Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"

[Soul Crusher]

.

True - he is great at destroying everything he goes near.   

[Soul Crusher]

Americans Joining Disability Now Outpacing Americans Finding Jobs


10:31 AM, Jul 17, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER



A new chart set to be released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details an alarming fact: In the last three months, more Americans have joined disability than have found a job:
 


As the chart shows, between April-June 2012, an estimated 246,000 Americans were added to Social Security's disability insurance program. In that same time period, only 225,000 American jobs were created.
 
These alarming numbers, though, are part of a wider trend, as another chart, also set to be released later today, from the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows:
 


As this chart shows, since 2008, 3.6. million Americans have been added to Social Security's disability insurance program. In that same time period, a net total of 1.3 million jobs were lost.
 
"Amazingly, while fewer Americans are working than at the end of 2008, 3.6 million Americans have been awarded SSDI benefits over the same period. The growing number of people on disability and other federal benefits, combined with weak economic growth, raises serious concerns about the sustainability of the American economy," Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, says in a statement in response to these new numbers.


http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/americans-joining-disability-outpaces-americans-finding-jobs_648660.html

[Soul Crusher]

Bernanke gloomy on economic outlook
 
By Robin Harding in Washington
 





©AP
 
Ben Bernanke offered a gloomy outlook for the US economy but the Federal Reserve chairman offered no hint of further monetary easing in testimony to Congress.
 
“We are looking very carefully at the economy, trying to judge whether or not the loss of momentum we’ve seen recently is enduring, and whether or not the economy is likely to continue to make progress,” he said, warning that progress in reducing a 8.2 per cent unemployment rate “seems likely to be frustratingly slow”.
 
 
The testimony disappointed markets – which are on tenterhooks for a signal of further monetary easing from the Fed – with stocks falling and the dollar rising before turning around by midday in New York.
 
A run of weak reports on the economy, with net job creation falling to 80,000 in June, has led to speculation that the Fed could ease policy further as soon as its August meeting.
 
Mr Bernanke said that recent data points to annualised growth of less than 2 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. “Households remain concerned about their employment and income prospects and their overall level of confidence remains relatively low,” he said.
 
The Fed chairman set out a list of options for further easing but refused to say which he might prefer. “The logical range includes different types of purchase programs. That could include Treasuries or include Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. Those are the two things we’re allowed to buy,” he said.
 
Asset purchases – also known as quantitative easing – are a way of driving down long-term interest rates to boost the economy when short-term rates are already at zero.
 
The Fed’s other options include lending via the Fed’s discount window, communications about future policy, or cutting the interest that the Fed pays banks on excess reserves, Mr Bernanke said. “We haven’t really come to a specific choice at this point, but we are looking for ways to address the weakness in the economy should more action be needed to promote a sustained recovery in the labour market.”
 
New data on Tuesday showed little sign of inflationary pressure – the overall consumer price index was up by 1.7 per cent on a year ago – and a rebound in industrial production, which was up 0.4 per cent in June after falling in May.
 
Mr Bernanke chided Congress for its failure to act on fiscal policy, citing it as one of two main risks to the economy alongside the eurozone crisis, and warning against a repeat of the market volatility and loss of economic confidence caused by last summer’s debacle over raising the debt ceiling.
 
The Fed chairman has ramped up his rhetoric on fiscal policy with each successive visit to Capitol Hill, but there is little sign that Congress is willing to compromise before the November election, even in order to boost growth.
 
“The most effective way that the Congress could help to support the economy right now would be to work to address the nation’s fiscal challenges in a way that takes into account both the need for long-run sustainability and the fragility of the recovery,” said Mr Bernanke. “Doing so earlier rather than later would help to reduce uncertainty and boost household and business
 


http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/704622f8-d016-11e1-a3d2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz20uKXBep1

[Soul Crusher]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/bernanke-predicts-slow-progress-on-unemployment.html

[Soul Crusher]

PIMCO's Bill Gross: U.S. 'Approaching Recession'


The Huffington Post  |  By Bonnie Kavoussi Posted: 07/17/2012 2:23 pm



Bill Gross, the co-founder, managing director, and co-CIO of PIMCO, the world's largest investor in bonds.


So much for that economic recovery.

The U.S. economy is "approaching recession when measured by employment, retail sales, investment, and corporate profits," said Bill Gross, co-founder of PIMCO, on Twitter Monday. Gross manages PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the world's largest mutual fund (h/t Bloomberg).

Gross told Bloomberg last week that he thinks the U.S. economy will grow an average of 1.5 percent per year on average over the next decade, according to a separate Bloomberg report.

The bearish predictions landed Monday, shortly after the Commerce Department released data showing that U.S. retail sales declined 0.5 percent in June, indicating that Americans are holding back on spending. American workers simply do not have much money to spend these days, since their pay raises are roughly in line with inflation.

Federal reserve chairman Ben Bernanke offered a dire assessment of the economy during Congressional testimony Tuesday, still he didn't announce plans for further stimulus, though he said the Fed would take action if growth doesn't pick up.

Gross' pessimistic forecast echoes those of Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at NYU who has earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" for his bearish but often prescient predictions. Roubini wrote on Twitter yesterday that the U.S. economy is "at stall speed" and that it could grow at an annualized rate of "well below 1 percent" between July and September.

Most economists may not be predicting that the U.S. is approaching recession, but they aren't expecting robust growth either. The U.S. economy will grow slightly more than 2 percent per year through 2014, according to a recent Bloomberg survey of 72 economists.

[Soul Crusher]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/these-12-hellholes-are-examples-of-what-the-rest-of-america-will-look-like-soon


Sweet.   Glad I'm a prep per. 

[Soul Crusher]

U.S.


Gloomy Forecast for States, Even if Economy Rebounds
 




Mary F. Calvert for The New York Times
 
Paul Volcker, left, and Richard Ravitch said they wanted to call attention to the severity of the problem without making it worse.
 
