Stefan Molyneux Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 PowerPoint Presentation Download [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYkl3XlEneA] Facts about the state of the US economy signs of a terminally ill culture General data Index;0 - Employment numbers US Non-US 1 - Jobs2 - Middle class wealth Reduced standard of living, income and savings Consumer Debt/Debt Class polarization3 - Poverty rate Aid level Massive Numbers4 - Inflation5 - Rate of change6 - Government Finances7 - Expert Predictions8 - Signs of accelerating collapse9 - Historical similarities10 - Cost of regulations10.5 - Wealth of the wealthy to watch11 - Miscellaneous12 - The Empire has no clothes13 - More incredible economic numbers14 - New Graphs The links within the paragraphs should direct you to a specific story concerning that word where the “Link” or “Link to page” links should direct you to the place where that paragraph were taken from. 0. Employment numbersUS: Link https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/hsocUcmptmYk7vouoDhVKfqLfG59_F8Gj9JbE0GFgSYsPdmS_irjGBIR1zN3I9YsWCs-JYWlU6N9UzmIF0BE2z9WNv42GzNsHQaD238tykKKFEeEjdQ Public vs Private change 2009-mid 2012 Link https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/N55Vnldxbp7yiCl3_k_Cdrp15z1L5ViZ5QPFQ_Y5AyOlLljkKGeHSjDZmykWlFqReID0zRDNHF1XWFlY-1s31qSVIlW4qlJG0SThJZVBrK73f8LtFsY Public vs Private total 2009-mid 2012 Link Take the recent unemployment numbers that took the U.S. stock market to fresh three month highs. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 163,000 new jobs were created in July, 2012. Sounds good enough, but like most numbers, even if it is accurate, which it is not, it creates an intended deceit. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics own tables reveals the following startling fact: The U.S. actually lost 1,204,000 jobs in the month of July, 2012. Don't believe it? Take a look at the actual unadjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During July, 2012, the private sector added a net 27,000 jobs which represented an added 76,000 goods-producing jobs less 49,000 jobs lost in the service sector. The other million plus were lost in the public sector. The 163,000 represents a number that has nothing to do with reality, but rather represents a model that supposedly takes into account the seasonality of certain jobs. Link According to recently released data from BLS, the total number of people employed had climbed to 143,262,000 last month, an overall increase of 847,000 in the six months since June. The number of people with government jobs increased by 621,000 to 20,559,000, the same five-month period since June. These 621,000 new government jobs created in the last five months equal 73.3 percent of the 847,000 new jobs created overall. Link Just a note from Brady:The above paragraph states that in the 5 months since June 847,000 jobs had been created in the US. If we don’t bundle in the government jobs, that figure drops to 226,000 in 5 months. You’d think that figure was good since it’s positive right? Not really. For the US to keep up with population growth, an estimated 150,000 new jobs per month is considered feeble in that very task. If you don’t count government jobs, that leaves a deficit of 524,000 jobs. This number is probably a pretty good estimate of the number of people added to the massive state, blood buffet since out of the 750,000 new people, only 226,000 really got into the free market. And this is not counting the part time jobs that will go away when the Holidays are over. The two-tenths drop in the unemployment rate was because people gave up looking for work. The labor force participation rate fell to 63.6% from 63.8% in October. If it had just held steady since then, the unemployment rate would be back over 8%. Indeed, if the LFP rate was just where it was in November 2011, the unemployment rate would be 8.3%. Some 542,000 Americans left the labor force just last month. Link The only reason that the unemployment rate fell was because more people dropped out of the labor market than actually found jobs. The labor force declined by 350,000 and the labor force participation rate, a measure of potential workers, declined to 63.6, the same level as reported in September. Link 15 Signs That Layoffs And Job Losses Are Skyrocketing Link 1.Dow Chemical has announced that it will be closing about 20 plants and will be letting about 2,400 workers go. 2. Colgate-Palmolive has announced that they will be eliminating about 2,300 jobs. 3. DuPont has announced plans to eliminate about 1,500 jobs. 4. Ford has announced that it will be eliminating 6,200 jobs and will be reducing production capacity in Europe by 18 percent. 5. Hewlett-Packard announced last month that they plan to eliminate29,000 jobs. 6. Chip maker AMD has announced that they will be getting rid of about 15 percent of their workers. 7. Sony has announced plans to reduce their workforce by about 2,000 workers. 8. Electronics manufacturer Sharp reportedly plans to eliminate 11,000 jobs. 9. Engine maker Cummins Inc. has announced that they plan to get rid of about 1,500 jobs by the end of 2012. 10. Earlier this month Applied Materials announced a plan that will eliminate up to 1,300 jobs. 11. Zynga (known for making video games for Facebook such as FarmVille) has announced that they are reducing their workforce by about 5 percent. 12. Lattice Semiconductor has announced plans to eliminate about 13 percent of their jobs. 13. Alcatel-Lucent recently announced a plan to eliminate more than 5000 jobs all over the globe. 14. Siemens AG has announced that the number of positions being eliminated may reach 10,000 by the end of the year. 15. Banking giant UBS plans to eliminate up to 5,000 jobs. Please keep in mind that these job cuts do not show up in the unemployment numbers yet. When big corporations announce the elimination of jobs, it often takes a while before those job losses actually take place. The Employment Rate In The United States Is Lower Than It Was During The Last Recession Link From the article: “The media is buzzing about how "163,000 new jobs" were added in July but the unemployment rate went up to "8.254%". Sadly, those numbers are quite misleading. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June 142,415,000 people had jobs in the United States. In July, that number declined to 142,220,000. That means that 195,000 fewer Americans were working in July than in June. But somehow that works out to "163,000 new jobs" in July. I am not exactly sure how they get that math to add up. Perhaps someone out there can explain it to me.”Non US: Canada may have added 1,800 jobs in October, but that number hides the fact that almost all the gains came from government and that the private sector lost more than 20,000 jobs. Link Chart: Public sector employment growth outpacing private Link 1. Jobs The middle class continues to shrink - 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs. Link The percentage of low paying jobs just continues to increase. At this point,one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less. If that sounds like a high figure, that is because it is. Today, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does. Link The U.S. economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for all of us at this point. For example, it was reported that 20,000 people applied for just 877 jobs at a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama earlier this year. Sadly, the official U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row, and this is supposed to be “the recovery”. Link Public Sector Employment Outstripping Private Sector - Federal Employees Are Sitting Pretty - TSA Utilizes a Different Pay Scale - Public "Servants" Dominate Job Market Link GUNTER: Public sector wages are getting out of hand Link “ Much was made last year by the “Occupy” movement about the privilege of the 1% versus the poverty of the 99%. But if the movement and its supporters are so against unearned privilege, how come we have never heard anything from them about the 20% versus the 80%? I’m talking about the 20% of workers employed in the public sector versus the 80% of us who work for private-sector employers.” The Vampire Sector Link • A driver’s education teacher in Illinois gets a $170,000 annual salary and $120,000 annual pension. • In New York, some city workers amass more than $100,000 in overtime during their last year before retirement to create a monthly pension higher than their salary. • 420 of Illinois’s physical education teachers, 332 English teachers and 94 driver’s education teachers make more than $100,000 a year, with salaries for each position topping out at more than $160,000 a year. • A citizen of Houston, Texas, pondering the curious, concomitant rise in crime and taxes, would find that the number of police officers serving the community has remained the same for six years running, despite a 40 percent budget increase to cover higher salaries, pension and healthcare benefits. • A small business receiving an IOU in California might be surprised to learn that in 2008, 40 percent of Vallejo’s 613 employees had salaries greater than $100,000 a year, the same year the city filed for bankruptcy. The number of jobs at new small businesses continues to decline. According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the decline in the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration... Bush Sr.: 11.3 Clinton: 11.2 Bush Jr.: 10.8 Obama: 7.8 • In Fort Worth, Texas, one police chief recently retired at age 55 with a guaranteed annual pension of $188,692. His successor retired at age 52 with an annual pension of $113,614. Another unremarkable State of California retiree gets an annual pension of $500,000. He was outsmarted by two University of Connecticut professors who are currently collecting six-figure pensions while simultaneously collecting similar salaries. Public vs Private working hours Link The number of long-term unemployed remains at a sky-high 40.1%, the same as in August. Link The employment rate for youth ages 16 to 19 dropped precipitously — down 42 percent since 2000. Link Total compensation costs for management, professional, and related occupations, which represent approximately half of all state and local government employment, averaged $50.43 per hour worked. State and local government employers spent an average of $41.56 per hour worked for employee compensation in September 2012. