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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on March 21, 2011, 08:20:55 AM

Title: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 21, 2011, 08:20:55 AM
Home sales fell 9.6 pct. in February (Median home price hit 9-year low)
AP via Yahoo Finance ^ | 3/21/2011 | Derek Kravitz




WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fewer Americans bought previously occupied homes in February and those who did purchased them at steep discounts. The weak sales and rise in foreclosures pushed home prices down to their lowest level in nearly 9 years.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million. That's down 9.6 percent from 5.4 million in January. The pace is far below the 6 million homes a year that economists say represents a healthy market.

Nearly 40 percent of the sales last month were either foreclosures or short sales, when the seller accepts less than they owe on the mortgage.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 21, 2011, 11:12:53 AM
General Motors lays off workers at NY plant
ap ^ | Mar 21, 2011 | DEE-ANN DURBIN





General Motors Co. on Monday is halting some production and temporarily laying off workers at a Buffalo, N.Y., engine plant.

...

GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter Carpenter said Tonawanda has the parts it needs to make the engines, but it's not producing the engines because Shreveport doesn't need them.

She said GM doesn't know when production will resume at either plant.


(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 07:17:25 AM
Running for the Exits. Hedge funds are dumping US Treasury bonds. Do they know something?
National Review ^ | 03/22/2011 | Jim Lacey





The wisest and most successful bond investor of all time, Bill Gross, has dumped his bond fund’s $150 billion investment in U.S. bonds. One should not ignore the importance of this event. The largest bond fund in America no longer believes that Treasury bonds are a good investment. Moreover, Gross is not alone. Blackrock, the world’s largest money manager, is now underweighting Treasuries overall and reducing the duration of the bonds it still holds. That means they are dumping their long-term bonds, which are the most sensitive to interest-rate changes, in favor of Treasury instruments that mature in a year or less. Other bond funds, such as the $20 billion Loomis Sayles funds, are also forgoing Treasuries in favor of high-yield corporate bonds. Virtually everywhere you look, from great investors such as Warren Buffett to insurance companies such as Allstate, everyone is dumping their long-term U.S. debt and either buying debt that matures in less than a year or moving their money elsewhere.

So who is still buying U.S. debt? According to Bill Gross, the “old reliables” — China, Japan, and OPEC — are still in the market for 30 percent of all new debt. The rest, however, is being purchased by the Federal Reserve. There is no one in else in the market. For the first time ever, Americans are refusing to purchase their own country’s debt.

Gross estimates that the “old reliables” are still good for $500 billion a year in purchases, and will be for some time in the future. This is pretty much the amount they’ve had to buy in the past to rebalance capital flows distorted by the U.S. trade deficit. Gross, however, may be wrong this time. Japan, needing to finance its reconstruction, is much likelier to be a net seller of U.S. debt, while China’s economy is slowing and actually ran a trade deficit in the last quarter. That leaves only one buyer of consequence — the Federal Reserve.

Researchers at Gross’s firm, PIMCO, estimate that in the last quarter, the Fed purchased 70 percent of all new Treasury debt. This is a disaster in the making. By printing new money to buy debt, the Fed is both holding interest rates artificially low and flooding the world with dollars. Fed purchases have lowered rates to the point where there was no room for further decreases. With no more upside potential to holding debt, investors are fleeing on the assumption that the Fed will soon exit the market, causing rates to rise dramatically. Such a rate rise lowers the value of all current U.S. debt: Who will pay $1,000 for a bond paying 3 percent when she can get one paying 5 percent? Anyone who wants to sell a $1,000 bond they already own is therefore forced to lower the price if they wish to attract buyers. No one holding any of the almost $10 trillion in U.S. public debt is getting much sleep these days.

When the Fed’s $600 billion QE2 buying spree ends, there will not be enough buyers left to purchase the $1.4 trillion in debt the administration has built into this year’s budget, at least not at current interest rates. Gross believes interest rates have to rise approximately 1.5 percent (150 basis points) to attract sufficient buyers. This may be optimistic.

The Fed is not only looking to stop buying new debt, it also wants to get rid of the nearly $1.3 trillion currently on its balance sheet. Absorbing $1.4 trillion in new debt, rolling over maturing debt, and simultaneously purchasing debt the Fed bought during its quantitative-easing forays is a lot to ask of the market.

Moreover, there is a real risk that bondholders who see the value of their assets fall will stampede for the doors. There are already signs that the smart money is looking for just such an event. Short sellers — those betting on a bond sell-off — pumped over three-quarters of a billion dollars into short positions in just the last quarter. This compares with a negative flow of short funds in the same period last year. If the short sellers are right, and there is a stampede, all bets are off. The bond-market bubble that the Fed’s purchases created will explode, likely setting off a renewed financial crisis.

Come June, the Fed will be in a bind of its own making. If it stops pumping money into the system, interest rates will increase, and not just on Treasury bonds. Mortgage rates will rise and business credit will become more costly. The recovery could be strangled in its infancy. If it keeps on buying bonds, however, it risks never being able to wean the markets off the equivalent of monetary crack. Worse, the flood of dollars will continue to drive down the value of the dollar, raise commodity prices, and propel global inflation.

There are already signs that inflation, while still subdued in the United States, is looking to break out. It has begun wrecking havoc through many areas of the globe, for example providing the catalyst for much of the upheaval in the Middle East. And when it strikes here, the Fed will be out of options. It will have to turn off the money pumps, raise interest rates, and batten down the financial hatches. The resulting recession will be long and nasty.

It is time to face facts. Spending is so out of control that Treasuries are no longer a safe haven for investors. The markets are saturated with U.S. debt and increasingly unwilling to absorb more. There is only one way out of this mess — cut spending, fast and deep.

Given that the Congressional Budget Office last week stated that the administration’s budget would raise the debt by $2.3 trillion more than the White House Budget Office claims, these cuts are going to hurt. They will probably hurt a lot. That is the cost of fending off a true catastrophe.

— Jim Lacey is the professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College and the author of the forthcoming book The First Clash. The views in this article are the author’s own and do not in any way represent the views or positions of the Department of Defense or any of its members.

Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 10:07:04 AM
Economic Fears Spike as Gas, Food Prices Rise: All-America Survey
The Financial ^ | March 22, 2011





Deep pessimism about future economic growth is weighing on Americans as they hunker down from the effects of higher gas and food prices and fear that those prices could remain elevated for years, a poll from CNBC has found.

Results of Survey was published on late Friday on CNBC website. It reveals that Americans’ attitudes toward home ownership and expectations for housing prices are both deteriorating sharply. An astonishing one out of every two Americans knows someone who is being foreclosed upon or facing the threat of foreclosure, writes Steve Liesman, Senior Economics Reporter of CNBC.

The survey of 800 Americans, from across the nation, income groups and ages, finds the percentage of Americans who believe the economy will get worse in the next year spiking to 37 percent, a 15 point gain from December. It’s now just five points below the all-time high in the series of 43 percent in June 2008, which came in the midst of a surge in gasoline prices.

Those negative attitudes were registered just before the disaster in Japan and, if anything, could have worsened since then.

Americans see inflation as widespread and are cutting back on non-essentials to make ends meet. On average, respondents see prices rising 6.6 percent over the next 12 months, up from 3 percent in December and the second highest median gain in the survey’s four-year history. Three-quarters of Americans says they have seen food prices rise over the past six months, and 61 percent believe the increases will last longer than a year. A similar percentage believes that higher gas prices are here to stay.

When it comes to coping with those higher prices, more than 60 percent of Americans say they are either saving, traveling or driving less. More than 70 percent say they are spending fewer dollars on restaurants, movies and concerts, making leisure cutbacks the number one way the nation is economizing in the face of higher gas and food prices.

In one of the most dramatic responses to the survey, Americans also do not believe that their wages will keep up with rising prices. Americans see their wages falling by 1.1 percent in the next 12 months, the biggest expected decline in the survey’s history. Less than a third of the nation expects wage gains in the next year, and most of these see only a modest 1 percent to 3 percent boost to their paychecks.

Americans expect their home values to fall along with their wages. After a brief blip upwards in December, expectations for housing price declines resumed in the latest survey, with Americans looking for a 1.2 percent mean decline, compared with the 0.3 percent increase they expected in the December survey. It’s the biggest drop in the mean in the survey’s history.

The survey also found that attitudes toward owning a home have gotten more negative. Just 63 percent of Americans believe it is better to own than rent, which compares with 89 percent registered in a 1996 survey by Fannie Mae. And 48 percent of the nation know someone who has been foreclosed upon or is facing the threat of foreclosure, up from 33 percent in September 2008, wrote Steve Liesman, Senior Economics Reporter of CNBC.

Still, 73 percent of Americans believe that owning a home is an essential part of the American dream, compared with 25 percent who say it is not.

Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 10:11:42 AM
Fed's Fisher: U.S. debt situation at tipping point
Reuters via Yahoo Finance ^ | 3/22/2011 | Marc Jones and Sakari Suoninen




FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The U.S. debt situation is at a "tipping point," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said on Tuesday, and urged the U.S. central bank to refrain from any further stimulus measures.

"If we continue down on the path on which the fiscal authorities put us, we will become insolvent. The question is when," Fisher said in a speech at the University of Frankfurt.

Fisher, seen by economists as one of the most hawkish policymakers within the Fed, said that although debt-cutting measures would be painful, he expected the U.S. to take the necessary actions.

"The short-term negotiations are very important. I look at this as a tipping point."

[Snip]

Fisher warned there were signs that the speculative style of trading that had helped fuel the financial crisis was beginning to resurface.

"We are seeing speculative activity that may be exacerbating (price rises in ) key commodities such as oil."


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 10:31:09 AM
Insolvency Looms as States (and Puerto Rico) Drain U.S. Disability Fund
Wall Street Journal ^ | March 22, 2011 | DAMIAN PALETTA




CAGUAS, Puerto Rico—This mountainside town is home to a picturesque cathedral, a tobacco museum and a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Another defining feature: Caguas's 00725 zip code has more people who receive a disability check than any other in the U.S.

Puerto Rico has emerged in recent years as one of the easiest places in the U.S. to get payments from the Social Security Disability Insurance program, created during the Eisenhower administration to help people who can't work because of a health problem. In 2010, 63% of applicants there won approval, four percentage points higher than New Jersey and Wyoming, the most-generous U.S. states. In fact, nine of the top 10 U.S. zip codes for disabled workers receiving benefits can be found on Puerto Rico.

The SSDI is set to soon become the first big federal benefit program to run out of cash—and one of the main reasons is U.S. states and territories have a large say in who qualifies for the federally funded program. Without changes, the Social Security retirement fund can survive intact through about 2040 and Medicare through 2029. The disability fund, however, will run dry in four to seven years without federal intervention, government auditors say.

In addition to the uneven selection process, SSDI has been pushed to the brink of insolvency by the sour economy. A huge wave of applicants joined the program over the past decade, boosting it from 6.6 million beneficiaries in 2000 to 10.2 million in 2010. New recipients have come from across the country, with an 85% increase in Texas over 10 years and a 69% increase in New Hampshire.

Over the years, Puerto Rico's dependence on SSDI has grown particularly stark, exacerbated by the closure of factories and U.S. military installations, an exodus of skilled workers and a number of corruption scandals.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 11:12:24 AM
GARY SHILLING: And Now House Prices Will Drop Another 20%
TBI ^ | 3-22-2011 | Gary Shilling


GARY SHILLING: And Now House Prices Will Drop Another 20%

Gary Shilling, A. Gary Shilling & Co.
Mar. 22, 2011, 12:46 PM



Image: A Gary Shilling & Co.


Last October, when everyone was jubilant about the housing "recovery," Gary Shilling of A. Gary Shilling & Co., predicted that house prices would fall another 20%.

In the five months since, house prices have resumed their decline.

In his most recent research note, Gary sticks by his "20%" decline prediction. We've included a summary and updated charts from his argument below.

(Gary is offering a special discount on his research service for Business Insider readers. To learn more, please visit Gary's web site or call 1-888-346-7444. Please mention Business Insider.)

Housing: Great Expectations vs. Reality

Last spring, many believed that not only was the housing collapse over but that a robust rebound was underway. Investors were crowding into foreclosed house sales and bidding up prices in California, often the bellwether state for new trends.

The tax credit of up to $8,000 for new homebuyers that expired in April spurred buyers and promised to kick-start housing activity nationwide. TheHomeAffordable Modification Program was trumpeted by the Administration to help 3 million to 4 million homeowners with underwater mortgages by paying lenders to reduce monthly payments to manageable size and then paying homeowners to continue to make those payments.

But then a funny—or not so funny—thing happened on the way to housing recovery...


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2011, 11:30:48 AM
US Approaching Insolvency, Fix To Be 'Painful': Fisher
Published: Tuesday, 22 Mar 2011 | 10:10 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters

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Jean Ayissi | AFP | Getty Images
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The United States is on a fiscal path towards insolvency and policymakers are at a "tipping point," a Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

"If we continue down on the path on which the fiscal authorities put us, we will become insolvent, the question is when," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in a question and answer session after delivering a speech at the University of Frankfurt.

"The short-term negotiations are very important, I look at this as a tipping point."

But he added he was confident in the Americans' ability to take the right decisions and said the country would avoid insolvency.

"I think we are at the beginning of the process and it's going to be very painful," he added.

Fisher earlier said the US economic recovery is gathering momentum, adding that he personally was extremely vigilant on inflation pressures.


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Fisher added that the U.S. Federal Reserve had ways to tighten its monetary policy other than interest rates, including by selling treasuries, changing reserves levels and using time deposits.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 23, 2011, 07:33:59 AM
Sales of new U.S. homes tumble 16.9% to record low
CBS Marketwatch ^ | March 23, 2011 | by Steve Goldstein




~ EXCERPT ~

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales of new single-family homes collapsed in February, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, as a combination of high unemployment, tumbling prices and a glut of cheaper alternatives brought activity to a near-standstill.

New-home sales fell 16.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000 in February, though January’s figures were revised higher to 301,000 from 284,000. Compared to February 2010, sales collapsed by 28%.

Every region but the West saw record lows, and in the Northeast, sales dropped by 50% compared to year-earlier levels.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 23, 2011, 08:10:14 PM
Illinois teacher pension system nearly $40 billion in the hole
Chicago Tribune ^ | 9:24 p.m. CDT, March 22, 2011 | By Diane Rado
Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:27:26


The Teachers' Retirement System, the largest and costliest Illinois pension program, is almost $40 billion short to cover future benefits — the deepest financial hole in 20 years of state records.

And with lawmakers looking to rein in the massive costs of public retirement programs, teachers worry that the nest egg they've always considered a sure thing might shrink, while school district officials fear local taxpayers might pick up more of the tab.

At 28, social studies teacher Patrick Sheridan is only in his fourth year of teaching, but he's already on edge about retirement, wondering if he'll ever get the pension checks he was promised.

"It's very scary and very frustrating being a younger teacher, and not having any certainty," said Sheridan, who teaches and coaches at Cook County's Elmwood Park High School.

More than 350,000 suburban Chicago and downstate educators, retirees and other members eligible for benefits make up the TRS system, whose assets and liabilities dwarf the other four state pension systems. But the pension plan is only 48.4 percent funded, slipping from 52.1 percent the prior year, according to the most recent financial report.

Fixing the pension mess won't be easy, and proposals in Springfield that cut future benefits to save on pension costs aren't popular with educators who've been paying into their pensions all these years.

They blame their retirement system's financial hole on the state, for failing to make all payments into government pension systems.

"The state has not met its obligation, yet teachers are being blamed for bankrupting the state. The reality is, we paid our dues, we paid what we owe," said Richard Lesniak, president-elect of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials and director of business services in Lockport Township High School District 205.


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


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Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 25, 2011, 06:29:24 PM
Mass. job fair canceled because of lack of jobs (Hope & Change)
Boston.com ^ | 3-25-2011 | AP



TAUNTON -- A Massachusetts employment organization has canceled its annual job fair because not enough companies have come forward to offer jobs.


(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2011, 07:30:29 AM
Home / News / Local News
Caterpillar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois
StoryDiscussionCaterpill ar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois
By Kurt Erickson | Lee Springfield Bureau pantagraph.com | Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 4:47 pm | Loading

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/article_3c23590c-572a-11e0-afc0-001cc4c002e0.html

SPRINGFIELD -- The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

"I have been called, 'cornered' in meetings and 'wined and dined' -- the heat is on," Oberhelman wrote. "Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day."

Cat spokesman Jim Dugan said the letter was designed to show Quinn that Oberhelman wants to be involved in finding solutions that benefit the company, which employs 23,000 people in Illinois.

"I view it as an olive branch to offer our help," Dugan said.

Quinn plans on discussing the letter with Oberhelman April 5 when the two meet at a conference in Peoria. The governor also plans on touring Caterpillar facilities at that time, spokeswoman Brie Callahan said Friday.

"The governor welcomes frank and open exchanges between the business community and government, and we are always open to new ideas that can help our businesses grow, innovate and create jobs," Callahan said.

Oberhelman didn't single out any specific problem with the state's policies in his one-page letter, but Dugan said the recent income tax increase -- signed into law by Quinn in January -- played a significant role in triggering the note.

The tax hike has led to attempts by other states, including Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey, to try and poach companies that don't want to stay in the Land of Lincoln.

Oberhelman also sent along correspondence Cat has received from other states.

"I stand ready to help convince you to relocate or expand in the fiscally conservative, low-tax Lone Star State," wrote Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a Jan. 24 letter.

"I encourage you to consider South Dakota as a place for your business to grow and prosper," noted J. Pat Costello, secretary of the South Dakota governor's economic development office.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman wrote in February to say, "In Nebraska, we balance our budget by controlling spending, not by raising taxes."

Republican leaders, who unsuccessfully fought Quinn on the tax hike, say the letter confirms why they were opposed to the increase.

"These are the kinds of letters we fear," said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. "Even more worrisome are the hundreds of businesses being wooed that we don't know about."

Schuh said the tax hike and the state's worker compensation costs on businesses "make Illinois a hostile environment, prime for the picking."
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2011, 01:18:22 PM
Unpaid jobs: The new normal? (HopeyChangey...)
CNN Money ^ | 03/26/2011 | CNN Money




FORTUNE -- With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten sodesperate that they're willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.

"People who work for free are far hungrier than anybody who has a salary, so they're going to outperform, they're going to try to please, they're going to be creative," says Kelly Fallis, chief executive of Remote Stylist, a Toronto and New York-based startup that provides Web-based interior design services. "From a cost savings perspective, to get something off the ground, it's huge. Especially if you're a small business."

In the last three years, Fallis has used about 50 unpaid interns for duties in marketing, editorial, advertising, sales, account management and public relations. She's convinced it's the wave of the future in human resources. "Ten years from now, this is going to be the norm," she says.


(Excerpt) Read more at management.fortune.cnn.c om ...
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: 240 is Back on March 26, 2011, 01:31:55 PM
some of that news is understandable.

if you don't believe house prices were overvalued in the last decade, you're NUTS.

They charged insane prices cause everyone was approved. 

I'd be pissed if there was NOT a correction of house prices going on right now.
Title: Re: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery" & other great economic news.
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2011, 01:36:30 PM
Cost of Living in U.S. Reaches New Record High
Wisconsin Ag Connection ^ | March 24, 2011






The cost of living in the United States is as high as ever, even worse than before the financial meltdown during the past few years. A Labor Department index measuring the actual cost of living, known as the chained consumer price index, hit 127.4 in February, beating a previous record high 126.9 in July 2008, just as the housing crisis began to tighten its grip, CNBC reports.

That's bad news for most Americans, especially considering the record comes at a time of weak economic activity and high unemployment rates.

"The Federal Reserve continues to focus on the rate of change in inflation," says Peter Bookvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, according to CNBC.

Food prices continue to rise. The regular inflation rate, known as the consumer price index, increased 0.5 percent last month, the fastest pace in 18 months, although the Federal Reserve tends to set interest rates at inflation rates stripped of food and energy, which rose by just 0.2 percent.

Some say a new methodology is needed and needed now.

"This speaks to the need for the Fed to include food and energy when they look at inflation rather than regard them as transient costs," says Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital.

"Perhaps the best way to look at this is to calculate a moving average over a certain period of time in order to smooth out the peaks and valleys."

Even though headline inflation rates may have been nominally much higher in the past, most notably in the early eighties, rising consumer prices hurt just as bad today with incomes remaining flat, if not worse.

Thirty years ago, people earned raises to cope with higher prices and investments returned more: banks would pay nearly 16 percent on a six-month CD. Today, however, money market rates are a fraction of what they were, wages are essentially frozen if not dipping and Social Security recipients have gone two straight years with no increase in benefits.

Title: Re: Obama Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 28, 2011, 08:01:36 AM
Disposable income falls as prices jump, data show
Marketwatch ^ | 3.28.11 | Greg Robb




U.S. PCE inflation up 0.4%, most since July 2008; spending up 0.3%


Real disposable income declined in February as consumer prices jumped by the largest amount in 2 1/2 years, the Commerce Department reported Monday.


Economists said the data show that higher prices for gasoline is starting to take some of the steam out of the economy.


The personal consumption expenditure index, which Federal Reserve officials say is a more accurate gauge of inflation than the better-known consumer price index, increased 0.4% on the month, the largest monthly gain since July 2008.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 28, 2011, 11:19:43 AM
13% of all U.S. homes are vacant
CNN Money ^ | 3/28/11 | Les Christie





New York - High residential vacancies are killing many housing markets, as foreclosed homes sit on the market and depress sale prices and property values. And it's only getting worse: The national vacancy rate crept up to just over 13% according to last week's decennial census report. That's up from 12.1% in 2007. "More vacant homes equal more downward pressure on home prices," (Snip) Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%. Other states with gluts of empty houses included Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%).


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 29, 2011, 10:24:47 AM
More housing hell
By STEPHEN B. MEISTER



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/more_housing_hell_Yx3o5ibqPKHQGfnO7KOfyH



Last Updated: 7:35 AM, March 29, 2011

Posted: 11:52 PM, March 28, 2011

The latest home-sales data paint a bleak picture: The housing market is in a double dip and still years away from a true recovery. The Obama administration's policies have only prolonged the agony.

Sales of existing homes dropped 9.6 percent in February to their lowest level since 2002 -- 4.88 million per year. And that's the good news.

Sales of new homes have collapsed. In February, they dropped 16.9 percent to an all-time-record low -- 250,000 a year, down from 900,000 in early 2007. As the nearby chart shows, these fell off a cliff at the end of last year, because the first-time homebuyer's tax credit only "borrowed" future sales, and now the future is here.

Home prices are following suit. The median price of an existing home dropped 5.2 percent to $156,100, while the median new-home price is down 13.9 percent, to $202,100. Indeed, a look at the Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index shows that housing entered a double dip in the middle of last year.

This mess was years in the building. Nearly two decades of massive federal housing subsidies -- cheap low-downpayment loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plus Federal Housing Administration loan guarantees, along with the longstanding tax deductiblity of mortgage interest -- resulted in a huge overbuilding.

That is, homebuilders built millions of homes we didn't need as people who couldn't really afford them -- and should have remained renters -- bought with low or no downpayments. Now these folks are becoming renters again, as they lose their homes (and savings) to foreclosure -- leaving a gigantic glut of inventory on the market.

The official statistics show an inventory of 3.67 million new and existing homes -- 8.6 months' worth at the present anemic sales rate. But the real inventory is likely double that, once you count the homes now in the foreclosure pipeline.

Making matters worse, more defaults will come: Nearly one in four borrowers -- more than 11 million households -- owes more than the house is worth. Another 2.4 million homeowners have less than 5 percent equity, putting them right on the edge. And those numbers will all soar as prices slide further.

Not all underwater homeowners will default, but it's a sure bet millions more eventually will.

All this means there's a backlog of some 10 million homes that must get sold before housing can truly recover. But fewer than 5 million homes now trade hands in a year -- and that's mostly sales of nondistressed homes, which aren't even part of the glut. So it's clear that home prices are bound to go down further and remain down for years.

Every economist knows you get more of what you subsidize. Due to all the overbuilding from years of federal housing subsidies, today a staggering 18.4 million homes are empty year-round. (That's down from 18.9 million a year ago, as lower prices have lured investors who've rented out homes bought at foreclosure.)

Given that there are 112.5 million occupied housing units (including rentals) in America, that means that there's one vacant home for every six occupied ones.

Short of bulldozing the millions of unneeded homes, it will take years of population growth and household formations to absorb the excess.

The good news (such as it is) is that free-market clearing processes are working. Today, one in five homebuyers is an investor, and one of every three sales is all-cash. Distressed sales account for 40 percent of the market.

Since the mid-'90s, when liberal activists really started pushing "affordable homeownership," banks have poured trillions of dollars into mortgage loans (now defaulted and mostly government guaranteed) instead of loans to businesses -- the proceeds of which would have gone into plants, equipment and software, all engines of job growth.

So now, nearly two years after the recession "ended," we're stuck with millions of unneeded homes, and millions of unemployed people. The feds have finally realized that stricter lending policies are necessary, but it will still take several more years for housing (and probably everything else) to recover.

What should we do? More federal subsidies are no answer. Hastening the foreclosure process (rather than slowing it, as our leaders mostly seem to be trying to do) is a good place to start. Keeping in place borrowers who haven't made a mortgage payment in over a year will only further delay the housing recovery.

We might even want to import buyers: Economist Gary Shilling has suggested granting permanent residency to any immigrant who buys a home.


NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 29, 2011, 07:16:49 PM
Unmanipulated US "Misery Index" Hits All Time High
Zero Hedge ^ | 03/29/2011 18:08 -0400 | Submitted by Tyler Durden



www.zerohedge.com



While everyone knows that the CPI in the US is manipulated beyond repair (a topic far too broad to be discussed here suffice to say that as disclosed previously true inflation in the US is currently runrating at over 8%), inflation as actually represented by US consumers and reported by Zero Hedge earlier, in the form of the 1 year inflation expectation index of the Conference Board lack of confidence index, is near all time highs.

So if one takes this data series and adds to it the narrow unemployment definition (U3) one would get an adjusted Misery Index for US citizens (using inflation expectations instead of manipulated CPI). As the chart below shows, the Misery Index, which is merely inflation plus unemployment, constructed as such, would now be at an all time high. Hardly in keeping with Bernanke's wealth effect prerogative, but surely in line with record food stamp usage reported month after month.

That said, the silver lining to that particular mushroom cloud is our confidence that as the bulk of Americans live in record "misery", they will be comforted to know that their 20 shares of NFLX are trading at a four digit EPS multiple. And the other good news is that we have the Brits beat again: whereas the US is at a record, the UK is merely at a 20 year high, proving once again that only the US never does anything half-assed.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 30, 2011, 03:03:10 PM
America is Burning
Townhall.com ^ | March 30, 2011 | Ben Shapiro




Two weeks ago, I visited New York City with my wife, who was interviewing at a local medical school located in the Bronx. I dropped her at the school. Since I was lacking a car, I hopped on a public bus, intending to take it to the local subway station.

I have never been so frightened for my country in my life.

The bus itself was fine; all the people on it had places to be. It was the subway station that was truly scary. The station itself looked like a bomb had hit it. Debris covered the shattered tile floor. The stench of vomit and urine permeated the place. Rust layered the tracks; wooden boards between the tracks moldered into dust. The station had clearly been beautiful at one point, but now it looked like a leftover set from "The Omega Man."

Elderly people sat holding their cheap knockoff bags, quietly avoiding eye contact with the younger crowd. Young people gathered in small groups, speaking in broken English into their expensive cell phones. I saw a couple of young men pass small plastic bags to one another.

Then I got on the train. As the Bronx rushed past, shattered images stuck to the smeared windows like flies to a windshield: buildings with graffiti on every air conditioner, on every window, on every door; empty lots covered in garbage; apartments with hundreds of broken windows; the Bronx River, pieces of wreckage sticking at obtuse angles from the muddy water. The landscape of hopelessness.

This isn't how the Bronx used to be. Two generations ago, the Bronx was a diverse and thriving lower- to middle-class enclave, full of upwardly mobile people. The area was largely immigrant and hummed with the excitement of a population looking to take advantage of the American dream. Myriads of intellectuals grew up in the Bronx, ranging from Don DeLillo to E.L. Doctorow to Harold Bloom to David Halberstam to Chaim Potok to William Safire, entertainers like Woody Allen, Paddy Chayefsky and Stanley Kubrick, and entrepreneurs ranging from Ralph Lauren to Eli Broad to Calvin Klein.

Then the government got involved.

Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, in an attempt to fight poverty, the New York City government instituted higher property taxes and rent control. The idea behind the property taxes was simple redistributionism -- tenants should be given more money from the pockets of landlords. The same held true for rent control -- the unspoken idea was that landlords had been gypping their tenants.

The unintended consequences were disastrous. Poorer and poorer populations began moving to the Bronx, driving out the aspiring lower middle class. Landlords who had already been operating at profit minimums began losing money. It became simpler for them to burn down their buildings than to fix them up. Similarly, tenants began torching buildings in the hope that the government would build new public housing at the sites. The result became a national catch phrase when Howard Cosell, during the 1977 World Series, commented on an aerial shot of the city: "There it is, ladies and gentlemen: the Bronx is burning."

Today, the Bronx is barren. All the talk of urban renewal is papier-mache pomposity. Even as the elite crowd celebrates the "diversity" and "artistic regrowth" of the Bronx, the Bronx remains a crime and poverty center. In the South Bronx, nearly 50 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Rap and art nouveau will not heal an area destroyed by government interventionism and the substitution of top-down economics for bottom-up entrepreneurialism. The culture of dependency has poisoned the groundwater. The Bronx River is infected with it.

Today, when Americans look at places like Detroit and South Central Los Angeles and the Bronx, they see outliers, locations thrown by fortune or luck to the bottom of the heap. They do not see the policies that led to these areas' fall from grace. And so we continue to elect the same politicians who made the Bronx of literature and jazz into the Bronx of graffiti and hip-hop and prostitution and drugs. Politics and culture had consequences for the Bronx, and they have consequences for America more broadly.


________________________ ________________________ ________________


"I have never been so frightened for my country in my life."




________________________ _____-


Hey Ben - the Bronx is no place for a little nerdy Jewish account type you putz. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 30, 2011, 07:43:16 PM
Going Broke: Treasury Down to $58.6B in Cash, $130.5B Borrowing Authority
CNSNews ^


Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 7:35:59

Going Broke: Treasury Down to $58.6B in Cash, $130.5B Borrowing Authority Wednesday, March 30, 2011 By Terence P. Jeffrey

(CNSNews.com) - Imagine that you had an average monthly income of about $170 balanced against average monthly expenses of about $940--and that you were more than $14,000 in debt.

Then imagine that as of today, you had only $58.60 in cash left in your bank account and $130.50 left on your line of credit.

Now multiply these numbers by 1 billion and you will have the up-to-date financial situation of the U.S. government.

According to the Daily Treasury Statement released by the U.S. Treasury Department today at 4:00 p.m., the Treasury had $58.6 billion in cash in its accounts as of the close of business on Tuesday. That was down from $190.6 billion at the beginning of March and $309.8 billion at the beginning of this fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2010.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 06:55:10 AM
Bill Gross calls U.S. budget a Greek tragedy (worse than Greece)
fortune ^ | March 31, 2011 5:40 am | Colin Barr


Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011

Gross runs Pimco, the $1.2 trillion investment manager that has spent recent months selling Treasury bonds, citing their low yields and poor prospects. He explains in his monthly investment outlook posted Wednesday evening that U.S. government bonds "have little value" in a world of bloated budgets.

While outstanding federal debt totals $9.1 trillion, he estimates the government's actual liability at $75 trillion, counting promises made under Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

"The incredible reality is that the $9.1 trillion federal debt that constitutes the next-to-tiniest ball in our chart is nothing compared to unfunded Medicaid and Medicare. It is like comparing Pluto to Saturn and Jupiter," Gross writes.

That starry-eyed talk is only the latest warning out of Gross. He predicted a bond market turkey shoot in October, while calling the borrow-from-the-future mindset of our elected leaders a "Sammy scheme."

He has since warned that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge thanks to a political failure to confront our structural problems, such as declining education standards and eroding infrastructure, and predicted the end of Fed bond buying will wrack markets of all kinds.

But now the gloves are off. To drive his latest point home, Gross compares the U.S. to Europe's least solvent nation, and not favorably.

"This country appears to have an off-balance-sheet, unrecorded debt burden of close to 500% of GDP!" Gross exclaims. "We are out-Greeking the Greeks, dear reader."


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.fortune.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 07:01:58 AM
Grassley Warns of Bailed-out Banks’ Repaying Bail-outs With Government Funds
Chuck Grassley Senate site ^ | 03/29/2011 | Chuck Grassley




WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking the Treasury secretary for assurances that banks bailed out with government funds will not be allowed to use another government program to pay back their bailouts.

“The reports that banks from New York to Nashville are using federal dollars from the so-called Small Business Lending Fund to increase profits and ‘pay back’ TARP make this look like another TARP-style money shuffle,” Grassley said. “Replacing one form of government subsidy with another wasn’t a repayment when GM did it and it still isn’t. The Treasury Department has an obligation to put the brakes on any tricky bookkeeping that misleads the American taxpayer and subverts what this program was supposed to do.”

Grassley wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, citing media reports and a bank earnings statement to investors that banks in Pennsylvania, Nashville and New York that received money through the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) are considering paying back that bailout with money received through the federal Small Business Lending Fund. One bank touted increased “profitability” in converting TARP funds to Small Business Lending Funds in its quarterly earnings report.

Grassley asked Geithner for assurances that a repayment shuffle will not take place. He asked for a description of Treasury’s oversight plans to prevent such a shuffle and for information including a list of banks that have applied for loans under the small business program.

Last year, Grassley exposed the misleading nature of claims from the Treasury Department and General Motors that the company repaid a TARP loan through a business turn-around. In fact, its repayment was via federal money held by the government.

The text of Grassley’s letter to the Treasury secretary is available here:

http://grassley.senate.gov/about/upload/3-22-2011-Geithner-Letter-SBLF.pdf



Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 07:14:37 AM
Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon expects inflation
By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
Updated
10h 34m ago |







 

U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.


By Spencer Platt, Getty Images

The nation's largest retailer needs to get back to its roots as the lowest priced one-stop shop for consumers, Walmart CEO Bill SImon said.

The world's largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.

Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."

CEO: Says Wal-Mart to go back to low prices, broad-based inventory

VIDEO: Wal-Mart CEO answers five questions about the future of the retailer

ECONOMY: Inflation worries push consumer confidence lower in March

Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs
for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.

"Every single retailer has and is paying more for the items they sell, and retailers will be passing some of these costs along," Long says. "Except for fuel costs, U.S. consumers haven't seen much in the way of inflation for almost a decade, so a broad-based increase in prices will be unprecedented in recent memory."

Consumer prices — or the consumer price index — rose 0.5% in February, the most since mid-2009, largely because of surging food and gasoline prices. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose a more modest 0.2%, though that still exceeded estimates.

The scenario hits Wal-Mart as it is trying to return to the low across-the-board prices it became famous for. Some prices rose as the company paid for costly store renovations.

"We're in a position to use scale to hold prices lower longer ... even in an inflationary environment," Simon says. "We will have the lowest prices in the market."

Major retailers such as Wal-Mart are the best positioned to mitigate some cost increases, Long says. Wal-Mart, for example, could have "access to any factory in any country around the globe" to mitigate the effect of inflation in the U.S., Long says.

Still, "it's certainly going to have an impact," Long says. "No retailer is going to be able to wish this new cost reality away. They're not going to be able to insulate the consumer 100%."


http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2011-03-30-wal-mart-ceo-expects-inflation_N.htm#

Title: Doom & Gloom Thread
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 09:05:07 AM
Skip to comments.

The Truth About The Economy: We're Heading Back Toward A Double Dip
TBI ^ | 3-31-2011 | Robert Reich

Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011 12:09:11 PM by blam

The Truth About The Economy: We're Heading Back Toward A Double Dip

Robert Reich
Mar. 31, 2011, 10:31 AM


Why aren’t Americans being told the truth about the economy? We’re heading in the direction of a double dip – but you’d never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.

Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It’s weaker today on average than at the low point of the Great Recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March – the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low — and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.

Pessimistic consumers don’t buy as much. And fewer sales spells big economic trouble ahead.

What about the 192,000 jobs added in February? (We’ll know more Friday about how many jobs were added in March.) It’s peanuts compared to what’s needed. Remember, 125,000 new jobs are necessary just to keep up with a growing number of Americans eligible for employment. And the nation has lost so many jobs over the last three years that even at a rate of 200,000 a month we wouldn’t get back to 6 percent unemployment until 2016.

But isn’t the economy growing again – by an estimated 2.5 to 2.9 percent this year? Yes, but that’s even less than peanuts. The deeper the economic hole, the faster the growth needed to get back on track. By this point we’d expect growth of 4 to 6 percent. In 1934, emerging from

[snip]


(Excerpt) Read more at www.businessinsider.com

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 06:46:52 PM
Sbarro Pizza Preparing Chapter 11 Filing
Wall Street Journal ^ | 04/01/2011 | MIKE SPECTOR



Sbarro Inc., the fast-food pizza chain that dots shopping-mall food courts, is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, said people familiar with the matter...

"Sbarro continues to work constructively with our key stakeholders to restructure our debt and position the company for long-term success," the company said. "Throughout this restructuring process, the company expects to continue to operate in the normal course and without interruption."

The company has been battered during the recession amid lower consumer confidence. Several months ago it warned of substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern...

Sbarro, based in Melville, N.Y., employs about 5,000 people and started cutting jobs and closing stores in the wake of the global financial crisis...

The eatery was founded in the late 1950s when the Sbarro family opened a grocery store in Brooklyn, N.Y., offering homemade mozzarella, imported cheese, sausage and salami. Sbarro opened its first mall location in 1967 in Brooklyn's King Plaza Shopping Center, which marked its transition to fast-food service. It grew to operate more than 1,000 stores in some 40 countries, becoming a staple in malls and airports from Egypt and Israel to Japan and New Zealand.

Battered by the recession, however, the company closed more than 150 restaurants in the past two years. It showed a loss of about $29.3 million during the first nine months of last year on sales of roughly $239 million. For 2009 it reported a loss of $ 37.2 million. It had about $12.67 million cash and cash equivalents at the end of September.

The losses prompted the company in December to raise salaries and hand out bonuses for top executives and managers to keep them from leaving. Meantime, Sbarro's lackluster earnings caused it to violate debt terms.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


________________________ ________________________ ________


The losses prompted the company in December to raise salaries and hand out bonuses for top executives and managers to keep them from leaving. Meantime, Sbarro's lackluster earnings caused it to violate debt terms.



Ha ha ha ha ha - freaking brilliant,. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 31, 2011, 06:50:32 PM
Beef prices soar
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/31/markets/beef_price_increasing/index.htm ^ | 3/31/11 | Parija Kavilanz

Posted on Thursday, March 31, 201



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- If you're already shocked by how much your favorite cut of beef costs at the supermarket, brace yourself because prices will keep going up.

Surging commodity prices already have consumers paying more for groceries such as eggs, milk, cereal and meat. The price of beef in particular has shot through the roof

In February, the average retail price per pound for beef was $3.87, up 12.4% versus a year ago, according to market research firm FreshLook Data.

The average retail price for a pound of chicken was up 3.9% in February versus a year ago, turkey was up 5.4%, veal up 6.7% and pork up 10%.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 01, 2011, 06:17:46 AM
We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers
More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined..Article
By STEPHEN MOORE
www.wsj.com





If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida's ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York's.

Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things. The leaders in government hiring are Wyoming and New Mexico, which have hired more than six government workers for every manufacturing worker.

Now it is certainly true that many states have not typically been home to traditional manufacturing operations. Iowa and Nebraska are farm states, for example. But in those states, there are at least five times more government workers than farmers. West Virginia is the mining capital of the world, yet it has at least three times more government workers than miners. New York is the financial capital of the world—at least for now. That sector employs roughly 670,000 New Yorkers. That's less than half of the state's 1.48 million government employees.

View Full Image

ImageZoo/Corbis
 .Don't expect a reversal of this trend anytime soon. Surveys of college graduates are finding that more and more of our top minds want to work for the government. Why? Because in recent years only government agencies have been hiring, and because the offer of near lifetime security is highly valued in these times of economic turbulence. When 23-year-olds aren't willing to take career risks, we have a real problem on our hands. Sadly, we could end up with a generation of Americans who want to work at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The employment trends described here are explained in part by hugely beneficial productivity improvements in such traditional industries as farming, manufacturing, financial services and telecommunications. These produce far more output per worker than in the past. The typical farmer, for example, is today at least three times more productive than in 1950.

Where are the productivity gains in government? Consider a core function of state and local governments: schools. Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington. That is what economists call negative productivity.

But education is an industry where we measure performance backwards: We gauge school performance not by outputs, but by inputs. If quality falls, we say we didn't pay teachers enough or we need smaller class sizes or newer schools. If education had undergone the same productivity revolution that manufacturing has, we would have half as many educators, smaller school budgets, and higher graduation rates and test scores.

The same is true of almost all other government services. Mass transit spends more and more every year and yet a much smaller share of Americans use trains and buses today than in past decades. One way that private companies spur productivity is by firing underperforming employees and rewarding excellence. In government employment, tenure for teachers and near lifetime employment for other civil servants shields workers from this basic system of reward and punishment. It is a system that breeds mediocrity, which is what we've gotten.

Most reasonable steps to restrain public-sector employment costs are smothered by the unions. Study after study has shown that states and cities could shave 20% to 40% off the cost of many services—fire fighting, public transportation, garbage collection, administrative functions, even prison operations—through competitive contracting to private providers. But unions have blocked many of those efforts. Public employees maintain that they are underpaid relative to equally qualified private-sector workers, yet they are deathly afraid of competitive bidding for government services.

President Obama says we have to retool our economy to "win the future." The only way to do that is to grow the economy that makes things, not the sector that takes things.

Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page.


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Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2011, 02:19:56 PM
February Construction Activity Drops 1.4%, Lowest in More Than a Decade
ENR/AP ^ | 04/01/2011 | MARTIN CRUTSINGER




February Construction Activity Drops 1.4%, Lowest in More Than a Decade 04/01/2011 Associated Press/AP Online

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON - Builders started work on fewer homes, apartments and government projects in February, pushing construction activity down to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Construction spending tumbled for a third straight month, dropping 1.4 percent in February, the Commerce Department said Friday. The weakness pushed total activity down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $760.6 billion, the smallest total since October 1999. That was below the previous recession low set back in August.


(Excerpt) Read more at enr.construction.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2011, 02:35:41 PM
Hi, here’s a food stamp graph that will ruin your day.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2698970/posts

Posted by Moe Lane (Profile)

Sunday, April 3rd at 8:00AM EDT

23 Comments
Because why have a nice, sunny morning? We probably can’t afford those anymore, anyhow.

H/T AoSHQ Headlines:



Primed by the financial meltdown; took off like a rocket in January 2009, and is now reaching for the stars. Over 44 million on the rolls (somewhere around 14.3% of the population), which is about 14 million or so more than when this administration took office. The graph is sufficiently grim and depressing on its own to make further commentary largely unnecessary, but I will add one sardonic comment. If current conditions are what the White House considers to be “our economic recovery,” then let me be clear: You’re Doing It Wrong.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Benefits are down, too. A little counter-intuitive, given that the time frame is the Democratic party’s control of the government… no, wait, in that case it’s not counter-intuitive at all.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: 225for70 on April 03, 2011, 03:10:18 PM
Hi, here’s a food stamp graph that will ruin your day.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2698970/posts

Posted by Moe Lane (Profile)

Sunday, April 3rd at 8:00AM EDT




Hahah, that can't be..Andreistheman says the economy is getting better.  However, the food stamp gauge seems to suggest otherwise.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2011, 03:15:39 PM
Hahah, that can't be..Andreistheman says the economy is getting better.

The graph is horrble but it its in png format.   Copy at the link.   Its horrible.   

And dont listen to andre - he is in heat like a rabid dog for Obama's reelection. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2011, 08:05:59 AM
Weekly Indicators: Economy Slowing Due to Choke Collar of High Oil Prices
Seeking Alpha ^ | 4-4-2011 | Hale Stewart




Weekly Indicators: Economy Slowing Due to Choke Collar of High Oil Prices

Hale Stewart
April 04, 2011

Last week's headline numbers were the 216,000 jobs added in March and the continued decline in the unemployment rate to 8.8%. As usual, I'll have more to say in the coming week, including at least one finding that contradicts the conventional wisdom. For now, we can just note that it was a good number - just not good enough for all the ground we have to make up.

Other monthly numbers continued to show an economy that is slowing due to the choke collar of high Oil prices. The manufacturing workweek declined (-.1), as did new factory orders. There are two more of the 10 leading indicators that have turned down. Residential and non-residential spending also declined. New cars sold in March also declined slightly from February, although at 13.1 million vehicles, this is still the second best showing in over two years. On the plus side, manufacturing as measured by the Chicago PMI and the ISM continued on a tear. BUT the leading components of that index - new orders and vendor deliveries - declined. Vendor deliveries declined sharply - the third of the 10 leading indicators to show a decline this week.

Did I mention that Oil was like a choke collar constricting economic growth?

Turning now to the high-frequency weekly indicators:

The BLS reported that Initial jobless claims last week were 388,000. The 4 week average is 394,250. This is the sixth week in a row that this number has been initially reported below 400,000. On the other hand, this series has not made a new low in the last month. Will the downward momentum continue or has it stalled?


(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2011, 08:18:41 AM
27 Depressing Statistics About The U.S. Economy That Will Make You Feel Even Worse
TEC ^ | 4-4-2011


Via FR

Feeling Depessed? 27 Depressing Statistics About The U.S. Economy That Will Make You Feel Even Worse

April 4, 2011

If you know someone that believes that the U.S. economy is in great shape, just show that person the following statistics. But please don't show these statistics to anyone that is feeling depressed or that has just lost a job - it might push such a person over the edge. The sad truth is that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a long-term decline and it is coming apart at the seams. Right now the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are attempting to "paper over" our economic problems with massive amounts of government debt and paper currency, but in the end it is not going to work. When you analyze the numbers objectively, it leads to the inescapable conclusion that we are headed for another Great Depression. That is a very depressing thought, but there is no denying that decades of debt and incredibly bad decisions are starting to catch up with us. The economic pain that is coming is going to be absolutely mind blowing.

It would be nice if our politicians and our business leaders suddenly started making incredibly wise decisions so that we could bring the U.S. economy in for a "soft landing", but the chance of that happening is so small that it is not even worth mentioning.

It is time for all of us to face up to the truth. In this day and age it is really easy to get caught up in the trap of feeling depressed, but once we understand exactly how bad our problems are it can be empowering because then we can start focusing on solutions.

The following are 27 depressing statistics about the U.S. economy that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 The Obama administration projects that the federal budget deficit will be approximately $1,600,000,000,000 this year. Right now the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting tooth and nail over budget cuts. The Republicans are proposing to cut the budget deficit by 3.8%. The Democrats only want to cut it by 2.1%.

#2 The U.S. economy actually grew more between 1930 and 1940 than it did during the decade that recently ended.

#3 Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million.

#4 Agricultural commodities are absolutely soaring. The price of corn has more than doubled over the last 12 months. Considering the fact that corn is in literally thousands of our food products, that is a very frightening statistic.

#5 Between 1999 and 2009, real median household income in the United States declined by 5.0%.

#6 It is being estimated that total U.S. government debt will grow by 42 percent by the year 2015.

#7 According to the Pentagon, the cost of the first week of attacks on Libya was 600 million dollars.

#8 The average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas.

#9 According to the U.S. Energy Department, the average U.S. household will spend approximately $700 more on gasoline in 2011 than it did during 2010.

#10 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year. Their biggest customer is the United States.

#11 According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost 25 percent of U.S. households now have zero net worth or negative net worth. Back in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent.

#12 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world last year. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.

#13 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#14 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#15 U.S. home values have fallen an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the peak of the real estate market in 2005.

#16 According to RealtyTrac, one out of every 45 U.S. households was hit with a foreclosure filing in 2010.

#17 The number of homes that were actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever during 2010.

#18 New home sales in the United States set a brand new all-time record low in the month of February.

#19 Now home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005.

#20 The financial condition of American families continues to deteriorate rapidly. In 2010, one out of every eight American families had at least one family member that was unemployed. That number was the highest it has been since the U.S. Labor Department began keeping track of that statistic back in 1994.

#21 There are now more than 6 million Americans that the government says have given up looking for work completely.

#22 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.

#23 Americans now owe more than $900 billion on student loans, which is also an all-time record high.

#24 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income.

#25 According to the Federal Reserve, between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the United States fell by 23 percent.

#26 The Federal Reserve also says that median household debt in the United States has risen to $75,600.

#27 According to a recent article posted on the website of the American Institute of Economic Research, the purchasing power of a U.S. dollar declined from $1.00 in 1913 to 4.6 cents in 2009. Sadly, the Federal Reserve is working very hard to get rid of the little bit of purchasing power that the U.S. dollar has left.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2011, 11:38:48 AM
Here Come The Increases In Coffee Prices
Economic Policy Journal ^ | 4-4-2011 | Robert Wenzel

Here Come The Increases In Coffee Prices

Robert Wenzel
April 4, 2011




Price inflation is about to hit from every angle. Since the financial crisis, Bernanke has printed too much money for it not to have a major impact. All indications are that it will hit hard in the second half of this year.

The only persons who appear not to be concerned about price inflation are NYT columnist Paul Krugman and his former Princeton colleague, Ben Bernanke, and other members of the Fed.

But keep in mind, just a few months ago Krugman wrote this:

There’s really nothing here to shake my view that deflation, not inflation, is the threat. Bernanke, who famously said the subprime crisis is no big deal, has been in lock step with Krugman in his lack of concern about price inflation. This is really scary since Bernanke is the captain of the money printing boat, known as the Federal Reserve.

And New York Fed president William Dudley doesn't think there is an inflation problem because as he put it: "Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful. You have to look at the prices of all things." A member of the audience quite correctly shouted to Dudley, ""You can't eat an iPad."

Anyway, here's something more to contemplate while you drink your morning coffee. SFC, again, this time on coffee prices:

If it hasn't already, your local coffee shop is probably about to raise the cost of your morning latte.

Global coffee prices have doubled over the past year, recently reaching a 14-year high and leading national companies like Starbucks to increase prices in recent weeks. Peet's and some smaller Bay Area specialty coffee roasters raised prices in the fall, while others are just now announcing increases. And it doesn't look as if it will stop there... Coffee prices generally fluctuate with the C market, a global commodity futures market that establishes benchmark prices for green arabica beans, the highest-grade coffee. Last spring.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2011, 01:19:40 PM
IMF economists see dire future for US taxpayers
AFP ^ | 04/04/2011




Americans will need to pay much heavier taxes and accept less from public healthcare to put state finances on a sustainable track, according to an IMF study published Monday.

"The United States is facing an untenable fiscal situation due to the combination of high fiscal deficits, an aging population and rapid growth in government-provided healthcare benefits," three International Monetary Fund economists said in a report.


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



________________________ ________________________ _______



Can someone please reind mewhy Obama ditched th recommendations of his own debt panel? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 05:04:11 AM
Rising oil prices beginning to hurt US economy
AP/YahooNews ^ | 4/6/11 | PAUL WISEMAN


________________________ ________________________ __



Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. After adjusting for inflation and for seasonal factors, consumers spent 0.3 percent more in February than in January.

But that's unlikely to last. Gasoline prices are surging just as inflation-adjusted incomes are falling. More expensive gas is draining much of the cash Americans are receiving from a cut in Social Security taxes this year.

Zandi estimates that higher oil prices shaved 0.5 percentage point from growth in the January-March quarter. He predicts the economy grew 2.6 percent during the quarter.

If oil prices average $100 a barrel for the year, Zandi says, growth will be 0.3 percentage point lower than if prices had stayed at last year's level — an average of less than $80 a barrel. A few months of $125-a-barrel oil would slash economic growth by a full percentage point, Zandi says. And a few months at $150 a barrel could push the economy back into recession.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 05:31:01 AM
Fed Staff Increases Its Inflation Forecast
Economic Policy Journal ^ | 4-5-2011 | Robert Wenzel




Fed Staff Increases Its Inflation Forecast

Robert Wenzel
April 5, 2011

The the Federal Open Market Committee has just released the minutes of the Committee meeting held on March 15, 2011.

The minutes indicate that the Fed staff is increasing its near-term inflation expectations. According to the minutes:

The [Fed] staff revised up its projection for consumer price inflation in the near term, largely because of the recent increases in the prices of energy and food. However, in light of the projected persistence of slack in labor and product markets and the anticipated stability in long-term inflation expectations, the increase in inflation was expected to be mostly transitory if oil and other commodity prices did not rise significantly further. As a result, the forecast for consumer price inflation over the medium run was little changed relative to that prepared for the January meeting.

Translation of this Fed Speak:

We (The Fed) see the price inflation that is just ahead. We hope it is just "transitory" but have no basis for believing it is. In any event, we are going to only raise the price inflation forecast for the near term and hope the inflation goes away after that, which it won't if oil and other commodity prices keep climbing. It should also be noted that this raising of Fed inflation levels is being done at the "staff" level, the clever Bernanke being sure not to spook markets into thinking Fed members are concerned about inflation and are about ready to cut the inflationary money printing party.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 06:10:09 AM
BofA the Gloomiest of Them All: GDP at 1.5%
CNBC ^ | Monday, 4 Apr 2011 11:33 AM ET | Jeff Cox




The race to the bottom for first-quarter GDP projections has a new leader: Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

With a succession of mild unemployment drops unable to ease concerns about the larger slow-growth story for the US economy, BofAML now sees the quarter’s growth prospects at just 1.5 percent.

The firm’s forecast, in a research note Monday from economist Ethan S. Harris, makes JPMorgan Chase’s [JPM 46.58 0.24 (+0.52%) ] outlook of 2.5 percent seem downright rosy and jibes with a recent warning from Capital Economics that the economy is at a crawl and unlikely to do better than 2 percent in growth.

“A lot of the recent ‘strong economy’ talk ignores the events of recent weeks. While payrolls were solid, we now expect just 1.5% Q1 GDP growth,” Harris wrote in a note to clients. “This weak patch is happening before the impact of rising energy prices is felt.”


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 08:31:33 AM
Consequences of the M1 Money Supply
http://ncrenegade.com/editorial/consequences-of-the-m1-money-supply

 | 4/5/2011 | David DeGerolamo


________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _



What are the consequences of the Federal Reserve's policy to expand the M1 money supply? The following chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows how fast the money supply has exploded under the Obama administration:



Art Laffer wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal on June 11th, 2009 which outlined some of the consequences of the Federal Reserve’s policy to increase the money supply. Two years later and we see that his analysis was correct for his short time frame predictions:

The expansion of money, given an increase in the monetary base, is inevitable, and will ultimately result in higher inflation and interest rates. In shorter time frames, the expansion of money can also result in higher stock prices, a weaker currency, and increases in commodity prices such as oil and gold. January 2009 to present price increases:

Stock Market 8500 => 12,400 USD vs.Swiss Franc 1.0727 CHF => 0.922051 CHF (USD down 14%) Oil $45.87 => $108 (per barrel) Gold $800=>$1435 $1453.70


What is the M1 Money Supply?
M1 includes funds that are readily accessible for spending:

(1) currency outside the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve Banks, and the vaults of depository institutions (2) traveler's checks of nonbank issuers (3) demand deposits (4) other checkable deposits (OCDs), which consist primarily of negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts at depository institutions and credit union share draft accounts.

Seasonally adjusted M1 is calculated by summing currency, traveler's checks, demand deposits, and OCDs, each seasonally adjusted separately. So where are we headed according to one of North Carolina's rising Democrat stars: Erskinse Bowles.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjAg8Sx1fi4

“I'm really concerned,” Bowles told the committee last month. “I think we face the most predictable economic crisis in history. A lot of us sitting in this room didn't see this last crisis as it came upon us. But this one is really easy to see. The fiscal path we are on today is simply not sustainable.

“This debt and these deficits that we are incurring on an annual basis are like a cancer and they are truly going to destroy this country from within unless we have the common sense to do something about it,” said Bowles.

“I used to say that I got into this thing for my grandchildren,” Bowles said. “I have eight grandchildren under five years old. I'll have one more in a week. And my life is wonderful and it is wild. But this problem is going to happen long before my grandchildren grow up.

“This problem is going to happen, like the former chairman of the Fed said, or the Moody's said, this is a problem we're going to have to face up,” he said. “It may be two years, you know, maybe a little less, maybe a little more. But if our bankers over there in Asia begin to believe that we're not going to be solid on our debt, that we're not going to be able to meet our obligations, just stop and think for a minute what happens if they just stop buying our debt.

“What happens to interest rates?” asked Bowles. “And what happens to the U.S. economy? The markets will absolutely devastate us if we don't step up to this problem. The problem is real, the solutions are painful, and we have to act.” I would not recommend that you wait for the government to act as Mr. Bowles suggests. Ask yourself why the government is printing money and then protect your assets before the dollar evaporates.

See these related articles on the consequences of interest rate increase coming in the near future:

Get Ready to Pay for the Federal Reserve’s Mistakes

Another Brick in the Wall

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 08:39:32 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2011, 11:35:21 AM
Ryan: Debt on Track to Hit 800 Percent of GDP; 'CBO Can't Conceive of Anyway' Economy Can Continue Past 2037
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
By Nicholas Ballasy



(CNSNews.com) – House Budget Chairman Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said President Barack Obama’s budget strategy is to “do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road” while the debt remains on track to eventually hit 800 percent of GDP and the CBO is saying it "can't conceive of any way" that the economy can continue past 2037 given its current trajectory.

Ryan also said that the House Republicans’ FY2012 budget, which he unveiled yesterday, would save Medicare and help the United States avoid a debt crisis.

“It all comes down to this: Either you fix this problem now where we, you can guarantee people who’ve already organized their lives around these programs get what they have coming to them, or you pick the president’s path, which is do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road, and then we have a debt crisis and then its pain for everybody,” said Ryan.


“Then, you do start cutting seniors,” he said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.  “So, the question here is not if we reform Medicare. The question is when and how we reform Medicare and by reforming Medicare now, you save Medicare.” Ryan said during

He continued, “So the question is, do we save these programs now by engaging in budget reform that preempts a debt crisis that gets this situation under control and gets this economy growing or do we worry about politics, do we worry about the next election and then by doing so, kick the can down the road, only to wake one day and see a real problem where you have to do indiscriminate cuts to everybody including senior citizens? We don’t want to have European austerity in this country, which is a debt-crisis-fueled cut to current seniors, tax increases on the current economy to slow us down.”

Ryan’s proposal, which cuts $5.8 trillion in government spending over the next decade, would provide Medicare beneficiaries with subsidies to purchase private insurance starting in 2022.  The proposal would also end taxpayer support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provide no funding for the implementation of the health care reform law passed by Congress last March.




<i><i>House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R.-Wis. (AP photo)</i></i>

“We’re on a debt crisis path. We are on a path where the government goes from 20 percent of GDP, to 40 percent then 60 percent of GDP. We’re on a path where our debt goes from about 68 percent of GDP to 800 percent of GDP over the three-generation window,” Ryan said.

“I asked CBO to run the model going out and they told me that their computer simulation crashes in 2037 because CBO can’t conceive of any way in which the economy can continue past the year 2037 because of debt burdens,” said Ryan.

“So, we have to go out and give the country a choice,” he said. “We know the path the president’s put the country on. It’s a path that I fundamentally believe transforms this country into something it was never designed to be – into a cradle-to-grave social welfare state and economic stagnation.”

“We are offering a country that is true to this country’s founding principles that is prosperous, that is pro-growth, that lives within its means, that is an opportunity society with a sound, resilable safety net,” said Ryan.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 08, 2011, 03:35:52 PM
US corn reserves expected to fall to 15-year low
Associated Press ^ | 4/8/11 | Staff




St. Louis - Rising demand for corn from ethanol producers is pushing U.S. reserves to the lowest point in 15 years, a trend that could lead to higher grain and food prices this year. The Agriculture Department on Friday left its estimate for corn reserves unchanged from the previous month. The reserves are projected to fall to 675 million bushels in late August, when the harvest begins, or roughly 5 percent of all corn consumed in the United States. That would be the lowest surplus level since 1996.The limited supply is chiefly because of increasing demand from ethanol makers, which


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 09, 2011, 07:03:43 AM
9% Rate Economy Good or Excellent, 56% Say Poor
Rasmussen Reports ^ | 4/9/11 | by Scott Rasmussen




~ EXCERPT ~

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell for the fifth straight day on Saturday. At 76.5, the Consumer Index has fallen five points since Monday’s recent peak. Confidence is down one point from a month ago and thirteen points from three months ago.

Currently, just 9% of American adults rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent while 56% rate the economy as poor. Most (54%) say the economy is still getting worse while two-thirds (66%) say the country is still in a recession.

The Consumer Index reached a two-year high of 93.3 on January 7 and has been trending lower ever since. Consumer confidence for the full month of March was the lowest since last September.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 11, 2011, 05:11:38 AM
America's Inflationary Depression
TMO ^ | 4-10-2011 | Bob Chapman

Posted on Saturday, April 09, 2011 5:10:07 PM by blam

America's Inflationary Depression

Economics / Great Depression II
Apr 09, 2011 - 02:24 PM
By: Bob Chapman


We see signs that American workers are getting worn out. Management may have squeezed the last drops of extra work that they can out of them. That has been reflected in the latest worker productivity. Since WWII the average increase has been 2-1/2% year after year, but last week’s numbers were terrible, up only 0.2% per year. Europe and the US have been able in part to offset advantages of foreign producers by consistently getting better productivity results.

For those of you that are new to these statistics, they are a reflection of labor productivity, or advances in the way work is done. Such previous success have allowed companies to get the job done with fewer employees and in instances to offshore some work to take advantage of cheap foreign labor. If you use a combination of labor and investment funds, recent results are only up 0.1% for 2009. Those numbers are usually about half of regular productivity numbers. What low overall numbers mean is that throwing money at manufacturing problems is not working as well as it has in the past.

Recessions tend to supply lower figures and that is understandable. We are currently in an inflationary depression and have been since February of 2009, just over two years ago. Few economists agree with us, but that is normal. A few catch up in 8 to 12 months, the rest take two or more years.

Higher interest rates tend to be a factor, a negative factor. The higher the rates the larger the impact on the use of investible funds and productivity. The negative side coming from the cost of funds. During our recent depression the cost of funds has not been a factor, because interest rates are very low. As rates eventually move higher they will negatively impact employment at the worst possible time. Those higher rates will as well inhibit the level of capital investment and will contribute to corporate insolvencies. During the beginnings of this depression employment has paid a very heavy price, as corporate profits have boomed. Unemployment rates are about half of what they were during the “Great Depression.” Current long-term unemployment is terrible and many over 40 years old caught in that web will never work again.

It is very discouraging and disconcerting when workers train foreigners to do their jobs and are then fired. The jobs go to some foreign land and the new worker is paid 20% or 30% of what the terminated worker was paid. In addition companies, especially large corporations, are taking advantage of the breaks government is offering and buying labor saving equipment so that they do not have to hire or re-hire personnel. The result as we have seen is long-term unemployment, which in many cases means permanent unemployment, particularly for those over 40 years old.

Using invested capital, interest rates and manufacturing productivity, along with monetary policy gives one a possible overview of where the economy is eventually heading. They also give you a solid view of where gold and silver and commodities are headed. In 2000 after 20 years of being in the doldrums these factors, especially monetary policy, told us that we were embarking on a long-term bull market in gold and silver. The dreadful monetary policy of the 1990s had set the stage for what we have seen since June of 2000, almost 11 years. At this juncture we are as yet anywhere near where the top is, but it certainly is not here.
We are in the process of stage 2, which should take us to $2,400 to $3,000 and then stage 3 to $6,000 to $8,000, based on real inflation since 1980. Obviously that figure will be higher three to five years from now. One of the good aspects of all this is that once devaluation, revaluation and multilateral default come. There will be no further reason for the Treasury, the Fed and other central banks to manipulate gold and silver prices, if the new world reserve currency is 25% gold backed and we believe that will become reality. The elitists want another fiat currency, but nations will not stand for a repeat of what they have seen during the tenure of the US dollar. You had all better hope we are right, because a fiat alternative would create another world monetary disaster.

As we have explained many times in the past, since February 2009 the US has been in an inflationary depression. It has taken a while to get underway, but it is moving relentlessly forward.

We currently have real inflation in the vicinity of 8%, not less than 2%, which our government tells us. By the end of the year we will have 14% plus, matching 14-3/8% of 2-1/2 years ago, which was caused by an 18% increase in money and credit. Current inflation is mainly caused by a switch to quantitative easing, QE1 and $850 billion in stimulus from Congress, which will play itself out into next year. Fast on the heels of that monetary policy we will be exposed to the affects of QE2 and the $862 billion injected into the system by QE2 and stimulus 2. That will carry us into 2013.

The big question is will we have QE3 and the answer is yes, officially or unofficially. Getting stimulus 3 will prove very difficult, if not impossible. That means the Fed will have to take up the slack in funding to keep the financial system afloat. Thus, next year or perhaps by the fall, the Fed will have to feed $2.5 trillion into the system just to keep it going sideways to slightly lower. Establishment economists are calling for 4% to 4-1/2% GDP growth for 2011. Remember without these monetary and fiscal crutches GDP would be minus 1% or more. Such performance will put ever-higher pressure on inflation taking 2012 to 25% or perhaps 30% in 2014. It is already in the pipeline.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on April 11, 2011, 05:19:38 AM
America's Inflationary Depression
TMO ^ | 4-10-2011 | Bob Chapman

Posted on Saturday, April 09, 2011 5:10:07 PM by blam

America's Inflationary Depression

Economics / Great Depression II
Apr 09, 2011 - 02:24 PM
By: Bob Chapman


We see signs that American workers are getting worn out. Management may have squeezed the last drops of extra work that they can out of them. That has been reflected in the latest worker productivity. Since WWII the average increase has been 2-1/2% year after year, but last week’s numbers were terrible, up only 0.2% per year. Europe and the US have been able in part to offset advantages of foreign producers by consistently getting better productivity results.

For those of you that are new to these statistics, they are a reflection of labor productivity, or advances in the way work is done. Such previous success have allowed companies to get the job done with fewer employees and in instances to offshore some work to take advantage of cheap foreign labor. If you use a combination of labor and investment funds, recent results are only up 0.1% for 2009. Those numbers are usually about half of regular productivity numbers. What low overall numbers mean is that throwing money at manufacturing problems is not working as well as it has in the past.

Recessions tend to supply lower figures and that is understandable. We are currently in an inflationary depression and have been since February of 2009, just over two years ago. Few economists agree with us, but that is normal. A few catch up in 8 to 12 months, the rest take two or more years.

Higher interest rates tend to be a factor, a negative factor. The higher the rates the larger the impact on the use of investible funds and productivity. The negative side coming from the cost of funds. During our recent depression the cost of funds has not been a factor, because interest rates are very low. As rates eventually move higher they will negatively impact employment at the worst possible time. Those higher rates will as well inhibit the level of capital investment and will contribute to corporate insolvencies. During the beginnings of this depression employment has paid a very heavy price, as corporate profits have boomed. Unemployment rates are about half of what they were during the “Great Depression.” Current long-term unemployment is terrible and many over 40 years old caught in that web will never work again.

It is very discouraging and disconcerting when workers train foreigners to do their jobs and are then fired. The jobs go to some foreign land and the new worker is paid 20% or 30% of what the terminated worker was paid. In addition companies, especially large corporations, are taking advantage of the breaks government is offering and buying labor saving equipment so that they do not have to hire or re-hire personnel. The result as we have seen is long-term unemployment, which in many cases means permanent unemployment, particularly for those over 40 years old.

Using invested capital, interest rates and manufacturing productivity, along with monetary policy gives one a possible overview of where the economy is eventually heading. They also give you a solid view of where gold and silver and commodities are headed. In 2000 after 20 years of being in the doldrums these factors, especially monetary policy, told us that we were embarking on a long-term bull market in gold and silver. The dreadful monetary policy of the 1990s had set the stage for what we have seen since June of 2000, almost 11 years. At this juncture we are as yet anywhere near where the top is, but it certainly is not here.
We are in the process of stage 2, which should take us to $2,400 to $3,000 and then stage 3 to $6,000 to $8,000, based on real inflation since 1980. Obviously that figure will be higher three to five years from now. One of the good aspects of all this is that once devaluation, revaluation and multilateral default come. There will be no further reason for the Treasury, the Fed and other central banks to manipulate gold and silver prices, if the new world reserve currency is 25% gold backed and we believe that will become reality. The elitists want another fiat currency, but nations will not stand for a repeat of what they have seen during the tenure of the US dollar. You had all better hope we are right, because a fiat alternative would create another world monetary disaster.

As we have explained many times in the past, since February 2009 the US has been in an inflationary depression. It has taken a while to get underway, but it is moving relentlessly forward.

We currently have real inflation in the vicinity of 8%, not less than 2%, which our government tells us. By the end of the year we will have 14% plus, matching 14-3/8% of 2-1/2 years ago, which was caused by an 18% increase in money and credit. Current inflation is mainly caused by a switch to quantitative easing, QE1 and $850 billion in stimulus from Congress, which will play itself out into next year. Fast on the heels of that monetary policy we will be exposed to the affects of QE2 and the $862 billion injected into the system by QE2 and stimulus 2. That will carry us into 2013.

The big question is will we have QE3 and the answer is yes, officially or unofficially. Getting stimulus 3 will prove very difficult, if not impossible. That means the Fed will have to take up the slack in funding to keep the financial system afloat. Thus, next year or perhaps by the fall, the Fed will have to feed $2.5 trillion into the system just to keep it going sideways to slightly lower. Establishment economists are calling for 4% to 4-1/2% GDP growth for 2011. Remember without these monetary and fiscal crutches GDP would be minus 1% or more. Such performance will put ever-higher pressure on inflation taking 2012 to 25% or perhaps 30% in 2014. It is already in the pipeline.



A worse version of Japans Lost Decade, that's where we are headed.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 11, 2011, 01:51:50 PM
IMF cuts economic forecasts for U.S.
CNN ^ | April 11, 2011: 10:02 AM ET | Annalyn Censky, staff reporter



...Citing weak real estate markets and high unemployment, the IMF cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth to 2.8% this year, down from the 3% rate it predicted just three months ago. The IMF also lowered forecasts for the United Kingdom and Japan...


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 12, 2011, 05:19:25 PM
Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure
CNBC ^ | 04/12/2011 | CNBC



After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.

Getty Images Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.

Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 12, 2011, 05:20:18 PM
Cotton prices heat up this summer
CnnMoney.com ^ | April 12, 2011 | Parija Kavilanz




If you can't wait to shed that scratchy wool sweater for a cool new cotton T-shirt this summer, prepare yourself. The price hikes on cotton goods that are coming your way will be decidedly uncool.

This summer, shoppers will be paying 10% to 15% more on all cotton products, according to a new industry survey.

"I can't recall a time when we've seen this type of retail price [increase] on cotton products," said Andrew Tananbaum, CEO of Capital Business Credit, which provides financing to clothing and home furnishing suppliers.

For years, raw cotton prices had been falling, keeping a lid on retail prices for shirts, socks, dresses, home furnishings and other cotton merchandise.

But that trend dramatically changed over the past year, as cotton prices soared to record highs following a global supply shortage.

As raw cotton prices surged, manufacturers and sellers have fought to insulate shoppers from paying more for cotton products.

But that's ending, with producers and sellers saying they're no longer able to eat up the additional costs to their business.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 12, 2011, 05:32:03 PM
US lacks credibility on debt, says IMF
By Chris Giles and James Politi in Washington


Published: April 12 2011 19:15

The US lacks a “credible strategy” to stabilise its mounting public debt posing a small but significant risk of a new global economic crisis, says the International Monetary Fund.

In an unusually stern rebuke to its largest shareholder, the IMF said the US was the only advanced economy to be increasing its underlying budget deficit in 2011 at a time when its economy was growing fast enough to reduce borrowing.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Obama to set out alternative fiscal vision - Apr-12.Clive Crook: Obama on deficits and debt - Apr-12.In depth: US budget - Mar-15.Stage set for US debt limit fight - Apr-12.Tackling the deficit is next fiscal battle - Apr-10.Lex: US budget - Apr-11..The latest warning on the deficit was delivered as Barack Obama, the US president, is becoming increasingly engaged in the debate over ways to curb America’s mounting debt.

To meet the 2010 pledge by the Group of 20 countries for all advanced economies – except Japan – to halve their deficits by 2013, the US would need to implement tougher austerity measures than in any two-year period since records began in 1960, the IMF said. In its twice-yearly Fiscal Monitor, the IMF added that on its current plans the US would join Japan as the only country with rising public debt in 2016, creating a risk for the global economy.

Carlo Cottarelli, head of fiscal affairs at the Fund, said: “It is a risk that if it materialises would have very important consequences ... for the rest of the world. So it is important that the US undertakes fiscal adjustment in a way sooner rather than later.”

At the moment, the US has outlined less than half of the tax increases and spending cuts necessary to bring its public debt down in the medium term, the IMF calculated. “More sizeable reductions in medium-term deficits are needed and will require broader reforms, including to social security and taxation,” the IMF said.

The IMF said the US economy “appears sufficiently strong” to withstand greater austerity measures and tax increases, adding that the benefit of last year’s stimulus package “is likely to be low relative to its costs”.

Having narrowly averted a government shutdown last week through a deal with congressional Republicans to cut $38.5bn in spending from this year’s budget, Mr Obama will today unveil his plans to rein in America’s long-term deficits, which are driven by popular programmes like Medicare,Medicaid and social security.

The debate over US fiscal policy is expected to intensify in the coming weeks and months as the US hits its congressionally mandated debt limit of $14,300bn. Without approval by lawmakers to increase it, the US could face potential default as early as July, and so far Republicans and Democrats remain some distance from reaching a deal.

.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc1aadea-652e-11e0-b150-00144feab49a.html

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on April 12, 2011, 07:49:19 PM
Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure
CNBC ^ | 04/12/2011 | CNBC



After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.

Getty Images Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.

Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.


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


This is the biggest joke of them all.

You can't feed your family with an Ipad2, you can't fill your tank with a new Blackberry and you can't pay your mortgage with a new LED-LCD TV. The govt. has always tried to to fiddle and change the CPI nad other measures of inflation to keep the actual reported inflation artificially low. To lie to us as well as to keep the S.S. payments to a minimum.