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH and MICHAEL COOPER
 
Published: July 18, 2012


WASHINGTON - The fiscal crisis for states will persist long after the economy rebounds as they confront rising health care costs, underfunded pensions, ignored infrastructure needs, eroding revenues and expected federal budget cuts, according to a report issued here Tuesday by a task force of respected budget experts.

The problems facing states are often masked by lax budget laws and opaque accounting practices, according to the report, an independent analysis of six large states released by the State Budget Crisis Task Force.

It said that the financial collapse of 2008, which caused the most serious fiscal crisis for states since the Great Depression, exposed deep-set financial challenges that will worsen if no action is taken.

"The ability of the states to meet their obligations to public employees, to creditors and most critically to the education and well-being of their citizens is threatened," warned the chairmen of the task force, Richard Ravitch, a former lieutenant governor of New York, and Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The report added a strong dose of fiscal pessimism just as many states have seen their immediate budget pressures begin to ease. And it called into question how states will restore the services they have cut during the downturn, saying that the loss of jobs in prisons, hospitals, courts and agencies have been more severe than in any of the past nine recessions.

"This is a fundamental shift in the way governments have responded to recessions and appears to signal a willingness to 'unbuild' state government in a way that has not been done before," it said, noting that court systems had cut their hours in many states, delaying actions including divorce settlements and criminal trials.

The report arrived at a delicate political moment. States are deciding whether to expand their Medicaid programs to cover the uninsured poor as part of the new health care law, with the federal government pledging to pay the full cost at first. Public-sector unions feel besieged, as states and cities from Wisconsin to San Jose, Calif., have moved to save money on pensions. And Washington's focus on deficit reduction - with big budget cuts scheduled for after the fall election - has made cuts to state aid inevitable, many governors believe.

If federal grants to the states were cut by just 10 percent, the report said, the loss to state and local government budgets would be more than $60 billion a year - nearly twice the size of the combined tax increases that states enacted during the fiscal crisis from 2008 to 2011.

Things are worse than they appear, the report contends.

Even before the recession, Medicaid spending was growing faster than state revenues, and the downturn led to higher caseloads - making the program the biggest share of state spending, as states have cut aid to schools and universities. States have not set aside enough money to cover the health and retirement benefits they owe their workers. Important revenue sources are being eroded: states are losing billions of sales tax dollars to Internet sales and to an economy in which much consumer spending has shifted from buying goods to buying lightly taxed services. Gas tax revenues have not kept up with urgent infrastructure needs. And distressed cities and counties pose challenges to states.

While almost all states are required by law to balance their budgets each year, the report said that many have relied on gimmicks and nonrecurring revenues in recent years to mask the continuing imbalance between the revenues they take in and the expenses they face - and that lax accounting systems allow them to do so.

The report focused on California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia, and found that all have relied on some gimmicks in recent years.

California borrowed money several times over the past decade to generate budget cash. New York delayed paying income tax refunds one year to push the costs into the next year and raided several state funds that were supposed to be dedicated to other uses. New Jersey borrowed against the money it received from its share of the tobacco settlement and, along with Virginia, failed to make all of the required payments to its pension funds.

Texas delayed $2 billion worth of payments by a month - pushing the expenses into the next year. Illinois has billions of dollars of unpaid bills and borrowed money to put in its pension funds.

Desperate budget officials often see public pension funds as an almost irresistible pool of money. One common way of "borrowing" pension money is not to make each year's "annual required contribution," the amount actuaries calculate must be set aside to cover future payments. Despite its name, there is usually no enforceable law requiring that it be paid.

As a result, the report found that from 2007 to 2011, state and local governments shortchanged their pension plans by more than $50 billion - an amount that has nothing to do with the market losses of 2008, which caused even more harm.

When money is withheld from a pension fund, the arrears can snowball, because most states count on the money compounding at a rate of about 8 percent a year. Eventually the unfunded liability grows unmanageable. And states and municipalities have promised an estimated $1 trillion in health benefits - that most have not started saving for - to their retirees.

While the report called New York's practice of delaying payments to its pension fund a "gimmick," Morris Peters, a spokesman for the state's budget division, said that the state was not relying on any new gimmicks. But the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, praised the task force for "bringing the severity of this crisis to the fore."

Others welcomed parts of the report. Matt Fabian, the managing director of Municipal Market Advisors, a research and consulting firm, said that while it might alarm some investors in the short term, "in the long term it's a good thing for creditors to get a handle on these costs."

And Kerry Korpi, the director of research at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, agreed with its findings that the federal government should consider how its actions impact state and local governments, and that states should modernize their tax systems to pay for needed services.

The task force chairmen said they wanted to call attention to the severity of the problem without making it worse by spooking the investors who buy municipal bonds. State and local governments cannot function if they lose their access to credit, as New York City did in 1975.

Mr. Ravitch, a primary player in resolving New York City's near breakdown, said he did not see the states' problems today as analogous. The states, he said, are not juggling the giant load of short-term debt that New York City had back then.

Mr. Volcker disagreed.

"New York City went and spent a lot of money they didn't have," Mr. Volcker said. "We're doing exactly the same thing today on a grander scale." He said that it was characteristic of financial markets to fail to respond to problems until they became a crisis.

"They'll lend right up to the brink," he said. "That's the lesson of this. You don't want to act too late."

Thomas Kaplan contributed reporting from New York.
 

[240 is Back]

33,

Killing bin laden wasn't free.  Should we have skipped that mission?

[Soul Crusher]

33,

Killing bin laden wasn't free.  Should we have skipped that mission?

Solyndra cost 500 million - should we have skipped that? 

[Soul Crusher]

Gary Shilling: 25 Out Of The Last 27 Times Retail Sales Collapsed Like This We Were In A Recession
 
Bloomberg TV



Retail sales have been negative for three straight months. In June they fell 0.5 percent.
 
