93% Of American Counties Haven't Recovered From The Recession

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Supposedly, the Fed’s decision to hike rates last month conveyed something about the strength of the US economy. “I think the economy is on the road to recovery,” diminutive Chairwoman Yellen told the the Economic Club of Washington two weeks before liftoff.  “We’re doing well,” she added, for good measure.

Now first, the idea that we’re “on the road” to recovery is a bit disconcerting in and of itself. After all, it’s not as if the crisis happened last year. We’re talking about recovering from something that happened eight long years ago. If we’re not there yet, one would be forgiven for suggesting that we’re not ever going to get there.

Second, to the extent the “data” do show something that to the untrained eye might be mistaken for a robust recovery, you have to remember that the statistics can be made to show whatever a bunch of central planners want them to show.

Take December’s “blockbuster” jobs report for instance. How, you might ask, is it possible that the US can add 292,000 jobs while average hourly wages decline? Simple: the hiring was a veritable minimum wage deluge as well-paying jobs barely budged while temp help soared by 34,400 and waiter and bartenders added another 36,900 to the country's growing army of Food and Bev workers which now numbers a record 11.3 million. 

And then there was what we called "the most troubling aspect" of the latest NFP report: the number of multiple job holders soared by 324,000 to 7.738 million, the highest since August 2008. Meanwhile, a record number of retired Americans worked part-time in December which means the elderly are either bored or broke - you guess which.

So that's the "robust" labor market. When it comes to GDP it's all about the cost of socialized medicine as quarter after quarter, all of the "growth" comes from soaring healthcare spending. And then there is of course the infamous "residual seasonality", a truly ridiculous bit of statistical Tomfoolery that effectively allows the BEA to simply adjust away all of the bad stuff on the way to publishing sanitized, "double adjusted" data.

But even as the macro picture is hopelessly obscured by the mischievous tinkering of bureaucrats, the county-level data reveals the dismal truth: according to a new study by the National Association of Counties93% of America's counties have not yet recovered from the recession.

"Overall, the county economies recovered on all four indicators by 2015 still represent only 7 percent of all county economies," the organization writes. "In contrast, almost 16 percent of county economies had not recovered on any indicator by 2015, mostly in the South and Midwest. States such as Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Mississippi have more than a third of their county economies still reeling from the latest downturn across all economic indicators." 

Note where the "good" counties are. As you can see from the map, the counties that have recovered on 3-4 of the indicators NAC measured are predominantly in the modwest and Texas. How long, one might fairly ask, will that last in the face of a prolonged slump in crude prices? 

It wasn't all bad news, and Emilia Istrate, the association’s director of research and outreach will fill you in on the rest of the details in the video below, but the bottom line, to quote Istrate is this: “[This] tells you why many Americans don’t feel the good economic numbers they see on TV.”

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Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:00 | 7037102 4 wheel drift
4 wheel drift's picture

they should have asked the muslim for his opinion on this report....

the amount of bs would be record shattering

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:07 | 7037155 Pooper Popper
Pooper Popper's picture

That Fucker is to busy getting ready for his big show tonight.Wonder if he will cry????

I know I will.

Fuck you barry and that vallerie jarret bitch you rode in on!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:09 | 7037162 surf0766
surf0766's picture

You are supposed to cry for him.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:17 | 7037187 wee-weed up
wee-weed up's picture

 

 

Of course, Obozo will lie & deny tonight at the SOTU...

He will maintain that the country is doing just great under his leadership.

Where's Rep. Joe "You lie!" Wilson?

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:26 | 7037249 LowerSlowerDela...
LowerSlowerDelaware_LSD's picture

Oh look...  The counties surrounding D.C. have "recovered."  Who'd have thought that gubmint would take from the rest of the country to enrich itself and its peoples?!?!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:16 | 7037199 4 wheel drift
4 wheel drift's picture

i cannot watch this arsehole.....   otherwise i will VOMIT

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:28 | 7037266 LowerSlowerDela...
LowerSlowerDelaware_LSD's picture

The country really needs a black, lesbian, disabled, woman (formerly man) in the SOU audience to stand up and scream "shut the f*ck up you lying a$$hole. You are destroying WAY to many lives."

