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"This Is About As Good As Things Are Going To Get For The Middle Class"
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
The U.S. economy has had six full years to bounce back since the financial collapse of 2008, and it simply has not happened. Median household income has declined substantially since then, total household wealth for middle class families is way down, the percentage of the population that is employed is still about where it was at the end of the last recession, and the number of Americans that are dependent on the government has absolutely exploded. Even those that claim that the economy is "recovering" admit that we are not even close to where we used to be economically. Many hope that someday we will eventually get back to that level, but the truth is that this is about as good as things are ever going to get for the middle class. And we should enjoy this period of relative stability while we still can, because when the next great financial crisis strikes things are going to fall apart very rapidly.
The U.S. Census Bureau has just released some brand new numbers, and they are quite sobering. For example, after accounting for inflation median household income in the United States has declined a total of 8 percent from where it was back in 2007.
That means that middle class families have significantly less purchasing power than they did just prior to the last major financial crisis.
And one research firm is projecting that it is going to take until 2019 for median household income to return to the level that we witnessed in 2007...
For everybody wondering why the economic recovery feels like a recession, here’s the answer: We’re still at least five years away from regaining everything lost during the 2007-2009 downturn.
Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicts that real median household income — perhaps the best proxy for middle-class living standards — won’t reach the prior peak from 2007 until 2019. Since the numbers are adjusted for inflation, that means the typical family will wait 12 years until their purchasing power is as strong as it was before the recession. That would be the longest period of stagnation, by far, since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Of course that projection assumes that the economy will continue to "recover", which is a very questionable assumption at best.
Meanwhile, total household wealth has been declining for middle class families as well.
According to the New York Times, the "typical American household" is now worth 36 percent less than it was worth a decade ago.
That is a pretty substantial drop. But you never hear our politicians (especially the Democrats) bring up numbers like that because they want us to feel good about things.
So why is all of this happening?
The biggest reason why the middle class is struggling so much is the lack of good jobs.
As the chart posted below demonstrates, the percentage of the working age population that is actually employed is still way, way below where it was prior to the last recession...
The "employment recovery" (the tiny little bump at the end of the chart) has been so miniscule that it is hardly even worth mentioning.
At the moment, we still have 1.4 million fewer full-time jobs than we did in 2008 even though more than 100,000 people are added to the U.S. population each month.
And a lot of the workers that have lost jobs since the start of the last recession have never been able to find a new one.
According to a brand new survey conducted by Rutgers University, more than 20 percent of all workers that have been laid off in the past five years still have not found a new job.
Meanwhile, the control freak bureaucrats that run this country continue to kill off small businesses.
In recent years we have seen large numbers of small businesses fail, and at this point the rate of small business ownership in the United States is at an all-time low.
As a result of everything that you have just read, the middle class is shrinking and dependence on the government is soaring.
Today, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity, and Americans received more than 2 trillion dollars in benefits from the federal government last year alone.
For many more statistics just like this, please see my previous article entitled "30 stats to show to anyone that does not believe the middle class is being destroyed".
Without a doubt, things are not that good for the middle class in America these days.
Unfortunately, the next great wave of financial trouble is rapidly approaching, and once it strikes things are going to get substantially worse for the middle class.
Yes, the stock market set record high after record high this summer. But what we have observed is classic bubble behavior. So many of the exact same patterns that occurred just prior to previous stock market crashes are happening once again.
And it is interesting to note that September 22nd has marked important market peaks at various times throughout history...
For traders, September 22 is one of those days with a notorious history. UBS's Art Cashin notes that September 22 marked various market highs in 1873, 1929, 1980, and even as recent as 2008.
Could the coming months be the beginning of the next major stock market decline?
Small-cap stocks are already starting to show signs of real weakness. In fact, the Russell 2000 just hit a "death cross" for the first time in more than 2 years...
The Russell 2000 has been diverging from the broader market over the last several weeks, and now technicians point out it has flashed a bearish signal. For the first time in more than two years, the small-cap index has hit a so-called death cross.
A death cross occurs when a nearer-term 50-day moving average falls below a longer-term, 200-day moving average. Technicians argue that a death cross can be a bearish sign.
