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17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Still Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
No, the economy is most definitely not "recovering". Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media (shrugging off today's terrible GDP print), the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was prior to the last recession. In fact, we are still pretty much where we were at when the last recession finally ended. When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level. For example, the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably flat for the past four years. We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even worse. It is almost as if someone has hit the "pause button" on the U.S. economy. But things are definitely not getting better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will accelerate once again. The following are 17 facts to show to anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine...
#1 The homeownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
#2 Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November. This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead.
#3 Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed. That means that one out of every five families in the entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There are 1.3 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December 2007. Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily since that time.
#6 According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, the quality of the jobs that have been "created" since the end of the last recession does not match the quality of the jobs lost during the last recession...
- Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
- Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
- Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth.
#7 After adjusting for inflation, men who work full-time in America today make less money than men who worked full-time in America 40 years ago.
#8 It is hard to believe, but 62 percent of all Americans make $20 or less an hour at this point.
#9 Nine of the top ten occupations in the U.S. pay an average wage of less than $35,000 a year.
#10 The middle class in Canada now makes more money than the middle class in the United States does.
#11 According to one recent study, 40 percent of all Americans could not come up with $2000 right now even if there was a major emergency.
#12 Less than one out of every four Americans has enough money put away to cover six months of expenses if there was a job loss or major emergency.
#13 An astounding 56 percent of all Americans have subprime credit in 2014.
#14 As I wrote about the other day, there are now 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.
#15 Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin. But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.
#16 69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs.
#17 The number of Americans receiving benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.
Taken individually, those numbers are quite remarkable.
Taken collectively, they are absolutely breathtaking.
Yes, things have been improving for the wealthy for the last several years. The stock market has soared to new record highs and real estate prices in the Hamptons have skyrocketed to unprecedented heights.
But that is not the real economy. In the real economy, the middle class is being squeezed out of existence. The quality of our jobs is declining and prices just keep rising. This reality was reflected quite well in a comment that one of my readers left on one of my recent articles...
It is getting worse each passing month. The food bank I help out, has barely squeaked by the last 3 months. Donors are having to pull back, to take care of their own families. Wages down, prices up, simple math tells you we can not hold out much longer. Things are going up so fast, you have to adopt a new way of thinking. Example I just had to put new tires on my truck. Normally I would have tried to get by to next winter. But with the way prices are moving, I decide to get them while I could still afford them. It is the same way with food. I see nothing that will stop the upward trend for quite a while. So if you have a little money, and the space, buy it while you can afford it. And never forget, there will be some people worse off than you. Help them if you can.
And the false stock bubble that the wealthy are enjoying right now will not last that much longer. It is an artificial bubble that has been pumped up by unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, and like all bubbles that the Fed creates, it will eventually burst.
None of the long-term trends that are systematically destroying our economy have been addressed, and none of our major economic problems have been fixed. In fact, as I showed in this recent article, we are actually in far worse shape than we were just prior to the last major financial crisis.
Let us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long as possible.
That is what I am hoping for.
But let us not be deceived into thinking that it is permanent.
It will soon burst, and then the real pain will begin.
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RECOVERY SUMMER FIVE!!!!
Gimme an iDon'tFuckin'CareAnymoreOrLess.
Keep Stackin'
You guys better watch yourselves or the PTB will arrange for HillBillary (or even Joe Biden) to be your next predident
Them's shootin' words...
Well, if HillBillary gets elected, at least we'll have some cankles to look at.
And those pant suits, what an aphrodisiac.
...not to mention other....areas.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gunt
> Let us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long as possible
The longer it lasts the more painful it will be when it bursts - it would be better to get it over with now. Government is paying people to break their own windows to stimulate the economy. Let's hope the bubble bursts sonner rather than later!
Hey GT, don't be messn' with my sista!!!
GT, I clicked the link out of morbid curiosity and you suck.
I think this term is classier:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fupa
the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.
This is the "I'm ready for Hillary" generation. You go, grrrl.
"There ain't nuthin uglier than an old white woman." Fred Sanford
You keep posting this, drendebe10. Why? Because you have a fixation on old white women. Your mother, in particular.