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:21 | 7037501 VladLenin
VladLenin's picture

If you want a reason to get shitfaced on a Tuesday night, play the Obama drinking game. One drink for everytime he says I or me.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 19:23 | 7037778 azusgm
azusgm's picture

Have mercy. ZHers would be dying right and left from alcohol poisoning.

Some strong person please watch this jerk speak. Report back.

Thanks for your willingness to sacrifice your sanity for the good of us comrades.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:43 | 7037619 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Come back next year and see that Sea of Blue from Texas to North Dakota go orange and yellow as the Shale Oil Ponzi explodes.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 22:41 | 7038638 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Also....I think this could be too rosy.  Clay county in Florida ( the county I'm in ) is painted blue.  I live in the southwest portion of that county.  I've travel through that county almost everyday.  I can tell you.....most of Orange Park hasn't recovered.  Unless you count, Tattoo shops, Pawn Shops, Tacquerias, Vape Shops, Internet cafes as some sort of recovery where there used to be major retailers.  The Orange Park Mall is a rundown shell of what it once was.  Green Cove Springs used to be the "Auto Mall of Northeast Florida.  Not any more.  It's just a backwater community on the St. Johns.  Fleming Island is doing well.  All the rich white folk who fled Jacksonville to the suburbs of Orange Park in the 90's have now fled to Fleming Island.  Gated Communities as far as the eye can see.  All the once vast timber forest North of Middleburg is now also the hot growth area of the Middle to Upper Middle Class that also used to be in Orange Park.

South Clay County from Melrose to Keystone Heights to Putnam Hall to Palatka.......shit......we're still in the Longest Depression big time.

I think this grapic paints with TOO BROAD a brush even in individual counties.  If Clay County is any indication, I'm afraid the same could be said for most counties in the country.  Meaning this graphic is TOO optimistic.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 21:04 | 7038199 Libertati Aut A...
Libertati Aut Ad Mortem's picture

Sorry to tell you but Obama is a Jew.  His mother was a Jew, his grandparent that raised him were Jews.  Most of his advisors including Axelrod, dual citizen Rahm Immanuel, and David Pflouffe have been Jews.  All of this money handlers Bernanke, Yellen, dual citizen Stanley Fischer and Jacob Jew Lew are all Jews.  Obama is a Jew.  The whole Muslim motif written by Jew Ayers has been a complete charade.  Welcome to your indentured servitude Zionist slave state known as the United States of America the depth of which you have no idea.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:00 | 7037104 Sanity Bear
Sanity Bear's picture

judging by that map, the 7% of "recovered" counties are all considered so only on the basis of the now-busted fracking bubble

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:26 | 7037236 CunnyFunt
CunnyFunt's picture

NE Nevada for gold.

Remove metals and oil from the "recovered", and all that's left is corn and porn country.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 19:16 | 7037749 BandGap
BandGap's picture

West Michigan looking good!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:00 | 7037105 sgorem
sgorem's picture

hell, where i live, WE HAVEN'T RECOVERED FROM THE '37 DEPRESSION YET! WTF...........................

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:06 | 7037137 Truth Eater
Truth Eater's picture

Yeah, the recovery is just as real as the December2015 Jobs numbers.  The chart surely is seasonally adjusted, sample approximated and outcome based projected.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:07 | 7037152 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

Well, the South never recovered from the war of northern aggression.

The carpet bagging yankees who raped and murdered the last great generation of this country moved down here and now their offsprings offspring offspring drive jacked up trucks that ever go off road and have southern accents.

Just like the "ashkenazi" jews took over Germany.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:19 | 7037212 edifice
edifice's picture

Boo-hoo... 150 years later and you can't get your shit together?

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:28 | 7037259 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

"
Boo-hoo... 150 years later and you can't get"

Get what?

That the same yankee jews and their offspring after raping and destroying the South went on and did the same thing to most of the planet?

Seems to be you who doesn't "get it".

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:28 | 7037252 Jam
Jam's picture

You forgot to mention the ones that are screwing your old lady.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:52 | 7037370 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Actually, that was the Yankees too.

Because of the shit the Yanks pulled in Europe, the German Jews---what were left of them---wound up having to leave for Israel with nothing but the clothes on their backs, while the Yanks walked off with the Jews' money.

