THE BEST OF THE WORST

February 8, 2010

By Al Doyle

Each new day now offers enough gloomy financial information to fill a book. In the interest of brevity, here are a few of the many indicators of America's declining economic situation.

What about the federal government's recent claim that 541,000 more Americans were working in January than in December, a month when there are normally plenty of seasonal jobs to boost the employment figures?

As Yahoo! News noted, "But those gains resulted from seasonal adjustments in the data." Translating from bureaucratese to plain English, "seasonal adjustments" means "Whatever we want the numbers to say."

Yahoo! News concluded, "Without those adjustments, the data showed fewer people had jobs last month." Even by their own deliberately low count, government sources admit that at least 8.4 million jobs have disappeared since late 2008.

The current financial decline has gone well beyond impacting discretionary spending and luxury purchases. Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters announced 300 more layoffs, while Neenah Enterprises filed bankruptcy hoping for $220 million in debt reduction. Neenah produces molds and castings for sewer grates and manhole covers. What could be more basic and needed in any economic scenario?

Salaried non-union Delphi Corp. retirees are looking at reductions of 30 to 70 percent in their pensions. The Delphi retirement plan was taken over by the Federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp., which ran a $33.5 billion deficit in the first half of 2009.

Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villanaigosa called for immediate layoffs of 1000 city employees. This year's projected $208 million budget shortfall combined with an estimated $485 billion deficit in 2011 means that even proven big spenders such as Villanaigosa are being forced to face economic reality.

But at least unemployed Americans can forget their troubles by watching football on TV for a few hours, right? Even the hugely successful National Football League may be facing problems.

Team owners have asked the players union to reduce its share of gross revenues from 59 percent to 41 percent in the next collective bargaining agreement. The players aren't enthusiastic about the offer, and serious talk of a lockout by owners is in the air.

The NFL claims that nine of its 32 teams are losing money, and the union wants to see all the books and financial statements. So what's the real story? MIA believes that team owners expect sharply lower attendance and earnings in the future, and they don't want to base a labor deal on the good times and easy money of the past.