17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine

17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine (Economic Collapse, April 29, 2014):

No, the economy is most definitely not “recovering”.  Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media, 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:

Read more17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine

Better To Be Poor In Europe Than In U.S.; Better To Be Middle Class In Canada Than In U.S.

Better to be Poor in Europe than in U.S.; Better to be Middle Class in Canada than in U.S. (AllGov, April 27, 2014):

Of the 16 teams that qualified for this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, only one, the Montreal Canadiens, is from Canada. The rest are from the United States, which some would say means Americans have beaten their neighbors to the north at their own game.

But Canada has outpaced the United States in a contest of which Americans always proudly declared ourselves the winners: whose middle class is faring best?

Read moreBetter To Be Poor In Europe Than In U.S.; Better To Be Middle Class In Canada Than In U.S.

The Middle Class In Canada Is Now Doing Better Than The Middle Class In America

The Middle Class In Canada Is Now Doing Better Than The Middle Class In America (Economic Collapse, April 22, 2014):

For most of Canada’s existence, it has been regarded as the weak neighbor to the north by most Americans.  Well, that has changed dramatically over the past decade or so.  Back in the year 2000, middle class Canadians were earning much less than middle class Americans, but since then there has been a dramatic shift.  At this point, middle class Canadians are actually earning more than middle class Americans are.  The Canadian economy has been booming thanks to a rapidly growing oil industry, and meanwhile the U.S. middle class has been steadily shrinking.  If current trends continue, a whole bunch of other countries are going to start passing us too.  The era of the “great U.S. middle class” is rapidly coming to a bitter end.

In recent years, I have been up to Canada frequently, and I am always amazed at how much nicer things are up there.  The stores and streets are cleaner, the people are more polite and it seems like almost everyone that wants to work has a job.

But despite knowing all this, I was still surprised when the New York Times reported this week that middle class incomes in Canada have now surpassed middle class incomes in the United States…

Read moreThe Middle Class In Canada Is Now Doing Better Than The Middle Class In America

28 Signs That The Middle Class Is Heading Toward Extinction

Dilapidated-House-In-Indiana

28 Signs That The Middle Class Is Heading Toward Extinction (Economic Collapse, Feb 5, 2014):

The death of the middle class in America has become so painfully obvious that now even the New York Times is doing stories about it.  Millions of middle class jobs have disappeared, incomes are steadily decreasing, the rate of homeownership has declined for eight years in a row and U.S. consumers have accumulated record-setting levels of debt.  Being independent is at the heart of what it means to be “middle class”, and unfortunately the percentage of Americans that are able to take care of themselves without government assistance continues to decline.  In fact, the percentage of Americans that are receiving government assistance is now at an all-time record high.  This is not a good thing.  Sadly, the number of people on food stamps has increased by nearly 50 percent while Barack Obama has been in the White House, and at this point nearly half the entire country gets money from the government each month.  Anyone that tries to tell you that the middle class is going to be “okay” simply has no idea what they are talking about.

The following are 28 signs that the middle class is heading toward extinction:

Read more28 Signs That The Middle Class Is Heading Toward Extinction

‘This Is Really A Symbol Of What’s Going On In This Whole Country. We’re Losing Middle-Class Jobs’

“This Is Really A Symbol Of What’s Going On In This Whole Country. We’re Losing Middle-Class Jobs” (ZeroHedge, Nov 21,2013):

We wish we could say we didn’t warn Boeing’s machinists about the key trend taking place in the US economy under the Obama “recovery” but unfortunately we did. Three years ago, to be specific, when we wrote: “Charting America’s Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society” and followed it up with “A “Quality Assessment” Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet” in which we explained that while the propaganda machine was fixated on numeric, quantitative, job additions every month, what has subversively going on, was the constant deterioration in the quality of jobs – and specifically the declining wages – available to those Americans who had not rotated outside of the labor force permanently (currently at a record 91.5 million). We say “alas” because it once again took several years before our cautions to be felt by the broader population, in this case the Boeing machinist union struggling to extract a wage increase from its employer: Boeing, whose stock keeps hitting new record highs with every passing day.

Read more‘This Is Really A Symbol Of What’s Going On In This Whole Country. We’re Losing Middle-Class Jobs’

More CRIMINAL Fraud: ‘Obamacare’ Transfers $100-$300 Billion/Year From 99% To 1%

More CRIMINAL fraud: ‘Obamacare’ transfers $100-$300 billion/year from 99% to 1% (Examiner, Nov 10, 2013):

I wrote in 2010 that so-called “Obamacare” is economic fascism because it dictatorially transfers $100 billion to $300 billion every year from the 99% to 1% so-called “health care” oligarchs, according to every cost-benefit analysis compared to single-payer universal health care that I could find. “Obamacare” is also criminal fraud by US government so-called “leaders” because they have legal fiduciary responsibility to fully communicate options in trust of public money.

