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Anti-Foreclosure Plan Sees Third Straight Month Of Dwindling New Modifications

2011-10-05T22:15:23Z

WASHINGTON -- For the third consecutive month, the Obama administration's signature housing help plan posted the lowest numbers of preliminary mortgage modifications since the program's start in the spring of 2009.

Just 13,000 homeowners received initial mortgage modifications from the Home Affordable Modification Program in August, down from 14,000 in July and 15,000 in June, already the fewest since April 2009.

When President Obama announced HAMP in February 2009, he said the program would use subsidies to encourage bailed-out banks to modify mortgages for as many as 3 or 4 million homeowners. So far, fewer than 700,000 homeowners have received lasting help from the program, which is overseen by the Treasury Department and was initially funded with billions of dollars from the Wall Street bailout. The slowing of new trial modifications suggests HAMP is less likely than ever to meet its goal.

Former bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky called the program's administrative failures "breathtaking" in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing on Thursday. He said that numerous studies and anecdotal reports, including a Tuesday ProPublica story, "confirm the widespread abuse suffered by homeowners at the hands of the mortgage servicers charged with implementing HAMP."

"The foreclosure crisis continues to wreak havoc on millions of American homeowners," said Barofsky, now a senior fellow at New York University Law School. Barofsky noted that while there have been fewer foreclosure filings in 2011 compared with last year, the slowdown will likely be temporary as banks get past the paperwork fraud scandal that erupted last year.

As of August, 690,969 homeowners remain in permanent modifications, which reduce monthly payments by hundreds of dollars for eligible borrowers who complete three or four months of reduced payments during a "trial" period. Trial periods have frequently stretched for longer, as homeowners have complained that banks repeatedly lose paperwork. Nearly 1 million trial and permanent modifications have been canceled.

The administration says that HAMP deserves some credit for "proprietary" modifications that happen outside of the program. It said that 55,700 homeowners received non-HAMP modifications in July. Altogether, 5.1 million modifications have been started since April 2009.

"These programs have now set standards for the industry that have led to millions more homeowners receiving assistance at no expense to taxpayers," said Treasury official Tim Massad in a statement. "We recognize that there are homeowners who are still struggling but eligible for assistance and remain committed to reaching those homeowners."

To that end, the Treasury Department launched a TV advertising campaign in September.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Health Care Reform Program's Enrollment Far, Far Below Expectations In First Year

2011-10-05T18:10:00Z

WASHINGTON -- Enrollment in a new federal program for the uninsured is far below expectations from when the program launched following the enactment of health care reform last year.

Since its creation in July 2010, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan has insured 30,395 people, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the program. Officials initially estimated the initiative could reach as many as 375,000 by the end of 2010. There are up to 25 million uninsured Americans who have pre-existing conditions like heart disease or diabetes.

The most recent enrollment numbers are the first to reflect HHS efforts to make the program more affordable and more accessible, according to an HHS official. In the 23 states where the federal government runs the program directly, enrollment in July jumped to 8,712, a 15 percent boost from the previous month, before new lower premiums took effect.

The PCIP provides market-rate health coverage for uninsured people shunned by the health insurance industry. A recent government audit said the biggest obstacles to higher enrollment are costly premiums and the requirement that applicants be uninsured for six months to be eligible. Another problem is a lack of awareness about the program.

Olivia Grey Pritchard, a freelance photographer in New Orleans, said she didn't hear about the PCIP until she complained about her fruitless search for insurance on Facebook. Pritchard has been uninsured since returning from Africa earlier this year, where she said her insurance had been provided by the humanitarian organization that had hired her to take pictures.

She said her Facebook complaint went something like this: "I am willing to pay, so it is absolutely ridiculous I can't get coverage because of a benign tumor from seven years ago."

A friend sent her a few informative links. "At first I was really shocked I hadn't come across it," said Pritchard, 30. "Nobody knows about it. Nobody has signed up for it. Nobody's talking about it."

An HHS official said the administration has been doing more outreach to increase the PCIP's enrollment.

