on May 20; they hit 200,000 a day on July 1; 300,000 a day on September 4, and reached 398,609 on Wednesday, October 14.

There are already more than 1.1 million deaths. The daily number of fatalities has also started turning upward with a seven-day moving average of 5,200 deaths. Two days running, the number of deaths has exceeded 6,000. The current projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation place estimates of global COVID-19 deaths at 1.9 million by January 1, 2021.
Whereas during the summer, Brazil, India and the United States were at the center of the pandemic, with the turn to fall and colder temperatures in the northern hemisphere, where the majority of the world’s population lives, cases across Russia, Europe and North America have seen a dramatic upward shift, as predicted by modelers and epidemiologists.

On Thursday, the United States, with 65,000 new cases of COVID-19, surpassed India for the first time in several weeks. Twenty-six states have posted more than 1,000 new cases. Wisconsin shattered its previous high with more than 3,700 new cases. Though the Midwest and rural communities face the brunt of the current surge, cases are trending upward in 44 states. Nearly 900 people died yesterday.

Caitlin Rivers, a Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist, painted a bleak picture. “We are headed in the wrong direction, and that’s reflected not only in the number of new cases but also in test positivity and the number of hospitalizations. Together, I think these three indicators give a very clear picture that we see increased transmission in communities across the country.” Hospitalization across the country for COVID-19 stands at 37,308, a 30 percent rise since the last week of September.

The surge across Europe has been catastrophic, with the United Kingdom, France and Spain each having surpassed the United States on a per capita basis as Germany begins to see a similar steep climb. Some 35 percent of France’s outbreaks of three or more cases occurred in schools or universities. More than a third of UK outbreaks in September were in educational settings. The incidence rate of COVID-19 among children and youth since returning to school has been astronomical.
Daily new cases per capita US vs Major European nations

Placing it in context, in early August, the number of daily new cases across Europe dropped under 20,000. On October 15, there were 131,726 new cases, a more than sixfold increase. Over the next few weeks, these current highs will be quickly outstripped as no real measure is being employed to stem the deluge.

France saw an unprecedented 30,621 cases yesterday. It is estimated that 90 percent of their intensive care units will be filled by the end of next week. Yet, President Emmanuel Macron has announced rhetorical measures that will do little to stem this tsunami of cases. The political crisis in the United Kingdom is unraveling rapidly, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisting lockdown as new cases approach 20,000 per day. With over 7,074 new cases Thursday, Germany surpassed its peak highs from the spring and is also seeing hospitals filling rapidly.

Hospital beds in Central Europe are quickly filling with COVID patients. Many of these countries are short of critical equipment as well as nursing and physician staff, as many are falling ill attempting to care for their patients. The public health infrastructure is collapsing under the impact of the pandemic. The Czech Republic, with close to 10,000 new cases yesterday, has the highest per capita infection rate in the world. It is issuing a perfunctory partial three-week lockdown closing schools, bars, and clubs. The positivity rate has reached 30 percent, and the health officials are warning that hospitals will soon be overwhelmed.

Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, said that Europe had recorded its highest weekly number of COVID-19 cases on Thursday. “The evolving epidemiologic situation in Europe raises great concern,” he said. “Daily cases are up; hospital admissions are up, and COVID is now the fifth leading cause of deaths in the region.” Despite attempting to strike an optimistic note that compared to the number of cases, deaths were down, he admitted that there was “a realistic potential” for the situation to worsen dramatically, specifically if the contagion began to creep back into older and more vulnerable groups.
Capitalist governments worldwide, under pressure from their bosses in the financial markets, are resisting further lockdowns, recognizing that any such restrictions would have significant consequences on an already shaky economic situation.

The homicidal policy of “focused protection,” as formulated in the Great Barrington Declaration, is now the stand-in nomenclature for the discredited policy of “herd immunity” that has been pursued by the ruling class in its response to the pandemic.

These terms are applied to cover up what is in every sense of the word a policy of social euthanasia: abandoning any effort to suppress the virus, regardless of the consequences for the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, and countless others. Simply stated, this policy will see millions die to protect the profits of the corporate elite.

In opposition to the Great Barrington Declaration, 80 renowned researchers published a letter in the Lancet stating, unequivocally, that a strategy of herd immunity (forced protection) is a “dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence … it is critical to act decisively and urgently. Effective measures that suppress and control transmission need to be implemented widely, and they must be supported by financial and social programs that encourage community responses and address the inequities that have been amplified by the pandemic.”