And Gary Shilling, told Bloomberg TV that the U.S. economy is already in a recession and that the retail sales numbers signal a recession:
 
"You look at retail sales there were negative for three consecutive months, April, May, June. That's happened only 27 times there were first reported in 1947 and in 25 of the 27 it was in a recession or within three months of a recession."
 
Shilling said consumer confidence is low, the employment situation has been weak, and wage increases have been weak. This recession he said is being driven by consumer retrenchment.
 
Watch the entire interview at Bloomberg TV:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gary-shilling-collapse-in-retail-sales-signals-a-recession-2012-7#ixzz210F2UkuS

[Soul Crusher]

Weekly Claims Post Rebound; Jobs Market Still in Doldrums
Published: Thursday, 19 Jul 2012 | 8:36 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 


The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rebounded last week, pushing them back to levels consistent with modest job growth after a seasonal quirk caused a sharp drop the prior period.

 
Getty Images
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Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to 352,000 from the previously reported 350,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 365,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 1,500 to 375,500.

Claims data is volatile in July because of the timing of the annual auto plant shutdowns for retooling.

Automakers are not embarking on wholesale plant shutdowns, throwing off the model that the department uses to smooth the data for typical seasonal patterns.

A Labor Department official said they were still experiencing volatility related to the auto layoffs that usually happen at this time of year.

Last week's claims data covers the period for the July payrolls count. The four-week average of new claims dropped 12,000 between the June and July survey periods, suggesting a modest improvement in nonfarm payrolls.



The labor market has suffered three months of sub-100,000 job growth as the economy slowed amid a cloud of uncertainty spawned by fears of sharp contraction in fiscal policy and debt problems in Europe.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told policymakers on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank, which last month expanded its efforts to spur the economy, would take additional action if officials concluded no progress was being made towards higher levels of employment.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid edged up 1,000 to 3.31 million in the week ended July 7.

[whork]

Will you still be posting this stuff if Romney becomes president?

[Soul Crusher]

..

US home sales drop 5.4 pct., fewest since October

US sales of previously occupied homes drop 5.4 percent to 4.37 million, lowest since October.
By Christopher s. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer | Associated Press – 2 hours 1 minute ago.. .


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans bought fewer homes in June than May, indicating the weak economy could make a modest housing recovery choppy.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.4 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million homes. That's the fewest since October.

Sales are up 4.5 percent from a year ago, evidence that the market is still recovering. But the annual sales pace is below the 6 million that economists consider healthy.

The June drop in completed re-sales contrasts with more encouraging data that show gains in new residential construction, higher builder confidence and more signed contracts to buy previously owned homes.

"It is only one month and the rest of the housing indicators have all continued to show improvement," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "Let's hope this June decline is a blip."

The number of first-time buyers, critical to a housing recovery, made up just 32 percent of sales. That's down from 34 percent in May. In healthy markets, first-time buyers make up more than 40 percent of the market.

The median home price rose 5 percent to $189,400. That's mostly because sales of more expensive homes rose, while sales of cheaper homes fell, the Realtors group said.

Prices are also rising because there are fewer homes for sale. The inventory of unsold homes fell to 2.39 million. It would take six and a half months to exhaust the supply at the current sales pace. That's just above the six months that economists consider healthy.

Other recent reports have indicated that the housing market is slowly recovering, even as the broader economy struggles.

Builders broke ground last month on the most new homes and apartments in four years. And the number of new single-family homes, the bulk of the market, rose for the fourth straight month to the highest level since March 2010.

A report from the Federal Reserve Wednesday found that home sales improved in all 12 of the bank's districts in June and early July.

More Americans are showing interest in buying homes, boosting builder confidence. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index jumped to 35 this month, its highest level in five years. Builders said they are seeing more traffic from prospective customers.

Still, the index remains below 50, the level that indicates builder sentiment is in positive territory. It hasn't reached that level since April 2006, the height of the housing bubble.

There are also fewer homes for sale, which is spurring more home building and raising the prices of those that are on the market.

The housing market is also being supported by record-low mortgage rates. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell this week to 3.53 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

But even with the low rates, many would-be buyers are having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford the larger down payments being required by banks.

And the job market has weakened considerably in recent months, threatening the recovery in housing. Employers added just 80,000 jobs in June. Job gains averaged only 75,000 in the April-June quarter, after averaging 226,000 in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate is stuck at 8.2 percent.

Without more job growth, consumers may feel less secure about their financial futures and delay purchasing a new home.
...
.
@yahoofinance on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook

[Soul Crusher]

Mid-Atlantic Factory Activity Contracts Again in July
Published: Thursday, 19 Jul 2012 | 10:20 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters    Twitter 

 

Factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region contracted for a third month in July while a separate gauge of future U.S. economic activity declined in June.

 
AP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index rose to minus 12.9 from minus 16.6 in June, though it missed economists' expectations for minus 8.0.

The forward-looking new orders index gained to minus 6.9 from minus 18.8.

Any reading below zero indicates contraction in the region's manufacturing. The survey covers factories in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

It is seen as one of the first monthly indicators of the health of U.S. manufacturing leading up to the national report by the Institute for Supply Management.

A separate economic index showed that future U.S. economic activity declined in June, the latest signal that the economic recovery is sputtering.

The Conference Board says that its index of leading economic indicators declined 0.3 percent in June after rising 0.4 percent in May. The index fell 0.1 percent in April, its first drop in seven months.

Weakness in new orders, consumer expectations and building permits contributed to the decline

[Soul Crusher]

Foreclosure Crisis Hits Older Americans Hard
Published: Thursday, 19 Jul 2012 | 9:29 AM ET Text Size By: AP   Twitter 



More than 1.5 million older Americans already have lost their homes, with millions more at risk as the national housing crisis takes its toll on those who are among the worst positioned to weather the storm, a new AARP report says.