"In just the past two weeks we have engaged in over 115 events across the country to highlight the program," the official said. "These events work to educate people about the program, especially those most likely to interact with people potentially eligible for PCIP -- pharmacists, social workers, providers at local health community centers, etcetera."

Monthly premiums for the PCIP in Louisiana can be as low as $193, but Pritchard is waiting to sign up. She said that when she called HHS to ask about a policy, she was told the $1,000 deductible would reset in January -- meaning that she'd have to pay $1,000 for her own care between now and then before the plan started covering her costs. She's waiting until the beginning of next year to apply so that she can get the most out of the program.

Though the requirement that applicants be uninsured for six months has been cited as a main reason for low enrollment, several people have told HuffPost they canceled expensive policies just so they could sweat out six months for a more affordable plan.

Richard Vieira, a 54-year-old accountant who lives near San Francisco, Calif., said he dropped his $1,100-per-month policy in December and received PCIP coverage in July, but not without some trouble. He said that in April, he had to go to the hospital for an appendectomy that cost more than $100,000. (Vieira said he hired a consulting firm to negotiate with the hospital, resulting in a drastically lower bill.)

"It was just about right in the middle of my wait. I felt pretty unlucky," Vieira said. "Prior to that I was hardly using the insurance at all."

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Age Discrimination Harder To Fight Amid Record Unemployment For Older Workers

2011-09-29T17:30:00Z

A federal judge dismissed an age discrimination case from 18 former employees of the Dallas Morning News in March, repeatedly citing a recent Supreme Court ruling that increased the burden on older workers to prove they've been treated unfairly.

Jack Gross feels bad about it.

"It personally concerns me that I was somehow involved in denying a lot of other people their chance at justice because my case is now being cited so often," said Gross, a former insurance claims administration manager who lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

When a court says a laid off worker failed to prove age was the overriding cause of his or her termination, the judge points to the Supreme Court's decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Group. Gross had sued for age discrimination following a 2003 demotion. Nearly seven years later, after an Iowa jury had taken his side and awarded damages, the Supreme Court changed the rules and made Gross start over.

The court's decision raised the bar for age discrimination complaints. Instead of having to show that age was a substantial motivating factor in a discriminatory employment decision, plaintiffs from 2009 on have had to prove their age was the decisive factor. The decision effectively required plaintiffs to provide direct evidence they'd been discriminated against, according to Michael Foreman, director of the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic at the Pennsylvania State University law school. Foreman testified before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year that "the practical impact of Gross is that courts are now requiring plaintiffs to put forward extremely compelling evidence of age bias."

Lower courts have cited Gross hundreds of times in bias cases. AARP, the powerhouse lobbying group for seniors, said it hasn't tracked exactly how often Gross's case has been used to dismiss an age discrimination case, but said it's happened a "significant" number of times. "Even one is too many," said AARP senior attorney Laurie McCann.

Democrats, led by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, drafted so-far unsuccessful legislation to undo the Supreme Court's decision in 2009. Gross's other senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, is not a co-sponsor of the Democratic bill but said he is working on separate legislation.

"Jack Gross continues to be an important advocate against age discrimination," Grassley said in a statement to HuffPost. "I've been working for a legislative remedy that would make changes the Supreme Court decision pointed out are necessary to make sure federal law continues to protect the rights of older workers. As a society, we ought to value older Americans' contribution to the workforce and elsewhere, and the law should actually say what was originally intended."

The Supreme Court's new legal headwinds blew in just as the jobs landscape for older workers started providing less shelter. While workers older than 55 still boast lower unemployment rates than younger workers, older layoff victims are more than twice as likely to be out of work for 99 weeks or longer. Among "displaced workers" separated from long-held jobs between 2007 and 2010, older workers were much less likely to find new jobs. In August, the average unemployed worker older than 55 had been out of work for 52.4 weeks, compared with 43 weeks for workers between 25 and 54 years old.