Normal men and women don't think much about the appearance of old members of the opposite sex. If they are forced to consider their appearance, they leave it at a short "ick", and then move on to another thought. But you have posted this Sanford quote dozens of times. Dozens of times, just here on ZH, you have expressed your unnatural obsession with the appearance of old women.
Normal men and women look at old members of the opposite sex, and think, "oh, mom/dad, grandma/gramps," and have vaguely fond thoughts, unless something specific causes them to have other thoughts. You, however, immediately think about how physically attractive old women are to you - you are mesmerized and aroused by Mom, or is it Grandma? Oh, those lucious wrinkles! Oh, those tasty shriveled lips! Then you are appalled. Just appalled!!! Then you do it again, and again, and again.
It must be painful to be you, wacking off to old episodes of the Golden Girls, night after night, and then typing in the Sanford post with your wacky fingers. It certainly is boring to see your post, over and over again.
He means that old white women are especially ugly, not merely that they are ugly in the way all old women are ugly. There is some truth to this. The face collapses, usually quite early, and then there's what Mexicans call, "El Mal de las Mujeres Blanco," or what we gringos call "thunder thighs." You see, if we had any intention of building an equal opportunity society (we manifestly have no such intention, including in the gubmint), then we might occasionally recognize the advantages enjoyed by women "of color," which happily include this one: they age better.
Via con dios.
About 80 percent of visible aging is due to sun exposure. If white men or women wear a hat over the years, they age as well as anyone.
He is fixated on old white WOMEN. You are describing old white people in general. Sure, old white people who are sun damaged, look dreadful. The fact that he is fixated on old white WOMEN (when white men and women are equally sun damaged), says something about his obsessions - check and see how many times he has posted the Sanford quote.
You couldn't possibly be claiming that old white men, look better than old white women??? Good lord, if anything the men look worse - balding, saggy jowls, sunken chests, veiny hands, Depends bulges, skinny legs, floppy arms, skin tags . . . and then there is the "old man smell" . . .
BTW, part of the "humor" of the Sanford quote, was due to how repulsive Sanford looked - which gave a frisson of irony to his saying it.
Kareninca
Are you a white woman? I am just wondering.
Maybe he posts that over and over to get those up arrows? Maybe he is fascinated with that? They were talking about Hillary afterall. ick
Do you really need to ask that question as the answer is obvious? Nothing worse than the scorn of a woman with cankles...
Haha, of course I'm a white woman, who does not have cankles; only five pounds heavier than high school weight.
This guy posts this over and over again; it is so tedious; as if old white men look any better than old white women?????? Seriously??????
He has a powerful erotic Mommy fixation in any case; no normal person cares so much about how old women/men of any ethnicity look.
I'll take Biden over HillBillary. Less competent at being evil and at least he'd be good for a laugh. Hillbillary is certainly competent at being evil and is ugly and shrill.
Is there a third option where being competent at being evil is not a factor?
Jeb Bush, maybe, if he shares any DNA with the last useful idiot to inhabit the oddly shaped office.
I wouldn't say Dubya was evil. Thick as two short planks, yes. Low IQ and easily manipulated by the MIC, obviously. Way too dense to be evil though.
Billious Clitnot is a shoo-in next time round. And besides, whoever they nominate, the GOP alternative wouldn't exactly be a new dawn.
It matters not a flying fuck who gets in. Polititians are self-serving lobby-fueled corporate fascist scum the world over, but particularly the reds and blues in the USA.
True enough. But THAT horrible cunt? Assuming I thought that voting changed anything in the USA, which I don't, that would be a reason to nuke yourselves for criminal stupidity!
They are talking about it down in the convicts.
Tax payung serfs w a head in yheie shoulders dont need anyone to let them kniw fudge packer in chief economyis fukt in the big stinky.
Green Chutes! Green Chutes everybody. I mean shoots.
How can unemployment be that high? I talked to our lawn guy, José, who lives with about 12 Latinos and he said all of them is fully employed.
I talked to the fence guy, Juan, who said the same thing in the group he lives with. Same with Fernando and Julio who are also working around my neighborhood on the roads or building new houses. They said their group’s unemployment is zero.