The fact that the current fraudulent formula is showing inflation and how bad it is getting means that inflation must be REALLY bad. It's the same with how the govt. calculates GDP or even U.E. levels.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 14, 2011, 06:08:29 AM
Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise; Inflation Pressure Grows (+400,000 claims)
CNBC ^ | Thursday April 14, 2011




New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, bouncing back above the key 400,000 level, while core producer prices clumbed faster than expected in March, government reports showed on Thursday.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 412,000, the Labor Department said.


(Excerpt) Read more at m.cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 14, 2011, 06:49:09 AM
More Americans leaving workforce
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Updated 8h 37m ago |
Roll over each state to see the share of the population working in 2010:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2011-04-13-more-americans-leave-labor-force.htm?loc=interstitialskip#




Sources: USA TODAY, Census, Bureau of Labor StatisticsThe share of the population that is working fell to its lowest level last year since women started entering the workforce in large numbers three decades ago, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Only 45.4% of Americans had jobs in 2010, the lowest rate since 1983 and down from a peak of 49.3% in 2000. Last year, just 66.8% of men had jobs, the lowest on record.

The bad economy, an aging population and a plateau in women working are contributing to changes that pose serious challenges for financing the nation's social programs.

MORE: American workforce growing grayer

"What's wrong with the economy may be speeding up trends that are already happening," says Marc Goldwein, policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group favoring smaller deficits.

For example, job troubles appear to have slowed a trend of people working later in life, putting more pressure on Social Security, he says.

Another change: the bulk of those not working has shifted from children to adults.

In 2000, the nation had roughly the same number of children and non-working adults. Since then, the population of non-working adults has grown 27 million while the nation added just 3 million children under 18.

USA TODAY analyzed employment numbers and 2010 Census data to see how the ratio of workers to non-workers has changed.

Other key findings:

•Men leave. Working-age men have been dropping out of the labor force for decades. The disappearance quickened when construction and manufacturing jobs vanished in the recession from December 2007 through June 2009. Until the 1960s, more than 80% of men worked.

•Women stay. The trend of women getting jobs offset the loss of working men until the late 1990s. The share of women holding jobs rose from 36% in 1960 to 57% in 1995, then leveled off. The rate was 56% in 2010.

The aging of 77 million Baby Boomers born from 1946 through 1964 from children to workers to retirees is changing the relationship between workers and dependents.

Retirees generally are more costly to support than children.

The average public school education costs $10,000 a year. The average retiree gets $25,000 a year in benefits — $13,000 in Social Security and Medicare benefits of $12,000.

In all, taxpayers will spend about $125,000 educating a child and $500,000 caring for a senior, in today's dollars at current life expectancies, according to federal education and retirement program data. The costs are paid differently, too. State and local governments, through sales and property taxes, pay most education expenses. The federal government, though income taxes, pays most retiree costs.

"No matter how wealthy you are, you have a problem if half the population is not working and depending on those who are," says John Goodman, president of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis. "Wherever you look, we've overpromised."

Economist Eileen Applebaum of the liberal Center for Economics and Policy Research says the real problem is a lack of jobs. Another 25 million people would work in a healthy economy, and incentives such as child care assistance could help, she says: "We're getting richer. We can afford things. We just need to fix what needs to be fixed."
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 14, 2011, 08:34:37 AM
House Prices in Free Fall. Homes likely to lose 1/4 of their real value in next 4 years.
American Thinker ^ | 04/14/2011 | Howard Richman, Raymond Richman, and Jesse Richman




The latest house price data (the S&P Case-Shiller index) shows a clear downward trend for the most recent six months, as shown in the graph below:


The next graph shows how this year's data fits in with the long-term trend.  It is clear that the house price bubble, which began in 1997 and peaked in 2006, has not yet finished popping:

How We Got Here

The black stars in the above graph highlight 1951 and 1997, the two years when Congress changed how the capital gains tax applies to home sales.  The first change produced 46 years of wealth accumulation.  The second change produced 9 years of rising house prices and living beyond our means to be followed by about 9 years of belt tightening and economic stagnation.


In 1951, Congress, at the urging of President Truman, instituted the roll-over treatment for taxation of capital gains from home sales, an economically sound treatment of capital gains.  As a result, from 1951 through 1997, whenever a homeowner sold his or her primary residence to buy another residence, the capital gains tax was deferred, not forgiven.  In technical parlance the gain was rolled-over until the new home was sold.  Homeowners would typically build up their equity in one home, sell that home, and then use their savings to make a down payment on a larger home. During that period, there were large changes in interest rates, yet real home prices were quite stable.

In 1997, a foolish Congress, at the urging of a foolish President Bill Clinton, eliminated the capital gain tax on homes sold by most homeowners.  This change immediately stimulated the housing price bubble.  It told speculators that the capital gain that they would earn would be tax free if they bought a house in the expectation of a rise in its market value and sold it at a higher price.  Under the new provision, almost anyone who had lived in a house for 2 years of the past 5 years could sell the house free from capital gains tax.  The new policy encouraged people to gamble on real estate.  They saw that houses were going up in price year after year.  What an easy way to make money! 

Here is how Kenneth Harney (2008) described how the 1997 tax treatment encouraged speculation in a Washington Post article about Congress's 2008 attempt to tighten its provisions:


[Property owners] can claim the exclusion [from capital gains taxation] even if they convert an investment property or vacation house into their principal residence and live there for at least two years. This flexibility has been a boon to many tax-wise owners of multiple houses -- particularly during the bubble years when values doubled in some parts of the country.

Property owners in markets with high appreciation rates could sell their principal residences for hefty profits -- pocketing the first $250,000 or $500,000 tax-free -- and then move into their rental condo or vacation property for a couple of years and repeat the process.

In effect, it was a form of financial alchemy where taxable profits could be magically transmuted into tax-free gains -- at least up to the $250,000 and $500,000 limits.


The housing price bubble had other contributing factors, but Vernon L. Smith, a Nobel Prize winning economist largely due to his study of economic bubbles, held that it was primarily caused by the 1997 legislation.  He pointed out that, at the time it was enacted, the 1997 legislation was quite popular among the industries that were most severely hurt when the bubble burst.  He wrote, sarcastically:


Thank you President Bill Clinton for your 1997 action, applauded by the banks, the realtors and all citizens in search of half-millionaire status from an investment they could understand and self deceptively believe to be low risk; thank you for fueling the mother of all housing bubbles; thank you for enabling so many of us who bought second or third homes, and homes before construction began, which we then sold to someone else who dreamed of riches from owning homes long enough to sell to another fool.


Smith argued that, instead, Congress should have kept the rollover treatment for house sales while switching all other capital gains taxes to the rollover treatment.  Specifically:


More daring than the action to exempt real estate from the capital gains tax -- and in lasting service to the poor -- would have been actions allowing capital gains on all assets to go tax free, provided that the capital was reinvested -- i.e., not consumed, and yes, good citizens, housing counts as consumption.


While house prices were rising, homeowners depleted their savings, leaving them with less money for a future down payment.  Tyler Cowen (2008) described this psychology in a New York Times commentary:


The fundamental problem in the American economy is that, for years, people treated rising asset prices as a substitute for personal savings. The thinking went something like this: As long as your home's value rose every year, you didn't have to set aside so much from your paycheck....


In fact, people did more than stop adding to their personal savings.  They began subtracting from their personal savings.  As documented by Louise Story in the New York Times, bank advertising campaigns encouraged people to consider the rising value of their homes to be income, to be consumed in the present.  They urged homeowners to take out second mortgages on their homes so that they could increase their current consumption and coined the new term "equity access" to replace "second mortgage."  Borrowing on home equity increased steadily.

Where We are Going


In June 2006, house prices peaked as supply increased faster than demand and the housing price bubble stopped expanding.  Starting early in 2009, the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the Obama Administration spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to keep house prices from falling.  They subsidized first time home buyers, bought mortgage-backed securities, subsidized mortgage buyers, and took other measures.  Apparently, these subsidies only slowed the fall in house prices.


If current trends continue, real house prices (house prices after subtracting inflation) will likely lose about a quarter of their real value over the next 4 years.  If inflation continues at about 2%, this would produce a four year fall in actual house prices of about 4% per year.


It may soon become clear that the Federal Reserve and the federal government wasted hundreds of billions of dollars simply to delay an inevitable fall in housing prices.  Economic historians may compare their policies to the pervasive price subsidies that eventually bankrupted the Soviet government.


What We Need to Learn


You'd think that economists would understand what was happening at the time, but as recently as September 2005, Charles Himmelburg, a senior economist at the New York Federal Reserve, co-authored a NY Fed staff report and an NBER working paper which claimed that there was no housing bubble.  (You really have to read this to believe it.)


The truth is that the expected profit from selling an asset only plays a temporary role in the pricing of an asset.  In the long-run, the value of any asset is the value that the market places on the expected return that it will provide over its life.  As far as stocks and bonds are concerned, the expected return is the expected after-tax dividend or interest.  As far as houses are concerned, the return is the rental value of the home after subtracting real estate taxes.  (See our book, Trading Away Our Future [Ideal Taxes Assn, 2008].)



When President Clinton proposed exempting capital gains taxes on sales of houses, Gene Sperling was the Director of his National Economic Council.  On January 7, President Obama picked him for the same position in his administration.


But the Democrats are not the only ones who seem never to learn from their mistakes.  Back in 1997, congressional Republicans thought that lowering capital gains taxes encourages investment.  They still think so.


The truth is that lowering capital gains tax rates or exempting capital gains from income taxation encourages speculation and capital consumption, not investment.  On the other hand, switching to the roll-over treatment for capital gains on sales of houses, or stocks and other securities for that matter, encourages wealth accumulation.


The authors maintain a blog at www.idealtaxes.com and co-authored the 2008 book Trading Away Our Future: How to Fix Our Government-Driven Trade Deficits and Faulty Tax System Before it's Too Late, published by Ideal Taxes Association.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: 225for70 on April 14, 2011, 09:22:44 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-14/suicide-rates-rise-in-u-s-as-economy-declines-cdc-study-finds.html

Suicide Rates in U.S. Increase as Economy Declines, CDC Researchers Find
By Molly Peterson - Apr 14, 2011 12:01 AM ET

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Suicide rates in the U.S. tend to rise during recessions and fall amid economic booms, according to study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Suicides reached a record high of 22 people per 100,000 in 1932 during the Great Depression, CDC officials said in a report published online today in the American Journal of Public Health. That was double the rates seen in 2000, when 10 people per 100,000 took their lives as the economy prospered, the study found.

The study is the first to link business cycles and suicide rates among specific age groups, according to the Atlanta-based CDC. People in their “prime working ages” of 25 to 64 years old are the most likely to commit suicide during recessions, the study found.

“Economic problems can impact how people feel about themselves and their futures as well as their relationships with family and friends,” Feijun Luo, an economist in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention and the study’s lead author, said today in a statement. “Prevention strategies can focus on individuals, families, neighborhoods or entire communities to reduce risk factors.”

The researchers examined economic data and suicide rates for the 80 years ending in 2007. They didn’t evaluate suicide rates during the recession that ended in June 2009.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 14, 2011, 09:24:23 AM
 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 15, 2011, 12:43:26 PM
Real Wages Fall For 5th Straight Month, Bad News For Obama
IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 4/15/2011 | Ed Carson




Real earnings fell for a fifth straight month as wages fail to keep up with soaring gasoline prices and other costs. Inflation-adjusted earnings for all private workers dropped 0.5% in March, the worst monthly drop since July 2008, according to Labor Department data. Nominal wages were flat while consumer prices climbed more than 0.5% for a second straight month.

Year over year, inflation-adjusted weekly pay sank 0.4% That’s the first drop in a year and down from a 2.2% gain in October.

Since October, real weekly wages have dropped at a 3.8% annual rate — matching the decline set in July 2008, when oil prices peaked above $147 a barrel.


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2011, 04:53:20 AM
The Average American Family Has Been Broke Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy
The American Dream ^ | 4-17-2011 | TAD




35 Statistics That Show The Average American Family Has Been Broke Down, Tore Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy

April 17, 2011

The economic statistics that you are about to read are incredibly shocking, but they are also very, very real. Tonight there are going to be millions of men and women all across America that cannot sleep because they are consumed with anxiety about their financial problems.
Even as you read this, there are a lot of parents out there that are trying to figure out how to explain to their children why their homes are being taken away. There are also hordes of very hard working Americans that are incredibly frustrated because they have sent out thousands of resumes and yet they can't seem to get a job interview. Have you ever been at a point where you couldn't pay the mortgage or put food on the table for your family? It can be an absolutely soul-crushing experience. In fact, there are some cities in the U.S. that have been so utterly devastated by this economy that it seems as though virtually everyone has had the hope sucked right out of them.
The mainstream media is trying to convince all of us that we are in an economic recovery, but that is a lie. The truth is that we are in the middle of a long-term economic decline and the greatest economy in the history of the world is dying right in front of our eyes.

The average American family is under more economic stress right now than at any other time since the Great Depression. Just check out the following statistics....

#1 Only 45.4% of Americans had a job during 2010. The last time the employment level was that low was back in 1983.

#2 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in U.S. history.

#3 In the United States, one-fourth of all the income is brought in by 1 percent of the people.

#4 Rising prices are putting an incredible amount of stress on American family budgets. According to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, if the U.S. government measured inflation the way that it did before 1980 the inflation rate would be much different. For example, Williams says that inflation rose at a 9.6 annual rate during the month of February using the old measurement.

#5 In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting, 74 percent of Americans said that they planned to slow down their spending in coming months due to rising prices.

#6 The price of U.S. crude oil has risen $20 a barrel over the last two months, and the average price of a gallon of gasoline in America is now about $3.79. At this point, the average price of gasoline is about one dollar higher than it was one year ago. Since the average American household goes through about 750 gallons of gas a year, that means that in 2011 American families will spend somewhere around $750 more for gas. So just what is the average American family supposed to do if a gallon of gasoline soon costs 4 or even 5 dollars a gallon?

#7 The average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas.

#8 Incredibly, 60 percent of all the students attending California public schools now qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.

#9 The number of people on food stamps in the state of North Carolina has almost doubled over the past four years.

#10 Thanks to the globalization of the economy, U.S. workers now must directly compete for jobs with workers in places such as Indonesia. In Indonesia, full-time workers make as little as two dollars a day. So how are American workers supposed to compete with that?

#11 U.S. home values have fallen an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the peak of the real estate market in 2005.

#12 Back in 2005 at the peak of the housing bubble, the median property tax on a home in the United States was $1614. Today, even though home values have sunk like a rock, that figure has risen to $1917.

#13 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments at this point.

#14 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are "underwater" on their mortgages.

#15 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.

#16 The number of homes that were actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever during 2010.

#17 According to a recent census report, 13% of all the homes in the United States are sitting empty.

#18 According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years.

#19 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.

#20 There are 10% fewer "middle class jobs" in the United States today than there were a decade ago.

#21 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#22 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#23 Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.

#24 Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record high.

#25 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.

#26 A staggering 25 percent of all American adults now have a credit score below 599.

#27 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010. That represented the fourth yearly increase in bankruptcy filings in a row.

#28 Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million.

#29 One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#30 According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#31 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#32 According to the Federal Reserve, between 2007 and 2009 median household net worth in the United States fell by 23 percent.

#33 The Federal Reserve also says that median household debt in the United States has risen to $75,600.

#34 According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost 25 percent of all U.S. households now have zero net worth or negative net worth. Back in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent.

#35 During this most recent economic downturn, employee compensation in the United States has been the lowest that it has been relative to gross domestic product in over 50 years.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2011, 06:52:23 AM
STUNNER: S&P REVISES US OUTLOOK TO NEGATIVE (U.S. may lose AAA credit rating)
Zero Hedge ^ | April 18, 2011 | Tyler Durden




You read that right: S&P just revised its US outlook to negative. EURUSD surges on what can be seen as revolutionary news...

From S&P:

Overview

We have affirmed our 'AAA/A-1+' sovereign credit rating on the United States of America.


The economy of the U.S. is flexible and highly diversified, the country's effective monetary policies have supported output growth while containing inflationary pressures, and a consistent global preference for the U.S. dollar over all other currencies gives the country unique external liquidity.
Because the U.S. has, relative to its 'AAA' peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable.
We believe there is a material risk that U.S. policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013; if an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation does not begin by then, this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer 'AAA' sovereigns.

[Snip]


Outlook

The negative outlook on our rating on the U.S. sovereign signals that we believe there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the U.S. within two years. The outlook reflects our view of the increased risk that the political negotiations over when and how to address both the medium- and long-term fiscal challenges will persist until at least after national elections in 2012.

Some compromise that achieves agreement on a comprehensive budgetary consolidation program--containing deficit reduction measures in amounts near those recently proposed, and combined with meaningful steps toward implementation by 2013--is our baseline assumption and could lead us to revise the outlook back to stable. Alternatively, the lack of such an agreement or a significant further fiscal deterioration for any reason could lead us to lower the rating.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on April 18, 2011, 07:02:06 AM
wow, surprise surprise.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2011, 07:23:08 AM
S&P Cuts U.S. Ratings Outlook to Negative
Market Watch ^ | April 18, 2011 | Steve Goldstein




Standard & Poor's cut its ratings outlook on the U.S. to negative from stable while keeping its Triple-A rating on the world's largest economy.

"More than two years after the beginning of the recent crisis, U.S. policymakers have still not agreed on how to reverse recent fiscal deterioration or address longer-term fiscal pressures," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Nikola G. Swann....


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2011, 12:18:53 PM
5 Economic Issues That Doom Obama to 1 Term
InvestorPlace.com ^ | Apr. 18, 2011 | Jeff Reeves




Though 18 months out, narrative for 2012 elections is already created

As the old phrase about voter sentiment goes, “it’s the economy, stupid.” And like it or lump it, one of the reasons President Obama rode to victory in 2008 was a foot-in-mouth moment from opponent Sen. John McCain during the height of the market meltdown.

That famous gaffe was a quote from McCain that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while the Dow Jones tanked 500-plus points or over 4% in a single day on Sept. 15, 2008.

Whether McCain’s words were taken out of context – the senator claimed he was waxing philosophical about the fundamental strength of the American economy and its workers – is irrelevant. In politics, it’s less about reality and more about what the America people believe and what the media chooses to focus on.

I don’t pretend to know what will happen with the economy or the stock market between now and November 2012. But as a former opinion page editor for a daily newspaper, I’d like to think I have a pretty good sense for the behavior of politicos and the mainstream press. And based on current trends, here are 5 issues I think that are going to be front and center in the coming months as the presidential contest comes into focus.

And as you’ll see, all five of these issues could work decidedly against Obama’s re-election.

The Fed

Personally, I believe that criticism of the Federal Reserve is overdone. Every sane economist agrees that an independent central bank is crucial to a functional economy, though intelligent people can and will disagree about the level of oversight necessary for such an important institution.

But people like to blame someone in hard times, and with the dual mandate of both fighting inflation and fighting unemployment the Fed is the perfect whipping boy. Gasoline prices are soaring and unemployment remains stubbornly high as the sheer enormity of the unemployed means the recent jobs added to payrolls is just a drop in the bucket.

What’s more, voters don’t appreciate nuanced positions. As a friend of mine says, “ The chicken in the middle of the road gets run over.” Ron Paul and his tea party buddies have decisively staked out a position against the Fed – and as long as rhetoric doesn’t spin out of control with promises of a gold standard or legislation demanding the Fed chairman be subject to popular vote, Obama’s opponents have the high ground on this issue.

Unemployment

As I just mentioned, payrolls just can’t grow fast enough to erode the high unemployment rate. Consider that in March, about 216,000 nonfarm jobs were added – and that didn’t even move the needle from an 8.8% jobless rate. If the economy needs to add a million jobs a month to significantly draw down that glaring percentage that so easily fits into headlines and news teasers, Obama is in big trouble.

Logically, it’s not Obama’s fault. From December 2007 to October 2010, a total of 7.5 million jobs were lost in the U.S. The unemployment rate peaked in the summer of 2009 at about 10.6%, the highest since 1983, and the average unemployment rate across that brutal year was the highest average since 1948. That’s a heck of a deck to be playing with.

But we are a nation of fast food, short attention spans and instant gratification. Heck, four years ago the iPhone didn’t even exist! One presidential term is a lifetime to an electorate, and a lack of progress will be seen as a failure no matter how rough the situation was when the incumbent took office.

Family Finances

The average American consumer is poorer because of the financial crisis, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve. How can this be, considering the market is off only about -13% from its 2007 peak?

Well, because housing values have fallen off a cliff – and if you’ve seen a 20% decline in the value of your $300,000 loan, that’s a cool sixty grand you’re in the hole on paper. Also, many folks had to tap 401k plans or savings to get through lean times due to a job loss. Lastly, while many savvy investors bought the bottom of the market in 2009 many others panicked and headed for the hills – or were left holding the bag on Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, AIG, Citigroup, GM or a host of other investments that could have crippled even a diversified portfolio.

Like the unemployment picture, a family’s rainy day fund or retirement nest egg can’t be replaced overnight. But unfortunately for Obama there is no wiggle room in the question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Considering that the worst of the financial crisis came to roost in 2009 via staggering unemployment and foreclosure trends, the answer for many voters will be a decided “no.”

U.S. Debt

If you look at any line graph representing U.S. debts, you’ll notice that the gut-wrenching climb started about 30 years ago – and aside from a tiny dip in the early 2000s, the trend has been steadily upwards year after year.

This is not President Obama’s fault. But it is now his problem.

However well-meaning the healthcare legislation was and however effective it would be in reducing costs over the next several years, it was poorly timed. Expanding government’s reach at the very moment America acknowledged how bloated federal spending has become was unwise. The immediate $787 stimulus can at least be defended with estimates of jobs and platitudes about how it was an immediate reaction to an emergency. No such luck with the slow-starting healthcare legislation.

What’s more, while I fully believe that tax increases will be a necessary part of balancing the budget and tackling our enormous debt, Obama’s suggestion of taxing higher earners alongside his spending efforts conveniently paints him as that old cliché of a tax-and-spend liberal.

Unfair? Incomplete? Sure. But that’s how elections are decided.

Gas Prices

Inflation could very well move from boring economic theory to serious campaign issue in the coming months. Most Americans don’t need an MBA to understand that food is costing more and coming in smaller packages , TVs and electronics aren’t as affordable as several months ago — but wages have remained pretty stagnant. In fact, in the last consumer price index report the real hourly wage was reported at November 2009 levels — despite a headline inflation number of about 2%.

Oil, and more specifically gasoline, is the biggest inflation story right now and could be even bigger in the run-up to Election Day.

Picture this TV ad in September of 2012 – first, signs of $4 gas prices in 2008 and soundbites of citizens complaining on the local news. Then, fade in video of $4 gas prices in 2012 and similar comments from select voters who take shots at the president.

Powerful stuff, eh? Anyone who needs strategists or campaign advisors for the upcoming election, contact me via information below.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks or funds named here. Write him at editor@investorplace.com, follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Dos Equis on April 18, 2011, 12:21:43 PM
Mons Venus has been banished to the Alpha Board.   :)
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2011, 01:08:42 PM
HERE COMES INFLATION
DickMorris.com ^ | 4/18/2011 | Dick Morris and Eileen McGann




In our book Revolt!, we warn that inflation may well be the dominant legacy of the Obama presidency. While he had Bush’s help in creating high unemployment, he has driven us into inflation all on his own.

The latest data indicates that prices soared in March at an annual rate of 6.5 percent, by far the highest increase in decades. Half of the increase was in energy prices and one half point in higher food costs. While the Federal Reserve Board focuses on the “core” inflation rate, that excludes these volatile items, American consumers dip into the same pocketbook to pay for food and fuel that they use to pay other prices.

And there is little likelihood of any leveling off of the prices of either food or fuel. The former is driven by the use of food for energy, diverting corn and other food crops from nutritional use. The later is animated by the instability in the Middle East and North Africa, an international crisis that is likely to worsen in the coming year. Indeed, should the disease that has brought down regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen and is fighting to topple them in Bahrain, Syria, and Libya spreads further into Saudi Arabia, we could face huge increases in energy costs.

And don’t forget the likely upward pressure on interest rates. The Fed is likely to end its QE-2 (quantitative easing 2) program in June. No longer will it buy mortgage backed and Treasury securities from banks into order to pump more money into the system. Once the printing press stops, the Treasury will have to start borrowing real money from real lenders and pay real interest. It will no longer be able to borrow back the money the Fed prints at nominal interest rates. With Washington needing to borrow $40 billion a week to finance its deficit, the upward pressure on interest rates will be severe.

Then, there are health insurance costs. With the onset of the requirements of Obamacare, the increase in premiums has averaged twenty percent, further raising costs of business.

Faced with these increases in fixed costs, businesses will have to raise prices. But nobody will be able to pay them because the economy is terrible. That will trigger a loss of customers and ever higher prices to make up the gap. This stagflation cycle is now upon us and will wipe out any gains that the so-called recovery may offer.

Annual inflation of 6.5% is just the beginning, just like $5 gas is just the beginning. The inflationary forces Obama has unleashed by his record deficits and his virtual tripling of the money supply will batter the economy with a violence that will make his re-election impossible.

The storm is just starting.


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 19, 2011, 05:19:43 AM

April 19, 2011
It's All Coming Apart
By Monty Pelerin



________________________ _________________



Despite Government propaganda and manipulated statistics to the contrary, our economy continues to deteriorate.  For every "green shoot" highlighted by the Government and its lackey media, multiple contra-examples are cited by independent analysts.


To continue to deny reality risks credibility.  Perhaps that is why S&P, arguably a sock-puppet of Wall Street, on Monday made its announcement regarding the financial condition of the US.  As reported by the Wall Street Journal:


Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Inc. cut its outlook on the U.S. to negative, increasing the likelihood of a potential downgrade from its triple-A rating, as the path from large budget deficits and rising government debt remains unclear.


Fitch and Moody's have not yet seen fit to change their ratings.  Preservation of the little credibility the ratings agencies have left will force them to follow in the course of time.


The S&P judgment was as unexpected as a terminally-diagnosed patient finally reaching his final destination.  Reaction by the political class to the "death" is likely to be characterized by the Claude Rains gambit: "I'm shocked, shocked!"  How could anyone have seen this coming?  Actually, the only surprise is why S&P waited so long to report on the obvious and why it didn't also remove the Triple A credit-rating of US debt.  That downgrade of debt will follow eventually.  Apparently S&P doesn't want to pronounce a corpse dead until it is put into the ground.


Some believe the timing of the S&P announcement was related to the upcoming political battle over the US debt ceiling.  Monday's Dow was crashing, at one point down over 240 points.  If markets are so easily rattled, the thought is one must raise the debt ceiling.  Perhaps that played into the timing of the announcement, yet in a rational world this announcement should make it harder to raise the debt limit.  After all, it is debt that is causing the grief.  Why would more of it be considered prudent? 


Economic damage over the last several decades is structural, yet decision-makers continue to treat the problem as a normal, albeit severe, economic cycle.  The US economy and many other world economies are in a debt death spiral.  That is showing up in numerous places.  On Monday, yields on two-year Greek bonds exceeded 20%.  Greece and Ireland reiterated that they want no bailout.  Changes in the Finnish government may make it harder to push through a Portugal bailout.


European "bailouts" are charades of the first order.  They merely move problems from sick countries to healthy ones, jeopardizing the survival of the Eurozone.


Academic economists fiddle with models and assumptions, looking desperately for something that will enable them to rationalize the situation.  Ironically, it was John Maynard Keynes himself who said:


The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.


The irony is that it is Keynes' ideas that are responsible for the economic mess.  He is the defunct economist he warned about.  The average man in the street understands clearly the problem -- It's the debt, Stupid!  He has an advantage over most economists who have been educated beyond their level of competence.


Academic economic nostrums are ill-equipped to deal with this problem.  Structural debt problems are not part of their model.  As a result Keynesians prescribe more spending (and more debt), further poisoning the economic patient.  These economic charlatans know no other medicine.


In the meantime we spiral downward as life slowly ebbs from the economy.  There is no way out except to recognize the level of debt is not supportable.  Excess debt must be liquidated in order for the economy to recover.  That requires pay-downs and defaults, not bailouts.  There will be lots and lots of defaults.  There is no other way.


Instead, the political class and their economic epigones insist on treating the problem as just another cyclical event.  Easy money, stimulus and all the other Keynesian nostrums are useless.  They are what brought us to this point.


Massive amounts of debt must be liquidated.  But confidence also must be restored.  Doug Casey characterizes our economic climate thusly:


We are in a financial no-man's land.  "Investing" is problematic because of a deteriorating economy, unpredictable and increasing regulation, rising interest rates and wildly fluctuating prices.


Mr. Casey's negatives are enough to stop business investing, hiring, and growth dead in their tracks.


Contrary to the way that economics is taught, there is no such thing as an economic machine where a "pump can be primed" or the economy can be "stimulated."  All there are millions of individuals all making decisions designed to enable them to navigate through life. For most, their primary objective is the financial and physical security of themselves and their families.  In scary economic times, these decisions are affected.


In order to right the economy, the fear and uncertainty imposed by existing and future government mandates and actions alluded to by Mr. Casey must be removed.  Doing so will not be easy, for more is in play than Mr. Casey's short quote suggests.  There are at least five considerations that should be of concern to all of us:


1. An Incompetent President - The President is inexperienced and incompetent.  He is likely a fraud, as evidenced by his guarded and unknown past.  He is incapable of leadership, honesty, or management.  Virtually every one of his policy initiatives has been harmful to the economy and country.  His intentions are clear; the degree to which he will be able to drive us further down the Road to Serfdom is not.

2. An Incompetent Political Class - The political class attained power via Santa Claus economics, providing gifts to constituents in return for votes.  Both parties are guilty.  Politicians have conditioned themselves and their constituents to "free-lunch" governance.  Few know how to govern in any other fashion.  Most are indistinguishable from prostitutes -- vote for me and I will do "that" for you.  Both parties want to preserve the welfare-warfare State, disagreeing merely on the means of doing so.


3. An Incorrect Paradigm - The Keynesian model of spend and spend has been good for politicians but disastrous for the economy.  Over time, it has encouraged loose credit, overspending, and living beyond our means.  The failures are obvious to all but Statists and so-called Keynesian economists.  The political class cannot stop "free lunches" without suffering severe political consequences.  Hence, the abuses will continue until resources are exhausted.  Like Rome of old, we will soon run out of bread and circuses.


4. An Unhappy Ending - Current economic problems cannot be mitigated or solved without incurring another Great Depression.  Whether it is preceded by a deflationary collapse or a hyperinflationary blow-off is moot.  The ending is inevitable and as more people understand this ending, they take more extreme steps to protect themselves -- spending ratchets back, savings increases, and businesses refuse to engage in new investment or hiring.


5. A Dangerous Prelude to the Ending - Government is insolvent.  It would be bankrupt without Federal Reserve Quantitative Easing.  As a cornered, wounded animal will do anything to survive, so will Government.  Does that mean confiscatory tax rates, capital controls, IRA investments forced into Treasury Bonds, "excess profits" taxes, a national sales tax, etc., etc.?  It could mean any or all of these and more.  Government will not roll over.  It will do whatever it can to continue, regardless of how illegal, immoral, unethical, or harmful it may be for the country.


John Maynard Keynes referred to "animal spirits."  Alan Greenspan used the term "irrational exuberance."  Both expressions acknowledged the importance of expectations and anticipations.  The five factors listed above are not universally known or accepted.  As they become more evident, the dismal level of animal spirits and exuberance will sink even lower.  There can be no recovery under such conditions.


The charade that government can solve this problem may continue for a while.  So might the notion that the government cannot go bankrupt.  Yet both beliefs are false and will be seen to be so.  Spending, hiring, and investment will be unresponsive to anything the government may or can do.


The myth of government is breaking down around the world.  For those with 20-20 vision, the Emperor is already seen sans clothes.


Monty Pelerin blogs at www.economicnoise.com.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/its_all_coming_apart.html

 at April 19, 2011 - 07:17:57 AM CDT
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 21, 2011, 08:34:32 AM
403K Initial Claims WorseThan Consensus Again, Down From As Always Upwardly Revised 416K
ZeroHedge ^




As always happens, the BLS revised last week's non-credible mega miss even worse, from 412K to 416K. As for this week, the number will end up being worse than 403K, which is what was reported for this week, to be revised upward to 406K or so next week. This is (and will be) much higher than the expected 390K.

And so Tim Geithner has to start his latest "Welcome to the Recovery - edition 2011" draft from scratch. Continuing claims also were well above expectations, printing 20K over consensus at 3,695K. Last week's number of 3,680K was revised, gee, higher to 3,702K.

And just as importantly those hitting the 99 week cliff seem to be accelerating: those on EUCs dropped 24K, while people on extended benefits declined by 47K. Total number of persons claiming benefits across all programs dropped by 217K in the week ended April 2.

And so the Yen carry trade unwinds once again: the USDJPY just plunged to 81.72.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 21, 2011, 11:39:56 AM
Spike in fuel prices erasing airline profits
Breitbart ^ | 4/21/11 | DAVID KOENIG and JOSHUA FREED




Soaring jet fuel prices are wiping out profits at the nation's biggest airlines.

The world's biggest airline company, United Continental Holdings Inc., said Thursday that it lost $213 million in the first three months of the year after it paid nearly $600 million more for fuel than in the year-ago quarter.

American Airlines posted a $436 million loss. Like other airlines, American uses complex financial transactions to hedge against rising fuel prices. But these hedges only do so much to control the airlines' single biggest cost. Hedging saved American Airlines $100 million in the first quarter, but its fuel bill still rose by $351 million.

Even a profit machine like Southwest Airlines Co., and rival low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., barely rose above break-even after paying to fuel their planes.

The rising costs offset revenue gains that ranged from 9 percent at American to 18 percent at Southwest.


(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: kcballer on April 21, 2011, 11:51:31 AM
5 Economic Issues That Doom Obama to 1 Term
InvestorPlace.com ^ | Apr. 18, 2011 | Jeff Reeves




Though 18 months out, narrative for 2012 elections is already created

As the old phrase about voter sentiment goes, “it’s the economy, stupid.” And like it or lump it, one of the reasons President Obama rode to victory in 2008 was a foot-in-mouth moment from opponent Sen. John McCain during the height of the market meltdown.

That famous gaffe was a quote from McCain that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while the Dow Jones tanked 500-plus points or over 4% in a single day on Sept. 15, 2008.

Whether McCain’s words were taken out of context – the senator claimed he was waxing philosophical about the fundamental strength of the American economy and its workers – is irrelevant. In politics, it’s less about reality and more about what the America people believe and what the media chooses to focus on.

I don’t pretend to know what will happen with the economy or the stock market between now and November 2012. But as a former opinion page editor for a daily newspaper, I’d like to think I have a pretty good sense for the behavior of politicos and the mainstream press. And based on current trends, here are 5 issues I think that are going to be front and center in the coming months as the presidential contest comes into focus.

And as you’ll see, all five of these issues could work decidedly against Obama’s re-election.

The Fed

Personally, I believe that criticism of the Federal Reserve is overdone. Every sane economist agrees that an independent central bank is crucial to a functional economy, though intelligent people can and will disagree about the level of oversight necessary for such an important institution.

But people like to blame someone in hard times, and with the dual mandate of both fighting inflation and fighting unemployment the Fed is the perfect whipping boy. Gasoline prices are soaring and unemployment remains stubbornly high as the sheer enormity of the unemployed means the recent jobs added to payrolls is just a drop in the bucket.

What’s more, voters don’t appreciate nuanced positions. As a friend of mine says, “ The chicken in the middle of the road gets run over.” Ron Paul and his tea party buddies have decisively staked out a position against the Fed – and as long as rhetoric doesn’t spin out of control with promises of a gold standard or legislation demanding the Fed chairman be subject to popular vote, Obama’s opponents have the high ground on this issue.

Unemployment

As I just mentioned, payrolls just can’t grow fast enough to erode the high unemployment rate. Consider that in March, about 216,000 nonfarm jobs were added – and that didn’t even move the needle from an 8.8% jobless rate. If the economy needs to add a million jobs a month to significantly draw down that glaring percentage that so easily fits into headlines and news teasers, Obama is in big trouble.

Logically, it’s not Obama’s fault. From December 2007 to October 2010, a total of 7.5 million jobs were lost in the U.S. The unemployment rate peaked in the summer of 2009 at about 10.6%, the highest since 1983, and the average unemployment rate across that brutal year was the highest average since 1948. That’s a heck of a deck to be playing with.

But we are a nation of fast food, short attention spans and instant gratification. Heck, four years ago the iPhone didn’t even exist! One presidential term is a lifetime to an electorate, and a lack of progress will be seen as a failure no matter how rough the situation was when the incumbent took office.

Family Finances

The average American consumer is poorer because of the financial crisis, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve. How can this be, considering the market is off only about -13% from its 2007 peak?

Well, because housing values have fallen off a cliff – and if you’ve seen a 20% decline in the value of your $300,000 loan, that’s a cool sixty grand you’re in the hole on paper. Also, many folks had to tap 401k plans or savings to get through lean times due to a job loss. Lastly, while many savvy investors bought the bottom of the market in 2009 many others panicked and headed for the hills – or were left holding the bag on Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, AIG, Citigroup, GM or a host of other investments that could have crippled even a diversified portfolio.

Like the unemployment picture, a family’s rainy day fund or retirement nest egg can’t be replaced overnight. But unfortunately for Obama there is no wiggle room in the question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Considering that the worst of the financial crisis came to roost in 2009 via staggering unemployment and foreclosure trends, the answer for many voters will be a decided “no.”

U.S. Debt

If you look at any line graph representing U.S. debts, you’ll notice that the gut-wrenching climb started about 30 years ago – and aside from a tiny dip in the early 2000s, the trend has been steadily upwards year after year.

This is not President Obama’s fault. But it is now his problem.

However well-meaning the healthcare legislation was and however effective it would be in reducing costs over the next several years, it was poorly timed. Expanding government’s reach at the very moment America acknowledged how bloated federal spending has become was unwise. The immediate $787 stimulus can at least be defended with estimates of jobs and platitudes about how it was an immediate reaction to an emergency. No such luck with the slow-starting healthcare legislation.

What’s more, while I fully believe that tax increases will be a necessary part of balancing the budget and tackling our enormous debt, Obama’s suggestion of taxing higher earners alongside his spending efforts conveniently paints him as that old cliché of a tax-and-spend liberal.

Unfair? Incomplete? Sure. But that’s how elections are decided.

Gas Prices

Inflation could very well move from boring economic theory to serious campaign issue in the coming months. Most Americans don’t need an MBA to understand that food is costing more and coming in smaller packages , TVs and electronics aren’t as affordable as several months ago — but wages have remained pretty stagnant. In fact, in the last consumer price index report the real hourly wage was reported at November 2009 levels — despite a headline inflation number of about 2%.

Oil, and more specifically gasoline, is the biggest inflation story right now and could be even bigger in the run-up to Election Day.

Picture this TV ad in September of 2012 – first, signs of $4 gas prices in 2008 and soundbites of citizens complaining on the local news. Then, fade in video of $4 gas prices in 2012 and similar comments from select voters who take shots at the president.

Powerful stuff, eh? Anyone who needs strategists or campaign advisors for the upcoming election, contact me via information below.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks or funds named here. Write him at editor@investorplace.com, follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.



Nice you posted an Obama apologist as you would call it
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 22, 2011, 05:03:26 AM
Nation’s Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows
New York Times ^ | 4/21/11 | JIM RUTENBERG and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN




Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. At a time of rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone. Capturing what appears to be an abrupt change in attitude, the survey shows that the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse has jumped 13 percentage points in just one month. Though there have been encouraging signs of renewed growth since last fall, many economists are having second thoughts, warning that the pace of expansion might not be fast enough to create significant numbers of new jobs. The dour public mood is dragging down ratings for both parties in Congress and for President Obama, the poll found.


(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 22, 2011, 05:20:59 AM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a977da0-6bfd-11e0-b36e-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1KFnIr8aR



Dollar plunges to 2½-year low
By Peter Garnham


Published: April 21 2011 12:30 | Last updated: April 21 2011 12:30

The dollar dropped to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years on Thursday as buoyant risk appetite prompted investors to sell the currency to fund carry trades.

Analysts said robust corporate earnings figures had boosted hopes over global growth, while the prospect that US interest rates would remain at ultra-low levels was fuelling demand for carry trades, in which low-yielding currencies such as the dollar are sold to finance the purchase of riskier, higher-yielding assets elsewhere.

Market rumour that the People’s Bank of China was poised to implement of substantial, one-off revaluation of the renminbi also weighed on the US currency.

The dollar index, which tracks its progress against a basket of six leading currencies, fell 0.8 per cent to 73.785, its weakest level since August 2008. Traders said the stage could now be set for the index to target the record low of 70.698 it hit in March 2008.

The dollar also dropped 0.9 per cent to a 16-month low of $1.4641 against the euro, fell 1 per cent to a 16-month trough of $1.6560 against the pound, lost 0.8 per cent to a record low of SFr0.8817 against the Swiss franc and plunged 0.7 per cent lower to Y81.93 against the yen.

The Australian dollar, which with its relatively high yield and commodity-linked status has been a favourite target for carry trade investors, surged to a fresh 29-year high against the dollar, rising 0.6 per cent to $1.0758.

Lee Hardman at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said dollar weakness continued to be mainly driven by widening expectations of monetary policy divergence between the Federal Reserve and other major central banks.

He said the downgrade of the outlook of US sovereign debt by rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Monday had reinforced this dynamic by increasing expectations that the Fed would have to keep interest rates at ultra-low levels for longer to offset the negative impact from the expected fiscal tightening.

Mr Hardman added, however, that while near-term concerns over monetary policy divergence and heightened US fiscal concerns were genuine, he believed there was a strong case that current dollar weakness was overextending.

“With market liquidity thinning heading into the Easter holidays, it provides the ideal conditions for a dollar undershoot relative to fundamentals,” he said.

“Indeed, while there is a notable risk that the near-term dollar sell-off extends further, it appears only a matter before a correction takes place.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2011, 06:26:36 AM

April 25, 2011, 8:57 a.m. EDT
IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end
Commentary: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=25965F12-6D1A-11E0-8CAB-00212804637C





BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.


The Obama deficit tour

The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore critiques the president's speeches attacking Republican budget plans.
And it’s a lot closer than you may think.

According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.

Put that in your calendar.

It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power.

According to the IMF forecast, whoever is elected U.S. president next year — Obama? Mitt Romney? Donald Trump? — will be the last to preside over the world’s largest economy.

Most people aren’t prepared for this. They aren’t even aware it’s that close. Listen to experts of various stripes and they will tell you this moment is decades away. The most bearish will put the figure in the mid-2020s.



 
China’s economy will be the world’s largest within five years or so.

But they’re miscounting. They’re only comparing the gross domestic products of the two countries using current exchange rates.

That’s a largely meaningless comparison in real terms. Exchange rates change quickly. And China’s exchange rates are phony. China artificially undervalues its currency, the renminbi, through massive intervention in the markets.

The comparison that really matters
The IMF in its analysis looks beyond exchange rates to the true, real terms picture of the economies using “purchasing power parities.” That compares what people earn and spend in real terms in their domestic economies.

Under PPP, the Chinese economy will expand from $11.2 trillion this year to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile the U.S. economy will rise from $15.2 trillion to $18.8 trillion. That would take America’s share of the world output down to 17.7%, the lowest in modern times. China’s would reach 18%, and is rising.

Just 10 years ago, the U.S. economy was three times the size of China’s.

Naturally, all forecasts are fallible. Time and chance happen to them all. The actual date when China surpasses the U.S. might come even earlier than the IMF predicts, or somewhat later. If the great Chinese juggernaut blows a tire, as a growing number fear it might, it could even delay things by several years. But the outcome is scarcely in doubt.

This is more than a statistical story. It is the end of the Age of America. As a bond strategist in Europe told me two weeks ago, “We are witnessing the end of America’s economic hegemony.”

We have lived in a world dominated by the U.S. for so long that there is no longer anyone alive who remembers anything else. America overtook Great Britain as the world’s leading economic power in the 1890s and never looked back.

And both those countries live under very similar rules of constitutional government, respect for civil liberties and the rights of property. China has none of those. The Age of China will feel very different.

Victor Cha, senior advisor on Asian affairs at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me China’s neighbors in Asia are already waking up to the dangers. “The region is overwhelmingly looking to the U.S. in a way that it hasn’t done in the past,” he said. “They see the U.S. as a counterweight to China. They also see American hegemony over the last half century as fairly benign. In China they see the rise of an economic power that is not benevolent, that can be predatory. They don’t see it as a benign hegemony.”

The rise of China, and the relative decline of America, is the biggest story of our time. You can see its implications everywhere, from shuttered factories in the Midwest to soaring costs of oil and other commodities. Last fall, when I attended a conference in London about agricultural investment, I was struck by the number of people there who told stories about Chinese interests snapping up farmland and food stuff supplies — from South America to China and elsewhere.

This is the result of decades during which China has successfully pursued economic policies aimed at national expansion and power, while the U.S. has embraced either free trade or, for want of a better term, economic appeasement.

“There are two systems in collision,” said Ralph Gomory, research professor at NYU’s Stern business school. “They have a state-guided form of capitalism, and we have a much freer former of capitalism.” What we have seen, he said, is “a massive shift in capability from the U.S. to China. What we have done is traded jobs for profit. The jobs have moved to China. The capability erodes in the US and grows in China. That’s very destructive. That is a big reason why the U.S. is becoming more and more polarized between a small, very rich class and an eroding middle class. The people who get the profits are very different from the people who lost the wages.”

The next chapter of the story is just beginning.

U.S. spending spree won’t work
What the rise of China means for defense, and international affairs, has barely been touched on. The U.S. is now spending gigantic sums — from a beleaguered economy — to try to maintain its place in the sun. Pentagon spending is budget blind spot .

It’s a lesson we could learn more cheaply from the sad story of the British, Spanish and other empires. It doesn’t work. You can’t stay on top if your economy doesn’t.

Equally to the point here is what this means economically, and for investors.

Some years ago I was having lunch with the smartest investor I know, London-based hedge fund manager Crispin Odey. He made the argument that markets are reasonably efficient, most of the time, at setting prices. Where they are most likely to fail, though, is in correctly anticipating and pricing big, revolutionary, “paradigm” shifts — whether that be the rise of disruptive technologies or revolutionary changes in geopolitics. We are living through one now.

The U.S. Treasury market continues to operate on the assumption that it will always remain the global benchmark of money. Business schools still teach students, for example, that the interest rate on the 10 Year Treasury bond is the “risk-free rate” on money. And so it has been for more than a century. But that’s all based on the Age of America.

No wonder so many have been buying gold. If the U.S. dollar ceases to be the world’s sole reserve currency, what will be? The euro would be fine if it acts like the old deutschemark. If it’s just the Greek drachma in drag ... not so much.

The last time the world’s dominant hegemon lost its ability to run things single-handed was early in the past century. That’s when the U.S. and Germany surpassed Great Britain. It didn’t turn out well.

Brett Arends is a senior columnist for MarketWatch and a personal-finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2011, 10:03:02 AM
Those Confident That America’s Best Days Lie Ahead Down to 31% (lowest level ever)
Rasmussen Reports ^ | April 25, 2011 | by Scott Rasmussen




~ EXCERPT ~

Voter confidence that the nation’s best days are still to come has fallen to its lowest level ever.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that just 31% believe America’s best days are in the future. That’s down three points from last month and is the lowest result found in polling since late 2006.

Fifty-three percent (53%) believe America’s best days are in the past, also the highest measurement in over four years. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Separate polling finds that only 22% of Likely Voters believe the United States is now heading in the right direction. That ties the lowest level found during Barack Obama’s presidency.


(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: headhuntersix on April 25, 2011, 10:21:48 AM
Hey lefties....exactly when can we blame Obama...when is this mess officially his? See u silly little libs want it both ways...but...either we still all blame Bush and Barry has UTTERLY FAILED at his job or Barry has made things worse and he has UTTERLY FAILED at his job. But ol Barry has had a large margin of error with all his prior "jobs". He sorta showed up while teaching school..he sorta showed up in both the IL and US Congress..but he never did anything. He worked harder to be ingratiate himslef with marxists and anti-americans then he ever has as president. He has failed America. I blame u and I blame him.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2011, 10:24:20 AM
Ha ha ha ha ha - true dat.   


The only thing is that he is not failing - he is winning and succeeding since his goal is to collapse the nation and make us no different than Kenya, piss, shit, puke, vomit, be upon him and his disgusting wife.   

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: headhuntersix on April 25, 2011, 10:28:38 AM
I couldn't resist.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2011, 10:34:53 AM
Obama and his disgusting pofs wife and nothing more than two Katrina/92 LA RIOTS/Crown Heights/ Watts looters and grifters. 

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2011, 01:48:08 PM
The end of the American era? Only another Reagan revolution can save the US superpower
By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: April 25th, 2011

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100084965/the-end-of-the-american-era-only-another-reagan-revolution-can-save-the-us-superpower




 

The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch column this morning has attracted a great deal of attention in the United States, with its report on a bombshell forecast by the IMF (not yet publicly available) that “China’s economy will surpass that of America’s in real terms in 2016 – just five years from now.” The Journal’s Brett Arends notes:

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.

… It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power.

According to the IMF forecast, whomever is elected U.S. president next year — Obama? Mitt Romney? Donald Trump? — will be the last to preside over the world’s largest economy.

Coming just a few days after the warning shot from Standard and Poor’s over America’s debt status, the IMF prediction will be deeply unsettling for many Americans who fear their country is about to be eclipsed in the near term by China, and later this century by India, with their combined population of 2.5 billion people, dwarfing the 300 million who live in the United States. And who can blame them, with the United States facing, as Liam Halligan notes in a terrific piece for The Telegraph today, a federal deficit close to 10 percent of gross domestic product, and entitlement liabilities (including Medicare and Medicaid) of $75,000 billion – five times annual GDP.

And while America’s towering federal debt reaches its highest level since World War Two, the White House appears to be stuck in a state of paralysis and denial, unwilling to confront the biggest economic crisis facing America in the post-war era. As a series of recent polls have shown, there is widespread disillusionment with the Obama administration’s handling of the economy, with a New York Times survey last week showing 70 percent of Americans believing the country is moving down the wrong track.

America has clearly lost its way in recent years, not because the government hasn’t done enough, but because there is too much government interference in the economy, with a significant decline in economic freedom. The big government mentality which has dominated the White House for the better part of the last two decades has acted as a huge brake on American economic growth and competitiveness, stifling job creation and frightening away foreign investment. The United States today has the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world, a surefire recipe for killing economic creativity. US businesses and entrepreneurs require lower taxes, less red tape, and greater freedom to kickstart a moribund economy, not the deadening hand of government.

The US needs a Reagan-style revolution to reverse a poisonous big government mentality that is literally killing a superpower. Fortunately, there are fortunately signs that another political revolution is on its way, with the rise of a new wave of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are serious about dealing with the deficit, reining in government spending, and placing the vision of the Founding Fathers at the heart of policymaking, from Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. And the extraordinary success of the Tea Party movement in the past 18 months has helped ensure that America’s debt crisis has been placed at the centre of the political debate.

Ultimately, the prosperity and success of the United States as an exceptional nation over the past 230 years has rested upon an undying belief in individual liberty and economic freedom, both of which are denied to the people of China, whose current economic growth rests largely on foundations of sand. It is premature to write off America as the world’s dominant superpower, for this is a nation that possesses an extraordinary ability to rebuild itself after periods of decline. It remains a beacon of hope to billions across the world, a “shining city upon a hill” built on the ideals of liberty and freedom, as Reagan reminded the American people before he left office. In the words of the greatest US president of the 20th Century in his farewell address:

The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the “shining city upon a hill.” The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.

… After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 26, 2011, 10:54:45 AM
Consumer Price Inflation On A Diet Of Gold And Wheaties
The Daily Reckoning ^ | 4-26-2011 | Bill Bonner





Consumer Price Inflation On A Diet Of Gold And Wheaties

By Bill Bonner


04/26/11 Baltimore, Maryland – We’ve always wondered why there is so much debate about the rate of inflation. It seems like such a simple thing to track. You go in the store. You buy a box of Wheaties. You write down the price. Next month, you do the same thing. What’s so hard about that?

But what if the box is smaller next month? What if the Wheaties are twice as good? What if you can get the same enjoyment from a box of Wheatie-Puffs at half the price?

What’s the real rate of inflation? It depends on how you figure it. The Labor Department shows consumer price inflation at barely over 2%. John Williams’ ShadowStats puts the figure close to 8%.

We say “close to” and “about” because the numbers are never more than approximations; no point in dressing them up with decimals as though they were precise and reliable.

But comes now MIT University with a project to track prices by monitoring them on the worldwide web. Instead of creating a small sample of prices and checking them periodically, the Billion Prices Project looks at a huge number of prices from all over the web, in real time.

The resulting numbers may not be perfect, but there sure are a lot of them. Using such a huge volume of price information, the Billion Prices Project is probably the most reliable measure of consumer price inflation developed so far.

So, you’re probably wondering… Well, what’s the story? How much consumer price inflation is there?

Over the last 12 months, prices have gone up 3.2%, say professors Alberto Cavallo and Roberto Rigobon, who developed the index.

But get this, the rate of consumer price inflation is speeding up. Annualize the data from the last 3 months and you get 7.4%.

We don’t need to tell you, Dear Reader. If that rate sticks, today’s financial world comes unglued.

By the most recent calculation by the Billion Prices Project, US government bond yields measure only half the rate of consumer price inflation. How could that be? Why would investors buy a bond yielding only half the inflation rate? Are they idiots?

Maybe they are betting that the latest inflation numbers are a fluke. Ben Bernanke said so himself.

“I think the increase in inflation will be transitory,” said the man more responsible for the price hikes than any other living human being.

Mr. Bernanke says gasoline at $4 a gallon…and a box of Wheaties at $5…are features of “global supply and demand conditions.”

Fair enough. Perhaps they are. But what about $1,500 gold? The supply of the yellow metal is barely any greater than it was when it was priced at $1,000 an ounce.

You may say that demand has increased by 50%…but that only introduces a string of other questions. Gold has no uses – other than ornament and money. What happened that would increase demand for it so suddenly? And if something has increased the demand for gold, perhaps that same thing might have affected oil and wheat too.

The feds are insincerely trying to figure it out. They’ve been asked by President Obama himself to look into price increases and report any funny business. Of course, the real funny business is right in plain sight. The Fed has tripled its holdings of private and public debt – and added nearly $2 trillion in extra cash to do it. Most of that money is still frozen in the banking system. But what will happen when things heat up…and it’s multiplied, maybe ten times over? Won’t that cause prices to rise even faster?

Maybe that’s what people are worried about. And to protect themselves, they’re buying tried and true money, traditional money. Because they’re afraid the more modern variety won’t hold up.

“Dollar’s Slide Accelerates,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

As predicted in this space, the feds have failed. Pouring more liquidity onto a saturated marketplace did not work. The economy already had more than enough debt; it didn’t need more.

More debt and dollars did not create a genuine recovery. Instead, they merely drowned millions of ordinary households…

The New York Times has the story:

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve ’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.


But most Americans are not feeling the difference, in part because those benefits have been surprisingly small. The latest estimates from economists, in fact, suggest that the pace of recovery from the global financial crisis has flagged since November, when the Fed started buying $600 billion in Treasury securities to push private dollars into investments that create jobs.


Mr. Bernanke and his supporters say that the purchases have improved economic conditions, all but erasing fears of deflation, a pattern of falling prices that can delay purchases and stall growth. Inflation, which is beneficial in moderation, has climbed closer to healthy levels since the Fed started buying bonds.


“These actions had the expected effects on markets and are thereby providing significant support to job creation and the economy,” Mr. Bernanke said in a February speech, an argument he has repeated frequently.


But growth remains slow, jobs remain scarce, and with the debt purchases scheduled to end in June, the Fed must now decide what comes next.

And now, we’ll make another bold prediction. What happens when the QE2 program expires? Probably nothing…at first. But just wait. The Japanese, as usual, are setting the pace. In the two weeks following the tsunami/nuke crisis, they expanded their central bank balance sheet by two and a half times – adding huge new stockpiles of money for the banking system to draw upon.

The US feds won’t be left behind for long.


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 26, 2011, 01:25:07 PM
Obamaflation Arrives
the american spectator ^ | 4-26-11 | Jeffrey Lord


________________________ ________________________ ______________


President Obama will not be re-elected. Period.

Why?

Obamaflation has arrived, and this is what it looks like.

Milk. A gallon of skim. At the local Giant in Central Pennsylvania:

January 11, 2011: $3.20 February 28, 2011: $3.24 March 6, 2011: $3.34 April 23. 2011: $3.48

That would be a 28 cent rise in a mere 102 days, from January to April of this year. The third year of the Obama misadventure.

Then there's the celery. Same sized bag. Same store.

January 11, 2011: $1.99 a bag. March 6, 2011: $2.49 a bag.

A rise of 50 cents in 54 days.

And the gas price during the administration filled with those who think "drill baby drill" is so yesterday? As one Internet photo had it, the numbers for regular, premium. and diesel were replaced with "LOL," "OMG," and "WTF!" Thus be it to governments who seem not to understand that energy is what makes the economic engine -- and your car -- hum.

What does this mean? It means Barack Obama is not going to be re-elected president of the United States. Period.

[snip]

You can get away with a lot of things as president and blame them on other people. For Obama its George Bush or now the oil companies or also now those evil corporations or… well… yada yada yada. But when average Americans begin to understand that Obamanomics is directly responsible for a 28 cent rise in the price of milk (with over a year and a half to go to the 2012 elections), there is going to be political hell to pay. And the buck, so to speak, stops, as it always does, with the president of the United States.


(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2011, 08:18:10 PM
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Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'
CNNMoney ^ | 4/27/2011
Posted on April 27, 2011 9:58:06 PM EDT by Altura Ct.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.

Wal-Mart's ready to do battle on prices

"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), which averages 140 million shoppers weekly to its stores in the United States, is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy.

To that end, Duke said he's not seeing signs of a recovery yet.

With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics.

Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on April 28, 2011, 06:50:54 AM
First-time unemployment filings head the wrong way



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- First-time filings for unemployment claims jumped last week, coming in above the key 400,000 level for the third straight week, according to a government report Thursday.

The number of initial claims rose to to 429,000 in the week ended Apr. 23, up 25,000 from the week before. It was the highest level in three months, and surprised economists, who were expecting initial claims to drop to 390,000 in the latest report.




hahahaha surprise!  ::)

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on April 28, 2011, 06:52:27 AM
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Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'
CNNMoney ^ | 4/27/2011
Posted on April 27, 2011 9:58:06 PM EDT by Altura Ct.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.

Wal-Mart's ready to do battle on prices

"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), which averages 140 million shoppers weekly to its stores in the United States, is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy.

To that end, Duke said he's not seeing signs of a recovery yet.

With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics.

Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...



Don't worry, the Fed has it's finger on the pulse of the economy. They are on top of it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 10:33:35 AM
April 28, 2011, 12:09 p.m. EDT

The 9 places where inflation is crushing us
Commentary: Meat, gas, even diapers are costing regular folks
By Jeff Reeves



This update corrects the city that has the nation’s highest gas prices, which is Chicago.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Inflation is far from under control and it’s time that Americans demand our government officials do something about it.

The Federal Reserve would have you believe that everything is fine, focusing on core inflation rates and ignoring broader measures of inflation as they affect food and energy. These commodity-driven prices, as our central banking overlords would have you believe, are naturally more volatile and shouldn’t be overstated.


High gas prices could hurt ObamaNeil King looks at whether soaring gas prices will hurt President Obama's chances for reelection in 2012 and how Republicans in Congress are trying to put the blame on Obama for consumers' pain at the pump.
You would think after Fed bureaucrat William Dudley was castigated for talking up the affordability of iPads while ignoring real family expenses, our Federal Reserve officials would have woken up to reality. But after the publicity stunt by Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday, it’s clear that the Fed — and perhaps many Americans as a result — is in denial when it comes to the inflationary trends crippling U.S. households. Read about how the Fed’s reckless policy has created a catastrophic bubble on InvestorPlace.com.

While it’s all well and good for investors to focus on surging precious metals and the profit opportunities there, let’s not overlook the dark side of inflation that is eating away at family budgets. Here are nine crushing costs of inflation that are breaking many American households:

1. Beef
In a revised forecast Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said consumers will see higher price tags on ground beef and steak, projecting 6% to 7% increases year over year. That’s up from a previous forecast of just 4.5% to 5.5% inflation for beef prices. Beef prices have surged in the last several months as supplies shrink, exports boom and grain costs soar.

2. Pork
Don’t think you can just switch from cow to pig to avoid this trend — pork could see retail price increases of as much as 7.5% over 2010 levels according to the USDA.

3. Grains
Even going vegetarian is more expensive than it was a year ago. Corn prices have doubled, from $3.49 a bushel in July to well over $7.70 currently. Wheat prices have rolled back a bit in recent weeks, but topped 2008 highs in February to set a new record and remain very high currently.

4. Gasoline
The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped about 12 cents over the last two weeks to $3.88, with the highest average price for gas tallying $4.27 in Chicago. This is with oil at $112 a barrel — if crude prices reach 2008 peak levels of $145, four bucks for gas may seem cheap.

5. Copper
The price of copper at the end of 2008 was just $1.30 per pound. Currently, copper is trading around $4.30 after setting a record of $4.60 in February. Unlike gold and silver, which are largely used in luxury goods or as investments, copper is used in a wide range of household items — from electrical wiring to air conditioners to water pipes. Read about how gold could hit $5,000 soon on InvestorPlace.com.

6. Diapers
Consumer-products company Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG)  said this week that list prices for Pampers are up 7% on average over last year, with even Pampers wipes up 3%. To be clear, that’s not a retail price hike, just a cost increase to stores. Retailers will decide how much of those price increases to pass along to shoppers. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) , maker of Huggies, said Monday it plans to raise prices for similar reasons — rising costs for the petroleum products and paper pulp that go into the diapers. It will be the third such announcement for Kimberly-Clark since the middle of March.

7. Paper towels and toilet paper
If you don’t have infants, you’re not off the hook. P&G also said that Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels are both listing for 5% more now with retailers and distributors than they were a year ago. KMB’s diaper price update will also be accompanied by a boost for its flagship Kleenex tissues.

8. Shipping surcharges
Freight shipper United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS)   will be hiking its fuel surcharges from 7.5% to 8.5% as of May 2 for ground freight and from 13% to 15% for air freight. That really hurts small businesses. If you are a storekeeper simply trying to keep your shelves stocked, you have no choice but to pay more and endure smaller margins — or hike prices yourself and add to this inflationary mess.

9. Wages
Perhaps the most insidious factor of our current inflationary spiral is the fact that while all these other items are costing more, household purchasing power is shrinking because wages and salaries aren’t keeping up. While the consumer price index rose 2.7% in March to clock the fastest 12-month pace since December 2009, a staggering 18.3% of personal income is now made up of food stamps while wages account for just 50.5%. That’s the lowest since the government started keeping records in 1929. Read about how inflation has helped doomed Obama to just one term on InvestorPlace.com.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he owned a long position in Bank of America stock. Follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 11:49:08 AM
Most Americans say U.S. in recession despite data: poll
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON | Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:47am EDT




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of Americans say the U.S. economy is in a recession or a depression despite official data that show a moderate recovery, according to a poll released on Thursday.

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.

The poll findings have a 4 percentage point margin of error, according to Gallup.

The health of the U.S. economy is expected to be a major issue as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, seeks re-election in 2012.

The government reported on Thursday that U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected to 1.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, as soaring food and gasoline prices drained consumer spending power.

A slowdown in first-quarter growth was acknowledged on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve, which described the U.S. economic recovery as proceeding at a "moderate pace." That was a step back from the "firmer footing" that Fed officials cited for the recovery in March.

The Gallup poll found that Democrats are the most likely to say the economy is growing. Forty-three percent of Democrats said the economy is in a recession or depression, 13 percent said it is slowing down and 42 percent said it is growing.

Sixty-eight percent of Republicans and supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement said the economy is in a recession or a depression. Fourteen percent of Republicans and 13 percent of Tea Party supporters said the economy is growing.

Fifty-seven percent of independent voters -- a crucial segment of the electorate for Obama's re-election bid -- said the economy is in a recession or depression and 24 percent said it is growing
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 11:52:04 AM
Economic growth slows, inflation surges
By Lucia Mutikani Lucia Mutikani – 1 hr 12 mins ago



WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Economic growth braked sharply in the first quarter as higher food and gasoline prices dampened consumer spending and sent inflation rising at its fastest pace in 2-1/2 years.

Another report on Thursday showed a surprise jump in the number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits last week, which could cast a shadow on expectations for a significant pick-up in output in the second quarter.

Growth in gross domestic product slowed to a 1.8 percent annual rate after a 3.1 percent fourth-quarter pace, the Commerce Department said. Economists had expected a 2 percent pace.

With much of the pull back traced back to sharp cuts in defense spending and harsh winter weather, analysts were hopeful the economy would regain speed in the second quarter. The drop in defense spending was seen as temporary.

"Growth was disappointing given the momentum of the economy heading into the year. We are still of the belief that the economy will improve out of the soft patch through this quarter into the second half of the year," said Brian Levitt, an economist at OppenheimerFunds in New York.

Economists were encouraged that details of the report, in particular consumer spending and business outlays on software and equipment, were not as weak as they had feared and said this suggested a foundation for stronger growth was in place.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

LABOR MARKET WEAKNESS?

While a 25,000 rise in claims for state jobless benefits to 429,000 last week hinted at some weakening in the labor market, analysts cautioned against reading too much into gain. They said severe weather in some parts of the country and the Easter holiday could have distorted the figure.

Still, the data suggested improvements in the labor market were still only coming grudgingly.

"The underlying downtrend in initial claims that had been in place since late last year has flattened out," said Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. But he added: "It seems a little too early to suggest that the underlying pace of layoffs has picked up."

Hiring accelerated in March and a report next week is expected to show job creation remained relatively robust in April.

MODERATE PACE

Prices for U.S. government debt rose after the data, while stocks edged lower. The weak GDP report and the Federal Reserve's stated commitment to a loose monetary policy stance after a two-day meeting on Wednesday kept the dollar near a three-year low against a basket of currencies.

The Fed on Wednesday trimmed its growth estimate for 2011 to between 3.1 and 3.3 percent from a 3.4 to 3.9 percent January projection.

Some economists felt the U.S. central bank's estimates might be a little optimistic, given the poor start to the year even though most agreed growth would soon strengthen.

Optimism the economy would find a firmer footing in the second quarter was bolstered by a report showing pending sales of previously owned homes rose 5.1 percent in March. Housing is struggling to recover and is one of the headwinds facing the economy.

Growth in the first quarter was curtailed by a sharp pull back in consumer spending, which expanded at a rate of 2.7 percent after a strong 4 percent rise in the fourth quarter.

Rising commodity prices meant consumers had less money to spend on other items. Gasoline prices remain a concern, even though they are expected to stabilize somewhat.

INFLATION RISING

The GDP report underscored the pain that strong food and gasoline prices are inflicting on households.

A inflation gauge contained in the report rose at a 3.8 percent rate -- the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2008 -- after increasing 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter.

A core price gauge, which excludes food and energy costs, accelerated to a 1.5 percent rate -- the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2009 -- from 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter. The core gauge is closely watched by Fed officials, who would like to see it closer to 2 percent.

In the first quarter, restocking by businesses picked up, with inventories increasing $43.8 billion after a $16.2 billion rise in the fourth quarter. However, the buildup was less than economists had expected and some said they looked for further inventory building to bolster growth in the second quarter.

Inventories added 0.93 percentage point to first-quarter GDP growth. Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a pedestrian 0.8 percent pace after a brisk 6.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter.

Business spending on equipment and software gained pace, but government spending suffered its deepest contraction since the fourth quarter of 1983.

Home building made no contribution, while investment in nonresidential structures dropped at its quickest pace since the fourth quarter of 2009, likely the result of bad weather.

(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

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Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: MCWAY on April 28, 2011, 12:03:06 PM
Hmmm....mmmm....mmmmmm!!!

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 12:07:15 PM
Those poor idiot kids have no clue the damage being done to them with this crazy spenduing and WTF monetary/currency policy. 


FFFFUUUUBBBOOOOO, piss and shit be upon you!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 12:26:13 PM
Obama Inflation OVER 15% Annual Rate, Gasoline On Way to $5/gallon: Wagging the Birth Certificate
Bloggers & Personal ^ | 28 Apr 11 | Xzins





If you think prices are rising all around you on everything, then you are correct.

Inflation rose in the first quarter at the fastest pace in over two years.

The personal consumption expenditure index rose 3.8% in the first quarter, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2008. Over the past year, the index is up 1.6%.


The core personal consumption index, excluding volatile energy and food prices, rose 1.5% in the first quarter, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2009. Wall Street Journal Market Watch, 28 Apr 11


Driving to, and walking through the aisles of the grocery store last week, I saw it everywhere. Meat, bread, milk, snacks...and definitely Gasoline…everything up higher.

And while Obamanomics tries to hide behind their "core" rate that excludes everything real people live on, even that was at a much higher rate of 6% annual inflation. So, the best face that can be placed on this is that everything else is soaring at 6% inflation, the everyday consumption of Americans is in the stratospheric Jimmy Carter level of 15%+.

That's why it seems that even the fewest of items placed in a shopping cart anymore total to $100+ dollars.

Who is the culprit?

1. The government is printing money faster than the NY Times produces newsprint. When playing Monopoly, if you bring in five extra games' worth of money to the board, then everyone starts bidding higher and higher on houses and hotels. Why? Because there's so much more cash and that makes each play money dollar worth less in purchasing power. America is playing with play money. Part of the price increase is caused by sellers not wanting to get stuck selling something for a dollar that’s been getting worth less and less for a couple years now.

2. Oil. Everything runs on oil and this administration refuses to let anyone drill for more. With the inflation mentioned at #1, the insistence that there be no drilling drives the price of fuel through the roof. Everyone has to account for this huge new expense. Who can fault truckers, chemical companies, and industry for passing on their costs? I can't. Already over $4 a gallon, Obama gas prices are being manipulated to $5+ by summer's end. (And manipulated back down by election time?)

3. Manipulation. Barack Obama has an incoherent foreign policy that encourages speculation. He has an incoherent economic policy that encourages financial hesitation, and thereby, joblessness. He has an incomprehensible drilling, mining, and manufacturing policy that discourages development.

One can only assume that there's some reason that Barack Obama's so-called incompetence, whether through a drilling moratorium or through a haphazard foreign policy, always benefits OPEC, China, internationalist interests, or the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama might rail against speculators, but he has created a boom time for them with all the uncertainty he has brought about. It’s almost as if he has the interests of speculators (or just a certain group of them?) at heart. Even though he blames them, they, and their financial partners, or their handlers, keep laughing all the way to the bank.


The bottom line: if common folk can see this as crazy, that this manipulation tends to benefit certain entities and penalize others, then the pattern begins to look like the truth after a while. The statistical pattern says that OPEC, primarily Arab Oil, has benefitted tremendously. It’s almost as if he really did bow toward Abdullah.


Is Obama manipulating on purpose?


Does he really WANT higher prices?


The track record says YES.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: garebear on April 28, 2011, 12:28:43 PM
Home sales fell 9.6 pct. in February (Median home price hit 9-year low)
AP via Yahoo Finance ^ | 3/21/2011 | Derek Kravitz




WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fewer Americans bought previously occupied homes in February and those who did purchased them at steep discounts. The weak sales and rise in foreclosures pushed home prices down to their lowest level in nearly 9 years.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million. That's down 9.6 percent from 5.4 million in January. The pace is far below the 6 million homes a year that economists say represents a healthy market.

Nearly 40 percent of the sales last month were either foreclosures or short sales, when the seller accepts less than they owe on the mortgage.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...

Have you ever considered using your law expertise as a platform to run for office?
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 12:29:51 PM
I live in the Bronx.   Unless you are a communist leftist maggot like obama - you dont get elected here.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 12:38:17 PM
By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Public disapproval of President Barack Obama's handling of the economy reached a new high in mid-April, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll, as gasoline prices neared $4 a gallon and Washington lawmakers fought a bitter battle over the federal budget.

Some 57 percent of registered voters said they disapproved of Obama's economic management, while only 40 percent approved. That's the lowest score of his presidency.

"These numbers spell political trouble," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey. "To get re-elected with a 57 percent disapproval rating would be a very tall order."

Meanwhile, public pessimism is growing: Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults said they thought the worst was yet to come for the U.S economy, up sharply from 39 percent in January. And 71 percent said the nation was still in a recession, even though the slump, which began in December 2007, officially ended in June 2009.

The survey asked 1,084 registered voters about Obama on April 10-14. The error margin is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"Gasoline prices were taking off, and while people weren't blaming Obama or Congress for that, it certainly put people in a sour mood," Miringoff said.

Obama gave a major speech April 13 in which he laid out his economic and budget agenda in general terms. But his speech didn't change many voters' attitudes. Before the address, 58 percent disapproved of his handling of the economy; after the speech, the negative number dropped to 56 percent. Approval was 40 percent before the address, 41 percent after.

Political analysts generally regard economic conditions as a predictor of upcoming elections. Troubling signs abound. The nation's unemployment rate last month was 8.8 percent, down 1 percentage point from November but still high. The Consumer Price Index, which measures the prices of goods and services, climbed 0.5 percent last month, as gasoline prices rose for the ninth straight month.

Obama could take solace from one finding: Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said the current economic conditions were mostly something the president had inherited, while 30 percent said they were mostly the result of his policies.

Miringoff called that data "a silver lining," but added, "It's hard to paint a rosy picture" of the public's attitude toward Obama on the economy.

ON THE WEB


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/27/112900/poll-obama-is-losing-publics-confidence.html#ixzz1KqfFpn7N

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 12:43:07 PM
Dollar Loses More Ground [Don't look now, but.....Dollar Death Accelerating]
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 04/28/2011 | STEPHEN L. BERNARD




Dollar Loses More Ground. NEW YORK—The dollar dropped after economic indicators pointed to a dismal employment picture and slowing economic growth. The dollar has been hammered recently, losing out on interest-rate differentials and regularly hitting multiyear lows against other major currencies. Losses were especially bad Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank is far from tightening monetary policy as economic growth remains slow and unemployment remains high.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 01:00:18 PM
Pa.-based Acme to lay off 900 workers in 4 states
Lebanon (PA) Daily News ^ | April 28, 2011 | AP Staff




Acme Markets says it's laying off 900 workers at its stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The company, which has about 14,000 employees at its 117 stores, says the layoffs will take effect May 7 and affect part-time workers, mostly those who work 12 to 16 hours a week.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the decision comes two weeks after Acme's parent company, Minnesota-based Supervalu, reported that sales in the last quarter fell once again at its supermarket chains in the Northeast.