Age discrimination complaints to the EEOC have increased over the past few years, but not dramatically so in proportion to other types of bias complaints. Dozens and dozens of older unemployed workers have told HuffPost that age discrimination is the unbearably obvious reason for their predicament. None of them could prove it, though.

Gross was 54 and had worked at FBL Financial Group for 16 years when, as part of a merger, in 2003 the company changed his title and gave most of his work duties to a younger staffer whom he previously supervised. He alleged in his suit that several other older workers saw job changes that reduced their pension formulas.

Gross said that as soon as he filed his age discrimination complaint with the EEOC, his work life changed.

"I was on several corporate committees. They immediately took me off of all of those like I was going to go in there and sabotage the computer system or something," Gross said, adding that he became isolated from longtime friends. "I started going off eating by myself in a corner because I didn't want to hurt them. And they knew they were being watched for associations with me. I was persona non grata in my own office."

Tom Eppenauer, who had supervised Gross prior to a personnel reshuffling in 2000, said that in 2003, before he left the company that December, he observed the retaliation Gross described.

"He kept his normal desk, and they simply did not provide him any work activities. They didn't invite him to meetings, even though he had superior knowledge to everyone in the department," Eppenauer told HuffPost. "It's hard to fathom. Here's a very highly educated man, very knowledgeable in that field, and they just threw him in the trash."

In a statement to HuffPost, FBL noted that a judge dismissed Gross's retaliation claim in 2005, and that a jury sided with the company in the new trial that followed the Supreme Court decision.

"FBL Financial Group, Inc.'s policies and values do not tolerate discrimination in any form. The history of Jack's case demonstrates FBL's commitment to these values," the company said. "FBL was completely exonerated, Jack was even ordered by the judge to pay FBL's court costs. FBL trusts the media to take into account the legal history of what Jack has claimed versus what he has been able to demonstrate."

Gross said he stuck with the job doing basically nothing until he retired in 2009. Last year he started drawing early Social Security benefits. Now, he said, he spends a lot of time with his grandchildren.

"I haven't really looked for work because I've felt like I've burned bridges," he said. And even if he did search for a new job, he doesn't think he could find one because nobody wants to hire a guy in his 60s. "It's all anecdotal, you can't prove a thing, but I've sure got an awful lot of friends who've been dramatically hurt by this. If they find jobs –- they're college educated people -- they're getting part time jobs as janitors. They can't find anything that’s full time with health benefits. They're just not there. And I'm in a state with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country."

Mike Sacks contributed reporting.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Older Jobless Twice As Likely To Become 99ers

2011-09-23T19:50:00Z

WASHINGTON -- Older workers are less likely to lose their jobs than younger workers, but once they do, they're more than twice as likely to be out of work for 99 weeks or longer.

Among jobless workers younger than 35, 8.1 percent had been out of work for 99 weeks. But 16.3 percent of jobless workers older than 45 have been out of work that long, according to a new report from Gerald Mayer, a labor analyst with the Congressional Research Service. Mayer used Census Bureau data from July 2010 to July 2011.

More than 2 million people have passed the 99 week mark, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Since 2009, 99 weeks has been the cutoff point for unemployment insurance in states with high unemployment rates (There are currently 21 states where unemployed workers are eligible for 99 weeks. Starting next year, the jobless will be eligible for just 26 weeks of benefits unless Congress acts to reauthorize the extended federal assistance.)

Conservatives have argued that the extended benefits have contributed significantly to the rise in long-term unemployment, a predicament now facing a record 6 million people. But the latest research shows that extended benefits don't turn the jobless into slackers.

Another startling finding from Mayer's report is that even though workers without college education were more likely to be unemployed, jobless workers with bachelor's degrees were no less likely to become 99ers than jobless workers with just high school diplomas. Ninety-niners were more likely to be married and to belong to a minority group.

Weekly claims for unemployment benefits have remained stubbornly high, contributing to worry among economists that the U.S. may be on the brink of another recession. Mayer concluded that there's no telling whether the number of 99ers will rise or fall.