OBVIOUSLY, failure to communicate annual savings of $100 billion to $300 billion while transferring this to 1% oligarchs points to massive crime.

Moreover, stories that point to tragic-comic cost increases and cancellations strengthen the case for criminal investigation of financial gains from government insiders at the expense of the public they’re sworn to serve.

Read moreMore CRIMINAL Fraud: ‘Obamacare’ Transfers $100-$300 Billion/Year From 99% To 1%

How Brazil’s Middle Class Dream Became A Debt-Fuelled Nightmare

How Brazil’s Middle Class Dream Became A Debt-Fuelled Nightmare (ZeroHedge, Oct 9, 2013):

Quick: which BRIC nation has the highest consumer loan default rate?

If you said China, India or Russia, you are wrong. Actually, if you said China you are probably right, but since absolutely all economic “data” in China is worthless, manipulated propaganda, only a retrospective post-mortem after the Chinese credit, housing, commodity, consumption bubbles have all burst will we know the answer. So excluding China, which country’s consumers after a multi-year shopping spree funded entirely on credit, are suddenly suffering the epic hangover of soaring non-performing loans as they suddenly find themselves unable to even pay the interest on the debt? Just ask former billionaire Eike Batista whose OGX oil corporation is days away from filing bankruptcy. The answer, with 5.6% of all loans in default, above Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Turkey and India, is Brazil.

It is this same Brazil, where years of credit-driven expansion have resulted in rampant, 6% inflation, which moments ago forced the central bank to once again hike its key policy rate by another 50 bps to 9.50% in an attempt to halt surging prices and contain the flood of liquidity, both foreign and domestic.

Read moreHow Brazil’s Middle Class Dream Became A Debt-Fuelled Nightmare

Former President Jimmy Carter: Middle Class Today Resembles Past’s Poor (Video)

Carter: Middle class today resembles past’s poor (USA Today, Oct 7, 2013):

OAKLAND, California (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.

Read moreFormer President Jimmy Carter: Middle Class Today Resembles Past’s Poor (Video)

Quantitative Easing Worked For The Weimar Republic For A Little While Too

Quantitative Easing Worked For The Weimar Republic For A Little While Too (Economic Collapse, Sep 22, 2013):

There is a reason why every fiat currency in the history of the world has eventually failed.  At some point, those issuing fiat currencies always find themselves giving in to the temptation to wildly print more money.  Sometimes, the motivation for doing this is good.  When an economy is really struggling, those that have been entrusted with the management of that economy can easily fall for the lie that things would be better if people just had “more money”.  Today, the Federal Reserve finds itself faced with a scenario that is very similar to what the Weimar Republic was facing nearly 100 years ago.  Like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. economy is also struggling and like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt.  Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve has decided to adopt the same solution that the Weimar Republic chose.  The Federal Reserve is recklessly printing money out of thin air, and in the short-term some positive things have come out of it.  But quantitative easing worked for the Weimar Republic for a little while too.  At first, more money caused economic activity to increase and unemployment was low.  But all of that money printing destroyed faith in German currency and in the German financial system and ultimately Germany experienced an economic meltdown that the world is still talking about today.  This is the path that the Federal Reserve is taking America down, but most Americans have absolutely no idea what is happening.

It is really easy to start printing money, but it is incredibly hard to stop.  Like any addict, the Fed is promising that they can quit at any time, but this month they refused to even start tapering their money printing a little bit.  The behavior of the Fed is so shameful that even CNBC is comparing it to a drug addict at this point:

Read moreQuantitative Easing Worked For The Weimar Republic For A Little While Too

The Total Destruction Of America’s Middle Class … In Under Seven Minutes (Video)

FYI.


The Destruction Of America’s Middle Class (In Under Seven Minutes) (ZeroHedge, Aug 18, 2013):

While hardly news to frequent visitors, especially those who recall the following list, anyone who needs a 7 minute refresher into why the US middle class is on collision course with extinction is urged to watch the following brief video which highlights all the salient facts such as:

  • 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
  • 27% of American have no savings at all
  • 46% of Americans have less than $800 in savings
  • The conversion of America into a part-time working society and the country’s second largest employer – a temp agency.
  • The college trap and the student loan bubble
  • And of course, foodstamps, foodstamps, foodstamps and the nearly 50 million poverty-level Americans who need them to survive

Why seven minutes? Because everyone knows that just like you can’t get “six minute abs“, so it is impossible to recap the doom of America’s middle class in only six minutes (or, gasp, less).