Dan Sanders, president of Malvern-based Acme, said in a statement that the company needed to take the action because it has more associates than it needs for the current level of sales.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2011, 01:04:27 PM
Don't Mean To Be Rude, But The Economy Sucks
Henry Blodget | Apr. 28, 2011, 11:11 AM
www.businessinsider.com




The past couple of months, a disconnect has developed between the perception of the US economy and the reality.

The perception is that everything's just fine: The continuation of a solid if unspectacular recovery that began in the summer of 2009. Stocks continue to rise. Corporate profits continue to boom. The unemployment rate continues to tick down. Wall Street continues to coin money.

But the reality is that the recovery has never been strong and that many key metrics have recently turned south--despite the fact that the government still has its foot stomped on the stimulus gas.

What metrics have turned south?

Well, first and foremost, GDP growth.

We learned this morning that the economy grew at a pathetic 1.8% in Q1. That's way below the 3%-4% rate that most economists consider normal. And it's miles below the 5%-7% growth that normally follows a recession as sharp and severe as the one we just had.

Meanwhile, the Fed still has interest rates parked at zero, and is still conducting emergency stimulus measures like QE2. And the government's huge stimulus package from 2009 is still driving spending. And we're still spending an absolutely mind-boggling ~$1.5 trillion per year more than we take in (federal deficit)--and piling up humongous debts in the process. And, needless to say, none of this spending--"stimulus" or just normal spending we can't afford--has produced the desired private-sector growth.

1.8% GDP growth in the face of massive stimulus is the equivalent of your car sputtering down the highway at 45 miles per hour while you have the gas pedal floored. You might be glad that the car hasn't broken down completely, but you certainly won't conclude that all is well. And you also might conclude--wisely--that if 45 is the best you can do with the gas pedal floored, things may be about to get a whole lot worse.

And it's not just growth that blows.

In the past few weeks, initial jobless claims have ticked back above 400,000 per week, considerably higher than economists expected. Jobless claims above 400,000 are generally considered a sign of a contracting job market, not a growing one. If the recent jobless claims trends continue, the monthly jobs figures may soon go from "okay, not great" to downright lousy again.

And then there's the unemployment rate. It's still almost 9%! Imagine if, back in 2007, someone had told you that in 2011 the unemployment rate would be 9% and that some folks would consider that encouraging. You'd have dismissed them as a flat-earther or Armageddonist. But here we are.

What else?

House prices are falling again--so quickly that, in many parts of the country, they're now setting new post-bubble lows.  Remember all the hand-wringing two years ago about how the economy would never really recover until we got a floor in house prices--and, therefore, how the government had to do everything possible to put a floor under house prices? Well, now the government appears to have given up. (And that's actually a good thing, because there's no government price intervention in history that we know of that has permanently prevented prices from reverting to the level the market will support. Governments can delay the inevitable, but they can't prevent it. And house prices are still "expensive" on a historical basis.)

Inflation is taking hold. As anyone who actually buys things knows, things cost a lot more than they did a little while ago. Things like gas (double the price of a couple of years ago, up nearly 40% this year alone), food, rent, healthcare, insurance premiums, and so on.  (Yes, houses are getting cheaper, but most people don't have to buy houses.) Ben Bernanke can talk until he's blue in the face about how there's no inflation, or shouldn't be because of the "slack" in the system, but people who actually buy things know better.  A rise in inflation means that you'll start hearing the word "stagflation" quite frequently. The word "stagflation" is not a happy word. It's the word that characterized the 1970s: Crappy economic growth combined with wild inflation.  Stagflation destroys savers and those who lived on fixed incomes (many retirees). It also punishes anyone trying to run a business. And it's hell on stock prices.

Corporate profit margins are at near-record highs, but this party may finally be over.  This morning, Procter & Gamble said that their margins are getting slammed by rising commodity prices. Like most companies, P&G will presumably try to pass these costs through to the rest of us, but given high unemployment, huge debt burdens, and crappy wage growth, it's unlikely that consumers will swallow them. So corporate profit margins, which have helped levitate the stock market for the past two years, may finally begin to compress. (Which, by the way, they always do--despite all the great arguments about why it's "different this time.")

Anything else? Yes, there are other things, too.

But the bottom line is, the economic recovery is not going well. It's going badly. And the recent signs suggest that it may be about to get worse--just as the Fed's latest emergency stimulus measure (QE2) begins to run out.

See Also: 10 Signs The Economy Is Slowing >
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 05:35:40 AM
IBD Editorials Sponsored by:
. Editorial: A Tale Of Two Recessions And Two Presidents
 
Posted 04/28/2011 07:10 PM ET
 




Growth: It's been nearly two full years since the recession officially ended, and the economy is still struggling to get off the ground. It didn't have to be this way.

When the Commerce Department released its estimate for first-quarter growth — a meager 1.8% — President Obama's chief economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, at least conceded that "faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn."

And granted, the economy needs to expand by at least 2.5% just to keep up with growth in the labor force. So at 1.8%, we're essentially losing ground, a fact that last week's 429,000 initial jobless claims underscores. But what Goolsbee didn't acknowledge is that the economy could be growing at a much faster rate, and would be if it weren't saddled with Obama's reckless policies.

How do we know this? Compare the two worst post-World War II recessions. Both the 1981-82 and the 2007-09 downturns were long (16 months and 18 months, respectively) and painful (unemployment peaked at 10.8% in 1981-82 and 10.1% in the last one).

What's dramatically different, however, is how each president responded.

Obama massively increased spending, vastly expanded the regulatory state, and pushed through a government takeover of health care. What's more, he constantly browbeats industry leaders, talks about the failings of the marketplace and endlessly advocates higher taxes on the most productive parts of the economy.

In contrast, Reagan pushed spending restraint, deregulated entire industries, massively cut taxes and waxed poetic about the wonders of a free economy.

The result? While the Reagan recovery saw turbocharged growth and a tumbling unemployment rate, Obama's has produced neither. Consider:

• GDP. In the seven quarters after the 1981-82 recession ended, the economy cranked out quarterly growth rates that averaged 7.1%. Under Obama, GDP growth has averaged a mere 2.8%. (See chart at right.)

• Unemployment. Under Reagan, the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.5% by this point in the recovery. Under Obama, it's still stuck at 8.8%.

• Long-term unemployment. There were far fewer long-term unemployed by this point in the Reagan recovery; just 18% of the unemployed had been without a job 27 weeks or more. Under Obama, that figure is an astonishing 45%.

• Consumer confidence. By this point in the Reagan recovery, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index had hit 100. Today, the index stands at just 65.4.

• Deficits. Under Reagan, the federal deficit was trimmed to 4.8% of GDP by 1984. Under Obama, the deficit is expected to climb to 10.9% of GDP this year.

Obama and his defenders like to say he inherited the worst downturn since the Great Depression and that things would have been worse still had he not acted. But the recession was almost over by the time he took office — and officially over just six months after that.

So while Obama's policies had little to do with bringing an end to the Great Recession, they've had everything to do with producing what is by far the worst economic recovery in the past 70 years.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 05:36:19 AM
 :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 06:11:49 AM
Losing Faith (In The U.S. Economy)
TEC ^ | 4-29-2011



Losing Faith (In The U.S. Economy)


April 29,2011

Are the American people losing faith in the U.S. economy? The statistics that you are about to read might surprise you. Not everyone believes that the U.S. economy is dying (there are still millions out there that will swallow anything that the mainstream media tells them), but the reality is that there is a growing chunk of the population that has completely lost faith in our leaders and in our economic system.

A brand new Gallup poll has found that the number of Americans that believe that we are in a "depression" is actually larger than the number of Americans that believe that the economy is "growing". That is absolutely shocking because according to official government figures, the U.S. economy is growing right now and virtually nobody in the mainstream media or the government has used the term "depression" to describe the economic downturn that we went through recently.

In fact, according to Gallup a total of 55% of the American people believe that we are either in a recession or a depression right now. This is clear evidence that the American people are losing faith in U.S. government economic statistics and instead they are basing their opinions on what they see in their own communities.

Despite the pablum about an "economic recovery" constantly being spewed by Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama, faith in our economic system continues to decline. The truth is that the American people are not stupid. They can see what is happening to the economy.

Back when I was a teenager, one day I walked over to the local McDonald's and filled out an application and was immediately hired.

But that is not how it works today.

Recently, McDonald's made headlines when they held a National Hiring Day. Some commentators pointed to that event as evidence that the economy was recovering.

Well, you know what? McDonald's ended up receiving approximately one million applications.

So how many of those people did McDonald's hire?

They hired about 62,000 people.

That means that somewhere around 938,000 eager job applicants were turned away.

Just think about that.

Only about 6.2 percent of those that applied for a job at McDonald's were accepted.

As Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider recently pointed out, that means that Harvard now has a higher acceptance rate than McDonald's does.

Harvard accepts about 7% of those that apply to go to school there.

Who ever thought we would see the day when a higher percentage of applicants get accepted into Harvard than get hired at McDonald's?

Sadly, the number of jobs continues to shrink. The competition for good jobs has become absolutely crazy.

Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

So why is this happening? Well, there are a lot of reasons, but as I have written about previously, the fact that millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas is a huge factor.

Without good jobs, an increasing number of Americans are being forced to turn to government assistance in order to survive.

Today, more than 44 million Americans are on food stamps. In addition, government transfer payments now make up 18 percent of all personal income in the United States.

That is frightening.

Things have gotten so bad that now even Wal-Mart is warning that their customers are running out of money.

A large percentage of Wal-Mart customers are just surviving month to month and Wal-Mart has been noticing a huge drop off in sales towards the end of the month when their customers run out of cash. The following is what the CEO of Wal-Mart had to say about this phenomenon recently....

"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year."

People are starting to get desperate. When economic times get tough, crime tends to increase. Sadly, as a report in USA Today recently noted, thefts of gasoline are increasing all over the nation.

We never had this kind of a problem back when a gallon of gas only was about a dollar a gallon.

Do you remember those days?

They weren't that long ago.

Now it takes some people over a hundred dollars to fill up their gas tanks.

Our leaders keep promising that they know what is happening and that they are going to fix things, but most Americans are not buying it. Many Americans are completely losing faith in the system altogether.

Our economic decline has been one of the things that has fueled the growth of the prepper movement. Millions of Americans have decided that they want to start becoming independent of the system. One recent article described what some residents of Colorado are doing to prepare, but the truth is that this phenomenon is happening all over the nation....

A Black Forest resident has erected a geodesic dome on her 5-acre spread to grow vegetables, keeps horses for emergency transportation, in case she can't get gasoline for her car, and plans to acquire chickens and goats as food sources.


A husband and wife who have a cabin on 100 acres of secluded land in Park County have weaned their property from the electric grid, acquired a three-year food supply and taken other measures to become self-sufficient.

Of course the mainstream media loves to portray preppers as "crazies", but as the U.S. economy continues to die it would be a bit crazy not to prepare.

No job is completely safe today. Millions of Americans that assumed that their "good jobs" would always be there have had their lives shattered over the past couple of years.

There is nothing wrong with trying to become more self-sufficient.

Everyone should be thinking about either starting up a business or developing alternative sources of income. Yes, it can be exhausting to work on a side business during evening and weekends, but the time for loafing is over. Those that are going to make it through the times ahead are those that are going to be willing to work really hard.

People need to start thinking about becoming less dependent on "the system" however they can. One way to insulate yourself against rising food prices is to learn how to grow your own food.

Even if you only have a very small amount of room you can still grow your own food. For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.

Just because we have lost some of the basic skills that previous generations possessed doesn't mean that we can't get them back. Back during World War II, "victory gardens" enabled Americans to grow 40 percent of all the vegetables that they needed. Those gardens greatly contributed to the war effort and helped Americans get through some very difficult times.

There are a lot of preppers out there that are totally out of debt, that own their own land, that are entirely off the electrical grid and that grow most of their own food. Many Americans would look at such people as "crazies" but those preppers will be in a much better position than most people when the economy totally collapses.

Don't wait until it is too late to prepare. Millions of Americans are completely losing faith in our economic system. People are smart. They can see that we are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. They can see that the guts of our economic infrastructure are being ripped out and shredded. They can see that the number of people living in poverty continues to increase year after year. They can see the the number of good jobs continues to decrease year after year.

When you see a horrible storm coming the rational thing to do is to prepare. Just think about all of those tornadoes that ravaged the southeast U.S. the other day. Most of the people directly in the path of those tornadoes did whatever they could to survive when they realized the twisters were about to hit.

Well, a horrific economic storm is coming. Every American will be affected by this economic storm at least to some extent. We all need to prepare while we still can.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 07:04:48 AM
Remember Stagflation? Well, It’s Back.
CNBC Money and Politics ^ | 04/29/2011 | Larry Kudlow




Stagflation officially returned today with a nasty GDP report that showed only 1.8 percent real growth, but 3.8 percent for the consumer spending deflator. It’s a mini version of the 1970s: low growth, higher inflation.

Looked at another way, rising inflation is coexisting with high, near-9 percent unemployment. Keynesians argue this can’t happen. They believe strong growth and too many people working leads to high inflation. But they were blown out of the water way back in the ’70s. And their view is hitting another pothole right now.

Supply-siders know that inflation is a monetary problem. Growth is caused by low tax-rate incentives. And the combination of flat tax rates and sound money could produce strong growth with no inflation. Think 1980s and 1990s.

But that’s not what we have now.

The dollar is falling relentlessly and gold is soaring. These market indicators are correctly predicting higher inflation as the Fed creates more excess money than anybody knows what to do with.

Fed head Ben Bernanke yesterday told us that low Q1 growth and high inflation will be “transitory.” How does he know this? Gold has gone up $40 since he started talking at his Wednesday press conference. It’s now at $1,536 an ounce. And the greenback keeps falling. Transitory? Actually, it looks like the whole QE2 pump-priming hasn’t stimulated economic growth, but has stimulated inflation.

And while the Bush tax cuts were extended last December, the sharp dollar decline and the resulting inflation have neutralized the positive effects of continued lower tax rates.

Once again I note the supply-side model is low tax rates and a stable dollar (backed by gold). But low tax rates and collapsing dollar is no good. Neither is overspending and over-borrowing. Nor is the new round of Obama-based tax-hike threats.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 02:40:13 PM
U.S. Treasury: China Has Decreased Its Holdings of U.S. Debt
Friday, April 29, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey


Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifying in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2010. (AP photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(CNSNews.com) - Mainland China has decreased its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities since last October, according to a report updated today by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Since September 2008, when they eclipsed Japan, entities in mainland China have been the largest foreign owners of U.S. government debt. But, as indicated by the Treasury Department chart linked here, Chinese ownership of U.S. Treasury securities peaked in October 2010 and has declined in each of the four most recent months reported by the Treasury Department.

At the end of October 2010, China owned 1.1753 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. That dropped to $1.1641 trillion by the end of November, $1.1601 trillion by the end of December, $1.1547 trillion by the end of January, and $1.1541 trillion by the end of February 2011.

February is the latest month for which the Treasury has estimated foreign holdings of U.S. debt.

Back in February 2001, according to historical data reported by the Treasury, the mainland Chinese owned only $63.7 billion in U.S. debt. In the ensuing decade, the Chinese massively increased their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, and especially in the past five years. In February 2006, China owned $318.4 billion in U.S. debt and Japan owned $656.4 billion.

In September 2008, the Chinese moved ahead of the Japanese in their U.S. debt holdings. At the end of that month, the mainland Chinese owned $618.2 billion in U.S. government debt and the Japanese owned $617.5 billion.

In the two years between September 2008 and September 2010, China increased its U.S. government debt holdings by $533.7 billion—from $618.2 billion to 1.1519 trillion. By the end of October 2010, China’s holdings of U.S. government debt had increased to their peak of 1.1753 trillion.

After that, mainland Chinese holding of U.S. government debt declined for four straight months.

Entities in Hong Kong have also been decreasing their ownership of U.S. government debt.  Hong Kong ownership of U.S. Treasury securities peaked at $152.4 billion in February 2010. By the end of February 2011, that had dropped to $124.6 billion.

In fiscal 2010—which ended on Sept. 30, 2010—the U.S. Treasury needed to redeem $7.206965 trillion in maturing U.S. Treasury securities. In order to cover the principle on those securities and borrow the money needed to cover government expenses that exceeded government revenues, the Treasury needed to turn around and sell $8.649171 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities during that fiscal year.

So far in fiscal 2011—which began on Oct. 1, 2010—the U.S. Treasury has needed to redeem $4.176308 trillion in maturing Treasury securities and sell $4.769522 in new Treasury securities.

At the end of February, according to the Treasury, the total U.S. debt was $14.194764 trillion of which $9.565541 trillion was publicly traded Treasury securities. Of those $9.565541 in public Treasury securities, foreigners owned $4.4743 trillion—or almost 47 percent.

The $1.1541 trillion in U.S. debt owned by the mainland Chinese as of the end of February equaled about 12 percent of the publicly held portion of the U.S. debt and almost 26 percent of the publicly held portion of the U.S. debt that was owned by foreign interests.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 02:44:06 PM
MARKETS
APRIL 29, 2011, 5:22 P.M. ET.
Dollar Hits Weakest Level Since July 2008

BY JAVIER E. DAVID

www.wsj.com



NEW YORK—Suffering its worst monthly performance since September 2010, the dollar weakened to a new 2½-year low Friday as investors turned increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. economy and the policy prescriptions designed to improve it.

Longstanding worries among market participants about the Federal Reserve's ultra-loose monetary policy have converged with growing concerns about the widening U.S. fiscal imbalance. Both are considered legacies of crisis-era stimulus policy that has kept U.S. interest rates at rock bottom, but sent the federal debt soaring to unsustainable levels.

As a result, the dollar is hunkered at multiyear lows against most of its major counterparts, ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2011, 02:50:14 PM
Related News:Canada  · Currencies .Canadian Dollar Heads for a Third Monthly Advance on Interest-Rate Outlook
By John Detrixhe and Catarina Saraiva - Apr 29, 2011 5:16 PM ET


Canada’s dollar gained for a third straight month on speculation the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates to contain inflation before the Federal Reserve.

The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed, reached the strongest level in more than three years against its U.S. counterpart, which fell this week after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he was unsure when stimulus would unwind. The Canadian currency weakened earlier against most of its major counterparts as the nation’s economy unexpectedly shrank in February after four months of expansion.

“The Canadian dollar, while lagging certainly commodity peers and lagging Europe, is still outperforming the U.S dollar,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “The dollar continues to be a sell into the Fed, past the Fed, and much of that is driven by Bernanke’s dovish comments.”

The loonie appreciated 0.6 percent to 94.51 cents versus the greenback at 5:11 p.m. in Toronto, from 95.06 cents yesterday. It touched 94.46 cents, the strongest since Nov. 12, 2007. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0581.

The yield on June 2011 bankers’ acceptances, a barometer of short-term rate expectations, fell to 1.35 percent, from 1.36 percent yesterday, indicating investors may have tempered their anticipation for higher Canadian policy rates.

Bond Yields
Canadian government bonds advanced, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year security down two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.2 percent. The price of the 3.5 percent security maturing in June 2020 increased 19 cents to C$102.33.

The BOC has held its target rate for overnight loans between commercial banks at 1 percent since September, when the rate increased for a third time last year. The central bank will keep its benchmark at that level during the second quarter and boost it to 1.50 percent during the third quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The Fed left its benchmark interest rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent on April 27, where it’s been since December 2008, and said it will likely continue reinvesting maturing debt after its $600 billion program of bond buying expires in June.

Output in Canada’s economy fell 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of C$1.26 trillion ($1.32 trillion) in February, Statistics Canada said. The result was weaker than estimates of all 22 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, which had a median forecast of no change.

Annual Growth Rate
The economy grew 2.9 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the slowest annual pace of expansion in a year, according to Statistics Canada.

“GDP was a little weaker than expected,” said Blake Jespersen, director of foreign exchange at Bank of Montreal in Toronto. “It’s looking more like September if not later for a rate hike by the Bank of Canada.”

The loonie has fallen 1.5 percent this year, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes, a measure of the 10 developed-nation currencies. The U.S. currency has lost 7.3 percent.

To contact the reporters for this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net; Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: garebear on April 29, 2011, 03:34:33 PM
Related News:Canada  · Currencies .Canadian Dollar Heads for a Third Monthly Advance on Interest-Rate Outlook
By John Detrixhe and Catarina Saraiva - Apr 29, 2011 5:16 PM ET


Canada’s dollar gained for a third straight month on speculation the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates to contain inflation before the Federal Reserve.

The loonie, as the currency is nicknamed, reached the strongest level in more than three years against its U.S. counterpart, which fell this week after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he was unsure when stimulus would unwind. The Canadian currency weakened earlier against most of its major counterparts as the nation’s economy unexpectedly shrank in February after four months of expansion.

“The Canadian dollar, while lagging certainly commodity peers and lagging Europe, is still outperforming the U.S dollar,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “The dollar continues to be a sell into the Fed, past the Fed, and much of that is driven by Bernanke’s dovish comments.”

The loonie appreciated 0.6 percent to 94.51 cents versus the greenback at 5:11 p.m. in Toronto, from 95.06 cents yesterday. It touched 94.46 cents, the strongest since Nov. 12, 2007. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0581.

The yield on June 2011 bankers’ acceptances, a barometer of short-term rate expectations, fell to 1.35 percent, from 1.36 percent yesterday, indicating investors may have tempered their anticipation for higher Canadian policy rates.

Bond Yields
Canadian government bonds advanced, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year security down two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.2 percent. The price of the 3.5 percent security maturing in June 2020 increased 19 cents to C$102.33.

The BOC has held its target rate for overnight loans between commercial banks at 1 percent since September, when the rate increased for a third time last year. The central bank will keep its benchmark at that level during the second quarter and boost it to 1.50 percent during the third quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The Fed left its benchmark interest rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent on April 27, where it’s been since December 2008, and said it will likely continue reinvesting maturing debt after its $600 billion program of bond buying expires in June.

Output in Canada’s economy fell 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of C$1.26 trillion ($1.32 trillion) in February, Statistics Canada said. The result was weaker than estimates of all 22 economists in a Bloomberg News survey, which had a median forecast of no change.

Annual Growth Rate
The economy grew 2.9 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the slowest annual pace of expansion in a year, according to Statistics Canada.

“GDP was a little weaker than expected,” said Blake Jespersen, director of foreign exchange at Bank of Montreal in Toronto. “It’s looking more like September if not later for a rate hike by the Bank of Canada.”

The loonie has fallen 1.5 percent this year, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes, a measure of the 10 developed-nation currencies. The U.S. currency has lost 7.3 percent.

To contact the reporters for this story: John Detrixhe in New York at jdetrixhe1@bloomberg.net; Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

What are you wearing?
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on April 29, 2011, 05:48:11 PM
I would be very surprised if they raised interest rates any time soon. If they did it would something very insignificant.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on April 30, 2011, 06:49:40 AM
I would be very surprised if they raised interest rates any time soon. If they did it would something very insignificant.

Raising interest rates would cause the cost of borrowing money to skyrocket. Mortgage rates are based off of Treasury rates so those would skyrocket. Banks would probably go bankrupt....the U.S. then couldn't afford to borrow and the cost of existing debt would....well you get the point.

The Fed and the Govt. have completely boxed themselves into a corner with no way out now. They had a chance to do the right thing at the beginning but took the easy and wrong way out. Now they/we are fucked.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2011, 06:51:42 AM
Raising interest rates would cause the cost of borrowing money to skyrocket. Mortgage rates are based off of Treasury rates so those would skyrocket. Banks would probably go bankrupt....the U.S. then couldn't afford to borrow and the cost of existing debt would....well you get the point.

The Fed and the Govt. have completely boxed themselves into a corner with no way out now. They had a chance to do the right thing at the beginning but took the easy and wrong way out. Now they/we are fucked.

BINGO.    This is exactly what Schiff was talking about in that debate with that Columbia Econ professor debate and it went right over his head.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2011, 07:03:06 PM
St. Louis Fed Stunner: Admits QE May Lead To Rise Rather Than Drop In Unemployment
Zero Hedge ^ | 04/30/2011 | Tyler Durden
Posted on May 1, 2011 9:49:23 PM EDT by Qbert

It's one thing for bloggers and even various non-mainstream economists to charge the Fed with pandering exclusively to Wall Street's interests, and accuse Ben Bernanke of hypocrisy when he says that the Fed's ultimate goal is the strengthening of the economy through a decrease in unemployment (recall that one of the original two mandates of the Fed is "maximum employment"... that is until it was supplanted by the third and only one: "Russell 2000 to 2000") and caring for "lower-income households." It is something far more serious when the one doing the accusing is... the Federal Reserve. In a seminal paper which we are convinced will make the rounds the next time the puppetmaster is undergoing his periodic grilling by Congressional and Senate critters, Yi Wen of the St. Louis Fed indicates that the entire experiment in increasing the adjusted monetary base by $2 trillion in 2 years is not only not benefiting the economy, but is in fact having an adverse impact on such key economic drivers as unemployment. To wit: "permanent increases in the monetary base foreshadow eventual increases in inflation that can increase, rather than reduce, unemployment over the long term." We wonder if Bernanke knew in advance that LSAP (aka QE2) had a statistically greater chance of resulting in greater unemployment, and thus more pain for the working class, and if the only offset, a doubling in the stock market when ever more capital is diverted from organic economic growth to pursuing speculative risk, was important enough for the Fed to effective replace its employment mandate with one of stock market manipulation?

Here is how the St. Louis Fed confirms that the Chairman is nothing but a puppet in the hands of Wall Street:

The impact of LSAP programs on economic activity depends on the programs’ effects on longer-term interest rates and the responsiveness of aggregate demand to such changes. The St. Louis-based consulting and forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers recently estimated that the Federal Open Market Committee’s current $600 billion LSAP program likely will reduce the 10-year Treasury yield by 20 basis points, increase the eight-quarter-ahead level of real gross domestic product by 0.4 percentage points, reduce the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points, and increase employment by 350,000 jobs. Although analyses conducted by other institutions (such as the Boston and San Francisco Feds) have suggested slightly higher figures, the overall effect of the LSAP programs on unemployment is modest.

A less-recognized risk in LSAP programs is that permanent increases in the monetary base foreshadow eventual increases in inflation that can increase, rather than reduce, unemployment over the long term. David Ranson of Wainwright Economics has analyzed the U.S. data over the period of 1950 through 2007. Ranson divided the 57-year period into two categories: years when the monetary base grew at an above-average rate (8.1 percent) and years when it grew at a below-average rate (3.5 percent).

And the stunners:

Ironically, economic growth was higher in the years of slow money growth (3.7 percent) than it was in the years of rapid growth (3.2 percent). The same was true for industrial production. Meanwhile, the consumer price index rose 5.1 percent in years of above-average monetary growth and just 2.6 per- cent in below-average years. It is, in fact, as we have always expected: QE not only does not result in relative economic outperformence (the opposite), it simply leads to higher inflation, and subdued economic growth. And the Chairman of the Federal Reserve was not aware of this data?

And while this too is more than obvious, anyone could have foreseen the impact QE/LSAP would have on precious metals:

The gold price showed an even bigger differential, rising 12.5 percent in above-average years and just 0.6 percent in below-average years.

Perhaps the above explains why we have been bullish on the precious metals complex since March 18, 2009 (official start of QE1). Alternatively it may just be our long-running bet that Bernanke will fail in his attempt at instituting central planning effectively, and the outcome will be the end of the monetary system in its current iteration.

And before skeptics accuse the St Louis Fed, which has sometimes been defined as hawkish (although we have yet to see James Bullard vote in the "against" column during an FOMC decision), this is a finding that has been replicated elsewhere on not just one occasion.

Other recent analyses, using different tools, have reached similar conclusions. In my current research, I have esti- mated models for the period 1948:Q1 to 2008:Q2 that sug- gest that a sustained increase of 1 percentage point in the growth rate of the monetary base has almost no impact on unemployment during the initial 20 quarters but can significantly increase the unemployment rate in the longer run (say, during the subsequent 20 quarters). Extrapolated to the very long run, my analysis suggests that a sustained 1-percent-per-year faster growth of the monetary base might increase the unemployment rate by between 1.0 and 2.2 percentage points. The reason is that expected long-term inflation is bad for growth and employment.

A recent article in the American Economic Review docu- mented a similar positive relationship between longer-term inflation and the unemployment rate (Berentsen, Menzio, and Wright, 2011). These authors use a search-and-matching model to explain why longer-term inflation can increase, rather than decrease, the unemployment rate. That is, inflation reduces the demand for money and, hence, hinders trade and the probability of matches in both the goods and labor markets.

The conclusion is obvious:

In summary, the near-term effects of LSAP programs on unemployment remain uncertain. Further, caution must be exercised such that long-term inflation does not increase. More and more economic research suggests that the long- run costs of inflation, measured in welfare terms, are likely higher than previously estimated (see Wen, 2010). Fortunately, at least one recent cross-country study (Anderson, Gascon, and Liu, 2010) suggests that this long-run lesson is well understood by policymakers.

Alas, unfortunately, the author is wrong. Policymakers, neither of the fiscal nor monetary variety have any care for what the long-term costs of inflation are for the general population. The only determinant is how far is the S&P has risen in any given electoral cycle. After all it is so much easier to manipulate the stock market than the economy. Which is why Bernanke is nothing more than an enabler of market manipulative political posturing... and Wall Street greed naturally: the one certain side effect of the R2K@2K is another year of record bonuses on Wall Street.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2011, 02:04:19 PM
TREASURY TO IMPLEMENT EMERGENCY DEBT MEASURES THIS WEEK, CEILING TO BE HIT MAY 16
TBI ^ | 5-2-2011 | Joe Weisenthal



What Me Worry

Just out from the Treasury, in letter sent to Harry Reid...

The emergency measures to avoid a debt ceiling crisis begin this week.

We will hit the debt ceiling May 16.

Then, following that, emergency moves will get the country to be able to borrow until August 2.

The good news: Projected net borrowing needs for the April-June period has been reduced somewhat to $142 billion.

In the letters, says Bloomberg, Geithner writes: "Protecting America's creditwiorthiness and our economic leadership position in the world is a duty to our country that is shared by policy makers in both parties, in the legislative Branch as well as the Executive Brench... Therefore any attempt by either party to use the full faith and credit of the United States as a baraining chip to advance partisan policy agendas would be irresponsible."


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: garebear on May 02, 2011, 02:18:01 PM
TREASURY TO IMPLEMENT EMERGENCY DEBT MEASURES THIS WEEK, CEILING TO BE HIT MAY 16
TBI ^ | 5-2-2011 | Joe Weisenthal



What Me Worry

Just out from the Treasury, in letter sent to Harry Reid...

The emergency measures to avoid a debt ceiling crisis begin this week.

We will hit the debt ceiling May 16.

Then, following that, emergency moves will get the country to be able to borrow until August 2.

The good news: Projected net borrowing needs for the April-June period has been reduced somewhat to $142 billion.

In the letters, says Bloomberg, Geithner writes: "Protecting America's creditwiorthiness and our economic leadership position in the world is a duty to our country that is shared by policy makers in both parties, in the legislative Branch as well as the Executive Brench... Therefore any attempt by either party to use the full faith and credit of the United States as a baraining chip to advance partisan policy agendas would be irresponsible."


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

I can't believe you're posting while the Obamas are on Oprah.

I guess you're just DVRing it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 03, 2011, 05:05:24 AM
US Debt Rating Should Be 'C': Independent Agency
Published: Tuesday, 3 May 2011 | 3:09 AM ET Text Size By: CNBC.com

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42871647




There have been increasing concerns about the fate of United States' prized triple-A sovereign debt rating. While Standard and Poor's recently downgraded its U.S. debt outlook to negative from stable, implying that a ratings cut could happen in two years, one independent ratings agency has given the U.S. sovereign rating a "C".



"A 'C' is equivalent to approximately a triple-B on the S&P, Moody's and Fitch scales. It's two notches above junk and one notch above the equivalent of a single A," Martin Weiss, President of Weiss Ratings, told CNBC Tuesday.

Weiss was quick to add that while the rating seems weak, the debt situation is not in a danger zone that would trigger panic, noting that there was still broad market acceptance for Treasurys.

The grade reflects the U.S. massive debt burden, low international reserves and the volatility in the American economy, he said.

The U.S. government debt is fast approaching the $14.3 trillion ceiling, with the debt-to-GDP ratio close to 100 percent. And a downgrade of U.S. Treasurys - one of the most widely held assets - could theoretically raise borrowing costs and in a worst case scenario, trigger a default on the government's debt obligations.

America's rating was ranked 33rd out of 47 nations, according to Weiss, which began tracking sovereign debt last year. France and Japan also got a "C" rating, while Only China and Thailand received an "A" rating.

Weiss Ratings based its score purely on statistics, and does not take into account qualitative factors such as political stability.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Deicide on May 03, 2011, 05:07:59 AM
US Debt Rating Should Be 'C': Independent Agency
Published: Tuesday, 3 May 2011 | 3:09 AM ET Text Size By: CNBC.com

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42871647




There have been increasing concerns about the fate of United States' prized triple-A sovereign debt rating. While Standard and Poor's recently downgraded its U.S. debt outlook to negative from stable, implying that a ratings cut could happen in two years, one independent ratings agency has given the U.S. sovereign rating a "C".



"A 'C' is equivalent to approximately a triple-B on the S&P, Moody's and Fitch scales. It's two notches above junk and one notch above the equivalent of a single A," Martin Weiss, President of Weiss Ratings, told CNBC Tuesday.

Weiss was quick to add that while the rating seems weak, the debt situation is not in a danger zone that would trigger panic, noting that there was still broad market acceptance for Treasurys.

The grade reflects the U.S. massive debt burden, low international reserves and the volatility in the American economy, he said.

The U.S. government debt is fast approaching the $14.3 trillion ceiling, with the debt-to-GDP ratio close to 100 percent. And a downgrade of U.S. Treasurys - one of the most widely held assets - could theoretically raise borrowing costs and in a worst case scenario, trigger a default on the government's debt obligations.

America's rating was ranked 33rd out of 47 nations, according to Weiss, which began tracking sovereign debt last year. France and Japan also got a "C" rating, while Only China and Thailand received an "A" rating.

Weiss Ratings based its score purely on statistics, and does not take into account qualitative factors such as political stability.


But we got Osama, all out problems have been solved.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2011, 09:44:39 AM
..FOREX-U.S. economic data pushes dollar down vs euro, yen

By Steven C. Johnson | Reuters – 25 minutes ago




EmailPrint......* Weak U.S. jobs, services data adds to dollar's woes

* Euro hits 17-month high but fades ahead of ECB meeting

* Dollar at 6-week low vs yen; high-yield FX struggles

* ECB still seen outpacing Fed on rate hikes (Recasts, updates prices, adds U.S. data, comment)

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - The dollar fell to a fresh three-year low on Wednesday and the euro briefly rose above $1.49 as weaker-than-expected U.S. employment data convinced investors that U.S. interest rates would remain low this year.

The yen also hit a six-week high against the dollar after data showed the pace of growth in the dominant U.S. services sector also slowed unexpectedly in April, another sign the U.S. economy may be hitting a soft patch. See [ID:nN04186623]

With markets worried about a yawning U.S. budget deficit, traders said signs of slower growth will only add to trouble for the dollar, which fell to a three-year low against major currencies Wednesday. It has lost 7.7 percent in 2011. <.DXY>

"The dollar got beat up pretty badly against the euro," said Firas Askari, head of foreign exchange trading at BMO Capital Markets. "The U.S. fiscal situation is a concern. Now it seems the U.S. economy isn't just tepid but actually cooling off again. That's not encouraging."

But Askari and others said concerns about slower U.S. growth also dulled appetite for commodities and higher-yield assets for fear a U.S. slump would reverberate globally.

That sent the safe-haven Swiss franc to a record high against the greenback and drove the U.S. currency up against the Canadian dollar . Canada's economy is heavily depend on exports to its southern neighbor.

EURO SUPPORT

The euro remained fairly well supported in anticipation of higher euro zone interest rates and strong sovereign demand. Investors brushed off news that Portugal had become the third euro zone country in the last year to need a bailout and drove the euro to $1.4939, a 17-month high. It later eased to $1.4860 , up 0.3 percent and about a cent above the day's low.

Traders said a move above $1.50 was likely but would probably have to wait until after Thursday's European Central Bank meeting, which should offer clues on future rate hikes.

The ECB raised rates in April for the first time since 2008 and is expected to do so again this year to tame inflation, even as higher rates make it more difficult for countries such as Portugal to service their debts. [ID:nLDE7422CB]

"The currency market seems to have learnt to live with the struggles of the peripheral euro zone nations." said Audrey Childe-Freeman, currency strategist at JP Morgan Private Bank.

Markets do not expect the Fed to raise rates from near zero until the middle of 2012. <0#FF:>

YEN STRENGTHENS

The dollar fell 0.3 percent to 80.68 yen . If it falls further, analysts said it could put markets on alert for official intervention to slow the pace of yen gains.

Major central banks actively sold the yen earlier this year after it hit a record high against the dollar. A strong yen could hurt Japan's export-led economy as it struggles with slow growth and the aftermath of March's earthquake and tsunami.

"People are watching that 80 level, which isn't very far away," said BNY Mellon strategist Michael Woolfolk.

The Australian dollar fell 0.8 percent to $1.0754, retreating from a post-float high above $1.10 as a decline in silver weakened demand for commodity-sensitive currencies.

Some gauges of market positioning suggest speculators and hedge funds are heavily short the dollar, leaving open the possibility of more position unwinding.

But the U.S. dollar has been unable to build on short-covering support seen in past days, and investors are likely to look for fresh selling opportunities.

"There are still no big incentives to go short euros," said Roberto Mialich, strategist at Unicredit in Milan. "At the end of the day, the dollar will be sold again, and it's just a matter of time for a test of $1.50." (Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu in London; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
..
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2011, 10:36:35 AM
US Treasury Tells Lawmakers It Needs $2 Trillion In Debt Capacity (to fund the US to end of 2011)
Zero Hedge ^ | May 4, 2011 | Tyler Durden





Reuters reports that the US Treasury has informed lawmakers it needs a $2 trillion debt limit increase to operate... until the end of 2012. Better stated, this is 112% of US GDP (which will soon be declining). This is precisely as Zero Hedge speculated. We hope PIMCO will be swayed soon enough to buy all this extra debt about to start coming down Geithner's conveyor chute. But yes, the Fed will most certainly not be needed to monetize this extra debt: Japan, Europe and Libya have it covered. That said, we don't know if Libyan rebels will have the capacity to monetize the $3 trillion in debt in 2013, $4 trillion in 2014, and so forth. The pattern is clear.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2011, 06:49:18 PM
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Smithfield CEO: Higher Food Prices Are Here To Stay
TWS ^ | Phoenix Capital Research
Posted on May 4, 2011 9:47:32 PM EDT by blam

Smithfield CEO: Higher Food Prices Are Here To Stay

Phoenix Capital Research
April 4, 2011

Here’s a zinger of a news story that most commentators haven’t bothered to take note of…

The CEO of Smithfield Farms, the largest pork producer in the US. Among other things he said:

“Maybe to someone in the upper incomes it doesn’t matter what the price of a pound of bacon is, or what the price of a ham, or the price of a pound of pork chops is,” he says. “But for many of the customers we sell to, it really does matter.” Workers can share cars when the price of oil rises, he quips, but “you can’t share your food.”

Mr. Pope also worries about the impact on farmers, who are leveraging up operations to afford the ever-rising price of land and fertilizer that has resulted from the increased corn demand. “There are record prices for livestock but farmers are exiting the business!” he exclaims. “Why? Farmers know they won’t make money.”

Weather is a factor, too. “We’ve had the luxury for the last three years of extremely good corn crops, with high yields and good growing conditions. We are just one bad weather event away from potentially $10 corn, which once again is another 50% increase in the input cost to our live production.”

…Not all companies will survive this economic whirlwind. Mr. Pope recalls what happened the last time there was a surge in corn prices, in 2008: “The largest chicken processor in the United States, Pilgrim’s Pride, filed for bankruptcy.” They “couldn’t raise prices, so their cost of production went up dramatically.” Could it happen again? “It darn well could!” Mr. Pope exclaims.

…Mr. Pope says the “losers” here “are the consumer, who’s going to have to pay more for the product, and the livestock farmer who’s going to have to buy high-priced grain that he can’t afford because he’s stretching his own lines of credit. The hog farmer . . . is in jeopardy of simply going out of business ’cause he doesn’t have the cash liquidity to even pay for the corn to pay for the input to raise the hog. It’s a dynamic that we can’t sustain.”

So here’s a CEO, someone with actual business experience (not some moron academic who’s never run a business a day in his life) telling us the following:

* Food prices are up a lot and going higher in the future.

* Despite high food prices, farmers are quitting farming (lower supplies are coming).

* Food companies will be going bankrupt (even lower supplies are coming).

In other words, we are rapidly heading into a food crisis. Food prices are NOT going to be coming down. And we’re going to be seeing food shortages in the US in the coming months.

Smart folks are already preparing their families and portfolios for what’s to come.

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: food; inflation; prices; shortages; Click to Add Keyword
 
Woo hoo!! We need your help to keep the lights on!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 05, 2011, 05:31:45 AM
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-stung-by-economic-reports-2011-05-04?dist=afterbell


Data disappoints

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index declined to 52.8 last month from 57.3 in March, missing analysts’ expectations. Read more about ISM data.

“Generally speaking, data such as this corroborate our more cautious stance entering the year and should further push to the sidelines those expecting 4% growth or more this year,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.

The ISM report was the day’s second disappointment for economic data. The first was a 179,000 increase in private-sector payrolls estimated by Automated Data Processing Inc. ADP -0.04%  . Economists were expecting a gain closer to 200,000. Read about ADP report.

Decliners outpaced gainers more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.1 billion shares traded.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ouch, not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 05, 2011, 05:52:42 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/initial-claims-474k-bring-out-qe3[/b]]http://www.zerohedge.com/article/initial-claims-474k-bring-out-qe3 (http://[b)

Not good, not good at all.

-Previous revised upward to 431k
-Current report well above expectations at 471k


Not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2011, 06:18:05 AM
Hyperinflation And Double-Dip Recession Ahead
TMO ^ | 4-3-2011 | TGR/John Williams


Posted on Thursday, May 05, 2011 9:25:25 AM by blam

Hyperinflation And Double-Dip Recession Ahead

Economics / HyperInflation
May 03, 2011 - 04:22 AM
By: The Gold Report


Economic recovery? What economic recovery? Contrary to popular media reports, government economic reporting specialist and ShadowStats Editor John Williams reads between the government-economic-data lines. "The U.S. is really in the worst condition of any major economy or country in the world," he says. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, John concludes the nation is in the midst of a multiple-dip recession and headed for hyperinflation.

The Gold Report: Standard & Poor's (S&P) has given a warning to the U.S. government that it may downgrade its rating by 2013 if nothing is done to address the debt and deficit. What's the real impact of this announcement?

John Williams: S&P is noting the U.S. government's long-range fiscal problems. Generally, you'll find that the accounting for unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other programs on a net-present-value (NPV) basis indicates total federal debt and obligations of about $75 trillion. That's 15 times the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt and obligations are increasing at a pace of about $5 trillion a year, which is neither sustainable nor containable. If the U.S. was a corporation on a parallel basis, it would be headed into bankruptcy rather quickly.

There's good reason for fear about the debt, but it would be a tremendous shock if either S&P or Moody's Investor Service actually downgraded the U.S. sovereign-debt rating. The AAA rating on U.S. Treasuries is the benchmark for AAA, the highest rating, meaning the lowest risk of default. With U.S. Treasuries denominated in U.S. dollars and the benchmark AAA security, how can you downgrade your benchmark security? That's a very awkward situation for rating agencies. As long as the U.S. dollar retains its reserve currency status and is able to issue debt in U.S. dollars, you'll continue to see a triple-A rating for U.S. Treasuries. Having the U.S. Treasuries denominated in U.S. dollars means the government always can print the money it needs to pay off the securities, which means no default.

TGR: With the U.S. Treasury rated AAA, everything else is rated against that. But what if another AAA-rated entity is about to default?

JW: That's the problem that rating agencies will have if they start playing around with the U.S. rating. But there's virtually no risk of the U.S. defaulting on its debt as long as the debt's denominated in dollars. Let's say the U.S. wants to sell debt to Japan, but Japan doesn't like the way the U.S. is running fiscal operations. It can say, "We don't trust the U.S. dollar. We'll lend you money, but we'll lend it in yen." Then, the U.S. has a real problem because it no longer has the ability to print the currency needed to pay off the debt. And if you're looking at U.S. debt denominated in yen, most likely you would have a very different and much lower rating.

TGR: Is there a possibility that people would not buy U.S. debt unless it's in their currency?

JW: It is possible lenders would not buy the Treasuries unless denominated in a strong and stable currency. As the USD loses its value and becomes less attractive, people will increasingly dump dollar-denominated assets and move into currencies they consider safer. And you'll see other things; OPEC might decide it no longer wants to have oil denominated in U.S. dollars. There's been some talk about moving it to some kind of basket of currencies—something other than the U.S. dollar, possibly including gold. This would be devastating to the U.S. consumer. You'd get a double whammy from an inflation standpoint on oil prices in the U.S. because the dollar would be shrinking in value against that basket of currencies.

TGR: Different countries are starting to discuss the creation of an alternative to the USD as reserve currency. How rapidly could an alternative currency appear?

JW: That would involve a consensus of major global trading countries; but just how that would break remains to be seen. Let's say OPEC decides it no longer wants to accept dollars for oil. Instead, it wants to be paid in yen. It's done. It's not a matter of creating a new currency—it's a matter of how things get shifted around.

TGR: What other commodities or monetary issues would that create?

JW: Again, the dollar's weakness is doubly inflationary. It is the biggest factor behind the ongoing rise in oil prices. Let's say you're a Japanese oil purchaser. Oil, effectively, is purchased at a discount in a yen-based environment due to the dollar's weakness. Usually, the market doesn't let such advantages last very long. As the dollar weakens, you see upside pressure on oil prices. If, hypothetically, you're pricing oil in yen, there's no reason for anybody to hold the USD. The dollar would sell off more rapidly against the yen and oil inflation would be even higher in a dollar-denominated environment.

TGR: You've mentioned that hyperinflation will happen as soon as 2014. If that is true, wouldn't OPEC want to shift off dollar pricing as quickly as possible?

JW: From a purely financial standpoint, that would make sense. Other factors are at play, though, including political, military and unstable times in both North Africa and the Middle East. Those who are able to get out of dollars, I think, will do so rapidly and as smoothly as possible.

TGR: And how will they do that?

JW: They will sell their dollar-denominated assets. They will convert dollars to other currencies. They will buy gold. Generally, they will dump whatever they hold in dollars and sell the dollar-denominated assets they don't want. There's a market for them; it's just a matter of pricing. As the pressure mounts to get out of the USD, the pricing of dollar-denominated assets will fall, which in turn would intensify that selling. The dollar selling will intensify domestic U.S. inflation, which is one factor that picks up and feeds off itself and will help to trigger the hyperinflation.

TGR: The U.S., even in recession, is still the largest consuming economy. If the U.S. continues in, or goes into a deeper, recession, doesn't that impact the rest of the world?

JW: If the U.S. is in a severe recession, it will have a significant negative economic impact on the global economy. That doesn't necessarily affect the relative values of other currencies to the USD. If you look at the dollar against the stronger currencies, a wide variety of factors are in effect—including relative economic strength. The U.S. is probably going to have an economy as bad as any major country will have, with higher relative inflation. The weaker the relative economy and the stronger the relative inflation, the weaker will be the dollar. Relative to fiscal stability, the worse the fiscal circumstance in the U.S., the weaker is the dollar. Relative to trade balance, the bigger the trade deficit is, the weaker the currency. As to interest rates, the lower the relative interest rates in the U.S., the weaker will be the dollar.

Part of the weakness in the dollar now is due to the way the world views what's happening in Washington and the ability of the government to control itself. That's a factor that may have forced S&P to make a comment. So, even having a weaker economy in Europe would not necessarily lead to relative dollar strength.

TGR: If the U.S. experiences a continued, or even greater, recession, doesn't that impact spill over into Canada?

JW: The Canadian economy is closely tied to the U.S. economy, and bad times here will be reflected in bad times in Canada. However, I'm not looking for a hyperinflation in Canada. Its currency will tend to remain relatively stronger than the U.S. dollar. Canada is more fiscally sound; it generally has a better trade picture and has a lot of natural resources. Keep in mind that economic times tend to get addressed by private industry's creativity and, thus, new markets can be developed. For instance, you're already seeing significant shifts of lumber sales to China instead of to the U.S.

TGR: What about the effect on other countries?

JW: The world economy is going to have a difficult time. You do have ups and downs in the domestic, as well as the global, economy. People survive that. They find ways of getting around problems if a market is cut off or suffers. I view most of the factors in Canada, Australia and Switzerland as being much stronger than in the U.S. Even when you look at the euro and the pound, they're generally stronger than in the U.S. Japan is dealing with the financial impacts of the earthquake. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding there. But, generally, it's a more stable economy with better fiscal and trade pictures. I would look for the yen to continue to be stronger. Shy of any short-term gyrations, the U.S. is really in the worst condition of any major economy and any major country in the world and, therefore, in a weaker currency circumstance.

TGR: Then why are media analysts talking about the U.S. being in a recovery?

JW: You're not getting a fair analysis. There's nothing new about that. No one in the popular media predicted the recession that was clearly coming upon us, and the downturn wasn't even recognized until well after the average guy on Main Street knew things were getting bad. We have some particularly poor-quality economic reporting right now. The economy has not been as strong as it advertised. Yes, there has been some upside bouncing in certain areas, but it's largely tied to short-lived stimulus factors.

Let's look at payroll numbers and the way those are estimated. In normal economic times, seasonal factors and seasonal adjustments are stable and meaningful. What's happened is that the downturn has been so severe and protracted it has completely skewed the seasonal-adjustment process. It's no longer meaningful, nor are estimates of monthly changes in many series. The markets are flying blind—it's unprecedented, in terms of modern reporting.

Are we really seeing a surge in retail sales? If so, you should be seeing growth in consumer income or consumer borrowing—but we're not seeing that. The consumer is strapped. An average consumer's income cannot keep up with inflation. The recent credit crisis also constrained consumer credit. Without significant growth in credit or a big pick-up in consumer income, there's no way the consumer can sustain positive economic growth or personal consumption, which is more than 70% of the GDP. So, you haven't started to see a shift in the underlying fundamentals that would support stronger economic activity. That's why you're not going to have a recovery; in fact, it's beginning to turn down again as shown in the housing sales volume numbers, which are down 75% from where it was in normal times.

TGR: But we were in a housing boom. Doesn't that make those numbers reasonable?

JW: Housing starts have never been this low. Right now, they are running around 500,000 a year. We're at the lowest levels since World War II—down 75% from 2006—and it's getting worse. I mean the bottom bouncing has turned down again. We're already seeing a second dip in the housing industry. There's been no recovery there.

In March, all the gain in retail sales was in inflation. Retail sales are turning down. You're going to see a weaker GDP number for Q111. The GDP number is probably the most valueless of the major series put out; but, as the press will have to report, growth will drop from 3.1% in Q410 to something like 1.7% in Q111.

TGR: You've stated that the most significant factors driving the inflation rate are currency- and commodity-price distortions—not economic recovery. Why is that distinction important?

JW: The popular media have stated that the only time you have to worry about inflation is when you have a strong economy, and that a strong economy drives inflation. There's such a thing as healthy inflation when it comes from a strong economy. I would much rather be in an economy that's overheating with too much demand and prices that rise. That's a relatively healthy inflation. Today, the weak dollar has spiked oil prices. Higher oil prices are driving gasoline prices higher—the average person is paying a lot more per gallon of gas. For those who can't make ends meet, they cut back in other areas. The inflation of Q410, which is now running at an annualized pace of 6%, was mostly tied to the prices of gasoline and food.

You also have higher food prices. It's not due to stronger food or gasoline demand—it's due to monetary distortions. Unemployment is still high, even if you believe the numbers. I'll contend the economy really isn't recovering. At the same time, you're seeing a big increase in inflation that's killing the average guy.

TGR: Why isn't there more pressure on the U.S. government to reduce the debt deficit?

JW: When you get into areas like debt and deficit, it's a little difficult to understand. The average person, though, should be feeling enough financial pain that political pressure will tend to mount before the 2012 election; but whether or not the average person will take political action remains to be seen. I don't think you have until 2012 before this gets out of control and there's hyperinflation. It could go past that to 2014, but we're seeing all sorts of things happening now that are accelerating the inflation process.

TGR: Like the dollar at an all-time low.

JW: If you compare the U.S. dollar against the stronger currencies, such as the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Swiss franc, you're looking at historic lows. You're not far from historic lows in the broader dollar measure.

TGR: In your April 19 newsletter, you stated, "Though not yet commonly recognized, there is both an intensifying double-dip recession and a rapidly escalating inflation problem. Until such time as financial market expectations catch up with the underlying reality, reporting generally will continue to show higher-than-expected inflation and weaker-than-expected economic results." What do you mean by "until such time as financial market expectations catch up with the underlying reality?"

JW: A lot of people look closely at and follow the consensus of economists, which is looking at (or at least still touting) an economic recovery with contained inflation. I'm contending that the underlying reality is a weaker economy and rising inflation. I think the expectation of rising inflation is beginning to sink in. Given another month or two, I think you'll find all of a sudden the economists making projections will start lowering their economic forecasts. Instead of looking at half-percent growth in industrial production, they'll be expecting it to be flat; if it comes in flat, it will be a consensus—and the markets will be pleased it wasn't worse in consensus. But the consensus outlook will have shifted toward a more negative economic outlook.

TGR: Do you think economists will shift their outlooks before we get into hyperinflation or a depression?

JW: In terms of economists who have to answer to Wall Street, work for the government or hold an office like the Federal chairman, by and large, they'll err on the side of being overly optimistic. People prefer good news to bad news. If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said we were headed into a deeper recession, it would rattle the market. People on Wall Street want to have a happy sales pitch. What results may have little to do with underlying reality.

TGR: In your April 15 newsletter, you mentioned that a signal of an unfolding double-dip recession is based on the annual contraction of the M3, which was the Fed's broadest measure of money supply until it ceased publishing it in 2006. Recent estimates show that the annual contraction of M3 went down from 4.3 in February to 3.6 in March. Is this good news?

JW: No. It doesn't have any particular significance as a signal for the economy. You do have recessions that start without M3 going negative year over year. In the last several decades, every time the M3 went negative, there followed a recession—or an intensifying downturn—if a recession was already underway. If you tighten up liquidity, you tend to tighten up business conditions. Again, though, you've had recessions without those signals. When it goes positive, it does not signal an upturn in the economy. It doesn't make any difference if it continues negative for a year or two, or if it's negative for three months. The point is—when it turns negative, that's the signal for the recession.

We had a signal back in December 2009, which would have indicated a downturn sometime in roughly Q310. We already were in a recession at that point. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the defining authority in timing of the U.S. business cycle, the last recession ended in June 2009. So, this current recession will be recognized as a double-dip recession. The Bureau doesn't change its timing periods.

I'll contend that we're really seeing reintensification of the downturn that began in 2007. Although it's not obvious in the headline numbers of the popular media, you'll find that September/October 2010 is when the housing market started to turn down again. That is beginning to intensify. We'll see how the retail sales look when they're revised. When all the dust settles, I think you'll see that the economy did start to turn down again in latter 2010. Somewhere in that timeframe, they’ll start counting the second or next leg of a multiple-dip recession.

TGR: Does M3 have anything to do with calculating potential inflation or hyperinflation?

JW: It does; but when you start looking at the inflation picture, you also have to consider that we are dealing with the world's reserve currency and the volume of dollars both outside and inside the U.S. system. Right now, M3 is estimated at somewhat shy of $14 trillion. You have another $7 trillion outside the U.S., which is available for overnight liquidation and dumping into the U.S. markets. It's not easy to measure how much is out there, but that has to be taken into account to assess the money supply related to inflation. Again, that's where the Fed chairman's policies come into play.

Efforts have been afoot to weaken the U.S. dollar. Usually with the weakening of the U.S. dollar, you see increased repatriation of dollars from outside the system. If everyone is happy holding the dollars, the flows can be static; but when they start shifting and the dollars are repatriated, you begin to have currency problems. That's when you have the money supply and the inflation problems we're beginning to see.

TGR: This has been very informative, John. Thank you for your time.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2011, 06:29:50 AM
Jobless claims hit 8-month high, rises 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000!
Reuters ^ | 05/05/2011 | Lucia Mutikani





(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose to an eight-month high last week and productivity growth slowed in the first quarter, clouding the outlook for an economy that is struggling to gain speed.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000, the highest since mid-August, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Claims were pushed up by factors ranging from spring break layoffs to the introduction of an emergency benefits program.

Economists had expected claims to fall to 410,000.

A second report from the department showed nonfarm productivity increased at a 1.6 percent annual rate, braking from a 2.9 percent pace in the fourth quarter. The growth pace was above economists' expectations for 1 percent.

"I think we're in a situation where the markets and the Fed have been too optimistic," said Bob Andres, chief investment strategist and economist at Merion Wealth Partners in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

"I don't think we're going to fall off a cliff but the road to real recovery and full unemployment is going to take a long time, and people ought to get back into that mode."

U.S. stock index futures extended losses after the jobless claims data, while government debt prices touched session highs the data. The dollar extended losses against the yen, but rose against the euro.

EMPLOYMENT GROWTH SEEN SLOWING

The claims data falls outside the survey period for the government's closely watched employment report for April, which will be released on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased 186,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey, after rising by 216,000 in March -- which was the most in 10 months.


(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2011, 08:31:50 AM
.World Food Prices Rise to Near-Record High as Inflation Speeds Up, UN Says
By Rudy Ruitenberg - May 5, 2011 6:44 AM ET





Corn has almost doubled in the past 12 months. Photographer: Nadine Hutton/Bloomberg

 
 Play VideoMay 4 (Bloomberg) –- Peter Hickson, a commodities strategist at UBS Ltd., talks about the outlook for metal and energy prices. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.” (Source: Bloomberg)

World food prices rose to near a record in April as grain costs advanced, adding pressure to inflation that is accelerating from Beijing to Brasilia and spurring central banks to raise interest rates.

An index of 55 commodities rose to 232.1 points from 231 points in March, the United Nations’ Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report on its website today. The gauge climbed to an all-time high of 237.2 in February before dropping 2.6 percent in March.

The cost of living in the U.S. rose at its fastest pace since December 2009 in the 12 months ended in March, the same month in which Chinese consumer prices rose by the most since 2008. The European Central Bank raised interest rates on April 7, joining China, India, Poland and Sweden in a bid to control inflation partly blamed on food costs. Costlier food also contributed to riots across northern Africa and the Middle East that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia this year.

“There seems to be some easing for a lot of commodities, but whether this is demand rationing, we have to wait and see,” Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the FAO, said before the report. “If the weather is good, if plantings expand, I think we could see some relief in food prices.”

Sugar prices slumped 18 percent in New York last month, while milk futures fell 1.8 percent in Chicago, U.S. wholesale beef prices dropped 3.4 percent and pork declined 2.2 percent. Wheat prices rose 5 percent in Chicago after falling the previous two months and corn jumped 9.1 percent.

Corn Planting

Corn has almost doubled in the past 12 months on speculation that more planting in the U.S., the world’s largest grower, won’t be sufficient to rebuild global stocks. Wheat surged 57 percent over the same period and soybeans gained 39 percent as flooding ruined crops in Canada and Australia and drought reduced harvests in Russia and Europe.

Of the grains, corn “is the most worrisome,” Abbassian said in a statement. “We would need above-average, if not record, yields in the U.S.,” however, “plantings so far have been delayed considerably due to cool and wet conditions on the ground,” he said.

The FAO’s gauge of grain prices, which account for 27 percent of the overall index, jumped to its highest level since June 2008, advancing to 265.1 points in April from 251.2 the previous month.

Dry Weather

World grain stocks will probably slide for a second year in the 12 months through June 2012 as corn consumption outpaces production and dry weather hurts wheat prospects in the U.S. and the European Union, the International Grains Council said in a report April 20.

“With demand continuing strongly, prospects for a return to more normal prices hinge largely on how much production will increase and how much grain reserves are replenished in the new season,” David Hallam, the director of FAO’s Trade and Market division, said in a statement.

The FAO’s food-price index fell for eight months in a row after reaching its previous peak in June 2008, a situation that probably won’t be repeated this year, Concepcion Calpe, an economist at the UN agency, said last month. “Very strong” demand for food, feed and biofuel may mean prices will climb in coming months, she said.

Meat Prices

The index of meat prices, which make up 35 percent of the overall index, was little changed at 172.8, up 0.5 percentage point from the March level.

The FAO index of sugar prices fell to 347.8 points, the lowest level in seven months, from 372.3 in March. Cooking-oil prices slipped to 259.1 points in April from 259.9, while the dairy index fell to 228.7 from 234.4 in March.

Food output will have to climb by 70 percent from 2010 to 2050 as the world population swells to 9 billion and rising incomes boost meat and dairy consumption, the FAO forecasts. Producing 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of pork can take 3.5 kilograms of feed, U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows.

About 44 million people have been pushed into poverty since June by the “dangerous levels” of food prices, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in February. Another 10 million may join them should the UN food index rise another 10 percent, the World Bank said April 16. The number of hungry people in the world globally declined last year to 925 million from more than 1 billion in 2009, according to the FAO.

“A sliding dollar and increased oil prices are contributing to high food-commodity prices,” Hallam said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2011, 07:23:43 AM
Why the weak dollar isn't fixing the economy
Business Insider ^ | 05/06/2011 | Joe Weisenthal




A disappointment in Q1 was the relatively modest growth of US exports, confounding economists who might have assumed that the weak dollar would rectify that problem.

As explained in his latest FX Focus, Citi's Steven Englander points out that the connection between a weak currency and strong exports is dicey at best.

Here are the three main reasons why:

1) It may be small beer in the big picture. Productivity changes and the regulatory environment among other factors may in practice matter more than measured shifts. EM countries climbing up the quality ladder may matter more for growth in export markets than moves in the exchange rates.

2) How fast your exports grow also depends on how fast your export markets grow and how sensitive your export destinations are to price moves in your exports

3) Causality is uncertain. Sometimes the causal channel is that capital inflows will make a currency stronger and weaken exports. Sometimes the causal channel is that improved competitiveness will increase exports and simultaneously put upward pressure on the currency. Sometimes a combination of both forces is at play.

This chart is the killer. There's just no correlation between US "competitiveness" (blue) and export performance.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2011, 07:27:36 AM
As for the so called great jobs number today - 62,000 of those jobs were a result of the mcdonalds hiring.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 06, 2011, 07:34:36 AM
As for the so called great jobs number today - 62,000 of those jobs were a result of the mcdonalds hiring.   

175,000 of the 244k were from the "Birth/Death Adjustment"

So that leaves around....oh 7k actual jobs?

And the number of people not considered in the labor pool also increased to another historic high.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2011, 07:37:59 AM
The top five states for business in 2011, according to the magazine:


1) Texas

2) North Carolina

3) Florida

4) Tennessee

5) Georgia

The five worst states:

46) Michigan

47) New Jersey

48) Illinois

49) New York

50) California
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2011, 07:50:12 AM
As People Not In Labor Force Hit New Record, Those Who "Want A Job Now" Jump By 232,000 In One Month
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/06/2011 09:21 -0400
www.zerohedge.com
BLSBureau of Labor Statistics




Another observation from today's BLS data: while the labor participation rate may have remained flat, the total number of persons not in the labor force as an absolute number just hit a new all time record of 86.248 million, higher than the previous record hit in February of 86.216 million. And just as relevantly, the total number of "people who want a job now" jumped by 232,000 from March to April to 6.482 million, just short of the previous record of 6.643 million. Can someone please redirect all these people to the minimum wage, part time jobs that just opened up at US fast food retailers please?
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2011, 09:41:08 AM
Morning Jay: If Our 'Food Stamp Recovery' Persists, Obama Will Lose Big
Jay Cost
May 6, 2011 6:00 AM


I have noticed something unsettling in my own life lately: I know a lot of people who are on food stamps or some kind of extraordinary government assistance. The count right now stands around 10 people, which is a lot for a small town denizen such as myself.

That is a personal reminder of a very serious, yet rarely discussed economic, social, and indeed political problem: the fact that better than one out of seven Americans today requires government help to put food on the table.

The following graph is only for the hale and hearty:



The start date of this heartbreaking graph is important – June, 2009 is the point at which, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the economy hit bottom and began to recover.

What we see in this graph is one example of a persistent feature of the recovery to date. On the top-line of the economic data, it often appears as though we have filled in the hole that was dug by the Great Recession. Check out this graph of personal income per capita to appreciate that. However, it is largely an illusion, a product of deficit-financed government spending – in the form of things like food stamps, extraordinary unemployment benefits, and the relatively stable federal employment situation.

Call it the American "food stamp recovery:" take away the government supports, and the economic picture looks very bleak indeed. Two sobering features stand out.

First, the ability of the private sector to provide people with a stable standard of living is in a long-term decline, one that has only eased, not reversed, in recent months. The following graph captures this phenomenon by tracking real wages per capita derived from the private sector.



What we see here is that the private sector wages and salaries are actually at a thirteen-year low point when measured on a per capita basis, and the most recent reading (from Quarter I of 2011) showed a continued decline. The only “good” news is that the slope of the descent has eased.

Second, the empty spot in the national wallet generated by the breakdown of private wealth has been filled by a socialization of personal income directed by the government. The following graph tracks the share of personal income that comes from either government transfer payments or government salaries.



Yikes.

All of this leads to the next point. This has been the worst economic recovery in generations, at least as it is felt by the average American. Let’s be precise in our language here: we’re not talking about the recession itself; we’re talking about the recovery, which has entirely been on Barack Obama’s watch.

This is not rhetorical bluster, but empirical fact. The following graph demonstrates that by comparing employment in this recovery against every recovery since 1960. What I did was take the percentage of the adult population that was employed when NBER says a recovery began, set that as a baseline (100 percent) and tracked how this recovery stacks up against previous ones.





As we can see, this one is worse than any other in 50 years.           

Unsurprisingly, we also see weakness in terms of real per capita income, as the next graph demonstrates. I did something similar with this one – taking real income per capita (minus government transfer payments) at the point that NBER says a recovery began, setting that at 100 percent, and tracking how the current recovery stacks up against previous ones.





Taking the last two graphs together, the ultimate point is validated: this is the worst recovery in generations. The 2001 recovery saw similar weakness in terms of real income, but jobs bounced back better that time. What's more, the 2001 recession was substantially milder, so we should have expected a greater snap-back this time around.

On a cause-and-effect level, it’s hard to assign much blame to this president, or any president for that matter. As we can see from the last two graphs, the recoveries from the 1990, 2001, and 2007 recessions were all slow and unimpressive, suggesting that there are greater forces at play than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Indeed, the transition to a post-industrial economy might be the single biggest factor. The once-great anchors of the American economy – steel, automotive, rubber, and other industries – used to be able to lay workers off temporarily during a slowdown, then bring them back when demand picked up, as can be seen in this graph. But the industrial sector of the economy is today just a fraction of what it used to be, meaning that such a brisk rebound is no longer possible.

Obama does deserve some of the cause-and-effect blame for this recovery, mostly due to the terribly inefficient stimulus. I was recently in Washington and was able to snap this photograph, which should go down in the annals of history as a testament to Keynesianism run amok.



It goes without saying that there were better ways to generate a recovery than this, so Obama and congressional Democrats deserve some cause-and-effect blame for the pace of the rebound. (Side note: Two years after Congress appropriated the money for this project, it is still not completed.)

On a political level, the blame for the recovery goes entirely to President Obama. Indeed, looking at the polls on his handling of the economy, you can see that he is already taking the heat.

And so, we can lay down the following marker: if the economic recovery does not begin to show substantial improvement, the likes of which we have not really seen in the last two years, and if the GOP nominates a reasonably acceptable alternative, this president is going to lose in 2012, and the final result will not be close. Nobody gets reelected with employment way down, real income way down, and 14 percent of his fellow citizens on food stamps. Nobody.

And the president needs something more than a “recovery” in the sense that we’ve seen to date. When you start controlling for inflation, population growth, and government intervention, the recovery we’ve seen has only been, at best, a treading of water for average people. This president needs to see a significant improvement in real, per capita, and private metrics of personal economic vitality. Put simply, he needs something more than this "food stamp recovery" to win next year.

People who are giving such a heavy advantage to the president next year must be making at least one of two assumptions: (a) the economy is suddenly going to do better than it has done in the last two years; (b) the GOP nominates a dud.

On the Republican nomination front, Democrats and their friends in the mainstream media shouldn't count on that, for the reasons I elaborated here. And when it comes to the economic growth front, no more peeing on my leg while telling me it's raining: After two years of this disappointing, anemic, worst-in-several-generations, quote unquote recovery, I just don’t believe that the big, long-promised rebound is coming any time soon.

Instead, what I believe nowadays is that this president is in a huge amount of trouble, as we all are.


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Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 09, 2011, 05:19:45 AM
Check out these graphs.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2716564/posts

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 09, 2011, 05:55:39 AM


May 9, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT

Housing crash is getting worse: report
Commentary: But all this bearish news makes me bullish
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — If you thought the housing crisis was bad, think again.

It’s worse.

New data just out from Zillow, the real-estate information company, show house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the Lehman collapse.
• Pado: Summer stock pullback in the cards 144706 Average home prices are down 8% from a year ago, 3% over the quarter, and are falling at about 1% every month, according to Zillow.

And the percentage of homeowners in negative-equity positions — with a home worth less than its mortgage — has rocketed to 28%, a new crisis high.

Zillow now predicts prices will fall about 8% this year and says it no longer expects the market to bottom before 2012.

“There’s no way we can get to flat, from these depreciation levels, in the last nine months of the year,” says Zillow economist Stan Humphries. “Demand is a lot more anemic than we had previously thought.”

When in 2012 does Zillow see the market bottoming out? Humphries won’t say.

What a foolish boondoggle those tax breaks for home buyers have turned out to be. The government spent an estimated $22 billion between 2008 and 2010 on tax breaks to prop up the housing market. All it achieved was a brief suckers’ rally that ended last summer.

Click to Play  Zillow plots IPOOnline real-estate listings firm Zillow seeks to go public, looking to run with consumer-oriented Internet companies headed for IPOs like Facebook, Groupon and Pandora.
“As we said at the time, it was a giant waste of money,” says Mark Calabria, economist at the conservative Cato Institute. “None of these things really turned the housing market around. They just put off the adjustment for awhile.”

It’s hard to overestimate the scale of the carnage in the housing market. Zillow found prices fell in all but four U.S. metro areas.

Falling real-estate prices mean spiraling hidden losses throughout the economy, from banks to homeowners.

Remember Japan’s “zombie banks”? These were the financial institutions that haunted that country’s economic recovery after the 1990 crash. They staggered on with huge losses they could never repay — the walking dead.

Here in America we have “zombie homeowners.” Millions of them. According to Zillow, a record 16.3 million families are upside-down on their home loans. Sixteen million! And many are a long way upside-down. Their homes may never be worth as much as their mortgage. But they are hemorrhaging cash to pay the nut every month.



‘Demand is a lot more anemic than we had previously thought.’





Stan Humphries, Zillow


Recovery? What recovery? This looks a bit like a depression to me.

What does this mean?

All the misery makes me think of a great French general, Ferdinand Foch. He’s the one who defended Paris at the Battle of the Marne in World War I. During the darkest hour of the fighting, he is supposed to have looked around him and said:

“Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent — I attack!”

In other words, when it comes to distressed housing, I’m finding it hard not to be a contrarian bull.

Why? Am I crazy?

Well, maybe. But I’m a medium-bull for all the reasons everyone else is gloomy.

First, prices in many areas are now cheap. They have corrected a long way since the bubble began to burst five years ago. Of course, it depends on where you are. I’m still skeptical of the real-estate markets that have held up best — prime stuff like Manhattan, San Francisco or Beverly Hills. It’s hard to get a deal there.

But in the places that have fallen the furthest, there are deals aplenty. Zillow found only four metro areas in America that have leveled out, or risen, lately. Notably, two of those are in stricken Florida — Fort Myers and Sarasota. Have they fallen so far they’ve hit bottom? Maybe.



 

Look at this chart. It shows Miami real-estate prices, adjusted for inflation, over the past quarter-century, using Case-Shiller data. The picture is pretty remarkable. The gigantic bubble has been completely wiped out. We’re back to prices seen in the 1980s — when “Miami Vice” was on the air.

The second reason: There are tons of foreclosures and short sales on the market. And there are plenty more sitting in the wings. Banks are holding back big shadow inventories of homes. And that means you can get a great deal. They have to sell. You don’t have to buy. You hold all the cards. Remember, the name of the game isn’t “let’s make a deal.” It’s “take it or leave it.”

Third, in many places rental yields are terrific. It’s cheaper to own than to rent. There have been some forced sales in my building in Miami. Based on my math, the latest buyers have bought condominium units for six times gross annual rents, and maybe 12 times net rents. We’re talking net yields of 7% or more. And rents are rising, because so many former owners are now renters.

The fourth reason I’m bullish is that you can get a very cheap mortgage. Thirty-year conforming loans are going as low as 4.3%. Throw in the tax break on the interest, and you are talking cheap finance. See latest weekly mortgage-rate update.

The fifth reason is that, as painful as this collapse has been, real estate has historically proven to offer very good long-term protection against inflation. Returns have typically averaged about 1% or 2% above inflation. At a time when everyone has been piling into gold, commodities and TIPS bonds to protect themselves against the possibility of inflation, it seems odd that the most popular and successful hedge, namely real estate, goes a-begging.



TRADING STRATEGIES: MAY
Stay to play in May

While the temptation to sell in May is strong, there are reasons to stick around: from stocks that ignore the summer doldrums, to those that benefit from America's sports obsessions.


Not so fast. Steve Quirk, head of the Trader Group at TD Ameritrade, says large-cap stocks hold appeal, and suggests buying portfolio insurance while it's cheap.143702 Thirty-year TIPS bonds are yielding just 1.6% over inflation, and shorter-term bonds offer even lower returns. Short-term TIPS are actually offering negative real yields. How holding TIPS may actually make you poorer.

The sixth reason I’m bullish is perverse, but I’m sticking by it. Everyone else is bearish. You cannot find a real-estate bull anywhere. No one wants to own this asset. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to hear about it. Everyone seems to agree it’s just going down, down, down — forever.

They said much the same about stocks in 1987, 2002 and 2009; Treasury bonds in 1982; and gold in 2000. I cannot prove this is capitulation, but it sure smells something like it.