Odd.
You've still got a few standing around Home Depot waiting for a position after 9am where I am........
I love the one black guy that shows up around 7pm asking if you need help loading your car. You've missed the major demand by then. Interestingly you do have a few Home Depot employees trolling for bus fare in the parking lot after shift change. Always the same younger ones (WTF?) They may not be well paid but it really doesn't go over well with the customers they were ignoring a few minutes earlier. Funny how the old guys and older women seem to be the ones working their tails off while the young ones don't ever seem to do much. Apparently the local HD has a problem finding workers who'll pass the drug test.
I always thought the drug test was to determine if they were smart enough to pass. If they can't pass the drug test, then they must be super lazy (stupid?).
Well I don't know where to drop this in; I've been meaning to give everyone one url where they can dispense with global warming once and for all; let's say it's pertinent because it threatens the American Economy thru the machinations of "Da Prez"; and the lobbyists from Big Oil, to institute a punitive "carbon tax". http://www.examiner.com/article/carbon-dioxide-irrelevant-climate-debate.... So those of you who are interested in facts can get them; and those who are beyond facts can try to pretend they don't exist. Cheers.
I bet when he got to 16 he started doing angry push ups and his personal trainer slapped the shit out of him and yelled "17 Michael! Go for 17 you can do it you silly little bitch!!". Then he threw the 17th one in there and his trainer slapped him on the ass and they went to starbucks for some frappucino's.
Ya Fonz, but the 17th one should incite revolution from all of us who still work for a living!
DaddyO
It should.....but it doesn't.
Leave it to this complete putz to claim that the stock market is a bubble being enjoyed by the 1%....and then concluding that he hopes it goes on for as long as possible.
This has to be comedy.
Kinda like the kid at the fair who is screaming and balling his eyes out on the roller coaster...and then when the ride ends...he jumps back in line.
Grande if you were writing a book about an economic collapse in America, your hero good guy would be "a respected financial reporter and blogger who took his prepping to extremes" right? Your bad guy would obviously be a 7 ft tall red eyed bald guy, correct?
Bull from Night Court is the bad guy?
http://www.nightcourtcentral.com/style/images/art/nightcourt8.jpg
I thought we had passed 17 and were working on 18
#18: Markets are at all time highs and going straight up with no possible top in sight.
Pfft! All the plebs need are bread and circuses. And cake.
/sarc
"Let us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long as possible.
That is what I am hoping for."
LOL
When the bubble pops....so does the list making.
So, hey...there is an upside.
Is that #1 on your list of things that stop when things go pop?
Number one should be apathy.
But, I could not care one way or the other.
Not necessarily.
10 Things You Didn't Know Were Edible
5 Fun Things to Do With Your Bricks of Worthless Fiat Paper
10 Animals You Can Breed In Your Basement for Food
20 Hottest Black Market Items
8 Great Ways to Repurpose Your Car Before It's Repossessed
12 Reasons to Hop The Border and Never Look Back
16 Things You Didn't Know You Could Barter for Medicine
7 Ways to Insulate Your Shanty
Animal raising?
That'll get you a little visit from 3-4 BLM SWAT teams. ( used to be from just a single team, but peasants are nowadays more .....disrespectful. )
Me too. I've already spent all my future earnings based upon 20% per year compounded stock market gains.
In fairness, since there's probably no easy exit from this current bubble, the gross, obscene inequality, immorality and injustice of the current state is probably still better than what's coming down the pipe. And I'm pretty sure we won't even get the satisfaction of seeing the thieves pay for their crimes, just everywhere looking more and more like Detroit.
That may be true Al, but my guess is this guy just wants the paychecks to keep comin.
Yeah, I imagine, but given the alternative....
I hear you man. You know it's interesting Al, I have gotten junked to shit for saying something similar. Because it kind of implies that the fed has actually prevented what this author posits will happen, or at least delayed the shit out of it.
It's how he says it. All cool, smooth, a bit aloof and dripping with sarcasm. I almost always read his comments when I come across them in a thread.
FYI- I see your serial-junker showed up tonight. Mine's not here yet, but give it time.