YouTube Added: 16.08.2013

A Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases In The U.S. Are ‘Cash Only’ – A 200% Jump In Five Years

A Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases Are “Cash Only” – A 200% Jump In Five Years (ZeroHedge, Aug 15, 2013):

Remember when housing was the primary aspirational asset for a still existent US middle class, to be purchased with some equity down by your average 30 year-old hoping to start a family in his or her brand new home, and, as the name implies, aspire to reach the American dream? Those days are long gone. Back in those days the interest rate on the 10 Year bond mattered as it determined the prevailing marginal affordability of leveraged real estate. That is no longer the case, at least not for about 90% of Americans, because as Goldman shows, while before the great crisis only 20% of home purchases were “all cash”, since then the number has soared threefold, and currently the estimated percentage of cash transactions (by count and amount) has hit a record 60%. In other words, less than half of all home purchases are debt-funded, and thus less than half of all home purchases are actually representative of what middle-class America is doing.

Goldman’s take:

Read moreA Stunning 60% Of All Home Purchases In The U.S. Are ‘Cash Only’ – A 200% Jump In Five Years

44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know

44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know (Economic Collapse, July 30, 2013):

What is America going to look like when the middle class is dead?  Once upon a time, the United States has the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world.  When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was “middle class” and it was very rare to hear of someone that was out of work.  Of course life wasn’t perfect, but most families owned a home, most families had more than one vehicle, and most families could afford nice vacations and save for retirement at the same time.  Sadly, things have dramatically changed in America since that time.  There just aren’t as many “middle class jobs” as there used to be.  In fact, just six years ago there were about six million more full-time jobs in our economy than there are right now.  Those jobs are being replaced by part-time jobs and temp jobs.  The number one employer in America today is Wal-Mart and the number two employer in America today is a temp agency (Kelly Services).  But you can’t support a family on those kinds of jobs.  We live at a time when incomes are going down but the cost of living just keeps going up.  As a result, the middle class in America is being absolutely shredded and the ranks of the poor are steadily growing.

The following are 44 facts about the death of the middle class that every American should know…

Read more44 Facts About The Death Of The Middle Class That Every American Should Know

How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? We’re Number 27!

How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? #27 (Liberty Blitzkrieg, July 23, 2013):

We are number 1 right? USA! USA! No one can beat our wealth creation machine, our economic dynamism, our level playing field and our bastions of higher education. We have a middle class that is the envy of the world, right?

Well, like so much of the “American dream” we have been force fed for a generation or more, this perception is not based in reality whatsoever. Sure it may have been the case for a couple of decades immediately after World War 2. Before the military-industrial-Wall Street complex fully took over the political process, but it certainly isn’t true any longer. Myths die hard and this one is particularly pernicious because it prevents people from changing things. As James Baldwin said:

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

From the Huffington Post:

America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires and our wealthiest citizens have garnered more of the planet’s riches than any other group in the world. We even have hedge fund managers who make in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years!

This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that’s what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us.

Unfortunately, it’s a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people.

Read moreHow Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? We’re Number 27!

Goodbye Full-Time Jobs, Hello Part-Time Jobs, R.I.P. Middle Class

Goodbye Full-Time Jobs, Hello Part-Time Jobs, R.I.P. Middle Class (Economic Collapse, July 15, 2013):

A fundamental shift is taking place in the U.S. economy.  In fact, this transition is rapidly picking up momentum and is in danger of becoming an avalanche.  The percentage of full-time jobs in our economy is steadily declining and the percentage of part-time jobs is steadily increasing.  This is not a recent phenomenon, but now there are several factors which are accelerating this trend.  One of them is Obamacare.  The truth is that Obamacare actually gives business owners incentive to cut hours and turn full-time workers into part-time workers, and according to the Wall Street Journal and other prominent publications this is already happening all over the United States.  Perhaps this is part of the reasons why the U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month.

In a recent article entitled “Restaurant Shift: Sorry, Just Part-Time“, the Wall Street Journal explained the choices that employers are faced with thanks to Obamacare…

The Affordable Care Act requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent workers to offer affordable insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week or face fines. Some companies have said the requirement could increase their costs significantly, although others have played down the potential hit.