As ever, if you aren’t disciplined and patient, this probably isn’t for you.

I have absolutely no idea when real estate is going to hit rock bottom. It may take several years. I suspect it will do so in different markets at different times. But there are good homes out there going really cheap. If you hunt down the bargains, you’re disciplined about price, you get the right financing, and you hold on for five years or more, you’ll probably do pretty well from here.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 09, 2011, 01:40:58 PM
Almost half of Detroit unable to read
Russia Today ^ | May 6, 2011 | Russia Today




A study by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund found that 47 percent of adults in the city are ‘functionally illiterate’.

‘Functionally illiterate’ means they struggle with day-to-day tasks, like reading job applications, following a bus schedule or understanding product labels.

Those deemed illiterate however have been educated. The report indicated that the same group found to be ‘functionally illiterate’ had completed element education, where reading is taught and half of the group had either a high school diploma or a GED.

Nearly half of the city’s population lacks the necessary skills to work in even the most entry level and remedial jobs.

“Increasing adult educational attainment is critical to connecting the one in two city residents who are currently unemployed and underemployed to good jobs in our new economy,” said Karen Tyler-Ruiz, director of the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund. “This is a critical opportunity for Detroit, where we know that access to services to improve basic skills like reading and math are extremely limited in and around the city.”

Detroit however is not Michigan’s only problem spot. Surrounding cities and suburbs also show many residents are unable to adequately read. With a number of areas showing 24 percent to 34 percent of the area’s population is ‘functionally illiterate’.

The city, already in shambles due to the recession, experienced a major decline in population according to the 2010 US Census. The population fell by 25 percent, the city’s lowest numbers since 1910. Around one third of the city sits vacant and deteriorating.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: 225for70 on May 09, 2011, 02:14:13 PM
Them peoplez ain't be readin in Detroit ain't Obama's fault.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 09, 2011, 02:18:20 PM
Those people not being able to read in Detroit isn't Obama's fault.

Ha ha ha ha - its still a symbol of misery.    and considerin gobama promised to split the oceans and "we are the ones we have been waiting for", yes I blame him.    ;D  ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 10, 2011, 08:45:03 AM
Guest Post: $6.5 Trillion Lost, One House At A Time
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/10/2011 09:57 -0400
www.zerohedge.com




BLSBureau of Labor StatisticsFailGuest PostHousing BubblePurchasing PowerReal estateRealityToo Big To Fail


Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

$6.5 Trillion Lost, One House At A Time

The $6.5 trillion lost in the bursting of the housing bubble is not a "paper loss," it is tragically real.

Is anyone surprised that housing continues to slide? According to this report, Home Market Takes a Tumble: Turnaround More Distant After 3% Drop, Steepest Quarterly Decline Since 2008, housing has declined in value for 57 straight months, almost 5 years.

Since the housing bubble topped in most areas in 2006, and it's now 2011, that makes sense: 2006 + 5 = 2011.

American homeowners have lost $6.5 trillion in equity in those 57 months. Here is the data from the Fed Flow of Funds household balance sheet:

Homeowner's equity:
2006: $12.8 trillion
2011: $6.3 trillion

Net decline: $6.5 trillion

That is a big number, and the analysis I presented in The Housing Bubble Broke the Middle Class (April 27, 2011) suggested that this $6.5 trillion was roughly half of the middle class's total net assets.

It's difficult to grasp such large numbers, so let's look at some actual houses. The sales price of houses is public record, and more or less at random, here is a selection of recent home sales here in Northern California. I purposefully selected sales from a spectrum of neighborhoods ranging from working-class to very desirable, exclusive suburbs (the price will telegraph the property's desirability).

The key point here is that these catastrophic losses are taken by someone: either the homeowner, the lender, or the taxpayer. The gains were paper, but the losses are real. That is the ongoing tragedy of the housing bubble.

1. Recent sale: $820,000
Last sold 2007: $1.172 million
Nominal loss: $355,000
(does not include transaction costs or losses due to inflation)

Even if owner put down 30%, their equity was wiped out.

2. Recent sale: $110,000
Last sold 2005: $370,000
Nominal loss: $260,000

3. Recent sale: $160,000
Last sold 2004: $455,000
Nominal loss: $295,000

4 Recent sale: $175,000
Last sold 1999: $205,000
Nominal loss: $30,000

Nationally, prices have round-tripped to 2003, but that masks the reality that in many locales, prices have returned to 1998 or even lower.

This is a home in a very desirable suburb:

5. Recent sale: $650,000
Last sold 2005: $1.25 million
Nominal loss: $600,000

If you add up the losses from just these four homes purchased in the bubble era, the loss exceeds $1.5 million. That is a staggering loss from only four homes. Now multiple that by hundreds of thousands of homes.

Here are two homes in less desirable ("rough") neighborhoods:

6. Recent sale: $85,000
Last sold 2004: $295,000
Nominal loss: $210,000

7. Recent sale: $135,000
Last sold 2005: $419,000
Nominal loss: $284,000

Sadly, the subprime mortgage fraud enabled the "dream" of effortless profits from owning and churning real estate to filter down to even marginal areas. The bubble put real estate out of reach of qualified moderate-income buyers, and yet it was touted as a wonderful "innovation." It was certainly wonderful for Wall Street and those who originated the embezzlement-special mortgages, but less so for the taxpayers who were handed the bill to save the "too big to fail" banks and investment banks.

8. Recent sale: $255,000
Last sold 1996: $189,500
Nominal gain: $65,500

This is interesting because it offers an example of the pernicious effects of even "low" inflation. As we are constantly reminded, the U.S. has been in a "low inflation" environment for decades. This is of course a key part of the propaganda campaign to mask the severe erosion in wages' purchasing power.

On the face of it, the home seller pocketed a hefty profit of $65,500. But let's factor in commission and inflation. The transaction costs (commission, closing, transfer fees, etc.) are typically around 7%, so the actual net capital gains would be around $47,500, not $65,500.

According to the BLS inflation calculator, which likely underestimates "real" inflation, it now takes $270,000 to buy what $190,000 bought in 1996.

So the owner actually lost purchasing power in owning this house for 15 years. Minus commission and closing costs, the proceeds were around $237,000, which is about $33,000 less than the inflation-adjusted break-even point of $270,000.

Yes, there is the mortgage deduction and tax breaks to factor in, but considered strictly as an investment, the nominal and real gains in real estate still matter.

Put another way: a house purchased in 1996 for $100,000 has to be worth $142,000 today just to keep up with inflation. Factoring in transactions costs, then the house would have to be sold for roughly $152,000 for the owner to extract $142,000--the sum needed to simply maintain purchasing power.

In other words, a house that rose 50% over the past 15 years has simply kept pace with inflation. The nominal "gain" is utterly illusory.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 11, 2011, 07:07:22 PM
Free Republic
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Skip to comments.

Dollar in graver danger than the euro
Financial Times ^ | Axel Merk
Posted on May 11, 2011 9:58:10 PM EDT by cornfedcowboy

Imagine a country that spends and prints trillions to patch up any problem.

Now imagine another country where there is no central Treasury, meaning that bail-outs are less easy, and which has a central bank that has mopped up liquidity over the past year, rather than engage in quantitative easing.

Why does it surprise anyone that the latter, the eurozone, has a stronger currency than the former, the US? Because of peripheral countries’ debt refinancing issues? And the potential for contagion? These are real and serious issues, but in our assessment, they should be primarily priced into the spreads of eurozone bonds, not the euro itself.

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

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on May 11, 2011, 07:45:13 PM
Some of the losses for the homes in less desirable neighborhoods is incredible. wow...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 11, 2011, 07:52:13 PM
Some of the losses for the homes in less desirable neighborhoods is incredible. wow...

I have been holding out forever buying a house.  Prices are still way too high. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 12, 2011, 09:34:59 AM
Related News:Markets Magazine  · Science .Desperate Americans Buy Kidneys From Peru Poor in Fatal Trade
By Michael Smith - May 12, 2011 12:01 AM ET Bloomberg Markets Magazine
(Bloomberg) --



Francis Delmonico, a Harvard Medical School professor and surgeon, talks with Bloomberg's Michael Smith about the illicit market for organ transplants. Affluent, often desperately ill patients travel to countries such as Egypt, Peru and the Philippines, where poor people sell them their organs. Elisabeth Tercero, whose son died after having a kidney removed in Nicaragua, and Vilma Bramon, a victim of botched surgery in Peru, also speak through translation. (Source: Bloomberg)


Luis Picado’s mother remembers the day her son thought he had won the lottery. He came home to their tin-roofed cinder-block house in a Managua, Nicaragua, slum and said he’d found a way to escape poverty and start a new life in the United States.

An American man had promised to give Picado, a 23-year-old high school dropout who worked as a construction laborer, a job and an apartment in New York if he’d donate one of his kidneys. He jumped at the deal, his mother says.

Three weeks later, in May 2009, Picado came out of surgery at Managua’s Military Hospital, bleeding internally from the artery doctors had severed to remove his kidney, according to medical records. His mother, Elizabeth Tercero, got on her knees next to her son’s bed in the recovery room and prayed, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its June issue.

“I told my boy not to worry, that I would take care of him,” Tercero, 49, says. “But it was too late.” Picado bled to death as doctors tried to save him, according to a coroner’s report. “He was always chasing the American dream, and finally, it cost him his life,” she says.

Matthew Ryan, the American man, suffered a similar fate. Ryan, a 68-year-old retired bus company supervisor in New York, died two months after receiving Picado’s kidney in the same hospital.

Nicaraguan postmortem reports cited the transplant as a cause of death for both men. Prosecutors in Managua are now investigating whether anyone broke a Nicaraguan law that prohibits paying a donor for an organ.

Illicit Market
The two men were participants in a growing and illicit market for organ transplants that spans the globe. Every year, about 5,000 gravely ill people from countries including the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia pay others to donate an organ, says Francis Delmonico, a Harvard Medical School professor and surgeon. The practice is illegal in every country except Iran, Delmonico says.

Affluent, often desperately ill patients travel to countries such as Egypt, Peru and the Philippines, where poor people sell them their organs. In Latin America, the transplants are usually arranged by unlicensed brokers. They’re performed -- for fees -- by accredited surgeons, some of whom have trained at the world’s leading medical schools.

The global demand for organs far exceeds the available supply. In the U.S., 110,693 people are on waiting lists for organs, and fewer than 15,000 donors are found annually.

Americans who go abroad for illicit transplants can contract infections or HIV from unhealthy donors, posing a public health threat when they return, Delmonico says.

‘Exploit the Patient’
“With all the anxiety in getting a transplant, they exploit the patient,” says Delmonico, who is president-elect of the Montreal-based Transplantation Society, which lobbies governments to crack down on trafficking. “It’s big money.”

The illegal organ trade is the ugly side of the otherwise legal medical tourism industry, in which people travel to other countries for cut-rate hip replacements, tummy tucks and gastric bypasses. The legitimate medical procedures generated about $100 billion in revenue in 2010, according to a report by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.

For decades, wealthy Brazilians, Mexicans and Saudis have gone to U.S. and European hospitals for medical care they couldn’t get at home. In the past decade, that pattern has changed. Hospitals from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Medellin, Colombia, now lure middle-class Americans with promises of high- quality care at a fraction of what it would cost them at home.

Medical tourism company MedToGo LLC, based in Tempe, Arizona, says it will offer kidney transplants in Mexico and Costa Rica for about $50,000, a fifth of the cost in the U.S.

Preying on the Poor
In the illegal organ trade, brokers scour the world’s slums, preying on the poor with promises of easy money and little risk in exchange for a kidney. Inside hospitals, people are injured or killed by botched surgery as doctors place money above ethics, criminal investigators say.

In Colombia, 321 foreigners got transplants from 2005 to 2010, according to the country’s National Health Institute. Juan Lopez, a doctor who oversees Colombia’s organ transplant system as director of the NHI, says many of these surgeries are driven by profit for hospitals, doctors and brokers.

“I don’t want my country to be a Mecca for transplant tourism,” Lopez says. He’s gone to court to try to stop 23 organ transplants for foreigners since 2010, he says.

In Peru, Rafael Peraldo, a taxi driver who’s under investigation for being an organ broker, has plied Lima’s dusty slums since at least 2005, according to five people who say in interviews that they sold kidneys to him.

‘Spare-Parts Bank’
Peraldo paid as little as $5,000, the five people say.

Patients who bought these organs paid as much as $150,000, prosecutors have found.

“The poor have become a spare-parts bank for the well-to- do,” says University of California, Berkeley, anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who specializes in organ trafficking.

The Peruvian National Prosecutor’s Office is investigating 61 transplants in seven of Lima’s top hospitals since 2004, documents in the case show. Peraldo is one of 150 brokers, doctors, nurses and others under investigation, says Jesus Asencios, the prosecutor leading the probe.

Peraldo says in a telephone interview that he’s done nothing wrong; he says he won’t say more until the investigation is completed.

Because people with kidney failure are always in poor health, a transplant is never a guaranteed cure. Still, legal transplants have a high probability of success. More than 75 percent of the recipients of kidney transplants in the U.S. live for more than 10 years, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Perils Abound
Donors usually do fine; they can live a normal life span with just one of their two kidneys. In the illicit trade, by contrast, perils abound for all participants.

Organs removed by surgeons in Peru from 2004 to 2010 went to ill men and women from the U.S., Chile, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela, according to hospital records and prosecutors’ interviews with donors and doctors.

One of those patients was Oscar Soberon, the wealthy founder of a Mexico City computer systems company. After about a year of enduring dialysis sessions to survive kidney failure, Soberon negotiated a transplant at a Lima hospital with Peruvian doctor Christian Miranda, for $125,000, Soberon told prosecutors before he died.

On Nov. 1, 2009, doctors transplanted a kidney from a baker into Soberon. Eleven weeks after surgery, Soberon was dead, his body ravaged by infection, his medical records show.

Waiting Lists
The kidney is a fist-sized organ that continuously filters blood to clear waste from the body. Toxins are flushed into the bladder, which removes them. When a kidney fails, doctors use a machine system called dialysis to circulate and clean blood. A patient with kidney failure will die quickly without dialysis or a transplant.

In legal transplants, a kidney patient typically turns to relatives willing to donate one of their kidneys, or goes onto a waiting list if no one volunteers. A hospital screens potential donors, reviewing their health records, blood type and body tissue to ensure they’re medically compatible.

The illicit organ trade is dangerous for the donor and patient because criminals take shortcuts, such as accepting organs from people who are sick and wouldn’t be approved by hospitals in the U.S., says Gabriel Danovitch, medical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It’s a filthy business in the same subcategory as the sex trade and child pornography,” Danovitch says. “That is why it has to be stopped.”

It’s hard to stop critically ill people who are in a race against death from seeking solutions outside the official transplant system, especially if they have the money and connections to do something about it.

Ryan, the retired New York bus line supervisor, used his son-in-law in Managua to set up a deal for a kidney, says Picado’s boss, who overheard the offer. The chain of events that brought Ryan together with the 23-year-old Picado began in 2009.

Ryan, known by relatives as a quiet, levelheaded man who rarely got angry, had been living a grueling existence since his kidneys failed in 2007. He lived in Cedarhurst, New York, near John F. Kennedy International Airport, with his wife, Lily Molina, an immigrant from Nicaragua, and underwent four-hour dialysis sessions three times a week.

Welts covered his arms, where medical workers inserted tubes into his veins. Like many kidney patients, Ryan was seeking a transplant.

“He was on a waiting list but was suffering a lot,” says Molina, 53, who first met Ryan when she worked at a Wendy’s restaurant in 2001. They married in 2005.

In March 2009, Ryan traveled to Nicaragua for vacation. He stayed with his stepdaughter, Julissa Molina, and her husband, Elvis Hernandez, in their two-bedroom home near Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport.

The house was being remodeled by Picado and his boss, Erick Bermudez, who remembers how the subject of transplants came up.

“Elvis said Ryan’s kidneys were bad and he needed a transplant,” says Bermudez, sitting in the windowless, dirt- floored room he rents in Managua.

Two months later, in May 2009, Ryan offered Picado a deal, says Bermudez. He says he heard the entire conversation as he stood a few feet away. Using his stepson as an interpreter, Ryan said he would arrange for a coyote, or human smuggler, to transport Picado illegally to New York if he donated a kidney, Bermudez says.

Picado went over the details of the offer several times, he says.

“Luis said they would give him a $5,000 gift for his kidney,” Bermudez says. “They told him everything he wanted to hear.”

For years, Picado, who had a round face and thick, curly black hair, had talked about going to the U.S. to escape the poverty that plagued just about everyone he knew, says his mother, Elizabeth Tercero.

“Luis said the gringo would take him to New York and he’d never have to worry about anything else,” Tercero says. “I begged him not to do it. It could be dangerous. But he wouldn’t listen.”

Hernandez says there wasn’t any promise of compensation for Picado.

“Luis did it altruistically,” he says. “Maybe Matthew said he would try to help him out, but there was no offer of any money.”

Ryan’s widow, Lily Molina, says her husband told her Picado had donated voluntarily and he never gave him any cash.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 12, 2011, 09:35:52 AM
So much for obamacare -  ha ha ha ha - you fucking assholes.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 13, 2011, 08:49:10 AM
New Yorkers under 30 plan to flee city, says new poll; cite high taxes, few jobs as reasons
New York Daily News.com ^ | May 13,2011 | Kenneth Lovett




Escape from New York is not just a movie - it's also a state of mind.

A new Marist College poll shows that 36% of New Yorkers under the age of 30 are planning to leave New York within the next five years - and more than a quarter of all adults are planning to bolt the Empire State.

The New York City suburbs, with their high property values and taxes, are leading the exodus, the poll found.

Of those preparing to leave, 62% cite economic reasons like cost of living, taxes - and a lack of jobs.

"A lot of people are questioning the affordability of the state," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

An additional 38% cite climate, quality of life, overcrowding, a desire to be closer to family, retirement or schools.

The latest census showed New York's overall population actually increased, though parts of upstate shed population and jobs.

A full 53% think the worst is yet to come for the state's economy, while 44% say things should start improving.

"As the state of the economy fails to recover, New Yorkers see this not as a sluggish rebound, but as a sluggish economy," Miringoff said.

During a visit to Buffalo yesterday, Gov. Cuomo yesterday said attracting and retaining jobs is a priority for his administration.

"We have to keep jobs here and we have to develop new jobs," he said. "And we want to start bringing back jobs from other parts of the country."
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 13, 2011, 10:11:07 AM
Medicare Financing to Run Out in 2024 Without Fix
By Drew Armstrong - May 13, 2011 12:08 PM ET


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/medicare-financing-to-run-out-in-2024-without-fix.html



Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, won’t have sufficient money to pay full benefits starting in 2024, five years earlier than last year’s estimate.

Social Security, the federal program that provides income to retirees, will run out of funds for paying full benefits in 2036, one year sooner than projected last year, the U.S. government said today in an annual report on the program.

Both projections have been affected by a slower-than- anticipated economic recovery, according to the report. The estimates for funding add urgency to negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on ways to cut spending to reduce the U.S. budget deficit.

“Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative corrections if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided,” according to the report summary.

The 2010 health-care overhaul backed by Democrats extended the life of Medicare, though more must be done to shore up the program’s long-term funding, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement distributed with the report.

“If action is taken sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that those affected can adequately prepare,” he said in the statement. “If we do not do more to contain health-care costs, our commitments will become unsustainable.”

Republicans demanding that the U.S. cut its budget deficit have proposed privatizing Medicare by giving individuals a subsidy to buy coverage from private insurers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in Washington at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 13, 2011, 01:39:46 PM
Social Security deficits now ‘permanent’
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
12:55 p.m., Friday, May 13, 2011



Social Security will run a permanent yearly deficit when looking at the program's tax revenues compared to what it must pay out in benefits, the program's trustees said Friday in a report that found both the outlook for Social Security and Medicare, the two major federal social safety-net programs, have worsened over the last year.

Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund is now slated to run out of money in 2024, or five years earlier than last year's projection, while Social Security's trust fund will be exhausted by 2036, a year earlier than the prior projection.

The trustees stressed that exhaustion of the trust funds doesn't mean the programs will stop paying all benefits. Social Security could fund about three-fourths of benefits past 2036, and Medicare could pay 90 percent of benefits past 2024 under current trends.

The figures come as Congress and President Obama are wrestling over whether to make major changes to the entitlement spending, and Republicans said the new projections should force the debate to turn in their direction.

"Today's report makes it clearer than ever that doing nothing is not an option. The failure to act means current as well as future beneficiaries, will face significant cuts even sooner than previously estimated," said three top House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees both programs.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the managing trustee of the boards of trustees for the two programs, said the report shows the need to act "sooner rather than later," but said Mr. Obama has actually put forward an outline calling for changes to stabilize the finances for the major entitlements programs.

And Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued that Medicare would have been in worse shape without the new health care law Democrats passed last year, which reduced billions of dollars of Medicare payments.

Social Security began running an annual deficit in 2010 when looking at tax income and benefit payments. The gap right now is made up by payments from the trust fund, which in theory has built up over the years when the program ran an annual surplus.

Charles Blahous, one of the trustees, said the gap between tax revenues and benefit payments is now "a permanent feature of the program's finances going forward."

Still, Michael Astrue, the Social Security Administration's commissioner, said the gap was not a major issue compared with the broad size and scope of Social Security.

"It is a rounding error in terms of its significance, in my opinion," he said.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 15, 2011, 07:09:15 PM
ExtraPundit 5/15/2011
Shadow Stat: Misery Index Highest on Record

John Williams, over at Shadow Stats, compiles economic data for inflation and unemployment the way it used to be calculated pre-1990. Based on that data, the CPI inflation rate is over 10%, and the unemployment rate is over 15% (see charts). The Misery Index is the sum of the current inflation rate and the unemployment rate. If it were to be calculated using the older methods, the Index would now be over 25, a record high. It surpasses the old index high of 21.98, which occurred in June 1980, when Jimmy Carter was president. Most believe the height of the Index along with the Iranian hostage crisis is what caused Carter to lose his re-election bid.







Using current calculation methods, April unemployment came in at 9.0% and the annualized April CPI number came in at 4.8%, for a Misery Index reading of 13.8.

The last time the Index came in with a higher reading with this index reading was in March 1983, with a reading of 13.90.
EconomicPolicyJournal.co m: Shadow Stat Misery Index Highest on Record

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Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 15, 2011, 07:42:42 PM
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Geithner Admits: There Are NO Trust Funds
Market Ticker ^ | May 15, 2011 | Karl Denninger
Posted on May 15, 2011 10:45:26 PM EDT by MulberryDraw

Note this one well folks:

"Medicare, the government health plan for seniors, will exhaust its principal trust fund five years sooner than previously thought, which could heighten pressure on the White House and Congress to change the program as part of deficit-reduction negotiations."

Wait a second.... didn't we just hear this from Timmy about the need to borrow more money?

"If the United States were forced to stop, limit or delay payment on obligations to which the Nation has already committed - such as military salaries, Social Security and Medicare, tax refunds, contractual payments to businesses for goods and services, and payments to our investors...."

Busted jackass.

Tim Geithner just admitted in writing that there is no trust fund - there is no money - the Government in fact blew every last penny of it.

You, America, have been serially lied to about these so-called "trust funds."

THEY DO NOT EXIST.

(Excerpt) Read more at market-ticker.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 15, 2011, 08:15:42 PM
James Pethokoukis
Politics and policy from inside Washington

» SEE ALL ANALYSIS AND OPINION
The Obama Misery Index
APR 29, 2011 15:45 EDT
     
inShare
   
2012 ELECTION | US POLITICS
The Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment) through March was 11.48 percent (2.68 percent, 8.8 percent). By comparison, it was 10.52 percent in 1992 when Bill Clinton handily beat George Bush.  (It was nearly 21 percent in 1980 when Ronald Reagan crushed Jimmy Carter.) In fact, it has not been double digits for an entire year since Bush I’s first term. This goes along way in explaining why trust in Obama’s handling of the economy has collapsed. And a new Gallup Poll finds that Americans prefer the GOP budget approach to that of Democrats by 48 percent to 36 percent.

Also keep in mind how rising gas and food prices are eating into incomes. Real disposable income (personal income after taxes and adjusted for inflation) increased only 0.1% after being flat in February.

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 05:01:41 AM
Source: Washington Post

The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government loses its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has warned for months that the government would soon hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much it can borrow. With the government poised to reach that limit Monday, Geithner is undertaking special measures in an effort to postpone the day when he will no longer have enough funds to pay all of the government’s bills.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/treasury...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 06:16:55 AM
Why the Job Market Feels So Dismal
The number of hires is the same today as it was when we were shedding jobs at record rates.
By EDWARD P. LAZEAR
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576317142210698436.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments






Why don't American workers feel that the labor market is on the mend? After all, the May 6 jobs report could suggest that the labor market is improving. Nonfarm employment rose by 244,000 and employment growth over the last three months is averaging over 200,000 per month. With unemployment at 9%, employment is still down many millions from where it should be, but up from its recession lows.

The fact is the jobs numbers that create so much anticipation from the business press and so many pundit pronouncements do not give a clear picture of the labor market's health. A better understanding requires an examination of hires and separations, or what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data. Here are some surprising facts:

First, the increase in job growth that occurred over the past two years results from a decline in the number of layoffs, not from increased hiring. In February 2009, a month during which the labor market lost more than 700,000 jobs, employers hired four million workers. In March 2011, employers hired four million workers. The number of hires is the same today as it was when we were shedding jobs at record rates.

We added jobs because hires exceeded separations, not because hiring increased. There were 4.7 million separations in February 2009. In March 2011 that number had fallen to 3.8 million. The fall in separations reflects a decline in layoffs, which went from 2.5 million per month in February 2009 to 1.6 million per month in March 2011. One small piece of good news is that the just-released April data showed hires up about 2% over last year's average and 12% above the low reached in January 2010.

The decline in layoffs is not unexpected and does not necessarily reflect labor-market health. Layoffs tend to occur early in a recession. When an economy has reached bottom and has already shed much of its labor, layoffs slow. But that doesn't mean that the labor force is recovering. We could have high unemployment and a stagnant labor force even when layoffs are low. Isn't the fact that hires exceed separations indicative of a healthy labor market? Unfortunately, no.

At any point in the business cycle, even during a recession, American firms still hire a huge number of workers. That's because most of the action in the labor market reflects "churn," the continual process of replacing workers, not net expansion or contraction of employment. The lowest number hired in any month of the current recession was 3.6 million workers. Even during the dismal year of 2009 there were more than 45 million hires.

Bear in mind that the U.S. labor force has more than 150 million workers or job seekers. In a typical year, about one-third or more of the work force turns over, leaving their old jobs to take new ones. When the labor market creates 200,000 jobs, it is because five million are hired and 4.8 million are separated, not because there were 200,000 hires and no job losses. When we're talking about numbers as large as five million, the net of 200,000 is small and may reflect minor, month-to-month variations in the number of hires or separations.

The third fact puts this in perspective. In a healthy labor market like the one that prevailed in 2006 and early 2007, American firms hire about 5.5 million workers per month. Recall that the current number of hires is four million and it has not moved much from where it was two years ago. The labor market does not feel like it is expanding if hiring is not occurring at a recovery-level pace—and that means at least a half million more hires per month than we are seeing now.

The combination of low hiring and a large stock of unemployed workers, now 13.7 million, means that the competition for jobs is fierce. Because there are now many more unemployed workers, and because hiring is only about 70% of 2006 levels, a worker is about one-third as likely to find a job today as he or she was in 2006. It is no wonder that workers do not feel that the labor market has recovered.

One final fact is worth noting. Healthy labor markets are characterized not only by high levels of hiring, but also by high levels of separations. Although it is true that the importance of quits relative to layoffs rises during good times, even the number of layoffs was greater in the strong labor market of 2006-07 than it is now. No one would suggest that layoffs are good for workers, but what is good is a fluid labor market, where workers and firms constantly seek to produce better products and to find more efficient ways to produce them. High labor market churn is a characteristic of a strong economy. It generally means that workers are moving to better jobs in growing sectors that pay higher wages and away from declining sectors that pay lower wages.

Allowing maximum flexibility encourages fluidity and means that employers are willing to hire workers who lose their jobs elsewhere. Many European countries have restricted mobility by imposing severance pay penalties on employers that lay workers off. More than reducing layoffs, these rigidities make employers reluctant to hire because of the penalties that they will later incur if a layoff is necessary. Such restrictions are in large part responsible for the chronically high rates of unemployment that have been prevalent in many European countries.

The prescription for the American labor market is simple: low taxes on capital investment, avoidance of excessively burdensome regulation, and open markets here and abroad. We must create a climate in which investment is profitable, productivity is rising, and employers find it profitable to increase their hiring rate. These are the mantras that economists have chanted in the past. But they are our best bet for ensuring a dynamic and growing labor market.

Mr. Lazear, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 2006-2009, is a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a Hoover Institution fellow.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 16, 2011, 06:47:50 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/empire-state-manufacturing-index-plunges-comes-119-down-217-and-big-miss-expectations-1955[/b]]http://www.zerohedge.com/article/empire-state-manufacturing-index-plunges-comes-119-down-217-and-big-miss-expectations-1955 (http://[b)

Empire State Manufacturing Index Plunges, Comes At 11.9 Down From 21.7, And Big Miss To Expectations Of 19.55
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/16/2011 08:37 -0400

Empire Manufacturing Index Empire State Manufacturing Gross Domestic Product Stagflation

And the US stagflation continues. The just released Empire Manufacturing index has plunged nearly by half from 21.7 to 11.9 in May. The general business conditions index fell ten points to 11.9. The new orders index declined fi ve points to 17.2, and the shipments index slipped three points to 25.8. The inventories index climbed to 10.8, its highest level in a year. The prices paid index rose to  69.9, its highest level since mid-2008, and the second highest ever, while the prices received index held firm at 28.0. And more on the stagflation as defined by the ongoing surge in Prices Paid: "The prices paid index rose sharply, indicating that price increases accelerated over the month. The index advanced twelve points to 69.9, its highest level since mid- 2008, with roughly 70 percent of respondents reporting price increases, and none reporting price declines. This index has moved up a cumulative fifty points over thepast six months." Downward GDP revisions are a-coming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More bad news.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 06:54:43 AM
Obama's high energy price policies are coming home to roost.   Like in 2007-2008 when $4 gas prices were the spark that collapsed the economy, so it will be again. 

Everything this govt has been doing has made every existing problem worse.   

1.  Energy prices - check
2.  Health care inflation - check
3.  Weak dollar policy - check
4.  Out of control regulatory agencies - check
5.  Regulatory and tax uncertainty - check 


If someone paid me millions of dollars to come up with a better way to collapse the nation, I don't think I could do better than Obama Admn and the horrible policies we have been following could do.     
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 09:36:02 AM
In bad economy, drivers buckling under traffic tickets
St. Pete Times ^ | Monday, May 16, 2011 | By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer






Rosemary Smith saw the motorcycle cop's flashing lights behind her, and her eyes immediately started to well up.

She was going 17 mph over the speed limit and faced a $256 fine, the officer told her after she pulled into a parking lot off Fourth Street N.

As she fought back tears, her life story spilled out. She was a full-time college student, her only income from part-time work as a bank teller. She had a wedding coming up in November.

"I've got house bills to pay," said Smith, 21, visibly shaken as she clutched the wheel of her blue Saturn. "I'm freaking out."

Motorists complaining about tickets is nothing new for traffic cops. But officers say they are sensing growing distress.

"A day doesn't go by when I don't see someone cry," said Officer Mauricio Steffek. "They can't believe how much the ticket costs. They'll tell me, 'Give me a break. I don't have a job now. I'm falling behind the mortgage or car payments.' "

Once a minor, if stressful, inconvenience, the everyday traffic citation is becoming a life altering breaking point for many.

And more and more, drivers aren't paying them — creating a ripple effect in city and county budgets across Tampa Bay.

In St. Petersburg, the money collected from traffic tickets has dropped from $681,000 in 2008 to $494,214 in 2010. It's projected to dwindle even further this year — despite the fact that police handed out 1,500 more tickets last year than they did in 2008.

"It's a drastic drop that means we have to find revenue from other places," said Tim Finch, St. Petersburg's director of budget and management. "It makes it tougher on other departments."

Pinellas County has seen its ticket revenue fall by $700,000 in two years. In Tampa, police estimate they will bring in $900,000 less than they did in 2008. In Hillsborough, fine collections are down nearly $3 million since 2008.

"It's directly related to the economy," said Hillsborough Clerk of Courts Pat Frank. "People are being more cautious because they can't afford it. And police officers are more reluctant to give out tickets when the fines are more costly."

In recent years, Florida's tax adverse politicians have raised fees to generate new revenue. Traffic law-flouting motorists are a tempting target because they don't garner public sympathy.

State lawmakers in 2009 approved new measures to produce more than $63 million, all from the pockets of wayward motorists. Included: a new $10 charge on all traffic infractions, cutting an 18 percent discount for attending traffic school, and a $25 increase for exceeding the speed limit by 15 to 29 mph.

Local governments tack on more charges. In Pinellas County, for instance, each citation can get assessed an extra $30 for court costs; $3 for driver education safety programs; $3 for teen court; and $2 to pay for public safety applicant screenings.

Tickets range from $62 for a bicycle infraction to $456 for traveling 20 to 29 mph over the limit in a school or construction zone. If a driver is hit with multiple violations, such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt and having an expired tag, fines can climb to nearly $700.

In times like these, a ticket can be a severe blow to those living paycheck to paycheck.

Officers have the discretion to waive the ticket if they think the driver would be better served with a warning. Traffic cops like to say it's about public safety, not the money.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Steffek listened to Smith's tale of woe. He called up her driving history. Clean. He decided to waive the fine.

"It would have been hard for me to pay," said Smith, grateful and smiling.

As she drove away, Steffek said he had imagined himself in her predicament.

"She was shaking really bad," he said. "She was scared."

• • •

Pain felt by drivers is so evident their biggest supporters are often the cops who stop them.

"Our deputies feel that because of the way the economy is, they give out a lot more warnings," said Detective Larry McKinnon, Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman.

Same with Pinellas.

"We're very aware of some of the cost," said spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. "If there is an opportunity to write a warning, rather than write a citation, that's what we'll do."

In many cases, deputies won't write multiple citations like they did in the past. If someone with a clean driving record is caught speeding without wearing a seat belt, McKinnon said, they'll be cited for a seat belt violation.

"We're more tolerant," he said. "People have lost their jobs and are struggling. A lot of times you'll see families in the car. How do you write someone a $700 ticket when they have a carload of kids?"

Empathy comes with a price.

Pinellas is on track to write 2,000 fewer tickets than it did two years ago. Hillsborough tickets dropped by 40,000 from 2008 to 2010. Not all of that stemmed from deputies waiving tickets, McKinnon said.

The other reason also is economic: There are fewer deputies out there writing tickets.

In St. Petersburg, police are handing out more tickets than ever, but fewer people are paying, said Lt. William Korinek, who oversees traffic enforcement.

"People are saying that the tickets are too expensive," Korinek said. "For the most part, they're not criminals. They're people like you and me, average people going about their day. "

On a recent Tuesday, Chris Robinson, a retired 64-year-old, was running errands when he was stopped for speeding.

He was going 48 mph in a 35 mph zone. The fine: $206.

"I can't pay it," Robinson said as his shoulders sagged and he cradled his face in his hand. "I'm on a fixed income. It's going to kill me."

Fined drivers can pay the full sum within 30 days, or spread the fine out in six monthly installments.

An increasingly popular option: People can work off the debt with community service.

"Economic conditions are driving that," said Hazel Bure, director of the court and operational services at the Pinellas County Clerk of Court. "The traffic fines are very high."

Drivers calculate the hours they need to work for a nonprofit by dividing the fine by the $7.25 hourly minimum wage. A $206 fine would be almost 29 hours. The fine isn't waived until the courts get a verification letter from the nonprofit.

The option is a boon to groups like Habitat for Humanity. Since 2008, the nonprofit has seen the number of people volunteering to pay off tickets double to about 12 a week, said Kevin Klucas, the group's volunteer coordinator.

"It works well for us, and hopefully becomes a good experience for them, too," Klucas said.

While some turn the experience into a productive one, officials say others let a ticket disrupt their lives. If a fine isn't paid, a motorist's driver's license is suspended, a misdemeanor that can mean going to jail. The state doesn't track the number of suspended licenses, but some law enforcement officers say there has been a rise.

A look at Pinellas County jail records show that more than 7,000 people were processed for that charge since 2005.

The majority of those were people arrested on the charge for the second or third time.

• • •

During rush hour last week, Steffek and fellow St. Petersburg Officer Chris Dort stopped more than a dozen drivers in two hours. Nearly everyone fretted about the fine.

"I work hard and make just enough to pay my bills," said Bob Samples, a 47-year-old restaurant worker facing a $206 speeding ticket. John Zurek was looking at $256 for going 17 mph over the limit. A 20-year-old St. Petersburg College student who recently quit his job at a sandwich shop, Zurek said he didn't know where he'd get the money.

Whatever strain motorists are feeling, it may only get worse.

St. Petersburg officials are installing red light cameras to catch offenders and will likely start handing out $158 tickets this summer. Hillsborough County already does. Tampa soon will.

"I feel bad for some of these drivers," Dort said. "People are busy. They're running around, trying to make ends meet. It's real rough out there."


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 11:32:26 AM
Double Digit Inflation has Arrived
USAWatchdog ^ | 16 May 2011 | Greg Hunter




New inflation figures were released by the government last week, and the news was not good. The headline inflation number was 3.2% in the 12 months that ended in April. That is more than a percent above the Federal Reserve’s “target” rate of 2% and the first time it has been more than 3% in over than 2 ½ years. Of course, the accounting gimmicks used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) understate true inflation, so things look better than reality. Nonetheless, in the latest report from economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com, even the government’s own “official” numbers will likely show double digit inflation in the next three months or so. The reason is continued money printing in the form of another round of Quantitative Easing (QE) by the Fed to prop up the struggling economy. Williams said, “The underlying pace of official inflation is accelerating, and could move into double-digits in third-quarter 2011. Preceding or coincident with that likely will have been some move to QE3 by the Fed and intense—if not panicked—selling of the U.S. dollar and dollar-denominated assets. Such a circumstance could be a base from which a hyperinflation might begin to unfold with some rapidity.”

And get this, inflation is already in double digits, according to Williams, if it was calculated the way BLS did it more than 30 years ago. Williams said, “. . . based on reporting of 1980, the April 2011 annual inflation rate would have been about 10.7%.” But, the double digit inflation story is not the one the mainstream media likes to tell. Instead, it usually focuses on what the government calls “core” inflation that excludes food and energy. The “core” inflation rate is .2%. Who lives in a world where the core of existence is not food and energy?


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 01:45:41 PM
Poll shows Americans getting more pessimistic on economy, want spending cuts
Hotair ^ | May 16,2011 | Edward Morrissey




And in other news, water is wet. Anyone paying attention to the polls will not see any significant change over the last few months. Voters don’t want new taxes, and they are more worried now than last year about economic retreat:

Forty-six percent of voters say they feel worse off than they did a year ago, almost three times as many as the 16 percent who feel more affluent. Around one-third of voters — 36 percent — say their economic situation has remained essentially unchanged from 12 months ago. …

Voters don’t want to see taxes increased in response to the growing fiscal pressures facing the nation, the poll also indicated. Instead, they prefer significant cuts to government spending as a remedy.

Presented with a menu of choices to help curb the national debt and federal deficit, almost half of voters — 45 percent — support spending cuts alone, the poll indicates. By contrast, only 13 percent favor an even split between cutting spending and raising revenue through tax increases.

By a margin of two-to-one, respondents also said they would be unwilling to see any increase in their own tax rates even if this helped reduce the debt and deficits. Only 28 percent said they would be prepared to pay higher taxes, while 56 percent said they would not.

In fact, respondents narrowly support lowering taxes as a stimulus, 45/39. The poll splits evenly between Democrats and Republicans on which party gets more trust on economic policy, but that won’t last long if Democrats put forth a tax-hike budget plan, especially along the lines of the Senate’s notion of 50/50 deficit reduction between spending cuts and tax hikes. Only 13% of respondents backed that notion, with another 11% supporting a 2/1 split for spending cuts to tax hikes, and 15% for a 3/1 split.

Boehner declaring tax hikes “off the table” is a politically strong position for Republicans to take. In the fight over the debt limit, the national mood for spending cuts will force Democrats to give a lot of ground to the GOP if they want a raise in the debt ceiling. That will still depend on GOP courage to fight for the best deal they can cut. Having declared tax hikes off the table, Boehner has to be careful to avoid a “read my lips” moment in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, Gallup’s latest poll shows that economic pessimism is accelerating:

Three in four Americans name some type of economic issue as the “most important problem” facing the country today — the highest net mentions of the economy in two years. …

General economic concerns (35%) and unemployment (22%) are the specific issues currently at the forefront of Americans’ minds. The percentage mentioning the economy in general is up significantly from 26% in April, while unemployment is up just slightly from 19%.

Twelve percent of Americans mention the federal budget deficit or federal debt as the nation’s most important problem, down from 17% in April, although still high on a historical basis. The April reading was the highest Gallup found since 1996.

The highest non-economic concern garnered all of 8%, tied for second-to-last among economic concerns, and that was dissatisfaction with the current political class — which is likely to have been aggravated by the poor economic performance. The next one down was health care at 5%, tied for dead last among economic concerns with “lack of money.” Interestingly but not surprisingly, there isn’t a single environmental concern on the list, and the wars are tied for last at 4%.

When America goes to the polls in 2012, the economy will decide the election — and right now, that’s very bad news for Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2011, 07:01:05 PM
Lurker please feel free to refute any post in this thread.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 17, 2011, 06:54:29 AM
U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fell in April 
 
(Bloomberg) Housings starts in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in April as home builders continued to struggle almost two years into an economic recovery.

Work began on 523,000 houses at an annual pace, down 11 percent from the prior month and less than the 569,000 median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Building permits, a sign of future construction, also decreased.

Falling home values and the prospect of more foreclosures entering the market mean home construction will be slow to gain traction. Unemployment at 9 percent and stagnant wages indicate any recovery in housing may take years to unfold.

“Job growth is essential to household formation and to keep home prices from falling further,” said Eric Green, chief market economist at TD Securities Inc. in New York, who forecast permits at 550,000. “I don’t see home sales doing much of anything” for the foreseeable future. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-17/u-s-housing-st...
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 17, 2011, 05:55:52 PM
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Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 9.2% in Mid-May
Gallup.com ^ | May 17, 2011 | by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist
Posted on May 17, 2011 11:45:15 AM EDT by Oldeconomybuyer

Underemployment is 19.1% -- essentially the same as a year ago.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is at 9.2% in mid-May -- down slightly from 9.4% at the end of April. It is also slightly lower than the 9.4% of mid-May last year.

The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work is at 9.9% in mid-May -- the same as at the end of April. Just as many Americans are now working part time but seeking full-time work as was the case a year ago.

Underemployment, a measure that combines the percentage of unemployed with the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work, was at 19.1% in mid-May -- down from 19.3% at the end of April. Underemployment remains as high as it was in mid-May 2010.

(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 18, 2011, 12:33:02 PM
So 2 of the 3 things making health care costs skyrocket are made worse by CommieCare?  Nice, just like what obama wants, collapse the nation.  Same with energy prices.   


http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-insurance/161867-report-medical-costs-to-rise-85-percent-in-2012-in-small-part-due-to-healthcare-law?page=4#comments



Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 18, 2011, 08:37:17 PM
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Underemployment at 19 Percent, Unchanged in a Year
Townhall.com ^ | May 18. 2011 | Mike Shedlock
Posted on May 18, 2011 7:47:34 PM EDT by Kaslin

The most recent Gallup survey pegs US unemployment at 9.2%. That is not significantly different from the BLS report at 9.0%. However, the Gallup numbers are not seasonally adjusted the BLS unemployment rate is.

Comparing not seasonally adjusted numbers, Gallup shows a .2 percentage point drop in the last year while the BLS reports an improvement of .8 percentage points. Month after month the BLS is consistently lower. Counting part-time workers the Gallup results are even worse.

Gallup Pegs Underemployment at 19.1%, Same as 1 Year Ago

Please consider Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 9.2% in Mid-May

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is at 9.2% in mid-May -- down slightly from 9.4% at the end of April. It is also slightly lower than the 9.4% of mid-May last year.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 19, 2011, 06:02:32 AM
Weekly Claims See Fall, (409k) But Jobs Picture Remains Weak
CNBC ^ | 05-19-2011 | Staff




New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, but a rise in the four-week moving average to a six-month high indicated the labor market recovery will remain painfully slow.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 409,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, continuing to unwind the prior weeks spike.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 420,000. The prior weeks figure was revised up to 438,000 from the previously reported 434,000.  The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, rose 1,250 to 439,000 - the highest level since mid-November.  

The data covers the survey period for the governments closely watched employment report for May, which will be released early next month.

The recent jump in claims, blamed on auto layoffs because of supply chain disruptions from March's Japanese earthquake and problems with adjusting data for seasonal variations, had raised fears of a pull back in the pace of job creation.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 19, 2011, 06:04:50 AM
O-pocalypse Now
Townhall.com ^ | May 19, 2011 | John Ransom


________________________ ________________________ _____


Reuters reports that the markets fell below their 50-day moving averages this week on news that housing is softer than expected and there's a slump in factory output.

Hewlett Packard disappointed too and that's hurting tech stocks.

"HP, the world's largest technology company, cut its financial forecasts because of problems stemming from Japan's earthquake," says Reuters, "soft PC sales and lowered expectations for its service business. HP's stock was down 6.5 percent at $37.21."

The lesson is that the stock market is all about earnings. Forget Japan, Libya, et al.
 
More from Reuters: "This shows that we are kind of losing momentum ... and it is certainly disturbing considering that we are nearing the end of QE2," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago, referring to the U.S. monetary stimulus program known as QE2.


With talk like that can QE3 be far behind?

The market has done well during earnings season generally.

It's gone from a low of 1294 on the S&P to 1370 before starting this latest round of consolidation.

Much of the movement was based on strong earnings. As a backward glance, earnings are great. Certainly they are indicative of what the economy has done in the past.

Going forward however, there are indications that earnings could be a bit softer.

"We have had some data that has been softening so I guess we are going to experience a bit of a slowdown," said Frank Lesh, an analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading in Chicago according to Reuters.

Manufacturing data hit a five-month low in the recent NY survey. Europe and China have raised interest rates to combat inflation, which would imply a slowdown. Unemployment continues to be persistent. And the end of QE2 will dry up a source of liquidity that markets have counted on.

Our friend Mike Shedlock continues to think that China is headed for a bust. And so do I. 


On the plus side, the end of QE2 should take pressure off of commodity markets. If commodity prices come down in reponse to slowing global growth, and a tigher monetary policy, it could help create conditions for the mythical "soft-landing" the Fed is supposed to manufacture.

Of course a "soft landing" scenario should apply only to a recovery, which we haven't had.

How we got to the end of the business cycle where we are combating inflation without going through the middle of the business cycle- you know the part that creates wealth and jobs?-  is the story of the O-pocalypse. 

To be fair to Obama, the trend started before he was president. But his policies have certainly accelerated the process. Again, we've gone through a whole boom-and-bust business cycle (almost) without the nastiness of, um, jobs and wealth creation.

If he wants to tax the rich, he better do so while we have a few rich left.   

(Source: Barry Ritholtz)

 


 
The trendline on the S&P would suggest that the market is in a period not unlike that from 1971 to 1973 when the market attempted to break above the trend, but instead traded sideways for the next 9 years.

Interestingly, even after the market enjoyed an historic bull run in the 1980s, the S&P didn't break well above the trend until 1994.

The chart above puts in perspective the long-range nature of how markets react to events. Rather than being drivers of events, the markets are just reflections of things that are going on in society at large.

The period from 1966 to 1982 is a good exmaple of that. It looks like the economy was on drugs during that period, until the recovery began when it just said "no."

The drug of choice back then, of course, was dollars and government spending. 

Looking at a longer term perspective, it's a very good time to be investing in stocks if your investment horizon is 10-20 years or more.


Of course investing in stocks would give you extra incentive to give Obama the boot too.

For more on money and markets, take a look at our commentary every day at the Ticker.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 19, 2011, 12:34:44 PM
A member of the Fed (Evans) came out today ands said that (paraphrasing here)....

--- "QE2 is justified because of the stalling "recovery", poor employment and bad economic data"

I'd like to punch this asshole in the face. They can't accept that they have failed and doomed this nation to 20 years of the abyss. So, your plans of utterly failed and accomplished nothing (except making the rich richer and everyone else poorer) so that justifies your plans?

This fucksheads should be hanging from lamp posts.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 19, 2011, 12:39:47 PM
I especially like how these communists/leftists are trying to sping 400k weekly jobless claims considering we have the lowest labor particpation rate in decades. 


Do these communist pofs not understand the concept of "scale"?


400k weekly claims at this point is a disaster of mega-magnitude, but not to the obots of course.       
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 20, 2011, 07:01:10 AM
Unions Panic as Reality Sets In: Obama’s EPA Will Kill ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Jobs
Posted by LaborUnionReport (Profile)
Friday, May 20th at 7:00AM EDT

http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/05/20/unions-panic-as-reality-sets-in-obamas-epa-will-kill-tens-of-thousands-of-jobs






Union bosses dumped hundreds of millions of dollars of their members’ dues into getting Barack Obama elected. They chastised the racists in their ranks, downplayed his socialist rhetoric, and they thought he would be their union savior. Worse, union bosses put both their members’ money and their livelihoods in his hands. Apparently, union bosses could have their cake and eat it too (or so they thought).



In their rush to promote those so-called “green jobs” union bosses convinced themselves (and their members) that there would be no displacement, no job losses, no casualties or no pain in Obama’s plan of hope and change. They were wrong.

This would be the “hope” and “change” part of moving the American economy to a “green economy“:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed the first-ever national standards for mercury, arsenic and other emissions from power plants. The new power plant mercury and air toxics standards would require many power plants to install emissions control technologies to cut mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases emissions.

The updated standards will attempt to provide a level playing field for power plants across the country. The proposed rule provides up to four years for facilities to meet the standards and, once fully implemented, will prevent 91 percent of mercury in coal from being released into the air. EPA expects the new rule will support 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs.

This would be reality smacking the union bosses at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers squarely in the face…

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said it believes a three-year timeframe for reducing emissions of carbon, mercury and other pollutants through the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Mercury and Air Toxics Standard is not realistic. The union is backing a bill calling for Congress to delay new rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Union official said they have met with the EPA to discuss concerns and recognize the agency has limited discretion and flexibility in addressing compliance timelines because it is bound by federal court mandates.

The union said 50,000 jobs are at stake if power plants cannot get an extra five or six years to either clean up or shut down their oldest coal-fired power plants. Under the Clean Air Act, plants get three years with a possible one-year extension after that to install emissions control equipment.

And this would be reality hitting the United Mine Workers’ President Cecil Roberts in the face as well…

The Clean Air Act’s deadline for meeting the new regulations is just 36 months after the rules are finalized in November. EPA can grant a one-year extension on a case-by-case basis. While some generating units will be retrofitted with additional pollution controls to meet the standards, hundreds of smaller and older units will simply be closed.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost in the utility, coal and transportation sectors. Hundreds of communities will suffer as their tax bases shrink with the closure of nearby utility plants. Industrial states that were hit hard by the recession and still suffering from high unemployment will take another, needless hit.

To make matters worse, the new source limits EPA is proposing are so stringent that no new state-of-the-art power plant equipped with highly efficient scrubbers and other pollution controls could meet each of the multiple standards. Some of the new source standards are below the detection limits of current monitoring and testing equipment.

Unfortunately, union bosses either ignored Barack Obama (or were just plain ignorant) when he warned America of his plans back in 2008:



It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Obama’s plans would cost jobs—many of those jobs occupied by union members. Beyond the hype of ‘hope’ and ‘change,’ it’s become all too clear that union bosses sold their members a bill of goods.

It’s a good thing union bosses don’t build rockets.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 20, 2011, 08:01:03 AM
Unions Panic as Reality Sets In: Obama’s EPA Will Kill ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Jobs
Posted by LaborUnionReport (Profile)
Friday, May 20th at 7:00AM EDT

http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/05/20/unions-panic-as-reality-sets-in-obamas-epa-will-kill-tens-of-thousands-of-jobs






Union bosses dumped hundreds of millions of dollars of their members’ dues into getting Barack Obama elected. They chastised the racists in their ranks, downplayed his socialist rhetoric, and they thought he would be their union savior. Worse, union bosses put both their members’ money and their livelihoods in his hands. Apparently, union bosses could have their cake and eat it too (or so they thought).



In their rush to promote those so-called “green jobs” union bosses convinced themselves (and their members) that there would be no displacement, no job losses, no casualties or no pain in Obama’s plan of hope and change. They were wrong.

This would be the “hope” and “change” part of moving the American economy to a “green economy“:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed the first-ever national standards for mercury, arsenic and other emissions from power plants. The new power plant mercury and air toxics standards would require many power plants to install emissions control technologies to cut mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases emissions.

The updated standards will attempt to provide a level playing field for power plants across the country. The proposed rule provides up to four years for facilities to meet the standards and, once fully implemented, will prevent 91 percent of mercury in coal from being released into the air. EPA expects the new rule will support 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs.

This would be reality smacking the union bosses at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers squarely in the face…

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said it believes a three-year timeframe for reducing emissions of carbon, mercury and other pollutants through the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Mercury and Air Toxics Standard is not realistic. The union is backing a bill calling for Congress to delay new rules on emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Union official said they have met with the EPA to discuss concerns and recognize the agency has limited discretion and flexibility in addressing compliance timelines because it is bound by federal court mandates.

The union said 50,000 jobs are at stake if power plants cannot get an extra five or six years to either clean up or shut down their oldest coal-fired power plants. Under the Clean Air Act, plants get three years with a possible one-year extension after that to install emissions control equipment.

And this would be reality hitting the United Mine Workers’ President Cecil Roberts in the face as well…

The Clean Air Act’s deadline for meeting the new regulations is just 36 months after the rules are finalized in November. EPA can grant a one-year extension on a case-by-case basis. While some generating units will be retrofitted with additional pollution controls to meet the standards, hundreds of smaller and older units will simply be closed.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost in the utility, coal and transportation sectors. Hundreds of communities will suffer as their tax bases shrink with the closure of nearby utility plants. Industrial states that were hit hard by the recession and still suffering from high unemployment will take another, needless hit.

To make matters worse, the new source limits EPA is proposing are so stringent that no new state-of-the-art power plant equipped with highly efficient scrubbers and other pollution controls could meet each of the multiple standards. Some of the new source standards are below the detection limits of current monitoring and testing equipment.

Unfortunately, union bosses either ignored Barack Obama (or were just plain ignorant) when he warned America of his plans back in 2008:



It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Obama’s plans would cost jobs—many of those jobs occupied by union members. Beyond the hype of ‘hope’ and ‘change,’ it’s become all too clear that union bosses sold their members a bill of goods.

It’s a good thing union bosses don’t build rockets.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.


I'm glad you posted this. He can't his dumbass, radical and stupid eco-agenda pushed through by using the law, congress and voting so he will go and use the unelected nut job EPA (who he's staffed with "his guys") to push through royal mandates.

What an idiot and what a joke.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 21, 2011, 02:24:41 PM
Geithner Says New Financial Crisis Coming
TBI/The Daily Beast ^ | 5-19-2011 | Lloyd Grove




Geithner Says New Financial Crisis Coming

Lloyd Grove, The Daily Beast
May 19, 2011, 2:12 PM

At a New York screening of the new HBO adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big to Fail, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that not only is our financial system not too large to go bust—but we’re headed for another crisis.

The Wall Street meltdown of late 2008 was, in real life, a harrowing event, triggering a terrible recession from which we’re still recovering. In the HBO movie Too Big to Fail, it’s also a surprisingly gripping melodrama—a clash of greedheads and egomaniacs desperate to escape the consequences of their own bad behavior.

At various moments of high tension, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (played by a bedraggled, unshaven William Hurt) flees an important meeting to stress-vomit in his private bathroom, and New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner (a perfectly turned-out Billy Crudup) continually curses into his cell phone.

It's an alarming entertainment (premiering May 23 at 9 p.m.), and an even more disturbing memory. So having the real Geithner predict the coming of another big crisis was the last thing the well-heeled screening crowd at the Time Warner Center wanted to hear Tuesday night.

“It will come again. There will be another storm,” warned Geithner, who in early 2009 succeeded Paulson as treasury secretary. “But it’s not going to come for a while.”


(snip)


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 23, 2011, 06:17:54 AM
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Economic Slowdown Is Already Here

http://www.comstockfunds.com/default.aspx?act=Newsletter.aspx&category=MarketCommentary&newsletterid=1585&menugroup=Home&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupp ort=1


 
 
Today's somewhat weak economic releases add to a pattern of recent tepid results from a number of economic indicators, and suggest that an economic slowdown is gathering steam even before the end of QE2.   We cite the following as evidence.

1)  Existing home sales for April were down 0.5% to 5.05 million as compared to 7.2 million at the peak.  Inventories of homes for sale increased to a 9.2 months, the highest since December while prices were down 5% from a year earlier.

2)  April housing starts dropped 10.2% to 523,000, barely above the recession lows, and below any level prior to 2008.  According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) traffic of potential buyers was still extremely low.  Keep in mind that this is an organization that usually puts a positive spin on any results.

3)  While weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 409,000 from the prior week, the number has now been over 400,000 for six straight weeks after a period of coming in below that level.

4)  The Philadelphia Fed Index for May fell sharply to 3.9, losing 39.5 points in the last two months.  This is also well below the 1st quarter average of 32.9.  Both new and unfilled orders dropped significantly while inventories also declined, indicating that the inventory buildup that helped support the recovery may be moving back in line with demand, which has been growing less than production.

5)  Consistent with the above, April industrial production was flat.  It is likely that production, which had consistently been running ahead of demand, is being reduced as inventories that were depleted during the recession have now caught up.  This also may explain the higher level of initial claims.

6)  The Empire State Manufacturing Survey was also down 9.8 points to 11.9, the lowest level since December.  This index therefore confirms the Philly index and suggests similar lower results from the ISM manufacturing index.

7)  The April index of leading indicators declined 0.3%.  While one month does not make a trend it was the first monthly drop since last June, and fits in with what other indicators seem to be telling us.

8)  Similarly, the ECRI Weekly leading indictor has been down for three of the last five weeks and has been about flat since mid-December after rising steadily from the recession lows.  This is indicative of at least a pause in coming economic growth, and perhaps something worse.

9)  April core retail sales increased only 0.2%, and were probably flat to slightly down when adjusted for inflation.  Higher income from reduced social  security withholding was more than offset by higher gasoline prices, tepid wage increases, high unemployment, lower home prices and recessionary levels of consumer confidence.  And this is happening even before the end of QE2, which has been keeping the economy afloat since November.   

10)  The April Small Business Survey, after rising weakly from recession lows, has now dropped 3.1 points in the last two months.  Even at its most recent high it was below any level in its history prior to 2008.  Key segments that declined were plans to increase employment and capital expenditures.  In addition the number expecting sales to rise also dropped.

11)  In addition to the domestic concerns cited above, the global picture is also not looking too rosy.  ECRI's long leading indicator of global industrial growth peaked last August at 0.7 and stood at 0.1 in March.  ECRI managing director Lakshman Achuthan stated "There's a downturn in global industrial growth in clear sight".  EU production fell in March and retail sales have been flat for six months.  In the UK there's been no GDP growth for six months.  Japanese GDP dropped 3.7% annualized in the 1st quarter and 3.0% in the 4th.   Note that the earthquake occurred on March 11th, toward the end of the quarter, so cannot be fully blamed for the 1st quarter and not at all for the 4th.   Industrial output in all of the BRIC nations seems to be slowing, and current monetary and fiscal policies suggest more to come.

All in all it seems to us that the odds are high that a domestic and global economic slowdown is already in place.  In the U.S. the slowdown is happening with only six weeks to go before the end of QE2, a program that has been a major prop for even the tepid recovery we've undergone so far.  For the stock market nothing seems to matter until, suddenly, it does.  Recall 1999 and 2007 when the market stayed high despite the obvious problems that were there for all to see.  The S&P closed today at virtually the same level it first reached on February 9th, and is most likely in the process of forming a top.  In our view the potential breakdown is close at hand.
 

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 23, 2011, 10:18:25 AM
The Coming Deflationary Contraction
American Thinker ^ | May 22, 2011 | Peter Raymond




Determining when the next great liquidation will occur is impossible to predict with any degree of certainty; nevertheless it is fair to say the sooner the better.  Economic liquidation is a restorative process that corrects the harm done by inflationary policies.  If accepting of this premise, then liquidations or deflationary depressions cannot be considered the disease in need of cure which unfortunately has been the position of economic interventionists since the early 1920's.


Instead, they are a necessary and unavoidable adjustment after years of excessive credit expansions have destabilized the economy.  Efforts to further delay these self-corrections by instituting a series of escalating inflationary policies only needlessly extends and deepens economic woes and increases the size and scope of the inevitable adjustment.  With the increasingly aggressive actions of the world's central banks and governments over the last decade to inflate the monetary supply, it seems a safe bet the next liquidation phase, when it does finally take place, will be a very large and abrupt correction.



Already, the ominous signs of economic stress caused by historic intervention measures are becoming evident.  Despite the extraordinary monetary and fiscal policies to ward off deflationary pressures and economic contraction, prices are once again signaling that certain sectors of the economy would quickly liquidate if the stabilization programs in place were lifted.  Home and auto prices for example have been pushing through a series of price support schemes and headed to lower levels in spite of a rapidly depreciating dollar.  Also, the recent increase in volatility in both the commodity and currency markets is suggestive of price distortions generated by the Federal Reserve's ongoing quantitative easing programs.


The combined initiatives of policymakers and central bankers to suspend economic forces to create the impression of a recovery and price stability can go on for only so long before the building wave of deflation can no longer be contained.  Not even the most ambitious plans to flood the economy with easy money can prevent the eventual contraction of the economy and a general fall in prices.  It has been tried before and it does not work. There is of course a cost for such heavy-handed intervention.  The longer and more aggressively a market correction is delayed by predictably ad hoc measures of panicking policymakers, the greater the size and duration of the liquidation.


Perhaps most concerning is the continued arrogance of the present day interventionists.  They are never in want of self-confidence or devotion to their policies.  Unfortunately, their conventional wisdom continues to justify radical inflationary measures as a means to indefinitely hold off a liquidation cycle and miraculously jumpstart another period of economic expansion.  Nearly four years after the first indications of looming economic trouble appeared in the second half of 2007, these tinkering central planners now seem willing to sacrifice the dollar in order to defeat the deflationary pressures their previous inflationary policies fostered in the first place.  Needless to say, it will be utterly demoralizing to witness the expected ramp up of desperate actions by these frustrated interventionists utterly dumbfounded by their repeated failures to stimulate economic growth.  Of course, they will never acknowledge their actions prolonged and aggravated economic decline.


So what happens when the liquidation process of a depression begins in spite of the slew of much touted countermeasures that are soon followed by heated accusations of interventionists looking to assign fault to hapless scapegoats?  It entails a dramatic fall in prices and production of nearly every non-essential good and service until price and production reach levels supported by market conditions.  Wages, durables, equities, and real estate will plunge at an alarming rate.  Labor unions and major industrialists will unsuccessfully try to shield themselves from deflation and job losses by demanding the government implement price and production controls.  But government can do nothing long term to bolster artificially high price levels and will only further decimate the economy by trying.  In fact, stabilization efforts during a liquidation period often cause prices to sink far below where they would otherwise have been under a passive policy.  Sadly, unemployment does spike, especially in high order industries until wages adjust much lower.  This is truly an unpleasant affair, but completely necessary and usually short lived.


Although it is counterintuitive and obviously controversial, it is imperative to allow the monetary supply to contract and interest rates to rise while simultaneously reducing public spending.  Without such action or, in many instances, inaction, the economy will only be further disrupted and recovery delayed.  Even something as innocuous and seemingly compassionate as extending unemployment income has the unintended consequence of delaying reemployment and economic recovery.  It is interesting to note that prior to the New Deal, private charitable organizations strongly opposed government funding of humanitarian efforts including unemployment income.  They correctly argued charity was best left in the private sector.


Such austerity and money tightening measures employ exactly the opposite philosophy cooked up by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, and later expanded upon while president, to "counter attack" depressions and supposedly avert economic ruin.  Amazingly, Hoover's basic premise that government action is the "better option" has not lost any of its appeal to this day.


By the way, do not believe the revisionists' false portrayal of Hoover as ever favoring a laissez faire approach with the economy before or during the depression.  Hoover was an enthusiastic central planner who frequently boasted of his intervention successes in 1931 when it was thought government stopped the depression with its numerous command and control programs.  And records prove the Federal Reserve was pouring cash into the reserves of national banks trying in vain to expand credit.  The shrinking of bank reserves was the result of a justifiable loss of faith in the banking industry leading to abnormally high demand for physical possession of legal tender.


To his credit, Hoover ignored the rather stunning proposals put forth by leading industrialists and labor leaders to institute full blown national planning, much of which was supposed to emulate the then en vogue Soviet model.  Many of their ideas would emerge later under the disastrous New Deal policies of the FDR administration.  Had he complied with their requests, Hoover would have joined the ranks of other prominent Marxist leaders of that period and not just another failed interventionist who spent the remainder of his life vigorously defending his actions to the very end.


Some unexpected developments can occur as a result of liquidation, barring any massive government intervention.  First, there is normally a strengthening of the currency as the monetary base contracts.  So in our case, the dollar's current downward trajectory would conceivably reverse course, causing the price of dollar-based commodities to fall as a result. Surprisingly, gold and silver prices fall as well in response to rising interest rates on savings and the strengthening currency.  There recent selling of gold holdings by George Soros and other large hedge funds may presage a reversal of gold prices and dollar valuation.  Second, falling wages do not automatically translate into a loss of purchasing power.  This is because the drop in prices for most goods and services will normally outpace wages declines.  Those lucky enough to remain employed throughout a depression will enjoy an increase in purchasing power even when adjusting for wage reductions.  This phenomenon is just the opposite of what occurs in an inflationary environment where wage earners experience an erosion of purchasing power over time.  Allowed to run its course, liquidation is very rapid and the majority of unemployed return to work in less than a year, albeit at much lower wages and mercifully without much change to the average standard of living.


It is the affluent investors that bear both the immediate and long term brunt of the losses since the price of equities, hard assets, and real estate collapse and remain suppressed for quite some time.  This outcome seems rather fitting since the wealthy are the primary beneficiaries and supporters of inflationary policies.


The all-important point is that the disruptive oscillations of the economy are the unfortunate consequence of interventionism and inflationary monetary policies generating boom and bust cycles.  The policymakers and central bankers deserve the total blame for these swings of the entire economy and not speculators, consumers, or producers.  These cycles are certainly not attributable to some ludicrous theory citing mysterious shifts in overall consumption causing over or under consumption.  Until such time government is prevented from manipulating the economy and the monetary supply, inflationary expansions followed by deflationary contractions, along with the misery they produce, will be a permanent and inescapable part of our future.


Admittedly, nearly a century of indoctrination has created the expectation and confidence governments can and must take action in every economic crisis.  It would be politically untenable for all but the staunchest non-interventionists to maintain a passive stance during a depression.  By far the majority of policymakers succumb to the demands of hard pressed constituents, even if it is known such actions would ultimately hurt the people they are meant to assist.


This brings me to the recent remarks made by the economist Joseph Stiglitz where he declared austerity measures are essentially a failed "experiment that has been tried before" which destroys jobs and undermines economic recovery.  Naturally, the first question that comes to mind is: Where and when have austerity measures been proven to be ineffective in dealing with economic contractions?  During the last depression, government actions incorporating most of Stiglitz's preferred spending policies yielded an unmitigated humanitarian disaster that dragged on for nearly a decade.  Surely, it would seem unreasonable for Stiglitz to consider the New Deal "experiment" as even remotely effective in ending or even shortening the depression, let alone creating or saving jobs.  Then again, nothing about the public intellectuals from the left shocks me anymore.


The conspicuous flaw with the interventionist logic is the fundamental belief wealth is created by consumption; the more that is consumed, the greater the wealth creation.  Therefore, economic interventionism is centered on maintaining wage and price levels in order to maintain a targeted rate of consumption.  In reality, it is production that creates wealth.  And the wealth created by production is what results in greater consumption.  Interventionists have the cart before the horse.


It is this nonsensical reversal in the order of wealth creation that leads to the erroneous conclusion that net prosperity is increased by more evenly redistributing wealth and expanding public spending.  Since both are thought to increase overall consumption, interventionists reason the national prosperity will grow as a result of their economic and social engineering schemes.  Interventionists are so beholden to the idea of wealth being created by consumption that they have derived out of thin air a formula to calculate how much government "investments" will grow the GNP.  Somehow a dollar confiscated from the private sector through taxation magically produces more than a dollar in economic activity when spent by government. 


In practice, such government spending sprees have a highly corrosive effect on the economy and employment by removing much-needed funds normally set aside for productive purposes, and instead using them for consumption.   Since government, by and large, is a massive consumer of goods and services that uses the funds taken from the private sector, it contributes relatively little to production or investment no matter the level of spending.


The idea that government spending acts as an additional factor in the economy, and thus a productive investment, most likely comes from its odd inclusion in the GNP numbers.  This undoubtedly obscures the negative impact public spending has on economic growth and prosperity.   That fact that GNP was first introduced in 1934 in the midst of the New Deal era should arouse the suspicion of critical thinkers, however.


Because government spending is largely representative of consumption and not production, the coerced private sector contributions funding public spending is in fact a burden on the private sector that actually reduces overall production and wealth creation.  This is why during any economic downturn it is best to reduce and not increase government spending in order to lessen the drain on private sector capital.  Otherwise, there is less private capital available to invest in production and aid in the recovery process.  Advocates of consumption-oriented economic policies are unwilling to accept that no manner or amount of government spending, whether or not it is referred to as an investment, can duplicate let alone outperform the positive return of voluntary private sector investment in production.


The overriding issue that will complicate our economic recovery is the massive national debt.  A drop in tax revenues and any increase in the value of the dollar that normally accompanies a liquidation cycle will push the nation closer to insolvency as the economy works its way through monetary excesses.  Also, the interest on the national debt will become an inescapable and growing drag on the private sector as interest rates rise from historic lows.  These are the unfortunate consequences of a fiscally reckless government continuously accruing debt for over a generation. There is little doubt the Federal Reserve will continue their crusade to depreciate the dollar in order to facilitate deficit spending and lower the cost burden of the national debt.  However, these inflationary efforts will likely fail to hold off a deflationary contraction for much longer.


Contrary to the predictions for the complete ruination of the dollar, I anticipate quite the opposite.  In the near term, inflationary pressures will certainly continue to build and may surge for a short time, just before a sudden reversal occurs marking the beginning of a liquidation cycle and rapid deflation.  Strange as it may sound, I believe the onset of a deflationary depression offers the best hope of salvaging the dollar and ending the reign of the inflationists.  Growing public awareness and displeasure over the harm done by inflationary policies and runaway government spending may leave no option available to policymakers other than returning to the gold standard thereby forcing fiscal and monetary restraint.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 24, 2011, 05:22:44 AM
A Sign of Desperation at the Fed
Economic Policy Journal ^ | 05/23/2011 | Economic Policy Journal




Thanks to Ben Bernanke's new monetary "tools", the Federal Reserve continues to operate in panic mode. Specifically, because the Fed now pays interest on reserves held by banks at the Federal Reserve, excess reserves are piling up at the Fed at a remarkable rate.

There are now $1.5 trillion in excess reserves just sitting there that could explode and hit the economy at anytime and cause huge price inflation. There has never, ever, before Bernanke started paying interest on reserves so much of an overhang in excess reserves. In the month before the Fed started paying interest on excess reserves, September 2008, excess reserves stood at only $27 billion.

Here's the difference between then and now:

THEN: 27,000,000,000

NOW: 1,500,000,000,000

Here's a graph of the situation:


(Excerpt) Read more at economicpolicyjournal.co m ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on May 24, 2011, 05:50:15 PM
Gold is back to 1520/oz, silver is at 35/oz. Both making nice moves upwards. I think they are going to blow past the recent highs as things start to get worse again.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 24, 2011, 05:59:01 PM
Gold is back to 1520/oz, silver is at 35/oz. Both making nice moves upwards. I think they are going to blow past the recent highs as things start to get worse again.

Hey - life is grand - bama sipping $1,000 wine, galavanting all over the globe, starting wars all over the place, things are great. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2011, 05:43:13 AM
This is What Stagflation Looks Like
Townhall.com ^ | May 24, 2011 | John Ransom





Even as world equity markets move down with signs pointing to slowing global economic growth, a European Central Bank member is warning about inflation.

"We have to take seriously the April rise in long-term inflation expectations and take it as a sign of increasing price perspectives when monetary policy is expansive," said Jens Weidmann, the head of Germany's Bundesbank.

Translation: We need to tighten up money to combat inflation.

Tighter money supply means slower growth.

Of course, with protestors gathered all over the world asking for more handouts, it's possible that we could see governments loosen monetary policy to give out even more handouts.


In that case, inflation would, of course, quicken its pace.

There is one alternative between raising interest rates and pumping more money into the system.     

The government should consider slashing government regulations and taxes so as to create more friendly free market economies that produce more tax revenues.

The central problem that economies worldwide face is not a lack of money.

The central problem is a lack of confidence by the business community to make plans for investment. Banks still have lots of cash and assets on their balance sheets, but not enough of it is making its way into the economy.

In short, there is a lot of money, but not enough of it is yours or mine. This is what stagflation looks like. Concentrated pools of money chase the price of goods up; and you and I pay. 

A couple things can be done to change the confidence level for American businesses and get money back to Main Street.

The president should grant a blanket waiver for everyone on the implementation of Obamacare. It was a misconceived idea that is hanging around the neck of the economy. That’s why we are seeing so many waivers granted.


But more importantly, the House and Senate should repeal Frank-Dodd, the so-called financial reform legislation.

Frank-Dodd doesn’t actually accomplish anything but add an extra level of regulation that’s killing the loan business by distorting business decisions.

For example, Dodd-Frank asks the too-big-to-fail institutions (called SIFIs) to come up with extra capital to insure against failure. That’s a reasonable expectation.

But some of these institutions are rather loosely defined. It should come as no surprise that those falling in the loosely defined category of SIFI are lobbying to be waived out of the extra capital requirements.

And some will be waived out.

Those that can’t get waived will change their business model to avoid the extra burdens that comes with being an SIFI.