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Trump administration tipped off wealthy investors about coronavirus while it downplayed threat in public

Jacob Crosse



https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/16/trad-o16.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws




A memorandum leaked by a hedge fund consultant to the New York Times reveals that in February, while President Trump was declaring there was no danger to the public from the coronavirus, White House officials were informing wealthy supporters of the administration that the pandemic represented a significant threat of uncertain dimensions—triggering decisions by numerous investors to short-sell stocks and profit from the ensuing plunge in the stock market.

The release of the memo follows earlier US Justice Department investigations into insider trading conducted by multiple US senators, including Republicans Kelly Loeffler (Georgia) James Inhofe (Oklahoma) Richard Burr (North Carolina) and Democrat Dianne Feinstein (California). While investigations have closed on Loeffler, Inhofe, and Feinstein with no charges filed, Burr remains under investigation after being forced to step down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in May.
The new revelations have yet to spark the announcement of new investigations into potential insider trading abuses among White House officials or those they were in touch with, both at the Hoover Institution, a prominent right-wing think tank located at Stanford University in California, and on Wall Street.

In both instances, it’s clear that officials within the US government tipped off their donors allowing them to divest themselves of millions of dollars in stock before prices plunged. As has been the case since the beginning of the crisis, the primary concern of the US ruling class has not been to safeguard the population from a deadly contagion, but to protect their privileged class position and wealth above all else.

Prior to the pandemic, the stock market had been hovering near 30,000 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But in mid-February the Dow began a nearly 10,000-point drop which continued through March in response to the growing international pandemic crisis.

The Times report establishes that while officials with the US government, including President Donald Trump and director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, were publicly downplaying the emerging threat of the pandemic, in closed-door meetings starting on February 24 with board members of the Hoover Institution, administration officials, including Kudlow and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, privately warned that the virus was not contained and its effects on the markets, their chief concern, were uncertain.

In a tweet posted on the afternoon of February 24 Trump declared that the virus was “under control” in the US and that the “Stock market [is] starting to look very good to me!” Hours earlier however, Tomas Philipson, acting chief of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told the conservative board members of the Hoover Institution that they couldn’t yet estimate the effects the virus would have on the stock market and the economy in general, a stark contrast from the rosy picture portrayed by the president.

The next day, February 25, Kudlow gloated publicly on CNBC that the virus remained “pretty close to airtight” in the US. Hours later, speaking in front of the Hoover Board of Overseers, Kudlow warned that the virus was “contained in the US, to date, but now we just don’t know,” according to the leaked document.

The memo was written by William Callanan, a member of the Overseers, located at Stanford University, and then relayed to billionaire David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management and owner of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, on February 26. Tepper has an estimated net worth of over $12 billion.

Before founding Appaloosa Management in 1993, Tepper made millions at Goldman Sachs working the “junk bond” desk. He has given to Republican and Democratic politicians including to Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer and then-US House Speaker, Republican John Boehner. In 2016 he funneled $1 million to political action committees that supported the presidential bids of Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

The contents of the memo were quickly disseminated within Appaloosa and then to two unnamed outside investors. Within 24 hours the memo was delivered to at least seven investors in at least four separate money-management and trading firms, prompting a drop of nearly 300 points in the stock market compared to the previous week’s high.
The Times account noted, “the memo’s overarching message—that a devastating virus outbreak in the United States was increasingly likely to occur, and that government officials were more aware of the threat than they were letting on publicly—proved accurate.”

In describing the private meetings compared to public declarations to Tepper, Callanan noted that he was “struck” that nearly every administration official he heard from raised concerns about the virus, “totally unprovoked.” He also noted that Kudlow was much more forthright in private and expressed more fear, stating that “we just don’t know” the effects it could have in the US. Callanan wrote to Tepper that Kudlow, “revised his statement about the virus being contained.”

Investors who spoke with the Times anonymously confirmed that the privileged information they were given informed their trading decisions that week and prompted many to “short” stocks, reaping a hefty profit from the eventual plunge. Others used the information to corner large supplies of commodities such as toilet paper, leading to eventual shortages.

Speaking to the Times regarding the memo, Kudlow confirmed that he had made the remarks quoted in the email but that he didn’t see his public statements as that different. “There was never any intent on my part to misinform,” Kudlow claimed.

One of those who participated in the White House meeting, according to the Times, was Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a right-wing quack doctor who has become the principal advocate of “herd immunity” as a coronavirus policy.

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University of Michigan cafeteria workers oppose reopening of dining halls as coronavirus continues to spread on campus

Jesse Thomas




https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/16/mdin-o16.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws




A month after the end of a 9-day strike of graduate student workers at the University of Michigan, the school’s administration is pressing forward with plans to further reopen campus.

