Gain for Wall Street, Foreclosure on the Rise

Markets dropped during trading yesterday, leading some to question the long-term viability of this summer rally. The NASDAQ dropped 1.04 percent (23.69 points) marking the worst performance of the day. The S&P 500 (0.69 percent, 7.71 points) and the Dow Jones (0.38 percent, 39.81 points) also dropped on the day.

Wall Street gained on strong earnings figures this morning. One of the best performances was by Exxon Mobil, which posted a staggering 91 percent year-to-year jump in profits.

According to MarketWatch, the huge profit increase was coupled with a slight drop in first-time unemployment figures from the Labor Department. This should be enough good news to spur markets throughout the rest of the day barring some unforeseen dilemma.

Profits are on the way up for every oil company that has avoided destroying a major ecosystem in the last fiscal quarter. This is great news for investors, but bad news for consumers. A rise in oil profits means a rise in cost at the pump. Every dollar of profit raked in by a major oil company is money taken out of your wallet that could have been used on something else.

While the financial economy grew and major corporations posted huge profits, the American people once again continue to suffer. Even with businesses now making more money, that money is not going to employees. As a result, foreclosures are on the rise in 75 percent of America’s metro areas, according to CNNMoney.com.

Obviously the foreclosure crisis cannot be solved by paying employees more, but it would be a start. The most important factor in foreclosures is when banks increase repayment rates to a point that no one could reasonably afford. The whole point of big business is to tap consumers of every dollar they have.

Businesses cut pay to save profits, and then layoff workers to save more money, then banks increase repayment rates to get more money out of borrowers before it is all gone. In the end corporate bottomlines are protected while the people upon whom the true economy is built are left in shambles.