Their grandkids, the Israelis, don't think much of Yankees either.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:55 | 7037386 Thick Willy
Thick Willy's picture

Oy vey, it's like anudda Shoah.  Those poor Jews in Israel need more holocaust survivor benefits and foreign aid from the USA and Germany.  Those Nazi devils still haven't repaid their eternal debt.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:59 | 7037404 GhostOfDiogenes
GhostOfDiogenes's picture

Ahh, more khazar bullshit.

Meanwhile, the israeli jews run the world through their fiat creating bankster betters via the 13 satanic bloodlines.

We need a real holocaust of the juden this time.

Hitler was an under achiever.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:09 | 7037164 stant
stant's picture

We just lost a catapillar and Panasonic ain't looking too good for the old tax base

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:10 | 7037168 JamaicaJim
JamaicaJim's picture

It would be nice to know what the Sam Hill those "4 indicators" are.

Pretty map. Clear as mud.

 

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:21 | 7037225 Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

You get an F in reading ability.

Straight from the link, first paragraph:

"This analysis tracks the performance of the 3,069 county economies in 2015 by examining annual changes in jobs,unemployment rateeconomic output (GDP) and median home prices. "

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 22:44 | 7038657 JamaicaJim
JamaicaJim's picture

Didn't click the link. Normally do not. I get an F in non-clicking

Wed, 01/13/2016 - 22:01 | 7043992 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

I clicked the link, and I must get an 'F' in comprehension.

Here's the quote:

"This analysis tracks the performance of the 3,069 county economies in 2015 by examining annual changes in jobs,unemployment rateeconomic output (GDP) and median home prices. "

'...changes in jobs...'. O.K. Is this the number of times one changes jobs, or the changes in the types of jobs, or the number of jobs one must have in order to eat, or WHAT?

'...unemployment rate,...'. O.K., is this the OFFICIAL unemployment rate after those who were collecting unemployment benefits ran out of their allotted benefits and are no longer counted?

'...economic output (GDP),...'. O.K., is this the number of dollars that are being put out (fleeing) these counties (the classic definition of 'output' is to LITERALLY 'put out'). PERHAPS it represents the rise in prices for the same goods/services over time; expressed in Fedbucks...

'..., and MEDIAN HOME PRICES.". I LOVE this one! That shitbox Spic-built slab house with all that plastic piping and Chinese drywall that was built in the last few years is worth 'MOAR' (or 'LESS'); because, well, it JUST IS (see explanation of '...economic output (GDP),...' for more details.

JESUS WEPT!

Those fuck-stick FED-loving 'Chambers of Commerce' fucktastical fantasy 'COUNTY' tweakers can't even use THEIR OWN misaligned and oblique worded numbers to make the shit look good! SERIOUSLY! WTF does it mean, 'CHANGES IN JOBS'? If it's 'changes in job numbers', WHY do they have to include ANOTHER metric called 'UNEMPLOYMENT RATE'?

OPEN THE LINK, and scroll down to the VERY BOTTOM. "U.S. COMMUNITIES GOVERNMENT PURCHACING ALLIANCE", 'LIVE HEALTHY U.S. COUNTIES', and NATIONWIDE (insurance comany) are the AUTHORS/SPONSORS of this PABLUM DIATRIBE.

WTF? 'U.S. COMMUNITIES GOVERNMENT PURCHACING ALLIANCE'? Is this some Orwellian Govenment construct that seeks to purchase U.S. COMMUNITIES?

I won't go on. I'm getting a Fox Mulder tingling feeling here.

Hell, even THEY can't make the pig wear lipstick! A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet (unless it's sitting in a pile of shit). 

ZeroHedge exists to allow people all around the world to get/make informed decisions based upon models, constructs, possibilities, and FACTS (NOT to make smarmy one-sentence comments about things that have only been superficially examined). Don't forget this fact.

I LIVE in one of the 'lighter-blue' thingies, and, I assure you that this data is REALLY FRACKING WRONG.

 

Mr. Scott

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:14 | 7037191 crossroaddemon
crossroaddemon's picture

I love that my county never recovered that is why I just got a house for 17000 ;)

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:19 | 7037216 Chupacabra-322
Chupacabra-322's picture

Recession? Scratch that. Depression.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:20 | 7037221 Iam_Silverman
Iam_Silverman's picture

Woo Hoo!