The cost for small firms to comply with the health law will depend largely on the number of additional full-time employees that sign up for employer-sponsored coverage. Average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2012 were $5,615 for single coverage and $15,745 for family coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That is up from $3,083 and $8,003, respectively, in 2002.

Thankfully the implementation of this aspect of Obamacare was recently delayed, but a lot of employers are saying that it won’t make a difference.  They know that it is coming at some point, and so they are already making the changes that they feel they will need to make in order to comply with the law…

Read moreGoodbye Full-Time Jobs, Hello Part-Time Jobs, R.I.P. Middle Class

Every Asset That Depends on Cheap, Abundant Credit (Housing, Bonds, Stocks) Is Doomed

Every Asset That Depends on Cheap, Abundant Credit (Housing, Bonds, Stocks) Is Doomed (OfTwoMinds, June 20, 2013):

Four words: financialization, debtocracy, diminishing returns.

About a month ago I asked What If Stocks, Bonds and Housing All Go Down Together? (May 24, 2013). Why would such an outrageous thought even occur to me?

Four words: financialization, debtocracy, diminishing returns. The entire global economy, developed and developing nations alike, is now dependent on cheap, abundant credit for everything: for “growth,” for asset inflation, and ultimately for central state deficit spending, which props up all the cartels, rentier arrangements, fiefdoms and armies of toadies, lackeys, apparatchiks and embezzlers that suck off the Status Quo.

Read moreEvery Asset That Depends on Cheap, Abundant Credit (Housing, Bonds, Stocks) Is Doomed

American Households On Foodstamps Climb To A New All Time High Of 23,116,441 (Each Collecting An Average Of $274.30 Per Month)

American Households On Foodstamps Climb To New Record (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):

Yesterday, briefly, we were confused by the eruption in the stock market following a not too bad sub-200K nonfarm payrolls number. Because we know that in the New Normal bad is always good, no matter what the well-coifed TV pundit du jour tells you. Then we remembered that yesterday is when the USDA releases its monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, i.e. Americans on Foodstamps.It was here that the ramp was perfectly explained, because while the bad (for stocks of course) data was that individual foodstamps recipients rose by 170K in March – if just a whisker below all time highs – it was the number of American households on foodstamps, which rose to a new all time high of 23,116,441 (each collecting an average of $274.30 per month) that perfectly explained the Dow Jones’ 200 point surge higher: the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-classes to the 1% continues without a hiccup.

Source: SNAP

Jim Rogers: ‘We’re Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence’ (Video)

FYI.


Jim Rogers: We’re Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence (Peak Prosperity, March 9, 2013):

Jim Rogers decries the growing uncertainty and recklessness of global central planners as the world enters unchartered financial markets:

For the first time in recorded history, we have nearly every central bank printing money and trying to debase their currency. This has never happened before. How it’s going to work out, I don’t know. It just depends on which one goes down the most and first, and they take turns. When one says a currency is going down, the question is against what? because they are all trying to debase themselves. It’s a peculiar time in world history.

Read moreJim Rogers: ‘We’re Wiping Out The Savings Class Globally, To Terrible Consequence’ (Video)

16 Signs That The Middle Class Is Running Out Of Money

Consumer Spending Drought: 16 Signs That The Middle Class Is Running Out Of Money (Economic Collapse, Feb 28, 2013):

Is “discretionary income” rapidly becoming a thing of the past for most American families?  Right now, there are a lot of signs that we are on the verge of a nightmarish consumer spending drought.  Incomes are down, taxes are up, many large retail chains are deeply struggling because of the lack of customers, and at this point nearly a quarter of all Americans have more credit card debt than money in the bank.  Considering the fact that consumer spending is such a large percentage of the U.S. economy, that is very bad news.  How will we ever have a sustained economic recovery if consumers don’t have much money to spend?  Well, the truth is that we aren’t ever going to have a sustained economic recovery.  In fact, this debt-fueled bubble of false hope that we are experiencing right now is as good as things are going to get.  Things are going to go downhill from here, and if you think that consumer spending is bad now, just wait until you see what happens over the next several years.