 
Jupiter Images | Comstock | Getty Images
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Older African-Americans and Hispanics are the hardest hit.

"The Great Recession has been brutal for many older Americans," said Debra Whitman, AARP's policy chief. "This shows that home ownership doesn't guarantee financial security later in life."

Even working two jobs hasn't been enough to allow Jewel Lewis-Hall, 57, to make her monthly mortgage payments on time. Her husband has made little money since being laid off from his job at a farmer's market, and Lewis-Hall said her salary as a school cook falls short of what she needs to make the payments on her home in Washington.

Lewis-Hall and her husband have been making their payments late for about a year, but panic didn't set in until recently, when the word "foreclosure" showed up in a letter from the bank.

"You're used to living a certain way, but one thing leads to another," Lewis-Hall said. "It's not like I have a new car or anything. I'm driving one from 1991."

According to AARP:

About 600,000 people who are 50 years or older are in foreclosure.
About 625,000 in the same age group are at least three months behind on their mortgages.
About 3.5 million — 16 percent of older homeowners — are underwater, meaning their home values have gone down and they now owe more than their homes are worth.
AARP said that over the past five years, the proportion of loans held by older Americans that are seriously delinquent jumped by more than 450 percent.

Homeowners who are younger than 50 have a higher rate of serious delinquency than their older counterparts. But the rate is increasing at a faster pace for older Americans than for younger ones, according to AARP's analysis of more than 17 million mortgages.

Americans who are 50 or older are hard-pressed to recover from the collapse of the housing market that started in 2006 and was compounded by the recession that started in 2007. Eight in 10 own homes, but many live on fixed incomes, have little savings or have already burned through much of their retirement savings. They also have fewer working years left to build back what they may have lost.

And those who are forced to re-enter the workforce often find they can't command the same salary that they did in the past.


Older minorities are facing foreclosure rates that are almost double those faced by white borrowers of the same age, mirroring a nationwide trend seen in other age groups as well. Among older African-Americans, 3.5 percent were in foreclosure at the end of 2011, and the rate was 3.9 percent for Hispanics. Just 1.9 percent of white homeowners were in foreclosure.

The issue has become so dire in Rep. Elijah Cummings' Maryland district that he has assigned one of his 20 staffers to work full time to help struggling homeowners, and his office holds regular foreclosure prevention workshops. He said the federal government can do its part by promoting principal reduction and loan modification programs.

"These are people who in many instances have never missed a payment in 20 years," Cummings, a Democrat, said in an interview. "You see grown men crying because of the potential loss of a home."

Among older homeowners, those who are 75 or older are in the worst shape when it comes to foreclosures, the report showed. In 2007, one out of every 300 homeowners 75 or older was in foreclosure. Five years later, about one in 30 face that same fate.

Many of those oldest homeowners may have lost income they were counting on, such as the retirement benefits of a deceased spouse. In the meantime, their mortgage payments have stayed the same.

The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better, AARP officials predicted, because of a housing market that is recovering at a snail's pace.

"This crisis is far from over," Whitman said. "We need to think about more creative solutions now that we have this data." 

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Soul Crusher]

 
 
NEW YORK (AP) -

No nudity and no obscenities. But everything else flies when it comes to new ads that will soon appear on New York City's subway and bus fare cards.
 
The cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now selling ads for the front of its MetroCards, just above the magnetic strip.
 
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said Wednesday that even political ads will be accepted.
 
They'll generate extra revenue for the agency to balance government cuts and rising costs.
 
Ads have appeared on MetroCards for years - on the back. The only untouchable part of the card will now be the magnetic strip that allows straphangers to pass turnstiles or bus fare boxes.
 
The minimum cost is $20,500 for 50,000 cards and the maximum is $450,000 for 2.5 million cards.
 
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19058441/ny-transit-agency-selling-new-ads-on-fare-cards#ixzz215aJebaD

[Soul Crusher]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-evidence-of-a-coming-recession-is-overwhelming-2012-7



Recession coming.   Is this W's felt too you Obama shills? 

[Soul Crusher]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/usa-newyorkcity-unemployment-idUSL2E8IJH3U20120719


Ue% going up.   

[Soul Crusher]

Compton May Be The Next City To Go; Then Victorville, Montebello, Los Angeles, Oakland
 


Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis|46 minutes ago|2|
 


As part of a growing trend, Compton California is on the verge of bankruptcy. When it files (and it will eventually), it will become California's 4th city to do so.

The Huffington Post reports Compton Will Run Out Of Funds By September 1
 
Compton, Calif. could be the fourth city in the Golden State to seek bankruptcy protection.
 
At a city council meeting Tuesday, officials announced that Compton is set to run out of funds by Sept. 1. Compton, which has only 93,000 residents, faces a deficit of $43 million after having depleted a $22 million reserve, reports Reuters.
 
"I have $3 million in the bank and $5 million in warrants due in the next 10 to 12 days," said city treasurer Doug Sanders during the live-streamed city council meeting. "By then, the council will have a decision to make: don't pay the bonds, default on them, or have a serious talk about bankruptcy."
 
What's to Consider?

Compton is clearly broke so there is noting to consider. The LA Times has more grim details in Compton on brink of bankruptcy.
 
City officials announced that Compton could run out of money by summer's end, with $3 million in the bank and more than $5 million in bills due...
 
In many cases cities resorted to these measures because they could not balance their books or raise revenues but were loath to make cuts.
 
A recent grand jury report found that the High Desert city of Victorville used a series of disparate, possibly illegal measures to stave off insolvency. Those included dipping into sanitation funds to help keep the city's treasury afloat, loaning water agency funds to bail out the city's electric utility and siphoning $2 million in airport bond funds to buy land for a city library.
 