In the meantime, they are holding on to cash as a prudent business decision.

That’s the problem with these types of federal laws. It leads to business decisions made for the sake of complying with laws, not business realities.


For example, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc said today that it would sell a small bank it purchased to take advantage of bailout laws passed in response to the financial meltdown of 2008.

“Hartford said it will record a second-quarter charge of about $70 million after taxes on its agreement to sell the bank, Federal Trust Corp., to CenterState Banks Inc.,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Buying the lender allowed Hartford to get $3.4 billion from the federal bailout program; it repaid the bailout last year.”

What was the purchase price for $3.4 billion in government loans? $10 million.

Clearly Hartford took advantage of a law to help their shareholders. That’s what businesses do. The moment we ask them to stop doing that, the economy will collapse completely. 

Right now, banks, especially small banks- the one that make loans on Main Street- are in regulatory limbo. The American Bankers Association estimates that over 1,000 small banks will close as a result of Dodd-Frank.

Instead of forcing those banks with perfectly sound balance sheets to close, we should be figuring out how to get them to loan money again.

That’s social engineering we can all agree on.

That's really our only hope.


We're out of money. And every minute, the money that you and I have is worth a little -or a lot- less.

This is what stagflation looks like. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2011, 11:55:58 AM
Nearly Half of Americans Are ‘Financially Fragile’
Wall Street Journal Blogs ^ | May 25, 2011 | Phil Izzo


________________________ ________________________ __________


Nearly half of Americans say that they definitely or probably couldn’t come up with $2,000 in 30 days, according to new research, raising concerns about the financial fragility of many households.  

In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business, Daniel J. Schneider of Princeton University and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School used data from the 2009 TNS Global Economic Crisis survey to document widespread financial weakness in the U.S. and other countries.

The survey asked a simple question, “If you were to face a $2,000 unexpected expense in the next month, how would you get the funds you need?” In the U.S., 24.9% of respondents reported being certainly able, 25.1% probably able, 22.2% probably unable and 27.9% certainly unable. The $2,000 figure “reflects the order of magnitude of the cost of an unanticipated major car repair, a large copayment on a medical expense, legal expenses, or a home repair,” the authors write. On a more concrete basis, the authors cite $2,000 as the cost of an auto transmission replacement and research that reported low-income families claim to need about $1500 in savings for emergencies.

Financial fragility isn’t limited to low-income groups. “Households with socioeconomic markers of vulnerability (income, wealth, wealth losses, education, women, families with children) are more likely to be financially fragile, and substantially more so,” the authors write. “The more surprising finding is that a material fraction of seemingly ‘middle class’ Americans also judge themselves to be financially fragile, reflecting either a substantially weaker financial position than one would expect, or a very high level of anxiety or pessimism. Both are important in terms of behavior and for public policy.”


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


________________________ ________________________ ____-


Wow.   


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2011, 03:05:09 PM
Shadow Stat Misery Index Highest on Record
www.EconomicPolicyJourna l.com ^ | May 13, 2011




John Williams, over at Shadow Stats, compiles economic data for inflation and unemployment the way it used to be calculated pre-1990. Based on that data, the CPI inflation rate is over 10%, and the unemployment rate is over 15% (see charts). The Misery Index is the sum of the current inflation rate and the unemployment rate. If it were to be calculated using the older methods, the Index would now be over 25, a record high.  It surpasses the old index high of 21.98, which occurred in June 1980, when Jimmy Carter was president. Most believe the height of the Index along with the Iranian hostage crisis is what caused Carter to lose his re-election bid.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 25, 2011, 05:44:08 PM
BIG miss on Durable Goods Orders today as well...

Plus there were more downward future GDP revisions.

Not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on May 25, 2011, 05:59:16 PM
BIG miss on Durable Goods Orders today as well...

Plus there were more downward future GDP revisions.

Not good.

 Grab yer surfboard dude, the next crisis wave is building up.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 25, 2011, 06:36:10 PM
Grab yer surfboard dude, the next crisis wave is building up.

The only wave here, bro, is the giant wave of recovery!

Surfs Up!
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2011, 06:38:11 PM
Yeah recovery summer alright.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Fury on May 25, 2011, 06:40:37 PM
How fucking dare you guys insult this "recovery". In-fact, it could have been even better if Obama had done like Straw Man advocates and spent MORE on the stimulus!
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2011, 06:45:01 PM
Things have goTten so bad in my nabe my car got broken in to and they stole my gym bag w dirty underwear, swim goggles anf fins, and deodarant in it.  All in broad daylight.  Cop at the scene said crime is spiking again in nyc bouroughs. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 26, 2011, 06:05:40 AM
Stubborn Jobless Claims Still Keep On Climbing Higher
Published: Thursday, 26 May 2011 | 8:36 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters



New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to 424,000 last week from a revised 414,000 in the prior week, pointing to a painfully slow improvement in the nation's job markets.
 

The Labor Department on Thursday revised the prior week's claims number up from an originally reported 409,000.
 

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast that claims last week would decline to 400,000, rather than rise.

The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, considered a better measure of trends since it smoothes out weekly variations, eased slightly to 438,500 from a revised 440,250.

Last week marked the seventh straight week in which claims topped the 400,000 level, indicating that payroll growth is soft and may continue to be so for some time. A department official said there were no exceptional factors to account for the rise in last week's claims.


________________________ ________________________ __________


HOPE & CHANGE BITCHES WHILE PADDY O'BAMA DRINKS IT UP
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 26, 2011, 10:03:30 AM
Foreclosure sales slow, but remain very high

Huge backlog of distressed properties means any housing recovery is a long way away
Below:

By ALEX VEIGA

The Associated Press 




LOS ANGELES — Sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure declined in the first three months of the year, but they still accounted for 28 percent of all home sales — a share nearly six times higher than what it would be in a healthy housing market.

Foreclosure sales, which include homes purchased after they received a notice of default or were repossessed by lenders, hit the highest share of overall sales in a year during the first quarter, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

"It's an astronomically high number," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac. "In a normal market, you're looking at the percentage of homes sold in foreclosure to be below 5 percent."

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..The pace at which homes are entering the foreclosure process has slowed in recent months amid bank and court delays. But distressed properties remain a fixture of a housing market still searching for a sustained recovery. The properties, often in need of repair, typically sell at a discount, weakening prices for other types of homes.

Story: No end in sight to foreclosure quagmire

As a slice of all home purchases, foreclosure sales peaked two years ago at 37.4 percent. In the first quarter, they rose from 27 percent in prior quarter, but fell from 29 percent a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

Sales of foreclosure properties didn't fare much better than other types of homes, however.

   
Major Market IndicesIn all, 158,434 homes in some stage of foreclosure were sold in the first quarter, down 16 percent from the last three months of 2010 and down 36 percent versus a year ago. Sales of all other types of homes also declined sharply, according to RealtyTrac's figures, which differ from other home-sales estimates.

While the number of bank-owned properties sold declined, they grew as a share of all home sales. Bank-owned homes accounted for nearly 19 percent of all sales, up from 17 percent in the fourth quarter and up from 18 percent a year ago, the firm said.

That's not good news for the housing market.

Story: Bill would let appraisers 'round up' home values

RealtyTrac estimates there are 872,000 homes that have been repossessed by lenders, but have yet to be sold. At the first-quarter's sales pace, it will take three years to clear the inventory of 1.9 million properties already in some stage of foreclosure.

Advertise | AdChoicesFor bank-owned properties alone, that amounts to a 2-year supply.

"Clearly, the housing market is not out of the woods," Sharga said.

Homebuyers who purchased a bank-owned home in the first quarter saved an average of 35 percent versus the average price of other types of homes, RealtyTrac said.

That discount is unchanged from the previous quarter, but up from an average of 33 percent a year ago.

Buyers who snapped up other homes in the foreclosure process, including short sales, got an average discount of 9 percent, the firm said. That's down from an average of 13 percent in the fourth quarter and an average of 14 percent a year ago. In a short sale, the seller and their lender agree to sell the home for less than what is owned on the mortgage.

The biggest foreclosure discounts were to be had in Ohio, where foreclosure properties sold for an average of 41 percent less than other types of homes, RealtyTrac said.

The average sales price of a foreclosure property was $168,321, down 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter and 1.5 percent from the first quarter last year, the firm said.

At a state level, Nevada led the nation with foreclosure sales accounting for 53 percent of all home sales, RealtyTrac said. That was down from 59 percent the year before.

The state has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation and an inventory of nearly 28,000 bank-owned properties on bank's books. Buyers scooping up foreclosure properties there in the first quarter got an average discount of nearly 18 percent compared to the average sales price of other types of homes, RealtyTrac said.

In California, foreclosure sales accounted for 45 percent of all home sales in the first quarter, down from nearly 48 percent a year earlier. The average foreclosure property sold for nearly 34 percent less than the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure.

In Arizona, foreclosure sales represented 45 percent of all home sales for the quarter, down from 47 percent a year earlier.

Several other states had foreclosure sales that accounted for at least one quarter of all home sales in the first quarter: Idaho, Florida, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia and Ohio.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43175612/ns/business-personal_finance

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 26, 2011, 10:28:21 AM
Foreclosure Homes Account for 28 Percent of Q1 2011 Sales
May 25, 2011
By RealtyTrac Staff

 


Average REO Discount 35 Percent; Foreclosure Discount Drops to 9 Percent

Average Time to Sell at 176 Days for REOs; 228 Days for Pre-Foreclosures

IRVINE, Calif. – May 26, 2011 — RealtyTrac® (http://www.realtytrac.com/gateway_co.asp?accnt=137300), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Q1 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report™, which shows that sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the first quarter of 2011, up slightly from 27 percent of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the highest percentage of sales since the first quarter of 2010, when 29 percent of all sales were foreclosure sales.

The average sales price of properties in some stage of foreclosure — default, scheduled for auction or bank-owned (REO) — was $168,321, down 1.89 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 and down 1.46 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

The average sales price of foreclosure properties was nearly 27 percent below the average sales price of properties not in foreclosure, unchanged from the 27 percent foreclosure discount in the fourth quarter and up slightly from the 26 percent foreclosure discount in the first quarter of 2010.

Third parties purchased a total of 158,434 U.S. bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure during the first quarter, a decrease of 16 percent from a revised fourth quarter total and down 36 percent from a revised Q1 2010 total. Bank-owned properties that sold in the first quarter had been repossessed by the bank an average of 176 days prior to the sale, while properties that sold in the earlier stages of foreclosure in the first quarter were in foreclosure an average of 228 days before selling.

“While foreclosure sales continue to account for an unusually high percentage of all residential home sales, sales volume is well off the peak we saw in the first quarter of 2009, when nearly 350,000 foreclosure properties sold to third parties,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While this is probably helping to keep home prices relatively stable, it is also delaying the housing recovery. At the first quarter foreclosure sales pace, it would take exactly three years to clear the current inventory of 1.9 million properties already on the banks’ books, or in foreclosure.”

Foreclosure sales by type
A total of 107,143 bank-owned (REO) residential properties sold to third parties in the first quarter, down 11 percent from the previous quarter and down nearly 30 percent from the first quarter of 2010. REO sales accounted for nearly 19 percent of all sales in the first quarter, up from 17 percent of all sales in the previous quarter and up from 18 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2010. REOs sold for an average discount of 35 percent, the same discount as in the previous quarter and up from an average discount of 33 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

A total of 51,291 pre-foreclosure properties — in default or scheduled for auction — sold to third parties in the first quarter, down nearly 26 percent from the previous quarter and down 45 percent from the first quarter of 2010. Pre-foreclosure sales accounted for nearly 9 percent of all sales, down from 10 percent of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 and down from 11 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2010. Pre-foreclosure sales, which are often short sales, sold for an average discount of 9 percent, down from an average discount of 13 percent in the fourth quarter and an average discount of 14 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

Nevada, California, Arizona post highest percentage of foreclosure sales
Foreclosure sales accounted for 53 percent of all residential sales in Nevada during the first quarter, the highest percentage of any state but down from nearly 54 percent of all sales in the previous quarter and down from 59 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2010. The average foreclosure sales price in Nevada during the first quarter was nearly 18 percent below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure. Bank-owned properties that sold in the first quarter had been repossessed by the bank an average of 130 days prior to sale, while properties that sold in the earlier stages of foreclosure were in foreclosure an average of 135 days before selling.

California foreclosure sales accounted for 45 percent of all residential sales in the state during the first quarter, up from 43 percent of all sales in the fourth quarter but down from nearly 48 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2010. The average foreclosure sales price in California was nearly 34 percent below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure. California bank-owned properties that sold in the first quarter had been repossessed by the bank an average of 164 days prior to sale, while properties that sold in the earlier stages of foreclosure were in foreclosure an average of 156 days before selling.

Foreclosure sales also accounted for 45 percent of all residential sales in Arizona during the first quarter, down from 50 percent of all sales in the previous quarter and down from nearly 47 percent of all sales in the first quarter of 2010. Arizona bank-owned properties that sold in the first quarter had been repossessed by the bank an average of 129 days prior to the sale, while properties that sold in the earlier stages of foreclosure were in foreclosure an average of 176 days before selling.

Other states where foreclosure sales accounted for at least one-quarter of all sales were Idaho (33 percent), Florida (32 percent), Michigan (32 percent), Oregon (32 percent), Virginia (30 percent), Colorado (30 percent), Illinois (29 percent), Georgia (27 percent) and Ohio (25 percent).

Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky post highest foreclosure discounts
Ohio foreclosures sold for an average discount of 41 percent in the first quarter, the biggest discount percentage of any state. Ohio’s average foreclosure discount was down slightly from 42 percent in the previous quarter but up slightly from 40 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

The average foreclosure discount in Illinois was nearly 41 percent in the first quarter, up from an average discount of 38 percent in both the previous quarter and the first quarter of 2010.

Kentucky foreclosures sold for an average discount of 39 percent, down from an average discount of 42 percent in the fourth quarter but up from an average discount of 37 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

Other states with average foreclosure discounts of more than 35 percent were Maryland, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Report methodology
The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report is produced by matching national address-level sales deed data against RealtyTrac’s foreclosure database of pre-foreclosure (NOD, LIS), auction (NTS, NFS) and bank-owned (REO) properties. A property is considered a foreclosure sale if a sales deed is recorded for the property while it was actively in some stage of foreclosure or bank-owned. The foreclosure discount is calculated by comparing the percentage difference between the average sales price of properties not in foreclosure to the average sales price of properties in some stage of foreclosure or bank-owned. States without sufficient foreclosure sales data to calculate average prices are not included in the report.

Glossary of Terms
Foreclosure (FC) sale: a sale of a property that occurs while the property is actively in some stage of foreclosure (NOD, LIS, NTS, NFS or REO). This includes only sales to third-party buyers or investors not involved in the foreclosure process. It does not include property transfers from the owner in default to the foreclosing bank or lender.

REO sale: a sale of a property that occurs while the property is actively bank owned (REO).

Pre-foreclosure sale: a sale of a property that occurs while the property is actively in default (NOD, LIS) or scheduled for foreclosure auction (NTS, NFS).

Pct. of all sales: total number of Foreclosure Sales (or Pre-Foreclosure Sales or REO Sales) as a percentage of all residential sales during the quarter or year.

Avg. FC sales price: the average sales price of Foreclosure Sales (or Pre-Foreclosure Sales or REO Sales) during the quarter or year, excluding sales with no sales price.

Avg. FC discount: the percentage difference between the average sales price of foreclosure sales and the average sales price of non-foreclosure sales during the quarter or year.

Avg. REO discount: the percentage difference between the average sales price of REO sales and the average sales price of non-foreclosure sales during the quarter or year.

Avg. pre-foreclosure discount: the percentage difference between the average sales price of pre-foreclosure sales and the average sales price of non-foreclosure sales during the quarter or year.


http://www.realtytrac.com/content/news-and-opinion/foreclosure-homes-account-for-28-percent-of-q1-2011-sales-6586

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 27, 2011, 07:40:23 AM
Pending Home Sales Plunge, Reaching Seven-Month Low
Published: Friday, 27 May 2011 | 10:06 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43193255





Pending sales of existing U.S. homes dropped far more than expected in April to touch a seven-month low, a trade group said on Friday, dealing a blow to hopes of a recovery in the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index dropped 11.6 percent to 81.9 in April, the lowest since September.

Pending home sales lead existing home sales by a month or two.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected pending home sales to fall 1.0 percent.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 27, 2011, 08:04:48 AM
Editorial: Will 'Obamalaise' Create Another Downturn?
 
Posted 05/26/2011 06:52 PM ET

 

Economic Policy: Today's choppy economic growth conjures up memories of the '70s, when another Democrat presidency reigned over a similar period of stagnation, dubbed the era of "malaise."

Like the Carter years, the Obama years so far are marked by anti-business policies and anemic business activity. This week's raft of gloomy economic reports confirm the zombie Obama recovery has hit another dangerous soft patch.

Among the bad news:

• Businesses last month slashed orders for autos and other durable goods by the largest amount in six months.

• Industrial output dropped the most in April for any month since the start of the recovery, indicating the manufacturing sector may be rolling over.

• Jobless claims last week unexpectedly shot up and topped 400,000 for the seventh straight week, signaling that payroll growth remains soft — in fact, the pace of hiring may be slowing.

• April housing starts plunged 11%, confirming the housing industry remains moribund.

• Foreclosures last quarter accounted for 28% of all home sales — the highest share in a year and nearly six times above the normal rate.

Listen to the Podcast
Subscribe through iTunes• Consumer spending last quarter expanded just 2% after rising at a 4% clip in the fourth quarter.

• Net corporate profits last quarter fell 1% after rising 3% in the fourth quarter, and weaker earnings continue to act as a drag on stocks.

• The overall economy last quarter grew a lower-than-expected 1.8% vs. 3.1% in the fourth, showing gross domestic product growth is braking hard.

Yes, Japanese disasters slowed auto supplies, and record tornadoes hurt building in the South. But these one-off events don't explain the broader downtrend.

Manufacturing weakness was widespread across a number of industries. Excluding transportation, durable orders would have been down 1.5% in April after rising 2.5% in March. And reports from the Philly Fed, Richmond Fed and Chicago Fed all show slowing.

While higher pump prices have hurt spending, foreclosures have dampened consumer confidence. And it will take three years to clear the inventory of 2 million properties already in some stage of foreclosure.

Technically speaking, if the economy declines again, we'd have a triple dip. The last time we saw such choppiness was in the '70s.

Then as now, Washington held back economic growth. Heavy-handed government policies are breeding uncertainty in boardrooms across the country.

Businesses are bracing for a double tsunami of government red tape and massive new costs in the form of ObamaCare and sweeping financial industry changes.

They're also looking at a massive tax increase in two years. Obama extended Bush's small-business tax cuts, but last month said, "I refuse to renew them again."

Businesses are hard-pressed to expand in such an environment. It's just too risky.

"We've got a lot more to do to get businesses to invest and to hire," Obama recently lamented.

No, you've done quite enough already, Mr. President.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/573536/201105261852/Obamalaise.htm
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 27, 2011, 08:41:01 AM
Unemployment: The New Norm
Yahoo Finance ^ | 26 May 2011 | Jeremy Greenfield





Even as the economy recovers, the days of 5% unemployment may be gone for good.

A chorus of economists and labor market observers say that the "natural" or "structural" rate of unemployment has shifted up, meaning that Americans looking for work should get used to having a harder time finding it. The unemployment rate is currently 9% and could take until 2016 to reach the natural rate.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2011, 06:30:02 PM
Point of No Return | National Debt Tops Personal Income
Natural Born Conservative ^ | May 29, 2011 | Larry Walker, Jr.






~ By: Larry Walker, Jr. ~

For the first time since World War II, the National Debt of the United States has exceeded personal income, on a per capita basis. The point of no return was breached in 2010, during Barack Obama’s second year in office, and the derangement continues to spin hopelessly out of control. This means that every dollar earned by an American citizen is now owned by the federal government, and then some. That’s right, the average annual income of most working-class Americans now belongs to the federal government. The warning of Thomas Jefferson has come to pass, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”

Meanwhile, no senators voted for Barack Obama's 2012 budget when it came up for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday. A procedural vote to move forward on the president's plan failed 0 - 97, proving that Obama is basically a lame duck president, with no viable plan for resolving the government-manufactured fiscal crisis.

Historical Per Capita National Debt, Personal Income and GDP

In the year 1929, per capita personal income was $697, while each citizen’s portion of the national debt was $139. The federal government’s debt represented just 16.3% of gross domestic product, and 19.9% of personal income. Although not incurring any national debt at all would have been ideal, the percentage of debt to personal income was at least somewhat bearable back in the day; but this was about to change for the worse.



The point where a citizen’s per capita share of the national debt exceeded personal income first occurred at the height of World War II. In 1944, per capita personal income was $1,199, while each citizen’s share of the national debt reached $1,452. At the time, the national debt represented 91.5% of gross domestic product and 121.1% of personal income, on a per capita basis. Per capita national debt would continue to exceed personal income through the end of 1950, five years after the end of the war.



The point of no return was decisively breached in the year 2010 (see chart above). Although per capita personal income had grown to $40,441, each citizen’s portion of the national debt soared to $43,732. The national debt represented 92.5% of gross domestic product and 108.1% of personal income, on a per capita basis. The situation has worsened through the end of the first quarter of 2011 with per capita personal income of $41,486, versus per capita national debt of $45,782. Through March of 2011, the national debt now represents 95.1% of gross domestic product and 110.4% of personal income, on a per capita basis.

[In contrast, at the end of 2008 per capita personal income stood at $40,469, while each citizen’s share of the national debt was $32,886. In 2008, the national debt represented 69.8% of GDP and 80.9% of personal income, on a per capita basis. Although the United States government was dangerously close in 2008, it had not yet surpassed the point of no return.]

This might not be as big of a deal if the United States ever paid down its debt, but I can only find six years since 1929 where this actually occurred – 1930, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1956, and 1957. There is no chance of fiscal recovery with a president who, in the face of financial disaster, dares to submit a budget containing multi-trillion dollar per year deficits into the future. Until the right leadership is in place, you, I, our children and our grandchildren can look forward to living in a nation which basically owns us. Is this the same Republic that we inherited from our forefathers? I think, not.

Barack Obama has taken this nation in precisely the wrong direction; he has taken us beyond the point of no return. Yet there is still hope, but such hope, of necessity, lies beyond the realm of partisan politicians. Faith without works is dead. This isn’t World War II. It’s time to dramatically reduce the federal government’s footprint. It’s time to cut government spending. It’s time to lower (not raise) the debt ceiling. Tomorrow will be too late.

References:

Rejected! Senate Votes Unanimously To Ignore Obama's Budget

Treasury Direct: Historical Debt Outstanding – Annual

Treasury Direct: Debt to the Penny through 3/31/11

Bureau of Economic Analysis: Table 7.1. Selected Per Capita Product and Income Series in Current Dollars (A)

Data Tables:



Click here to view all data tables as a slideshow

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2726868/posts

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2011, 06:46:59 PM
Why Is The Economy So Bad?
The American Dream ^ | May 28 2011


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2726707/posts






Why Is The Economy So Bad?






Millions of Americans have lost their homes, tens of millions of Americans can't find a decent job and 44 million Americans are on food stamps. This is causing an increasing number of Americans to ask this question: "Why is the economy so bad?" There are some Americans that are old enough to remember the Great Depression, but the vast majority of us have never known hard times. All our lives we were told that America was the greatest economy on the planet and that we would always experience endless prosperity in this nation. That was easy to believe because even though we had a recession once in a while, things always bounced back and got even better than ever. But now something seems different. The current economic downturn began back in 2007 and yet here we are in 2011 and there seems to be no end in sight for this economic crisis. So what in the world is going on? Can anyone explain why the economy is so bad?

The following are some of the kinds of questions that the American people are asking about the economy these days....

Why does it seem like it is harder to get a job today than it used to be?

Well, it is because there are far fewer jobs available and far fewer people are getting hired. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006. Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month.

Is there much hope that the unemployment rate will start to decline significantly?

Unfortunately there does not appear to be much reason for optimism. Initial weekly unemployment claims have been above 400,000 for 7 weeks in a row. The "jobs recovery" we have been promised simply is not materializing. Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded. At the rate we are going things are going to be about the same this year.

So where did all of the jobs go?

They are being sent overseas at a blistering pace. The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990. Amazingly, the United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

Why does it seem like nearly all of the jobs that are available right now are crappy, low paying jobs?

Well, because most of the jobs that are available are crappy, low paying jobs. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article posted on Tomdispatch.com.....


According to a recent analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the biggest growth in private-sector job creation in the past year occurred in positions in the low-wage retail, administrative, and food service sectors of the economy. While 23% of the jobs lost in the Great Recession that followed the economic meltdown of 2008 were “low-wage” (those paying $9-$13 an hour), 49% of new jobs added in the sluggish “recovery” are in those same low-wage industries. On the other end of the spectrum, 40% of the jobs lost paid high wages ($19-$31 an hour), while a mere 14% of new jobs pay similarly high wages.

Why are so many Americans afraid to start businesses?

Maybe it is because the overregulation of business in this country has now reached extreme levels. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently slapped a fine of $90,000 on one family from Missouri because they sold more than $500 worth of rabbits in a single year. The $4,600 in rabbits that they sold ended up netting the family only $200 in profits.

If people are not able to make a decent living, then how are they providing for their families?

Sadly, an increasing number of Americans are simply not able to put food on the table anymore. Today, one out of every eight Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

For the first time ever, more than a million American homes were repossessed during 2010. So is there any sign that this will turn around in the years ahead?

Sadly, things could get even worse. Today, there are 6.4 million homeowners that are delinquent on their mortgages or in foreclosure. Of those, 675,000 have not made a payment in at least two years.

Will the U.S. housing market ever recover?

Hopefully we will see some sort of a recovery at some point, but right now things don't look good. In April, signed contracts to buy homes fell to a 7-month low. There are 120 million more people in the U.S. than there were in 1963, but home purchases are currently at about half the level they were back then. The truth is that there are dozens of indications that the U.S. real estate crisis may get even worse before things start getting better.

Why does it seem like health care costs so much these days?

Sadly, it is because the entire U.S. health care industry has become a giant money making scam. 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%. One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt. Health care costs continue to increase far faster than the general rate of inflation and so this crisis is going to continue to get worse.

Is "retirement" rapidly becoming a luxury that only the wealthy can enjoy?

According to stunning new research, 54 percent of all American workers plan to keep working after they retire. A different study found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

Why does it seem like U.S. companies are hiring so many temporary workers?

It is because American businesses are hiring them by the bushel. A whopping 26 percent of all the workers hired in 2010 were temporary workers. That is way, way above historical norms. Temporary workers are far cheaper and much easier to get rid of.

Is the gap between the rich and the poor growing in America?

Yes, it most certainly is. Between 1979 and and 2007, the average household income of the top 1% of Americans soared from $346,600 to $1.3 million. During that same time period the average household income for middle class Americans increased only slightly. At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

Does how much money you make tend to alter your view of how well the economy is doing?

Well, according to recent Gallup polling, 46% of those Americans that make less than $30,000 a year believe that we are in a depression right now, while only 23% of those making $75,000 or more believe that we are currently in a depression.

Why do members of Congress seem to care so little about average American workers?

Perhaps it is because 58 percent of the members of Congress are millionaires while only about 1 percent of the general population is made up of millionaires.

So if the economy is in such bad shape why do we still have such a high standard of living?

Sadly, the truth is that we have only been able to maintain our incredibly high standard of living by going into massive amounts of debt. The U.S. national debt is now more than 14 times larger than it was when Ronald Reagan took office. America has become absolutely addicted to government money. Any politician that threatens to reduce government payouts usually gets voted out of office fairly quickly. 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another. U.S. households are now actually receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income. As long as the American people continue to be addicted to receiving government payouts the federal government will continue to be drowning in debt.

But it is not just the federal government with a debt problem. State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP. Many state and local governments are even closer to going broke than the federal government is.

U.S. households have been on a debt binge for decades as well. Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income.

The truth is that we are a nation that is addicted to debt. We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world and it was really fun while it lasted.

Unfortunately, the bills are starting to come due and nobody is quite sure how we can possibly pay for all of our mistakes.

We are drowning in debt at the same time that our economic infrastructure is being ripped to shreds. Tens of thousands of factories have closed over the last decade. There is a never ending parade of companies leaving the United States. U.S. workers are having a really tough time competing against slave labor on the other side of the globe. Thanks to "globalization", multinational corporations can hire workers for slave labor wages on the other side of the planet and nobody can stop them.

But if U.S. workers lose their jobs, they go from paying taxes into the system to being a drain on the system. This makes our government debt situation even worse.

Let there be no mistake - America is in economic decline.

So why is the economy so bad?

The truth is that decades of debt and really, really bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.

The economy is a mess right now and things are going to get a whole lot worse.

You better get ready.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2011, 06:02:43 PM
US Economy Hits Soft Patch But Some See It as 'Temporary'
 CNBC ^ | 05.30.11




The economy has struck a soft patch that is likely temporary, and the second half of the year should be better, some economists say.

Supply chain disruptions form the Japanese earthquake and tsunami have had a direct impact on manufacturing and the auto industry in particular. Additionally, the spike in oil and gasoline prices has hit consumer and business spending.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 05:32:48 AM
Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News
By Michael Barone

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/30/pro-obama_media_always_shocked_by_bad_economic_news_110028.html





Unexpectedly!

As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.

"New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed," reported cnbc.com May 25.

"Personal consumption fell," Business Insider reported the same day, "when it was expected to rise."

"Durable goods declined 3.6 percent last month," Reuters reported May 25, "worse than economists' expectations."

"Previously owned home sales unexpectedly fall," headlined Bloomberg News May 19.

"U.S. home construction fell unexpectedly in April," wrote The Wall Street Journal May 18.

Those examples are all from the last two weeks. Reynolds has been linking to similar items since October 2009.

Mainstream media may finally be catching up. "The latest economic numbers have not been good," David Leonhardt wrote in the May 26 New York Times. "Another report showed that economic growth at the start of the year was no faster than the Commerce Department initially reported -- 'a real surprise,' said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics."

Which raises some questions. As Instapundit reader Gordon Stewart, quoted by Reynolds on May 17, put it: "How many times in a row can something happen unexpectedly before the experts start to, you know, expect it? At some point, shouldn't they be required to state the foundation for their expectations?"

One answer is that many in the mainstream media have been cheerleading for Barack Obama.  They and he both naturally hope for a strong economic recovery. After all, Obama can't keep blaming the economic doldrums on George W. Bush forever.

I'm confident that any comparison of economic coverage in the Bush years and the coverage now would show far fewer variants of the word "unexpectedly" in stories suggesting economic doldrums.

It's obviously going to be hard to achieve the unacknowledged goal of many mainstream journalists -- the president's re-election -- if the economic slump continues. So they characterize economic setbacks as unexpected, with the implication that there's still every reason to believe that, in Herbert Hoover's phrase, prosperity is just around the corner.

A less cynical explanation is that many journalists really believe that the Obama administration's policies are likely to improve the economy. Certainly that has been the expectation as well as the hope of administration policymakers.

Obama's first Council of Economics Adviser Chairman Christina Romer, whose scholarly work is widely respected, famously predicted that the February 2009 stimulus package would hold unemployment below 8 percent. She undoubtedly believed that at the time; she is too smart to have made a prediction whose failure to come true would prove politically embarrassing.

But unemployment zoomed to 10 percent instead and is still at 9 percent. Political pundits sympathetic to the administration have been speculating whether the president can win re-election if it stays above the 8 percent mark it was never supposed to reach.

Administration economists are now making the point that it takes longer to recover from a recession caused by a financial crisis than from a recession that occurs in the more or less ordinary operation of the business cycle. There's some basis in history for this claim.

But it comes a little late in the game. Obama and his policymakers told the country that we would recover from the deep recession by vastly increasing government spending and borrowing. We did that with the stimulus package, with the budget passed in 2009 back when congressional Democrats actually voted on budgets, and with the vast increases scheduled to come (despite the administration's gaming of the Congressional Budget Office scoring process) from Obamacare.

All of this has inspired something like a hiring strike among entrepreneurs and small businessmen. Employers aren't creating any more new jobs than they were during the darkest days of the recession; unemployment has dropped slowly because they just aren't laying off as many employees as they did then.

In the meantime many potential job seekers have left the labor market. If they re-enter and look for jobs, the unemployment rate will stay steady or ebb only slowly.

We tend to hire presidents who we think can foresee the future effect of their policies. No one does so perfectly. But if the best sympathetic observers can say about the results is that they are "unexpected," voters may decide someone else can do better.

Copyright 2011, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 05:35:59 AM
Where's the Recovery? Hopes For Economic Rebound Fade
Published: Friday, 27 May 2011 | 1:09 PM ET Text Size By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com Staff Writer

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43194727





A year that was supposed to mark a turning point both for the US and global economy is rapidly turning into the recovery that wasn't.

 
CNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
At a time when things were supposed to be getting better they are instead turning worse: Commodity prices are eating into consumer spending, historically low interest rates haven't done a thing to help housing, and, most worrisome, the job market rebound has been stopped in its tracks.

Is it too early, then, to talk about a double dip? Probably.

Economists busy ratcheting down their forecasts for gross domestic product, unemployment and other metrics still think growth will resume later in the year. But GDP gains, both in the US and around the world, are likely to be considerably slower than anticipated.

"The economy appeared to have everything going for it as we entered the New Year," London-based Capital Economics said this week in an updated analysis of its 2011 outlook. "GDP growth had picked up over the closing months of last year, the activity surveys hit multi-year highs and yet another round of fiscal and monetary stimulus was being put in place."

But that was before inflation pressures—considered by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and other central banks to be muted this year—escalated and changed the recovery's dynamics.

"Unfortunately, the surge in commodity prices ended up constraining real incomes, which largely offset the potentially positive impact of the payroll tax cut," Capital said, referencing last year's tax deal between congressional Republicans and President Obama. "Growth slowed and the activity indices dropped back."

That has had cascading effects across the economy.

Government data released Friday showed consumer spending remains weak, pressured by food and gas prices that Bernanke has famously described as "transitory." That has come on the heels of a miserable week for economic news in manufacturing and jobs.

At the same time, the Fed's zero interest rate policies and quantitative easing programs may have spurred the stock market to a stunning recovery but have done virtually nothing for housing, which has become the elephant in the recovery's living room.

"The ongoing decline in house prices is only causing further damage to households' balance sheets, offsetting any benefits from rising stock markets for many people," Capital wrote. "House prices are on course to fall by at least 5% this year and we don't anticipate any rebound until the second half of 2012."

So even if Bernanke's position in "transitory" inflation holds true and the consumer gets relief—such as in the recent fall in gasoline prices—there are other problems with which the economy must contend.

For instance, the Goldman Sachs Analyst Index—a measure of business activity similar to the Institute for Supply Management's report—showed its fifth-largest drop ever in May.

"May’s GSAI result is not encouraging, but it is consistent with other recent surveys of economic activity," Goldman economist David Kelley wrote in a research note. "The general business conditions or composite indices of all of the major Fed surveys released so far in May have declined."

As such, that has resulted in more pessimistic revisions for economic growth.

Goldman Sachs already has moved its second-quarter GDP projections down for the US to 3.0 percent and its global outlook from 4.8 percent to 4.3 percent.

Deutsche Bank also has pared down its 2Q expectations, putting domestic GDP at 3.2 percent from earlier expectations of 3.7 percent.

Moreover, Deutsche also has backed off its rosy hopes for the May nonfarm payrolls number. Earlier the firm projected the month to show jobs growth of more than 300,000 and a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.7 percent from the current 9.0 percent.

But a continued slowdown in Japan and worsening weekly jobless claims numbers have sent the firm's economists in the other direction, now predicting employment growth of 225,000 and just one tick lower in the unemployment rate, to 8.9 percent.

But Deutsche is far from backing off in terms of its broader economic views.



"The overarching theme remains that productivity is broadly slowing as the economic expansion continues, which means the pace of hiring should accelerate—as is typical at this stage of an economic expansion," Deutsche economist Carl Riccadonna wrote in a note. "Our May employment forecast alterations merely reflect a slightly softer pace at which this is occurring."

But pessimism remains the overarching theme, even if an outright return to recession is not part of the consensus forecast.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has cut its quarterly—2.0 percent GDP gain from 2.8 percent—and yearly growth forecast—3.0 percent for the second half—aggressively as headwinds continue to build.

"The weakness reflects both the temporary impact of disruptions to global supply chains and more lasting shocks from higher oil prices, fiscal tightening and slower growth overseas," BofAML economist Ethan Harris said in research. "Hence we continue to expect a disappointing bounce back to just 3% growth in the second half of the year. The slowdown feels very similar to last year's soft patch."

The good news, and what likely will prevent a technical double-dip, is that corporate America is faring well.

Aggressive cost-cutting through layoffs and production efficiency has resulted in healthy bottom lines, with about 68 percent of Standard & Poor's 500 companies beating first-quarter profit and revenue estimates.

And most market pros expect the stock market to endure a bumpy summer but then regain traction and end the year on a stronger note.

"There are positive signs in the underlying data in the major economies, even if some of the short-term data have disappointed." Nomura Securities economist Owen Job told clients. "We do not expect risk to be repriced lower, and think equities are likely to enter a range."

The downside remains, though, as companies use their excess profits not to hire but to do deals and issue debt at historically low interest rates.

As such, a year that began with great promise could end with recovery hopes that will have to be delayed a while.

Of projections that economic growth could still reach 4 percent this year, Capital Economics' experts simply say, "We are not convinced."

© 2011 CNBC.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 07:28:55 AM
Source: Reuters

U.S. single-family home prices dropped into double-dip territory in March as the housing market remained bogged down by inventory and weak demand, a closely watched survey said Tuesday.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in March from February on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' expectations.

The price index was below the low seen in April 2009 during the financial crisis. The glut of houses for sale, foreclosures, tight credit and weak demand have kept the housing market on the ropes even as other areas of the economy start to recover.

The 20-city composite index was at 138.16, falling below the 2009 low of 139.26.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chibrkb...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on May 31, 2011, 07:45:57 AM
Food Stamp usage has also hit a fresh record!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/time-celebrate-recovery-food-stamp-usage-hits-fresh-record (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/time-celebrate-recovery-food-stamp-usage-hits-fresh-record)

(http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/images/Food%20Stamps_0.png)

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 08:05:27 AM
Source: Bloomberg

By Shobhana Chandra

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly  declined in May to a six-month low as Americans’ outlook for business conditions and the labor market soured.

The Conference Board’s index dropped to 60.8 from a revised 66 reading in April, figures from the New York-based private research group showed today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise to 66.6. Other data today showed a drop in home prices and weakening manufacturing.

Americans became more pessimistic about their incomes, which are getting squeezed by higher grocery bills and gasoline that’s exceeded $3.50 a gallon since early March. The lack of faster job and wage growth means consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, may remain restrained and keep the expansion from quickening.

“Consumer spending could be quite stagnant because of the elevated fuel prices,” Lindsey Piegza, an economist at FTN Financial in New York, said before the report. “Lower fuel costs would lead to a somewhat more favorable pace of consumer spending. It comes back to the need for faster job creation and income growth.”

MORE...

Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ...


________________________ ______________________


Ha ha ha ha - the msm kneepadders always use that word "unexpected".  Wonder why? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 08:18:15 AM
'Double-Dip' in Housing Prices Even Worse Than Expected
Published: Tuesday, 31 May 2011 | 9:05 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43222783




U.S. single-family home prices dropped in March, dipping below their 2009 low, as the housing market remained bogged down by inventory and weak demand, a closely watched survey said Tuesday.

 
AP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in March from February on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' expectations.

The price index was below the low seen in April 2009 during the financial crisis. The glut of houses for sale, foreclosures, tight credit and weak demand have kept the housing market on the ropes even as other areas of the economy start to recover.

The 20-city composite index was at 138.16, falling below the 2009 low of 139.26.


"This month's report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, said in a statement. "Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight."  
 
Eight cities fell 1 percent or more in March, while Washington was the only city where prices increased on both a monthly and yearly basis. Prices in the 20 cities fell 3.6 percent year over year, topping expectations for a decline of 3.3 percent.

"The declines sustained in the last 12 months have almost erased the gains of the previous 12 months. The housing market is treading backward, but not drowning," said Cary Leahey, economist and managing director at Decision Economics in New York.

In the first quarter, the national index fell 1.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to a decline of 1.8 percent in the previous quarter. On a non-adjusted basis, they fell by 4.2 percent in the quarter. Nationally, home prices are back to their mid-2002 levels, the report said.

Blitzer told CNBC that the decline in prices, though fairly widespread, has become more prevalent in geographic pockets—the Southwest and Southeast as well as the Michigan and Ohio manufacturing regions.

"What we've seen over the last few months despite the decline in prices is we've gone back to the old 'location, location, location' story instead of everything going down at once," he said. "California has clearly broken out of the pattern it was in, which is a big plus."

Though there had been hopes in the industry that prices were troughing and ready to turn higher, the latest trends show little hope in sight until later this year or early in 2012, he added.

"Everybody's now keeping their fingers crossed for 2012 and wondering whether people just don't want to own homes anymore," he said.

On a non-adjusted basis, they fell by 4.2 percent in the quarter.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 09:36:19 AM
Chicago manufacturing gauge nosedives: Largest drop in two-and-a-half years
Marketwatch ^ | 5.31.11 | Steve Goldstein





WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A Chicago-area manufacturing gauge dropped by the largest amount in nearly two-and-half years in May, in a further sign that the rise in oil prices and the Japanese earthquake have affected activity.

The Chicago PMI fell to a reading of 56.6% in May, the lowest reading since Nov. 2009, from 67.6% in April.

While that reading is still significantly above the 50-line indicating growth, the eleven-point drop is the biggest one-month deceleration since Oct. 2008 and was worst than the 60% reading that economists polled by MarketWatch anticipated.


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



________________________ ________________________ _____________________


Is this summer of recovery yet?   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 10:01:09 AM
Michael Pento: Central Bankruptcy – Why QE3 is Inevitable (why we're ruined by Obamanomics alert)
Yahoo Finance ^ | May 31, 2011 | Michael Pento






As the U.S. economy seemingly limps out of the Great Recession most analysts now assume that the Federal Reserve will soon join the tide of other central banks and bring an end to the current era of unprecedented monetary expansion. Markets expect that Fed will begin withdrawing liquidity this summer, not too long after this latest round of the quantitative easing comes to an end. But this is simply a delusion.

[Snip]

In order to withdraw liquidity the Fed must sell most, if not all, of the assets on its balance sheet. The questions are: what types of assets will it sell, how fast will they sell them, who will buy, and what price will the market bear?

[Snip]

But as the size of the Fed's balance sheet ballooned, the dollar amount of capital held at the Fed has remained fairly constant. Today, the Fed has $52.5 billion of capital backing a $2.7 trillion balance sheet. While the size of the portfolio expanded three fold (and the quality of its assets diminished), the Fed's equity ratio plunged from 6% to just 2%. Prior to the bursting of the credit bubble, the public was shocked to learn that our biggest investment banks were levered 30 to 1. When asset values fell, those banks were quickly wiped out. But now the Fed is holding many of the same types of assets and is levered 51 to 1! If the value of their portfolio were to fall by just 2% the Fed itself would be wiped out.

[Snip]

In the end, any meaningful attempt to withdraw liquidity will not only bankrupt the institution but also zero out their remaining credibility. That's why they'll never even make an honest attempt.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 10:20:40 AM
May 30, 2011
The Numbers Are Grim



A month ago, when an initial gauge of first-quarter economic growth came in surprisingly weak, many policy makers and economists expected the bad news to prove fleeting. But when revised data were released last week, the growth estimate remained stuck at an annual rate of 1.8 percent, compared with 3.1 percent at the end of last year.

More troubling in the latest figures, consumer spending — the largest component of the economy — was especially slow. Stagnant wages and higher prices for gas and food are squeezing family budgets, while falling home equity hurts consumer confidence. That suggests more bad news to come.

When consumers are constrained, so is hiring, because without customers, employers are hard pressed to retain workers or make new hires. A recent Labor Department report showed a greater-than-expected rise in the number of people claiming jobless benefits even as private-sector economic forecasts are being revised downward — both very bad omens for continued job growth.

Republican lawmakers have responded to renewed signs of weakness with a jobs plan that prescribes more of the same “fixes” that Republicans always recommend no matter the problem: mainly high-end tax cuts, deregulation, more domestic oil drilling and federal spending cuts.

The White House has offered sounder ideas, including job retraining, plans to boost educational achievement and tax increases to help cover needed spending. But its economic team is mainly focused on negotiations to raise the debt limit, presumably parrying Republican demands for deep spending cuts that could weaken the economy further while still reaching an agreement on the necessary increase.

The grim numbers tell an unavoidable truth: The economy is not growing nearly fast enough to dent unemployment. Unfortunately, no one in Washington is pushing policies to promote stronger growth now.

The sinkholes in the economy should be obvious. Most prominently, the housing market is still awful, and state and local government budgets are still a mess. Conditions apparently have to get worse before deficit-obsessed policy makers will be ready to address them, including with bolstered foreclosure relief and more fiscal aid to states. More delay would only imperil the recovery, such as it is. And without a strong recovery, it will be even harder to repair the budget. Continued hard times means low tax revenues and high safety-net spending.

If Washington won’t do what is needed to make things better, there are still things that can be done to try to keep the economy from getting worse.

The administration could work to ease the rules for refinancing mortgages owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-run mortgage giants. Easier refinancings would lower monthly payments for potentially hundreds of thousands of borrowers in good standing, and in that way, free up spending money to boost the economy.

The Federal Reserve, for its part, must be prepared to continue measures to bolster the economy as needed, even if that means looser policy for longer than it originally planned. Democrats in Congress must lay the groundwork for an inevitable fight over extending federal unemployment benefits, which expire at the end of this year.

There’s a long way to go before the economy will thrive without government help.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31tue1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 10:48:50 AM
Newt was right - Obama is the Food Stamp POTUS - up 40% since he took office. 



http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htmhttp://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm



Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2011, 08:36:19 PM
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How's all this "Change" working out for you??!!!

Posted on May 31, 2011 11:03:57 PM EDT by Mier

How's all this "Change" working out for you??!!!

this is NOT new news! + some of these numbers have gotten worse!

Here is the "change" promised 2 years later after Obama took office-----

 January 2009 TODAY % chg. Source

Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.79 $4.59 100.6% 1

Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $113.02 127.7% 2

Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.70 $108.38 180.0% 2

Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,514.50 65.5% 2

Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2

Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2

Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2

Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3

Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3

Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3

Number of fed.. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim) 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3

Real median household income (2008 v 2009) $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4

Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10) 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5

Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10) 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6

Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3

Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009) 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4

People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009) 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4

U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10

Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10) 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11

Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date) 140 164 17.1% 12

U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate (This is even after the earthquake.) 89.76 85.03 -5.6% 2

U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13

U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 8,310.9 8,871.3 6.7% 13

National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.278 34.4% 14

Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. Over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically, speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster . . . it would be doing 1,755 MPH! This is a disaster! Sources: (1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 04:23:50 AM
40 Signs The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The U.S. Economy
American Dream ^ | May 31 2011




40 Signs The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The U.S. Economy


It is time to face the truth. The Chinese economy is simply beating the living daylights out of the U.S. economy. Whether you want to call it a rout, a slaughter or a thrashing, the reality is that the Chinese are absolutely embarrassing America on the global economic stage. At this point, the Chinese are playing economic chess while the Americans are playing economic checkers. China is poised to blow past the United States and become the largest economy in the world. Not only that, some economists are projecting that the Chinese economy could be three times larger than the U.S. economy by mid-century. The age of U.S. economic dominance is ending, and most Americans still don't even understand what is happening.

Several decades ago, big corporations started figuring out that they could make a lot more money if they sold goods that were made overseas. At the time the United States was so dominant economically that it didn't even matter who was in second place. We started shipping in lots of products that were made somewhere else and the American people loved it because the prices were lower and they could buy more stuff. U.S. corporations loved it because profit margins were higher. Foreign nations loved it because we were helping to develop their economies and they were getting richer. Everyone seemed to be winning and it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

But then the trickle of jobs and factories leaving the country started to become a flood. Then it became an overwhelming torrent. The number of "middle class jobs" in the United States began to shrink continually. Suddenly it seemed like most of the jobs that were available were low paying "service jobs". The prices of the goods in the stores were still low, but average American families were feeling increasingly squeezed so they started to borrow massive amounts of money in order to maintain the same standard of living.

Most Americans were willing to go into constantly increasing amounts of debt in order to buy cheap products that were made overseas. This seemed to work well for everyone involved and so the consumer debt bubble just kept growing and growing and growing.

As businesses and jobs fled the country, the U.S. tax base just wasn't as robust as it was before either. The federal government, state governments and local governments all started borrowing gigantic amounts of cash from the countries we were sending all of our money to.

In particular, China really started to emerge as an economic powerhouse over the last couple of decades. Once China joined the WTO they aggressively started to flood our shores with really cheap products. When you have hundreds of millions of workers willing to work for about a dollar an hour that is not that hard to do.

Most Americans didn't care where all of the cheap products were being made. They just kept running out to the retail giants and filling up their carts. Of course this was largely done with borrowed money, but at the time nobody really seemed to really care.

It is a lot of fun to run up huge amounts of debt, but eventually bills have to be paid. All of this borrowing has enabled the U.S. to enjoy the greatest standard of living in the history of the world, but it has been a false prosperity. The American Dream was purchased with borrowed money.

Now the United States is drowning in consumer debt and government debt from sea to shining sea. We sent gigantic amounts of wealth over to China and other foreign nations and they sent us gigantic amounts of cheaply made products.

It was supposed to be a good deal for both sides.

In the end, it turns out it was a great deal for them and a crappy deal for us.

The following are 40 signs that the Chinese economy is beating the living daylights out of the U.S. economy....

#1 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

#2 According to the IMF, China will pass the United States and will become the largest economy in the world in 2016.

#3 According to one prominent economist, the Chinese economy already has roughly the same amount of purchasing power as the U.S. economy does.

#4 At the turn of this century the United States accounted for well over 20 percent of global GDP and China accounted for significantly less than 10 percent of global GDP. But since that time America's share of global GDP has been steadily declining and China's share has been steadily rising.

#5 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

#6 According to Stanford University economics professor Ed Lazear, if the U.S. economy and the Chinese economy continue to grow at current rates, the average Chinese citizen will be wealthier than the average American citizen in just 30 years.

#7 During 2010, we spent $365 billion on goods and services from China while they only spent $92 billion on goods and services from us.

#8 Since 2005, Americans have gobbled up Chinese products and services totaling $1.1 trillion, but the Chinese have only spent $272 billion on American goods and services.

#9 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#10 Back in 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. For the month of April 2011 alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 18.8 billion dollars.

#11 Since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown by an average of 18% per year.

#12 According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2008 the U.S. lost approximately 2.4 million jobs due to the growing trade deficit with China. Every single state in America experienced a net job loss due to our trade deficit with China during this time period.

#13 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but last summer China took over the number one spot.

#14 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world last year. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.

#15 China now consumes 53 percent of the world's cement.

#16 Last year, China produced 11 times as much steel as the United States did.

#17 Since China joined the WTO, approximately 46,000 factories have been transferred from the United States to Asia.

#18 China now has the world’s fastest train and the world’s largest high-speed rail network.

#19 Is alternative energy the future? If so, the Chinese economy is positioned well. China is now the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power.

#20 Chinese solar panel production was about 50 times larger in 2010 than it was in 2005.

#21 Today, China controls over 90 percent of the total global supply of rare earth elements.

#22 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

#23 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#24 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#25 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#26 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.

#27 China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.

#28 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

#29 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry was actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#30 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in "advanced technology products" of $16 billion with the rest of the world. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.

#31 Over the past 15 years, China has moved up from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.

#32 According to one recent study, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.

#33 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.

#34 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment.

#35 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China was "scrap and trash".

#36 In 2009, the United States ranked dead last of the 40 nations examined by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation when it came to "change" in "global innovation-based competitiveness" over the previous ten years.

#37 Russia and China have announced that they have decided to quit using the U.S. dollar and instead start using their own national currencies when trading with each other.

#38 A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted a while back found that 61 percent of Americans consider China to be a threat to our jobs and economic security.

#39 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income. In China, the average household debt load is 17% of average household income.

#40 China has accumulated the largest stockpile of foreign currency reserves on the entire globe - $3.04 trillion as of the end of March. That figure was an astounding 24.4 percent higher than it was exactly one year earlier.

So where in the world did China get all that money?

That is an easy question to answer.

They got it from us.

We are the wealthy rube sitting at the poker table getting bled dry by all of the sharks.

We gave trillions to the Chinese instead of giving it to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.

Now our economic infrastructure is in shambles and tens of millions of Americans can't find decent jobs.

Our government officials are wondering where all of the tax revenue went, but the reality is that you can't tax workers that don't have jobs.

Sacrificing jobs and economic infrastructure for "cheap stuff" is kind of like using pieces of your house to keep your fire going. In the end, you won't have any house left at all and your fire will go out.

The greatest economy on earth is being ripped to shreds right in front of our eyes and most of our politicians do not seem to care.

This has been a slow-motion disaster that has taken decades to play out. This is not something that happened overnight.

Sadly, the vast majority of the American people are still clueless about all of this. That is one reason why I write so fervently about economic news. My hope is that the American people will wake up before it is too late.

Unless fundamental changes are made, the current trends we are witnessing are only going to continue to accelerate. The Chinese economy is going to continue to beat the living daylights out of the U.S. economy.

So what do all of you think about the dominance of the Chinese economy? Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....


________________________ _____________________


Hey, I have an idea - lets double the amount of people on food stamps, keep borrowing like there is no tommorow, refuse to cut spending by any meaningful way, and think Hope & Change will get us through. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 04:42:36 AM
Editorial: Obama Recovery Still Feeble After Two Years
 http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/573836/201105311856/Feeling-Better-.htm

Posted 05/31/2011 06:56 PM ET



________________________ ________________________ ___

 

Economy: Without a lot of fanfare, the Obama economic recovery officially turned 2 this month. Anyone think we're better off than we were two years ago?

On Tuesday, a trio of reports gave fresh evidence that the answer to this question is no.

Single family home prices dropped in March to their lowest level since April 2009; the consumer Confidence Index tumbled to a six-month low of 60.8; and regional manufacturing is slowing. In the Chicago area, it fell to its lowest level since November 2009.

Yet if you listened to President Obama and his cheerleaders in the press over the past two years, the answer should have been a resounding yes.

Obama promised way back in February 2009 that his $830 billion stimulus plan would unleash "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction" and "ignite spending by businesses and consumers."

In June 2010, he announced that the recovery was "well under way" and that it "is getting stronger by the day." A couple months later, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner penned a New York Times op-ed headlined "Welcome to the Recovery."

And all along, media simply parroted the White House line, extolling every "green shoot" they could find, celebrating every time a handful of jobs got created, while constantly acting surprised by the ongoing "unexpected" bad economic news.

But the fact is that the Obama recovery is one of the worst ever. Certainly the worst since the Great Depression. It's so bad, in fact, that even 24 months after the recession officially ended there are few places beyond the stock market and corporate profits that have shown much, if any, improvement. A few examples:

Listen to the Podcast
Subscribe through iTunes• Jobs: The number of people with jobs has barely changed since June 2009 — up just 0.4%.

• Unemployment: While the unemployment rate has dropped a bit, the number of long-term unemployed is up by a third, and the average length of unemployment is now a staggering 38 weeks.

• Earnings: Median weekly earnings are down slightly between Q3 2009 and Q1 2011, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Housing prices: The National Association of Realtors reports that median price for existing home sales dropped 10% since June 2009.

• Gas prices: Pump prices climbed 52% over the past two years, according to the Department of Energy.

Yet, incredibly, Obama continues to escape blame for this sorry state of affairs. A Rasmussen survey in May found 54% of the public still blames President Bush, while just 39% blame Obama's policies.

The disconnect is stunning, but it nevertheless offers Republicans a huge opportunity, if they will seize it, to decisively claim the pro-growth label.

To do that, they first need to hammer home the fact that Obama's growth-smothering policies are solely to blame for the economy's two-year rut. Then they must focus on clearly needed pro-growth tax cuts and regulatory relief to turbocharge the private sector.

Sure, spending cuts and Medicare reform are important issues. But the millions of families still worried about keeping their jobs and their homes also need to hear how the GOP can get the economy moving again.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 05:34:01 AM
Check out the ADP jobs report today.  Damn - talk about epic fail X 100. 

Hope and Change - you fools voted for this. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on June 01, 2011, 07:26:11 AM
Check out the ADP jobs report today.  Damn - talk about epic fail X 100. 

Hope and Change - you fools voted for this. 

Numbers were horrible.

Jobs Created - 38k

Expectations - 190k

Not good.

NFP numbers will be revised massively downgraded and GDP numbers will continue to be downgraded.

Yep, that Stimulus Plan sure worked well, didn't it!
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 07:48:20 AM
If only we had done cap and trade, spent trillions more, massively raised taxes, surely things would be even better! 

Staw, mal, benny, blacken, andre told me so. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on June 01, 2011, 07:54:20 AM
Who gives a shit, right?

With all the other super important stuff going on in the world like, oh, Palin riding a motorcylce, Palin writing nots on her hand, Fox News saying stuff and things and all the other related stuff.


That is the real news and the real stuff we need to be concerned about! Silly things like jobs reports, GDP downgrades and record high food stamp usage have no bearing here! Sarah Palin said some stuff, be concerned and post about that!

Get your head in the the game, Capt. SillyPants!


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 07:58:36 AM
The best part is now you have people saying we have to emulate germany and denmark when some of us have been warning for over two years now that these crazy unsound policies were destined to failure.

Another thing, obamacare alone and the massive uncertainty it brought to the economy is also a big factor in this.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 09:14:39 AM
Labor Market Worries Rise on Weak Private Sector Job Growth
Published: Wednesday, 1 Jun 2011 | 10:07 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters


U.S. private-sector payroll growth slowed sharply in May, falling to the lowest level in eight months and prompting some economists to lower forecasts for job growth in Friday's U.S. government report.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The ADP Employment Services report is the latest in a string of data suggesting economic growth remained sluggish early in the second quarter after hitting a soft patch in the first months of the year. The economy grew at a tepid 1.8 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, softer than analysts originally anticipated.

"This only adds fuel to the argument that the slowdown story is here in the U.S.," said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

"This is exactly what we do not want when other significant data shows things are slowing down as well."

The ADP report showed private employers added a scant 38,000 jobs last month, falling from a downwardly revised 177,000 in April and well short of expectations for 175,000. It was the lowest level since September 2010.

The report boded poorly for the key U.S. non-farm payrolls report at the end of the week. Credit Suisse lowered its estimate for Friday's employment number to 120,000 from its previous forecast of 185,000 and its private payroll estimate to 135,000 from 200,000.

ADP's number has been weaker than the government's private payrolls figure for 12 of the last 14 months, making Friday's government numbers likely to come in above ADP's report, Credit Suisse said.

The Labor Department report is expected to show a rise in overall non-farm payrolls of 180,000 in May, slowing down from a gain of 244,000 the month before, according a Reuters poll.

Private payrolls are expected to come in at 205,000.

The ADP report is jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, whose chairman said he expects Friday's figure to disappoint.

U.S. stock indexes opened lower open following the ADP report.

A separate report showed the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose modestly in May with the government and non-profit sectors making up a large portion of the cuts.

Employers announced 37,135 planned job cuts last month, up 1.8 percent from 36,490 in April, according to a report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"Most employers realise that these types of ups and downs are typical during recoveries. So, it is unlikely that we will see a sudden resurgence in corporate downsizing in the months ahead, unless there is a major shock to the economy," John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.

The housing market, meanwhile, continued to struggle as a report from an industry group showed applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week, pulled lower by a decline in refinancing demand.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell 4 percent in the week ended May 27.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/43234521

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: dario73 on June 01, 2011, 09:17:45 AM
WOW. The economy is doing a lot worse than I thought. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 09:18:03 AM
US Manufacturing Growth Slowest Since Sept 2009
Published: Wednesday, 1 Jun 2011 | 10:13 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters



http://www.cnbc.com/id/43236208

________________________ _____________

 
The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector tumbled in May, slackening more than expected to its slowest since September 2009, according to an industry report released Wednesday.


The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 the month before. The reading missed economists' expectations for 57.7.

A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, while a number above 50 means expansion.

New orders fell to 51.0 from 61.7 in April, the lowest since June 2009. The index for prices paid fell to 76.5 from 85.5, below expectations of 82.0.

The data echoed earlier regional reports that showed softer manufacturing growth last month.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 09:21:52 AM
Mortgage Applications Fell Last Week
Published: Wednesday, 1 Jun 2011 | 7:10 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters



Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week, pulled lower by a decline in refinancing demand, an industry group said Wednesday.

 
CNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell nearly 4 percent in the week ended May 27.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications lost 5.7 percent, even as interest rates tumbled.

"The last time mortgage rates were this low, refinance volume was more than twenty percent higher," Mike Fratantoni, MBA's vice president of research and economics, said in a statement. "It is likely that many borrowers still cannot qualify to refinance given the lack of equity in their homes."

Slideshow: Double-Dip Real Estate MarketsIs Your Home an Asset?Even Short-Term FHA Shutdown Will Hit Housing
The refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 65.7 percent of total applications from 66.8 percent the week before. The gauge of loan requests for home purchases was essentially unchanged.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.58 percent in the week, down from 4.69 percent the week before.

Copyright 2011 Thomson
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 09:54:55 AM
'Shockingly Weak' Job Growth In May
CNN Money via WTAE ^ | June 1, 2011 | Laurie Segall and Annalyn Censky




NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Growth in the job market weakened in May, surprising economists and spurring them to call a report on private payrolls "shockingly weak," "grim," and even a "hairball."

"The ADP Employment report coughed up a hairball in May," Robert Dye, senior economist with the PNC Financial Services Group, said in a research note, referring to a report by payroll processing company ADP released Wednesday.

That report showed private sector employers added only 38,000 workers in May, far lower than the revised 177,000 jobs added in April and much weaker than economists had expected.

That level of job growth is the weakest number since September. According to ADP, the private sector had added 100,000 jobs in each of the prior six months leading to May.

"No matter what, this is obviously a very, very weak result," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets. "Employers are still hiring but they're reluctant to pick up the pace until they're convinced the recovery is self-sustaining."


(Excerpt) Read more at wtae.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 03:07:56 PM
Bump.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 06:42:10 PM
Batchelor reporting that car sales headed back in to the tank. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2011, 08:28:29 PM
Global Financial Markets Tremble As Bad Economic News Continues To Pour In
Benzinga ^ | 6/1/11 | Michael Snyder
Posted on June 1, 2011 10:46:17 PM EDT by Kartographer

Douglas Borthwick, a managing director with Faros Trading in Stamford, Connecticut is not optimistic....

"The sugar high that has buoyed the U.S. economy over the past six months is wearing out, and there is little in economic growth or foundation to show for it."

Well, just check out what Peter Yastrow, a market strategist for Yastrow Origer, recently told CNBC....

"Interest rates are amazingly low and that, thanks to Ben Bernanke, is driving everything," Yastrow said. "We're on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it."

(Excerpt) Read more at benzinga.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 05:58:24 AM
More job seekers give up, reducing unemployment
AP/YahooNews ^ | 6/2/11 | PAUL WISEMAN




The labor force — those who have a job or are looking for one — is getting smaller, even though the economy is growing and steadily adding jobs. That trend defies the rules of a normal economic recovery.

Nobody is sure why it's happening. Economists think some of the missing workers have retired, have entered college or are getting by on government disability checks. Others have probably just given up looking for work.

"A small work force means millions of discouraged workers, lower output in the future and a weak recovery," says Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Congress' Joint Economic Committee. "Those are unhealthy signs."

By the government's definition, if you quit looking, you're no longer counted as unemployed. And you're no longer part of the labor force


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 06:02:11 AM
Why New York City Home Prices Are Headed for Collapse
Minyanville ^ | 06/02/2011 | Keith Jurrow





Editor's Note: Keith Jurow is the author of the MVP Housing Market Report.

Readers of mine know that I have written two articles about why a collapse in Queens home prices was almost certain (see A Housing Price Collapse in Queens New York Is Almost Certain and Queens Housing Market, Like Much of NYC, Is Headed for a Crash). Yet no collapse has occurred. Was I wrong?

I never stated that the collapse was imminent. I said I had no way of knowing when the banks would start foreclosing on all those delinquent borrowers. But they will. Now is a good time to take a look at why the entire New York City (NYC) market is headed for collapse.

First, let’s see what’s happened to home prices around the country since the expiration of the first-time buyer tax credit. The best source for this is Clear Capital and its excellent Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report.



Since the end of last summer, home prices nationwide have plunged by an average of 11.5% through April 2011. Some of the worst major metros have fallen even more. Talk of home prices bottoming has stopped. For a year, I’ve been saying that there is no housing recovery in sight.

Yet NYC median home prices have held up pretty well during this period. Why?

In my two articles about Queens, I pointed out that the servicing banks are simply not foreclosing on delinquent homeowners. They aren’t even putting them into default (NOD). Take a look at this chart from the first article showing the rise in serious delinquencies in that borough.



A year ago, 11.2% of all Queens homeowners with a mortgage were delinquent by 60 days or more. I obtained these figures from TransUnion, the credit-reporting firm which puts out a quarterly mortgage delinquency report based on its database of 27 million anonymous credit reports. In the first quarter of 2008, that figure was only 3.9%.

That 11.2% figure equaled roughly 25,000 seriously delinquent homeowners. This number was confirmed by a fairly recent NY Federal Reserve Bank report which stated that 10% of all first liens in Queens were delinquent by 90 days or more. Remember, these figures are for only one of five boroughs in NYC. The NY Fed’s report also showed a 90+ day delinquency rate of 11.8% for the Bronx and 9.5% for a Brooklyn.

Are the banks making any attempt to foreclose on all these delinquent homeowners who are living rent-free? You judge.



Let’s take a good look at this amazing graph. New York City has roughly 8 million residents, easily the largest city in the nation. The graph from PropertyShark breaks down the new foreclosure auctions (actually sheriff sales) scheduled by borough. You can see that the vast majority scheduled are for Queens. None of the other four boroughs exceeded 150 scheduled auctions in any month since the end of 2008.

Notice carefully that the peak number for Queens starts to decline well before the robo-signing mess occurred last fall. Sorry, that problem had nothing to do with the bank’s refusing to foreclose on delinquent homeowners. It did provide some cover for the banks, though.

The plain truth is that for more than two years, the servicing banks have made no effort to foreclose on these seriously delinquent borrowers throughout the Big Apple. Take a look at these incredible figures for the number of NYC REOs for sale on foreclosure.com on May 30.

Repossessed Properties on the Market in NYC -- May 30
 

Queens: 232
Brooklyn: 95
Bronx: 76
Staten Island: 75
Manhattan: 27

I’m not making these numbers up. Go to foreclosure.com and check for yourself.

So what does all this mean for the NYC housing markets? Homeowners in any of the five boroughs do not have to compete with foreclosures for sale as they do in every other major metro. So can they list their property for anything they want. And they do. Every once in a while, like the Venus flytrap, a seller is fortunate enough to catch a buyer.

Sellers don’t catch many, though. In Jonathan Miller’s thorough quarterly report on the Queens market put out by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, he counted a total of 2,483 1-3 family houses, coops, and condo units sold during the fourth quarter of 2010. That is roughly 830 per month. This is for a borough with roughly 2.2 million residents. These buyers paid a median price of $363,000. If you weren’t aware of what I’ve explained, you would think that the Queens market has held up fairly well. No way. The overwhelming majority of properties on the market in all five boroughs just sit … and sit … and sit.

Where All Five Boroughs Are Headed

At some point, the banks will be under tremendous pressure to foreclose on the huge number of seriously delinquent properties that are now either vacant or occupied by “walkaways” who have been enjoying the free ride longer than anywhere else. Look at this shocking chart from Lender Processing Services.



It shows that In New York State, homeowners with a notice of default (NOD) on their property have not made a mortgage payment for an average of 644 days. That is more than 21 months. Nice deal, isn’t it?

When the banks begin to foreclose and dump the REOs on the market, prices in all five boroughs will completely collapse. This is almost as certain as night follows day. Ignore it at your own risk.

Keith will be focusing on the entire NYC housing market and the suburbs in the seventh issue of his Housing Market Report due out in mid-July.

For much more from Keith Jurow, see his Housing Market Report. Keith provides actionable data, charts, in-depth analysis and specific advice to help investors and sellers make better property decisions. Learn more.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 06:05:55 AM
Up and Down Wall Street | THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2011  Expect More 'Unexpectedly' Weak Economic Data
By RANDALL W. FORSYTH |


A continued skein of downbeat numbers implies rates will stay low.

When should we start to expect the "unexpected"?

Every economic datum released in the last month has been dutifully reported as "worse than expected," from the various Federal Reserve regional economic surveys, initial claims for unemployment, plus every measure of housing activity, just to mention a few.

But forget the nitty-gritty of the economic reports. The increasing enervation of the U.S. economy can be seen most clearly in one discrete data point: the yield of the 10-year Treasury note, which crashed through the 3% mark Wednesday following yet more "worse-than-expected" reports on ADP's count of private payrolls and the Institute ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 06:45:25 AM
Jobless claims fall as labor costs tepid (slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 422,000)
Reuters ^ | 06/02/2011




New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but not enough to assuage fears the labor market recovery has taken a step back.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 422,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, less than economists' expectations for a fall to 415,000.

The claims report falls outside the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for May.

The government is expected to report on Friday that employers hired 150,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey, after increasing payrolls by 244,000 in April.

"Every indication we have had so far points to a slightly softer labor market in the U.S.," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto.

U.S. stock index futures held gains after the data, while U.S. bond prices extended losses. The dollar also extended losses against the euro.

There is a risk that May payrolls could come in below consensus after ADP, a payroll service company, reported private employers added only 38,000 last month, the smallest number since September.

However ADP has a poor track record at predicting nonfarm payrolls.

In a second report, the Labor Department said nonfarm productivity grew at a slightly faster 1.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter, rather than the 1.6 percent previously reported. Productivity was still slower than the 2.9 percent pace set in the fourth quarter.

Wage growth remained muted, with unit labor costs rising at a 0.7 percent rate rather than the previously estimated 1 percent rate. Unit labor costs dropped at a 2.8 percent rate in the fourth quarter.


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


________________________ _____________________

Tommorows numberis going to be a real doozy.


HOPE & CHANGE ASSHOLES - YOU VOTED FOR THIS   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 07:21:05 AM
Obama's Nuclear Option on Economy
Townhall.com ^ | June 2, 2011 | John Ransom

Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2011 9:47:10 AM by Kaslin

In the latest surpirse regarding the economy, Wednesday's job report from ADP showed that private employers added only 38,000 jobs in May.

Surprise!

Economist expected private companies to add about 175,000 jobs for the month.

The report is the next in a series of disappointments on the economic front.


Home sales have continued to lag, GDP has been revised sharply downward, and inflation has taken a larger bite out of corporate and family budgets.

When economists are this far off, one has to start looking at their underlying assumptions.

Perhaps it's because they all went to the same schools and continue to use the same stimulus-addled math. 

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its nonfarm payroll report which includes government jobs in addition to private job data. With state and local governments juggling to balance their budgets, government employment is expected to shrink as they lay off workers.

The public has become increasingly skeptical of public stimulus spending, which means that the government is, mercifully, running out of its preferred policy means of spurring the economy.

From here on out, Obama has only two options left to address the job creation crisis:

Cut taxes across the board
Suspended regulations that stifle business

Of course Obama will do neither of those things. His party would go nuclear if he did. So, instead he'll go play golf. 

The most relevant question you can ask the president today is: "How's that back swing?"   

As I observed last week in This is What Stagflation Looks Like, even as world equity markets move down with signs pointing to slowing global economic growth, a European Central Bank member is warning about inflation, caused in large part by monetary policy in the US .


"We have to take seriously the April rise in long-term inflation expectations and take it as a sign of increasing price perspectives when monetary policy is expansive," said Jens Weidmann, the head of Germany's Bundesbank.

Translation: We need to tighten up money to combat inflation because the Americans won't face their own fiscal crisis.

Tighter money supply means slower growth, fewer jobs.

This really is what stagflation looks like: No growth, no jobs, rising prices.   

In the markets we've become slightly immune to such disappointments because the markets are always just a measure of expectations; economists expectations, analysts expectations; shareholder expectations.

But the difference between 179,000 and 38,000 is stil pretty big even with diminished expectations that the market has been rationalizing.

By that measure, however, there is nothing truly unexpected about any of the bad news on the economic front.

Politicians, progressive wonks and J-school business writers seem to be the only ones who are really surprised.


For the rest of us, we can take grim satisfaction in saying that we told you so.

In Europe, by contrast, they seem to have gotten religion about how to jump start an ailing economy.

Greece has been loosening regulatory burdens on business and even agreed to cut taxes.   

International lenders known as "the troika" have agreed to another bailout of Greece as long as Greece's socialist government agrees to...wait for it...cut taxes to stimulate economic growth.

It's amazing the lengths socialist will go when pressed. 

We now know empirically that Socialist Greece and Communist China are both more dedicated to capitalist-based reforms than our current adminstration in Washington, DC. 

Cut taxes? What a novel idea. Wonder if anyone has thought of that before?


"ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece appears to have agreed a tax cut with its international lenders, aimed at forging a broad consensus for more austerity to avoid a debt default, but the opposition said on Tuesday this would still not win its support."

With Greece teetering on the brink of financial ruin, the socialist government has agreed to cut the VAT according to reports by Reuters. The VAT cut comes in an effort to restart the Greek economy, which has been in a free fall, burdened by entitlement debts it can not pay.

"Greece's conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras," reports Reuters, "has demanded tax cuts -- including a 15 percent flat rate for corporate tax -- as the price for a deal with the government, which the EU has insisted on as a condition for more funds."

In the U.S., which has one of the highest corporate taxes in the world, Republicans have proposed a corporate tax cut to 25 percent from 35 percent. 25 percent is the current standard corporate tax in Greece  today.

"If correct, it is a good step but not good enough, not sufficient to restart the economy," an official at the [Greek conservative] New Democracy party said on condition of anonymity.

The Greek version of SEIU still has the "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho" crowd out in force however:

"Meanwhile, about 50,000 people gathered in central Athens, in a seventh consecutive day of anti-austerity protests. Banging cooking pots, protesters held a banner in front of parliament reading: 'We won't go away until the government, the troika and the debt leave.'"


This really is what stagflation looks like: People fighting over shrinking public revenues, while politicians figure out how to promise more revenues, thereby again shrinking public revenues .