None of us knows what the market is going to do tomorrow, but a lot of the "smart money" is getting out of the market right now while the getting is good.
So where is the "smart money" putting their assets?
In a previous article, I discussed how sales of gold bars to wealthy clients is way up so far this year.
And CNBC has just reported that the ultra-wealthy "are holding mountains of cash" right now...
Billionaires are holding mountains of cash, offering the latest sign that the ultra-wealthy are nervous about putting more money into today's markets.
According to the new Billionaire Census from Wealth-X and UBS, the world's billionaires are holding an average of $600 million in cash each—greater than the gross domestic product of Dominica.
Why are they doing this?
Are they concerned about the potential of a market crash?
And if we do see another market crash like we witnessed back in 2008, what is that going to mean for the rest of us?
2008 certainly did not destroy our economy.
But it did cause an immense amount of damage that we have never recovered from.
Now the next wave is approaching, and most people don't even see it coming.
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AMERIKA STRONK!
It was a trickle down to the others economy, the rest are slaves to money, it's simple as that.
OK
"GREEDY BASTARDS STRONK!"
Good luck millennials!
A house that went for $80,000 in 1998 is now magically worth a quarter mil, despite 16 moar years of wear and tear. That once nice suburban area that house is in, is now turning ghetto, so enjoy your meth dealing neighbors.
Tuition and books have tripled since then too, So you will need student loans that you'll never be able to repay or extinguish.
Gas has tripled, food has tripled, and now you will be forced to buy health insurance which is like yet another mortgage payment.
Virtually every new Government Motors car in post bailout era has had a recall, but you'll get a 84 month loan, so you'll be making full monthly payments in year 6 and 7 on a car that is junkyard-worthy.
All you will get with your college degree is a 28 hour a week service job that pays $10 an hour, and you will need 2 of those just to skate by.
Since these jobs don't pay squat. You'll need to go through hoops and hurdles to qualify for various government assistance programs.
But hey, "the good news" is at least you can check your fantasy football stats on your cell phone while on the clock, because your boss is busy checking his too!
Only the middle / lower class are the ones still waiting on the recovery.
Going from Full Time / Benefits to Part Time / No Benefits
Layoff / Business Closing List:
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
-
Forget college. Tell your kids
to learn a trade. Guy put in a new hot water
tank tells me " oh I live in Scarsdale. That'll be
$800 (cash if you have it".
Learn a trade and be good at it. Gunsmithing comes to mind...
In all seriousness gunsmithing is primarily a luxury market, much like working on golf clubs or tennis rackets. The kind of guns that people will want for bad times don't break much, and when they do break it's either a $5 part you can replace yourself (anything on a Glock, and many parts on AR15s and AKs), or the gun's not fixable.
Plumbing, HVAC and broad-range-of-skills carpentry would be excellent choices, IMHO.
Too much truth in this post to digest. This is sad facts.
Not a wrong word in this remark.
It needs to collapse to be rebuilt.
An inescapable conclusion. A rough few years are ahead as the reset takes place.
It won't be a reset. This collapse will be big enough that things will never get back to where they are now. The world will be a different place in many ways. Governments will still play games with us but they will be different games not a reset of the current game. You are exactly right about the rough years ahead but I think it will be more than a few.
Yup. Game changer. Period. There is no return to where we came from. Half of that (if not more) was an illusion anyhow.
True. Back when the zio-elites installed you know who, I realized that the US will fall apart like the old Soviet Union. Old people will lose pensions and social security will get cut.
The Russians had lots of crime and blood letting but this will be nothing like what will happen in the USSA. People voted for this and idiots who watch TV and hollywood vote for every day when they watch.
yup, exactly, freddie, the joos did it! it has nothing to do with what we did to ourselves. always good to have someone around to point a finger at...
Maybe I'll bring the Govt down on me for saying this, but there are larger issues in play:
- Integrity in Government, Original Regulation was in response to Robber-Baron Monopolies, Regulation Capture is where people with money, power & influence pay, bribe, or offer career advancement to government officials for their influence and support for documents
- Jobs are down, Wages are down, Savings are Down, Wealth of US Middle Class is down, it is a break down in the education system to have young people say that education is too expensive, Culture has broken down to equal just corporate culture as parents must work, parents just manage their kids like human resources, ... we no longer get to know our kids & don't help to see that they have normal relationships and don't look to see how they respect themselves OR Understand Themselves OR How they relate to other kids and adults and learning...