The inter-agency borrowing was so questionable — with $69 million sloshing around City Hall as of June 2011 — that the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation, which is ongoing.
 
In Montebello, state auditors last year said they were troubled to learn that the city regularly used money designed for specific purposes to balance its budget — in apparent violation of the law.
 
Victorville, Montebello, Los Angeles, Oakland
 
It's a safe bet to add Montebello and Victorville to the list. Moreover, some of the big guns will eventually go under as well.

Unsound pension problems will be the death of many cities. I consider Oakland and LA to be sure things. It's just a matter of time.

Delays in filing will only waste more taxpayer money. Eventually cities will catch on and there will be a flood of bankruptcies.

S&P Revises Pennsylvania's Outlook to Negative

Citing pension problems and a slowing economy, S&P Revises Pennsylvania's Outlook to Negative
 
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services changed its outlook to 'negative' from 'stable' for Pennsylvania's general obligation debt because of growing spending pressures, particularly for public pensions, and a slow-growing state economy, the agency said on Thursday.
 
S&P affirmed the 'AA' credit rating on the state's general-obligation debt, but said it could lower that rating a notch in the next two years if Pennsylvania does not enact pension reform.
 
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/07/s-revises-pennsylvanias-outlook-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#kLLwLvWJj6BBA0Yg.99

[Soul Crusher]

Jobless rates rose in 27 U.S. states in June

 Nevada has the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 11.3 percent, according to U.S. Labor Department data released Friday, July 20, 2012.

(CBS)

(AP) WASHINGTON - Unemployment rates rose in 27 U.S. states last month, the most in almost a year and a reflection of weaker hiring nationwide.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in 11 states and Washington, D.C. the fewest since August. Rates were unchanged in 12 states.

Nationwide, employers added only 80,000 jobs last month, the third straight month of weak job growth. The national unemployment rate stayed at 8.2 percent.

Still, 29 states added jobs in June, up from 27 in May. Unemployment rates can rise even if more jobs are created if more of those out of work start looking for jobs. The number of Americans searching for jobs nationwide increased last month.


Nevada recorded the highest unemployment rate, at 11.6 percent, the same as the previous month. It was followed by Rhode Island at 10.9 percent and California at 10.7 percent

North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.9 percent. It followed by Nebraska at 3.8 percent.

Several states reported big increases in unemployment. Rates rose 0.4 percentage points in Alabama and New Jersey, to 7.8 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

Some states kept hiring at a healthy pace in June. California added 38,300 jobs and Ohio added 18,400, after similar gains in both states in May. And North Carolina rebounded after losing jobs in May, adding 16,900 jobs last month.

Still others lost jobs. Wisconsin shed 13,200 positions, the most of any state. It was followed by Tennessee, where employers cut 12,100 jobs.

The economy is struggling to generate enough growth to boost hiring and consumer spending from subpar levels.

Job growth slowed to 75,000 a month from April through June, down from healthy 226,000 pace in the first three months of the year. Unemployment is stuck at 8.2 percent.

On Wednesday, a survey by the Fed said hiring was "tepid" in most of its districts in June and early July. And manufacturing weakened in most regions.

Retail sales fell in June for the third straight month, the government said this week. That led many economists to downgrade their estimates for growth in the April-June quarter. Many think it will be even slower than the first quarter's scant 1.9 percent annual pace.

[Soul Crusher]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120719/OPINION13/207190323/Ryan-Streeter-real-job-growth-problem

[CAPTAIN INSANO]

Jobless rates rose in 27 U.S. states in June

 Nevada has the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 11.3 percent, according to U.S. Labor Department data released Friday, July 20, 2012.

(CBS)

(AP) WASHINGTON - Unemployment rates rose in 27 U.S. states last month, the most in almost a year and a reflection of weaker hiring nationwide.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in 11 states and Washington, D.C. the fewest since August. Rates were unchanged in 12 states.

Nationwide, employers added only 80,000 jobs last month, the third straight month of weak job growth. The national unemployment rate stayed at 8.2 percent.

Still, 29 states added jobs in June, up from 27 in May. Unemployment rates can rise even if more jobs are created if more of those out of work start looking for jobs. The number of Americans searching for jobs nationwide increased last month.


Nevada recorded the highest unemployment rate, at 11.6 percent, the same as the previous month. It was followed by Rhode Island at 10.9 percent and California at 10.7 percent

North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.9 percent. It followed by Nebraska at 3.8 percent.

Several states reported big increases in unemployment. Rates rose 0.4 percentage points in Alabama and New Jersey, to 7.8 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

Some states kept hiring at a healthy pace in June. California added 38,300 jobs and Ohio added 18,400, after similar gains in both states in May. And North Carolina rebounded after losing jobs in May, adding 16,900 jobs last month.

Still others lost jobs. Wisconsin shed 13,200 positions, the most of any state. It was followed by Tennessee, where employers cut 12,100 jobs.

The economy is struggling to generate enough growth to boost hiring and consumer spending from subpar levels.

Job growth slowed to 75,000 a month from April through June, down from healthy 226,000 pace in the first three months of the year. Unemployment is stuck at 8.2 percent.

On Wednesday, a survey by the Fed said hiring was "tepid" in most of its districts in June and early July. And manufacturing weakened in most regions.

Retail sales fell in June for the third straight month, the government said this week. That led many economists to downgrade their estimates for growth in the April-June quarter. Many think it will be even slower than the first quarter's scant 1.9 percent annual pace.

Unbelievable

[Soul Crusher]

The Whole Country May Soon Look Like These American Wastelands
Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse|Jul. 21, 2012, 6:17 AM|12,275|63
 
 

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Do you want to see where this country is headed?  If so, don't focus on the few areas that are still very prosperous.  New York City has Wall Street, Washington D.C. has the federal government and Silicon Valley has Google and Facebook. Those are the exceptions.
 