"On the one hand, the number of monthly layoffs has fallen since the official end of the 2007-2009 recession," he wrote. "On the other hand, both the number of jobs and of job openings have increased. But, the numbers have not returned to their pre-recession levels. In addition, as employers hire new workers, those who have been unemployed the longest may be among the last to be hired."

ClickHERE to download a PDF of the report.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Older Jobless Twice As Likely To Become 99ers

2011-09-23T19:50:00Z

WASHINGTON -- Older workers are less likely to lose their jobs than younger workers, but once they do, they're more than twice as likely to be out of work for 99 weeks or longer.

ClickHERE to download a PDF of the report.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

A 99er Overcomes The Crushing Anxiety of Long-Term Joblessness

2011-09-23T16:50:00Z

After more than two years of unemployment, Francis Timothy Coleman of Bethlehem, Pa., landed a job as a forklift operator this summer.

"We all know times are tough, but things are certainly getting a little better, and that's what you work toward," said Coleman, who goes by Tim.

Times were toughest for Coleman, 42, when, as HuffPost reported last year, Coleman found himself locked in jail. He'd told a local TV station that he was going to rob a local Bank of America branch. The TV station called police, who went to Coleman's house and arrested him for making "terroristic threats."

Coleman didn’t have a weapon of any kind -- he didn’t even have a plan for the robbery. He just wanted to rage against Bank of America for not immediately refunding $3 that had been taken out of his checking account by a credit monitoring service Coleman said he never asked for.

"I wanted the media there and I wanted them to witness the bank telling me, 'No, we won't pay you that money back,' " Coleman explained to HuffPost after getting out of jail last year. "I guess in a real strange way I was trying to right a situation I felt was very wrong. The largest bank in America. They got probably the largest bailout money from the government and they don't need to be stealing from their customers."

He acknowledged that at the time he made his threat, he suffered from anxiety and that things had gotten "a little out of control" after two years of joblessness. He'd become a "99er" -- a person whose joblessness has outlasted the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance. More than 2 million people have been out of work for 99 weeks or longer, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

While his actions were extreme, Coleman's desperation was typical. Many people have told HuffPost that the anxiety of long-term unemployment can be absolutely overwhelming.

"When you're out of work that long you're not talking about just the financial issue," Coleman said. "It's the simple fact of doing something. Of working. Of having a routine."

Coleman can now put that behind him. His new job is at a cold storage facility in Bethlehem, not far from his house. He said he had signed up for work with a labor temp agency back in April and is optimistic that his current placement with the forklift gig will become permanent.

And he's fulfilled a vow he made last year by not depositing his paychecks with a bank.

"I opened an account with a credit union up here," he said. "I really love being with them. I have my auto insurance with them. It has saved me a ton of money on my auto insurance."

Coleman’s mother is grateful that her son is back on track.

"Oh thank heavens," she said (she requested her name not be used in a story). Coleman lives with and has helped take care of his mother for many years, so his long unemployment spell wasn't much fun for her, either. "The fact that he was in prison certainly didn't help the whole situation."

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

A 99er Overcomes The Crushing Anxiety of Long-Term Joblessness

2011-09-23T16:50:00Z

After more than two years of unemployment, Francis Timothy Coleman of Bethlehem, Pa., landed a job as a forklift operator this summer.

"We all know times are tough, but things are certainly getting a little better, and that's what you work toward," said Coleman, who goes by Tim.

While his actions were extreme, Coleman's desperation was typical. Many people have told HuffPost that the anxiety of long-term unemployment can be absolutely overwhelming.

"When you're out of work that long you're not talking about just the financial issue," Coleman said. "It's the simple fact of doing something. Of working. Of having a routine."

And he's fulfilled a vow he made last year by not depositing his paychecks with a bank.

"I opened an account with a credit union up here," he said. "I really love being with them. I have my auto insurance with them. It has saved me a ton of money on my auto insurance."

