This is your Moment of Clarity #231: We're told the economy is in recovery. But is it really? Recovery for who? Check out this article from Les Leopold to find out more.

Keep fighting,

Lee

Devon Lawrence hasn't had heat since Hurricane Sandy three months ago. His elderly mother wears gloves to bed and Lawrence wakes up early to turn the heat on so she doesn't wake up cold. Despite all of the challenges, he isn't giving up:

Via:

Devon Lawrence neatly stacked bricks on the gas burner of his kitchen stove and turned up the blue flame, creating a sort of radiator that warmed the ice-cold room.

His two-story house in the Far Rockaway section of Queens hasn't had working heat since Superstorm Sandy's floodwaters destroyed the oil burner in the basement. Now mold is growing upstairs because the house has been cold and damp for so long.

Lawrence wakes early every morning to heat the bricks and light a kerosene space heater while his 75-year-old mother sits in bed in a hat and gloves.

"That way she doesn't freeze," said Lawrence, a former Army medic who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Even the dog is cold."

The Associated Press also interviewed Norma Mancia, a Salvadoran immigrant, for this report. Mancia's home is also located in the Far Rockaways, and she lost many preciouos documents in the flooding.

"We lost all the receipts and papers we could need in case we have the opportunity of solving our legal status here," said Mancia, who has received only $500 in aid from a local church. "I have cried a lot."

Because she is in the U.S. illegally, Mancia has not received any funds from FEMA.

President Obama today called upon Congress to finally fix what he called a "broken" immigration system. While there seems to be rare bipartisan cooperation in crafting a plan that includes a clear path to citizenship, it seems unlikely that any new legislation could be put into effect soon enough to be of assistance to Mancia, or others in similar situations.

Bill’s conversation with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman yielded many insights, cautions, and honest takes on Jack Lew, President Obama’s choice for Treasury Secretary. We clipped three of those specific moments — including one web-exclusive that will not be shown on air — below.

In the first cut, Krugman discusses public support for seeing him in the Treasury position, and why Lew might have the right temperament for the job.

In this next, web-exclusive clip, Bill asks Krugman what he thinks of Jack Lew’s stated view that financial industry deregulation was not the “proximate cause” of the financial crisis, a view that recently moved Senator Bernie Sanders to oppose Lew’s nomination.

Continue reading »

Single-family home prices rose in September for an sixth straight month in a further sign that the housing market is on the mend, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

The 3.6% increase from a year earlier is the biggest percentage gain in more than two years in the third quarter, according to the closely followed S&P/Case-Shiller index:

This latest rise comes as the housing market has shown numerous other signs of recovery in recent months. The rebound is spurred by a combination of record low mortgage rates, an improving jobs market and a drop in foreclosures to a five-year low, reducing the supply of distressed homes available. There is also a tighter supply of both new and previously owned homes on the market.

The improvement in housing market fundamentals have helped to lift the pace of both home sales and home building.

Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research who was one of the earliest economists to warn about the housing bubble and the trouble that lay ahead, said this recovery in the housing market should lead to some sustained housing price increases in the coming years.

"I've been an optimist as of late," he said. "Some think it'll get back to bubble prices and that's crazy. But we'll probably do better than inflation for the next few years, and people who have been underwater on their mortgage will get out from that, and build some equity."

"With six months of consistently rising home prices, it is safe to say that we are now in the midst of a recovery in the housing market," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

This webcast is an amazing thing to witness. @OccupySandy teaming up with a biker club to clean up homes in New York's Staten Island ravaged by the hurricane. Doing what FEMA can't, or won't. The Occupy Sandy movement has been fascinating to watch in action, many of the volunteers are experienced in just this sort of effort after aiding recovery efforts in NOLA after Katrina, and in Haiti after the earthquake. After being declared "dead" and "without purpose" by the media, this leaderless volunteer movement showed the world what community activism really means, and what the ability to mobilize at a moment's notice can accomplish.

In the video below, brief interviews with a few Occupy Sandy volunteers. This is Jacobi Church in Sunset Park where the volunteers are gathering and organizing the donations.

Occupy Sandy Relief from Dwayne Henry on Vimeo.

A photo from what’s left of the Breezy Point neighborhood in Queens. Via the official FDNY Flickr account.

Occupy Wall Street & 350.org have teamed up with Recovers.org – a people-powered disaster relief platform – to help coordinate response to Hurricane Sandy in NYC. At Recovers.org we are launching support pages where people can GIVE help or post a NEED. For ongoing updates and info about this evolving relief effort, and to find out how you can help, be sure to sign up and stay informed at the Occupy Sandy Hub!

http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/

Support Pages

https://lowereastside.recovers.org/ – (646) 580-7473
https://astoria.recovers.org/ – (347) 669-4394
https://redhook.recovers.org – (347) 770-1528

Information via OccupyWallSt,org