....time
(not me)
I think the easy exit passed a long time ago. When your government advocates a MyRA and scissors for financial and personal protection, it should be clear to any thinking person we are done. Only hope now is to prep for a most likely uncomfortable future, help your like minded friends do so as well and be courageous.
Miffed;-)
careful, running with scissors can get you SHOT in fascist amerika
There's no exit.
well if you read the book (and I ain't talkin about the bible). Jesus will save you. Here is a piece. If this does not get you completely hooked, nothing will.
""tom, have you been following the economic news lately?" ...Hannah hesitated again, but she kept going. "Tom, our economy is about to collapse... the American people deserve to be warned about what is coming..."
Lists consistently generate readers.
But this SOB is generating money from misery. He could recalibrate all this into something more palatable.
If 90% of military spending were included in entitlement and welfare spending as it should be, the amount of the federal budget spent on welfare and entitlements would likely exceed 90%.
Military ain't no welfare son! Them boys be fightin' for our freedumbs from them terrists.
100% of government spending is welfare for someone.
But all my friends look happy with their Selfies on Instagram.
And everyone on the Today Show is happy and says things are just fine!
/sarc
This will bite the Dems in the butt hard.
Part of the plan to rotate the parties, gotta keep the plebs happy.
Go, Team, Go!
Well, it's not too hard when you are dealing with a flock of emus. Whenever they turn around its a brand new world.
Miffed;-)
The vast majority of people aren’t paying attention. Those who are paying attention, and who are not 'insiders' recognize economists ruminations as rank propaganda. Those who are in the club don’t believe a word that is being said because they wrote the script and they know it’s all bullshit.
There is no expertise with 'insider' economists, only a script, and a plan
They are not paying attention because they are on the free shit train. Order up some more cars and at least another locomotive.
As long as the elite can pay their bills nothing will change. They don't give a care about the problems. They will cut welfare spending because they have to and just deal with the fallout. They pay countless agents for the protection of their status quo. It can get alot shittier and there's not a whole lot anyone can do to escape that. Until the number of Americans angry enough to march against the elite increases, nothing will change. Doesn't matter one bit who the elite puts in the White House.
The elite sits on record amounts of cash. Has leveraged their corporations to the gilts and sold stocks to the Fed or banks or whoever was dumb enough to buy the stock. That cash is a complete waste of space and slows everything else down. The Fed can't raise rates or the elite will try and earn more interest on said cash. That won't work and a default would naturally happen.
Maybe a rogue government will reset the wealth and destroy the cash holdings via reset. That cash is holding America and its citizens ransom to the control of the elite anyway. Doesn't serve any other purpose.
Maybe they'll adjust the value of that cash by changing the currency again, only this time instead of being merely cosmetic and circulating WITH the old bills, they'll have us actually exchange our current bills for the new ones. Which will be valued differntly of course.
It seems like they have been getting us used to currency changes in recent years. First the wierd coins, then the new colors, the jazzy off-center Presidential side-view portraits, etc...
If it's of any consequence with the smoking mirrors we have out there, even Bill Clinton is tired of the press using him as "click bait" for stories they kind of make up, especially with Obamacare and the ACA. Let's face it, he's getting older and it's harder for him to keep up with all the kind of stupid news we get today. Some reporters are even getting paid on the number of clicks their stories get as papers need money so they are maximizing ad impressions and clicks, so thus Clinton comes in real handy as click bait.
Bill Clinton States He’s Tired of Being “Click Bait” for the News Media When It Comes to News Articles About Obamacare and the ACA
Kind of off topic but I learn from reading over here too and this post got a lot of action. I used to write code so I'm a bit deeper into my commenting on flawed math and algorithms than many others you see out there. So today it was my turn with the SEC...anothe repeat of HHS with agency heads that don't know squat about math and coding running federal agencies...and I was happy to see even the SEC read it:) I talk about those folks looking for algo fairies that don't exist from time to time as their peceptions just are so weird. It is frustrating to see those who think everything is just fine and it's not and depends on a very comlplex system of mathematical finance and algorithms that could blow a gasket at any minute.