Coleman’s mother is grateful that her son is back on track.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Nikki Haley Backs Off Claim That Jobless Are On Drugs

2011-09-20T14:32:51Z

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has admitted that she has no evidence backing her claim that half of job applicants at a local government facility flunked a drug test. She'd used the claim to push for requiring the jobless to pass a drug test to be eligible for benefits.

"I've never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you're given good information," Haley told Jim Davenport of the Associated Press. "And now I'm learning through you guys that I have to be careful before I say something."

Haley said two weeks ago she'd been told that of hundreds of job applicants at the Savannah River Site, a nuclear reservation owned by the U.S. Energy Department, half failed a drug test. But Jim Giusti, a spokesman for Energy Department, told HuffPost that of the workers hired over the past few years, less than 1 percent failed a test. Additionally, only new hires -- not applicants -- have to submit to testing in the first place.

"We are pleased that Gov. Haley retracted her claims about so many unemployed workers being able to pass drug tests," said Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit research group that advocates for workers. "For too long, politicians have tried to scapegoat the unemployed, as if the current jobs crisis is their fault. Such claims do nothing to further the discourse we need to have about real solutions to the problems our country is facing, and they scapegoat good people who are doing their best just to survive in these tough times."

Haley told AP she'd used the anecdote "a million times" to promote drug-testing for the jobless. "It is the reason you're hearing me look into whether we can do drug testing," she said.

Yet, even though the claim has proven false and Haley has promised not to repeat it, the governor said she still wants drug tests tied to jobless benefits and a revamped job training program, according to AP.

A Haley spokesman told HuffPost Tuesday he'd let the governor's words speak for themselves.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Nikki Haley Backs Off Claim That Jobless Are On Drugs

2011-09-20T14:32:51Z

Haley told AP she'd used the anecdote "a million times" to promote drug-testing for the jobless. "It is the reason you're hearing me look into whether we can do drug testing," she said.

A Haley spokesman told HuffPost Tuesday he'd let the governor's words speak for themselves.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

White House: Jobs Bill Would Save Benefits For 6 Million Next Year

2011-09-19T22:02:00Z

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration says that if Congress fails to reauthorize extended unemployment insurance, 6 million people will lose benefits next year.

Starting in January, laid-off workers will be ineligible for further federal benefits after they've used up 26 weeks of state benefits (some states now provide fewer than 26 weeks). The average unemployed person as of August had been out of work for more than 40 weeks.

Over the course of 2012, the White House says, 6 million people will find themselves still unemployed after exhausting their state benefits -- an estimate that reflects the bleak prospects for a speedy economic recovery. The administration included a reauthorization of the benefits in the $450 billion jobs bill it sent to Congress last week.

Congress, which routinely grants the jobless extra weeks of benefits during recessions, gave the unemployed up to 73 additional weeks of benefits in response to the downturn that started in 2007. Congress has never dropped extended benefits with a national unemployment rate above 7.2 percent, but Republicans have said they are opposed to keeping the aid for another year because of its $50 billion cost.

Even if the benefits are reauthorized, the money will be no help to the more than 2 million people who have already been out of work for 99 weeks or longer.

Cheryl Greene of Sheboygan, Wis., told HuffPost that she lost her job at a Holiday Inn back in September 2009 and that her unemployment benefits ran out earlier this year. She said she and her husband are three months behind on their rent and afraid they'll be evicted.

Greene said they've been bouncing from job to job for the past decade, and debt has been a constant problem. "We both can't get a job at the same time," said Greene, 49. "It's never been enough to ever get ahead."

She said they both applied for jobs this summer at a new grocery store that opened in town last week. A spokesman for the Festival Foods company told HuffPost that "several thousand" people applied for the store's 230 new jobs. The Greenes didn't make the cut, though Cheryl Greene said her husband recently landed a minimum-wage job at a packaging company.

Without the unemployment income, Greene said, they don't have enough money to pay the electric bill, the gas bill and the rent. "You either pay this or pay that," she said. "It's either-or."