- Today marks the high point in US Middle Class Wealth and the Top for their Strength, this means this is the last chance for Revolutionary changes in Federal Government, In Simplifying Income Taxes, In simplifying Accounting, In simplifying Financial Instruments, and in ending the crazy stuff that caused the 2008 Global Financial Crisis
- The US Ideal is gone, The Vision is Gone, the basis of USA's Unique Freedom & Liberty & Equality is gone as the US Constitution is pushed aside by Presidential Signing Orders and Everything that the US Congress Does or signs
- Militarism is up, Violence is accepted, Women are now part of the Male Culture of Tough and Violent
---
- Everyone Agrees that the USA Joining World War I was a big mistake and possibly a huge PR Campaign, I agree with this... War doesn't pay off for anyone even if you claim the high ground by saying your smart bombs reduce Civilian Casualties
- facts seem to indicate that Bankers operate behind the scenes to promote war, war loans, war debts, payments to Defense Contractors of which they are investing, and today we have Contractor Logisticians, Contractor Mercenaries, Contractor Armies, and it is big Business
---
- You gotta talk about the loss of small businesses, there is even federal legislation to favor small businesses, but the system is working against the small business
- Systemic Analysis does help greatly in understanding the USA, it seems that you can't understand the media or rumors and grasp the USA's Problems... You see that the US Government is made up of many systems... and many systems can be called "Broke" as they fail for their intended purpose,... this is very important as this means we need "Federal Commission or Inspections" to bring out the facts,... after all we Tax payers are footing the bill for systems that don't work and actually support corporate Subsidies, awards to giant corporations, and... well a kind of Fascism
Yeah, it looks more and more like an epic breakup. Most pensions, social systems, etc. will be vaporized. The era of big banking will be toast as well. States just wont have a choice. Economies will get real local real fast.
Before that though, we are looking at pain like never before. The system is going to consume itself.
Since the middle class is dead, it makes sense they can't get any better than that.
Elsewhere: Fox News Channel contributor finds himself on terror watch list!
http://tinyurl.com/qg8e2ox
Murika is at a junction where Japan was in 1989!
Yup mark my word the usa is fucking done!
Hedge accordingly.
It is all OK. Until you look at reality.
Then the whole thing melts. Most Middle income folks are busy looking at how much their incomes are collapsing. IF they still have a job.
So as much as all the commentators have to say regarding "socialism" and soup lines. That is where we are are right now. And it is only going to get more dire.
USA is dead and only in disguise of 3rd world economics. The society is on the cliff top and about to fall.
ONLY THING I see is the powers to be trying to preserve themelves until they can 'BUG OUT' When the collapse comes nobody will be prepared and the shite will hit.
Wish I could see a better outcome but I do not. Some of us have seen the future. 99% have not. And YES hang the 1%. I agree with China on that. Hang the cheating bastards.
I don't know about you but I keep doing better when compared to everyone else.
Up my FAFSA Yellen M'Fer.
When you see you see your suppliers closng up shop,one by one, it does make you
wonder if your turn is coming.
I just thank dog I got out of engineering/manufacturing back in the 1980's.
No stock and minimal overhead is the only way to be in this economy.
Helps when most of my clients now, are stinking rich as well, but even drunken sailors
can stop spending money.
Deeper recession and Destruction of the private sector Middle Class with moar gubmint regulations, taxes, food costs, postal rate increases, crippling health insurance costs, and moar and moar.
It's Bad.
Redistribution that is becoming more totalitarian every day. The last leg of expansion. Enjoy the little things now. Life is going to get a lot harder for most in the near future.
We the USA were "living off the future", BIG TIME. Look here:
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928
Journalism DID sell its soul. AND it's soul is still gone.
YOU the people NEED to get your heads out into the light.
can't wait till the latest update on Soros short fund ...