My county met two of four indicators.

The counties not too far to the north seem to have met all four though.

Now I know where to go when it is time to plunder!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:22 | 7037229 City_Of_Champyinz
City_Of_Champyinz's picture

Nice work Obama, you are a complete joke and an inept marxist clown to boot.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:30 | 7037273 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

you need this translated to normal speech..

“I think the economy is on the road to recovery,” diminutive Chairwoman Yellen told the the Economic Club of Washington two weeks before liftoff.  “We’re doing well,” she added, for good measure."

what she means is..banks and .gov have recovered well, and that's what the FED's job is to keep both liquid..We're doing well, is for those in that BIG club that carlin told us all we're not part of.. it' not a lie - can she help it if the common folk think she talking about them.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:28 | 7037257 besnook
besnook's picture

the only good thing about this chart is the county innew york i go to in the summer has been yellow for 40 years.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:38 | 7037314 moonmac
moonmac's picture

Fake Wall Street Recovery!

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:39 | 7037316 MSimon
MSimon's picture

My county is in the "None" category. We have been in depression for 20 to 40 years.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 17:58 | 7037398 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

The country is broke...

The goverrmnetn trippled the debt...

The rich got it all, the poor got the booth...

Yep... fuck ISIS, Americans themselves should bomb the shit out of the American government.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:02 | 7037418 FreeNewEnergy
FreeNewEnergy's picture

I wish I could give you 1000 plus votes for that last line. Classic, and dead on the mark.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:00 | 7037401 FreeNewEnergy
FreeNewEnergy's picture

This whole thing, including the slow-talking chick on the video, has a massive socialist agenda. Partnerships between federal, state, local government, private sector and non-profits, my sweet arse.

As a businessperson, the only partnership I want with any government or non-profit is the one in which they leave me the hell alone.

This country is so fucked. We really need more people to stand up and talk shit to the busybodies in government. I do, and I don't follow their regulations and laws or pay their taxes as much as that's possible.

If small businesses can cut out the middlemen of three or sometimes four tiers of government, profitability would soar, creativity would connect with money and we'd have a nation of entrepreneurs that would be unmatched in the world.

Trump for President is about the best I can hope for. Until then, it's fuck you, no, and what law?

Long black markets, barter, cash, ebay and Craigslist and leave me the fuck alone.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:12 | 7037421 Everybodys All ...
Everybodys All American's picture

If you have not figured out by now that you have been conned by this Marxist ahole president then there is no hope for you.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:19 | 7037491 DeanWinchester717
DeanWinchester717's picture

well.. duh.  of course they haven't because there has never BEEN a Recovery... just an imaginary fairytale that is continually told to the masses via the corporate media propagandists on a daily basis.  That's all that has ever happened as more people go broke every day. 

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:24 | 7037525 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Going to watch The Big Short tonight.

 

Screw the State of Disunion.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 22:21 | 7038570 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

That is a long movie. 

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:25 | 7037527 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture

'
'
'
'
Want to see how we're going to live in the future?

Think "Hunger Games".

Not the competition, but the general economic-society.

•?•
V-V

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:25 | 7037532 TrustbutVerify
TrustbutVerify's picture

"Debt pulls all spending forward."  Research the debt totals for governments (state and local) and individuals.  

 

I'll help you out.  http://usdebtclock.org/

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:28 | 7037549 JerseyJoe
JerseyJoe's picture

States and counties need to realize they are in competition for $$$ and Obamacare is killing the middle class - so why not go after the sucking sound.  

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:34 | 7037575 azengrcat
azengrcat's picture

Marin County trust funders doing just fine...

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 18:37 | 7037584 Schlub
Schlub's picture

WOOHOO! My county's a FOUR! Too bad they're nearly all 10 buck an hour bullshit jobs through a temp service.

Tue, 01/12/2016 - 22:51 | 7038690 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Exactly.  I forced myself to listen to that Snake Head motherfucker Rick Scott....aka....Governor Skeletor.  He must have said the word job two dozen times.  He kept crowing about how he created 1,000,000 jobs in Florida since he came along.  What he failed to mention is that the majority of those jobs pay shit, compared to pre-Recession levels and also those million jobs barely gets us above where we were during the Recession.

 

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