Greene is one of the 4 million Americans who the White House estimated would run out of benefits without finding work this year.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Extended Unemployment Benefits Not Turning Jobless Into Slackers: Study

2011-09-16T19:50:00Z

Extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless are not a major cause of the high U.S. unemployment rate, according to a new study that comes as lawmakers debate whether to keep extended benefits beyond their slated January expiration.

Many conservatives have argued that extended unemployment benefits encourage the jobless to sit on the couch instead of looking for work. Reauthorizing the benefits through next year would cost roughly $50 billion.

"This economy will not recover if we're going to continue to borrow money, put the debt on the heads of our grandchildren, and think that spending money solves anything," Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said during a Thursday speech on the House floor. "We've got to get this country back to work and get those people out of the slacker rolls and onto the employed rolls."

Conservative economists have said extended benefits could have increased the unemployment rate by as much as 2.7 percentage points, but Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley found otherwise. According to his analysis (PDF), extended benefits "raised the unemployment rate by only about 0.2–0.6 percentage points, much less than is implied by previous analyses."

And Rothstein says more than half of that increase could be caused by benefits recipients searching for jobs -- thereby remaining part of the labor force -- instead of just giving up on their search. (Benefits recipients must look for work to qualify.)

"The evidence here thus supports the view that optimal [unemployment insurance] program design would provide for generous extensions of beneﬁt durations in deep recessions that last until the labor market is strong enough to give displaced workers a realistic chance of ﬁnding new employment before their beneﬁts expire," Rothstein concluded in the report.

In an interview, Rothstein said his work ought to change the course of the debate in Washington. "I wrote this paper because there are all these people arguing this was a big effect, and we just didn't know," Rothstein said. "What the results say is, [these people] don't have much of a point."

HuffPost readers: Send your tale of joblessness to arthur@huffingtonpost.com. Please include your phone number if you're willing to do an interview.

In normal times people who lose their jobs through no fault of their own are eligible for six months of state-funded benefits, and in recessions since the 1950s, the federal government has always provided extra weeks of assistance. During the Great Recession, Congress gave the jobless as many as 73 weeks of aid, for a total of 99 weeks in some states -- more than during any previous downturn.

The federal benefits are set to expire in January. President Obama and congressional Democrats want to reauthorize the aid, but Republican leaders have been cool to the idea. The White House has added a sweetener, however, by proposing that states adopt "Bridge to Work" training programs that have been popular with Republicans.

According to the Labor Department, more than 3.5 million long-term unemployed currently receive benefits. State and federal benefits combined kept 3.2 million people out of poverty in 2010, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Extended Unemployment Benefits Not Turning Jobless Into Slackers: Study

2011-09-16T19:50:00Z

HuffPost readers: Send your tale of joblessness to arthur@huffingtonpost.com. Please include your phone number if you're willing to do an interview.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

WATCH: Obama Administration Launches Sad Anti-Foreclosure PSA

2011-09-14T16:30:00Z

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled a new TV advertisement for its anti-foreclosure programs.

The spot shows stone-faced homeowners immobilized by trouble with their mortgage payments. A woman stands motionless on her lawn, morning newspaper in hand as the sprinklers spray her bathrobe. A man stares blankly while pouring coffee all over his kitchen counter. An assembly-line worker lets a conveyor belt send bottles of cranberry juice shattering on the floor.

"When some people struggle with their mortgage payments, they become frozen, petrified," the announcer says. "But the people who do something -- the people who take action -- are far more likely to get the most positive outcome."

The Treasury Department, which oversees the Making Home Affordable program, said the ad is inspired by feedback from homeowners who said they delayed reaching out for assistance because they were overwhelmed or afraid. The public service announcement, crafted by Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be distributed to 33,000 media outlets across the country to air in donated space, the government said.

The administration has said it wants to reduce barriers to refinancing under its Home Affordable Refinance Program so homeowners could take advantage of current low interest rates. The program, which targets homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth, was supposed to reach 5 million borrowers -- but so far it's only helped 800,000.