Snyder is probably right.....the first half of this decade will be referred to as "the good old days". Parents still had basements for their kids to live in, at least 80% of those willing and able to work did work, the wars were fought by volunteers, and those wars were relatively small skirmishes in the Middle East and North Africa, hyperinflation had yet to hit, and medicare and social security checks still arrived in the mail.
In my old office we hung a sign that said "Today is as good as it gets." It replaced the old sign which read "Do the right thing only after all other options have been exhausted." You can maybe understand why I don't work there any more (and neither does anyone else).
ONLY way I can see the USA idiots is to manufacture a war and do conscription.
2 ways. #1 Manufacture nationalism enough to have people enrol to be killed for nothing...NOTHING? OR WHATVER THE FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH IS.
#2 Make all "jobs" nonexistent. Society has no way for a family to support....so take the young men and women and they will enlist just to have some career choice. This is what the US is doing.
So next time you converse with any gov. rep. ask them how many of their kids are going to Mr. Peace Prize wars. Not today but WTF it will be coming. And I gaurantee no Senator's sons will serve in any combat role.
Its the middle class that makes the wheels go round for the USA, or any advanced economy.
Ergo, the wheels are coming off of the cart, and the politicians and bureaucrats are too stupid to realize it.
Disagree. P's & B's know full well the wheels are coming off. There's at least 2 if not 3 here that think Dec. will be the time frame. Bix Weir is the latest (today) to say the same. I'm beginning to think that is the timing for a big kaboom & not just the financial sector. GGS-2014
I highly recommend part 1. This allowed me to connect a few more dots today. Much I already knew. He references the tunnels TPTB have built in the hopes of riding out their madness below ground. This was in a Russian Video I posted several weeks back with Ben Fulford. I didn't know what caused the massive cattle kill last winter. He's aware of the HAARP weather manipulation & referenced the same radar screen shots that I've seen. Sandy the perfect example. This man has REALLY done his homework. The only hope I have was listening to an x-mil that said all his comrades were aware of what's happening. The hollywierd march yesterday shows just how sheep can be herded. With Rottenfellars pulling out of oil, I believe they're going to make that very scarce too.
Everyone here knows the agenda. I honestly believe it's directed energy weapons next. Be it through your smart meter or the cell tower infrastructure. We are swimming in aluminum nano being sprayed on us that crosses the BBB. They probably won't even need coffins for a directed energy cremation.
Make sure your tin foil hats are grounded.
Why does my tinfoil hat need grounding if I'm going to get hit with a
directed energy weapon, W.G? Does grounding my tinfoil hat increase my chances of survival?
Well MoU, it wouldn't do you any good. There's nothing there to protect.
No soup for you, W.G.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brk5cH6pwwM
This might be one of the entrances in the Ark and Missouri area. Jesse Ventura did a story on this. Look at all the trucks coming and going.
Thank you Freddie. I've heard a loud rumbling of the earth before the earthquakes here. Some have been by injection wells. That's understandable. What I hear and where I'm located is not the case. It always comes from the same direction & the USGS info does not support the direction of origination. It sounds ominous. I know one other awakened person x-mil that's aware of it too. I have not heard or felt the earth shake from this in a few months. If I understood this video correctly, someone blew up some of these tunnels??? After viewing the video of the jerk scientist that made a joke about thinning the population, I had to note not what he said, but the screen behind him. It was about water. Namely the largest aquifer in the USSA. I live by that aquifer.
I don't care to live in a post apocolyptic world. PCR has intimated numerous times that Obola is hell bent on nukleee-r war. One could never dream of collective insanity of this magnitude, but here we are.
yes, you're right of course - it's all a conspiracy by the rockefellers to make oil vanish - has nothing to do with the fact that we've overconsumed and used up all the cheap oil already, and now have to go after the marginal stuff like tar sands, shale, fracking, deepwater drilling...
peak oil is a myth, because, you know, jesus wants us to have oil and makes it just burst out of the ground all the time, it's just those evil rockefellers that are taking our god-given oil away from us. that and the evil towelheads that have the audacity to live in countries that sit on top of our oil....
I believe EarlofFlorida posted a Rottenfellar interactive. It might get you up to speed. Highly recommended.
I know numerous people in the oil biz & probably have a lot better insight than you.