“Markets Are Not Rigged” Spoken Like A True Data Mechanics Novice, It’s Like Sebelius at HHS All Over Again, Looking For Algo Fairies at The SEC, One More Government Agency Wrapped Up in “The Grays”…
6 reasons why I really should be locked up.
1. I live in a house that's in foreclosure (inherited), so I don't pay PI or Taxes.
2. I hate work so I stopped doing it about six months ago.
3. My main sources of income are secrets.
4. I asked a middle-aged woman what she would do for food in an economic collapse. She answered, "McDonald's." (no lie.)
5. I drink and drive.
6. Haven't paid federal income tax since 1998.
7. I have a vegetable garden.
8. I don't really care that the NSA reads my emails or listens to my phone calls, figuring I'm not even on their radar and they're a bunch of fuck-ups anyway.
9. I find it absurd that GDP printed at 0.1% for the 1st quarter and stocks went UP!
10. I'm too lazy to go back up and edit the "6" reasons to "9" or "10."
11. Fuck you.
12. Yellen is my second cousin. Bernanke was my first and Oblahblah is my uncle.
13. Fuck you again.
Six ?!?!?!
This looks like 13 or so to me ....
Besides being a model citizen, he can't count. What is not to like?
Following in the wake of the Baby Boomers is a real bummer.
Hating on us doesn't help you much, youngling. Rather than blaming a generation, perhaps you might pull yourself up by the bootstraps and find something that gives you the strength to BE the change you desire.
We're not the enemy ;)
good luck. there's an entire generation coming up that hates your fucking guts.
Hope you lot have got your nursing home plans all sorted out. The kids aren't going to care about you in your declining years.
I have planned for my retirement, thank you for your concern <sarc>
My 2 children do care about me, and they will not be burdened with my care, however I do know that they would happily accept responsibility for that if it came to it.
That knowledge is very comforting to me. It's called family caring for family and I am extremely fortunate to have it and have nurtured it.
I am deeply saddened by your comment, you seem very angry ... and alone.
If you tired old fucks had pulled yourselves up by the bootstraps instead of voting yourself govco goodies.............never mind, you and the rest of your self agrandizing bunch are hopelessly deluded.
Yes, never mind lest it get ugly. I'll wade in here.
I was about to inguire if you were 'hatched' or something to be so uncaring about those that brought your so apparent ungrateful butt into this world ....
Never mind and carry on and junk on :)
EDIT I'm not done yet
And do not even GO THERE with playing it back to me about my tired butt pulling myself up by the bootstraps!! Been there done that! Today, I scrub toilets, empty trash and mop and vacuum. Before, I was an estimator for a concrete subcontractor .... the BEST they ever had!
So yeah, I have pulled myself up by the bootstraps.
PS .. The company I clean for would tell you ... I am the BEST they ever had ;)
It's all relevant, we do the best we can
Get out of Dodge. Move to Western Australia, home of the World's biggest gold coin
I'd love to move to Western Australia 'cept I cant even afford to move from my Father's basement.
We don't have basements here, but we do have garden sheds. They are called 'Granny Flats'
I have an extremely wealthy friend.
This month he:
rented his place in the Hamptons for the summer to cover the annual cost of the place; and
ditto for his plantation estate in the south.
Everyone with income is stashing cash. If you have debt, get rid of it - sell everything legal.
Why stop at legal?
The American economy is wearing down through attrition. Today was more proof the economic recovery that the media and talking heads have been bantering around does not exist and is just a myth. A manipulated stock market distorted by recent economic policy hides and mask the real truth, in many ways it has become ground zero in the war to convince us all is well.
The American people and Main Street will tell you they are far from convinced that it is smooth sailing ahead. Huge weakness in the economy has been shown by numbers that barely get by even after record amounts of stimulus. Fact is if QE or the massive government deficit spending that props up our economy is removed it will fold like a cheap umbrella. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/10/myth-of-economic-recovery.html
How do you create equality? You create an environment where the the poor stay poor, the middle class becomes poor, the rich become richer on debt. Then you crash the system. The poor will be poorl. The middle class is gone. The rich become poor (remember their debt based wealth?).
The masters (those beyond rich, the .01%) become the only ones with wealth and enslave everyone else.