President Obama said in 2009 that the centerpiece of his administration's anti-foreclosure efforts, the Home Affordable Modification Program, would help 3 to 4 million homeowners modify the terms of their mortgages. While more than a million homeowners have been offered preliminary modifications under HAMP, fewer homeowners have had their mortgages permanently modified than those who have been kicked out of the initiative. Banks and mortgage servicing companies, which directly administer HAMP, are supposed to reduce eligible homeowners' monthly payments in exchange for incentive payments from the government.

Homeowners have complained that banks repeatedly lose documents and provide conflicting information. The Treasury Department announced in September that it would withhold incentive payments from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase for mistreating homeowners trying to get help under HAMP.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Total Number Of Americans In Poverty Swells To All-Time Record

2011-09-13T14:39:36Z

WASHINGTON -- Even though the Great Recession technically ended in 2009, incomes fell, poverty rose and the number of Americans without health insurance jumped again in 2010, the federal government announced Tuesday.

The nation's poverty rate increased to 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 and the highest level since 1993, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's annual Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage report for 2010. An additional 2.6 million people landed in poverty last year, bringing the total to 46.2 million -- the highest number since the government started tracking poverty in the 1950s.

"Income down, poverty up, health insurance coverage down or flat," said Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a statement. "The news on economic well-being in the U.S. is not good. Worse, children’s poverty increased for the fourth year in a row and at 22 percent is the highest since 1993. Child poverty has been higher than the 2010 level in only three years since the mid-1960s."

Poverty is defined by family size and income. The federal government considers a family of four with annual earnings of less than $22,314 to be poor. In 2010, 9.2 million families lived in poverty, up from 8.8 million in 2009.

The report also found a growing number of families are welcoming adult relatives and others into their homes. The number of households "doubled up" with an additional adult rose to 21.8 million, up 2 million since 2007.

The poverty rate for working-age people between 18 and 64 rose to 13.7 percent from 12.9 percent last year, the highest level since the 1960s.

Median household income declined 2.3 percent from the year before to $49,445, making the total decline 6.4 percent since the recession began in 2007. But that drop was not evenly distributed: Income declined for whites and blacks, but not for Asians or Hispanics.

Poverty increased among every racial and ethnic group except Asian Americans. The share of white Americans living in poverty grew to 13 percent, up from 12.3 percent in 2009. African Americans and Latinos saw similar increases in poverty and remained significantly more likely to be poor than whites. In 2010, black poverty climbed to 27.4 percent from 25.8 percent in 2009, and Latino poverty reached 26.6 percent, up from 25.3 percent in 2009.

The share of Americans covered by private health insurance continued its decade-long fall. Nearly 50 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2010, an increase of 900,000 from the previous year. (The Census Bureau changed the way it counts the uninsured; it previously estimated 50.7 million were uninsured in 2009.) The number of Americans who participate in a government health insurance program, however, continued its four-year climb.

Economists expect the health care reform law passed by Congress last year to reverse the trend of people losing insurance coverage in 2014, when the law's major provisions kick in. In the meantime, a temporary program created by the law to cover the uninsured has so far reached only 21,000 people -- far below its expected enrollment. The administration has estimated that as many as 25 million Americans who lack health insurance have pre-existing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

In 2010, Economists at the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal government's extended unemployment insurance prevented a record poverty rate the year before. In 2009, the rate rose to 14.3 percent. Without unemployment benefits, which paid tens of billions of dollars to middle class families, poverty could have risen to 15.4 percent.

The federal extended benefits have remained in effect. They currently support roughly half the unemployed who receive insurance, but are set to expire in January unless Congress acts. The Census Bureau said Tuesday that unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people out of poverty in 2010, and that Social Security retirement benefits did the same for nearly 14 million seniors.

CBO's analysis demonstrated that unemployment insurance mainly supports middle class families. Households with total income more than twice the poverty threshold accounted for 70 percent of the $120 billion the government spent on benefits in 2009. Families with income below the poverty threshold received 8 percent of all benefits.