You glommed on to 1 point in the whole post for your lame ass pissing contest.
Stacking, are a fucking idiot.
1 point? which point is that, that you're a looney who references bix weir and ben fulford? don't forget to quote alex jones and glen beck, while you're at it, lololol!
yes, yes, and congratulations on your masterful insight into "the oil biz", because, well, you KNOW PEOPLE! ahahahahahah!
too funny.
He knows people in 'the oil biz' because he lives by snake oil sales
pitches that he gets from USA ARMY PSYOPS websites. W.G is a troll.
Best you can do 16 weeks?
Who's the troll?
Middle class is no longer there. Jobs are gone. Any savings are being used to subsist.
North America (US and Canada) are busy being raped and this will not end well. Unless you are aware.
Didn't Walter Duranty's boo say something about taxation and inflation being bad for the middle class.
most of us are too broke to even care that it's coming
when jumping out of a tall building, its much better for those on the ground level......this is what pisses me off the most about 2008.....it should of all collapsed and i doubt most of us would have even felt it !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait!? Doesnt cnbc pontificate that the "retail investor is coming back" Evryone is sitting on trillions wait to pounce?
In the 1970 there was a newspaper called the Penny Stock News. They talked up a few .10 stocks. The publishers went to prison for "lying and cheating the public."
A man stepped in to buy the pieces left of the publication. Jonathon Steinberg. Maria Bartarom's husband, who is ceo of wisdom tree along with chairman Jeremy Siegel.
My point? They are all scum. And cnbc does stuff that would have got you ten years in prison not that long-ago.
I wish them all the very worst.
don't know if ever substantiated
but remember about 4 or 5 years ago a story came out that CNBC was charging guest portfolio managers $50K for on air time to tout their positions.
If true ...
To get on the TV business news - it is pay for play unless you are a major person that the public or investing public knows.
your point? no idea, it is a badly made one, if it even exists.
how do you even get from: someone bought out a failed company that was doing bad things, to: the people who came in after the wrongdoing are therefore scum themselves?
i'm not familiar with the story so maybe there's more to it than that, but, your ability to relate the facts intelligibly is an issue.
I'm waiting for the printed cheques in the post to every tax paying critter - arrrh they already done that?? USPS not in biz to send'em out?
see??? I KNEW things were getting better!
the only way to look at this is the new normal that began in 2008. since then the economy has shown strong growth off the lows and continues to grow from that firm foundation. if you work for walmart and mcds, tough shit. you should have paid attention to reading, writing, and math during your free day care years so you could be a plantation manager or skilled labor. so now you struggle between "i be" and "i is " and "i am" and expect to get paid $15/hr for it? i'd rather hire an under the table mexican who works his ass off so i don't have to and doesn't care what you say about his wetback as long as he is paid in greenbacks.
my point is, if you are middle class then you might as well admit at the dinner table tonight that, "we are all wetbacks today, amen."
is that you, Jack Ma ???
FUCK THE SYSTEM!
"Billionaires are holding mountains of cash, offering the latest sign that the ultra-wealthy are nervous about putting more money into today's markets."
absolutely
insiders buy low; sell high
why talk of markets never coming back to earth nothing but a crock
Thomas Jefferson
Old Tom on the ball yet again.
And yet Tom spent like a drunken sailor.
Here are 3 reasons why:
Survey:
Fortune 500 employees can expect to pay more for health
insurance
A survey of chief HR officers provides the first facts on how the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has impacted firms and
how firms are responding.
The Riegel & Emory HR Center, Darla Moore School of Business
Professor: 2/3rds of all new IT jobs going to foreign workers
STEM Grads Are at a Loss
Those who claim there's a STEM skills shortage are ignoring the evidence.
STEM
Ready to work
By Hal Salzman
Sept. 15, 2014
ALL job growth since 2000 was taken by immigrants:
http://cis.org/all-employment-growth-since-2000-went-to-immigrants
What did you expect ? .... did anybody really believe any of that ' trickle down ' bullshit from 30 years ago ?
We gots here the fruit from decades of incompetence and corruption. Implosion is now the only solution ...painful as it will be. So Sorry.
Come back Peggy Lee, we need you to sing it for us now more than ever.