And it will be a long hot summer of stagflation until November of 2012.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 08:31:12 AM
Back towards a US double-dip
By Robert Reich

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa81cf92-8c3f-11e0-b1c8-00144feab49a.html
Published: June 1 2011 12:51 | Last updated: June 1 2011 12:51




The US economy was supposed to be in bloom by late spring, but it is hardly growing at all. Expectations for second-quarter growth are not much better than the measly 1.8 per cent annualised rate of the first quarter. That is not nearly fast enough to reduce America’s ferociously high level of unemployment. The labour department will tell us on Friday whether the jobs situation improved in May, but there has been no sign of a surge in hiring. Nor in wages. Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees – who make up 80 per cent of non-government workers – dropped to $8.76 in April. Adjusted for inflation, that’s lower than they were in the depths of the recession.

Meanwhile, housing prices continue to fall. They are now 33 per cent below their 2006 peak. That is a bigger drop than recorded in the Great Depression. Homes are the largest single asset of the American middle class, so as housing prices drop many Americans feel poorer. All of this is contributing to a general gloominess. Not surprisingly, consumer confidence is also down.

The recovery has stalled. It is unlikely that America will find itself back in recession but the possibility of a double dip cannot be dismissed. The problem is not on the supply side of the ledger. Corporate profits are still healthy. Big companies continue to sit on a cash hoard. Large and middle-sized companies can easily borrow more, at low rates. The problem is on the demand side. American consumers, who constitute 70 per cent of the total economy, cannot and will not buy enough to get it moving. They justifiably worry that they will not be able to pay their bills, or afford to send their children to college, or to retire. Banks, with equal justification, are reluctant to lend to them. But as long as consumers hold back, companies remain reluctant to hire new workers or raise the wages of current ones, feeding the vicious cycle.

The timing is unfortunate. Foreign consumers will not help much even if the dollar continues to slide. Europe’s debt crisis and embrace of austerity, Japan’s tragedy and China’s fiscal tightening have reduced global demand. At the same time, the federal stimulus in the US has almost run its course. The Federal Reserve is about to end its $600bn of purchases of Treasury bills, designed to bring down long-term interest rates and make it easier for homeowners to refinance. Worse yet, state governments – starved for revenue and constitutionally barred from running deficits – continue to cut programmes. Local governments are now in worse shape, laying off platoons of teachers and firefighters.

Under normal circumstances, this would be the time for the federal government to take bold action to ward off a double dip. For example, it could put more cash in peoples’ pockets while giving employers an extra incentive to hire by exempting the first $20,000 of earnings from payroll taxes, for a year or two. It could lend money to state and local governments. It could launch a new Work Projects Administration (modelled after its antecedent during the Great Depression) to put the long-term unemployed to work on public projects. It could amend the bankruptcy law to allow people to include their prime residences in personal bankruptcy, thereby giving homeowners more leverage to get mortgage lenders to mitigate the terms of their loans.

But these are not normal circumstances. America has been through a devastating recession that poked a giant hole in the federal budget. And with a presidential election coming up next year, both parties are already manoeuvring for tactical advantage. Since taking over the House of Representatives in January, Republicans have focused on cutting government spending and paring back regulations. Their colleagues in the Senate, whose leader has proclaimed his major goal to unseat President Barack Obama, are almost as single-minded. Cynics might suspect Republicans of quietly hoping the economy stays rotten up until election day.

Democrats, meanwhile, are behaving as if they are powerless to affect the economy, even though a Democrat occupies the White House and his appointees run the federal government. They would rather not dwell on the slowdown because they do not want to spook the bond market or add to the prevailing gloom (Jimmy Carter’s ill-fated comment about the nation’s “malaise” during the stagflation of the late 1970s has served as a permanent admonition for presidents to stay upbeat). Democrats are staking their electoral hopes on continuing disarray among Republican presidential aspirants, as well as the Republicans’ suicidal plan to turn Medicare, the popular health insurance system for seniors, into vouchers that would funnel money to private, for-profit insurance companies.

The result is as if Washington were on another planet from the rest of the country (many Americans would argue this is hardly a new phenomenon). The noisiest battle in the nation’s capital is over raising the statutory debt limit – a game of chicken in which Republicans are demanding, in return for their votes, caps on future federal spending while Democrats insist on preserving the possibility of tax increases on the wealthy. Countless budget analysts are combing through endless projections of government revenues and expenditures in five or 10 years. Think tanks and blue-ribbon panels are issuing voluminous reports on how to tame the budget deficit in decades to come. The president, meanwhile, is trying to appear as fiscally austere as possible – keeping a lid on non-defence discretionary spending, freezing the wages of civil servants and offering his own deficit-reduction plans.

Washington’s paralysis in the face of a stalled recovery is bad news – not just for average Americans but for the world. Ironically, it also worsens America’s future budget crisis because it postpones the day when the debt begins to shrink as a proportion of GDP. Yet as the 2012 campaign season looms, the prospects for sensible policy seem to decrease by the day.

The author is chancellor’s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and former US secretary of labour under President Bill Clinton. His latest book is “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future”

.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.


________________________ ________________________ _

Even RR sees the writing on the wall.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 10:12:22 AM
Has the Greatest Depression Already Begun?
Big Government ^ | June 2, 2011 | Wayne Allen Root





I am a successful small businessman and a patriot who loves America and always sees its greatness. I am also an optimistic, positive thinker who always sees the glass half full.

But not this time.

I predicted doom if Obama was elected. Sadly the results are far worse than imagined. The economy is in shambles. America is staring at economic disaster — Armageddon. Even me, the eternal optimist is scared at what the future holds. We are the Titanic, headed straight for the iceberg.

America has always been a land of boom and bust. It’s just part of business cycle. But Obama and his socialist cabal have channeled Hoover and FDR, who turned an ordinary bust into The Great Depression with a toxic strategy of more government, more spending, more debt, more rules and regulations strangling business, higher minimum wages, more power to unions, more entitlements, higher taxes, more printing of money by Fed, and trade tariffs. This is the Obama blueprint squared.

The question this time is, is Obama doing it because he understands nothing about business? Or does he understand exactly what he’s doing? Is Obama’s goal to overwhelm the system, incite crisis, sow doubt about capitalism, and force the citizens to beg for government to save them, thereby opening the door to Socialism? Is Obama’s plan to redistribute the wealth, and at the same time to bankrupt the people with wealth and power, thereby crippling his political opposition?

Does it really matter?

Here’s where the story gets downright frightening. 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 problems and obligations we are now facing:

In 1929 America was not $100 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities.

In 1929, most of our states were not bankrupt, insolvent and dependent on the federal government to survive.

In 1929, we had far fewer government employees living off taxpayers. Today 1 out of 5 federal employees earn over $100,000. California lifeguards and Las Vegas firemen earn $200,000. 77,000 federal employees earn more than the Governors of their states. Government employees retire at age 50 with $100,000 pensions for life. The postal service – without competition- loses $8 billion annually. Protected by their unions and the politicians they elect, government employees are bankrupting America. Even FDR said he could not imagine allowing public employees to unionize.

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 illegal immigrants.

In 1929, we didn’t have millions of illegal immigrants and their children collecting billions of dollars in entitlements from U.S. taxpayers.

In 1929, legal immigrants wanted only to work. My grandparents from Russia and Germany received no government benefits. They worked day and night to provide for their family and become American citizens. It was sink or swim.

In 1929, we had 150 million citizens with a strong work ethic- all motivated to earn the American Dream for their children and grandchildren. Americans were hungry in 1929. Today the hungry, motivated citizens and entrepreneurs are in China and India.

In 1929, we had an education system that was the envy of the world. Today our public schools are in shambles. We spend the most in the world, and get among the worst results. The difference today? Teachers unions are in charge, instead of parents

Our students are taught socialism and the great benefits of big government. They graduate with few skills, qualified only for low paying manufacturing jobs that no longer exist- they’ve been shipped to China and India. What will this workforce do for the rest of their lives? Live off the government dole? Who will pay for it?

In 1929 children had hope for the future. Today they are hopeless, helpless, and clueless – an entire generation that only knows drugs, gangs, rappers, government handouts, teen pregnancy- and it goes downhill from there.

In 1929 taxes were much lower. Forget the tax rates- they were meaningless. In those days we had a cash economy, so most businesses paid little or no taxes. Sales and FICA taxes didn’t exist. Today the combined local, state, property, gas, sales, FICA and federal taxes are the highest burden in history. This stifles entrepreneurship and hinders the financial risk-taking necessary to create jobs and get out of a Great Depression.

Do you get the picture? Disaster looms. We are staring at the Greatest Depression ever.

Still doubt me? Did you read the recent news report of 80 teen girls all pregnant in one Memphis high school? That’s 80…eighty…in one high school. This is happening all over the USA. Who will pay the bills?

We are in deep, deep trouble. There is no easy way out. The noose is tightening. The economy is crumbling. The situation is turning more hopeless by the hour. The more government gets involved, the worse it gets. Coincidence?

The solution is simple- cut government, cut spending, cut entitlements, cut taxes, stop the wars, end the Fed, term limit politicians, and back the dollar with a gold standard. Or, like so many other great empires of history, America may never recover from this Greatest of All Depressions that Obama is driving us directly toward.



________________________ _____________________-


Fuck you pieces of trash still supporting obama!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 10:21:54 AM
Editorial: U.S. Is Already In A Growth Recession
 
Posted 06/01/2011 06:47 PM ET

 

Economy: As the president works on his golf game, the economy is coming apart again. Housing is taking another leg down, job gains seem to be tailing off and a fiscal iceberg lies just ahead. Will someone sound the alarm?

President Obama has busied himself with many things lately — angering longtime allies such as Israel, plunging us into an open-ended conflict in Libya without congressional approval, spending quality face-time with the British royals, golfing on Memorial Day.

On Wednesday, he even found time to declare June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Month."

We know the president is busy, but maybe it's time he returned to thinking about our foundering, job-challenged economy.

Recent data show a shocking turn south. While some worry we might soon experience a double-dip recession, we're already in a kind of recession — a growth recession. That's where the economy is barely eking out enough growth to create jobs. And the number of jobs being created isn't enough to sop up the unemployed and new entrants to the workforce.

Consider these data, all from one day:

• ADP reported that, based on its payroll tally, 38,000 private jobs were created in May — 100,000 short of the minimum needed for healthy growth.

• Employment consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas said businesses cut 37,135 jobs last month, up nearly 2% from April.

Listen to the Podcast
Subscribe through iTunes• Housing prices in the U.S. plunged 4.2% in the first quarter, the lowest since the financial crisis began.

• The Mortgage Bankers Association's mortgage application index fell 4% in the final week of May.

• The Institute for Supply Management reported its factory activity index tumbled from 60.4 in April to 53.5 in May — the lowest since September 2009.

Faced with such "unexpected" news, economists are returning to their spreadsheets to revise their growth estimates downward.

The most recent survey of top economists by Blue Chip Economic Indicators shows the average forecast for GDP growth in 2011 fell from 2.9% in April to 2.7% in May. Based on recent data, it will head even lower.

Most economists agree that GDP growth below 3% isn't enough to create sufficient jobs in the private sector to keep unemployment from rising.

Economists also widely believe that our extraordinarily reckless fiscal profligacy is hurting our recovery. From 2008 to 2010, the U.S. borrowed over $3.1 trillion. It will borrow another $1.5 trillion this year.

At the same time, the Fed has added $2 trillion to its balance sheet, mostly to buy all that new debt.

As Michael Pento, senior economist at Euro Pacific Capital, noted Wednesday, "genuine government stimulus comes from low taxes, stable prices, reduced regulation and low debt. Our economic policymakers have scrupulously avoided such remedies." Bingo.

A good start for the president would be to heed the letter sent to him by 150 economists — including some Nobel Prize winners — saying that any increase in our government's debt limit must be offset by even bigger spending cuts in the future.

That's great advice, but by no means enough. It would be a start, a minimal first step. We'll see how serious this president is — and how competent — based on how he responds.


http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/573972/201106011847/President-Plays-Economy-Lists.htm

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: GigantorX on June 02, 2011, 02:50:46 PM
Comrade Reich is a fucking lunatic and should be sharing a padded cell with Capt. Crazy himself, Paul Krugman.

His admission about the U.S. economy getting worse is spot on....his remedies are not.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2011, 03:23:08 PM
DEBT CEILING: Moody's Just Threatened To Slash The US Credit Rating
Joe Weisenthal | Jun. 2, 2011, 1:33 PM | 36,239 |  92



Image: Beverly & Pack via flickr
Finally, a logical warning on US credit.

Moody's is out with a comment saying that if there's no imminent progress on the debt ceiling fight, the US credit rating will be cut.

This makes total sense, and we applaud Moody's for doing their job: Identifying an imminent (real) issue, and sensibly advising (ahead of time) about what could be a threat to US debt holders.

This should help put an end to this idea that a technical default would be just fine, and that somehow all this brinksmanship would be good for US credit somehow.

Back in January, we called on Moody's to do exactly this: Threaten a ratings cut as a way of warning about the harmful effects of this fight


http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-warns-on-us-debt-rating-2011-6

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 04:18:05 AM
Source: Associated Press

The labor force — those who have a job or are looking for one — is getting smaller, even though the economy is growing and steadily adding jobs. That trend defies the rules of a normal economic recovery.

Nobody is sure why it’s happening. Economists think some of the missing workers have retired, have entered college or are getting by on government disability checks. Others have probably just given up looking for work.

“A small work force means millions of discouraged workers, lower output in the future and a weak recovery,” says Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.

By the government’s definition, if you quit looking, you’re no longer counted as unemployed. And you’re no longer part of the labor force.

Since November, the number of Americans counted as employed has grown by 765,000, to just shy of 139 million. The nation has been creating jobs every month as the economy recovers. The economy added 244,000 jobs in April. But the number of Americans counted as unemployed has shrunk by much more — almost 1.3 million — during this time. That means the labor force has dropped by 529,000 workers.



Read more: http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20110602/WIRE/11060...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 05:42:27 AM
Bump for team dildo.

9.1 percent ue - real good.  And with birth death model - that means we actually lost jobs.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 05:55:24 AM
I guess we are going to have to wait till next summer for the recovery to happen cause sure as hell its not this one. 

Kenyanomics - fail.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 08:22:34 AM
Bump for andre - does any of this show a positive trend? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 10:43:04 AM
Unemployment rate much worse than 9.1% (Arguably, 11.5%)
American Thinker ^ | 6/3/2011 | Steve McCann




Just how dire is the unemployment situation?  The May employment situation has just been released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics  showing an unemployment rate of 9.1%.  But what are the actual statistics that reveal the true depth of employment misery?

In the month of May the BLS claimed that 139.8 million people were employed out of a civilian noninstitutional population [those who live in the US, older than 16 and not in an institution or active military] of 239.3 million or an effective rate of 58.4%.  The civilian labor force which takes into account those the BLS consider employed and actively looking for work (not those who have dropped out of the labor force) stood at 153.7 million or 64.2% of the civilian noninstitutional population.

The last time there were 139.8 million employed (prior to the Obama years) was in October of 2004.  At that time the civilian noninstitutional population was 224.2 million for an effective rate of 62.4%.  The civilian labor force was estimated to be 147.8 million or 66% of the civilian noninstitutional population.  The published unemployment rate was 5.5%.

The most arbitrary of all factors the BLS uses is their calculation of the civilian labor force as that includes those actively looking for work but eliminates those who the BLS estimates have dropped out of the labor force. Yet it is the most important as it can skew the unemployment rate considerably.   Therefore using the October 2004 figures as a base the calculations would actually be as follows: the civilian labor force for May of 2011 should be 157.9 million not 153.7 million.   As there were 139.8 million people employed, it follows that the unemployment rate would then be 11.5% not 9.1%.

However arbitrary rates aside, the bottom line is that since October of 2004 the overall civilian noninstutional population has increased by 15.1 million people yet there has not been any net new jobs created per the report of May 2011 as the number of those employed is the same.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 10:47:32 AM
[youtube]Out Of Nowhere, The NFIB Just Sent Out This Warning: "Job Creation On Main Street Has Collapsed"
TBI ^ | 6-3-2011 | Joe Weisenthal


Posted on Friday, June 03, 2011 8:15:01 AM by blam

Out Of Nowhere, The NFIB Just Sent Out This Warning: "Job Creation On Main Street Has Collapsed"

Joe Weisenthal
Jun. 3, 2011, 7:42 AM



Here's a pre-NFP shocker.

The NFIB -- the small business organization that regularly measures the pulse of small business economic activity -- just sent out a warning on the jobs situation (via @edwardnh).

It's awful.

----------------

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2011 — Chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) William C. Dunkelberg, issued the following statement on May job numbers, based on NFIB’s monthly economic survey that will be released on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. The survey was conducted in May and reflects 733 randomly-sampled small-business owner respondents:

“After solid job gains early in the year, progress has slowed to a trickle. The two NFIB indicators—job openings and hiring plans—that predict the unemployment rate both fell, suggesting that the rate itself will rise.

“May’s job numbers will disappoint; meaningful job creation on Main Street has collapsed.

“Twelve percent (seasonally adjusted) of small-business owners reported unfilled job openings (down 2 points). Further indications of minimal future growth include the fact that in the next three months, 13 percent plan to increase employment (down 3 points), and 8 percent plan to reduce their workforce (up 2 points). That yields a seasonally adjusted net negative 1 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, a 3 point loss from April.

“Overall, reports of job reductions have returned to historically normal levels. However, the percent of owners hiring has not recovered to levels historically observed after two years of expansion. With one in four owners still reporting ‘weak sales’ as their No. 1 business problem, there is little need to add employees, especially with the uncertainty about future labor costs arising from new regulation

(snip)


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



________________________ ________________________ _______________

Yeah - obama - how about you fix the economy as promised! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 11:39:57 AM
More Americans Think Economy Will Never Recover
Published: Friday, 3 Jun 2011 | 1:26 PM ET Text Size By: Christina Cheddar Berk
News Editor


The mixed signals regarding the economy's health are taking a toll.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43268037

About 10 percent of Americans say they never expect their spending to return to pre-recession levels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Americans are growing increasingly doubtful about direction of the US economy, according to the latest survey from business-advisory firm AlixPartners.

In fact, an increasing number, some 61 percent, say they don't expect to return to their respective pre-recession lifestyles until the spring of 2014, if ever.

What's worse, a full 10 percent said they expect they will never return to pre-recession spending.

That's a more pessimistic view than last year, when those surveyed expected that they could be back to pre-recession spending levels by the middle of 2013.

"Americans continue to push their expectations for return to a pre-recession 'normal' further and further into the future—close enough for comfort, but far enough away to seem realistic," said Fred Crawford, CEO of AlixPartners. "But as that happens, more and more it seems normal is actually where we are right now."

The latest employment report, which showed that U.S. employers hired far few workers than expected in May, only serves to reinforce these attitudes.

"It's a vicious cycle," Crawford said. "Americans need to see a significant decrease in unemployment to feel confident in the economic recovery, but companies are waiting to see increased demand for their products and services before they begin hiring and making job-creating capital expenditures."

In the latest survey, some 63 percent of Americans said they feel "not good" or "bad" about the state of the US economy, representing a significant increase from May 2010 when only about 49 percent of those polled felt this gloomy.

The survey also found that Americans overwhelmingly expect to delay by at least 12 months major purchases and expenditures such as spending on new cars, home repairs and vacations.

There have already been signs of this in the latest retail sales reports that came out earlier this week from a handful of major retailers.

Overall, sales at stores open at least a year rose 5.0 percent in May, which is below the 5.4 percent increase that Wall Street expected, according to Thomson Reuters data.

While some analysts used a number of excuses, including high gasoline prices, poor weather, and lackluster merchandise, to explain away the disappointing results, the findings of the survey may suggest that consumers are hunkering down amid the uncertainty.

The view was expressed Thursday by Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, who said that traffic at Target stores slowed in the second half of the month.

"Our guests continue to shop cautiously in light of higher energy costs and inflationary pressures on their household budgets," Steinhafel said, in the company's monthly sales press release.

AlixPartners is by no means the first organization to recognize this growing pessimism.

Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius said the number of consumers who believe they have a chance to bring home more money one year from now is at its lowest level in 25 years, based on his analysis of the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment poll.


________________________ _____________

Hope & Change! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2011, 12:32:56 PM
Bad Housing Data: It's Worse Than You Think
www.joytiz.com ^ | 6/3/11 | Joy Tiz





Yesterday’s Case Shiller housing data was scary enough all by itself–housing prices have dropped a whopping 5% just in the past year. What nobody is factoring into the equation yet is one of the government’s favorite weapons of mass destruction–FHA loans.

Taxpayer insured mortgages are all the rage as conventional loans have become harder to come by. Now that all of the cows have escaped and been run over by semi trucks, lenders have sealed the barn door shut and requiring borrowers to prove they can actually repay their loans as well as put up some kind of down payment.

FHA borrowers, however, can get away with shaky credit and 3% down. Too often, that 3% and closing costs are rolled right into the loan. FHA loans are what keeps many mortgage brokers and appraisers in business these days.

If that doesn’t scare you, consider that in my market, I’ve noticed that FHA loans are often closing with significantly higher sales prices than comparable units sold via conventional financing. Something is very wrong with this picture.

As prices continue to drop, these food stamp backed mortgages are going to go very bad.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2011, 04:12:15 AM
Half of Last Month's New Jobs Came from a Single Employer — McDonald's
11:13 AM, JUN 3, 2011    • BY MARK HEMINGWAYSingle PagePrintLarger TextSmaller Text       
According to the unemployment data released this morning, the economy added only 54,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent. However, this report from MarketWatch suggests the data is much worse than that:

McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000. The Labor Department won’t detail an exact McDonald’s figure — they won’t identify any company they survey — but there will be data in the report to give a rough estimate.

If Morgan Stanley is correct, about half of last month's job growth came from the venerable fast-food chain. That is hardly the sign of a healthy economy.

(Via @Jimmiebjr)
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2011, 09:38:02 AM
US house price fall 'beats Great Depression slide'
By Stephen Foley
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The ailing US housing market passed a grim milestone in the first quarter of this year, posting a further deterioration that means the fall in house prices is now greater than that suffered during the Great Depression.

The brief recovery in prices in 2009, spurred by government aid to first-time buyers, has now been entirely snuffed out, and the average American home now costs 33 per cent less than it did at the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. The peak-to-trough fall in house prices in the 1930s Depression was 31 per cent – and prices took 19 years to recover after that downturn.

The latest Case-Shiller house price index was just one of a slew of disappointing economic data from the US yesterday, which suggested ebbing confidence in the recovery of the world's largest economy. The Chicago PMI manufacturing index showed a sharp slowdown in the pace of expansion in May, missing Wall Street forecasts and sending the index to its lowest since November 2009.

And in the latest Conference Board consumer confidence survey more people expressed uncertainty over their future economic prospects. The confidence index fell unexpectedly to 60.8 from a revised 66.0, when economists had expected it to rise to 67.0. Falling house prices and negative equity combined with high petrol and food prices and a still-weak jobs market to raise consumers' fears for the future.

Thomas Di Galoma, the managing director of government securities at Oppenheimer & Co, said: "Based on the weakness in housing prices, Chicago PMI and consumer confidence, it appears as though the economy could be headed for a double dip, especially as federal and state spending slows rapidly over the next six months."

Economists warned not to expect any immediate relief to the gloom from the housing market. Banks continue to demand high deposits from potential buyers and are pressing on with foreclosures against those who have fallen behind on mortgages, adding to the glut of unsold homes on the market.

Prices are back to their 2002 levels, according to the Case-Shiller National House Price Index out yesterday. "The national index fell 4.2 per cent over the first quarter alone, and is down 5.1 per cent compared to its year-ago level," David Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices, said. "Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight."
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2011, 11:37:02 AM
Obamanomics in action
As a member of the MSM business press, Business Insider is actually optimistic in their assessment of the current employment situation.

John Williams, Shadow Government Statistics makes a decent living converting economic statistics back to their original definitions (the Fed cooks the books mercilessly by frequently changing definitions) and by explaining the "numbers behind the numbers." According to John:

The Feds assume a "birth death adjustment," i.e. someone, somewhere, creates a new job every time an existing job is lost. As explained here, using a more realistic measurement reduces yesterday's reported gain of 54,000 jobs to a loss of more than 200,000.

The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment. Both of those are shown in the chart prepared by Williams shown immediately above.
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate (also in the above chart) reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.

Finally, according to John, yesterday's reported U-3 unemployment rate was 9.1 percent. The reported U-6 unemployment rate was 15.8 percent. The adjusted (to the historic definition) unemployment rate was 22.3 percent. This means that, using the original definition, the Business Insider chart is in reality roughly two and a half times worse than portrayed in the article.

1 posted on June 4, 2011 2:44:10 PM EDT by Zakeet
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2011, 11:40:08 AM
Check out this graph. 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2729896/posts



Damn.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 05, 2011, 02:53:12 PM
Poll finds Americans angry about pretty much everything

http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110605/pl_dailycaller/pollfindsamericansangryaboutprettymucheverything;_ylt=AscMjk5phAFYi9MVO0m__fpH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTRqb2NkNmE4BGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5Y2FsbGVyLzIwMTEwNjA1L3BvbGxmaW5kc2FtZXJpY2Fuc2FuZ3J5YWJvdXRwcmV0dHltdWNoZXZlcnl0aGluZwRjY29kZQN0b3BnbXB0b3AyMDBwb29sBGNwb3MDOARwb3MDOARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3BvbGxmaW5kc2FtZQ--



No wonder David Bowie was afraid of Americans.

A new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll finds that Americans are angry about…pretty much everything. From President Obama to congressional Republicans to even God (who has a 33 percent approval rating), everyone needs to watch out for an angry mob coming their way.

Unemployment is at 9.1 percent, gas and grocery prices are skyrocketing, the housing market is in the dumps, and people aren’t happy. Three quarters of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, and 81 percent say the job market is not where it needs to be. Half of respondents don’t think Obama has a plan to balance the budget, and 58 percent think Republicans aren’t doing their part to balance the budget either.

The poll finds that Americans are being affected by their anger in other parts of life as well. Fifty-six percent are so angry that they can’t even sleep and 13 percent say the anxiety has affected their sex life. Twenty-six percent of married respondents claim the country’s economic problems have affected their marriage, with more than half of those people saying it has made their marriage worse.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller



________________________ ________________________ _______________--


HOPE & CHANGE! ! ! ! !  !

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: George Whorewell on June 05, 2011, 02:57:55 PM
Jocelyn Elders is going to reappointed as the Surgeon General for the Obama administration. Reportedly, she will suggest that Americans should masturbate more often to cure their anger.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 06, 2011, 03:27:36 AM
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Keep The Change: 20 Ways That The U.S. Economy Has Gotten Worse Since .. Obama Became President
American Dream ^ | June 5th, 2011 | ?
Posted on June 6, 2011 6:23:45 AM EDT by GonzoII

Keep The Change: 20 Ways That The U.S. Economy Has Gotten Worse Since Barack Obama Became President



By almost any measure that you can think of, the U.S. economy has gotten worse since Barack Obama became president. Unemployment is higher, the cost of food and gas are skyrocketing, the number of Americans living in poverty has spiked dramatically, the housing market is in nightmarish shape and our national debt has absolutely exploded. Meanwhile, Barack Obama continues to prance around the country declaring that "we can live out the American dream again" and that what we are experiencing right now are simply "bumps on the road to recovery". But such mindless platitudes are of little comfort to the millions of American families that are slowly descending into poverty or the tens of millions of American families that are already there. If this is the "change" that Barack Obama was promising then he can just keep the change.

Barack Obama is proving to be one of the worst presidents in all of U.S. history. Perhaps when it is all said and done he will be recognized as the absolute worst. Not that George W. Bush was much different. In fact, the Republican Party will not regain much credibility with the American people until it admits that George W. Bush was an absolutely horrible president. Sadly, the truth is that we have not had a decent president in decades. This statement is going to upset almost everyone that is still trapped inside the false left/right political paradigm in this country, but I am not here to pander to the political establishment.

Barack Obama is a horrific president.

So was George W. Bush.

That is the truth.

Not that it is our presidents that actually run our economy. As far as the economy is concerned, the U.S. Congress deserves as much (or more) of the blame as the executive branch does.

However, if you really want to point fingers at someone, then you should place the most blame on the Federal Reserve. As I have written about previously, the Federal Reserve has more power over our economy that any other single institution....

So exactly what is the Federal Reserve? Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government. But that is absolutely not true. In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government. Rather, the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress. This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy, it has never been subjected to a comprehensive audit and it is not accountable to the American people. Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.

But the mainstream media rarely points fingers at the Fed, and the truth is that when election 2012 arrives, the American people are going to judge Barack Obama primarily on how the U.S. economy is performing.

By just about any measure you can name, the U.S. economy has gotten much worse since Barack Obama became president. Of course it is glaringly obvious by now that Barack Obama is completely clueless when it comes to economics. In fact, Obama surrounded himself with economic advisers such as Larry Summers who actually were highly instrumental in getting us into this mess.

So should Barack Obama be held accountable for this economic disaster?

Yes.

But so should Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., the entire U.S. Congress and the Federal Reserve.

The economic decline we are experiencing now has taken decades to build, and what we are experiencing now is simply an acceleration of the long-term economic trends that are destroying this country.

The following are 20 ways that the U.S. economy has gotten even worse since Barack Obama became president....

#1 In January 2009, the official U.S. unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. Today it is 9.1 percent.

#2 When Barack Obama took office, the number of "long-term unemployed" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is up to 6.2 million.

#3 When Barack Obama first became president, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $1.83. Today it is $3.79. This also affects the price of almost everything else that we buy.

#4 In April 2009, the average U.S. household spent approximately $201 on gasoline. In April 2011, the average U.S. household spent approximately $369 on gasoline.

#5 According to an article in the Daily Mail, the cost of a Memorial Day cookout was 29 percent higher this year than it was last year.

#6 When Barack Obama was sworn in, there were nearly 32 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are more than 44 million on food stamps.

#7 According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years.

#8 When Barack Obama took office, the U.S. national debt was 10.6 trillion dollars. Today it is 14.3 trillion dollars.

#9 The federal government has borrowed 29,660 more dollars per household since Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus law two years ago.

#10 During Barack Obama's first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#11 The combined debt of the major GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae) has increased from 3.2 trillion in 2008 to 6.4 trillion in 2011. Thanks to George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress, U.S. taxpayers are standing behind that debt.

#12 Under Obama, the U.S. trade deficit continues to grow. The trade deficit was about 33 percent larger in 2010 than it was in 2009, and the 2011 trade deficit is expected to be even bigger.

#13 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

#14 Just since August, 2 million more Americans have left the labor force.

#15 In 2010, more than a million U.S. families lost their homes to foreclosure for the first time ever, and that number is expected to go even higher in 2011.

#16 The U.S. real estate crisis just continues to get worse. During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.

#17 The U.S. dollar has fallen by 17 percent compared to other major national currencies since 2009.

#18 Faith in the U.S. dollar and in U.S. Treasuries is rapidly declining. The mainstream news is not reporting on it much, but right now the Chinese are rapidly dumping U.S. government debt. That is not a good sign.

#19 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs about $1500.

#20 Americans seem to be more pessimistic about the economy than ever. According to a brand new poll, 61 percent of Americans believe that they will not return to their "pre-recession" lifestyles until at least 2014.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 06, 2011, 03:49:39 AM
Obama 2012 and the May jobs report
JUN 3, 2011 16:26 EDT
 
inShare
   
2012 ELECTION | JOBS | UNEMPLOYMENT
I don’t think the terrible May jobs report means the Obama presidency is doomed anymore than I thought the killing of OBL meant re-election was in the bag. But another 18 months of economic muddling through – high unemployment, stagnant wages, dead housing, slow GDP growth – would certainly make the GOP nomination one worth winning. Like REALLY worth winning – let’s put it that way. And the history of economies after bank crises show the “muddling though” scenario is a common one.

But it is also interesting to note that White House economists told me previously that they didn’t think the U.S. economy would fall prey to that trap. No wonder the administration used so much political capital on health and financial reform rather than on job creation in 2009 and 2010. My chats with folks from the White House always showed them to be eternally  optimistic — eternally and overly optimistic is turns out. They were as surprised as anyone that Recovery Summer 2010 was a bust. And Summer 2011 is looking to be about the same. Yet there’s no sign the administration will change course and adopt some common-sense growth policies such as cutting taxes on corporations and capital, slashing regulation and offering a big downpayment on debt reduction.


http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2011/06/03/obama-2012-and-the-may-jobs-report

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Deicide on June 06, 2011, 04:00:57 AM
Obama 2012 and the May jobs report
JUN 3, 2011 16:26 EDT
 
inShare
   
2012 ELECTION | JOBS | UNEMPLOYMENT
I don’t think the terrible May jobs report means the Obama presidency is doomed anymore than I thought the killing of OBL meant re-election was in the bag. But another 18 months of economic muddling through – high unemployment, stagnant wages, dead housing, slow GDP growth – would certainly make the GOP nomination one worth winning. Like REALLY worth winning – let’s put it that way. And the history of economies after bank crises show the “muddling though” scenario is a common one.

But it is also interesting to note that White House economists told me previously that they didn’t think the U.S. economy would fall prey to that trap. No wonder the administration used so much political capital on health and financial reform rather than on job creation in 2009 and 2010. My chats with folks from the White House always showed them to be eternally  optimistic — eternally and overly optimistic is turns out. They were as surprised as anyone that Recovery Summer 2010 was a bust. And Summer 2011 is looking to be about the same. Yet there’s no sign the administration will change course and adopt some common-sense growth policies such as cutting taxes on corporations and capital, slashing regulation and offering a big downpayment on debt reduction.


http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2011/06/03/obama-2012-and-the-may-jobs-report



As I said I am looking forward to you putting the same amount of energy into the next failed president when the economy doesn't recover because it is monetary policy and criminal Wallstreet not the president that are largely responsible for the economic mess.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 06, 2011, 04:16:57 AM
Government policy played an equal part in the mess w the cra, fannie freddy, repeal of glass steagal, changing lending standards etc.

And my beed with obama admn is that they took a bad situatuion and completely exploded it. 

No one is going to hire anyone until obamacare is repealed, the epa is kneecapped, taxes and regulation left alone, and the govt backs the fuck off with all these crazy schemes. 

And if the next potus pursues a suicidal agenda like this admn has, I will be all over it. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 06, 2011, 05:17:07 AM
Young Americans Face A Brutal Summer
www.Townhall.com ^ | June 6, 2011 | Lurita Doan





Young Americans graduating from colleges across the United States are facing limited job prospects, high debt and the likely necessity of returning home to live with parents in order to survive, a bitter harvest from the Obama Economy.

Our current economic policies that continue to find new and even more inventive ways to punish the prudent, destroy the entrepreneurial , reward the most irresponsible, all while burdening future generations with trillions in new debt.  Commencement speeches traditionally focus on bright futures and change and “oh–the-places-you’ll-go” in an optimistic, nationwide, rah-rah as graduates turn their tassels and launch forth to conquer new worlds. Good luck with that.

Closer to the truth would be a stark admission that Obama’s economic policies have failed and the evidence is all around us.   The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report shows that the jobless rate (despite repeated manipulations of the data by the Obama Administration) has climbed to 9.1%, with decreases in both private and public sector jobs. 

Gas prices remain high, averaging almost $4 per gallon across the United States.  The Consumer Confidence Index fell to a six-month low, coming in at 60.8 (a rating of 90 shows a healthy economy).  The housing market has hit a new low, according to the S&P Case/Schiller Home Price Index, and confirms the existence of a double dip in housing prices across the United States.

Even the United States’ comprehensive scorecard for the economy, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report shows that growth is slow.  All of these indicators, on top of the recent BLS jobless report, provide proof that the economy is not growing, the recovery has not happened and that the over $1 trillion dollars that the Obama Administration spent in Stimulus did not stimulate the economy.

Is it any wonder that across the country the morale is low and that Americans think, increasingly, that the federal government is out of touch with the concerns of the average working American?

For minorities, the prospects of a good job are especially bleak; unemployment for white Americans averaged 8.9%, but African Americans averaged 17.5%, just a little more than double the rate of white unemployment.   Hispanic Americans reported 11.9% unemployment. 

Still, despite the grim outlook for newly minted college grads, these college grads are better off than high school grads.  Young teens looking to gain work experience are finding that even low-skilled, part-time, jobs aren’t there.  Unions don’t seem to want young people competing for jobs that their adult union members might perform.  And, with a high minimum wage, small business owners are hesitant to bring on inexperienced labor in this uncertain economic climate.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows that the hardest hit among all of the unemployed are America’s teens.  African Americans, ages 16-19, of both sexes, show a mind-boggling 40.7% unemployed; white teens show 20.7% unemployment and Hispanic teens report 26.1% unemployment.  The long-term repercussions of these unemployment numbers are troubling, yet the Obama Administration is curiously silent.

Team Obama has spent trillions of dollars and enormous political capital advancing stimulus plans and other empty calorie policies that have failed to spark employment, especially among America’s young.  Instead, Obama’s policies have only further eroded American competitiveness, hindered job creation. 

Young men and women with no job, and little hope of finding a job, represent a strain on the social fabric of the nation as they become angry and resentful over the lack of employment opportunities.  They will need, and demand, additional aid and support from the government, so social spending is likely to grow.

The consequences of a growing and prolonged unemployment within the minority and teen work community, combined with preferential legislation, create a dangerous racial cocktail of time, idleness and increased expectation of entitlements.  With the high tax structure and the ever-increasing hostility towards wealth creation, entrepreneurial energies aren’t there and Americans should expect that the jobless situation will only get worse.

Young Americans will likely face the worst summer in recent history.  After over two years of “fixes”, the Obama Administration has shown that they are bankrupt of ideas and incapable of providing solutions to the country’s growing problems. The White House seems aware of this and is likely to launch a “charm offense”, fire up social-media savvy Obama accolades and talk about how hip they are rather than providing solutions.

How sad is that?
 

________________________ ______________

Hope & Change - these idiots voted for this, most likely with their first vote.    I guess they have to learn the hard way.         
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on June 06, 2011, 07:04:08 AM
In Chicago the youths have resorted to mob theft and assaults.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 06, 2011, 08:16:03 AM
Chronic unemployment worse than Great Depression
The unemployed have, on average, remained unemployed longer than in the 1930s; Employers wary of job gaps in resumes
By Ben Tracy .
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/05/eveningnews/main20069136.shtml



Nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work



Summer job bummer: Teen unemployment 24 percent
(CBS News)  There is an unfortunate adage for the unemployed: The longer folks are out of a job, the longer it takes them to find a new one.


CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports that the chronically unemployed face the hardest road back to recovery, and that while the jobs picture may be improving statistically on a national level, it is not for them.


Tinong Nwachan, for example, has far too much time on his hands. When CBS News met the former truck driver he had been out of work for two years.


"I don't really tell too many people this but I'm not ashamed or nothing, I'm homeless," Nwachan said.


Summer job bummer: Teen unemployment 24 percent
Nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work

His day job is looking for work at a jobs center in Hollywood. He has plenty of company, including Fabian Lambrecht, who wonders when the economy's improvement will affect them.


"They're saying there are more jobs. I'm just wondering where those jobs are," Lambrecht said.


About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression.


The bigger the gap on someone's resume, the more questions employers have.


"(Employers) think: 'Oh, well, there must be something really wrong with them because they haven't gotten a job in 6 months, a year, 2 years.' But that's not necessarily the case," said Marjorie Gardner-Cruse with the Hollywood Worksource Center.


The problem of course is the economy, but some industries, especially certain manufacturing jobs, are not ever expected to come back. Experts say unemployed workers need to be prepared to change careers.


"That person has to realize that, discover what field they want to work in, become trained and find a job in that field," said Jerry Nickelsburg, Sr., an economist at UCLA.


Here's another problem: more than 1 million of the long-term unemployed have run out of unemployment benefits, leaving them without the money to get new training, buy new clothes, or even get to job interviews.


"If you have been unemployed for 6 months or more, it takes a much deeper toll - not just on your personal finances and your career prospects - but on your emotional well-being," said Paul Taylor, an executive vice president with the Pew Research Center.


Tinong Nwachan said no matter how hard it's been, he isn't giving up on his search.


"I'm taking everything one day at a time. Eventually I know I'm gonna find something," Nwachan said.


All he says he's hoping for is a job that will take more of his time, and take him off the streets.


________________________ ________________________ ____-

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 07, 2011, 04:27:30 AM
The 10 Signs That The Double-Dip Recession Has Begun (So long to recovery)
Wall Street 24X7 ^ | 06/06/2011 | Douglas McIntyre
Posted on June 6, 2011 1:03:54 PM EDT by SeekAndFind

The US has entered a second recession. It may not be as bad as the first. Economists say that the Great Recession began in December 2007 and lasted until July 2009. That may be the way that the economy was seen through the eyes of experts, but many Americans do not believe that the 2008-2009 downturn ever ended. A Gallup poll released in April found that 29% of those queried thought the economy was in a “depression” and 26% said that the original recession had persisted into 2011.

It is any wonder that many Americans believe that the economic downturn is still in progress? Home prices have fallen to 2002 levels. Values have dropped nearly 50% in parts of Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona. Property values are also down that much in parts of troubled big cities like Detroit. Estimates are that as many as 11 million homes have underwater mortgages. Banks have inventories of as many as 2 million foreclosed homes which have not even been released to the market. Home prices could fall another 10% if current trends persist.

Perhaps the most powerful argument that the recession never ended or that a new one has begun is the persistence of unemployment. Fourteen million people are out of work. A third of those have been jobless for more than a year. May employment data showed the jobless rate rose unexpectedly and that the economy added only 58,000 jobs. Experts believe that the unemployment rate will not improve significantly until the monthly gain in jobs is consistently 300,000 jobs or more. And, at that rate the gains would have to go one for more than two years to bring the economy back to what is traditionally considered a reasonable unemployment figure.

There are several signs that a recession is firmly in place again and that the downturn could last for several quarters. Most are already easy for the average American to see.

1. Inflation

There is almost nothing that damages consumer confidence as badly as a rapid rise in prices. Starbucks recently increased the price of a bag of coffee by 17% because wholesale prices have risen by almost twice that rate in the last year. Cotton prices nearly doubled in 2010 but has fallen this year. But, apparel is made months in advance of when they reach store shelves. Summer clothing prices are up as much as 20%. That may change in the fall, but for the time being, the consumer’s ability to buy even the most basic clothing has been undermined. Consumers today pay more for sugar, meat, and corn-based products as well.

2. Investments have begun to yield less

Part of the recovery was driven by the stock market surge which began when the DJIA bottomed below 7,000 in March 2009. The index has risen above 12,000 and the prices of many stocks have doubled from their lows. As result, American household nest eggs that were decimated by the collapse of the market have rebounded and enabled people to splurge on themselves. However, the market has stumbled in the last quarter. The DJIA is up only 1% during the last three months and the S&P 500 is down slightly. Americans, though, have have few other places to put their money.. Ten-year Treasuries yield about 3%. Gold was a good investment over the last year, but it has begun to falter as well. The market may not be a friend to investors for quite some time.

3. The auto industry

The auto industry has staged an impressive comeback, although its profitability is based as much on the layoffs it has made over the last five years as generating new sales. GM and Chrysler have emerged from bankruptcy. Year-over-year monthly sales improved late last year and through April. May sales stalled. GM’s revenue dropped by 1% compared to May of 2010. Ford’s sales were down about as much. There are many reasons for this trend including high gas prices and the constrained manufacturing capacity of the Japanese automakers because of the earthquake. Consumers also may be deferring big purchases because they are worried about their economic prospects. Slow car sales are not just a sign of lagging consumer confidence. They also may be a harbinger of tougher times ahead. These companies shed several hundreds thousand jobs before and during the last recession. Car firms have only just begun to hire again, but that trend will die with a plateau in sales.

4. Oil prices

Oil prices are supposed to drop as the economy slows as they did in 2008 and early 2009 when crude fell from over $140 to under $50. That drop at least allowed consumers and businesses like airlines to more easily afford fuel. Recently, crude has moved back above $100 and appears to be stuck there regardless of the economic situation. American budgets have been hurt by the rising cost of gas. Americans of more modest means have been particularly affected. A slowdown in driving usually also leads to a decline in the retail sector as consumers reduce unnecessary travel to stores. The impact on other businesses is just as great. Airlines suffer and so do firms which rely on petrochemicals. OPEC, for now, has signaled it will not increase production.

5. The federal budget

The federal budget deficit has decimated any chance for another economic stimulus package which many prominent economists like Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman say is essential to create a full recovery. His theory has become more of an issue as GDP growth slows to a rate of 2%. The first $787 billion Obama stimulus package may have saved some American jobs, but it is long over and did not work if a drop in unemployment and a sharp improvement in GDP were its primary goals. The deficit has caused a call for severe austerity measures which have already become part of the economics policies of countries from Greece to the UK to Japan. Job cuts in the U.S. will not be restricted to the federal level. A recent UBS Investment Research analysis predicted that state and local governments will cut 450,000 jobs this year and next. That process is already well underway. States like California and New York currently run massive deficits and the rates they must pay on bonds has risen accordingly. Newspaper headlines almost daily report on battles between state unions and governors over employment and benefits.

6. China Economy Slows

A slowdown in the Chinese economy is usually seen as a cause of global commodity price inflation, but the effects cut two ways. China’s appetite for energy and raw materials may fall. But, the demand for goods and services by its very large and growing middle class drops as well. Chinese purchaser manufacturing and export numbers have fallen as the central government has tightened the ability to borrow money. US exports to China are key to the health of many American businesses. John Frisbie, the president of The US-China Business Council, recently said, “Over the last decade we have seen exports to China rise from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion – a 468 percent increase.” As that rate slows, it has a profound effect on tens of thousands of American companies and their employees. US firms with large operations in China are also effected. GM is one of the two largest car firms in China along with VW. Large US corporations like Wal-mart and Yum! Brands rely significantly on China to boost global sales. Without vibrant consumer spending in China, American companies will suffer.

7. Unemployment

Unemployment creates two immediate problems. People without jobs drastically curtail their spending, which will ultimately affect GDP growth. The second is the need for tens of billions of dollars every year in government aid to keep the unemployed from becoming destitute. That support has increased deficits and the domino effect is that cash-strapped governments need to make more spending cuts. It may be the biggest challenge the economy faces. Unemployment has worsened because people over 65 to continue to work because the values of their homes–which they once counted on as the financial basis of their retirements–have dropped so sharply. Older Americans also fear that cuts in Medicare and perhaps Social Security are inevitable which increases the cost of their golden years. The jobs that older Americans have taken are often ones that younger Americans might have. People in their 20s must accept low wages to enter the workforce. This has delayed their prime consuming years well into their 30s which will damage GDP recovery now and for another decade. The worst of the unemployment problem is the roughly 5 million Americans who have been unemployed for over a year. Their unemployment benefits have run out in many cases. The burden of their care falls to their families, friends, community organizations, and non-profits. A family which has to support an unemployed person may be a family which cannot spend beyond its basic needs. To the extent that the federal or state governments can support the unemployed, the cost to run support programs increases.

8. Debt Ceiling

The United States debt ceiling,currently at $14.294 trillion, will probably be raised before the government has to cut back essential services on August 2. It might seem that the economic and employment effects of the debt cap are the same as the deficit, but they are actually more insidious and longer term. The first by-product of debt reduction, or at least a slowdown in its growth, is a combination of higher taxes and a lower level of government services. Higher taxes usually slow economic improvements, particularly when they are not couple with stimulus measures. A number of economists have pointed out the expense reduction alone will not sharply improve the United States balance sheet. The increase in Medicare and Social Securities costs, brought on by an aging population, are also likely to trigger a need for higher taxes. Tax increases could keep the economic growth of the US on hold for years. The taxation of companies decreases and often eliminates profits, particularly during an already troubled economic period. Profits which disappear usually cause cuts in purchasing and jobs. Taxes on wages and inheritance undermines consumer spending. And, a growth in national debt from already all-time highs will increase the borrowing costs of the US. That, in turn, drives up interest rates for everything from mortgages to credit cards.

9. Access To Credit

The lack of access to credit has hurt the economic activity or both individuals and small businesses. Many very large companies can borrow money at rates as low as 2% because of their strong cash flows and balance sheets. Banks have been much less willing to loan money to companies with under 100 workers because these firms often rely on a few customers for revenue and usually have very little money on hand. Early in June, the House Small Business Committee held hearings and among its findings were that concerns about risk and a slow economy has made financial institutions reluctant to lend to small businesses, the main driver of economic growth. Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) said Congress will need to “bridge the gap” between the two sides. There is no plan to accomplish that. Individual borrowers find themselves in a similar position. The cost of credit cards debt is still above 20% in many cases although the Federal Reserve loans money to large financial firms for interest rates close to zero. Potential home buyers, who might help break the gridlock of slow house sales, often find that banks want down payments as high as 20%. The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% last year on properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to an analysis done for The Wall Street Journal by real-estate portal Zillow.com. That percentage doubled in three years and represents the highest median down payment since the data were first tracked in 1997. Home which are not sold often put such great burdens on owners that they are barely consumers of the goods and services that drive GDP. Home builders have continued to struggle. Construction jobs, which were a huge amount of the employment base in states like Florida, have not returned.

10. Housing

Housing is considered by many economists to be the single largest drag on the American economy, and the housing market has gotten much worse in the last two months. A report from The New York Federal Reserve published early this year said that “When home prices began to fall in 2007, owners’ equity in household real estate began to fall rapidly from almost $13.5 trillion in 1Q 2006 to a little under $5.3 trillion in 1Q 2009, a decline in total home equity of over 60%.” Real estate research firm Zillow reported on more recent developments. “Negative equity in the first quarter reached new highs with 28.4 percent of all single-family homes with mortgages underwater, from 27 percent in Q4.” Many homeowners who want to sell their homes cannot do so because they cannot afford to pay their banks at closing. Whether for good or ill, the American home was the primary source for money used for retirements, college educations, and the purchases of many expensive items such as cars. Economists point out the this leverage helped contribute to the credit crisis as people could not cover the costs of home equity loans as real estate values collapsed. This may be true, but the drop in value happened so quickly that the balance sheets of millions of Americans were destroyed. Their ability to consume was severely damaged, further harming GDP. High mortgage payments bankrupted or nearly bankrupted people who have lost jobs or have found that their incomes had stagnated. The building industry became a shambles overnight. And, whatever the effects have been over the last three years, they are getting progressively worse as home values drop to decade lows. There is no relief in sight because potential buyers worry that price erosion has not ended.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 07, 2011, 08:24:18 AM
U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-owes-62-trillion-in-debt_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip





The federal government's financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows.




The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of financial promises not paid for.

This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation's gross domestic product.

Medicare alone took on $1.8 trillion in new liabilities, more than the record deficit prompting heated debate between Congress and the White House over lifting the debt ceiling.

STORY: Government's mountain of debt

Social Security added $1.4 trillion in obligations, partly reflecting longer life expectancies. Federal and military retirement programs added more to the financial hole, too.

Corporations would be required to count these new liabilities when they are taken on — and report a big loss to shareholders. Unlike businesses, however, Congress postpones recording spending commitments until it writes a check.

The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $534,000 per household. That's more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else — mortgages, car loans and other debt. It reflects the challenge as the number of retirees soars over the next 20 years and seniors try to collect on those spending promises.

"The (federal) debt only tells us what the government owes to the public. It doesn't take into account what's owed to seniors, veterans and retired employees," says accountant Sheila Weinberg, founder of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based group that advocates better financial reporting. "Without accurate accounting, we can't make good decisions."

Michael Lind, policy director at the liberal New America Foundation's economic growth program, says there is no near-term crisis for federal retirement programs and that economic growth will make these programs more affordable.

"The false claim that Social Security and Medicare are about to bankrupt the United States has been repeated for decades by conservatives and libertarians who pretend that their ideological opposition to these successful and cost-effective programs is based on worries about the deficit," he says.

USA TODAY has calculated federal finances based on standard accounting rules since 2004 using data from the Medicare and Social Security annual reports and the little-known audited financial report of the federal government.

The government has promised pension and health benefits worth more than $700,000 per retired civil servant. The pension fund's key asset: federal IOUs


________________________ ________________________ ______________

According to the far left idiots there is no problem with this at all.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2011, 03:05:57 AM
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The Coming Economic Hell For American Families
Benzinga ^ | June 8, 2011 | Michael Snyder
Posted on June 8, 2011 2:51:03 AM EDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Tens of millions of American families are about to go through economic hell and most of them don't even realize it. Most Americans don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about things like "monetary policy" or "economic cycles". The vast majority of people just want to be able to get up in the morning, go to work and provide for their families. Most Americans realize that things seem "harder" these days, but most of them also have faith that things will eventually get better. Unfortunately, things aren't going to get any better. The number of good jobs continues to decline, the number of Americans losing their homes continues to go up, people are having a much more difficult time paying their bills and our federal government is drowning in debt. Sadly, this is only just the beginning.

Since the financial collapse of 2008, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government have taken unprecedented steps to stimulate the economy. But even with all of those efforts, we are still living in an economic wasteland.

So what is going to happen when the next wave of the economic crisis hits?

During one recent interview, Peter Schiff made the following statement....

If you look at the economic relapse that's going on right now, look at Friday's abysmal job numbers, look at the housing numbers, understand that all of this is taking place with record monetary and fiscal stimulus. What happens if we remove those supports?

At the end of June, the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program is slated to end. The U.S. Congress and state legislatures from coast to coast are talking about budget cuts. The amount of borrowing and spending that has been going on is clearly unsustainable, but will the U.S. economy start shrinking again once the current "financial sugar high" has worn off?

Already, all sorts of bad economic news has been coming out and all kinds of economic indicators are turning south. The American people are becoming increasingly restless. One new poll has found that 59 percent of the American people disapprove of Barack Obama's handling of the economy (which is a new high). According to another recent poll, 63% of Americans say that they feel "not good" or "bad" about how the U.S. economy is performing.

If most Americans had good jobs, could afford their mortgages and could pay their bills, the economy would not be such a big issue.

Unfortunately, times are really tough for American families right now and they are about to get a lot tougher.

*Jobs*

The official unemployment rate just went up to 9.1 percent, but that figure only tells part of the picture.

There are some areas of the country where it seems nearly impossible to find a decent job. Millions of Americans have fallen into depression as they find themselves unable to provide for their families.

According to CBS News, 45.1 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least six months. That is a higher percentage than at any point during the Great Depression.

Just two years ago, the number of "long-term unemployed" in the United States was only 2.6 million. Today, that number is up to 6.2 million.

Can you imagine being out of work for 6 months or more?

How would you survive?

Just look at the chart below. What we are going through now is really unprecedented. The average duration of unemployment in this country is now close to 40 weeks....



So will things get any better soon? Well, there were only about 3 million job openings in the United States during the month of April. Normally there should be about 4.5 million job openings. The economy is slowing down once again. Good jobs are going to become even more rare.

There are millions of other Americans that are "underemployed". All over the United States you will find hard working Americans that are flipping burgers or working in retail stores because that is all they can get right now.

Most temp jobs and most part-time jobs don't pay enough to be able to provide for a family. But there are not nearly enough full-time jobs for everyone.

Sadly, the number of "middle class jobs" is about 10 percent lower than a decade ago. There are simply less tickets to the "good life" than there used to be.

*Homes*

But without good jobs, the American people cannot afford to buy homes.

Without good jobs, the American people cannot even afford the homes that they are in now.

U.S. home prices have fallen 33 percent since the peak of the housing bubble. That is more than they fell during the Great Depression.

This decline in housing prices has caused a lot of problems.

28 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States are in negative equity at this point. There are millions of American families that are now paying on mortgages that are for far more than their homes are worth.

Millions of American families literally feel trapped in their homes. They can't afford to sell their homes, and if they simply walk away nobody will approve them for new home loans for many years to come.

Many Americans are sticking it out and are staying in their homes until they simply can't pay for them anymore.

As the number of good jobs continues to decline, the number of Americans that are losing their homes continues to rise.

For the first time ever, more than a million U.S. families lost their homes to foreclosure in a single year during 2010.

If the economy slows down once again and millions more Americans lose their jobs this problem is going to get a lot worse.

*Bills*

Even if they aren't losing their homes yet, millions of other Americans families are finding it increasingly difficult to pay the bills.

Wages have been very flat over the past few years and yet the cost of most of the basics just seems to keep going up and up.

According to Brent Meyer, a senior economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the cost of food and the cost of energy have risen at an annualized rate of 17 percent over the past six months.

Have your wages gone up by 17 percent over the past six months?

As 2009 began, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $1.83. Today it is $3.77.

American families are finding that their paychecks are going a lot less farther than they used to, but Ben Bernanke keeps insisting that we have very little inflation in 2011.

Most Americans don't care much about economic statistics - they just want to be able to do basic things like take their children to the doctor.

According to one recent survey, 26 percent of Americans have put off doctor visits because of the economy.

Sadly, soon a lot more American families will not be able to afford to go to the doctor.

According to one recent survey, 30 percent of all U.S. employers will "definitely or probably" quit offering employer-sponsored health coverage once Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014.

As the economic situation has unraveled, an increasing number of people are being forced to turn to the federal government for assistance.

One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

Some of the hardest hit members of our society have been our children. Today, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

Back in the old days, a large percentage of American families were self-sufficient, but that is no longer the case.

Back in 1850, approximately 50 percent of all Americans worked on farms.

Today, less than 2 percent of Americans do.

So these days when American families can't feed themselves what do they do?

They turn to the federal government of course.

At the moment, approximately 44 million Americans are on food stamps.

But our federal government cannot afford to spend money like this forever.

According to a recent USA Today analysis, the U.S. federal government took on $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations during 2010. USA Today says that the U.S. government now has $61.6 trillion in financial obligations that have not been paid for yet.

Wow!

Who is going to end up paying that bill?

So with so much bad news, are our leaders alarmed?

Not really.

According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, "growth seems likely to pick up somewhat in the second half of the year."

Yeah, we'll see how that prediction works out.

Others are not so sure that everything is going to turn out okay.

Recently, James Carville warned that we could literally see rioting in the streets if the economic situation does not turn around soon. Just check out the last part of the video below....

(VIDEO AT LINK)

The truth is that America is in decline. Just like with all of the great empires of the past, our empire is starting to crumble too.

A recent article in the Guardian touched on some of the reasons for America's decline....

The experience of both Rome and Britain suggests that it is hard to stop the rot once it has set in, so here are the a few of the warning signs of trouble ahead: military overstretch, a widening gulf between rich and poor, a hollowed-out economy, citizens using debt to live beyond their means, and once-effective policies no longer working. The high levels of violent crime, epidemic of obesity, addiction to pornography and excessive use of energy may be telling us something: the US is in an advanced state of cultural decadence.

The economic news is only part of the puzzle. This country has rejected the ancient wisdom that was passed down to us and we have rejected the principles of our founding fathers.

We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world and yet somehow we expected that everything would turn out okay.

Well, everything is not going to turn out okay.

All of this debt is going to come down on us like a ton of bricks and the U.S. economy is going to continue to fall apart. Millions of American families are going to lose their jobs and their homes.

Economic hell is coming.

You better get ready.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2011, 04:51:35 PM
Average Job Seeker Gives Up After 5 Months
The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 8, 2011 | June 8, 2011


________________________ ________________________ ______________


Job seekers look for work.

Jobless Americans who dropped out of the work force typically searched for work for five months before ultimately giving up last year.

The amount of time the unemployed spent hunting for jobs rose sharply last year. Those out of work tended to search for about 20 weeks before quitting in 2010, compared to 8.5 weeks in 2007, according to a recent Labor Department report. The report studied how long unemployed workers took to either find a new job or quit looking.

Labor-force participation, the share of Americans who are working or looking for jobs, has fallen to its lowest percentage since the mid-1980s. That’s partly because people have grown discouraged about their ability to find jobs and have given up looking. With those workers on the sidelines, the unemployment rate has been lower than it otherwise would be.

The official unemployment rate hit 9.1% in May. Including all of those who had part-time jobs but wanted to work full-time as well as those who want to work but had given up searching, the rate was 15.8%.

While sidelined workers can keep the jobless rate lower, they weigh on the economy in other ways. The nation loses their output — from the goods or services they would provide in their jobs as well as the spending that would come from their paychecks. And, if they move onto programs such as Social Security disability, the government could end up supporting them for the rest of their lives.

Those lucky enough to finally land a job last year found they had to spend more time searching. Job seekers took a median of more than 10 weeks to find new positions last year. That’s up from five weeks in 2007 before the recession began.


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2011, 08:10:52 PM
Poll: Record-high number think country headed into depression
Politico ^
Posted on June 8, 2011 1:06:03 PM EDT by Sub-Driver

Poll: Record-high number think country headed into depression

By: Jennifer Epstein June 8, 2011 12:06 PM EDT

A record-high of nearly half the country fears the economy is careening toward a depression, helping push President Barack Obama’s approval rating down by six points in just the last two weeks, according to a new poll.

The president’s approval rating stands at 48 percent in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday, down from 54 percent in late May in the same poll. His disapproval rate rose three points to 48 percent.

Obama’s approval among Democrats has dropped three percent to 82 percent and is dipped five percent among independents to 42 percent.

Obama’s dropping numbers come as Americans’ fears that the country is headed into another Great Depression are higher than they’ve ever been in the CNN poll. In all, 48 percent of those surveyed said another great depression is likely in the next 12 months, while 41 percent said the same in 2009 and 38 percent said so in 2008. A slight majority – 51 percent – said they don’t think the economy will plunge into a deep depression.

But while Americans are voicing concern that the economy is getting worse and plunging toward a depression, Obama said Tuesday that he’s “not concerned about a double-dip recession.” Job growth in May totaled 54,000 jobs, far fewer than the economy has create for several consecutive months, but Obama said it’s not yet clear if last month was “a one-month episode or a longer trend.”

If it turns out to be a longer trend, it could be detrimental to Obama’s hopes of reelection.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2011, 08:20:44 PM
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Deflationary Depression In America: The Double Dip Economic Recession
TMO ^ | 6-8-2011 | Bob Chapman
Posted on June 8, 2011 11:24:18 PM EDT by blam

Deflationary Depression In America: The Double Dip Economic Recession

Economics / Deflation
Jun 08, 2011 - 07:33 AM
By: Bob Chapman

Wall Street seems to believe the waning recovery in the economy is only temporary and that further recovery is on the way. Such thinking can get you in serious trouble, unless QE3, or its equivalent, is on the way. It is on the way, as we pointed out 13 months ago. The economy cannot live and survive without it otherwise we could be looking at a minus 5% GDP for openers. Incidentally, there are those that believe that unemployment already is as bad as it was during the “Great Depression” years of the 1930s. They may be correct, but we believe it was much higher than today’s 22.4% level. If government hadn’t created food stamps, Medicaid, extended unemployment benefits and other benefits, perhaps we could be close to 1930’s levels.

The first quarter of 2011 saw GDP gain 1.8% as a result of at least $1.8 trillion in spending by the Fed and by government. If the economy grows 2% in the second quarter that would be substantial. The big question is what will the last half of the year be like? Government is cutting back, so we cannot expect stimulus 3.
That means the Fed has to create $1.6 trillion to purchase Treasury and Agency bonds, notes and bills, because presently only about 20% is being purchased by others. Assumably the Fed will again accomplish that, but what about the remainder of the economy? If the GDP growth rate is to maintain say at plus 1% to 2%, the Fed will have to create money and credit for the economy of an additional $850 billion. Without that the economy would slide to a minus 5% GDP.
The flipside is that if the Fed were to perform these feats what would inflation be? John Williams tells us inflation, using previous standards, is 10.2%. Last May 2010 we predicted real inflation by the end of 2011 of 14%. That could turn out to be conservative. That projection was based on the results of QE1 and stimulus 1. Next year we will see inflation caused by QE2 and stimulus 2, which we believe could carry inflation to 25% to 30%, if official interest rates remain the same and we believe they will do just that at the Fed.
If we get a version of QE3 for about $2.5 trillion then we believe inflation could rise to 50% creating hyperinflation in 2013. Of course, no one knows for sure what the Fed will do, but this is a likely scenario.
If these events do not unfold as presented the economy will spiral into the worst depression in modern history. It is as simple as that. If we get QE3 what can the Fed do for an encore? We won’t attempt an answer for that now, but the prospects are certainly frightening.

All of the insiders who create the inside information, own the Fed, or are connected to those who own the Fed, know exactly what is going on. These are the people who make all the decisions. How do you think the market rallies upward when it should be going down? They know there will be a QE3, because these insiders are making those decisions, and say the market, bonds and the economy are dependent on massive amounts of money and credit is a vast understatement. These elitists tell us the slowdown in economic growth is just temporary. That is true, they know, they planned it that way, although growth will only be 1% to 2%, even with additional spending of $2.5 trillion.
If we are correct that means a Fed balance sheet of $5.5 trillion plus. This time if QE3 did not develop the stock market could fall 20% to 30%. That means from the top of 11,800 we could see 9,400 to 8,300. The market is the last visage of wealth along with bonds. If it falls it could send everything tumbling. It should also be noted that this recent so-called recovery has been weakest since WWII, or for 65 years.

If there is to be QE3 it had best be implemented immediately. Recent data shows a struggling job market with unemployment, again headed higher. As a result of this and climbing inflation, people are buying gold and silver related assets.
Sales of American Silver Eagle coins reached almost 19 million ounces in the first five months of the year, the highest since 1986. This is not surprising considering initial unemployment claims just won’t fall below 400,000 and only 38,000 new jobs were created in the private sector in May.
Most all indexes are pointed downward as production and retail slow. In addition the housing index is at its lowest since 2003, as housing prices continue to plunge 3.6% in the 20 largest US cities in March year-on-year. Countrywide prices fell 5.1%. These are 2002 prices.
This continual real estate wipeout has people who have been foreclosed on and some who sold to get what equity out of their homes that they had left. That means more renters and higher rents, which means the CPI inflation index should start heading upward.
If you throw in higher food and gas prices it gets very expensive. As this transpires the dollar falls versus other currencies and gold and silver. Consumer confidence is dreadful.

The payroll data from last week was nothing short of awful. On the U3 we are back up to 9.1%. The increase in non-farm payrolls was the worst in nine months. Manufacturing lost another 5,000 jobs in May, as free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing did its nasty work. Congress does absolutely nothing to stop the carnage by imposing tariffs on goods and services.
In 11 years we have lost 11 million good paying jobs, and 445,000 companies, all of which can keep their profits offshore tax-free. Everyone in Congress is aware of what is going on, but not one member has proposed legislation to put a stop to this tragedy that is destroying America.
That is what happens when you have campaign contributions and lobbying. It ends up with 95% of both chamber members being bought and paid for. We are losing more than one million jobs a year and about 240,000 jobs have been created. The other million went to some foreign country. Over 11 years manufacturing has lost some 7 million jobs.
As you can see, service job losses are catching up. Can you imagine what these figures would look like without the $4.2 trillion spent on QE1 & QE2, and stimulus 1 & 2? Unfortunately, all this money has been spent to bailout the financial sector and government, and little has been added to wealth-producing infrastructure. All government and the Fed have done is create an inflationary bubble that in due time will collapse. It can end up no other way.

Optimism is waning and rightly so. Has anyone stopped to think where we would be without all this artificial stimulus and that it can last indefinitely unless, of course, people desire hyperinflation? As the dollar remains weak in the USDX, exports rise, which is a Punic victory.
That same weak dollar reflects 10.2% inflation, hardly an equitable trade-off. No matter how much money is thrown at the problem it is protracted and any real possible recovery will be a difficult process. We do not believe there can be any kind of lasting recovery without a purging of the system, which would result in massive bankruptcies and a deflationary depression.
We just completed a radio discussion on the air at Northeastern University. All present wanted solutions for jobs and recovery, but none understood that in order for that to happen and be lasting the system has to be purged first. No one simply wants to accept this.
This is why we have these stimulus programs – to put off the inevitable. This could have been accomplished in 1990-1992, and again in 2001 to 2003, but adjustment never happened. Wall Street and banking befouled by greed and the quest for world government, bypassed these simple solutions.

Yes, we are already into double dip and if the Fed doesn’t act quickly and continue into QE3 and add $850 billion into the economy we will be looking at big minuses in GDP and fast rising unemployment. In order to explain this result government and Wall Street euphemistically call this a soft patch.
Obviously malinvestment and speculation continue unabated and will so as long as the creation of money and credit continues. We guess eventually everyone practically will work for the federal government or subsist on their handouts. How can the Fed and government spend at least $4.2 trillion and get such dreadful results?
It is easy; just take care of the financial sector and government, and let the economy and job creation swing in the breeze.

In respect to all this, the Fed and government are silent – no response, as Wall Street, banking and government, in their own particular ways, suck the lifeblood out of the system.

Washington and Wall Street are bastions of systemic excesses. Americans are getting what they asked for. They allowed their Congressmen to become prostitutes for big business and they have allowed the Fed, banking and Wall Street to run amok and in that process to destroy the economy. Profligacy is everywhere, but few seem to care. That has left us in supreme vulnerability and falling confidence as a people and as a nation.
Ignoring the problems does not make them go away. There is bias all over the mainline media, which tells us everything is going to be ok, when it isn’t going to be ok. Just ask the long-term unemployed, which stretch back to 1990. We are in trouble and it is time we recognized that.

As we have said repeatedly, quantitative easing, the creation of money and credit, and the stimulus plans, as policies have been a failure, as have zero interest rates. We believe QE3 will be implemented, but as you have seen effectiveness is on the wane and QE3 could be the end of the road.

We wonder if research departments at the big banks and brokerage houses understand that unemployment is 22.4%, that without the birth/death model, about 152,000 jobs were lost in May and that the government is lying, again?
These analysts and economists cannot be that dumb. We have been writing about these bogus figures for 15 years. Whatever Washington needs to create, it does so. For those who were unaware, that struggling food purveyor McDonald’s received billions in TARP funds and we have no explanation as to why. This is one of the most successful corporations in the history of the world. It just so happens that McDonald’s added 62,000 new jobs in May, which made up a good part of newly created jobs.
This indicates to us cooking the numbers and leads us to believe there will be more severe unemployment problems in the near future. That means, coupled with the falling GDP growth figures, that QE3 has to become reality, or the economy will fall into deflationary depression and there will be a massive liquidation of bad debt and bankruptcies as far as the eye can see.
That will include many major banks and brokerage houses worldwide. It will be a sight to behold. This is why you have no more than three month’s operating expenses on deposit at the bank, and no CDs. The government doesn’t have money to cover the FDIC insurance and as a result they will have to print it exacerbating inflation. The general stock market will head downward with the exception of gold and silver shares, which will appreciate as they did in the 1930s and late 1970s.
If the market falls to Dow 3,000 all the value in pension funds, cash value life insurance policies and annuities will fall as well. Get out of these investment vehicles now while you still can and switch to gold and silver shares, coins and bullion. For those of you who do not understand, this is what happens in a depression. The only place that is safe is in gold and silver related assets.

Government tells us inflation is 2% when it is 10.2%. Food and gas prices have increased over the past almost two years by more than 50%. Inflation as we predicted in May 2010 will be 14% by the end of the year, and the result of QE2 will put inflation close to 30% by the end of 2012.
If more than $2 trillion is spent on QE3 inflation will probably be 50% in 2013, or hyperinflation. Prices for almost everything are higher and they’ll get higher yet. Inflation is 15% in China and wages are rising. That means export prices to the US and Europe are going to increase as well.

The Fed has to continue to create money and credit out of thin air to fund the needs of the US Treasury. China and Japan have been sellers and will continue to be. Between the two they have about $2 trillion in US bills, notes and bonds. What part of that the Fed will have to buy remains to be seen, but it has to be recognized as an overhang on the market.
Japan’s problems will force it to sell $200 billion to $500 billion worth of US Treasuries to fund their nuclear cleanup. Our guess is that conservatively the Fed will have to buy some $500 billion in Treasuries over the next year from China and Japan alone, plus 80% of what the Treasury has to issue. The supply of money and credit will go through the roof as it has for the past three years.

We see Congress arguing about the cash debt extension. As we expressed earlier the legislation will probably be passed and we see little in the way of meaningful cuts. Any cuts that come will come in the form of cuts in proposed budget increases. Cutting Social Security and Medicare are still out of the question, although Medicaid, food stamps and extended unemployment benefits could be cut.
We find it laughable that they continue to increase defense spending at the same time. People paid for Social Security and Medicare, so they should not be cut. All the other programs should be cut.

The actions dealt with above will all contribute to the collapse of the dollar not only versus other currencies, but also more importantly versus gold and silver. If you do not understand the foregoing and do not act now, you won’t financially survive. This is going to be one nasty affair and you have to be prepared.

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 05:56:50 AM
New jobless claims unexpectedly rise
Reuters ^ | 06-09-2011 | Staff




The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 1,000 last week, according to a report on Thursday that could stoke fears the labor market recovery has stalled.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased to 427,000, the Labor Department said. A department official added the slim rise meant the level was "essentially unchanged."

But economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 422,00


(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 05:58:41 AM
Help Wanted. The Latest US Economic Numbers are Alarming.
Naitonal Review ^ | 06/09/2011 | The Editors




The latest numbers on the economy are alarming. The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent. Housing prices have dropped to a new low. Consumer confidence is down. The manufacturing index has taken a hit. GDP projections are being revised downward. Most people are dreading higher gas prices.

Some analysts make a case for optimism. The labor market, they say, is suffering from the crisis in Japan, and the numbers look worse because the labor force is growing. Hours worked in the private sector are up, and so are wages.

We’re not persuaded. Even at its best, this recovery has been weak. We have had a persistently high level of long-term unemployment: a social catastrophe with no end in sight. The higher taxes and increased regulation that Democrats in Washington are promising will, on the margin, further weaken the economy. But the spending cuts that Republicans are finally getting serious about, while welcome, will not by themselves return us to prosperity, either.

The country needs short-term measures to accelerate the recovery and long-term measures to increase our trend rate of economic growth. Yet even that will not be enough. During the last decade we have had periods of economic growth without wage growth. Middle-class prosperity — a big part of the American dream that Republicans rightly say they want to restore — requires more than growth, as important as it is.

We cannot claim to have a ready-made agenda to achieve these goals. Our hope is to stimulate conservative thought about how to reach them. But it seems clear that the tax code as currently structured is an obstacle to them.

The bipartisan tax deal enacted this winter temporarily cuts the payroll tax for employees. To assist job growth during the recovery, there should also be a temporary reduction in the employer side of the tax. Companies would then have a way of reducing labor costs per worker without cutting wages.

Reducing tax rates and eliminating tax breaks, as Republican candidates are increasingly proposing, would help the government raise whatever revenue is considered appropriate while doing less damage to the economy. Reform is especially needed in the corporate tax code, as members of both parties are coming to appreciate. Both our statutory and our effective marginal rates are higher than those of other developed countries, and the difference is starting to hurt.