This only works if some of the poor go along with it and act as the guards for the masters.
met one of 'em on Mon....
Lesbian "Latina" Sherrif's Dept, dumb as a thousand bags of rocks, with MAJOR control issues
What I like about numbers is that when they are not jockeyed, jerked around, and falsified they tend to tell the truth. Looking down the road the numbers do not work. Allen H Meltzer is viewed by many economist as America’s foremost expert in monetary policy.
He is the author of the three-volume “A History of the Federal Reserve” and also chaired the Shadow Open Market Committee for over 25 years. Meltzer recently stated, “We’re in the biggest mess we’ve been in since the 1930s,” he went on to say “We’ve never had a more problematic future.” For more on why he feels this way see the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/07/it-will-all-end-badly.html
I know Carl Deninger isn't thought too highly of around here, but he once made the pithy observation:
"Look, Folks. This isn't politics. Or finances or economics. It's math."
(Arithmatic, really.)
(Or words to that effect.)
Math? Funny, coming from someone who advocates fiat currency and fractional reserve lending. Please don't mention that douche canoe ever again.
I love Karl. And it IS about the math.
We are "better off" in two ways.
Have to think of the chart of economic activity in terms of a damped vibration. The impact of 2008 drove the economy temporarily lower than it should be, so there is a signficant "dead cat bounce" expected. That is NOT the sign of any great recovery, just the end of the downward impact.
Secondly, the absolute level so scared people that they refrained voluntarily from optional activity for some time - not to mention that manufacturers found themselves with excess producive capacity looking forward for ten years. This drove the economy temporarily even further from equilibrium. Some of this works out over time as the optional becomes the necessary, more of the rest works out as we get used to the new normal and find it is not the complete pits.
IOW, if NOTHING WAS DONE, we "recover" on both of these basis.
And that's pretty much the case - nothing *effective* has been done.
Instead, we have additional bogus recovery from the insanity of $17t in debt and $4t in fed printing.
There is also $100- to $200-Trillion in unfunded liabilities.
That's 6 to 12 times the size of the present debt.
The idea that we recover when we simultaneously have those unmet debts hanging over us doesn't add up.
The unfunded liabilities are not *necessarily* a big problem, it's the abuse of the privilege that makes them a problem. The thing is, for something like social security, there is not really any way to fund them in advance - unless you want to buy gold and put it in a vault. And I guess some would be OK with that. But what you can't do is buy tbonds in advance and lock them in a vault.
The abuse happens as in California and other blue states, where the unfunded pension liabilities are absurd and impossible, and they're large but it's not the total size, it's that they are unjust and unsound.
And how many Americans - in spite of the fact that they can see how their fearless leaders (Deep State) has screwed them - are still cheering against the only man standing against them - PUTIN?
Such people deserve everything that is coming their way. They really do deserve to be suffering - they have brought these circumstances on themselves.
BULLETS AND BULLION BITCHEZ!!
Because someone had to say it.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/designate-russia-state-sponsor...
If you're gonna promote a WH petition, at least do one that means something. Plenty of other Ukraine/Russia threads here unless you wanna start another one that asks for recognition of a certain dying empire as supporting and encouraging terrrrissm.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/maintain-true-net-neutrality-p...
Have you actually read that statute?
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2331
Since it applies to Israel, without any doubt at all, and since the U.S. government directly funds and enables Israeli state terrorism, the U.S. government is in criminal violation of U.S. law. Of course, the U.S. is probably the world leader in state terrorism, although pound-for-pound the Zionist Jews are and have been world champs since Joshua told the Heebs gOd said to kill all the women and children, on account of gOd having over-booked The Promised LandTM
You're probably going to post a link to that petition next, right, champ?
p.s. "apartheid" as defined by the UN applies as well. What's peculiar is how anybody can take seriously the claim that it is racist to point out racism...when the racism in question is being practiced by {Zionist} Jews.
Or the terrorism....
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/terrorism.html
#16 69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs.
HOUSTON? WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
"69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs."
The other 31% is wasted.