Lyrics from, Is That All There Is?
“when I was 12 years old, my daddy took me to the circus
The greatest show on earth…
And as I sat there watching
I had the feeling that something was missing…..
when it was all over I said to myself,
Is that all there is to the circus?"
Look into your crystal balls, what will drice private sector job growth at a level needed to increade the % or the workforce employed. The look into the future and guess the wages of any future job growth sectors, outside military and government. When you do that, then you see how bleak the future really is.
Thats why I just enjoy what I have and it aint much but it's mine and im comortable for now. As long as I get a good night's sleep and some healthy food Im good for the day. Money comes and goes and never got addicted to it.
What happens to your theory if your money flow hits the wall? Which I believe is a pivot to the game. May not be a great scam right now on moving gold from point A to B but more to do with bleeding it out of the masses.
Peace revolution is dead, long live peaceful revolution!
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7rCNiiNPxA (4:31)
Foo Fighters Monkey Wrench
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6hxEyPYOGU (7:34)
Fuck CNBC and their 'mountains of cash' meme......there's no such thing.....the only cash anyone has is what's in their wallet....if it's in a bank it's gone....if it's in a 1 month CD paying .000005% interest it's invested somewhere. That shit has to be liquidated and if there ain't nobody doing any liquidating then you're fucked.....Was 2008 THAT long ago??? Ask the guys that used to work at Lehman and Bear what happens when the only bids on a $100 stock that clients have a 10% stop loss on is $3.
Good luck walking into Chase bank and trying to take out the $10,000,000 you think you have in a demand deposit account
Ethereal digits make no mountain...they make bubblicious pain.
PNC makes you wait 6 weeks to withdraw 10k in cash.
From my perspective - what did in the middle class were the H1B visas and offshoring of decent paying jobs. That let all that pay that had gone to good paying middle class workers (who were replaced at half the price) flow to an overpaid executive committee at a lot of S&P companies.
Keynes was an ass.....but he was correct in saying inflation is a problem that one in a million cannot diagnose.
Everything that is happening to fuck over the middle class is directly or indirectly related to central banking and its machinations, especially inflation.
EVERYTHING. NO EXCEPTIONS.
The monetary policies allow for the temporary suspension of reality and distort markets that cause literally infinite consequences, both obvious and hidden.
Reality can only be kept at bay for so long.
You guys are dead meat. I got 260+ acres at the bottom of the Appalachian chain, pastures for cattle, land for garden, 3 ponds for fresh fish & waterfowl in the winter....and it's going to get very, very cold for you citified fucks. 3 houses with my own labor force from Mexico & India, including concubines, lots and lots of "protective ordinance". Off-grid, surface and groundwater in abundance, off the main roads, the beauty of nature, the material abundance of nature, the hot steamy-sweaty-lusty 'satisfaction' of nature.
Is your Mexican labor trained in the use of your protective ordinance?
Yes, the Hindus too. My advice to anyone under the age of 60, and above the age of 35-40 is "get thee land" and learn how to survive. Especially in a thinly populated, southern state (little global cooling--what's really happening). Think about it: govt might take your gold, after eviserating your fiancial assets, but the VERY LAST vestige of rule of law under a sovereign state is land ownership. If we have a mini-ice age, it is the MOTHER OF ALL BLACK SWANS, and consider DC's ability to respond (a joke). Moreover, most states have property tax "ag-exemptions" for so many acres owned (i.e. Texas is 40 ac. Idaho is 5ac--but they'll be under a block of ice).
Good place to look: http://www.landwatch.com/
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
If so, your 260+ Acres might be "Reconquista'd" and turned into an extension of Aztlan...
Today’s DOW 30 stocks.