To moderate the rise in health-care costs, the existing tax break for employer-provided health insurance should be altered so that its value stays the same regardless of the price of the insurance policy selected. Cheaper policies should yield savings for the insured. As Yuval Levin and Ramesh Ponnuru have argued, people who do not work for companies that offer health insurance should be able to use the credit to purchase insurance for themselves.

Middle-class parents pay too large a share of the tax burden because the tax code fails to recognize that the expenses involved in raising children are, in part, contributions to the future health of entitlement programs. Tax reform should remedy this defect of the code as well.

Doubtless there are other policies that could be changed to promote a widely shared prosperity. A substantial reduction in illegal immigration should relieve the wage pressure on the low end of the labor market, and a reform that increased the skill level of legal immigrants should promote growth. Monetary policy could provide better macroeconomic stability were the Federal Reserve to be guided by a clear and sound rule, preferably encoded in statute.

But again, the goals are more important than the precise means used to achieve them. Conservatives should offer policies that help the middle class thrive for its own sake. We are also unlikely to achieve lasting spending restraint until we do.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 06:28:43 AM
The Obama Watch
The Coming Crash of 2013
By Peter Ferrara on 6.8.11 @ 6:09AM

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/06/08/the-coming-crash-of-2013/print



On Inauguration Day, 2009, President Obama seemed so politically blessed by the timing of developing economic trends. I expected that based on American economic history, recovery from the recession should have occurred some time during 2009. Even the longest previous recession since the Great Depression would have resulted in a recovery in summer 2009, as the recession began in December 2007.

Moreover, prior American history had shown that the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery. So I was expecting President Obama to pass his economic recovery plan, as foolhardy and ineffective as I believed it would be, and then to ride a wave of adulation as the economy roared back later in the year, which it should have done just on its own according to long established rhythms of the business cycle.

So even I have been surprised by the reality that President Obama's economic policies have been so disastrous that they have prevented any real recovery from getting off the ground, at what is now three and a half years since the recession began.

In America, the economy does not fall into stagnation and just lie there for years, which is the narrative of the Obama Administration, thinking the American people are too stupid to know their own country. Our economy has periodically fallen into recessions, but recovers to show robust economic growth within a year or two. That is why chief White House economist Austan Goolsbee, who does know better, is playing with us when he says as he did last Friday in response to the May jobs report, "there are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years."

The Worst Recovery Since the Great Depression

How much time do Obama and Goolsbee think they have to do their job right for the American people? In every other recession since the Great Depression, the overall trajectory of the economy has been dramatically better after two years. But not this time. Since the Great Depression, recessions have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously being 16 months. Yet, in May, 41 months after the recession began, unemployment rose yet again, to 9.1%. America has now suffered the longest period with unemployment that high since the Great Depression.

The depression for African Americans continued, as unemployment among them rose again to 16.2%. Hispanics continued with unemployment at double digit depression levels as well, with unemployment among them also rising again to nearly 12%. For teenagers, the depression level unemployment persisted at 24.2%; for black teenagers, over 40%. The U6 unemployment rate, counting those marginally attached to the labor force who have given up looking in the Obama "recovery," and those stuck in part time unemployment for economic reasons, continued at nearly 16%.

While the Reagan recovery, a real recovery from a similarly deep recession, averaged 7.1% real economic growth over the first 7 quarters, the Obama recovery has produced less than half that at 2.8%, with the last quarter at a dismal 1.8%. While the Reagan recovery produced nearly 20 million new jobs, and civilian employment rose by almost 20%, today America still suffers 6.8 million fewer jobs than when the recession started over 3 years ago. The labor force participation rate has fallen to its lowest level almost since the Reagan recovery started over 25 years ago. As the Wall Street Journal explained on Monday:

This is an important economic measure because it reflects the opportunities that Americans perceive in the marketplace. In the long boom from the Reagan years through 2000 or so, the labor force participation rate took a historic leap upward as women, immigrants and others entered the job market…. It has now fallen off a cliff, and we doubt that is what Mr. Goolsbee means when he hails the "trajectory of the economy."

I have previously discussed why this happened. Obamanomics doggedly followed the opposite of Reaganomics in every detail. The centerpiece of Obamanomics was the old-fashioned Keynesianism that was a proven failure and left for dead 30 years ago. That was reflected most of all in Obama's February 2009 trillion dollar stimulus package. That didn't work because borrowing a trillion dollars out of the economy to spend a trillion dollars back into the economy does not add anything to the economy on net.

And borrowing two trillion for the stimulus instead still wouldn't have done it, for the same reason. Those calling for still more of the same Keynesian snake oil are just self-identifying themselves as hopelessly deluded fools who must not be taken seriously ever again. Worse than not working, Obama's trillion dollar stimulus already drove us to the brink of bankruptcy. Going for still more now as advocated by the mentally blinded would be walking off the cliff with our eyes closed.

Great Depression 2.0

Hard as it may be to imagine, where we are headed under Obamanomics will be worse than where we have been. The economic indicators are increasingly flashing economic decline already. Once the Bush tax cuts were extended to 2013, I didn't expect to see that until then, for all of the reasons below. But Obamanomics keeps deteriorating faster than even I expected.

Already scheduled now under current law in 2013 is the expiration of those Bush tax cuts, which President Obama has refused to renew for single workers making over $200,000 a year, and couples making over $250,000. Also scheduled to go into effect in 2013 under current law are all the tax increases of Obamacare. Together, these job killing tax policies would result in a sharp increase in the tax rates on the nation's small businesses, job creators, and investors for virtually every major federal tax.

These taxpayers would see their income tax rates jump by nearly 20%, the capital gains tax rate increase by nearly 60%, the total tax rate on corporate dividends increase by nearly three times, their Medicare payroll tax rate increase by 62%, and the death tax rise from the grave with a 55% rate. This would go way beyond the outdated Obama talking point about returning to the Clinton tax rates, adding up to a top federal tax rate of 44.8% on wage income alone, besides all the tax increases on capital income, on the way up to a 62% top federal tax rate.

Yet President Obama continues to propose still more tax increases on these small businesses, job creators, and investors. Besides proposing a further $321 billion tax increase on them in his 2012 budget, by limiting or phasing out their tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, sales taxes, state and local income taxes, and medical expenses, he proposed in his April 13 national budget address an additional trillion dollar increase on them through further deduction limitations. Then he called as well for an automatic tax increase trigger that would raise taxes still further on them if "our debt is not projected to fall as a share of the economy." Senate Democrats have discussed adding a 3% surtax on incomes over $1 million.

Meanwhile, American businesses continue to suffer from virtually the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world, leaving American companies uncompetitive in the global economy. Yet under President Obama there is no relief in sight. Instead he continually proposes still further tax increases on American business.

President Obama and the Democrats doggedly pursue these tax policies because they believe ideologically in socialist wealth redistribution. But openly raiding small businesses, job creators, investors, and American companies is crippling for the economy, particularly this weak economy. This ends up hurting working people and their families the most, as they lose the jobs, wages, and opportunity they need for a decent life.

Besides this tax tsunami, President Obama is implementing another trillion dollar plus cost burden on the economy through the EPA's cap and trade tax policy. That is one central feature of President Obama's war on production of traditional, low cost, energy, shutting down drilling, extraction and pipelines from the northern tip of Alaska, down through Canada, to the energy rich Western states, through Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico. Obama keeps issuing statements that he is opening drilling or permitting or exploration here and there, only to have it shut down by his bureaucracy soon thereafter. All of this will only raise energy prices higher and higher through to 2013, squelching the economy still further.

President Obama doggedly pursues this because he and his advisers believe ideologically that higher energy prices and less energy production and use are good for the environment. But this extremist view of what is good for the environment is a catastrophe for the economy, jobs, and working people.

This is just the beginning, however, of President Obama's reregulation burden on the economy, which is estimated to be rapidly rising towards $2 trillion, or over $8,000 per employee, in annual costs even before EPA's calamitous cap and trade really begins. That is close to 10 times the corporate tax burden, and double the individual income tax burden. With another 4,225 federal regulations already in the pipeline, and the new regulatory burdens from Obama and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill still to come, how high will that burden be by 2013?

Then there is the Fed and the effects of its monetary policy. The Obama Administration has cheered on the Fed's loose-as-a-bordello monetary policy, with near zero interest rates for years now, and the printing presses cranking out reams of cheap money. But once the Fed ends this monetary crack, the artificial pump up for the economy ends as well, and the underlying weakness of the economy is revealed. That appears to be what is happening now, as QE2 ends.

If the Fed stands pat, the downturn will feed on itself, fueled further by all of the above contractionary policies. If the Fed is spooked into resorting to QE3 and the return to easy money, that will cause the inflation started by QE2 to surge. Indeed, once the Fed goes down that road, it surely will not try to cut back again until the 2012 election is past, to avoid a nasty downturn in the middle of President Obama's planned reelection victory tour. Inflation would consequently surge all through next year, cutting the real wages of working people and their families further.

Right after the election, the Fed will stop the merry go round to finally pull the plug on burgeoning inflation. But that extended monetary malpractice will only make the downturn withdrawal from the monetary crack high all the more nasty.

From the comprehensive tax rate increases, to the soaring energy costs, to the costly regulatory burdens, to the monetary policy mindlessness, all of this adds up to one whopping double-dip downturn in 2013. The extended unemployment exploding into double digits will be effectively another depression. Once it starts feeding on itself, there is no telling just how far it will go.

But with the deficit already at $1.6 trillion or so this year, America cannot handle another recession, let alone effectively another depression that will cause the deficit to soar well beyond any possibly manageable levels. World financial markets cannot bear that load, and will not even try. Indeed, it is the Fed's monetary policy working the printing presses overtime for QE2 that has financed the purchase of the debt for the current all-time record deficit.

Our Choice in 2012

Because of the willfully mindless irresponsibility and ideological self-indulgence of Obamanomics, America is mortally vulnerable to another recession at any time soon. The result would be precisely the national bankruptcy of Greece, where we cannot raise in the world credit markets the further debt to finance what will be well over half of our budgeted federal spending. We are already borrowing and adding to the debt to finance 43% of our federal spending today.

That is bad enough for a puny, insignificant nation like Greece, where riots increasingly leave the government dysfunctional, with the EU likely to take over the country effectively. But what is the effect when that happens to the world's supposed superpower? America financed World War II by running up our national debt to its all-time record as a percent of GDP (for now). But that won't be possible when we have already run ourselves into national bankruptcy.

Our potential military enemies will be quite aware of this historic vulnerability of America. Just as Reagan brought us Peace through Strength, Obamanomics will be inviting War through Weakness. With a 2013 American economic collapse that will also disable the entire West, the world's uncivilized rogues from Russia, to China, to North Korea, to the Middle East Islamists dreaming of renewed world conquest, will all be tempted probably beyond resistance and reason to strike. They don't need even to attack the homeland to deal America a decisive defeat. They can just decimate our suddenly overwhelmed allies, from Israel to South Korea to Taiwan to our allies in the Middle East, let alone some even in Europe.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 06:54:45 AM
US Is Nearing Even Worse Financial Crisis: Jim Rogers
Posted By: Margo D. Beller | Special to CNBC.com
CNBC.com | 08 Jun 2011 | 05:16 PM ET

 
The U.S. is approaching a financial crisis worse than 2008, Jim Rogers, chief executive, Rogers Holdings, warned CNBC Wednesday.

"The debts that are in this country are skyrocketing," he said. "In the last three years the government has spent staggering amounts of money and the Federal Reserve is taking on staggering amounts of debt.

"When the problems arise  next time…what are they going to do? They can’t quadruple the debt again. They cannot print that much more money. It’s gonna be worse the next time around."

The well-known investor believes the government won't shut down in August if agreement isn't reached on raising the debt ceiling, but he did say "draconian cuts" are needed in taxes and spending, especially military spending.

"We’ve got troops in 150 countries around the world. They’re not doing us any good, they’re making enemies. They’re costing us a fortune," he said.

Rogers said he is "not long anything in the U.S." and short on American tech stocks. He owns Chinese stocks as well as commodities and would love the world price of silver and gold to come down so he could "pick up the phone and buy more."

He said he owns Chinese stocks, currencies and commodities, adding the Chinese yuan will be a safer currency than the dollar.


"The U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world," he said. "The debts are going through the roof. Would you keep lending money to somebody who's spending money and not doing anything about it? No you wouldn't."

The pound sterling lost 90% of its value when it was no longer the world's reserve currency, he said, and the dollar will, too. In keeping with his philosophy he said he owns the U.S. dollar and is waiting for a rally. "If it doesn't happen I'll have to sell and take my losses."


He called Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke a "disaster" who has "never been right about anything" since he's been in Washington. "I hope he doesn't come back with QE3 but that's all he knows. The only thing he knows is to print money."

He predicted that after the Fed ends its quantitative easing program, known as QE2, this month, it may come back under another name.

"They're gonna bring it back because [Bernanke will] be terrified and Washington will be terrified," he said. "There's an election coming in November 2012. Washington's gonna print more money."

© 2011 CNBC.com
URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43328325/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.
© 2011 CNBC.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 08:24:57 AM
Price of Field Corn at an All-Time High
WHAG-TV via MSNBC ^ | 6/8/2011 | WHAG-TV


________________________ ________________________ _______



FREDERICK, MD - One local industry that is peaking during this down economy is field corn. According to the Maryland Office of Economic Development, the price of a bushel of the cash crop is the highest its ever been.

Eddie Mercer's 4,500 acre farm has been his livelihood for nearly 45 years and he says he has never seen the price of corn reach this level.

"This is the ultimate high," says Eddie Mercer, President and Owner of Eddie Mercer Agri-Services Inc. "The most time we've ever sold corn is maybe in the $5, but never in the $8 range."

A local agriculture expert says there are a few reasons for this never-seen-before boom. Most striking is the grain industry's globalization. There's a demand for corn all over the country and the world, and Frederick County is a major exporter.

[Snip]

The corn and livestock industries are linked. As corn goes up, so will the price of meats, and ultimately, that cost is passed on to the consumer.

"The livestock people, whether is poultry, hogs, or beef, cannot sustain a loss, you know, for an indefinite periods," says Mercer.

Mercer may be enjoying being in the green right now, but he's concerned for his friends in the business of raising livestock.


(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2011, 09:55:29 AM
HOLY COW: Robert Shiller Could Easily See Another 25% Drop In Home Prices
TBI ^ | 6-9-2011 | Gregory White




HOLY COW: Robert Shiller Could Easily See Another 25% Drop In Home Prices

Gregory White
Jun. 9, 2011, 12:24 PM



If home prices fall another 10 to 25%, that "wouldn't surprise me at all," Robert Shiller told Reuters Insider today.

Shiller says that the recovery is at risk right now, and a further rise in unemployment would hint that another recession was imminent.

Today, initial jobless claims rose again, coming in higher than analyst expectations.

Shiller says he doesn't see "any evidence" that real estate is coming out of its bearish cycle, that began in 2006.

The latest Case-Shiller data indicating that a housing double-dip was already in place.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 03:30:53 AM
Bailout Costs Double as Taxpayers Pick Up the Bill [Your Wallet and Your Life]
Center for Fiscal Accountability ^ | 2011-06-07 | Soren Kreider
Posted on June 9, 2011 4:54:09 PM EDT by 92nina

When the federal government stepped in to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing in 2008, it stuck the taxpayers with a hefty bill. Since 2008, the federal government has sunk $162.4 billion into these government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) without any form of taxpayer protection. But the true magnitude of the cost this bailout has foisted upon the taxpayer is actually far greater, according to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) last week.

By putting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, the federal government effectively became the owner of both entities. Yet the government’s accounting practices still treat these mortgage giants as outside entities and thus their liabilities do not appear in the government’s ledger. When the CBO eliminated the accounting gimmicks and treated the costs of these GSEs just as they would other government agencies, the true cost of this taxpayer funded bailout rose to $317 billion.

After playing a prominent role in the financial collapse of 2008, Fannie and Freddie continue to benefit from the public largesse. When the government acts as an insurer of last resort, it eventually falls to the taxpayer to foot the bill. The 2008 bailout cost taxpayers $317 billion and the continued operation of Fannie and Freddie is only compounding this cost by adding another $4 billion to that tally every year. Should the housing market decline below the CBO’s rather optimistic baseline, the true cost will continue to increase...

(Excerpt) Read more at fiscalaccountability.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 03:37:34 AM
30% Of People With A 401(k) Have Taken Out A Loan Against It: New All Time Record
zero hedge ^ | 6/7/11 | Tyler Durden
Posted on June 10, 2011 3:31:19 AM EDT by Nachum

About a year ago Zero Hedge posted an article titled: "Record Number Of Americans Using Retirement Funds As Source Of Immediate Cash" after a report by Fidelity uncovered that "plan participants with loans outstanding against their 401(k) accounts had reached 22 percent versus 20 percent a year earlier." It is now time to revisit this very important topic because if recent press reports are true, last year's record number has just increased by another 50%. "On "The Early Show" Thursday, financial journalist and Newsweek columnist Joanne Lipman said, "Right now we have 30 percent of people who have 401(k)s have loans against their 401(k)s, which is a historic high. And the problem is, it's growing like crazy: By 2014, we're expecting to see 30 million people take loans against their 401(k)s." The raiding of the last ditch piggybank is on, and who can blame them? With banks setting the example of always reverting to the Discount Window (or the Excess Reserve stash as is now trendy) when in trouble, ordinary working Americans are merely following in the footsteps of their financially more "literate" betters. Unfortunately, unlike the "depositor" institutions, nobody will replenish these funds should they not be repaid and the retirement money is gone for good.

CBS News explains why raiding your 401(k) is so easy a caveman can do it:

Sheri Chaney Jones, of Columbus, Ohio, started a consulting business in October and borrowed from her 401(k) to help pay her bills.

"It was extremely easy,' she told CBS News, adding that her financial planner told her "she was seeing more and more people" do it, "because the banks were not giving loans out traditionally to small businesses anymore."

"It's not right for everyone," Jones noted, " but it is your money, you can borrow from it tax-free, you do pay yourself back at interest, but a very low interest, much lower than maybe a traditional bank."

Just like Wall Street sellside research, delusions are rampant:

"What I feel optimistic about," Jones says, "is that I will be able to grow this business to not only pay myself back at the current interest, but continue to contribute more toward the 401K than I would have if I would have stayed where I was."

And for those wondering why doing a 401(k) raid is the worst possible idea:

"It's a big, big problem," she remarked to co-anchor Chris Wragge, "and it's one that's really been under the radar. And the big problem is that, if you lose your job, you have to pay that loan back within 60 days. So suddenly, you have no income, you owe all this money back, and the fact is that most people are unable to pay it back.

"There was a survey recently that found that 70 percent of people who lose their jobs are unable to pay back the loan and go into default. And the number is even higher ... for young people -- it's closer to 80 percent."

It gets worse: "If you go into default," Lipman pointed out, "you've just raided as a piggybank your 401(k), you don't have retirement funds and you owe taxes and penalties."

Step aside HELOCs, here comes the pension money for iPad exchange:

Still says Lipman, "There are certain times when it makes sense. If you're secure in your job, if there is a one-time expense -- let's say you need money for a down payment on a home, that's fine. You know, that makes sense. Or for education, for medical expenses. You know, that can make a lot of sense. Because you are paying yourself back. And if you can stay on track, you're fine with that.

"But the problem is, when you use it as a piggybank. When people are using this to pay for a vacation, to pay for a home that's perhaps larger than they can afford - that's where we really get into trouble."

Luckily, Americans have demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that when it comes to abusing rainy day capital to satisfy trivial material needs, there is nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 03:46:39 AM
Home  > Business  > Chicago Breaking Business
CME Group eyes Illinois exit; Emanuel confident it will stay
    Share428(305)

A sign in front of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. (AP file photo/M. Spencer Green, file)

By Kathy Bergen and John Byrne
Tribune reporters
3:46 p.m. CDT, June 9, 2011

The company that owns Chicago's two leading futures exchanges is weighing whether to move some operations from Illinois, citing the state's corporate tax rate increase.

"We're investigating what would be in the best interests of our shareholders," Terrence Duffy, executive chairman of CME Group Inc., said at the firm's annual meeting Wednesday, noting that such a move would not mean CME would abandon its presence in Chicago, home to its markets for more than a century.

Related
PHOTOS: Illinois companies eyeing an exit

PHOTO: Terry Duffy

STORY: CME cites regulatory uncertainty for weak stock

STORY: CME Group expands product offerings in UK

STORY: CME Group on the offensive in challenge to Liffe's rates
See more stories »
Topics
Shareholders
State Income Tax
Companies and Corporations
See more topics »

The state in January raised the corporate income tax rate temporarily to 7 percent from 4.8. Corporations also pay a 2.5 percent tax on income, called the personal property replacement tax, which is collected by the state and flows to local governments. The two rates taken together come to 9.5 percent, the third-highest rate in the U.S., according to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan Washington-based research group.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he talked to Duffy and other company officials Thursday morning, and he's confident CME Group will remain in Chicago. "I know their frustration. They acknowledged the city has been great to them, and the city is a place that they've prospered," he said.

"I'm confident they will see that what has been a successful relationship will continue to be a successful relationship," Emanuel said at a news conference at Harold Washington College's downtown campus to announce new presidents for five City Colleges of Chicago campuses.

"CME has grown and been successful in Chicago, and it has grown and been successful while Chicago has grown and been successful," Emanuel said. "And I believe we have many years ahead of both of us, as a city and the financial institution the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, growing ahead. And I'm confident they will see what has been a successful relationship will continue to be a successful relationship."

Emanuel added it's too soon to say whether he will head to Springfield to try to persuade lawmakers to make changes in the tax rate. "We're not at that point," he said. "I understand their frustration, we're not at that point."

The company estimates the hike will cost it about $50 million a year. At the meeting, Duffy said he has spoken with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn about the tax increase.

Gov. Quinn was unclear if he has meet with Duffy on the issue, calling him a "good friend" and saying they engage in an "ongoing conversation and dialogue."

"I really believe that the best place for these markets is right here in Illinois, in Chicago," Quinn said. "I am sure we can work together. I do that with all kinds of businesses, large and small...If somebody has a particular issue or concern or interest in something, we sit down with them and work it out."

Quinn said he is willing to discuss incentives to keep the company here, but warned that it must be a "two way street."

"The taxpayers of Illinois are just not going to subsidize private companies unless they give something back to the people of Illinois," Quinn said. "Jobs and economic growth (are) very important. A commitment to new investments and doing new things...it really is a negotiation where companies agree that they will do things for the people of Illinois."

CME's threat comes at a time when other Illinois companies, including Caterpillar and Sears Holdings Corp., have raised the possibility of leaving Illinois. Other states have tried to dangle lucrative incentive packages to lure companies, and Illinois has offered up many incentives  to successfully retain big companies including Motorola Mobility. The result has resembled a national bidding war for some of Illinois' top companies.

"We want to be in Chicago but are concerned about the corporate tax increases," a CME spokesman said Thursday morning. The CME owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and theNew York Mercantile Exchange.

A CME move would send shockwaves through the local economy. Of the company's 2,600 employees, about 2,000 work in Illinois. But the presence of the exchanges has a broad ripple effect, with some estimating it's the source of another 60,000 to 100,000 jobs in law, accounting, trading and banking companies.

CME Group has four facilities in Illinois, including its corporate headquarters at 20 S. Wacker Drive; the Board of Trade building, which has a consolidated trading floor for the two Chicago exchanges; back offices at 550 W. Washington St.; and a data center in Aurora.

The company has received $15 million in city assistance to help with the renovation of its Board of Trade building.

CME Group reported $951 million in profits last year on about $3 billion in revenue.

Dow Jones Newswires contributed.zvyc8571

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Comments (305)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ
RufusVonDufus at 2:12 AM June 10, 2011
The welfare crowd and the thieving politicians are bringing all of the big cities down.    Chicago will, in the near future, resemble Detroit today!    There is no getting around it as long as such a large percentage of tax revenue goes to welfare and theft by those elected scum.    Count on it.    Let them keep plopping out 10 kids and coming from Mexico and there is no solution.
ejhickey1 at 1:48 AM June 10, 2011
In spite of the fact that Illinois has a high percentage of college graduates and five major universities in the down area, our state is still $200 billion in debt and we have at least an $8 billion deficit for this fiscal year. we are still way behind in a paying vendors that provided services to the State.  Our electoral turnout is disgracefully low and the people who do vote elect bums. (remember Todd Stroger)  if that wasn't bad enough, chicago is now suffering a plague of recreation mob muggings.   Somehow all that intellectual firepower has not made this city and state a better place to live.  
Another_Passerby at 12:12 AM June 10, 2011
Now you're treading on sacred ground! Even Rice has a football team! (Sort of...) :)
Actually, 60,000 to 100,000 jobs in law, accounting, trading and banking would fit pretty smoothly into Houston or Dallas/Fort Worth. Because of the population difference, Texas already has almost twice as many lawyers as Illinois. We're also a major port, commodities and trading region -- though our trading industries are generally more physical commodity trading than electronic. Because of the port and energy industries, Houston is an extremely international commodities trading city with businesses from all over the world having local offices. Moving the exchange here would only supplement what we already have.

Chicago became the center of commodities trading in the US because of the beef industry, the surrounding farm states, the centralized location around railroads and access to the Great Lakes shipping lanes. Those reasons are far less compelling in a global economy. Houston or New York are both better fits in modern times. New York would be ideal because of the other exchanges and because the port there is so large, though New York's taxes are so high that Houston is a better option for any for-profit company.
Maybe after we get the CME we can go after the NYSE... :)
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 03:48:56 AM
The Handling of the Economic Crisis May Lead to Civil Unrest
ZeroHedge.com ^ | 6/9/11 | George Washington
Posted on June 10, 2011 1:09:15 AM EDT by Kartographer

Reality is beginning to break through. Gas and grocery prices are on the rise, home values are down, and vast majorities think the country is on the wrong track. The result is sadness and frustration, but also an inchoate rage more profound than the sign-waving political fury documented during the elections last fall.

-SNIP- •Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said:

"The global economic crisis ... already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period," said Blair. "And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community."***

"Statistical modeling shows that economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one-to-two-year period."***

“The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”

Blair made it clear that - while unrest was currently only happening in Europe - he was worried this could happen within the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ..
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 04:04:14 AM
Weekly jobless claims “unexpectedly” rise again? (Status Quo. figures remain above 400K for 8 Weeks)
Hotair ^ | 06/09/2011 | Ed Morrissey
Posted on June 9, 2011 11:00:08 AM EDT by SeekAndFind

For the eighth week in a row, the number of initial jobless claims remained in the 420K range, according to the Department of Labor’s report today. Last week saw a slight increase of just 1,000 to the number of new claims from the previous week, which got revised upward by 4,000 from the previous week’s initial report:

In the week ending June 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 427,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 426,000. The 4-week moving average was 424,000, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 426,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending May 28, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.0 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 28 was 3,676,000, a decrease of 71,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,747,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,719,250, a decrease of 29,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,748,250.

This puts the last two weeks at more or less the same level as the weeks before. The 420-430K level appears to be the “new normal” for 2011, a little below the 440-460K level of 2010 but above the 380K range we saw in the first quarter of this year. Whatever initially pushed the claim levels upward in April was not a fluke, but instead a real retreat on job creation in the economy.

The only people surprised by what is essentially a status-quo report are the economists at Reuters, where they break out the U word again … and again … and again (via Steve Eggleston):

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, according to a report on Thursday that could reinforce fears the labor market recovery has stalled.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased 1,000 to 427,000, the Labor Department said. However, economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 422,000.

Exactly what drove them to predict a drop in the jobless-claims rate? The only reason I can think that one could have “expected” a drop in claims is because the week in question had a major holiday (Memorial Day), which tends to suppress claims. It’s worth considering that next week may actually be worse for that reason.

However, if Reuters’ Wizengamot expected a drop for economic reasons, I’d really like to know what those were. There hasn’t been a positive economic indicator for weeks, inventories are at record levels, and gas prices are sapping discretionary income. What positive news would have boosted hiring, as Reuters’ economists expected?

Or, for that matter, Bloomberg’s?

U.S. initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week, a sign that the labor market is struggling to gain traction.

Jobless claims increased by 1,000 to 427,000 in the week ended June 4, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a drop in claims to 419,000, according to the median forecast. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls and those receiving extended payments decreased. …

The median forecast was based on a survey of 49 economists. Estimates ranged from 400,000 to 430,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s figure to 426,000 from the 422,000 initially reported.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 05:37:23 AM
German Rating Agency Feri Downgrades US Government Bonds: AAA to AA!
Zero Hedge ^ | June 10, 2011




The first Western downgrade of US government bonds is a fact! The German credit rating agency Feri lowered its rating on US debt by a full notch, from AAA to AA.

Here is the German press release: Feri Downgrades US Gov Debt AAA to AA

The English translation:


Homburg, 8 June 2011 - The Bad Homburg Feri EuroRating & Research AG downgraded the first credit rating agency's credit rating for the United States from AAA to AA. Feri analysts justify the downgrade by the continuing deterioration of the creditworthiness of the country due to high public debt, inadequate fiscal measures, and weaker growth prospects.
"The U.S. government has fought the effects of the financial market crisis primarily by an increase in government debt. We do not see that there is sufficient attention being paid to other measures, "said Dr. Tobias Schmidt, CEO of Feri Rating & Research AG. "Our rating system shows a deterioration in economic health, so the downgrading of the credit ratings of U.S. is warranted."

For the third consecutive year the deficit of the United States is in double digit percentages relative to gross domestic product (GDP). "Deficits of such magnitude are not a sustainable fiscal policy. We would reconsider the rating when the U.S. government creates a long-term sustainable budget," said Schmidt.

Feri Rating is listed on the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as an EU credit rating agency approved and created with more than 20 years experience in sovereign ratings. Every month, the Feri analysts evaluate sovereign credit ratings from the perspective of a foreign investor based on the ability and willingness of countries to repay their debts. The credit ratings have eleven possible gradations between "AAA" (best credit) and "Default".
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 05:48:15 AM
An Unemployment Catastrophe
By Rich Lowry

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/10/an_unemployment_catastrophe_110159.html





Pres. Barack Obama is given to cute vehicular metaphors about the state of the economy. We were "in a ditch," then got out and hit a "bump in the road." This is studiously folksy. It also vastly understates the nature of our situation.

President Obama is presiding over an unspooling social catastrophe in the form of unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment. For all those people who are chronically unemployed, it's as if they have been hit by the proverbial car and then backed over by it again and again.

According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly a third of the unemployed - 4 million people - have been out of work for more than a year. Almost half of the unemployed have been out of a job for more than six months, a figure higher than during the Great Depression. They may wonder when it was exactly that we got out of "the ditch."

The statistics tell a dire, but incomplete, story. We were built to work. When we want to and can't, it is an assault on our very personhood. A Rutgers University study of the unemployed a few years ago found, unsurprisingly, "that they experienced anxiety, helplessness, depression, stress and sleeping problems after losing their jobs."

The insidious thing about long-term unemployment is that it builds on itself - the longer you are without a job, the harder it is to get one. The Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the chance of someone unemployed for less than five weeks finding a job in the next month is about 30 percent. For someone unemployed 27 weeks or more, it's just 10 percent.

For an economy so famously on the mend that it experienced "recovery summer" last year, the trend has been in the wrong direction. A Pew study notes that the number of people unemployed for a year or more increased by 25 percent from December 2009 to December 2010.

The job market is now segregated by levels of educational attainment, but long-term joblessness disregards schooling. Once they are unemployed, about 30 percent of college graduates, high-school graduates, and high-school dropouts are out of a job for more than a year. It doesn't matter what sector of the economy they come from. "More than 20 percent of unemployed workers in every non-agricultural industry," Pew writes, "have been out of work for a year or more."

So here is a wide-ranging blight that affects not just people's incomes right now, but their sense of self-respect and their futures. Yet it's often been an afterthought for the president. He has repeatedly said he was going to "pivot to jobs." How could he ever have pivoted off of them? To paraphrase Rahm Emanuel, a crisis is a terrible thing not to address.

Given the history of recessions driven by financial meltdowns, it was inevitable we'd have a lingering unemployment problem. All the more reason to gear every possible policy toward augmenting job growth. Once he passed his ramshackle social-spending bill called the "stimulus," though, Obama devoted most of his attention to re-engineering key sectors of the American economy - health care, finance, energy - regardless of the economic consequences.

His economic measures were supposed to be timely and temporary, but they either didn't work or were temporary indeed. We've been left with a fragile economy in the near term, while in the longer term a growing debt, unsustainable entitlements, and a senseless tax code - all of which Obama either hasn't addressed or has made worse - threaten the vitality of the country.

Democrats may want next year's election to be about Medicare; Republicans may have thought it would be about debt. But if current conditions hold, it will instead be about unemployment and the associated economic travails of stagnant wages, falling home values, and rising prices. There is no more natural theme in our politics than "putting America back to work." Next year, Obama could be vulnerable to it. It's the flashing red light of his reelection.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 06:18:25 AM
Federal data shows troubling unemployment, underemployment trends (Hope-change alert!)
Daily Caller ^ | 6/11/11 | Neil Munro



http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/10/federal-data-shows-troubling-unemployment-underemployment-trends


________________________ ________________________ ________________________ __________

Less than half of African-American men now have full-time jobs, and less than half of all white men will have full-time jobs in 2018, according to post-2000 trends hidden in federal population and workforce data.

There are roughly 14 million people formally labeled as unemployed, but “there’s probably 22 million to 23 million people who are unemployed, mal-employed or underemployed,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern University in Boston.

The hidden data shows that “we’ve got an overwhelming job gap that effects men more than women, less-educated men more then better-educated men, and the group aged 25 to 29 the most,” he said.

One startling result, he said, is that only 43 percent of African-American men aged 18 to 29 have a full-time job.

This trend is obvious to T. Willard Fair, head of the Urban League of Greater Miami. He recently advertised two janitorial jobs via the unemployment office in his local town Liberty City. The city is 85 percent African-American, yet “only 2 of the 33 applicants were African-American,” he said. “The remainder were Hispanics or Haitians.”

“People want to work, and if they can find jobs, they would take those jobs … [but] blacks are no longer even applying for those kinds of jobs, or have concluded they’re not going to get those jobs,” he said.

There’s recently been a run of bad news about unemployment trends. That’s damaged the White House’s poll ratings, but the federal government’s unemployment estimate — now 9.1 percent — counts only a portion of the nation’s non-working population. That’s because the 9.1 percent counts only people who have sought work in the last four weeks, and have failed to find employment of 35 hours or more per week.


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: dario73 on June 10, 2011, 06:33:53 AM
Regarding the vehicular metaphors used by the failure, he mentioned that the current economy was like getting hit by a truck. Jon Stewart had a field day with that comment.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 06:50:19 AM
Many of us won’t be able to retire until our 80s
MarketWatch ^ | June 9, 2011 | Robert Powell



________________________ ______________________-



You’ll probably have to work much longer than you anticipated. We all think it’s a panacea. If you don’t have enough money saved for retirement, you’ve got a few ways to close the gap between what you have and what you need in your nest egg: Save more, invest more aggressively, and/or work longer.

Well, it turns out that working longer is indeed an option, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute latest study. The only problem is that the latest research shows that you’ll have to work much longer than you anticipated. In fact, many Americans will have to keep on working well into their 70s and 80s to afford retirement, according to the study, titled “The Impact of Deferring Retirement Age on Retirement Income Adequacy.”

...

The new normal .

Now the reality about EBRI’s findings is that many Americans — who are able to continue working and whose skills are still in demand — are already working past age 65.

...

And the new normal isn’t that people are working past age 65, rather it’s this: They are also hunting for second jobs


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 07:10:29 AM
China ratings house says US defaulting
Yahoo/AFP ^ | June 10, 2011 | AFP


________________________ ______________________



A Chinese ratings house has accused the United States of defaulting on its massive debt, state media said Friday, a day after Beijing urged Washington to put its fiscal house in order.


"In our opinion, the United States has already been defaulting," Guan Jianzhong, president of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., the only Chinese agency that gives sovereign ratings, was quoted by the Global Times saying.


Washington had already defaulted on its loans by allowing the dollar to weaken against other currencies -- eroding the wealth of creditors including China, Guan said.


(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2011, 02:32:17 PM
US Stocks Routed, DJIA Headed For Longest Slump Since 2002
WJS ^ | 6/10/11 | Brendan Conway


________________________ ____________________-

Another dose of anguish about the global economic recovery sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average below 12000 and put the blue-chip index on track for a sixth straight weekly decline, its longest slump since 2002.

The Dow sank 133 points, or 1.1%, to 11992 heading into the final hour of trading Friday, falling below 12000 for the first time since mid-March. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 12, or 1.1%, to 1277. The broad index has notched six weeks of declines, the longest losing streak since 2008.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 12, 2011, 05:30:47 AM
Exclusive: The Fed's $600 Billion Stealth Bailout Of Foreign Banks Continues At The Expense Of The
Zero Hedge ^ | 6/12/11 | Tyler Durden
Posted on June 12, 2011 3:13:59 AM EDT by Nachum

Courtesy of the recently declassified Fed discount window documents, we now know that the biggest beneficiaries of the Fed's generosity during the peak of the credit crisis were foreign banks, among which Belgium's Dexia was the most troubled, and thus most lent to, bank. Having been thus exposed, many speculated that going forward the US central bank would primarily focus its "rescue" efforts on US banks, not US-based (or local branches) of foreign (read European) banks: after all that's what the ECB is for, while the Fed's role is to stimulate US employment and to keep US inflation modest. And furthermore, should the ECB need to bail out its banks, it could simply do what the Fed does, and monetize debt, thus boosting its assets, while concurrently expanding its excess reserves thus generating fungible capital which would go to European banks. Wrong. Below we present that not only has the Fed's bailout of foreign banks not terminated with the drop in discount window borrowings or the unwind of the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, but that the only beneficiary of the reserves generated were US-based branches of foreign banks (which in turn turned around and funnelled the cash back to their domestic branches), a shocking finding which explains not only why US banks have been unwilling and, far more importantly, unable to lend out these reserves, but that anyone retaining hopes that with the end of QE2 the reserves that hypothetically had been accumulated at US banks would be flipped to purchase Treasurys, has been dead wrong, therefore making the case for QE3 a done deal. In summary, instead of doing everything in its power to stimulate reserve, and thus cash, accumulation at domestic (US) banks which would in turn encourage lending to US borrowers,

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 13, 2011, 08:21:59 AM
US Is in Even Worse Shape Financially Than Greece: Gross
Published: Monday, 13 Jun 2011 | 10:33 AM ET Text Size By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com Staff Writer



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When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

 
Much of the public focus is on the nation's public debt, which is $14.3 trillion. But that doesn't include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to $50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly $100 trillion," that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won't find a solution overnight.

"To think that we can reduce that within the space of a year or two is not a realistic assumption," Gross said in a live interview. "That's much more than Greece, that's much more than almost any other developed country. We've got a problem and we have to get after it quickly."

Gross spoke following a report that US banks were likely to scale back on their use of Treasurys as collateral against derivatives and other transactions. Bank heads say that move is likely to happen in August as Congress dithers over whether to raise the nation's debt ceiling, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The move reflects increasing concern from the financial community over whether the US is capable of a political solution to its burgeoning debt and deficit problems.

"We've always wondered who will buy Treasurys" after the Federal Reserve purchases the last of its $600 billion to end the second leg of its quantitative easing program later this month, Gross said. "It's certainly not Pimco and it's probably not the bond funds of the world."

Pimco, based in Newport Beach, Calif., manages more than $1.2 trillion in assets and runs the largest bond fund in the world.

Gross confirmed a report Friday that Pimco has marginally increased its Treasurys allotment—from 4 percent to 5 percent—but still has little interest in US debt and its low yields that are in place despite an ugly national balance sheet.

"Why wouldn't an investor buy Canada with a better balance sheet or Australia with a better balance sheet with interest rates at 1 or 2 or 3 percent higher?" he said. "It simply doesn't make any sense."

Should the debt problem in Greece explode into a full-blown crisis—an International Monetary Fund bailout has prevented a full-scale meltdown so far—Gross predicted that German debt, not that of the US, would be the safe-haven of choice for global investors.


Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 13, 2011, 11:39:02 AM
Money & Company
Consumer Confidential: Pie chain goes bankrupt, Timberland bought, Arby's sold
 () (5)(8)June 13, 2011 | 10:44 am  Here's your make-my-day Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/consumer-confidential-marie-callender-pie-bankrupt-restaurant-perkins-timberland-vf-arbys-wendys.html





--Some bitter-tasting pie: Restaurant owner Perkins & Marie Callender's has filed for bankruptcy protection, brought down by tough competition, the weak economy and rising food costs. The owner of the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Marie Callender's chains says it plans to close 65 stores and cut 2,500 jobs, or about 20% of its work force of 12,350. The company cites the weak economic climate, particularly in California and Florida, where many of its restaurants are located, for the bankruptcy filing. Documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware indicate the company can't afford to build new restaurants and upgrade existing ones, so it loses traffic to better-funded rivals. The two chains were "adversely affected by the languishing economy, including declines in consumer confidence and sluggish consumer spending and increased commodity costs," CEO J. Trungale said in a statement in November.










________________________ ______


I thought we were in recovery? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 13, 2011, 02:47:06 PM
Perkins, Marie Callender restaurants in Chapter 11
Denver Channel 31 ^ | 6/13/2011



________________________ ________________________ __________


The owner of the Perkins and Marie Callender's restaurant chains filed for bankruptcy Monday with plans to close 65 of its 600 locations and cut 2,500 jobs, according to court documents.

Perkins & Marie Callender Inc. became the latest food company to fall victim to a sluggish recovery and soaring food prices. Last week, chicken producer Allen Family Foods tumbled into bankruptcy.  

Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, which offers all-day breakfasts, plans to emerge from bankruptcy by giving ownership of the chain to holders of the company's unsecured debt, led by funds managed by Wayzata Investment Partners.

The bankruptcy will wipe out the investment of private equity firm Castle Harlan Inc., which acquired the Perkins chain in 2005 for $245 million.

The Marie Callender Restaurant & Bakery chain, known for pies and home-style meals, was added a year later for $140 million.

Joseph Trungale, who has been president of Perkins & Marie Callender's Inc. since 2004, said in court documents that the company was hard hit by a weak economy in states that suffered the worst of the U.S. housing crash, particularly Florida and California.

He also blamed competitors able to free up money to invest in new locations in their own bankruptcy filings.

In recent years, Uno Chicago Grill pizza, Fuddruckers, Charlie Brown's Steakhouse and Sbarro's have used bankruptcy to shed debt and revive their businesses.

Perkins was founded in 1958 as a pancake house in Ohio. Marie Callender founded the chain that bears her name in 1948 in Orange County, Calif., as a wholesale pie business. Combined, the two chains employed about 12,000 before Monday's job reduction announcement.

The Memphis-based company listed total assets at $290 million and liabilities at $440.8 million in its Chapter 11 petition. Eleven of its affiliates were included in the bankruptcy filing.

It said it had about $103 million in secured notes debt and $190 million in unsecured notes outstanding. It plans to borrow up to $21 million to fund its operations while in bankruptcy.

Last year's sales were about $507 million.

As part of the bankruptcy, the company sold its Marie Callender trademarks to ConAgra Inc. ConAgra had licensed the name for Marie Callender frozen foods it produced.

The bankrupt company received a license to continue to use the name in connection with its restaurants and baked goods.

The case is in re: Perkins & Marie Callender's Inc., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 11-11795.


________________________ __________________--


Obama:  "I have a bigger plane and entourage than in 2008" 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2011, 06:36:26 AM
Retail sales fall for first time in 11 months
Marketwatch ^ | 6.14.11 | Greg Robb


________________________ ____________________-



WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales at U.S. retailers decreased 0.2% in May to a seasonally adjusted $387.1 billion, the Commerce Department estimated Tuesday, further evidence that the economy has hit a soft patch.

This is the first decline in sales since last June. But details of the report were not all weak. While auto sales were down as expected, there was

some strength in building materials and miscellaneous stores. See full report.

Compared with May 2010, sales are up 7.7%.

Sales rose an downwardly revised 0.3% in April, compared with a 0.5% increase originally reported.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2011, 08:56:18 AM
1.9 Million Fewer Americans Have Jobs Today Than When Obama Signed Stimulus
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
By Matt Cover
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/after-28-months-stimulus-spending-19-mil



In this Nov. 4, 2010 photo, a sign turning away potential job-seekers is seen outside of a construction site in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(CNSNews.com) – Twenty-eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.

In February 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 141.7 million people were employed. By the end of May 2011 – the last month for which data are available – that number had fallen to 139.8 million, a difference of 1.9 million.

While the number of people with jobs has increased slightly from its low point during the recession – 137.9 million in December 2009 – those 1.9 million jobs have been lost despite $800 billion in stimulus spending.

This does not mean that the economy is not creating jobs, but rather that it is not creating jobs fast enough to keep up with a combination of layoffs and people entering the job market for the first time.

In a Washington Post op-ed, former White House chief economist Larry Summers noted that the percentage of the population that has a job has not improved, even though the economy is technically in recovery.

“From the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2011, the U.S. economy’s growth rate averaged less than 1 percent a year,” Summers wrote. “The fraction of the population working remains almost exactly at its recession trough, and recent reports suggest that growth is slowing.”



White House chief economic advisor Larry Summers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The fraction of the population with a job has in fact fallen in the 28 months since Congress passed the stimulus – down from 60.3 percent in February 2009 to 58.4 percent in May 2011.

The economy cannot create jobs fast enough to keep pace with layoffs and recent high school and college graduates seeking employment. If the trend continues, as Summers notes may happen, the economy will suffer further in the future as college graduates delay entry into the labor force, reducing their lifetime productivity.

“Beyond the lack of jobs and incomes, an economy producing below its potential for a prolonged interval sacrifices its future,” argued Summers. “Huge numbers of new college graduates are moving back in with their parents this month because they have no job or means of support.”

As both Summers and the BLS data make clear, the economy is not creating new jobs fast enough to make up for layoffs and new graduates, calling into question Obama’s oft-repeated claim that the economy is recovering and creating jobs.

In fact, by citing figures from the first quarter of 2006, Summers is understating the economy’s poor performance. According to BLS data, the number of people with jobs peaked at 146.6 million in November 2007, meaning that over the entire recession – which officially began in December 2007 – the number of people employed has fallen by 6.8 million.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2011, 11:42:16 AM
Rosenberg Says 99 Percent Chance of Recession
Townhall.com ^ | June 14, 2011 | Mike Shedlock





In a Bloomberg video David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates, says there is a 99% Chance of Another Recession by 2012. Rosenberg also talks about the outlook for the U.S. economy.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.townhall.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2011, 07:01:04 AM
NY Fed manufacturing gauge contracts in June [unexpectedly]
Reuters ^ | June 15, 2011 | by Leah Schnurr


________________________ ________________________ _________



A gauge of manufacturing in New York State showed the sector unexpectedly contracted in June, falling below zero for the first time since November 2010 in another sign the economic slowdown could become more protracted, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Wednesday.

The New York Fed's "Empire State" general business conditions index fell to minus 7.79 from positive 11.88 the month before. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a gain to 12.50.

The new orders and shipments indexes also deteriorated. New orders tumbled to minus 3.61 from 17.19, while shipments dropped to minus 8.02 from 25.75.

Employment gauges also worsened, with the index for the number of employees falling to 10.20 from 24.73 and the average employee workweek index weakening to minus 2.04 from 23.66.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2011, 08:11:25 AM
Retuers: Data shows troubling mix of weakness, inflation
Reuters ^ | June 15, 2011 | By Lucia Mutikani


________________________ ________________________ _____


A closely watched measure of consumer prices logged its biggest rise in nearly three years in May and a regional factory gauge contracted this month, showing the economy facing a troubling mix of weakness and inflation.

The Labor Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price Index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.3 percent, the largest gain since July 2008.

"I assume people will look at this as another reason the recovery is stalling, giving more fodder to the double dip (recession) theory," said Paul Radeke, vice president at KDV Wealth Management in Minneapolis.


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


________________________ ____________________

 

Hope & Change!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2011, 10:11:32 AM
More small businesses plan to reduce jobs: report
Yahoo Finance ^ | June 15, 2011 | Aaron Smith


________________________ ________________________ ___________



Small business owners have a grim outlook on the economy, with a gathering number planning to reduce jobs over the next three months, according to survey results from an industry group.

The percentage of independent businesses planning to increase employment in the next three months fell to 13% in May, compared to 16% in April and 18% in March, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

At the same time, the percentage of small businesses planning to reduce their work force has increased to 8% in May, compared to 6% in the month before, the group said.

The group said that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the businesses see a small net decline in employment.

The survey's index of small business optimism slipped 0.3 point in May to 90.9, the third consecutive monthly decline.

The chief culprit appears to be weak sales. Some 23% of small business owners reported that sales were higher in the last three months, but 36% said that sales were lower, according to the survey.

"Corporate profits may be at a record high, but businesses on Main Street are still scraping by," wrote NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg in the report. "The failure to understand why small business owners are not hiring or investing has resulted in a set of policies that have not been very effective, and Main Street is suffering."

Earlier this month, on June 6, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate ticked up slightly in May to 9.1%, compared to 9% the prior month.

The economy gained 54,000 jobs in May, but that's compared to a gain of 232,000 the month before, indicating that job growth is slowing.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...



________________________ ________________________ ______-


OBAMA = FAIL   
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 16, 2011, 06:14:07 AM
Unemployment applications drop, but remain high
Yahoooooo! ^ | 06-16-2011 | Christopher S. Rugabe






Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, though applications remain elevated

Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, though applications remain above levels consistent with a healthy economy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that unemployment benefit applications fell 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 414,000, the second drop in three weeks. That's a positive sign that layoffs are slowing.

Still, applications have been above 400,000 for 10 straight weeks, evidence that the job market is weak compared to earlier this year.  

Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals sustainable job growth. They stayed below 400,000 for seven of nine weeks. But applications surged in April to 478,000 -- an eight-month high -- and they have declined slowly since then.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, was unchanged.

The elevated level of applications suggests that companies pulled back on hiring in the face of higher gas and food prices, which have cut into consumer spending. Hiring has slowed sharply since applications rose.

Employers added only 54,000 net new jobs in May, much slower than the average gain of 220,000 per month in the previous three months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9 percent.

The economy needs to generate at least 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. At least twice that many are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.

But economists forecast the nation will add only about 1.9 million jobs this year, according to an Associated Press Economy survey earlier this week. That's only about 150,000 per month and is lower than a previous estimate two months ago.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 16, 2011, 07:11:19 PM
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The Economy Is Deteriorating at an Extremely Fast Rate
http://libertarian-neocon.blogspot.com/2011/06/economy-is-deteriorating-at-extremely.html ^ | libertarian neocon
Posted on June 16, 2011 9:56:51 PM EDT by libertarian neocon

In case you missed it, today was the release of the Philly Fed Survey, which was another disastrous economic datapoint. Expectations were for a reading of +7, indicating minor growth, instead it came in at -7.7, indicating contraction.


Looking at this chart, the thing that pops out at me is how fast both the current activity and the future activity indices (expectations for activity in the next 6 months, which as you can see people always think things will either be the same or better) have been collapsing over the last 3 months. So I decided to look at the historical data, that goes back to 1968, to see when were the other times the 3 month change was this bad. The problem is, it's actually never been this bad. Below is the chart for the 3 month change in the Current Activity Index:


The last time the 3 month change even came close to the level of deterioration we've seen (51.1 points) was the 4th quarter of 1974 (50.5 points). This was right after Nixon resigned in disgrace and was a period when we were dealing with the ramifications of our loss in Vietnam, a stock market crash and an oil embargo. Also, we are currently dwarfing the deterioration we saw in the 4th quarter of 2008 (remember how we all felt the world was falling apart then?) which had a 3 month change of 34.7 points. What is even worse is that the current 3 month change is greater than the change we saw in this index between November 2007 and November 2008, which was a decline of 47.4 points. Now let's take a look at the same analysis with the Future Activity Index, which looks 6 months out:


Yup, that chart is correct, since 1968, we've never had a deterioration in this index that even came close to what we are seeing right now. There really is no way to sugar coat this, it is a disastrous reading. Also, the actual absolute reading itself is the lowest since the 4th quarter of 2008 when the world was coming apart at the seams.

It would be nice if we had a President who actually wanted to do something about the economy. After watching the GOP debate the other night, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't mind if any of them were President. They would all do a better job than the current joker whose idea of stimulus is taking money from the productive members of society and giving it to unskilled labor so they can dig holes.
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 16, 2011, 07:23:55 PM
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Foreclosures might swamp Hawaii courts
Honolulu Star Advertiser ^ | 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 15, 2011 | By Andrew Gomes
Posted on June 16, 2011 9:10:31 PM EDT by DeaconBenjamin

One of the nation's biggest owners of home mortgages has made a move that could add to an already overburdened Hawaii court system's caseload.

Fannie Mae, a publicly owned company created and overseen by the federal government, recently instructed companies that handle foreclosures for its loans to file all new Hawaii foreclosures in court.

Fannie Mae also told the firms known as loan servicers to cancel any pending nonjudicial Hawaii foreclosures and restart them in court.

Fannie Mae took the steps in response to Hawaii's new foreclosure law enacted last month. Critics are concerned Fannie Mae might be attempting to sidestep the main intent of the law, which was to engage mediators to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The vast majority of residential foreclosures in Hawaii in recent years have been conducted out of court through a nonjudicial process because it was quicker and cheaper than going through court.

The law was changed in part because the nonjudicial foreclosures left borrowers with little opportunity to contest repossessions even in cases where they believed a lender was improperly taking their home.

The new law, Act 48, gives qualified owner-occupants of Hawaii homes the option of having a dispute resolution professional assist with foreclosure mitigation in front of a lender representative before a foreclosure sale can proceed.

Fannie Mae's directive, issued Friday, drew criticism from a local homeowner advocacy group that lobbied for Hawaii's new law.

The Rev. Bob Nakata, a member of Faith Action for Community Equity, said Fannie Mae is attempting to bypass the new law. "Just two days ago, 25 churches got together from two islands and celebrated our new foreclosure mediation law, and now Fannie Mae is trying to outmaneuver us," he said. "It stinks. Our government-sponsored enterprises are supposed to help us, not take away everything we have fought for."

Some supporters of Hawaii's new law fear the move by Fannie Mae, which buys U.S. single-family home loans from loan originators, could spur similar moves by giant banks and other big holders of Hawaii home mortgages, shunting aside the revamped nonjudicial foreclosure law and overwhelming the state court system.

Fannie Mae declined to say whether it established its new policy to avoid nonjudicial foreclosures in Hawaii under the new law or whether the policy is only temporary until it's possible to file new nonjudicial foreclosures.

The new law resulted in a de facto moratorium on nonjudicial foreclosures because the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs won't accept any new nonjudicial foreclosure filings until the mediation program is running. The law also prohibits any nonjudicial foreclosure auctions until borrowers have an opportunity to participate in the program.

The program is expected to be running by Oct. 1.

Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said policies are regularly reviewed and adjusted as needed.

"Our announcement is consistent with Hawaii law and was made in response to recent Hawaii legislation," she said. "Currently, nonjudicial foreclosures cannot be pursued in Hawaii. There is not currently an end date listed in the announcement we issued, but again, we regularly make updates and changes to reflect the current law and foreclosure processes in a state."

Kim Harman, Hawaii policy director for Faith Action for Community Equity, questioned whether Fannie Mae is trying to avoid requirements for documenting original and amended mortgage agreements and promissory notes under the new law.

Harman said the documentation requirement is the only substantial difference between Hawaii's law and a Nevada foreclosure mitigation law upon which Hawaii's law was modeled. Fannie Mae hasn't banned nonjudicial foreclosures in Nevada.

State Rep. Bob Herkes, who along with Sen. Rosalyn Baker was a chief architect of the law, said Fannie Mae would be misguided if it intends to avoid better documentation by running foreclosures through Hawaii courts.

Herkes intends to ask the Judiciary to hold mortgage holders to the same documentation standards contained in the nonjudicial foreclosure law.

Some Hawaii foreclosure industry attorneys had warned that lenders might flock to judicial foreclosures, in part because lenders can pursue borrowers for any difference between what a borrower owes and proceeds from selling a foreclosed home. This difference, referred to as a deficiency judgment, could help offset higher expenses of judicial foreclosure.

However, others believe the extra time and expense of judicial foreclosure, especially if Hawaii courts get bogged down, still make judicial foreclosure less attractive than the revamped nonjudicial foreclosure process.

While Fannie Mae seeks to proceed with Hawaii foreclosures in court, it is also offering financial incentives for loan servicers to avoid foreclosure and was instructed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in April to not start a foreclosure if a borrower and servicer are engaged in a good-faith effort to resolve a mortgage delinquency.

So far, there has not been a huge increase in judicial foreclosures in Hawaii, considering that the new law went into effect May 5.

For all of May, there were 141 judicial foreclosure cases, up from 119 in May 2010, according to Judiciary figures. Nearly all of the increase occurred on the Big Island.

For all of last year, state Circuit Courts handled 1,331 foreclosure cases. That figure is estimated to be around 10 percent of all Hawaii foreclosures.

The Judiciary, in testimony on Senate Bill 651 that became the foreclosure mitigation law, expressed concern that any big increase in judicial foreclosures could dramatically delay cases unless new judges and staff are hired.

According to real estate research firm RealtyTrac, close to 500 new foreclosure cases a month were filed on average this year through April.

The Judiciary estimated it would cost about $4.3 million a year for additional personnel to handle such an increase.

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: default; economy; estate; real; Click to Add Keyword

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 17, 2011, 08:31:42 AM
Source: Bloomberg
By Shobhana Chandra



June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Payrolls dropped in 27 U.S. states in May, indicating the weakening in the job market was broad- based.

California led the nation with a 29,200 decrease followed by New York with 24,700 fewer jobs, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate fell in 24 states and rose in 13.

The report is consistent with nationwide figures released June 3 that showed employers added 54,000 workers in May, the fewest in eight months, and unemployment rose to 9.1 percent, the highest this year. Improvement in hiring across a wider swathe of the U.S. is needed to sustain consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

“Hiring is occurring but the job market is definitely not strong,” Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report. “Corporations are not going to hire in droves until they are certain that the economic recovery is on terra firma.”

Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=az...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 17, 2011, 08:51:37 AM
U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops as Rising Prices Squeeze Household Budgets 
 Source: Bloomberg


By Alex Kowalski

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers dropped more than forecast in June as households contended with higher prices that are eating into incomes amid slowing job growth.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment decreased to 71.8 from 74.3 in May. Economists forecast a reading of 74, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

While gasoline costs have retreated from the highest levels since July 2008, consumer budgets are being strained by rising prices for other goods and services. Unemployment climbed in May to the highest this year, and employers added the fewest workers in eight months, further stressing the largest part of the economy.

“Things have cooled off after better growth earlier in the year, and people are still worried about the labor market, housing and high gasoline prices,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, who forecast the gauge would drop to 72. “If we get another break in gasoline prices, that will be very helpful for the consumer.”

Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ay...
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 17, 2011, 10:02:55 AM
McKinsey Presents: 9 Scary Facts About The Unemployment Crisis
Business Insider ^ | 06/17/2011 | Linette Lopez






The United States will have to create 21 million jobs in the next 9 years to reach full employment, according to a study from the consulting group McKinsey.

The report details how this is going to be a long slog. It will take 60 months at our current growth rate to return to pre-recession employment levels, according to the report. And that doesn't even count all those new employees entering the workforce. More Americans will need to go back to school to get these new jobs, with McKinsey estimating that the market needs 1.5 million more Americans with undergraduate degrees. More worrying: the U.S. could shed 6 million workers without high school diplomas by 2020.

They highlight six sectors ripe for growth: healthcare, manufacturing, retail, construction, leisure and hospitality, and business services. They make up 66% of the labor force now, and will make up 85% of the jobs created this decade.

But while many are trying to get back to work, companies will continue to streamline their teams due technological advances that mean they can do more, with less.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 17, 2011, 12:40:24 PM
Kmart lays off 700 appliance workers
AP ^ | 6/17/11 | Staff






NEW YORK — The parent of Kmart stores is laying off 700 employees working in Kmart's appliance departments as it changes how the stores sell refrigerators, ovens and other appliances.

Kmart spokesman Chris Brathwaite says the move will allow customers to check out appliances at any register rather than going to a dedicated register for appliances. But there also won't be any specialized appliance-only staff people on hand near appliances. Instead, all Kmart staffers are being trained to answer questions about appliances.

There will also be a 1-800 number customers can call for help.

The moves affect appliance specialists in 225 stores. Kmart had expanded the number of stores with appliance departments to 1,300 stores from 270 stores in February.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2011, 05:01:54 AM
Goldman Cuts GDP View to 2% as Economy Weakens (less than 2% is the new surprise)
CNBC.com via RCP ^ | Friday, 17 Jun 2011 | Jeff Cox
Posted on June 19, 2011 7:18:24 AM EDT by MontaniSemperLiberi

Faced with the bruising headwinds of high unemployment, weak manufacturing and an otherwise listless economy, Goldman Sachs has slashed its forecast for gross domestic product.

The firm cut its second-quarter GDP outlook to 2 percent from 3 percent, a stunning blow for an economy expected to be well on the path to recovery following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.

From a policy standpoint, Goldman said it does not expect the subpar growth to change the Federal Reserve's plans to end quantitative easing later this month. However, Goldman economist Sven Jari Stehn acknowledged that "the deterioration in economic activity, on its own, would call for fresh monetary easing."

The primary thing keeping the Fed from going to another round of easing — or QE3 in market jargon — is that, while the economy languishes, inflation actually is rising more than expected, he said.

"The Federal Open Market Committee is therefore stuck between a rock (slow growth) and a hard place (higher inflation)," Stehn wrote in a research note to clients. "We expect Chairman (Ben) Bernanke to indicate at next Wednesday’s FOMC press conference that there is little prospect of either monetary tightening or monetary easing anytime soon."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2011, 05:50:47 AM
After Dumping 30% Of Its Treasury Holdings In Half A Year, Russia Warns It Will Continue Selling
Zero Hedge ^ | 6/18/11 | Tyler Durden
Posted on June 19, 2011 2:43:34 AM EDT by Nachum

Just in time for the end of QE2, when the US needs every possible foreign buyer of US debt to step up to the plate, we get confirmation that yet another major foreign central bank has decided to not only not add to its US debt holdings, but to actively sell US Treasurys. The WSJ reports that "Russia will likely continue lowering its U.S. debt holdings as Washington struggles to contain a budget deficit and bolster a tepid economic recovery, a top aide to President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday. "The share of our portfolio in U.S. instruments has gone down and probably will go down further," said Arkady Dvorkovich, chief economic aide to the president, told Dow Jones in an interview on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum." Well, with Russia out, at least we have China and Japan continuing to buy US debt.... Oh wait, China is contemplating dumping two thirds of its debt you say? And the biggest buyer of Japanese bonds is now in the process of selling Japanese bonds in the open market for the first time (so not really in the market of US bonds). Well, surely US households will step up to the plate. After all they all have so much "cash on the sidelines" courtesy of the RecoveryTM ©® that they can't wait to dump it all into paper yielding less than 3% a year, and has negative real rates of return. Wait, what's that: according to the Fed, in Q1 US "households" sold $1.1 trillion annualized in Treasurys to the Fed? So, let's get this straight: China, Japan, and now very much openly Russia, the three countries with the largest financial reserves in the world, are threatening, if not already dumping US bonds,

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: "Green Shoots", "Summer of Recovery", & Great Econ News
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 20, 2011, 05:14:11 AM
Misery index hits new high. Highest in Nearly 30 years!
CNN Money ^ | 06/20/2011 | Colin Barr


________________________ ________________________ _______________


Let's face it, probably not. The misery index – the sum of the unemployment and consumer price inflation rates – hit a 28-year high last month, notes Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

Headed higher? At a recent 12.7, the misery index is at its highest level since 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president and the great bull markets in stocks and bonds were in their infancy. Yet as always, it's worth recalling that things can be (and have been) worse.

The 1983 peak was 14.1, which looks terrifyingly high now but at the time was the lowest reading in five years.

This is worth bearing in mind for those who drone on endlessly about "jobless stagflation." Yes, 9.1% joblessness and 3.6% inflation are both bad news. But hey, when Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in the November 1980 election, unemployment was 7.5% and inflation was, um, 12.7%, for a nifty misery score above 20.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.fortune.cnn.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher.
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2011, 05:33:21 AM
James Verone Robs Bank For Jail Health Care (VIDEO)

Posted: 06/20/11 07:13 PM ET





James Verone said he walked up to a teller at a Gastonia, N.C. bank and handed her a note.

It said "This is a bank robbery, please only give me one dollar." Verone then told the teller he'd be sitting in a nearby chair, waiting for the police.

The 59-year-old said he did everything he could to get caught so he could receive free health care in jail.

Verone has a growth on his chest, two ruptured disks and a problem with his left foot. With no job, Verone thought his desperate plan was the best way to provide for himself.

Verone was charged with larceny.

Courtney Boyd Myers at The Next Web notes Verone's plot provides clear evidence of a flawed medical system.

"As his fellow American, I have to say, our national health care is in a very sad state," Myers writes.

Story continues below
Advertisement
Though Verone said he's receiving good care in jail, Slate previously reported that health care in prison is at best as good as a low-income health plan and at worst, almost nonexistent.

From Slate:

The majority of ailments are treated on-site, but inmates who are gravely ill can be taken to the nearest hospital. Sick prisoners must make a nominal co-payment for each visit to the jailhouse doctor—usually $5 or so, taken from an hourly wage that typically runs between 19 cents and 40 cents an hour. Costs above that are covered by the state.
It's been more then a year since President Obama signed landmark health care reform legislation. The bill was designed to provide health insurance to millions of Americans who currently lack it. But one year later, the number of uninsured remains roughly the same. That's largely because most of the bill's major elements aren't due to be implemented for another three years.

This month, Republican governors fought against federal rules requiring states to maintain current levels of health-care coverage for the poor and disabled.

There is also an effort, spearheaded by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to change Medicare from a government run program to a voucher system. Critics of the plan said it would mean seniors would have to pay more out of pocket for care.

Late last week, AARP, a powerful lobbying group for older Americans, said it was open to cuts in Social Security benefits.

Verone's plan was to go to jail for three years, then be released in time to start collecting Social Security.

WATCH:

Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depressio
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2011, 06:05:10 AM
U.S. News Home
Opinion Washington
Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks
We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression
By Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Posted: June 20, 2011

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2011/06/20/why-the-jobs-situation-is-worse-than-it-looks_print.html


The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.

 
The real job losses are greater than the estimate of 7.5 million. They are closer to 10.5 million, as 3 million people have stopped looking for work. Equally troublesome is the lower labor participation rate; some 5 million jobs have vanished from manufacturing, long America's greatest strength. Just think: Total payrolls today amount to 131 million, but this figure is lower than it was at the beginning of the year 2000, even though our population has grown by nearly 30 million.

The most recent statistics are unsettling and dismaying, despite the increase of 54,000 jobs in the May numbers. Nonagricultural full-time employment actually fell by 142,000, on top of the 291,000 decline the preceding month. Half of the new jobs created are in temporary help agencies, as firms resist hiring full-time workers. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the economy.]

Today, over 14 million people are unemployed. We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression. Nearly seven people in the labor pool compete for every job opening. Hiring announcements have plunged to 10,248 in May, down from 59,648 in April. Hiring is now 17 percent lower than the lowest level in the 2001-02 downturn. One fifth of all men of prime working age are not getting up and going to work. Equally disturbing is that the number of people unemployed for six months or longer grew 361,000 to 6.2 million, increasing their share of the unemployed to 45.1 percent. We face the specter that long-term unemployment is becoming structural and not just cyclical, raising the risk that the jobless will lose their skills and become permanently unemployable.

Don't pay too much attention to the headline unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. It is scary enough, but it is a gloss on the reality. These numbers do not include the millions who have stopped looking for a job or who are working part time but would work full time if a position were available. And they count only those people who have actively applied for a job within the last four weeks.

Include those others and the real number is a nasty 16 percent. The 16 percent includes 8.5 million part-timers who want to work full time (which is double the historical norm) and those who have applied for a job within the last six months, including many of the long-term unemployed. And this 16 percent does not take into account the discouraged workers who have left the labor force. The fact is that the longer duration of six months is the more relevant testing period since the mean duration of unemployment is now 39.7 weeks, an increase from 37.1 weeks in February. [See a slide show of the 10 best cities to find a job.]

The inescapable bottom line is an unprecedented slack in the U.S. labor market. Labor's share of national income has fallen to the lowest level in modern history, down to 57.5 percent in the first quarter as compared to 59.8 percent when the so-called recovery began. This reflects not only the 7 million fewer workers but the fact that wages for part-time workers now average $19,000—less than half the median income.

Just to illustrate how insecure the labor movement is, there is nobody on strike in the United States today, according to David Rosenberg of wealth management firm Gluskin Sheff. Back in the 1970s, it was common in any given month to see as many as 30,000 workers on the picket line, and there were typically 300 work stoppages at any given time. Last year there were a grand total of 11. There are other indirect consequences. The number of people who have applied for permanent disability benefits has soared. Ten years ago, 5 million people were collecting federal disability payments; now 8 million are on the rolls, at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $120 billion a year. The states today owe the federal insurance fund an astonishing $90 billion to cover unemployment benefits.

In past recessions, the economy recovered lost jobs within 13 months, on average, after the trough. Twenty-three months into a recovery, employment typically increases by around 174,000 jobs monthly, compared to 54,000 this time around. In a typical recovery, we would have had several hundred thousand more hires per month than we are seeing now—this despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus (including the rescue of the automobile industry, whose collapse would likely have lost a million jobs). Businesses do not seem to have the confidence or the incentive to add staff but prefer to continue the deep cost-cutting they undertook from the onset of the recession.

But hang on. Even to come up with the 54,000 new jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics assumed that 206,000 jobs were created by newly formed companies that its analysts believe—but can't prove—were, in effect, born in May under the so-called birth/death model, which relies primarily on historical extrapolations. Without this generous assumption in the face of a slowing economy, the United States would have lost jobs in May. Last year the bureau assumed that 192,000 jobs were created through new start-ups in the comparable month, but on review most of them eventually had to be taken out, as start-ups have been distressingly weak given the lack of financing from their traditional sources such as bank loans, home equity loans, and credit card lines. [Read more stories on unemployment.]

Where are we today? We have seemingly added jobs, but it is not because hiring has increased. In February 2009 there were 4.7 million separations—that is, jobs lost—but by March 2011 this had fallen to 3.8 million. In other words, the pace of layoffs has diminished, but that is not the same thing as more hiring. The employment numbers look better than they really are because of the aggressive layoffs in the early part of this recession and the reluctance of American business to rehire workers. In fact, the apparent improvement in job numbers has been made up of one part extra hiring and two parts reduced firing.

Even during past recessions, American firms still hired large numbers of workers as part of the continual cycle of replacing employees. Of the 150 million workers or job seekers in America, about one third turn over in a typical year, leaving their old jobs to take new ones. High labor "churn" is characteristic of our economy, reflecting workers moving to better jobs and higher wages and away from declining sectors. As Stanford business professor Edward Lazear explains so clearly in the Wall Street Journal, the increase in job growth over the past two years is attributable to a decline in the number of layoffs, not from increased hiring. Typically, when the labor market creates 200,000 jobs, it has been because 5 million were hired and 4.8 million were separated, not just because there were 200,000 hires and no job losses. But when an economy has bottomed out, it has already shed much of its excess labor, as illustrated by the decline in layoffs—from approximately 2.5 million in February 2009 to 1.5 million this April. In a healthy labor market like the one that prevailed in 2006 and into 2007, American firms hired about 5.5 million workers per month. This is now down to about 4 million a month. Quite simply, businesses have been very disciplined in their hiring practices. [Read Zuckerman: America's Fading Exceptionalism.]

We are nowhere near the old normal. Throughout this fragile recovery, over 90 percent of the growth in output has come from productivity gains. But typically at this stage of the cycle, labor has already taken over from productivity as the major contributor of growth. That is why we generally saw nonfarm payroll gains exceeding 300,000 per month with relative ease. This time we have recouped only 17 percent of the job losses 23 months after the recession began, as compared to 207 percent of the jobs lost from previous recessions (with the exception of 2001). There is no comfort either in two leading indicators of employment, with no growth in the workweek or in factory overtime.

Clearly, the Great American Job Machine is breaking down, and roadside assistance is not on the horizon. In the second half of this year (and thereafter?), we will be without the monetary and fiscal steroids. Nor does anyone know what will happen to long-term interest rates when the Federal Reserve ends its $600 billion quantitative easing support of the capital markets. Inventory levels are at their highest since September 2006; new order bookings are at the lowest levels since September 2009. Since home equity has long been the largest asset on the balance sheet of the average American family, all home­owners are suffering from housing prices that have, on average, declined 33 percent (compare that to the Great Depression drop of 31 percent).

No wonder the general economic mood is one of alarm. The Conference Board measure of U.S. consumer confidence slumped to 60.8 percent in May, down from 66 percent in April and well below the average of 73 in past recessions, never mind the 100-plus numbers in good times. Never before has confidence been this low in the 23rd month of a recovery. Gluskin Sheff's Rosenberg captured it perfectly: We may well be in the midst of a "modern depression."

Our political leadership in both Congress and the White House will surely bear the political costs of a failure to work out short- and long-term programs to fix the job shortage. The stakes are too high to play political games.
Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depression)
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2011, 09:07:54 AM
Existing home sales drop 3.8% (Obama's booming economy! /sarc)
cnn ^ | 6/21/2011 | Ben Rooney




Sales of existing homes fell in May, as severe weather and high gas prices weighed on the shaky housing market.

Home sales fell 3.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.81 million, down from a revised rate of 5 million in April, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

Sales were more than 15% lower than in May 2010.

Economists had expected a May sales rate of 4.79 million existing homes, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com.

"Spiking gasoline prices along with widespread severe weather hurt house shopping in April, leading to soft figures for actual closings in May," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Gas prices surged earlier this year, pinching household budgets and putting a damper on consumer spending. In addition, sales were hurt by tornados and flooding in May that devastated parts of the South and Midwest.

Sales fell more than 6% in the South and were down over 5% in the Midwest. By contrast, sales fell 2.5% in the Northeast and were flat in the West.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depression)
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2011, 03:02:02 PM
Gannett laying off 700 more workers amid ad slump
Washington Examiner ^ | June 21, 2011




The nation's largest newspaper publisher is laying off another 700 employees to cope with an unrelenting advertising slump.