The reality is that most of the country has been experiencing a slow decline for a very long time and once thriving cities such as Gary, Indiana and Flint, Michigan have become absolute hellholes. They are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon.
 
Sixty years ago, most Americans were decent, hard working people and there were always good jobs available for anyone that was willing to roll up his or her sleeves and put in an honest day of work But now all of that has changed.
 
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities have shut down and millions of jobs have left the country. Cities such as Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit were once shining examples of everything that was right about America, but now they stand out like festering sores.
 
The "blue collar cities" have been hit the hardest by the gutting of our economic infrastructure.  There are many communities in America today where it seems like all of the hope and all of the life have been sucked right out of them. You can see it in the eyes of the people. The good times are gone permanently and they know it.  Unfortunately, the remainder of the country will soon be experiencing the despair that those communities are feeling.
 
The following are 12 hellholes that are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon....
 
#1 Gary, Indiana
 
Gary, Indiana was once a great industrial city.
 
Today, it is one of the ten most dangerous cities in America, and the population has fallen by about 50 percent.
 
The following is from a recent Daily Mail article....
 

Frequently rated one of the ten most dangerous cities in the United States, Gary once boomed with jobs and opportunities but now faces the acute difficulties of America's growing rust belt, with 22 percent of families in the once-great city now lying below the poverty line.
 
This modern American ghost town began life as home for workers at the United States Steel Corporation plant until economic competition from abroad forced a 90 percent job cut.
 
It is hard to describe what is happening to Gary without using the word "depressing".  You can watch a great video that shows what Gary, Indiana looks like these days right here.
 
This is what happens when industry leaves and there are no jobs.  Gary has become a wasteland and there is essentially no hope for a turnaround.
 
The following is how James Kunstler described what he experienced when he traveled through Gary, Indiana recently....
 

Between the ghostly remnants of factories stood a score of small cities and neighborhoods where the immigrants settled five generations ago. A lot of it was foreclosed and shuttered. They were places of such stunning, relentless dreariness that you felt depressed just imagining how depressed the remaining denizens of these endless blocks of run-down shoebox houses must feel. Judging from the frequency of taquerias in the 1950s-vintage strip-malls, one inferred that the old Eastern European population had been lately supplanted by a new wave of Mexicans. They had inherited an infrastructure for daily life that was utterly devoid of conscious artistry when it was new, and now had the special patina of supernatural rot over it that only comes from materials not found in nature disintegrating in surprising and unexpected ways, sometimes even sublimely, like the sheen of an oil slick on water at a certain angle to the sun. There was a Chernobyl-like grandeur to it, as of the longed-for end of something enormous that hadn't worked out well.
 
Sadly, Gary is far from alone.  There are a whole host of other formerly great U.S. cities that are degenerating into hellholes as well.
 
#2 Chicago, Illinois
 
There is something truly special about Chicago.  Most of America loved the Bears of the Walter Payton era, the Bulls of the Michael Jordan era and the Cubs of the Ernie Banks era.  Chicago is also known for great architecture and great pizza.
 
But these days "the windy city" is becoming known for other things.
 
The murder rate in Chicago is up 38 percent so far this year, and the recent spike in violence in the city has made national headlines.
 
As I noted the other day, there are only about 200 police officers in Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to deal with an estimated 100,000 gang members.
 
That means that those officers are outnumbered 500 to 1, and more gang members pour into the city every single day.
 
The escalating violence in Chicago was detailed in a recent article in the Telegraph....
 

"This is a block-to-block war here, a different dynasty on every street," said a dreadlocked young man heavily inked in gang tattoos who calls himself "Killer".
 
"All the black brothers just want to get rich, but we got no jobs and no hope. We want the violence to stop but you ain't safe if you ain't got your pistol with you. Too many friends, too many men are being killed. We don't even cry at funerals no -more. Nobody expects to live past 21 here."
 
The victims and killers are mainly black males aged between 15 and 35, often with gang affiliations - but not exclusively. A seven-year-old girl, Heaven Sutton, was buried this month after being gunned down at her mother's street sweet store. And last week, two girls aged 12 and 13 were shot and badly-wounded as they walked home from a newly-opened community centre.
 
If you are thinking of moving to Chicago, you might want to think again.
 
#3 Detroit, Michigan
 
I have written repeatedly about Detroit because it is a perfect example of what the rest of America is going to look like soon.
 
Once upon a time it was regarded as one of the top manufacturing cities the world had ever seen, but today it has become a total hellhole.
 
There are very few decent jobs available, poverty has exploded and crime is everywhere.
 
If you can believe it, 53.6% of all children in Detroit are living in poverty, and only 25 percent of all students in Detroit graduate from high school at this point.
 
And as I wrote about recently, justifiable homicide in Detroit increased by a whopping 79 percent during 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is now approximately 2200% above the national average.
 
Is it any wonder that you can still buy a house for $100 in some areas of Detroit?
 
The truth is that many areas of Detroit now resemble a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Perhaps that is why one team of investors actually wants to turn some of the worst areas of Detroit into a zombie theme park....
 

Derelict areas of Detroit face being taken over by hordes of 'flesh and brain-eating zombies' if an ambitious business plan takes off.
 
Entrepreneur Mark Siwak wants to create live-action terror theme park 'Z World' on Motor City's run-down and abandoned streets.
 
Customers would pay to be chased by professional actors and try to seek shelter in ghostly homes, factories and businesses.
 
You can see some great video of the "ruins of Detroit" right here.
 
#4 Stockton, California
 
Stockton is one of the ten most dangerous cities in America and it recently made national headlines when it declared bankruptcy.
 
Unfortunately, as spending on law enforcement has declined it has given the criminals a lot more room to operate in Stockton.  The following is from a recent Business Insider article....
 