Since the reopening of campus, cafeteria service has been limited to take-out only. However, the school is preparing to transition to in-service dining beginning October 20. The plans were exposed to the public by student dining workers on Twitter. The Twitter account @MDiningWorkers, a student dining employee-led group, explained on Sunday that “[d]ining halls throughout campus will start allowing small amounts of in-person dining eventually working up to 400 seats.”
During the graduate student strike, nonunion MDining staff across several dining halls had planned to walk out in support of the strike. However, these actions were canceled at the last minute due to unspecified “threats of repercussion against those walking out,” according to dining workers. Campus administrators deny having made any threats, but such threats were made against the graduate students.

In the end, the GEO and its parent union the American Federation of Teachers seized upon threats of legal action by the university, as well as cynical claims that the strike was harming minority students, in order to shut down the strike, with none of the issues having been resolved. Although the strike and its central demands for remote learning and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus were met with wide support among students, faculty and staff on campus, as well as public school teachers and workers who face similar issues, the AFT/GEO did nothing to mobilize this support. Throughout the country, the AFT is in overdrive to limit the outbreak of strikes as universities and school districts move forward with unsafe reopenings.

In the weeks following the strike, multiple COVID-19 clusters have been confirmed on campus, demonstrating the complete inadequacy of the university’s testing regime. Because the school’s official online COVID-19 dashboard only reports cases on a weekly basis, these are widely suspected to be an underestimate. One student recounted on social media of having to wait nearly 8 hours for testing after reporting COVID-like symptoms, only to be told by University Health Services (UHS) that she did not qualify for testing. Only upon scheduling an appoint for a separate medical issue was the student able to be seen by a doctor who agreed to administer a coronavirus test.

Dining hall workers are circulating an online petition, which already has several hundred signatures, opposing the reopening of cafeterias. The petition warns, “this is going to cause an even larger spike in [COVID-19] cases, particularly impacting our employees. I refuse to stand by while we are forced to further risk the lives of myself, my fellow coworkers, and the lives of the people we go home to.”

A student MDining worker told the World Socialist Web Site that in-person dining would be incredibly dangerous. “The administration’s plan to open campus cafeterias to sit-in dining is pretty far advanced right now. Martha Cook and the Law school quadrangle residence halls are supposed to open sit-in dining this week. Mosher-Jordan (known as MoJo) will be opening on the 20th. I’ve also heard about plans for East Quad dining opening up as well, but I’m not sure when.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a very political person, but I believe that every human is entitled to basic rights. I’m very passionate about that. The University of Michigan, like our country as a whole, has recently shown its true colors in its blatant disregard for the needs of working students…

“As a low-income student with a compromised immune system, this campus climate has been extremely distressing for me this semester. When you have to work to support your education, you feel really underrepresented here—it actually seems like there aren’t many of us doing it. And especially in the winter, when you see a lot of wealthy students wearing their $1000 Canada Goose jackets, you really feel the disparity.”

“There aren’t many students working in the dining department anymore,” the student continued. “Over the years there has been a decrease anyway, and when the pandemic struck, the student employee base really took a hit. Now, it’s primarily non-student staff. I love my MDining coworkers and they’ve been such an important part of my experience as a student on campus. This job has helped me to find my social circle at school. Being around people in a similar financial situation to me makes me feel like a bit less like an imposter here—like I have people among whom I really belong.

“So when upper level MDining management pressures us to risk our lives at work, it really makes me want to quit—but I know that I couldn’t do that to my fellow employees. There are so few of us managing the workload that it would only make things harder for the lowest-level workers, many of whom aren’t able to quit for financial reasons. While I’m absolutely opposed to the administration and Dining Department management, I care about the rank-and-file members of my workplace.”

The reckless drive to reopen the University of Michigan’s campus takes place within context of the growth of opposition worldwide by students and teachers. This week alone, struggles have erupted at multiple US universities, including Ohio’s Youngstown State University and New York’s Stony Brook University. Internationally, university students all over France have taken to social media to protest school reopenings. In Poland and Greece, high school students have staged sickouts and campus occupations in opposition to similar policies.

A movement to defend the right of all students and workers to a safe education and job conditions must not be based on what politicians and corporate university regent board members deem is acceptable, but on what the working class urgently requires. The WSWS urges students and workers to build the network of rank-and-file safety committees on campuses, schools and workplaces across the country in preparation for a general strike, and the ultimate transition of political power to the working class.