I have been reading/listening to this doom porn since 2007, listened to my old man who grewup in the dust bowl cowboy warn me all his life about the coming crash. I passed up a super 911 Porsche for $10K in 08, a 912 in 2010 for $5k, both now worth $25k.
Passed up a piece of land at $1,300 acre in 2009 now worth $3,750 plus. Many other stories like that, due to my addiction to doom porn and the end of the know world as we know it manra, I even preach it to all that will listen. Kunstler, all seem to really noy see what is really going on. You see, the fuckers than really run things know a asteroid is going to hit very soon and really don;t give a fuck about you, the price for the super secret ride out of here on this giant self sustaining capsule is really going to go to the one tenth of .01% You see Putin has the capsule just about ready to set off!
(dibbs on the book and movie plot)
In my expanded family, about 1 in 3 are highly skilled doctors .lawyers and engineers and doing quite well with very nice incomes, homes, cars, and retirements. The remainder are suffering hand to mouth working 2 or more part time jobs; They have two or more years of college and are not stupid or on drugs. In the past they would be lower middle class with benefits and a retirement. Now they have no savings, homes and may be forced onto food stamps in the near future. There is opportunity but only for the exceptionally gifted or those with large trust funds. Few expect a reduction in entitlements that's a big problem when it happens.
Even being gifted does not help in many cases. What chance do you think Shakespeare would have these days if he refused to be Policially Correct, or how often would Mozart be allowed to appear on TV to sell his music if he always wore a T-Shirt with some gold bug slogan.
If Mozart was selling gold coins, he could have all the TV ad time he wants.
That would perk up his music too.
#18 The FED balance sheet is still expanding at an exponential rate despite tapering rhetoric.
Doctors in the area I'm from in New England are no longer taking new Medicare patients. My dad belongs to a hobby club; two members who are retired professionals recently hit Medicare age and despite having plenty of money for the usual "gap" supplemental policies, simply could not find a Medicare GP. Another club member, a retired doctor, called around and pleaded on their behalfs; cashed in lots of favors and found them GPs; lucky for them. My mom (age 71) wanted to reschedule her gynocologist appointment because of a family emergency; the doctor's secretary told her that the doctor is no longer taking Medicare patients so she shouldn't screw with the appointments she has (she kept the appointment!!!). This is a reigional problem, but it is spreading; it is going to be huge. Boomers are screwed and younger people more screwed still.
My dad (age 73) is in the process of having innumerable complex and costly cardiac things done (so far so good, knock on wood). Procedure after procedure; hospital stay after hospital stay; specialist after specialist. My generation will get aspirin and a hearty handshake; the younger people will be chewing on willow bark.
Time to wake up to what ails us and start using natural substances for health. I take my own solution of Lugals 18% every day 3 drops. Take diatomaceous earth, bentonite clay for heavy metal detox and Standard process, Innate whole food supplements. I try to stay away from process foods, although it is hard. We grow our own garden, etc. Have 14 hens and free range them on my measly 3 acres of Chemtrailed dusted Maryland real-estate. My bp was normal and pulse was 38 at the doctors and they wanted me on prescripts. I may die from the 38 bpm’s, but no way am I taking any of their wicked prescriptions. Start researching into why we are so sick, and try to prolong the inevitable….Mainly, try to learn how to feel better with what they are throwing at you. Get ready for a pandemic, which will be next. Kill off all the useless eaters…..And finally, seek God almighty, and his beautiful Son, Christ Jesus, whom gave his life, so you can live eternal, Not as God, but glorifying him, which will be more than you could ever comprehend.
@MassDecep. I have all the time in the world for God Almighty and his beautiful Son, Jesus Christ, but I can't handle eating that bentonite clay, it tastes like eating dirt.
I figure I can take the pretty much tasteless Bentonite clay verses the huge amounts of Mercury cursing through my veins. The clay attracts the mercury out of our blood when traveling through the colon. The clay is negatively charged while the harmful metals are positive charged. It detoxes rather well.
We don't need no stinkin recovery.
YeeeeeHaaaaa
We have FED FRAUD green shoots enough to get them to hog heaven.
movin movin movin
keep dem banksters squirming
Putin.
Hom hom hom...