The city has cut more than $90 million in spending over the past few years, specifically in its police department. The city has cut over one quarter of its police jobs, which has led to a "surge in murders," and has created an "emboldened criminal element" in the city. According to police spokesman Joe Silva, the city has had 87 murders since the start of 2011, 29 of which have already occurred this year. In contrast, there were 35 murders in 2009 and 48 in 2010. With six months left in the year, there have already been more murders in the city since the start of 2011 than the two-year stretch of 2009-2010.
 
A while back in Stockton a billboard was put up with the following message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops."
 
#5 Flint, Michigan
 
Flint, Michigan is a city that Michael Moore has made famous.  Flint once supported hordes of middle class workers thanks to a thriving auto industry, but today it is a just a rotting shell.  It looks like a war went through it and nobody bothered to clean up the mess.
 
At this point, the murder rate in Flint, Michigan is worse than the murder rate in Baghdad.  That is how nightmarish things have become in Flint.
 
The following is from an article in the New York Times....
 

It’s not that the cops here are scared; it’s just that they’re outmanned, outgunned and flat broke.
 
Flint is the birthplace of General Motors and the home of the U.A.W.’s first big strike. In case you didn’t know this, the words “Vehicle City” are spelled out on the archway spanning the Flint River.
 
But the name is a lie. Flint isn’t Vehicle City anymore. The Buick City complex is gone. The spark-plug plant is gone. Fisher Body is gone.
 
What Flint is now is one of America’s murder capitals. Last year in Flint, population 102,000, there were 66 documented murders. The murder rate here is worse than those in Newark and St. Louis and New Orleans. It’s even worse than Baghdad’s.
 
Politicians love to go to Flint and make speeches, but things never get any better.  The following are comments that Joe Biden made about Flint, Michigan during a recent speech he gave to promote a jobs bill....
 

"In 2008, when Flint had 265 sworn officers on their police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in this city. In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes--just to pick two categories--climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don't rectify it."
 
But don't look down on Flint - these kinds of conditions are coming to where you live soon enough.
 
#6 West Philly
 
Did you know that 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty?
 
There are some sections of Philadelphia that are actually very nice, but there are others that look like society has forgotten about them for decades.
 
A recent article by Jim Quinn entitled "More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey And Decay" described the depressing conditions in West Philadelphia.  Quinn refers to his drive through this area as "the 30 Blocks of Squalor"....
 

The real unemployment rate exceeds 50%, murder is the number one industry, with drugs a close second.
 
But it was not always this way.  Once upon a time, West Philly was actually a thriving area and was full of middle class families.
 
So what happened?
 
That is a very good question.
 
According to Quinn, the physical decay in West Philly is matched by the social decay....
 

The once proud homes are in shambles. Bags of garbage dot the landscape. Most of the people who live here are parasites on society. Personal responsibility, work ethic, education and marriage are unknown concepts in this community. Even though more than 50% of the students in West Philly drop out of high school and the SAT scores of West Philly High students are lower than whale ****, the bankrupt school district spent $70 million to build a new high school/prison to babysit derelicts and future prison inmates. The windows do not have steel bars yet, as the architect was smart to put all windows at least eight feet above street level.
 
These days there is a lot of despair in "the city of brotherly love".  It is so sad to see what is happening to what once was such a proud city.
 
#7 Cleveland, Ohio
 
Cleveland has always had a love/hate relationship with itself.  Many who live there call it "the mistake by the lake", but the truth is that it was once a truly great city.
 
Sadly, today it is symbol of what has gone wrong with America.
 
There has been a steady stream of businesses that have left Cleveland and today 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty.
 
There are not enough good jobs in Cleveland anymore, and so there are not enough workers to buy the tens of thousands of homes that have been foreclosed or abandoned.
 
So what is being done with all of those empty homes?
 
Unfortunately, they are being torn down.
 
The following comes from a recent CBS News report by Scott Pelley....
 

Across America, recession-fueled foreclosures and plummeting home values have left countless properties abandoned and vulnerable to looting. As Scott Pelley reports, the problem has gotten so bad in Cleveland, Ohio, that county officials have demolished more than 1,000 homes this year - and plan to demolish 20,000 more - rather than let the blight spread and render nearby homes worthless.
 
Does that seem right to you?
 
Should Cleveland be destroying tens of thousands of homes that families could be using?
 
Something has gone very, very wrong in this country.
 
#8 Camden, New Jersey
 
If you want to see what a hellhole looks like just visit Camden, New Jersey.
 
Although you will probably want to take an armed escort with you.
 
As industry has abandoned Camden, the gangs have basically taken over.  The "growth industries" in Camden these days are drug dealing and prostitution.
 
In an article entitled "City of Ruins", reporter Chris Hedges described what life is like in Camden at this point....
 

There are perhaps a hundred open-air drug markets, most run by gangs like the Bloods, the Latin Kings, Los Nietos and MS-13. Knots of young men in black leather jackets and baggy sweatshirts sell weed and crack to clients, many of whom drive in from the suburbs. The drug trade is one of the city's few thriving businesses. A weapon, police say, is never more than a few feet away, usually stashed behind a trash can, in the grass or on a porch.
 
Not that other cities in New Jersey are shining examples for the rest of the world either.
 
For example, if you want to get really depressed just drive through the bad parts of Newark some time.
 
#9 St. Louis
 
According to U.S. News and World Report, the most dangerous city in the United States is St. Louis.
 
If you have a death wish, just wander around the streets of East St. Louis at night.
 
There is a decent chance that someone will shoot you.
 
Things were not always this way in St. Louis.  But today things have gotten so bad that you can find packs of wild dogs roaming the city digging through trash and threatening children.
 
The following is from a report by the local CBS affiliate in St. Louis....
 

...Lewis Reed is sounding the alarm. "I’ve witnessed packs of dogs, 10 and 15 dogs running together, and I’ve seen all these dogs I’m talking about they don’t have collars, they don’t have tags, these are truly wild dogs," he said.
 