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $28.95 per hour worked in September 2012. Link The federal workforce has become an elite island of secure and high-paid workers, separated from the ocean of average American workers competing in the global economy," according to a report this year by the Cato Institute. That report found the average civilian federal government worker collected just under $84,000 a year in taxpayer money, about $32,000 more than the average private sector worker. That's a total federal worker package of about $236 billion a year. In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector. Link In 2010, the number of jobs created at new businesses in the United States was less than half of what it was back in the year 2000. The U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession. Since January 2009, as the chart shows, a net of 194,000 new jobs have been created. During that same time, 14.7 million have been added to the food stamp rolls. Link In the 1,420 days since he took the oath of office, the federal government has daily hired on average 101 new employees. Every day. Seven days a week. All 202 weeks. That makes 143,000 more federal workers than when Obama talked forever on that cold day in January of 2009. Link Sadly, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs. It looks like the unemployment numbers are likely to get even worse. Since the election, dozens of large companies have announced major layoffs. Overall, large companies have announced the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs since November 6th. Link I work for the oldest and largest health insurer in the state of Ohio in the underwriting department. At 9 a.m.this morning, my department (about 50) were called into a meeting in the executive boardroom. We were informed that due to a provision in the healthcare 'reform' effective 2014 called guarantee issue, our services would no longer be needed, and we were offered severance So Obama got to keep his job, and we lost ours. It is maddening that some tyrant 400 miles away can have such a ruinous effect on peoples lives. Link A Las Vegas business owner with 114 employees fired 22 workers today, apparently as a direct result of President Obama’s re-election. “David” (he asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) told Host Kevin Wall on 100.5 KXNT that “elections have consequences” and that “at the end of the day, I need to survive.” Link The percentage of working age Americans that have jobs is not increasing. The employment to population ratio has stayed very steady (hovering between 58% and 59%) since the beginning of 2010. When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million. The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high. According to Reuters, approximately 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now. There are about 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high. According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012. Back in the year 2000, about 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs. Since January 2009, the "labor force" in the United States has increased by 827,000, but "those not in the labor force" has increased by 8,208,000. This is how they have gotten the unemployment numbers to "come down" The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Amazingly, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since 2001. According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages. According to Gallup, the unemployment rate was at 8.3% in mid-January but rose to 9.0% in mid-February. In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks Link More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying Link At this point, less than 25 percent of all jobs in the United States are "good jobs", and that number continues to shrink. In the United States today, more than 41 percent of all working age Americans are not working. Saddening fact: If you gathered together all of the workers that are "officially" unemployed in the United States into one nation, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the entire world. 2. Middle Class Wealth Reduced standard of living, income and savings: Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes. Link As the cost of living goes up, wages continue to stagnate or even fall in many areas of the country. Sadly, this is part of a long-term trend. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 declined by 27 percent after you account for inflation. Link During this time of the year, there are large numbers of new college graduates entering the work force. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough jobs for all of them. In fact, approximately 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year. Link Health insurance continues to become more expensive. Health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%. Link Just paying for the basics is becoming increasingly difficult for many Americans. For example, there are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001. Link In recent years U.S. families have experienced an astounding decline in wealth. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of families in the United States declined “from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010“. Link According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is more difficult to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago Link Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living at home with their parents Link 62 percent of middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year. Link In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time. Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span. Link 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings (July 2010) Link 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year Link A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement Link A different recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies. In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor" The percentage of Americans that find that they are able to retire when they reach retirement age continues to decline. According to one new survey, 70 percent of middle class Americans plan to work during retirement and 30 percent plan to work until they are at least 80 years old. Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less than zero. By 2010, that figure had soared to 32.5 percent One recent survey discovered that 40 percent of all Americans have $500 or less in savings. In the United States today, there are close to 10 million households that do not have a single bank account. That number has increased by about a million since 2009 Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does. There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001. In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance. As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero A different recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies. Link Consumer Debt/Debt: Many Americans are trying to make ends meet for their families by going into more debt. Consumer borrowing hit another brand new record high in October. It looks like the American people have not learned from their past mistakes and have decided to roll up consumer debt at a faster pace than ever before. Link Back in 1983, the bottom 95 percent of all income earners had 62 cents of debt for every dollar that they earned. By 2007, that figure had soared to $1.48. Total consumer debt in the United States has risen by 1700 percent since 1971. According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point in 2012. If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark. According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point. As you read this, there are more than 6 million mortgages in the United States that are overdue. Sadly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year Link After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago. Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month. Incredibly, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards. The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent. Of the U.S. households that do have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799. Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt. If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now. At this point, about 70 percent of all auto purchases in the United States involve an auto loan. In the United States today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers. Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955. According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent. Class polarization: Increasingly, our country is being divided into “two Americas“. According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. Link The United States now ranks 93rd in the world in income inequality. Link Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low. Link All from July 2010 and this the Link for all of the “Class polarization” 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people. 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008 Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975 For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the national wealth Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008 The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009 The top 10% of Americans now earn around 50% of our national income In the United States today, corporate profits are at an all-time high. The percentage of Americans that are living in "extreme poverty" is also at an all-time high according to the U.S. Census Bureau In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together 3. Poverty Rate: Aid level: Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And that does not even count Social Security or Medicare Link According to numbers that were just released, the number of Americans on food stamps has risen to a new all-time record of 47.71 million. That is a huge increase of more than 600,000 over the previous reading of 47.10 million. After about a year of slow growth, it looks like the number of Americans on food stamps is starting to skyrocket once again. Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps. Link Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million Link to page According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty Link to page Food banks all over America are reporting that more needy families than ever before are showing up to get food. Link For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011 Link In October 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, 46.7 million Americans are on food stamps Link Approximately one-fourth of all children in the United States are enrolled in the food stamp program Link Massive Numbers: As the middle class shrinks, the ranks of the poor continue to expand. Sadly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty. Link Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years Link Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by about 6 million over the past four years. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level Link Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished Link The number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent since 2007 Link to page According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial assistance from the federal government. Back in 1983, that number was less than 30 percent. A few days ago, the latest food stamp numbers were released. It turns out that the number of Americans on food stamps increased by 420,947 from July to August. That was the largest one month increase that we have seen in a year. At this point, an all-time record 47.1 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program. Link More American families are falling out of the middle class every single day. New numbers that were just released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that the number of Americans living in poverty rose to a new all-time record of 49.7 million last year. Once upon a time, people would have laughed at you if you suggested that someday 50 million Americans would be living in poverty. But here we are. Link 4. Inflation: The inflator and the inflation rate: (December 14th, 2012), the Federal Reserve announced plans to spend $45 billion a month to buy bonds, and to keep a key interest rate near zero until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent. Link Unfortunately, one of the experts USA Today interviewed said that we can expect water bills to rise between 5 percent and 15 percent a year moving forward. Link The unofficial misery index, which is calculated by combining unemployment and inflation, is now at a 28 year high. Link Some analysts are projecting that we could see food prices rise by 14 percent or more over the next year. Link Moreover, whatever money you do make (or save) will rapidly lose value as inflation, downplayed by the government of course, takes hold at a rate in excess of 10% per year, which means your money will be cut in half by 50% within seven years Link Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row Link to page Health insurance premiums rose faster than the overall rate of inflation in 2011 and that is happening once again in 2012. In fact, it has been happening for a very long time. Link to page Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago. Link to page In Florida right now, some drivers are paying nearly 6 dollars for a gallon of gas. On average, you could buy about 10 gallons of gas for an hour of work back in the mid-90s. Today, the average hour of work will get you less than 6 gallons of gas. To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1970 you would have to have more than $116 today. When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce Link Price of 8 everyday items 2002 vs 2012 Link ITEM $ PRICE 2002 $ PRICE 2012 % DIFFERENCE GASOLINE (GALLON) 1.44 3.73 158 BEER (16OZ) 0.99 1.24 25 EGGS GRADE A (12) 1.03 1.80 73 COFFEE (LB) 2.92 5.58 90 PEANUT BUTTER 1.96 2.75 40 MILK (GAL) 2.75 3.47 26 BREAD(LOAF) 1.01 1.41 39 MARGARINE(LB) 0.86 2.09 143 Electricity (KW) 0.091 0.130 42 Beef Steaks (16oz) 4.40 6.22 41 Tomato (LB) 1.18 1.44 22 Turkey whole (LB) 1.05 1.65 56 Bacon (LB) 3.23 4.52 39 Ground Beef (LB) 2.28 3.69 61 Cookies (LB) 2.59 3.61 39 Wine (Liter) 6.23 10.03 60 Apple, red delicious ( LB) 0.94 1.35 43 Orange Juice(16oz) 1.84 2.69 46 Spagetti and Macaroni (LB) 0.91 1.32 44 5. Rate of Change: According to Gallup, unemployment in the United States shot up very sharply during the month of November. Link 6. Government Finances: Over the next 75 years, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars. That comes to $328,404 for each and every household in the United States. Link Over the last several decades, the debt burdens being taken on by average Americans have absolutely exploded. All of this debt is making things incredibly difficult on American families. The following is from a recent CNN article…. In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings. Link As I wrote about yesterday, the federal government has run a deficit of $292 billion dollars during the first two months of fiscal 2013. That figure is $57 billion higher than it was during the same period last year. Government debt continues to soar wildly out of control and at some point all of that debt is absolutely going to crush us. Link During 2012, the U.S. government must roll over nearly 3 trillion dollars of old debt The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt. If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days. Right now, the U.S. national debt is increasing by about 150 million dollars every single hour Spending by the federal government accounted for about 2 percent of GDP back in 1800. It accounted for 23.8 percent in 2011, and according to former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, it will account for 36.8 percent of GDP by 2040 link 7. Expert Predictions: Wall Street bankers are expecting "the worst bonus season" since 2008. Not a lot of people are going to shed tears over this one, but this is a sign that there is trouble in the financial world. Link 8. Signs of accelerating collapse: The employment numbers are even belied by garbage, not just the government's garbage, but real garbage. A recent ZeroHedge blog interpreted Bloomberg numbers on the number of carloads of trash being hauled by U.S. railroads. "As Bloomberg explains: 'One closely watched economic indicator is the rail car loads of waste and scrap materials.' Logically, 'The more we demand, the more waste is generated by that production.' As the chart of the day(below), courtesy of Bloomberg Brief, demonstrates, if garbage is the benchmark, the US economy is now contracting faster than it has at any one point in the past 3 years and is on pace to recreate the economic collapse last seen after the Lehman bankruptcy. Lihttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/cX1gaX2kAJU89EXVmWd7Zkf2Z-CFEApIfVRRroK7hRFFvx4ZbNzkk4dDPqsLeczxcRuNN_g5pu1vZ8XiUfPGuGFUXQjbFwIA5KZONrIw2FH2hDSg-kI Article: Small Business Surveys Suggest New Downtrend Despite Incomplete Recovery From the Great Recession 9. Historical Similarities U.S. retail sales have declined for three months in a row, and that is a very bad sign. Retail sales in America have fallen three months in a row only 27 times since 1947. In 25 of those instances, the U.S. economy was either “in a recession or within three months of a recession.” Link The condition of the U.S. economy today mirrors the economic situation prior to the Great Depression. There is slow economic growth, massive deficits, high unemployment and foreclosures, and a shaky banking system. Real unemployment is at the same level it was during the Great Depression, around 25 percent. The drop in home prices and sales is actually worse than during the Great Depression. The stock market has been dropping, and stocks are currently