3M Co (Manufacturer)
AXP American Express Co (Banking, credit cards)
AT&T Inc (telephone)
Boeing Co (Air Planes, War Planes)
Caterpillar Inc (Construction equipment)
Chevron Corp (Energy)
Cisco Systems Inc (Technology)
du Pont de Nemours and Co (Chemicals
Exxon Mobil Corp (Energy)
General Electric Co (Diversified Mfg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (Banking)
Home Depot Inc (Retail)
Intel Corp (Technology)
IBM International Business Machines Co. (Technology, services)
Johnson & Johnson (Consumables)
JPMorgan Chase and Co (Banking)
McDonald's Corp (Fast Food)
Merck & Co Inc (Poison)
Microsoft Corp (Software)
Nike Inc (Shoes)
Pfizer Inc (Poison)
Procter & Gamble Co (Consumables)
The Coca-Cola Co (Soft drinks)
Travelers Companies Inc (Insurance)
United Technologies Corp (Technology)
UnitedHealth Group Inc (Insurance)
VZ Verizon Communications Inc (Communications)
Visa Inc (Credit Cards)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (Retail)
DIS Walt Disney Co (Entertainment)
What is gone is Ford, GM, Chrysler, John Deere, Goodyear, ALCOA, U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, Minnesota mining and Manufacturing, Allied Chemical, International Harvester, Eastman Kodak, International Paper, Sears Roebuck & Company, Owens Corning, Honeywell, etc. along with all the jobs and taxpayers.
The stupid government and corrupt/greedy politician strangled business, perhaps on purpose, giving an excuse and enabling the greedy bankers and corporate America to first ship technology overseas and the jobs followed shortly thereafter. Now look at us a third world country about to collapse.
Used to be called the Dow Industrial Average. How much industry in it now?
Three hots and a cot. What more could a slave ask for.
I have an idea that'll distract attention away from the financial troubles.
Let's create, fund and arm a really, really scary enemy located far, far away and bomb the hell out of them for the next decade.
<”A house that went for $80,000 in 1998 is now magically worth a quarter mil, despite 16 moar years of wear and tear. That once nice suburban area that house is in, is now turning ghetto, so enjoy your meth dealing neighbors.”> .
You are obviously referring to somewhere in Kansas perhaps? Certainly not in Silicon Valley where I would have to adjust your magical number to $2 mil. Now lose you $125k job at Facebook and try out at $25k job at Wally World and see what happens. Depending upon what you put down of course, you may have $12k monthly PITI and also have $2k/mo property taxes. A Tesla payment of $700/mo and BMW of $650/mo. Pool maintenance, putting on airs, entertaining, etc…add $2k/mo.
You can clearly see how the final collapse will begin in the area with the largest most expansive property bubble ever seen. Layoffs are going strong and the media hype over idiots waiting for a new I-Phone toy masks the underlying decay that is creeping in. The toys are mostly all made in China, along with just about everything else. And the profits are kept overseas. This was the one shining gem powering the economy for 4 decades, but it has peaked. The Fed will keep printing and the government will keep massive deficit spending, but they cannot prevent the tsunami that will sweep from west to east and hit hard everywhere.
you didn't collapse that
If you like your collapse, you can keep your collapse.
In the USA, there is a plan to deal with all the unfunded liabilities. It will be a combination of pandemic, death by vaccination, death by Fukishima radiation, false flag attack, cancer caused by cell phone, wifi and other sources of cancer causing Electromagnetic fields, civil war and culling by the Nazi police state, etc. It is taking place right now. Google Georgia Guide Stones, recently updated to include a 2014 date.
this may be off topic but all of those back lit devices that many people use emit high amounts of blue wave length energy that may cause serious vison problems in future years...research it for yourselves. I think we all know who makes said devices...lots of money. also led bulbs and cfb's.
Almost two years ago during a television interview on Bloomberg, Harvard economist Steven Roach put a retail sales consultant in her place who was crowing about strong retail growth. Roach pointed out that after discounting for inflation growth in retail sales compared to past years is mostly an illusion. I wish he had gone to the next step and pointed out that what little growth does exist is built on a foundation of demand from huge government deficit spending. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/09/consumers-are-facing-protracted-w...
Let's all remember that these people aren't stupid, they're psychopaths. Their goal is to destroy the middle class and increasingly impose their controls over the poplulation.
Until we can force our individual States to finally say, "enough!", and interpose themselves between us and the facsist fed govt, we will continue to suffer.
Additionally, until we take back control over our currency and reclaim all our gold from the Fed (like it's still there, haha), these banking families will simply continue destroying our way of life.
Don't ever think that these folks are stupid. They work in a generational time-frame.