The end is nigh; what am I going to do?
Satanclaus is coming to tooooown......
Rev 6:5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(means a days wage to eat for that day!!!)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The NWO (satan) has already arrived.
Psst, Bernanke, you should have let your car drive off that bridge.
We just appear to be Building Stupidity here.
RE
"Let us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long as possible. That is what I am hoping for"
I suspect Snyder wrote that so he won't look foolish ten years from now when he's still making doomsday lists and doomsday still hasn't arrived.
Not that I disagree with most of what he says, of course. What he should do, however, is make a list of things titled "29 reasons why the U.S. economy will not fully collapse, but rather make a slow-motion descent into Third World police state status over the course of several generations while the people who remember prosperity and privacy slowly die off, and the new generations are too hypnotised, brainwashed and medicated to know any better."
A much more likely scenario, methinks.
@escargot. This is a sad but likely scenario. Imagine if one could time travel a bunch of self reliant homesteaders, waggon-train pioneering people from the 1850s (not only USA; Australia, South Africa, South America).....and bring them to modern America to have a look around, what would they make of things?
Let's be honest, anyone who still thinks the American economy is doing fine doesn't care one whit about facts.
And the false stock bubble that the wealthy are enjoying right now will not last that much longer...
Wish I could believe that. However, they use eveything you cite as an excuse for moar and there will be MOAR (for them).
Wrong. The DOW just hit an all time high. Just buy in and enjoy the ride to infinity and beyond!
/sarc
"When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level."
This should be of little surprise. Economic activity in the run up to the 2008 crash was heavily debt based. The credit bubble burst and the economy has returned to a previous level. All it needs now is some strong deflation.
The US economy is just fine.
And so is the burning sensation I get when I urinate.
Since 2008 many Americans (the unemployed, the under-employed, retirees) have been forced to dip into their savings and/or investments in order to live. After 6 years of withdrawals, many of these people are running out of these savings/investments that have up to now allowed them to maintain their lives, with the secondary effect of moderating the decilne in retail sales. When these folks' savings/investments are used up, retail sales will CRASH. (In fact, I have read articles by economists stating that this retail sales crash has begun - NOT just a steady decline, but a real crash..
Of course, most Americans have little or no savings/investments, so they were forced to declare "early retirement" or "disablility" to obtain Social Security payments. And a huge percentage now needs "food stamps" (or whatever the Hell it is called now!) simply in order to eat. Since these payments are too small to allow much more than subsistence living standards, it is certain that these folks will NOT be able to moderate the coming retail crash.
Therefore, I chuckle when some people speak of a "stabilization" of the economy. When the savings/investments of the formerly upper-middle class run out, this prior so-called stabilization of economic growth will be been seen as myth.
Great article! Well done and well researched. It outlines without cosmetics the real state of our economy. When we add the increased Fedral reach we've seen, It's not difficult to understand that the repair of president Bush's stupid and irresponsible presidency by this President has been even Socialilistically worse. I hope the next President reflects private sector and capitalistic principals. Our continuing lack of Heavy Industry located in our country cannot continue!!
Great article! Well done and well researched. It outlines without cosmetics the real state of our economy. When we add the increased Federal reach we've seen, It's not difficult to understand that the repair of president Bush's stupid and irresponsible presidency by this President has been even Sociallistically worse. I hope the next President reflects private sector and capitalistic principals. Our continuing lack of Heavy Industry located in our country cannot continue!!
Smart people have an innate propensity to think negatively. Why? Because it is the path of least resistance (notwithstanding egotistical reasons, as well). "OPTIMISM IS A FORCE MULTIPLIER" ... I wish that more smart people would adopt this mantra.
RE
Disagree. Japan is the model. They probably have another 10-15 years or so.
Now, there could be major bumps and downturns along the way. But rich motherfuckers are still going ot make money when that happens.
When it *all* comes down, *that's* when the fun begins.
The 0bamao centrally controlled marxist economy.
thanks for researching and posting.
Means nothing until the masses get hungry and pissed then start buying gasoline by the fifth of a gallon and repurposing those useless single socks.
So maybe we should follow the Canuck model on immigration and foreigner work permissions?