overvalued by as much as 50 percent. Speculative greed precipitated the stock market crash, similar to the investors and homeowners of today who made risky investments they could not afford. Link Youth unemployment in the United States is now at the highest level that we have seen since World War II. Link I have written previously about how the once great city of Detroit has become a symbol of the downfall of the U.S. economy. Well, now the state of Michigan is laying the groundwork for a "managed bankruptcy" of Detroit. Sadly, many other large U.S. cities will likely follow suit over the next couple of years. Link This time the results are going to be dramatically worse than 1929. This time we are facing The Greatest Depression ever. Why? Because The Great Depression had NONE of the structural, economic, and social problems, nor the massive obligations we are now facing. Read the facts: In 1929 America was not $16 trillion in debt, plus facing over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilitieshttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/tjL9G9xEv07lsv_ec-Vn2M0XMljvoc0Z6RpGz81N8rZKmc95IJhDtMFfO0R-c2fV5QnfYhAU9m77p0bmIHGX3Y8wMVtpbeV98e2-ThHL6RokdzbRHIc. That’s over $360,000 in debt per citizen. In 1929, most of our states were not bankrupt, insolvent and dependent on federal government handouts to survive. One county (Cook County which includes Chicago, Illinois) now owes over $108 billion in debthttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/M-C_LiyRY9X1_S4zv2eDzE1qqdTETSwDR5FVKAYb6yEgViqoeJz2LLnChcRGlA_Emw1urGRZzsDbwEBadttrHxi24AlcfYwCQVz8G88BsfmOOEjQxBA (the biggest part of it in unfunded government employee pensions). In 1929, we did not have 21 million government employees with bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and free health care for life. Today 1 out of 5 federal employees earn over $100,000 No one could have imagined any of this in 1929. There is no possible way to pay these bills moving forward. In 1929, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid didn’t exist. The federal government had no such obligations threatening to consume the entire federal budget within a few years. In 1929, there was no such thing as welfare, food stamps, aid to dependent children, or English as a second language programs. American’s didn’t consider it the responsibility of government to pay for breakfast and lunch for school students -- let alone for illegal immigrants at school. Who could have imagined back in 1929 that one seventh of America's population would be on food stamps…and the federal government would ADVERTISE to encourage even more Americans to sign up for food stampshttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/u6M9dfcvr5Y2tjaBKkka-2Qt0Fq4vHSTOBDPDsX6cC9e2aQlBCuz3m4f5xxfO0NtwomLFwNGktUFw3s6KKBjplUw5uu1eymdeVkVJ-nA642ZiVKDDOY and welfare. Link The above list goes on Stef, I recommend you have a look. Just think how tragic it will be when the government’s finances collapses, millions will be completely left stranded. If there’s anytime for those with the capacity to get away to finally get a glimpse of a warning flare through the thick smog of bullshit, it’s now where ET of collapse or depression is still a toss up between days and years. 10. Cost of Regulations: According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs. Link Thanks to horribly oppressive regulations, red tape and taxes, it is incredibly difficult to run a successful small business in America today. According to the Christian Science Monitor, more than half of all small business owners in America cannot even afford to put food on the table from their small business earnings…. Another recent survey found that 23 percent of all small business owners have gone an entire year without pay. Link Overall, the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted last month for the first time in almost three years. The following is from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times…. A factory index calculated by the Institute for Supply Management slid to 49.7 in June from 53.5 in May to the lowest reading since July 2009. Any level below 50 denotes tightening in the sector; anything above signifies growth. Link The Philadelphia Fed’s employment index indicates that there is bad news ahead for the labor market…. Link An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all at this point, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row. Link to page During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent. Link to page According to one recent survey, approximately 10 percent of all employers in the United States plan to drop health coverage when key provisions of the new health care law kick in less than two years from now. Link to page This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour Link Small business owners all over America are declaring that Obamacare is going to force them to start replacing full-time workers with part-time workers during 2013. Link Obama has put onerous regulations into place that are crippling the economy and allowing little room for recovery. There are environmental restrictions on offshore drilling, CO2 emissions, and Obama refuses to approve the Keystone Pipeline, which would have created 100,000 jobs Link10.5 Wealth of the wealthy to watch: According to the Wall Street Journal, of the 40 biggest publicly traded corporate spenders, half of them plan to reduce capital expenditures over the coming months. Link 11. Miscellaneous http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2011/07/08/public-versus-private-sector-job-gains Article of origin: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/55-facts-about-the-debt-and-u-s-government-finances-that-every-american-voter-should-know While Barack Obama has been president, the U.S. government has spent about 11 dollars for every 7 dollars of revenue that it has actually brought in. #2 During the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. government took in2.449 trillion dollars but it spent 3.538 trillion dollars. #3 During fiscal year 2011, over a trillion dollars of government money was spent on 83 different welfare programs, and those numbers do not even include Social Security or Medicare. #4 Over the past four years, welfare spending has increased by 32 percent. In inflation-adjusted dollars, spending on those programs has risen by 378 percent over the past 30 years. At this point, more than100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. Once again, these figures do not even include Social Security or Medicare. #5 Over the past year, the number of Americans getting a free cell phone from the federal government has grown by 43 percent. Now more than 16 million Americans are enjoying what has come to be known as an "Obamaphone". #6 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, about 32 million Americans were on food stamps. Now, nearly 47 million Americansare on food stamps. And this has happened during what Obama refers to as "an economic recovery". #7 The U.S. government recently spent 27 million dollars on pottery classes in Morocco. #8 The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar at a time when more families than ever are having a really hard time just trying to put any food on the table at all. #9 During 2012, the National Science Foundation spent $516,000 to support the creation of a video game called "Prom Week", which apparently simulates "all the social interactions of the event." #10 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the largest snack food maker in the world (PepsiCo Inc.) a total of 1.3 million dollars in corporate welfare that was used to help build "a Greek yogurt factory in New York." #11 The National Science Foundation recently gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000. They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting. #12 If you can believe it, $10,000 from the federal government was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes up in Michigan. #13 The National Science Foundation recently gave a whopping$697,177 to a New York City-based theater company to produce a musical about climate change. #14 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is studying the benefits of watching reruns on television. #15 The National Science Foundation has given 1.2 million dollars to a team of "scientists" that is spending part of that money on a study that is seeking to determine whether elderly Americans would benefit from playing World of Warcraft or not. #16 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $548,731 to a team of researchers that concluded that those that drink heavily in their thirties also tend to feel more immature. #17 The National Science Foundation recently spent $30,000 on a study to determine if "gaydar" actually exists. This is the conclusion that the researchers reached at the end of the study.... "Gaydar is indeed real and… its accuracy is driven by sensitivity to individual facial features" #18 Back in 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop. #19 The U.S. government spends more on the military than China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined. In fact, the United States accounts for 41.0% of all military spending on the planet. China is next with only 8.2%. #20 In a previous article, I noted that close to 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year. #21 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year. Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do. #22 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do. #23 During 2010, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000. #24 The U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning $170,000 or more back in 2005. When Barack Obama became president, the U.S. Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more. By June 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense had994 civilians earning $170,000 or more. #25 During 2010, compensation for federal employees came to a grand total of approximately 447 billion dollars. #26 If you can believe it, close to 15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. That list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney. #27 During 2010, the federal government spent $33,387 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators. #28 During 2010, U.S. Senators pulled $72,370 out of the "Senate Restaurant Fund". #29 During 2010, an average of $4,005,900 of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on "personal" and "office" expenses per Senator. #30 In 2013, 3.7 million dollars will be spent to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. #31 During 2011, the federal government spent a total of 1.4 BILLION dollars just on the Obamas. #32 When you combine all federal government spending, all state government spending and all local government spending, it comes toapproximately 41 percent of U.S. GDP. But don't worry, all of our politicians insist that this is not socialism. #33 As I have written about previously, less than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person received financial assistance from the federal government back in 1983. Today, that number is sitting at an all-time high of 49 percent. #34 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for just 32 percent of all health care spending in America. This year, it is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in the United States. #35 The number of Americans on Medicaid soared from 34 million in 2000 to 54 million in 2011, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls. #36 In one of my previous articles, I discussed how it is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025. #37 If you can believe it, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States. #38 In the United States today, more than 61 million Americansreceive some form of Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million. #39 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. #40 When Barack Obama first took office, the U.S. national debt was about 10.6 trillion dollars. Now it is about 16.2 trillion dollars. That is an increase of 5.6 trillion dollars in less than 4 years. #41 The federal government has now run a budget deficit of more than a trillion dollars for four years in a row. #42 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars. #43 If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. #44 Some suggest that "taxing the rich" is the answer. Well, if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days. #45 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars. #46 The United States already has more government debt per capitathan Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain does. #47 At this point, the United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world. #48 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times larger than it was just a decade ago. #49 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period. #50 The U.S. national debt is now more than 37 times larger than it was when Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard. #51 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first created. #52 The U.S. national debt jumped more on the very first day of fiscal year 2013 than it did from 1776 to 1941 combined. #53 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent. If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt. #54 A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050. #55 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay. Kotlikoff speaks of a "fiscal gap" which he defines as "the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue". His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead. Article of origin : http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/20-signs-that-the-u-s-poverty-explosion-is-hitting-children-and-young-people-the-hardest If you can believe it, a higher percentage of children is living in poverty in America today than was the case back in 1975. 2. More than one out of every five children in the United States iscurrently living in poverty. 3. According to U.S. Census data, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either considered to be "poor" or "low income". 4. Median household income for families with children dropped by a whopping $6,300 between 2001 and 2011. 5. For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless. That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year. 6. It is being projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age. 7. One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year. 8. The 18 to 24 age group has a higher unemployment rate than any other age group in the United States. 9. Young adult employment is now at the lowest level that we have seensince World War II. 10. In 2007, the unemployment rate for the 20 to 29 age bracket was about 6.5 percent. Today, the unemployment rate for that same age group is about 13 percent. 11. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. 12. Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began. 13. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you account for inflation. 14. In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. 15. During 2011, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed. 16. Many young people are finding that they cannot afford to get married these days. Sadly, an all-time low 44.2 percent of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are married right now. 17. Right now, approximately 53 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 24 age group are living at home. 18. The number of Americans in the 25 to 34 age group that live with their parents has grown by 25 percent since 2007. 19. One survey discovered that 85 percent of all college seniors plan on moving back in with their parents after graduation. 20. Overall, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents in the United States right now according to Time Magazine Original Article: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/75-economic-numbers-from-2012-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe #1 In December 2008, 31.6 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, a new all-time record of 47.7 million Americans are on food stamps. That number has increased by more than 50 percent over the past four years, and yet the mainstream media still has the gall to insist that "things are getting better". #2 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps. #3 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming." #4 According to one recent survey, 55 percent of all Americans have received money from a safety net program run by the federal government at some point in their lives. #5 For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless. That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year. #6 Median household income in the U.S. has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span. #7 Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. #8 The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been under 59 percent for 39 months in a row. #9 In September 2009, during the depths of the last economic crisis,58.7 percent of all working age Americans were employed. In November 2012, 58.7 percent of all working age Americans were employed. It is more then 3 years later, and we are in the exact same place. #10 When you total up all working age Americans that do not have a job in America today, it comes to more than 100 million. #11 According to one recent survey, 55 percent of all small business owners in America "say they would not start a business today given what they know now and in the current environment." #12 The number of jobs at new small businesses continues to decline. According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the decline in the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration... Bush Sr.: 11.3 Clinton: 11.2 Bush Jr.: 10.8 Obama: 7.8 #13 The U.S. share of global GDP has fallen from 31.8 percent in 2001 to 21.6 percent in 2011. #14 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row. #15 There are four major U.S. banks that each have more than 40 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. #16 In 2000, there were more than 17 million Americans working in manufacturing, but now there are less than 12 million. #17 According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of all Americans were "middle income" back in 1971. Today, only 51 percent of all Americans are. #18 The Pew Research Center has also found that 85 percent of all middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago. #19 62 percent of all middle class Americans say that they have had toreduce household spending over the past year. #20 Right now, approximately 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty. #21 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished. #22 According to one survey, 77 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time. #23 Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs. #24 The average amount of time that an unemployed worker stays out of work in the United States is 40 weeks. #25 If you can believe it, approximately one out of every four American workers makes 10 dollars an hour or less. #26 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial assistance from the federal government. Back in 1983, that number was less than 30 percent. #27 Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And that does not even count Social Security or Medicare. Overall, there arealmost 80 different "means-tested welfare programs" that the federal government is currently running. #28 When you account for all government transfer payments and all forms of government employment, more than half of all Americansare now at least partially financially dependent on the government. #29 Barack Obama has been president for less than four years, and during that time the number of Americans "not in the labor force" has increased by nearly 8.5 million. Something seems really "off" about that number, because during the entire decade of the 1980s the number of Americans "not in the labor force" only rose by about 2.5 million. #30 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row. #31 According to USA Today, many Americans have actually seen their water bills triple over the past 12 years. #32 There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001. #33 Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents. #34 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married. #35 At this point, only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs. #36 In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance. #37 Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark. #38 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards. #39 One survey of business executives has ranked California as the worst state in America to do business for 8 years in a row. #40 In the city of Detroit today, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty, and close to 50 percent of all adults are functionally illiterate. #41 It is being projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age. #42 More than three times as many new homes were sold in the United States in 2005 as will be sold in 2012. #43 If you can believe it, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year. #44 The U.S. economy continues to trade good paying jobs for low paying jobs. 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs. #45 Our trade deficit with China in 2011 was $295.5 billion. That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet. #46 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. #47 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year. #48 The U.S. tax code is now more than 3.8 million words long. If you took all of William Shakespeare's works and collected them together, the entire collection would only be about 900,000 words long. #49 According to the IMF, the global elite are holding a total of 18 trillion dollars in offshore banking havens such as the Cayman Islands. #50 The value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 96 percent since the Federal Reserve was first created. #51 2012 was the third year in a row that the yield for corn has declined in the United States. #52 Experts are telling us that global food reserves have reached their lowest level in almost 40 years. #53 One recent survey discovered that 40 percent of all Americans have $500 or less in savings. #54 If you can believe it, one recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies. #55 Medical costs related to obesity in the United States are estimated to be approximately $147 billion a year. #56 Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low. #57 Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined. #58 The wealthiest 400 families in the United States have about as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of all Americans combined. #59 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined. #60 At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States. #61 Nearly 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year. #62 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year. Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do. #63 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do. #64 Nearly 15,000 retired federal workers are collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. The list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney. #65 U.S. taxpayers spend more than 20 times as much on the Obamas as British taxpayers spend on the royal family. #66 Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began. #67 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days. #68 During fiscal year 2012, 62 percent of the federal budget was spent on entitlements. #69 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid. #70 It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls. #71 Medicare is also growing by leaps and bounds. As I wrote aboutrecently, it is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025. #72 Thanks to our foolish politicians (including Obama), Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States. #73 Amazingly, the U.S. national debt is now up to 16.3 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars. #74 During the first four years of the Obama administration, the U.S. government accumulated about as much debt as it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that George W. Bush took office. #75 Today, the U.S. national debt is more than 5000 times largerthan it was when the Federal Reserve was originally created back in 1913. 12. The Empire has no clothes A Washington Post survey that was conducted back in April discovered that 76 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession. Link One recent survey found that 23 percent of all Americans believe that “government is the solution to the problem” while 64 percent of all Americans believe that “government is the problem”. Link One recent survey found that 63 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economic model is broken. Link Today, 71 percent of all small business owners believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession. Link A new CNN poll out on Friday shows that two and half years after the financial crisis and subsequent fallout, the public’s worries about the economy have not settled. In fact, more people now feel the US is in a recession than they did in October of 2008. CNN’s survey showed that 69 percent of Americans think we are in a serious or moderate recession, with 13 percent who believe it’s still a mild one. That means 8 in 10 Americans still feel the economy is still stuck in neutral, which isn’t helpful for other economic indicators like consumer confidence, and could contribute to slowing the recovery. Link According to a recent CNN poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that "another Great Depression" is likely within the next 12 months. Link Reuters reports today: The April 20-23 Gallup survey of 1,013 U.S. adults found that only 27 percent said the economy is growing. Twenty-nine percent said the economy is in a depression and 26 percent said it is in a recession, with another 16 percent saying it is “slowing down,” Gallup said. Link How can so many Americans believe that we’re in a depression, when the stock market and commodity prices have been booming? As I noted last week: Instead of directly helping the American people, the government threw trillions at the giant banks (including foreign banks; and see this) . The big banks have – in turn – used a lot of that money to speculate in commodities, including food and other items which are now driving up the price of consumer necessities [as well as stocks]. Link Supreme Court disapproval rating dips to 46% in october 2012, down 15 points from 2009. Here’s a chart to show the steadily decreasing rate over the last decade: Dropping approval for congress Link Here are a few things that Americans like better than their lawmaking body: TSA People who hate the Olympics The Most Disliked Company In America The Least Popular Living Former President President Obama Mitt Romney Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Banks and Financial Institutions Socialism Link Here are a few things that American like better than congress: BP oil spill Socialism Waterboarding Abortion Nixon Occupy Wall Street Paris Hilton Banks During the Banking crisis Link13. When you think you’ve seen it all...http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-u-s-economy-by-the-numbers-70-facts-that-barack-obama-does-not-want-you-to-see$361,330 - This is what the average banker in New York City made in 2010.500,000 - According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losinghalf a million jobs to China every single year.2,000,000 - At this point, the U.S. national debt is rising by more than 2 million dollars every single minute.2,600,000 - In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.40,000,000 - According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.150,000,000 - This is approximately the amount of money that the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress are stealing from future generations of Americans every single hour.454,000,000,000 - During fiscal 2011, the U.S. government spentover 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt.$200,000,000,000,000 - Today, the 9 largest banks in the United States have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. When the derivatives market completely collapsesthere won't be enough money in the entire world to fix it.14. New Graphs The percentage of Americans with jobs is at the lowest level in three decades. Link And wages as a percent of the economy have hit an all-time low. Link Put differently, the growth of our borrowing (red line) has wildly outpaced the growth of our economy (blue line). Link The next big problem is growing inequality. The top 1% of the country is getting ever-richer, while everyone else treads water or loses ground. Link Stagnant Wages Link Over the past 50 years, social-program spending has exploded as a percentage of the economy. Link Based on data from the Congressional Research Service, cumulative spending on means-tested federal welfare programs, if converted into cash, would equal $167.65 per day per household living below the poverty level. By comparison, the median household income in 2011 of $50,054 equals $137.13 per day. Additionally, spending on federal welfare benefits, if converted into cash payments, equals enough to provide $30.60 per hour, 40 hours per week, to each household living below poverty. The median household hourly wage is $25.03. After accounting for federal taxes, the median hourly wage drops to between $21.50 and $23.45, depending on a household’s deductions and filing status. State and local taxes further reduce the median household’s hourly earnings. By contrast, welfare benefits are not taxed. Link https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eRUPvqFjGWp_A4DTbhVFyAqWaG58X_lRFXkz5-Y_irF_3JTrhkXIUFZjnnCRtgsz7p0Iv-v40Il5PUGyo5jOt2edNZX8CXhvNUwmR7Cajd_BVm1iIdw The richest 20% have gained. Everyone else has lost. Link https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/w3QaIMrHVxYAqcRboXBhHRKy4FhHBJD_JKgyyZT9vgFHlGX6X5R1Y1OU3IFmVV15rTFy51nP0jYA7pOi8DiTvU44MKR9qgsdjkiC0xWWe8HGFYYumLc Don’t know this will be useful for this particular project but very interesting. Link Government spending is expanding at an exponential rate. As you can see from the chart below, federal spending is almost 18 times higher than it was back in 1970. Link Unless something changes right now, the outlook for U.S. government finances in future years is downright apocalyptic. The chart posted below is from an official U.S. government report to Congress. As you can see, it is projected that interest on our exploding national debt is absolutely going to spiral out of control if we continue on the path that we are currently on.... Link https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/WLPOGNi_r6RD7jggQhaO0zSwrilSIgxwUK8jbEp0crHW-5pvD2hWzdqkUaFXTuFkPJ1H1YsQLxpXf_9VQlVgqIajsk49-LndDYPTtAMJV0-IX0TbNBA As tens of thousands of U.S. factories get shut down and as millions of our jobs get shipped overseas, the number of unemployed Americans continues to go up and up and up. As you can see from the chart below, there has been a long-term trend of increasing unemployment in the United States. In fact, there are about 3 and a half times as many unemployed workers in the United States today as there were when 1970 began. Link The median duration of unemployment in the United States is in unprecedented territory. For most of the post-World War 2 era, when the median duration of unemployment in America reached 10 weeks that was considered a national crisis. Well, today competition for jobs is so intense that the median duration of unemployment is now well over 20 weeks.... Link Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by over 95 percent. Link What the Federal Reserve has done to the monetary base since the beginning of the recession.... Link All of this new money is creating tremendous inflation. In particular, the price of oil is now ridiculously high. A high price for oil is very, very bad for the U.S. economy. Our entire economic system is based on being able to use massive quantities of very cheap oil. Link As you can see from the chart below, in the 1950s there were times when nearly 85 percent of all working age men had a job. Sadly, that number has stayed below 65 percent since the end of the last recession.... Link https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/rS-EGKG_VfoV4LZJnT8irOpVd2lmVlwXghoubLb6V6BFneF7vEY3QQfgH1TVOK_IgIkHKMoksXlwUHh8tfSQzavLB4jKpaS2R6asEoXs9WXGHsk6Ol8 US labor force participation has collapsed... Link https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/jOIOHjK3wo81xHsRdlTmBM5ON4WpW7bnOELTGJwCKj6bNc98johlK4VcAC5uT2h5Ktruh8CwCB7GtAAKXIVybQ6nIKbb754YTDHfNmpDvQFJV5gbgdU The number of Americans working as a share of the population, perhaps the broadest measure of the health of the US labor market, remains in a depression. Link https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/sXxcrjDQcHPtAgbeXVt6xuYB_i3mCqoz8EuEsASOOt4zifxiOupdVFJAFUVfeDYSzaIJ2cBgKvx5uLKnyAy6QAt0XNmi2G33QgLX58E87ly3TV60RcYThe economy is slowly creating jobs, but the Jobs Gap isn’t closing. The US lost 9 million private sector jobs during the Great Recession. Since job growth resumed, 5 million private sector jobs have been created. But as measured by economist Michael Darda of MKM Partners, the level of private sector jobs remains 13 million below the pre-crisis trend. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thornyd Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I really love it when you do videos jam-packed full of information like this. A few alarming looking graphs can really drive the message home! Thanks so much for your amazing work here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Stef, you should feature this on your channel for a time to get the view count up. Another problem with the situation in the U.S. is the dislocation caused by State interventionism which forces capital and labor to be funnelled into unsustainable industries (eg. finance). When the dollar collapses, millions more people will lose their jobs. These are not "real" jobs, even though they are counted as "employed" in official statistics. I say that they aren't real because they're not market driven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godwin_anarchism Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I suspect there will be some form of taxpayer bailout of the $1 Trillion + in student loans in the near future. It's probably what they had in mind when government took over student loans in 2009. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 It's about to hit 50K views (in its first week). That's what I like to see. I noticed that some alternative news sites were linking to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
empyblessing Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 From my limited understanding, the current situation will go into meltdown after a new bubble or scandal as we hang on the precipice waiting for some calamity to shove it over. Some of the bubbles that have been suggested could cause the collaspe are the boomer bubble (when they all seek social security) the college debt bubbles, and a major terrorist attack on US soil. I have been preparing by buying some storable food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Politicians are also trying to inflate another housing bubble with sub-3% interest rates. There is a mini-bubble right now in Orange county where I live. People think it's a sign of a recovery, but it'll burst like the last one. There is also a bubble in municipal bonds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 Nearly Half Of American Households Are 1 Emergency Away From Financial Disaster, Report Finds Nearly 44 percent of American households don’t have enough savings to cover their basic expenses for three months in the event of a financial emergency like losing a job or paying for unexpected medical care... . . . There are a variety of reasons why so many Americans with full-time jobs and relatively high incomes are risk: They’re coping with stagnating wages and rising prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 No-money-down mortgages are back Another gimmick to inflate another housing bubble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonF Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 I don't know about bubble, at the moment I think it's just about trying to keep the market from declining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 This is an example of what I'm talking about. New-home sales surge, even with brake on $1 million-plus home sales hit 5-year peak This is phantom growth created by artificial demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDJasper Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Nearly Half Of American Households Are 1 Emergency Away From Financial Disaster, Report Finds Nearly 44 percent of American households don’t have enough savings to cover their basic expenses for three months in the event of a financial emergency like losing a job or paying for unexpected medical care... . . . There are a variety of reasons why so many Americans with full-time jobs and relatively high incomes are risk: They’re coping with stagnating wages and rising prices. This is almost funny. When the SHTF, hyperinflation will no doubt reduce all but the super-rich to poverty level when a loaf of bread costs a wheelbarrow load of useless money. I'm going with the idea of storing up tinned foods for a short contingency but must remember to buy a manual tin opener for when the power goes off! [pi] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 U.S. economy grew 0.1% in fourth quarter When even the phony, inflated government figures are that bad, you know the economy is in far worse shape. Of course, the truth is that the economy didn't grow at all; it contracted. The so-called growth is just government pissing money down the sewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanm Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 I just can't decide what to do with that sweet sweet interest payment from last year's fiscally responsible savings. Do I get the candy bar, the bag of chips or a box of pencils? Ooh, I know, I can try my hand at the claw machine! Well, whatever I choose, thanks for the awesome incentive to save, Mr. Banker! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Wealth of most Americans down 55% since recession Peter Schiff made a very keen observation on his show recently when he pointed out that inflated asset prices caused by artificial demand is not the same thing as wealth. The "wealth" which people believed that they had was illusory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darkskyabove Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Nooooo! You mean all those shares of stock in companies with "pull" are overvalued? Hey, Nathan, I'll trade you some stock for those chips and candy bars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck Fewer than one in four Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover at least six months of expenses, enough to help cushion the blow of a job loss, medical emergency or some other unexpected event, according to the survey of 1,000 adults. Meanwhile, 50% of those surveyed have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all. . . . Last week, online lender CashNetUSA said 22% of the 1,000 people it recently surveyed had less than $100 in savings to cover an emergency, while 46% had less than $800. After paying debts and taking care of housing, car and child care-related expenses, the respondents said there just isn't enough money left over for saving more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 33 Shocking Facts Which Show How Badly The Economy Has Tanked Since Obama Became President Recommended read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 U.S. Economy Shrinks for First Time Since 2011; Pent Demand Suggests Temporary Setback Actually, the economy has been shrinking for decades, but the government has erected a facade of meaningless numbers and asset bubbles to conceal reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 More Than A Thousand Stood Under Heat & Sun For Free Food In Miami More than a thousand locals lined up Friday morning for several hours under the scorching sun and heat in Miami for a box full of food. . . . “It’s a blessing because if it wasn’t for them I couldn’t eat today...” . . . Many of those lined up were elderly. One man was so overcome by heat, he had to be treated and transported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Most Americans Don’t Have Savings to Pay Unexpected Bill More than three in five Americans wouldn’t have money in their savings accounts to pay for an unexpected car repair or medical emergency, according to a survey released Wednesday.Only 38% of those polled said they could cover a $500 repair bill or a $1,000 emergency room visit with funds from their bank accounts, a new Bankrate report said. Most others would need to take on debt or cut back elsewhere.. . .The survey found that an unexpected bill would cause 26% to reduce spending elsewhere, while 16% would borrow from family or friends and 12% would put the expense on a credit card. The remainder didn’t know what they would do or would make other arrangements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Economic Death Spiral: More American Businesses Dying Than Starting In a stunning Tuesday report, Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton revealed that “for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.”Clifton says for the past six years since 2008, employer business startups have fallen below the business failure rate, spurring what he calls “an underground earthquake” that only stands to worsen as lagging U.S. Census data becomes available. Indeed, the numbers are striking. Contrary to the oft-cited 26 million businesses in America figure, Clifton says 20 million of these so-called “businesses” are merely companies on paper with zero workers, profits, customers, or sales. In reality, America has just 6 million businesses with one or more employers–3.8 million of which have four or fewer employees. In total, these 6 million U.S. companies provide jobs for more than 100 million people in America.Of the 2.2 million job-creating companies with five or more workers, the numbers break down accordingly:There are about a million companies with five to nine employees, 600,000 businesses with 10 to 19 employees, and 500,000 companies with 20 to 99 employees. There are 90,000 businesses with 100 to 499 employees. And there are just 18,000 with 500 employees or more, and that figure includes about a thousand companies with 10,000 employees or more. Altogether, that is America, Inc.The Gallup CEO says the numbers paint an ominous portrait of America in a dire state of decline.“I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer, but when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise,” says Clifton. “And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Price of beef, fish, eggs reach record highs Price of Electricity Hit Record High in U.S. in 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 47% of American households save nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Almost a Third of Those with Savings Have Less Than $1,000 for Retirement The survey titled “Preparing for Retirement in America,” (PDF) by Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald and Associates, finds that only 65 percent of workers have any savings for retirement, a number that fell below the 75 percent figure from 2009.But 28 percent of workers report that they have saved less than $1,000 for retirement, and almost 6 in 10 Americans say that their financial planning needs improvement.Additionally, 34 percent say they have made no effort at all to saving anything or make a retirement plan. Still, most say that they intend to start saving at some point. . . . Many say that the average person needs to save one million dollars for retirement, but a recent piece by David Marotta, president of Marotta Wealth Management in Charlottesville, VA, noted that a 20-year-old in 2015 may have to amass up to $7 million to retire comfortably.“Someone retiring now in 2014 with $1 million at age 65 can safely withdraw $43,600 a year,” Marotta wrote last May. “However, [because of inflation], today’s 20-year-olds will need over $7 million to have that same lifestyle when they retire. In 1970, they would only have needed $166,000 in retirement to have a similar purchasing power for the rest of their life.” In 1970, a man earning about $15,000 annually could comfortably support a family without the mother having to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Nearly Half of U.S. Can’t Afford Unexpected $400 Bill – Forgo Medical Treatment The Federal Reserve Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2014 says that 47 percent indicate that they would have great difficulty handling an unexpected $400 expense.“Specifically, respondents indicate that they simply could not cover the expense (14 percent); would sell something (10 percent); or would rely on one or more means of borrowing to pay for at least part of the expense, including paying with a credit card that they pay off over time (18 percent), borrowing from friends or family (13 percent), or using a payday loan (2 percent),” the report says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Home ownership rates in U.S. drops to 1967 level 'Real' Homeownership Rate at Nearly 50-Year Low While rents continue to increase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 The Obama recovery: Since December 2014, the US has lost 1.4 million manufacturing workers. These have been replaced almost one to one, with new waiters and bartenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Food banks struggle to meet surprising demand Food banks across the country are seeing a rising demand for free groceries despite the growing economy, leading some charities to reduce the amount of food they offer each family.U.S. food banks are expected to give away about 4 billion pounds of food this year, more than double the amount provided a decade ago, according to Feeding America, the nation's primary food bank network. The group gave away 3.8 billion in 2013.. . ....the increased demand is surprising since the economy is growing and unemployment has dropped from 10 percent during the recession to 5.3 percent last month. Despite the growing economy? This shows how stupid and clueless the mainstream media is. Hey, the unemployment rate is 5.3%. This I know cuz the TV said so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 21,995,000 to 12,329,000: Government Employees Outnumber Manufacturing Employees 1.8 to 1 There were 21,995,000 employed by federal, state and local government in the United States in August, according to BLS. By contrast, there were only 12,329,000 employed in the manufacturing sector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Auto loan debt exceeds $1 trillion To go along with the $1 trillion in student loan debt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts