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“I’m not an economist,” 31st Ward alderman Ray Suarez admitted this morning to all who might still have been wondering. Suarez looked alternately lost and impatient during testimony before the City Council’s housing committee by the actual economist in the room, William Strauss of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago—but in fairness, he wasn’t the only one. The committee was gathered to discuss a resolution, already signed by 40 aldermen, calling on Congress to pass legislation helping home owners at risk of foreclosure; Strauss was one of several experts asked to address what many American economists and noneconomists have been claiming for months: the country is experiencing an economic downturn.
Third Ward alderman Pat Dowell: Do you consider a point when maybe, considering the rising price of food and gas, this might have an impact on society in terms of creating social unrest?Strauss: I don’t know about social unrest. I don’t think we’re at those kind of levels.