Alice O'Connor, a historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of "Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S. History," said explanations for rising poverty often focus on the work ethic and personal choices of the poor. But since the Great Recession, she said, a growing number of Americans have come to understand that the availability of living-wage jobs plays a large role in determining a family’s economic state.

Despite that recognition, O'Connor said many still fail to understand the role social policies -- such as those that make collective bargaining difficult, or tax income from work and investments differently -- contribute to increased poverty.

She noted that public health insurance programs for poor children and adults and cash welfare assistance, among other social safety net measures, have seen significant cuts in many cash-strapped states. And many workers -- particularly men -- are effectively earning less than they did three decades ago, while also lacking access to health insurance and other benefits.

"What we are looking at today is really the result of decades of eroded protections for workers and just a declining number of good jobs," said O'Connor.

Tuesday's report details the share of Americans who live on poverty-level wages or less. That measure is an important indicator of earnings, but it's not the most telling measure of household economic well-being, said Darrick Hamilton, an economist at The New School.

Wealth is what really determines the neighborhood in which most people live, the schools their children attend and what resources they have to shore them up in a crisis, said Hamilton. Wealth is the value of assets and cash that an individual or family has after accounting for debt.

"We really need to shift the national dialogue away from looking at snapshots and subsistence income and start taking a closer look at wealth, assets and what their absence or presence means in people’s lives," said Hamilton.

"Education, occupation and income matter," he added. "But wealth trumps them all because it gives you choices and protection when times are good or times are bad.”

In 2009, the most recent year for which wealth data is available, the gap between wealth of the average black and average white household grew to a size unseen since the 1980s, according to a July Pew Research Center report. Median white household wealth was about $113,000. Median black family wealth was about $5,700, and median Latino household wealth was $6,300. Hamilton said that wealth gap exists in large part because much of white household wealth is inherited.

The recession has caused families of all races and ethnicities to lose wealth because of a loss or reduction in the value of critical assets, such as homes. The vast differences in median household wealth also help explain why black and Latino poverty rates are more than two times higher than that of white families.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Obama Jobs Package Would Ban Discrimination Against Jobless

2011-09-13T13:55:00Z

WASHINGTON -- The jobs package President Obama sent to Congress on Monday includes a ban on hiring discrimination against the jobless.

Since last year companies and staffing firms have been slipping "must be currently employed" requirements into online job postings, a practice President Obama has said "makes absolutely no sense."

The provision is modeled on legislation first sponsored this year by Democrats in the House of Representatives, which would ban hiring discrimination against the jobless (but would not make employment status a protected class like race or sex). Republican leaders in the House have embraced some elements of Obama's overall proposal, but spokesmen for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) did not respond to requests for comment on the jobless discrimination piece.

The proposed legislation states that hiring discrimination against the jobless undermines the nation's economic stability, squanders human capital, increases demand for unemployment insurance, imposes burdens on publicly funded health and welfare programs and depresses the government's tax revenue. The bill would ban discriminatory language in job ads and also discrimination against the jobless itself. Affected workers could file claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The ban would nevertheless give employers tons of leeway to favor workers with relevant recent work experience. Language in the bill says it is not intended "to preclude an employer or employment agency from considering an individual's employment history or examining the reasons underlying an individual’s status as unemployed in assessing the individual's ability to perform the job or otherwise making employment decisions about the individual."

Practically speaking, it's also unlikely that eliminating overt anti-unemployed job ads would prevent businesses from quietly passing over the jobless, a practice that would be difficult to prove.

In August, HuffPost surveyed more than 30 businesses responsible for such ads. Of the ones that responded, most disavowed the discriminatory language, though several staffing firms insisted their clients only wanted employed recruits (see the slideshow below).

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), one of the original sponsors of legislation to ban the discrimination, hailed Obama's proposal in a statement.

"Discrimination against the unemployed -- especially the long-term unemployed -- in job ads and hiring practices flies in the face of what we stand for as a nation: Equal opportunity for all," Johnson said. "I'm proud to work with President Obama to stop this injustice."

Six million people have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Below is a slideshow of anti-unemployed job ads:

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.