Read more16 Signs That The Middle Class Is Running Out Of Money

50 Shocking Questions That You Should Ask To Anyone That Is Not A Prepper Yet

50 Shocking Questions That You Should Ask To Anyone That Is Not A Prepper Yet (Economic Collapse, Jan 16, 2013):

Share this list of shocking questions with everyone you know that needs to wake up.  Sometimes asking good questions is the best way to get someone that you care about to understand something.  When I attended law school, I became very familiar with something called “the Socratic method”.  It is a method that has been traditionally used in law schools all over the United States.  Law professors will bombard their students with questions, and the goal is to stimulate critical thinking and allow students to discover the answers for themselves.  Many times those of us that can see what is happening to this country get frustrated when we try to get others to see what is so apparent to us.  But instead of preaching to them, perhaps asking questions would be more helpful.  When you ask someone a question, they are almost forced to think about what you just said and come up with a response.  And without a doubt, the fact that America is in decline is undeniable.  Those that would choose to blindly have faith in the system are foolish, because it is glaringly obvious that the system is failing.  Our economy is heading for collapse and the world around us is becoming more unstable with each passing day.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the number of preppers in the United States is absolutely exploding.  Some estimates put the number of preppers in the U.S. as high as 3 million, and the movement continues to explode.

So exactly what is a “prepper”?  Well, the truth is that there is a tremendous amount of diversity among the people that fall under that label.

Read more50 Shocking Questions That You Should Ask To Anyone That Is Not A Prepper Yet

60 Facts That Prove The American Middle Class is Being Wiped Out

60 Facts That Prove The American Middle Class is Being Wiped Out (Activist Post, Jan 6, 2013):

The middle class in the United States is being systematically destroyed, and nobody is doing much of anything to stop it.  Our incomes are shrinking, our share of the income pie is at an all-time low, our jobs are being sent overseas, debt burdens have soared to unprecedented heights and millions of formerly middle class Americans have fallen into poverty.

America once had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen, but now it is rapidly being shredded.  Unfortunately, this is particularly true for younger Americans.  Today, families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.  That is astounding.  The truth is that there are not enough decent jobs for the hordes of young people that are entering the marketplace each year.

Read more60 Facts That Prove The American Middle Class is Being Wiped Out

Barack Obama’s $7 Million Hawaii Vacation Is An Insult To America’s Struggling Middle Class


Barack Obama: making sacrifices for his country?

Barack Obama’s $7 million Hawaii vacation is an insult to America’s struggling middle class (Telegraph, Jan 4, 2013):

$16.4 trillion – that’s the latest figure for America’s massive national debt. Nearly $6 trillion of this debt was racked up in the first term of the Obama presidency – a 50 percent increase. It is horrifying to imagine what the debt will be when Obama leaves the White House in 2016, unless Congress has the willpower to stand in the way.

Meanwhile, as the world’s superpower is literally drowning in debt, President Obama is basking in the warmth of the beaches of Hawaii, at an exclusive resort way beyond the financial reach of most Americans. The president pays the cost of his own family’s accommodations, but there are a large number of associated costs which are paid from the public purse.

What is the actual cost of Obama’s lavish vacation to the American taxpayer? A staggering $7 million, according to veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler, who wrote in his blog earlier this week:

Read moreBarack Obama’s $7 Million Hawaii Vacation Is An Insult To America’s Struggling Middle Class

Happy New Year Middle Class: The Fiscal Cliff Is Going To Rip You To Shreds

Happy New Year Middle Class: The Fiscal Cliff Is Going To Rip You To Shreds (Economic Collapse, Dec 30, 2012):

The middle class has quite a gift welcoming them as the calendar flips over to 2013.  Their payroll taxes are going to go up, their income taxes are going to go up, and approximately 28 million households are going to be hit with a huge, unexpected AMT tax bill on their 2012 earnings.  So happy New Year middle class!  You are about to be ripped to shreds.  In addition to the tax increases that I just mentioned, approximately two million unemployed Americans will instantly lose their extended unemployment benefits when 2013 begins, and new Obamacare tax hikes which will cost American taxpayers about a trillion dollars over the next decade will start to go into effect.  If Congress is not able to come to some sort of a deal, all middle class families in America will be sending thousands more dollars to Uncle Sam next year than they were previously.  And considering the fact that the middle class is already steadily shrinking and that the U.S. economy is already in an advanced state of decline, that is not good news.  You would think that both major political parties would want to do something to keep the middle class from being hit with this kind of tax sledgehammer.  Unfortunately, at this point it appears that our “leaders” in Washington D.C. are incapable of getting anything done.  So get ready for much smaller paychecks and much larger tax bills.  What is coming is not going to be pleasant.

So what happened?

Read moreHappy New Year Middle Class: The Fiscal Cliff Is Going To Rip You To Shreds