Reed says stray dogs are terrorizing the north side. "It’s obscene that parents have to walk their kids to school, in some parts of the city, with a golf club to fend off wild dogs."
 
This kind of thing is actually happening in America?
 
#10 New Orleans, Louisiana
 
The problems that New Orleans has experienced have been well documented.
 
But unlike most of the cities listed above, at least New Orleans has an excuse.  New Orleans permanently lost 29% of its population after Hurricane Katrina, and large sections of the city were essentially destroyed by that storm.
 
Even today, there are still some areas of New Orleans that look as if they have just been bombed.
 
It has been estimated that about 20 percent of the homes in New Orleans are still standing vacant, and poverty is rampant.  New Orleans will probably never fully recover to the level it was at before Hurricane Katrina hit.
 
#11 Oakland, California
 
Oakland has always been in the shadow of San Francisco, and the contrast between the two cities continues to grow.
 
Oakland has always been considered one of the more dangerous cities in America, and this year crime rates in Oakland are rising rapidly.  The following is from a recent article in the New York Times....
 

At the beginning of April, murders in Oakland were up 26 percent over a year ago, rapes were up 41 percent, and robberies were up 35 percent.
 
When Chief Batts arrived as a “change agent” in 2009, the police department employed 837 officers. It now has 635. The department no longer responds to burglaries that are not still in progress, and frequently does not respond to other calls for help.
 
So if your house has been robbed and the burglars are gone what are you supposed to do?
 
Due to a crippling lack of resources, the previous police chief decided that his department would no longer be able to respond to all crimes.
 
The following is a partial list of the crimes that police in Oakland are no longer likely to respond to....
 burglary
 theft
 embezzlement
 grand theft
 grand theft: dog
 identity theft
 false information to peace officer
 required to register as sex or arson offender
 dump waste or offensive matter
 loud music
 possess forged notes
 pass fictitious check
 obtain money by false voucher
 fraudulent use of access cards
 stolen license plate
 embezzlement by an employee
 extortion
 attempted extortion
 false personification of other
 injure telephone/power line
 interfere with power line
 unauthorized cable tv connection
 vandalism
 
So what do you do if you are a victim of one of those crimes in Oakland?
 
That is a very good question.
 
#12 Baltimore, Maryland
 
If you can believe it, Baltimore was actually once a great city.
 
But today it has become a crime-ridden, drug-infested hellhole.
 
I used to drive up to Baltimore all the time.  It truly is a "blue collar" city.  There are a lot of really hard working people there.
 
Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone and a lot of people have turned to drugs and crime.
 
There are some areas of Baltimore that you really should never enter by yourself.  If you do go into them, you might not make it back out.
 
There was one incident in Baltimore earlier this year that was particularly disturbing.
 
One poor young man had gotten drunk and was apparently wandering around all by himself.  Some thugs approached him and they clearly sensed that he was vulnerable.  So they knocked him to the ground, stripped him of his car keys, his watch, his money, his cell phone and his clothes.
 
A crowd gathered around to watch, and instead of helping the man, several of them got out their cell phones and laughed hysterically while they recorded the incident with their cell phone cameras for YouTube.
 
What made all of this even sadder is that this happened right in front of a Baltimore courthouse.
 
What in the world has happened to this nation?
 
All of us that still love this country should be deeply saddened by everything above.
 
America is rotting from the inside out, and if we are ever going to find any solutions we need to start admitting how bad things have really become.
 
The truth is that our problems are not limited to one political party, one special interest group or to one region of the country.  The social decay that is plaguing America can literally be found everywhere.
 
For much more on this, please see the following four articles....
 
1) "25 Signs The Collapse Of America Is Speeding Up As Society Rots From The Inside Out"
 
2) "70 Reasons To Mourn For America"
 
3) "20 Signs That Society Is Breaking Down And That America Has Been Overrun By Psychos"
 
4) "12 Factors That Are Turning The Streets Of America Into A Living Hell"
 
So don't laugh at Detroit or Cleveland or St. Louis.
 
The rest of the country is declining too.
 
If the city where you live is not a hellhole already, it will be soon enough.


Read more: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/these-12-hellholes-are-examples-of-what-the-rest-of-america-will-look-like-soon#ixzz21IVy2Sm4

[Soul Crusher]

America's future: No longer worth celebrating
 World Net Daily ^ | 7-20-12 | Tom Tancredo

Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2012 6:48:50 PM by ReformationFan

July 4th used to be my favorite holiday. Now, not so much. What happened?

Independence Day has always been a day to join friends and neighbors in the celebration of America’s greatness, its unparalleled achievements and its unbounded future. It was the one day it was cool to be a “super patriot,” and that was super cool.

We used to celebrate what President Reagan called, “that shining city on a hill.” America was a beacon of hope and bastion of freedom, an example to the world – a beacon and an example not because of special history but because of a special country – and even more important, a special destiny.

But looking around me on July 4th in 2012, thinking about what America has become, I got the sickening feeling that Independence Day has changed because our country has changed.

We still celebrate our past, but we are no longer confident of our future. We are realizing that the America of 2012, the America Obama and 50 years of progressivism have given us, has a very problematic future. Is this new “transformed” America even worth celebrating? •For the first time in history, our sovereign debt has been downgraded.

•Canada, not the United States, is now the most prosperous nation on earth, with average household net worth surpassing ours by $43,000, or about 13 percent. •The number of people on food stamps has grown 50 percent in less than four years. •The racial divide is larger than ever as “progressive” candidates increasingly play the “race card” to silence debate. •Faith in government institutions is at an all-time low as dependence on government grows. •Almost 50 percent of adults now pay no income taxes as Congress prepares to enact the largest tax increase in history on middle-class Americans and small business.


(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...

[blacken700]

are you saying your as unpatriotic as this guy