Gannett, the owner of USA Today and more than 80 other daily U.S. newspapers, hoped to complete the cuts Tuesday. The layoffs are occurring at most Gannett newspapers but not at USA Today.

The payroll reductions represent 2 percent of Gannett's 32,600 employees. The division targeted in the cutbacks employs 22,400 people at newspapers that include The Indianapolis Star and The Arizona Republic.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depression)
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 22, 2011, 08:00:11 AM
CBO Releases Daunting Long-Term Outlook
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
By Tim Fernholz
Updated: June 22, 2011 | 10:43 a.m.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/cbo-releases-daunting-long-term-outlook-20110622


 


Increasing federal debt will be a growing burden on government action, crowding out lawmakers’ ability to adopt tax and spending priorities in good times and reducing flexibility during recessions, all while making a fiscal crisis more likely and hindering long-term growth, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

In the annual Long-Term Budget Outlook, the legislature’s budget scorekeepers said that the ratio of debt to GDP this year will be 69 percent, 7 percentage points higher than last year. In 2021, the CBO predicts debt will reach 76 percent of GDP, but under a more dire—and more likely—scenario, the public debt will be 101 percent of GDP 10 years from now, well into the economic danger zone of 90 percent or more.

Last year, that worst-case scenario predicted a debt-to-GDP ratio of 87 percent in 2020, demonstrating that the public debt picture has worsened considerably, in part due to a bipartisan tax deal last year that reduced expected revenue.

While much of the debt is driven by the recession’s drop in tax revenues and government actions taken in response to the economic calamity, CBO highlighted the structural deficit that existed before 2007 and cites growing health care costs and the aging population as a major driver of government spending; federal health spending is set to grow from less than 6 percent of GDP today to more than 9 percent in 2035.

The CBO says that allowing the 2010 tax deal that extended Bush administration tax policies to expire as planned would be helpful in keeping government sustainable, noting  “that significant increase in revenues and decrease in the relative magnitude of other spending would offset much—though not all—of the rise in spending on health care programs and Social Security.”

However, the CBO's more likely scenario assumes that the tax deal is extended, that the alternative minimum tax would continue to be restricted, and that the “doc fix,” Congress’s annual decision to ease limits on Medicare physician pay, will occur as expected. Under this scenario, debt would rise to 187 percent of the economy in 2035.

While CBO does not provide policy recommendations, it urged policymakers to take significant action to reduce the deficit and debt by reducing spending, increasing taxes, or some combination of the two. While those changes will slow economic recovery, the agency warns, the sooner they are made, the more gradual they can be, easing the transition into new policies but likely requiring sacrifices from older Americans.

“CBO’s new long-term budget outlook again highlights the urgency of reaching agreement on a bipartisan and comprehensive long-term deficit and debt reduction plan,” Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in a statement. “We must address the projected explosion in federal debt. If we fail to act, it will have devastating consequences for our economy and for the future well-being of the American people.”

On Thursday, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf will testify at a House Budget Committee hearing on the long-term outlook.
Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depression)
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 22, 2011, 11:44:02 AM
CBO: Government faces fiscal crisis over borrowing
From msnbc.com's Tom Curry
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/22/6917441-cbo-government-faces-fiscal-crisis-over-borrowing




In its mid-year long-term budget forecast, the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday renewed its previous warnings that the government faces an increasing risk of a fiscal crisis due its ever-greater borrowing.

The report comes as Vice President Joe Biden and congressional budget negotiators try to reach an accord that would cut spending enough for Republicans to agree to an increase in the government’s borrowing limit.

August 2 is the date on which the Treasury Department says it will exhaust its means of managing cash to avoid hitting the current debt limit.

As it did in a report last January, the CBO said publicly held debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) would reach nearly 70 percent during the current fiscal year which ends on Sept. 30.

The CBO – in its “alternative fiscal scenario” --  predicted that if Congress does not raise taxes to their 2000 level and fails to impose Medicare spending cuts mandated by a 1997 law, by 2035 federal spending would account for more than a third of GDP, up from 24 percent of GDP this year.

Under that same scenario, by 2020 publicly held debt would reach nearly 90 percent of GDP.

CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said many budget analysts think the alternative fiscal scenario “is a more realistic picture of the nation’s underlying fiscal policies” than the “baseline” scenario which by law CBO must use to forecast spending and revenue.

The baseline, for example, assumes that current income tax rates will revert to their 2000 level at the end of 2012.

In Wednesday’s report, the CBO repeated earlier warnings about the risk of a sovereign debt crisis.

A rising level of debt, combined with an excess of spending over revenue “would increase the probability of a fiscal crisis for the United States,” the nonpartisan agency said, repeating a warning it made last July.

“In such a crisis, investors become unwilling to finance all of a government’s borrowing needs unless they are compensated with very high interest rates,” the CBO said, adding that “there is no way to predict with any confidence whether and when such a crisis might occur in the United States.”

But it said, “All else being equal, however, the larger the debt, the greater the risk of such a crisis.”

In his introduction to the report, Elmendorf identified health care costs and demographics as primary causes of the fiscal dilemma.

“Under current law, an aging population and rapidly rising health care costs will sharply increase federal spending for health care programs and Social Security,” he said. “If revenues remained at their historical average share of gross domestic product (GDP), such spending growth would cause federal debt to grow to unsustainable levels.”



________________________ ______________

According to Straw Man and other leftists - we dont spend enough.   ::)  ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: Just hit new 30 Year high and going higher. (Obama Depression)
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2011, 06:21:31 AM
CBO says debt will reach 62 percent of GDP by year's end (from 36% for last 40 years)
Hill ^ | 6-23-11 | Michael O'Brien


________________________ ________________________ _


The national debt will reach 62 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Wednesday.

The budget office said the debt will reach its highest percentage of GDP since the end of World War II. The jump is driven by lower tax revenues and higher federal spending in the recent recession.

And while the national debt would stabilize at 67 percent of GDP over the next decade if current law were maintained, extending tax cuts enacted during the administration of President George W. Bush and keeping growth in appropriations in line with inflation would mean that the debt would reach almost 90 percent of GDP by 2020.

By contrast, GDP has averaged "a little above" 36 percent per year over the past 40 years.

Obama got somewhat of a chilly reception from world leaders at the G-20 summit over the past weekend when he pressed them to continue with spending to bolster the global economy. Many nations in Europe and elsewhere have had to grapple with their own debt crises, and have been forced to enact tough austerity measures.

Republicans have been hammering away at the president and Democrats in Congress for their spending over the past year and a half, arguing that the stimulus act, healthcare reform law and other measures have done little more than exacerbate the nation's fiscal situation.


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

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SPEND SPEND SPEND!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2011, 07:31:25 AM
Federal Reserve Chairman: Economy slowing, outlook worse for 2012.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-says...


Federal Reserve, acknowledging slowdown, reins in forecasts for economic growth
By Neil Irwin
6/22/11

The economic recovery is slowing and the outlook for next year has gotten worse, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Wednesday, backing away from the view that the slowdown of the past few months was merely temporary.

The central bank released new economic projections that showed weaker growth in both 2011 and 2012 than had been forecast just two months ago. Despite the slowdown, the Fed said it will end a program of buying vast sums of Treasury bonds at the end of June as scheduled and gave no sign it is contemplating new action.

But Bernanke, whom markets turn to as a purveyor of economic wisdom, said the Fed had no solid answers as to why, two years into an economic recovery, growth keeps disappointing.

“We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting,” Bernanke said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. He suggested that problems in the financial sector and the housing market, and with consumers trying to pay down their debt, had been underestimated. “Some of these head winds may be stronger or more persistent than we thought.”

....(more at link)
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 24, 2011, 07:14:27 AM
Global Bankruptcy Months Away?
Townhall.com ^ | June 24, 2011 | John Ransom


________________________ ________________________ ______



A former Reagan administration official who worked on trade policy is warning that unless Congress can agree to a significant reduction in spending that the world may run out of money in 6-18 months. When that happens the economy could enter “a death spiral.”

“Based upon world liquidity, the amount of money available to fund sovereign debt in 2011 is between $6-9 trillion,” Marc Nuttle told Townhall Finance. Nuttle runs the site DebtWall.org. “The world’s government projections for deficit financing in 2011 is $8-10 trillion. We are bumping into the ceiling of the world’s ability to fund ongoing sovereign deficits and debt on an annual basis.”

The $2-6 trillion shortfall will have to come from other parts of the economy like small business loans, the stock market, commercial bonds and consumer spending.   

Unless something is done to reign in spending, Nuttle, an attorney from Oklahoma who served on Reagan’s Industrial Policy Advisory Committee, predicts that the financing of government debt will eat into the world’s ability to invest in public and private projects.

Money that would normally be available to capital markets would have to be switched just to finance interest rate increases. 

“Interest rates may well hit double digits,” he said, “forcing businesses to operate without adequate float for inventory, materials, facilities and production. Businesses will fail, jobs will be lost, salaries and wages will be reduced.” 

The Republican in charge of deficit negotiations reported this week that there has been no substantial progress with Democrats on cutting the spending of the federal government and has shutdown talks in frustration.

“Deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden have reached an ‘impasse,’ House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Thursday,” according to Reuters, “adding that he will not participate in the meeting of the bipartisan group that had been scheduled for later in the day.”

An unnamed Senate Democrat aide said that both sides need to continue talking, but Reuters says “an aide to Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican member of the Biden group, declined to comment on whether the senator would attend Thursday's scheduled meeting.”

Nuttle says that in order to avert a short-term crisis the U.S. has to take the lead by cutting $500 billion in spending immediately.

“This will not completely solve the problem but it is an adequate step in the right direction,” Nuttle said. “This is the necessary amount that will alleviate pressure on the funding of 2012 world sovereign debt projections. It is still possible to develop a four-year plan to avert hitting the debt wall, but the plan requires immediate cuts in the deficit.”

A recent Rasmussen poll shows that Americans are concerned about the government’s ability to pay its debts. The survey released June 1st, “finds that 66% of American Adults are at least somewhat worried that the U.S. government will run out of money,” while “separate surveying has found that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters think it’s more likely that the government will go bankrupt and be unable to pay its debt before the federal budget is balanced.”

With the end of the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing, financing U.S. government debt is going to present a challenge almost immediately says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital.

“There’s no real private demand for Treasuries,” says Schiff, pointing out that central banks have been the main buyers. “No one buys them to hold them. They flip them, just like condos in Vegas.”

As a consequence either rates will have to go up to attract real buyers or the governments around the world will have to continue to subsidize U.S. debt, which will lead to a world “awash in inflation.”

Nuttle points out that under current artificially low rates, the interest on the U.S. debt is $187 billion. If interest rates were to go back to the historic norm of 4 percent, interest on the debt would come in at $600 billion. 

In fact, Schiff says the low interest rates are holding back the recovery.

“Rates are going to have to go up, if you want to put people back to work. You can make rates as low as you want, but it does no good. Because if banks can get compensated for the risk,” through higher rates, “they aren’t going to loan money.”

Rates will have to go up or the economy is going to have to change, Schiff says.

“Money will have to come from someplace to finance government debt. Consumer spending, stock market, someplace.”

Nuttle predicts that when that happens, “The economy will enter a death spiral of increasing business failures, fewer jobs, higher prices, higher taxes and stagnant growth. Liberals in government will use the ensuing economic crisis as a pretext for increasing the size and scope of government.”

If that’s what’s going to happen, it sounds kind of like we’re out of money already.

Because, really, we are.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 24, 2011, 12:01:14 PM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 29, 2011, 03:32:24 PM
Posted on June 29, 2011 10:05:08 AM EDT by VA Voter

Let me get this straight . . . ... We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, Which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke!!!!! 'What the hell could possibly go wrong?'
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 29, 2011, 04:12:39 PM
In 1932, President Hoover received a letter from a man in Illinois that read simply, “Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous.” Based on its recent floundering, it seems even the White House recognizes that Obamanomics has been a disaster. It’s nearly unanimous now.

When President Reagan entered office, America faced a deep recession with double-digit unemployment and inflation, plus dishearteningly long gas lines. Rather than wasting time blaming his predecessor, the Gipper went right to work unveiling Reaganomics - an embrace of the free market - which included four simple principles: (1) lower tax burden, (2) lower government spending, (3) lower regulatory burden, and (4) a strong dollar monetary policy.

The top income tax rate was reduced from a stifling 70 percent to a low of 28 percent. Total federal spending was reduced from 23.5 percent of gross domestic product to 21.2 percent. Deregulation ended disastrous price controls and curtailed the government’s micromanaging of private businesses. Disciplined money supply strengthened the dollar.

As Peter Ferrara, policy adviser to Reagan, has described, the results were beyond spectacular. Reaganomics unleashed an explosive growth of wealth and prosperity, the largest in the history of humankind. Some 20 million jobs were created. Unemployment dropped to 5.3 percent. The gross domestic product growth rate hit a high of 6.8 percent, and the total economy grew by nearly a third. Inflation dropped to 3.2 percent. Even the oil shortage was solved almost overnight.

Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan.

President Obama entered office peddling the false hope that government can “spread the wealth.” This is as foolish as bucketing water from one end of a swimming pool to the other. At best you achieve nothing; in reality, the spilled water along the way leaves everybody worse off.

Obamanomics favors top-down compulsory cooperation over voluntary. It is the anti-Reaganomics. Mr. Obama has done the following: (1) raised taxes, (2) unleashed a wild orgy of spending, including his disastrous so-called “stimulus,” (3) dramatically increased regulations and even nationalized industries and businesses, and (4) printed money out of “quantitative easing” thin air.

The results were predictable. Since the Obama stimulus - a collection of “shovel-ready” projects promised to save the economy - was signed into law, America has lost 1.9 million jobs and unemployment has surpassed 9 percent. GDP growth remains anemic. Consumer confidence has tumbled. Gas prices were at $1.81 per gallon before Mr. Obama put his “boot on the neck” of suppliers, and now it’s more than doubled, to $3.81. We burn our food supply in our gas tanks, and grocery prices have skyrocketed - some staples by as much as 40 percent. Since the president signed his mortgage rescue plan, Americans have seen 3.82 million foreclosures. Most disturbingly, the majority of Americans are receiving some type of welfare.

Want to better understand Obamanomics? Look no further than “cash for clunkers,” Mr. Obama’s laughably misguided idea to use American’s wealth to, quite literally, destroy American’s wealth, to use taxpayers’ money to destroy taxpayers’ working automobiles. Despite the propaganda, these weren’t “clunkers” at all. I continue proudly to drive one myself. Edmonds.com estimated the cost per new car sold at $24,000. Some estimates are much higher. A year later, auto sales were at their worst in 27 years and Americans - low-income Americans in particular - are suffering a government-created shortage of low-priced cars. Still the Democrats claim that the clunkers program “has been successful beyond our wildest dreams.” The truth is, it was motivated by environmentalism, not economics. It reflects Mr. Obama’s arrogant belief that he knows better than you what type of car you should drive. Controlling your behavior is one wild dream, indeed.

Mr. Obama, abandoning any pretense of economic literacy, has placed the blame for unemployment squarely on America’s archenemy: the ATM. The jobless rate remains high, according to the president, because - it’s hard to make this stuff up - “when you go to a bank you use the ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller.” Other Democrats share his ignorance. Recently, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. claimed that Apple’s iPad was “probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs.” Mr. Jackson, an iPad owner himself, adds hypoc-risy to ignorance.

Mr. Obama, meet Ned Ludd. In the early 1800s, the Luddites - named for Ned Ludd, an alias used to conceal their leaders’ true identities - sabotaged factories for fear of new technology. Their mistake was a belief that jobs themselves are prosperity when, in fact, it’s the products and services of those jobs that create prosperity. The government could hire people to dig holes and other people to fill them back in, but America would be poorer for the wasted effort. In reality, new technologies, from the advent of the wheel to today’s nanotechnology - including the ATM and the iPad - increase efficiency, which frees people for more important endeavors. This is the precise mechanism that improves mankind’s standard of living.

And now, as Obamanomics continues to crumble, the president has made a stunning admission: ” ‘Shovel-ready’ was not as shovel-ready as we expected.” The line drew laughter from his friendly audience. This is not the first time his own supporters have been caught laughing at Obamanomics. Last week - before the Democratic National Committee, no less - the president made this wild claim: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve created over 2.1 million private-sector jobs.” That despite the record showing America has 1.9 million fewer jobs today than before his “stimulus.” According to the White House’s own transcript, what followed next was “laughter” (until later, that is, when Orwellian Ministry of Truth officials in the administration scrubbed the record and changed the transcript to read “applause”).

Americans are suffering, Mr. President, and it’s no laughing matter. It’s time to put Obamanomics where it belongs: on the trash heap of history. Got a shovel?

Dr. Milton R. Wolf, a Washington Times columnist, is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist and President Obama’s cousin.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Ads by Stansberry: There’s been a Stunning Power Shift -- Back to the USA. If this video is any indication, we’re about to see one of the greatest power shifts in geopolitical history. And for investors on the right side of this trend, it could mean a windfall. Click here for the full story.




http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/28/obamanomics-is-shovel-ready

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 30, 2011, 07:11:29 AM
Jobs Picture Remains Ugly as Weekly Claims Still High
Published: Thursday, 30 Jun 2011 | 8:37 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters


 


The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits barely fell last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market was struggling to regain momentum.

 
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped just 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 420,000. The prior week's figure was unrevised at 429,000.

It was the 12th straight week that claims have been above 400,000, a level that is usually associated with a stable labor market. Employment stumbled badly in May, with employers adding just 54,000 jobs—the fewest in eight months.

"Payroll growth is going to be more like last month's rather than first three months of the year," said Troy Davig, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital in New York.

Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased 90,000 this month, according to a Reuters survey, with the unemployment rate edging down to 9.0 percent. The employment report for June will be released on July 8.

A Labor Department official said one state was estimated, noting there was nothing unusual in the state-level details.

The continued elevation of claims could raise concerns that the economic soft patch in the first half of the year could linger. The economy has been slammed by bad weather, high gasoline prices and supply chain disruptions after the March earthquake in Japan.

However, many economists and the Federal Reserve believe activity will pick-up in the third quarter as these temporary factors ease.

The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, nudged up 500 to 426,750.  

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 12,000 to 3.70 million in the week ended June 18. So-called continuing claims covered the survey week for the employment report's household survey, from which the unemployment rate is derived.

The number of people on emergency unemployment benefits climbed 1,471 to 3.30 million in the week ended June 11, the latest week for which data is available. A total of 7.51 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 30,701 from the prior week.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/43590162



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 30, 2011, 11:37:12 AM
Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Scaling Back Summer Vacation Plans Due to the Economy
Michelle Malkin .com ^ | June 29, 2011 | Doug Powers





This morning I read a CNBC economic survey which included the following:

60% of the public is reacting to higher food and gas prices by scaling back on summer vacation plans… Timing is everything, because no more than five minutes later I ran across this story:

President Obama, for the third straight year, is planning to return to Martha’s Vineyard for vacation this summer, according to a White House official.

The Obamas are scheduled to spend seven to 10 days on the island in mid- to late August, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Some have wondered if public “perception” would be taken into greater consideration with 2012 just around the corner. There’s your answer. Now get back to work and up your game, America!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 30, 2011, 01:44:52 PM
Report: Denny's, Wendy's and Domino's among restaurants in danger of bankruptcy (Obama Depression)
WCPO ^ | 06/30/2011 | Pete Kenworthy


________________________ ________________________ ____________



Following bankruptcy filings by Sbarro, Perkins and Marie Callender’s this year, new data suggests that other popular restaurant chains are in danger of following suit.

TheStreet.com recently looked at restaurants based on their Altman Z-Score. The website says the score is based on “several aspects of a company's financial health -- including working capital, total assets, total liabilities, market capitalization, sales, retained earnings and earnings before interest & taxes (EBIT) -- to forecast the probability of it going bankrupt within two years.”

Since it began the scoring system in 1968, TheStreet says the formula has been 72 percent accurate in predicting corporate bankruptcies two years prior to the filing.

The list of restaurant in order of most at risk to file for bankruptcy (limited to those with a market capitalization of $100 million):

1. Denny’s 2. Wendy’s/Arby’s 3. Morton’s Restaurant Group 4. DineEquity (IHOP, Applebee’s) 5. Domino’s Pizza 6. Bravo Brio Restaurant Group 7. McCormick & Schmick’s 8. Ruth’s Hospitality Group (Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Mitchell’s Fish Market) 9. O’Charley’s 10. Einstein Noah Restaurant Group
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: garebear on June 30, 2011, 09:27:28 PM
MLMF = More Links Mother Fucker
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 01, 2011, 05:55:33 AM
The Jobless Summer
Why only one in four teens is employed..Article Comments (142) more in Opinion
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576411903821123330.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop



Perhaps you've already noticed around the neighborhood, but this is a rotten summer for young Americans to find a job. The Department of Labor reported last week that a smaller share of 16-19 year-olds are working than at anytime since records began to be kept in 1948.

Only 24% of teens, one in four, have jobs, compared to 42% as recently as the summer of 2001. The nearby chart chronicles the teen employment percentage over time, including the notable plunge in the last decade. So instead of learning valuable job skills—getting out of bed before noon, showing up on time, being courteous to customers, operating a cash register or fork lift—millions of kids will spend the summer playing computer games or hanging out.

The lousy economic recovery explains much of this decline in teens working, and some is due to increases in teen summer school enrollment. Some is also cultural: Many parents don't put the same demands on teens as they once did to get out and work.



...But Congress has also contributed by passing one of the most ill-timed minimum wage increases in history. One of the first acts of the gone-but-not-forgotten Nancy Pelosi ascendancy was to raise the minimum wage in stages to $7.25 an hour in 2009 from $5.15 in 2007. Even liberals ought to understand that raising the cost of hiring the young and unskilled while employers are slashing payrolls is loopy economics.

Or maybe not. The Center for American Progress, often called the think tank for the Obama White House, recently recommended another increase to $8.25 an hour. Though the U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1%, the thinkers assert that a rising wage would "stimulate economic growth to the tune of 50,000 new jobs." So if the government orders employers to pay more to hire workers when they're already not hiring, they'll somehow hire more workers. By this logic, if we raised the minimum wage to $25 an hour we'd have full employment.

Back on planet Earth, the minimum wage increase has coincided with the plunge in the percentage of working teens. Before the most recent wage hikes, roughly seven million teens were working. Now there are closer to five million with a job and paycheck.

Black teens have had the worst of it, with their unemployment rate rising to 41.6% in April from 29% in 2007, faster than almost any other group. A 2010 study by economists William Even of Miami University of Ohio and David Macpherson of Trinity University found that as a result of the $2.10 increase in minimum wage, "teen employment dropped by 6.9 percent. . . . For the teen population with less than 12 years of education completed, teen employment dropped by 12.4 percent." For teens priced out of the labor market, their wage fell to zero.

The great tragedy is that even discussing the role of the minimum wage in teen unemployment seems to be a political taboo. The other day we saw ABC's George Stephanopoulos baiting Michele Bachmann on the minimum wage, as if refusing to raise it would be some epic political gaffe. Ms. Bachmann didn't back down from saying that the minimum wage has contributed to unemployment, though she didn't explain why.


The great tragedy is that even discussing the role of the minimum wage in teen unemployment seems to be a political taboo.
.What she or another candidate should do is stop playing defense and ask why Mr. Stephanopoulos doesn't seem to mind a black teen jobless rate of 41.6%. Someone truly brave would come out for a teenage sub-minimum wage of, say, $4 an hour. In certain circumstances employers can now pay teens a minimum of $4.25, but only for 90 days. This makes employers reluctant to hire at all. Make the case on moral grounds that a mandated wage that is too high blocks the young and unskilled from grabbing a place on the economic ladder.

Teenagers who work part-time while attending school generally make more money and have more successful careers as adults than kids who never work. As a 2006 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago put it: "The drop in teen labor force participation may also have implications for future productivity growth. In general, labor market experience tends to raise subsequent earnings."

The U.S. has long had a labor market flexible enough that when the economy grows, the jobless rate falls smartly. This time has been different, and the great danger is that Obamanomics has moved the U.S. to a permanently higher jobless rate as in so much of Europe. For America's teenagers this summer, that reality is already here.

   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 01, 2011, 12:37:20 PM
Wind-Turbine Maker That Obama Praised Files for Bankruptcy
IndustryWeek ^ | July 1, 2011 | Josh Cable


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Company is having trouble obtaining financing for working capital.

Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., a Cleveland-based manufacturer of screws and bolts for wind turbines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday.

Cardinal President John Grabner told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the bankruptcy filing is necessary because the company is having trouble obtaining "working-capital financing" from its primary lender, Wells Fargo.

Grabner also told the Plain Dealer that the company is profitable and its revenues are growing.

President Obama visited Cardinal, which is in Bedford Heights near Cleveland, in January 2009 before his inauguration.

"Renewable energy isn't something pie in the sky," Obama said during a speech at Cardinal. "It's not part of a far-off future. It's happening all across America right now.

" ... It can create millions of new jobs and entire new industries if we act right now."

Jeff Grabner, vice president and head of the company's wind business, told the Plain Dealer earlier in the week that Cardinal had been losing business to European suppliers who had underbid Cardinal, forcing the company to trim its workforce by 15 employees a year ago.


________________________ ___-


FAIL 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 05, 2011, 06:33:14 AM

Krauthammer: "Middle-Aged May Never Get Employed Again"



"The problem is at the consumer level, confidence is low and that is because, as you showed, showed we had underemployment with one out of every six Americans. The worst element of that is that among the unemployed, against the American history, more than approaching half, have [been] unemployed for over six months. That is historically unprecedented in the United States. That is a phenomenon that is seen often in Europe, rarely seen here. In 2007 the average time to get a new job was five weeks. It's now near six months. And that implies a whole segment of the population, the more elderly or the middle-aged who may never get employed again," Charles Krauthammer said on FOX News this evening.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/04/krauthammer_middle-aged_may_never_get_employed_again.html




________________________ ________________________ ________________-


FAIL 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 05, 2011, 08:27:47 AM
Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom
The Telegraph ^ | 07/04/2011 | Toby Harnden




Across America today, people will gather for barbecues in their backyards, parades through their towns and firework displays lighting up the night sky.

They’ll be celebrating Independence Day – the birthday of the United States and the 235th anniversary of shaking off the oppressive yoke of British rule.

On this day in 1776 a group of 13 colonies broke away to found a new nation free to govern itself as it saw fit, pledging that each citizen would have the unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. A nation, as Americans are apt to declare without equivocation, which became the greatest on the face of the earth.

That’s the good news. On the flip side, however, a country whose hallmark has always been a sense of irrepressible optimism is in the grip of unprecedented uncertainty and self-doubt.

With the United States mired in three foreign wars, beaten down by an economy that shows few signs of emerging from deep recession and deeply disillusioned with President Barack Obama, his Republican challengers and Congress, the mood is dark.

The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran.

Frank Luntz, perhaps America’s pre-eminent pollster, argues that his countrymen are much more downbeat now than in 1980. “The assumption with the Carter years was that it was a failure of the elites, not the system. We thought the people in charge screwed up. We didn’t blame ourselves.” Remarkably, many Americans think things will only get worse and the good times will never return.


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...

________________________ ________________________ ________________________ _________

FAIL 



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 05, 2011, 10:50:42 AM
www.wsj.com
ECONOMY
JULY 5, 2011.
Inside the Disappointing Comeback 
By JON HILSENRATH And CONOR DOUGHERTY




Two years ago, officials said, the worst recession since the Great Depression ended. The stumbling recovery has also proven to be the worst since the economic disaster of the 1930s.

 The News Hub covers one of the slowest recoveries from economic recession on record. Also, the National Education Association endorses President Obama. Plus, mules put on a show in Missouri. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

.Across a wide range of measures—employment growth, unemployment levels, bank lending, economic output, income growth, home prices and household expectations for financial well-being—the economy's improvement since the recession's end in June 2009 has been the worst, or one of the worst, since the government started tracking these trends after World War II.  

.In some ways the recovery is much like the 1991 and 2001 post-recession periods: All three are marked by gradual output growth rather than sharp snap-backs typical of earlier recoveries. But this recovery may remain lackluster for years, many economists say, because of heavy household debt, a financial system still damaged by the mortgage crisis, fragile confidence and a government with few good options for supporting growth.

There are bright spots. Exports, particularly of manufactured and agricultural goods, are improving, in part because of booming developing-country economies and the weaker dollar. They are expected to pick up in the second half of the year as the temporary shock fades from Japan's earthquake and tsunami. In a hint of this, the Institute of Supply Management on Friday reported an uptick in manufacturing for June. Higher corporate profits, stock prices and business investment also are supporting the expansion.

Disappointing Data

The economy's improvement since the recession's June 2009 end has been the worst, or among the worst, recorded across a wide range of measures since the government started tracking these trends after World War II.

View Interactive
.
.Still, broader problems are holding the economy back.

Banks are less able or willing to lend than before the recession. Since the recovery started, banks have reduced money they make available through credit card lines from $3.04 trillion to $2.69 trillion and have reduced home equity credit lines from $1.33 trillion to $1.15 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Policy makers, meanwhile, are reluctant to do more to stimulate economic growth. The Federal Reserve has already pushed short-term interest rates to near zero. Two rounds of quantitative easing that including purchasing $1.425 trillion in mortgage bonds and $900 billion in Treasury debt helped to stabilize the economy but failed to spur a vigorous recovery.

View Interactive

.Likewise, fiscal stimulus, either in the form of tax cuts favored by Republicans or spending increases favored by Democrats, looks unlikely given large federal deficits and the disappointing results of earlier efforts, including President Obama's $830 billion stimulus program of 2009.

The biggest problem may be household indebtedness. At the peak of the economic boom in the third quarter of 2007, U.S. households collectively had borrowed the equivalent of 127% of their annual incomes to fund purchases of homes, cars and other goods, up from an average of 84% in the 1990s. The money used to pay off that debt means less available for new spending. Households had worked their debt-to-income levels down to 112% by the first quarter, in part because banks have written off some debt as uncollectible.

Jurgen Schulz, owner of K-5, a San Diego area retailer that sells surfboards, skateboards and lifestyle apparel, sees more people living month-to-month. "Our sales trail way off the further it gets from pay period," he said. Mr. Schulz, in turn, didn't hire this year the six to eight seasonal workers his company usually brings on each summer.

Getting rid of debt could be a long and slow process.To get back to a 1990s debt-to-income ratio of 84%, households would either need to pay down another $3.3 trillion of debt, or see their incomes rise $3.9 trillion. That's equivalent to about nine years' worth of income growth in normal times, estimates Credit Suisse economist Dana Saporta.

Debt constraints are especially hard on consumers who before the crisis relied on credit cards or home equity lines to keep spending when they needed money. Now many of those lines have been limited or cut.

With less access to credit, many families are finding the only way to make ends meet is to cut spending.

"Every single month you're struggling, struggling, struggling," said Javier Toro, 49, a father of three. He makes $13 an hour as a customer service representative at a non-profit that administers a program offering free energy efficiency upgrades to homeowners. The program, funded by the 2009 stimulus law, ends in a few months as government funds dry up. He's paying about $100 a month to keep current on $3,000 in credit card debt, but making no headway paying down principal. To make ends meet, he's cut his cable and Internet service, and the fixed telephone line to his rented home.

He said, "You don't see when this is going to stop."

Debt and a dismal job market have hurt consumers' confidence, which further damps their willingness to spend. The University of Michigan finds that 24% of households expect to be better off financially within a year's time. That's the lowest this measure has been at this point in a recovery since World War II.

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said job growth had been "significantly faster" than the recovery in the 2000s, though there was a long way to go. He added that recovering from a bubble-based expansion driven by consumer spending and housing toward more exports and investment was tough work. "We can't just go back to what we did before," he said.

Write to Jon Hilsenrath at jon.hilsenrath@wsj.com and Conor Dougherty at conor.dougherty@wsj.com


________________________ _____________--

FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 05, 2011, 10:54:15 AM
 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2011, 04:10:43 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-06/u-s-job-gains-...

As bad as the U.S. employment picture looks, the official Labor Department figures understate the magnitude of the crisis.

Creating private-sector jobs -- not adding to government payrolls -- is the key to achieving a genuine recovery. But employment statistics define the private sector far too broadly. The numbers include too many industries in which demand, and therefore employment, depends heavily on subsidies.

Health care is responsible for most of the over-count -- which can be estimated with some confidence using Labor Department data -- with social-service providers and private education institutions also contributing to the problem.

The latest jobs report for May shows just how badly these sectors distort the employment figures. According to the Labor Department, private businesses added 83,000 jobs compared with April levels, falling far short of forecasts. (Figures for both months are still preliminary.) By subtracting the 34,000 jobs added in the health-care, social-service and education sectors, the number of new private-sector positions shrinks to just 49,000.

Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, the disparity has been much wider. Private-sector employment grew by a seasonally adjusted 980,000 in the last two years. That pales beside the 7.7 million private-sector jobs lost during the recession, but at least optimists can call it a start.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2011, 09:41:37 AM
Closed Factories Symbolize Obama's Economic Woes
Townhall.com ^ | July 6, 2011 | Donald Lambro


________________________ ________________________ _



WASHINGTON -- The likelihood that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner may resign from his post later this summer is the latest sign that President Obama's team of economic advisers is disintegrating as the economy grows weaker.

With the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate worse than it was when Obama took office in 2009, and the economy slowing down to less than 2 percent growth, Geithner's signal that he wants out further diminishes whatever confidence the country still has in Obama's economic policies -- and polls show that isn't much.

The former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the chief architect of Obama's economic strategy, which is now under fierce attack from Republican presidential contenders and grumbling from Democrats on Capitol Hill who fear their party will suffer deeper losses if the economy doesn't recover this year or early in 2012.


Geithner is the last big-name adviser in Obama's original economic team. One by one, the rest have left in the past year, some of them with parting shots that the economy needs a much stronger stimulus than it got in 2009 if it is to get back on its feet before Election Day.

Gone are Larry Summers, who headed the National Economic Council (NEC); Christina Romer, who chaired the President's Council of Economic Advisers; and longtime Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, who briefly took her place, only to return recently to the University of Chicago.

Should Geithner leave, as senior officials have intimated he will, that will leave a thin, faceless team of advisers at a time when the economy demands a team of heavy hitters who can command the respect of the business community and Wall Street, and recalibrate Obama's policies for the 2012 campaign.

Gene Sperling, who rose to become Treasury counselor under President Clinton, has moved into the NEC's directorship, but he is not a trained economist and knows less about creating jobs.


Geithner has indicated that he will remain onboard at least until he has wrapped up negotiations with Congress to raise the debt limit and cut spending over the next 10 years.

Few in the party's liberal base will shed tears if he leaves. He was one of the chief architects of the Bush administration's Wall Street bailout in 2008. He fought to protect big bonuses for financial traders. His prescriptions to deal with the tsunami of mortgage foreclosures and pull the housing industry out of its slump have been ineffective at best.

Should he leave by summer's end, that would precipitate a battle royal over his replacement and ignite new debate in Congress over Obama's economic policies just as he turns his full attention to his re-election bid.


"It's going to be an opening for the Republicans to put the Obama economic policies on a big public trial," economist Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute told The Washington Post.

The ongoing dismantlement of Obama's economic team comes at a time when there is little left in the government's shrinking bag of stimulus tricks.

The administration's infrastructure spending stimulus is slowing to a trickle. The Federal Reserve is pulling away from its ineffective QE 2 bond purchasing initiative to inject new capital into the nation's economy. The White House all but admits it's out of ideas to pump up the economy. Indeed, it's still pushing for higher taxation on industries and investors, which would further slow an already tepid growth rate.


In the meantime, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is aggressively stepping up his attacks on the Obama economy in major industrial states hit hard by high unemployment.

Last week, Romney went to the shuttered, barb-wired Allentown Metal Works plant in Pennsylvania that Obama visited with much bravado in 2009, saying it was the kind of factory that his $800 billion spending stimulus bill would keep open. It closed earlier this year, laying off all of its workers.

"Look around you: This is what he called the symbol of hope," a shirt-sleeved Romney said at a news conference in front of the factory's padlocked gates. "There are weeds, boarded-up windows. This was the stop he picked to symbolize the success of the stimulus. And my eyes tell me it ain't working."


Repeatedly calling Obama "a failure," Romney talked about his 25-year career in business investment, building start-up companies into job creators, a process he said Obama knows nothing about.

"He's out of his depth when it comes to getting the economy going. It's just not something he understands," he said.

Out of his depth -- and running out of qualified economic advisers who know what creates more employers and produces jobs.


In politics there is something called "critical mass," when an issue becomes so big within the nation's electorate that it overwhelms the incumbent's prospects. That's what is happening to Obama now.

There are lots of closed factories like the one in Allentown that tell of a failed economic recovery. You'll be seeing Romney speaking in front of them on the evening news.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 08, 2011, 12:45:52 PM
Zero Hedge ^ | 07/08/2011 | Tyler Durden



Every time we update the projection chart of how many jobs have to be created by the end of Obama's now improbable second term, the number goes up. First it was 245,500 in April, then 250,000 in June, now it is 254,000: it seems to increase by 5,000 each month. As a reminder this chart looks for the breakeven number that has be attained to restore (not surpass) the jobs that the US economy had back in December 2007 as the Depression started, when accounting for the natural increase of 90,000 people/month in the labor force. Needless to say, there is no way in hell the US economy can create a quarter million jobs per month from now for the next 65 months, as long as the president continues to pander to Wall Street's "wealth creation" via asset returns instead of directing capital into actual economically viable projects that focus on wealth creation through labor.









________________________ _____________


240, Blacken, Straw - lets talk about porn.   ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 08, 2011, 07:01:02 PM
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Navy to Cut Jobs Amid Recession-Driven Sailor Surplus
Fox News ^ | July 08, 2011 | Justin Fishel
Posted on July 8, 2011 8:47:31 PM EDT by Doofer

With more sailors staying in the military amid a slumping economic recovery, the U.S. Navy is taking the unprecedented step of firing low-ranking petty officers to help rein in spending. The Navy plans to let go of 3,000 young sailors after economic uncertainty put the service in the unusual position of having a manpower surplus. The move comes as a new government report shows that the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent -- marking 29 straight months that number has been over 8 percent and a record streak since the Great Depression.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2011, 08:55:20 AM
Real Unemployment Rises to 16.2% in June -- 25.3 Million People
 CNSNews ^




Real Unemployment Rises to 16.2% in June -- 25.3 Million People Friday, July 08, 2011 By Matt Cover

(CNSNews.com) – The real unemployment rate rose to 16.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday, marking a return to levels not seen since January 2011.

The “real” unemployment rate is technically a combination of three measures of unemployment: the unemployment rate, the number of people working part-time who want full-time work, and the number of people “marginally attached” to the workforce.

Those who have left the workforce but would still like to be employed are considered marginally attached.

This figure is considered a more complete measure of unemployment because it captures a broader spectrum of those affected by the weak economy. Merely counting those who apply for unemployment benefits as “unemployed” does not fully account for everyone who is out of work or underemployed.

This real unemployment rate – known as the U6 rate – has been climbing since February 2011 when it was at 15.9 percent. Real unemployment peaked in October of 2009 at 17.4 percent, before falling into the 16 percent range for much of 2010.

It now appears that the real unemployment rate is returning to its 2010 levels, trending upward after staying slightly below 16 percent from February to May.

The total number of people who were truly unemployed in June was 25.3 million -- the 14.1 million who were unemployed, the 2.7 million who were marginally attached to the workforce and the 8.6 million who were underemployed.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 10, 2011, 03:34:24 PM
Geithner says hard times to continue for many (Til your gone)
Yahoo news ^ | July10,2011 | AP
Posted on July 10, 2011 6:42:11 PM EDT by Hojczyk

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT'-nur) says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come.

He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy. But Geithner says will be some time before many people feel like the country is recovering.

Geithner tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that it's a very tough economy. He says that for a lot of people "it's going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 10, 2011, 06:36:14 PM
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Rampant Unemployment = The Death Of The Middle Class - The Working Class Is Being Wiped Out
The Economic Collapse ^ | 07/09/2011 | Michael Snyder
Posted on July 10, 2011 9:25:18 PM EDT by SeekAndFind

Without an abundance of good jobs, the middle class in the United States is going to shrivel up and die. Right now, rampant unemployment is absolutely killing communities all over America. Hopelessness and poverty are exploding and many are now wondering if we are actually witnessing the slow death of the middle class. There simply are not nearly enough "good jobs" to go around anymore, and even many in the mainstream media are referring to this as a "long-term structural problem" with the economy. The only thing that most working class Americans have to offer in the marketplace is their labor. If nobody will hire them they do not have any other ways to provide for their families. Well, there is a problem. Today wealth has become incredibly centralized. The big corporations and the big banks dominate everything. Thanks to incredible advances in technology and thanks to the globalization of our economic system, the people with all the money don't have to hire as many ordinary Americans anymore. They can hire all the labor they want on the other side of the globe for a fraction of the cost. So the rich don't really have that much use for the working class in America anymore. The only thing of value that the working class had to offer has now been tremendously devalued. The wealthy don't have to pay a lot for physical labor anymore. Thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas and they aren't coming back. The big corporations are thriving while tens of millions of ordinary Americans are deeply suffering. Almost all of the wealth being produced by our economy is going to a very centralized group of people at the very top of the food chain. The rich are getting richer and the working class is being systematically wiped out.

So the fact that we are facing rampant unemployment that never seems to go away should not be a surprise to anyone. Today, the "official" unemployment rate went up to 9.2 percent even though a whopping 272,000 Americans "dropped out of the labor force" in June. The government unemployment figure that includes "discouraged workers" went up from 15.8% to 16.2%. The mainstream media is proclaiming that this was "a horrific report" because most economists were expecting much better news.

Well, guess what?

Things are going to get a whole lot worse.

More job cuts are coming. One recently released report found that the number of job cuts being planned by U.S. employers increased by 11.6% in June.

It is also being projected that state and local governments across the U.S. will slash nearly half a million more jobs by the end of next year.

Needless to say, things don't look good.

Most people that still have jobs are desperately trying to hold on to them.

Employers know that most workers are easily replaceable these days, so wages are not moving up even though the cost of living is.

We are right in the middle of the worst employment downturn since World War 2. Jay-Z recently summed up the situation this way....

"Numbers don't lie. Unemployment is pretty high."

Jay-Z certainly has a way with words, eh?

If something is not done about the rampant unemployment in this nation, the death of the middle class will accelerate.

Most Americans just assume that the United States will always have a large middle class, but there is no guarantee that is going to happen. In fact, there is a whole lot of evidence that the middle class in America is rapidly shrinking.

Take a few moments to read over the facts compiled below. Taken together, they provide compelling evidence that the working class is being systematically wiped out....

#1 Right now, the U.S. government says that 14.1 million Americans are unemployed.

#2 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million people to the population since then.

#3 The number of Americans that are "not in the labor force" is at an all-time high.

#4 The United States has never had an employment downturn this deep and this prolonged since World War 2 ended.

#5 There are officially 6.3 million Americans that have been unemployed for more than 6 months. That number has risen by more than 3.5 million in just the past two years.

#6 It now takes the average unemployed worker in America about 40 weeks to find a new job. Just check out this chart....



#7 There are now about 7.25 million fewer jobs in America than when the recession began back in 2007.

#8 Back in 2000, the employment to population ratio was over 64 percent. Today, it is sitting at just 58.2%.

#9 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

#10 During this economic downturn, employee compensation in the United States has been the lowest that it has been relative to gross domestic product in over 50 years.

#11 The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

#12 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#13 According to a report released in February from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries are accounting for 40 percent of the job losses in America but only 14 percent of the job growth. Lower wage industries are accounting for just 23 percent of the job losses but 49 percent of the job growth.

#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#15 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#16 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#17 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.

#18 In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.

#19 The United States now spends more than 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#20 Since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown by an average of 18% per year.

#21 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#22 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#23 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in "advanced technology products" of $16 billion with the rest of the world. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.

#24 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry was actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#25 Since 2001, over 42,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been closed.

#26 There were more manufacturing jobs in the United States in 1950 than there are today.

#27 Since the year 2000, we have lost approximately 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs. Meanwhile, our population has gotten significantly larger.

#28 When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971.

#29 One recent survey found that 9 out of 10 U.S. workers do not expect their wages to keep up with soaring food prices and soaring gas prices over the next 12 months.

#30 Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#31 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States were living below the poverty line in 2010.

#33 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#34 As 2007 began, there were 26 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are more than 44 million Americans on food stamps, which is an all-time record.

#35 Today, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#36 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.

#37 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#38 In the United States today, the richest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#39 According to Moody's Analytics, the wealthiest 5% of all households in the United States now account for approximately 37% of all consumer spending.

#40 The poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the United States is experiencing a long-term economic decline.

Every single day, more American families fall out of the middle class and into poverty. There are millions of American families out there tonight that are just barely hanging on by their fingernails.

More Americans than ever are constantly borrowing more money just to stay afloat. Even as rampant unemployment plagues this nation and even as wages remain stagnant, middle class Americans are increasing their use of credit.

A CNBC article noted the increase in consumer borrowing that we have seen recently....

The Federal Reserve says consumer borrowing rose $5.1 billion following a revised gain of $5.7 billion in April. Borrowing in the category that covers credit cards increased, as did borrowing in the category for auto and student loans.

It is very hard to live "the American Dream" without going into huge amounts of debt these days.

But for an increasing number of Americans, "the American Dream" is just a distant memory.

Tonight, there are large numbers of people living in the tunnels under the city of Las Vegas. As the wealthy live the high life in the casinos and hotels above them, an increasing number of desperate "tunnel people" are attempting to carve out an existence in the 200 mile long labyrinth of tunnels that stretches beneath Vegas. It is a nightmarish environment, but it is all those people have left.

Don't look down on them, because you never know who might be next.

If you lost your current job, how long would you be able to survive?

Unfortunately, as bad as things are now, the reality is that this is just the beginning.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Do what you can to make sure that you and your family are not totally wiped out by the next wave of the economic collapse.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 04:13:16 AM
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Economy faces a jolt as benefit checks run out (Hey Obama, how's that "stimulus" working out?)
MSNBC ^ | 7/11/2011 | MOTOKO RICH/NY Times
Posted on July 11, 2011 7:07:55 AM EDT by tobyhill

An extraordinary amount of personal income is coming directly from the government.

Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. In states hit hard by the downturn, like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio, residents derived even more of their income from the government.

By the end of this year, however, many of those dollars are going to disappear, with the expiration of extended benefits intended to help people cope with the lingering effects of the recession. Moody’s Analytics estimates $37 billion will be drained from the nation’s pocketbooks this year.

In terms of economic impact, that is slightly less than the spending cuts Congress enacted to keep the government financed through September, averting a shutdown.

Unless hiring picks up sharply to compensate, economists fear that the lost income will further crimp consumer spending and act as a drag on a recovery that is still quite fragile. Among the other supports that are slipping away are federal aid to the states, the Federal Reserve’s program to pump money into the economy and the payroll tax cut, scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

“If we don’t get more job growth and gains in wages and salaries, then consumers just aren’t going to have the firepower to spend, and the economy is going to weaken,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, a macroeconomic consulting firm.

Job growth has remained elusive. There are 4.6 unemployed workers for every opening, according to the Labor Department, and Friday’s unemployment report showed that employers added an anemic 18,000 jobs in June.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 06:50:39 AM
Little Hiring Seen by Small Business. The Nation's Jobs Engine Stalls.
Wall Street Journal ^ | 07/11/2011 | Siobhan Hughes




WASHINGTON—The U.S. labor market could stay sluggish for a while, with small-business executives reluctant to hire amid the murky economic outlook.

Almost two-thirds—64%—of small-business executives surveyed said they weren't expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year and another 12% planned to cut jobs, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report to be released Monday. Just 19% said they would expand their work forces.

This comes after a Labor Department report Friday showed employers added few jobs in June, and unemployment rose to 9.2%. The bleak figures joined other data showing the recovery losing momentum in recent months, which has caused many analysts and policy makers to lower their forecasts for economic growth in the second half of the year.

The Small Business Administration says small businesses, defined as companies with fewer than 500 workers, employ about half of the workers in the private sector. In the Chamber's survey of 1,409 executives, conducted by Harris Interactive, small businesses were defined as firms with revenue of $25 million or less.

More than half of the small-business executives in the June 27-30 survey cited economic uncertainty as the main reason for holding back on hiring. About a third blamed lack of sales, while just 7% pointed to problems getting credit.

"I think it's safer to stay on hold and not hire workers," said Harold Jackson, chief executive of Buffalo Supply, a Lafayette, Colo., distributor of high-tech medical equipment used in operating rooms

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


________________________ ________________________ _____

No kidding.    Like i said, until obama is ousted, things will only get worse and worse.  He is a black plague over the economy.     

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 10:37:06 AM
The Food-Stamp Crime Wave
WSJ ^




The number of food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007. Not surprisingly, fraud and abuse are rampant..Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no monthly income. Thirty-five states have abolished asset tests for most food-stamp recipients. These and similar "paperwork reduction" reforms advocated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are turning the food-stamp program into a magnet for abuses and absurdities.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 10:50:47 AM
Source: Bloomberg

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) may begin one of its largest workforce reductions in August by eliminating about 5,000 jobs, Gleacher & Co. said in a research report today.

Cisco Chief Executive Officer John Chambers said he planned to cut more jobs and drop less-profitable businesses after closing the Flip video-camera unit and firing 550 workers in May. The company will give an update “on the cost reductions, including layoffs, on our next earnings call,” Karen Tillman, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement today.

--CLIP
Cisco may eliminate positions in the consumer-product unit, which makes Linksys home-networking equipment, Marshall said. Some investors have said the company should exit consumer products entirely to focus on traditional enterprise offerings such as routers and switches. Cisco’s equipment is used by corporate networks and telephone and Internet service providers to direct Web traffic.

The company is also reorganizing management to streamline its business and focus on areas of growth, Cisco said in May. To speed decision making, the company organized field operations into three geographic regions and reformed a council-style management structure.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/cisco-may-cut-...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 11:02:00 AM
NEED TO KNOW: ECONOMY
The Glum and the Restless
Nearly one in five recent grads is out of work. Could that hurt Obama’s reelection bid?
By Jim Tankersley



http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/recent-grads-economic-struggles-could-hurt-obama-20110707





Boehner's Backpedal Moves D.C. Closer to the Brink

Here’s a fact that should give economists—and maybe President Obama’s political team—heartburn: Two years after the Great Recession officially ended, job prospects for young Americans remain historically grim. More than 17 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds who are looking for work can’t find a job, a rate that is close to a 30-year high. The employment-to-population ratio for that demographic—the percentage of young people who are working—has plunged to 45 percent. That’s the lowest level since the Labor Department began tracking the data in 1948. Taken together, the numbers suggest that the U.S. job market is struggling mightily to bring its next generation of workers into the fold.

This is a dangerous proposition, economically (for the United States as a whole) and politically (for the president).

As The Atlantic’s Don Peck wrote last year, citing a litany of research from Yale University’s Lisa Kahn, college graduates who enter the labor force during a recession make significantly less money—in their first year and over the course of their careers—than grads who walk into an economic boom. Workers stuck in the unemployment line for an extended period risk watching their skills atrophy and face increasing difficulty finding new jobs. That’s particularly true, though, for people waiting and waiting and waiting to land their first job. The longer a whole batch of fledgling workers sits waiting to be hired, the more the economy risks losing young employees with valuable, high-end skills at a time when global competition is increasingly fierce.

Snowballing youth unemployment feeds social unrest. Exhibit A is the Middle East. Exhibit B is Europe’s periphery; in such countries as Spain, Greece, and Croatia, more than one in three young people is unemployed, a problem that The Economist magazine warned this week is “as great a challenge for these governments as protecting their tottering banks and slashing their budget deficits.”


Not surprisingly, polls suggest that America’s young people have grown more pessimistic about the economy and their own future fortunes. Generation Opportunity, a nonpartisan, nonprofit youth-outreach group headed by former Bush administration official Paul Conway, compiled polling data this summer showing decayed economic confidence among the so-called millennials: More than half say that the United States is seriously on the wrong track, and a similar number say they are not optimistic about the nation’s economic future. More than half also assert that they’re not confident that the country will be the global economic leader in 10 years. More than three-quarters say that, given the current state of the economy, they have delayed or will delay buying a home, paying down student debt, obtaining more education, saving for retirement, changing jobs or cities, getting married, or making some other major life decision.

Young voters stampeded to the polls for candidate Obama in 2008, topping their 2004 turnout by more than 3 million and breaking, 2-to-1, in his favor. A drop in youth participation, or a shift toward a GOP candidate, could complicate Obama’s reelection dramatically.

Generation Opportunity’s pollster, Kellyanne Conway, who has worked for several national GOP politicians in the past, says that young voters will be tougher on Obama in 2012 than they were in 2008. “The big question for young people [in 2008] was, ‘How am I going to help you make history?’ ” says Conway, who is not related to the group’s president. “The big question from young people today is, ‘How are you going to help me find a good-paying job?’ ” This time, she adds, “they’re looking for tangibles.”

Conway’s polling suggests that young voters could sympathize with a Republican message on cutting federal spending and the budget deficit. Three-quarters of millennials want to see federal spending reduced, she says, and three in five want to reduce the deficit through spending cuts rather than tax increases. Two-thirds say that Social Security dollars are safer “under your pillow” than with the government. Paul Conway, the group’s president, says that’s “fair warning” to Obama about how young voters view his policies.

Other polls suggest more-favorable attitudes toward the president. In a late-June Gallup survey, 56 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 approved of Obama’s performance, the highest approval rating of any age bracket. Team Obama sounds unconcerned about losing young voters. Campaign officials note that thousands more of them applied to be summer campaign organizers this year than did in 2008. “In addition to what he has already accomplished on issues of importance to them—like establishing a tax credit to provide tuition relief to students and extending health insurance coverage to young adults up to the age of 26—young Americans have seen the president bring the economy back from the brink of depression and secure investments in education, research and development, and clean energy that are creating jobs today that will remain globally competitive in the future,” campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an e-mail.

Obama and Republicans alike should pay particular attention to youth optimism about the direction of the economy. In 2008, exit polls showed that 54 percent of young voters believed that the economy would improve over the next year, compared with 47 percent of the rest of the electorate. Obama probably needs millennials to be similarly upbeat in 2012. In other words, it’s all about confidence—like so much else in the economy these days.

Want the news first every morning? Sign up for National Journal's Need-to-Know Memo. Short items to prepare you for the day.

This article appeared in the Saturday, July 9, 2011 edition of National Journal.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 11:29:53 AM
Analyst: Even Dollar Stores Struggling In ‘Obama Depression’
July 11, 2011 9:19 AM
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/07/11/analyst-even-dollar-stores-struggling-in-obama-depression





2011 Celebrity DeathsLOS ANGELES (CBS) —  More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn.

While the demand at stores like the 99-Cent Store or Dollar Tree is still relatively high, the biggest chains in the nation have fallen short of Wall Street’s expectations for several months, a trend that may prove even more ominous for the economy at large.

“I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” top retail analyst Howard Davidowitz told KNX 1070.




America’s three largest discount chains — Dollar General Corp., Family Dollar Stores Inc. and Dollar Tree Inc. —  all recently missed their quarterly earnings targets.

Davidowitz pointed to the weakness of the dollar and a gloomy consumer outlook as some of the factors behind the stores’ slump.

“In those stores, somebody comes in with $12 to do all their shopping,” said Davidowitz. “The person who used to come in with $12 now comes in with $8.”

“In other words, the economy is continuing to be worse, the Obama depression continues to explode,” he added.

Analysts say rising food and transportation prices are likely eating into the profit margins of discount stores, which risk driving away price-sensitive customers with any potential price hikes.

Core customers at most U.S. discount chains typically have a household income of $40,000 or less.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2011, 08:47:06 PM
Cisco Could Eliminate as Many as 10,000 Jobs: Report [Obama Wants More Taxes from Cisco?]
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/07/11/business/business-us-cisco-jobs.html?_r=1&hp ^ | July 10, 2011
Posted on July 11, 2011 11:59:25 PM EDT by Steelfish

Cisco Could Eliminate as Many as 10,000 Jobs: Report By REUTERS July 11, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Networking equipment company Cisco Systems Inc could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, Bloomberg said, citing two people familiar with the matter.

As many as 7,000 jobs would be eliminated by the end of August, the people told the agency. Cisco is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers who took buyouts, according to Bloomberg.

Early on Monday, Reuters reported that Cisco may slash about 5,000 jobs to meet Chief Executive John Chambers' goal of slashing costs by $1 billion. Reuters had cited Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall.

A Cisco spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday that the company will provide details on cost reductions, including layoffs, during its earnings call on August 11.

Cisco was not immediately available to comment on the Bloomberg report late on Monday.

Cisco shares closed down about 2 percent at $15.43, in a market that was broadly lower due to concerns about the U.S. budget talks and the euro-zone debt crisis.

REVENUE GROWTH UNDER PRESSURE?

Chambers, who is set to speak at a company event in Las Vegas on Tuesday, is working to turn around the Silicon Valley bellwether. He has said the company's next fiscal year starting in August would not live up to the company's previous growth expectations.

Marshall's estimate for job cuts at Cisco is higher than the previous forecasts of up to 4,000 jobs that are in danger of being eliminated.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 14, 2011, 07:07:22 AM
15 Examples That Show Many Americans Have Become So Desperate That They Will Do Just About Anything For Money

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/15-examples-that-show-many-americans-have-become-so-desperate-that-they-will-do-just-about-anything-for-money




More Americans than ever are desperate for money and many of them will do just about anything to get it.  The crumbling U.S. economy has pushed millions of ordinary Americans to the brink of utter desperation.  When it comes time to choose between being able to survive or breaking the law, many people are choosing to break the law.  These days it seems like Americans will do just about anything for money.  All over the country, there are areas where just about anything that is not bolted down is being stolen.  A lot of people have resorted to making money however they can - selling drugs, selling their bodies, shoplifting, invading homes, taking bribes, running credit card scams and even stealing from their own family members.  You will have a hard time believing some of the things that you are about to read below.  When people have their backs pushed up against the wall, often they find that they are willing to do things that they never imagined that they would do.  Things are getting crazy out there on the streets of America, and as the economy continues to decline things are going to get a lot crazier.

The following are 15 examples that show many Americans have become so desperate that they will do just about anything for money....

#1 In Utah, one unemployed 28 year old man is offering to be "human prey" for hunters for the bargain price of $10,000.  For an additional $2,000, he will let people hunt him down while he is running around naked.

#2 The Huffington Post is reporting that there has been an epidemic of air conditioning thefts all over the United States....

Across the country, in states like Illinois, Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Florida, there have been reports of thieves stealing unsecured air conditioning units weighing as much as 125 pounds.

#3 In Corpus Christi, Texas thieves have actually been breaking into funeral homes in order to steal the embalming fluid.

#4 Even police officers are committing desperate acts these days.  Just check out what one police officer in Chicago is charged with doing....

A Chicago Police officer stole $50,000 from his ailing elderly father to pay off his bills and gambling debts and unsuccessfully attempted to swipe his dad’s retirement savings by impersonating him
#5 Nothing is off limits to thieves these days.  Criminals recently broke into a southwest Atlanta beauty supply store and took off with $30,000 in hair extensions.

#6 In another area of Atlanta, thieves have been breaking down walls and busting bathroom fixtures with sledgehammers in order to get their hands on copper, brass and steel....

Kids in two Atlanta communities won’t have their neighborhood pools to help beat the summer heat, at least for now. Thieves used what is believed to be sledge hammers to bust walls and break fixtures in bathrooms at Adams and South Bend parks to steal copper, brass and steel.
#7 One grandmother in Florida has been accused of trying to sell her newborn grandson for $75,000.

#8 In Antioch, California a total of approximately 300 power poles were recently knocked down by thieves and stripped of their copper wiring.

#9 In Minnesota recently, a mob of teen girls brutally pummeled a mother and her two daughters until they were black and blue.  Apparently the mob of teen girls was enraged over a pair of missing sunglasses.

#10 In Asheville, North Carolina thieves recently took off with 4 metal tables and 16 metal chairs that were sitting outside a pizzeria.

#11 In Florida, thieves have actually been stealing storm drain covers.

#12 In Oregon, thieves recently broke into a Salvation Army community center and stole 3 large air conditioning units.  Now all the people that come to that facility for help and for community programs this summer will be absolutely sweltering.

#13 In the Cleveland area, two young boys that had set up a lemonade stand were robbed in broad daylight.  The crooks got away with approximately 12 dollars.

#14 In Oklahoma, thieves recently broke into a church and stole "arts and crafts supplies meant to help teach bible stories to children".

#15 A 59 year old man from North Carolina named Richard James Verone was so desperate for money that he actually robbed a bank and got caught on purpose so that he could be put in prison and be given free health care.

One day Verone walked into an RBC Bank in North Carolina, handed a clerk a note demanding exactly one dollar and sat down and waited for the police to arrive and arrest him.

Verone has a growth on his chest and two ruptured disks but he does not have any health insurance.  He is hoping that in prison he will get the medical treatment that he needs.

As society continues to unravel, prison is going to look like an appealing option for more and more people.

At least in prison you get fed, you have a roof over your head and they will take care of your medical needs.

For a whole lot of Americans, that would be a major step up.

Have you noticed that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear?

America is becoming a cold, cruel place and lawlessness is everywhere.

For many more signs that our society is starting to crumble, please see these two articles....

*"18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating"

*"12 More Signs That Society Is Collapsing"

For ages, Americans have looked down on the crime and the depravity that goes on in other areas of the world.

Well, now America has all of the crime and depravity it can handle and it is going to get a lot worse as millions of formerly middle class Americans descend into poverty.

A regular commenter on my website who identifies himself as "El Pollo de Oro" recently described the kind of chaos that he believes is coming to the streets of America....

I live in Philadelphia, a city that used to have a ton of blue-collar manufacturing jobs as well as a great deal of white-collar employment, but the blue-collar manufacturing jobs have disappeared–and on the white-collar side, a college degree isn’t necessarily the ticket to prosperity it once was. Philly has its share of nasty, dangerous ghetto areas as well as ritzy, upscale areas like Rittenhouse Square. But then, there are parts of Mexico City that look like Beverly Hills except that the signs are en español. A minority of Chilangos are filthy rich, which is what you expect in a Third World country: an uber-rich minority and a poor majority. And when The Banana Republic of America (formerly the USA) signed on for globalism and ignored Ross Perot’s warning, it opted to become a Third World country—which means that you can kiss the American middle class goodbye.

But there will be some growth industries in The Banana Republic of America: kidnapping, drug smuggling, murder for hire, carjacking, armed robbery. And if you want a taste of what life will be like in American cities in the future, just spend a few weeks in Guatemala City, Johannesburg or Caracas—all of which have the type of horrible crime rates that BRA cities can look forward to in the future. Desperate people do desperate things, and hardcore desperation will be in the norm in the BRA. It won’t be fun (unless, of course, being robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight is one’s idea of a good time).

Welcome to life in a rotting, decaying Third World hellhole. Welcome to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Welcome to life in The Banana Republic of America, formerly the USA.
America is changing.  The safe, secure environment that we all used to take for granted is dying.  The number of truly desperate people rises by the day, and many of those desperate people are willing to do just about anything for money.

The United States used to have a thriving middle class, but our economic system has been so manipulated over the decades that now almost all of the economic rewards go to the very top of the food chain.

25 years ago, the wealthiest 12 percent of all Americans controlled 33 percent of all the wealth.  Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans control 40 percent of all the wealth.

In the United States today, we are actually witnessing the death of the middle class.  Our jobs have been shipped overseas, the banks have enslaved us to debt, the government keeps finding more ways to tax us and the Federal Reserve keeps debasing our currency.

Everywhere you go, despair is in the air.  According to a brand new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 63 percent of Americans believe that the nation is on the wrong track.

Fortunately, many Americans are responding to these signs of trouble by preparing.

One local Oklahoma newspaper recently did an article that profiled a few of the growing number of Americans that are preparing for hard times....

Rod and Lauretta Smith estimate they could survive a year without going to the grocery store.

A large garden on their 5-acre property in south Tulsa produces hundreds of quarts of canned and frozen beans, tomatoes and other vegetables. Chickens provide eggs.

The Smiths are among a small but growing number of people stocking up on food to become more self-reliant in a time marked by natural disasters and economic uncertainty.
The truth is that all of us should try to become less dependent on the system.  The Democrats, the Republicans, the Federal Reserve and the big corporations are not there to help you.  They are not going to come riding to the rescue if you lose your job and your home.

We all need to do what we can to become more independent and to prepare ourselves and our families for the incredibly difficult economic times that are inevitably coming.  Those that have faith that their jobs will always be there or that the government will always take care of them will be deeply disappointed.

The system is dying and society is coming apart.

The only rational thing to do is to prepare for what is coming.



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: dario73 on July 14, 2011, 07:17:17 AM
Cisco Could Eliminate as Many as 10,000 Jobs: Report [Obama Wants More Taxes from Cisco?]
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/07/11/business/business-us-cisco-jobs.html?_r=1&hp ^ | July 10, 2011
Posted on July 11, 2011 11:59:25 PM EDT by Steelfish

Cisco Could Eliminate as Many as 10,000 Jobs: Report By REUTERS July 11, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Networking equipment company Cisco Systems Inc could eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, Bloomberg said, citing two people familiar with the matter.

As many as 7,000 jobs would be eliminated by the end of August, the people told the agency. Cisco is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers who took buyouts, according to Bloomberg.

Early on Monday, Reuters reported that Cisco may slash about 5,000 jobs to meet Chief Executive John Chambers' goal of slashing costs by $1 billion. Reuters had cited Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall.

A Cisco spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday that the company will provide details on cost reductions, including layoffs, during its earnings call on August 11.

Cisco was not immediately available to comment on the Bloomberg report late on Monday.

Cisco shares closed down about 2 percent at $15.43, in a market that was broadly lower due to concerns about the U.S. budget talks and the euro-zone debt crisis.

REVENUE GROWTH UNDER PRESSURE?

Chambers, who is set to speak at a company event in Las Vegas on Tuesday, is working to turn around the Silicon Valley bellwether. He has said the company's next fiscal year starting in August would not live up to the company's previous growth expectations.

Marshall's estimate for job cuts at Cisco is higher than the previous forecasts of up to 4,000 jobs that are in danger of being eliminated.

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


Scary. This is scary. And it's happening.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 14, 2011, 07:19:47 AM
Doesnt matter.   Bachmann made a gaffe. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 15, 2011, 07:37:23 AM
Manufacturing weakens in New York in July
Marketwatch ^ | 7.15.11 | Greg Robb



WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturers in the New York region said business activity had weakened slightly in early July, according to a report released Friday by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The Empire State index remained below zero for the second straight month, rising only to negative 3.8 in July from negative 7.8 in June.

The index has fallen dramatically the past three months after hitting a 12-month high of 21.7 in April.

Readings below zero indicate more firms said business was worsening than said it was improving.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 15, 2011, 07:40:35 AM
US Consumer Sentiment Falls To Lowest Level in Two Years
Published: Friday, 15 Jul 2011 | 10:07 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters
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U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated in early July to the lowest level since March 2009 on increasing pessimism over falling income and rising unemployment, a survey released Friday showed.

 

Confidence in government economic policies also curdled, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey showed.

U.S. lawmakers are wrangling over a budget deal that would allow the government to raise the debt ceiling—needed so the United States can fund its obligations next month.

The preliminary reading for the consumer sentiment index dropped to 63.8 in July from 71.5 the month before, falling far short of expectations of an increase to 72.5, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

The survey's barometer of current economic conditions fell to 76.3, the lowest since November 2009, from 82.0. The gauge of consumer expectations was also at its lowest since March 2009, tumbling to 55.8 from 64.8.

"Whenever the Expectations Index has been this low in the past, the economy has been in recession," survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement. "Nonetheless, one month's data is insufficient to signal a renewed downturn, particularly if a last-minute agreement on the debt ceiling results in a partial restoration of confidence."

Overall, the data suggests real consumer spending in the second half of the year may be barely higher than the first half, the survey said.

The proportion of consumers that rated government economic policies as poor rose to 52 percent in early July, up from 40 percent in June.

The inflation outlook improved with the survey's one-year inflation expectation easing to 3.4 percent from 3.8. The five-to-10-year inflation outlook was at 2.8 percent from 3.0 percent.

The report follows a poll released earlier this week that Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday showed the number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track rose to 63 percent this month, up from 60 percent in June, with stubbornly high unemployment and prolonged gridlock in Washington dashing hopes of a swift economic recovery.

But voters do not appear to be holding President Barack Obama responsible for the problems so far. Obama's approval rating held relatively steady at 49 percent, down 1 percentage point from June. His approval rating among independents—a group Obama needs to win re-election—fell to 39 percent from 44 percent.

Obama's standing could deteriorate quickly if the economy does not begin to generate jobs and if Washington cannot show it is capable of solving problems, Ipsos pollster Julie Clark said.

"If those things don't happen, Obama will be in for a real challenge in getting re-elected next year," Clark said.

Obama and Republicans have hit an impasse in negotiations to raise America's borrowing limit before the government runs out of money to pay all of its bills on Aug. 2. That could force the government to try to prioritize its payments.

Asked what bills the government should stop paying if the debt limit is not raised, 36 percent listed international creditors like banks and 12 percent listed government departments like agriculture and education.

The sputtering economy and high unemployment are certain to dominate the race for the White House in 2012, and the Republican candidates for the nomination to challenge Obama repeatedly have criticized his economic leadership.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43768567

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 15, 2011, 08:47:36 AM
Manufacturing Gauge Slumps as Core Inflation Gains
Published: Friday, 15 Jul 2011 | 9:40 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters


U.S. consumer prices fell slightly more than expected in June to post their biggest drop in a year on weak gasoline costs, but underlying inflation pressures remain elevated.

 
CNBC.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The Consumer Price Index fell 0.2 percent, the Labor Department said on Friday, the largest drop since June 2010, after rising 0.2 percent in May. Economists had expected prices to fall 0.1 percent.

But stripping out food and energy, core CPI rose 0.3 percent after a similar gain in May and above economists' expectations for a 0.2 percent increase.

"We are getting a very, very sharp rebound in core inflation and much more than the Fed had bargained for. We will be at price stability and possibly through it before the end of this year," said Eric Green, chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

A separate report showed a gauge of manufacturing in New York State fell again in July. The New York Federal Reserve said its "Empire State" general business conditions index was at minus 3.76 from minus 7.79 in June.

High inflation, driven by strong energy and food prices, undermined economic activity in first quarter, with growth slowing sharply to a 1.9 percent annual rate after a brisk 3.1 percent expansion in the final three months of 2010.


RELATED LINKS
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The economy is believed to have grown by between 1.5 percent and 2 percent in the second quarter.

Hopes of a stronger pick-up in growth during the July-September period have been dented somewhat by a weak labor market and retail sales in June.


But abating commodity inflation pressures as energy prices decline, should put more money in the pockets of consumers who have been stretching to cover rising costs for gasoline and food.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this week the U.S. central bank was prepared to act if growth falters further, but made it clear that the Fed is not at that point yet.

Bernanke noted that inflation was higher than in late 2010, when the Fed got ready for its $600 billion government bond-buying program, which ended in June.



Gasoline prices dropped 6.8 percent, the largest decline since December 2008, after falling 2.0 percent in May. Food prices rose a moderate 0.2 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in May.

But rising costs for housing, new vehicles, used trucks and apparel pushed up core inflation last month. Shelter costs rose 0.2 percent for a second straight month, while apparel prices jumped 1.4 percent, the largest increase since March 1990.

Prices for new vehicles increased 0.6 percent last month, slowing from May's 1.1 percent surge, likely reflecting an easing of auto shortages related to supply chain disruptions from Japan. Used cars and trucks jumped 1.6 percent, the largest increase since December 2009.

In the 12 months to April, core CPI rose 1.6 percent after increasing 1.5 percent in May. Fed officials, however, would like to see that closer to 2 percent.

Overall consumer prices were up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, after rising 3.6 percent in May.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.



________________________ ________________________ _____


Obamanomics = FAIL! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 08:46:38 AM
Gallup finds employment “deterioration” in July
Hotair ^ | July18,2011 | Ed Morrissey




Gallup’s latest measure of US unemployment shows joblessness rising through the first part of the month, with underemployment remaining at exactly the same level as 2010. The mid-month survey provides a leading indicator for the official jobless report that will come in the next two and a half weeks, and so far it doesn’t look like it will bring much good news to the White House:

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is at 8.9% in the middle of July — up from 8.7% at the end of June. Unemployment was at 9.3% at this same time a year ago.

The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work is 9.4% in mid-July — down from 9.6% at the end of June. However, more Americans are working part time but seeking full-time work in mid-July 2011 than was the case in mid-July 2010 (9.0%).

Underemployment, a measure that combines the percentage of unemployed with the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work, is at 18.3% in mid-July — precisely the same as at the end of June and in mid-July 2010.

Gallup reports that this represents “an early July deterioration” in employment, but doesn’t offer much beyond speculation for the cause. The pollster suggests that employers might be hedging their bets because of the debt negotiations and the uncertainty of whether the US might default, but initial jobless claims jumped in early April before this issue became acute — a dynamic that Gallup’s survey misses entirely, by the way. The report also posits that a decline in demand might be driving an uptick in unemployment, and for that, there is some new corroboration from the oil markets today:


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 01:02:09 PM
Weiss Ratings Downgrades United States Debt to C-Minus
Weiss Ratings ^ | 15 July 2011 | Unknown



JUPITER, Florida (July 15, 2011) — Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus.

The C-minus rating for the U.S. reflects a continued deterioration in the weaknesses cited in the Weiss Ratings release of April 28, 2011, including heavy debt burdens, shaky international stability, and poor economic health.

Weiss Ratings senior financial analyst Gavin Magor commented: “Our downgrade today is not contingent on the outcome of the debt ceiling debate in Washington. It is driven exclusively by the numbers, which indicate that, in addition to a decline in the long-standing weaknesses we noted three months ago, the U.S. has already lost the golden halo that helped guarantee liquidity and acceptance of its government securities in global markets.”

On the Weiss Ratings scale, which ranges from A (excellent) to E (very weak), a C-minus rating is the approximate equivalent of a triple-B-minus on the scales used by other credit rating agencies, or approximately one notch above speculative grade (junk).

For the Weiss Sovereign Debt Ratings on all 49 countries covered, click here. For more information on the Weiss Ratings approach, refer to our white paper, “Introducing The Weiss Sovereign Debt Ratings.” About Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings, the nation’s leading independent provider of financial strength ratings on banks, credit unions, insurance companies as well as sovereign debt ratings on 49 countries, accepts no payments for its ratings from rated entities. By adhering to its independent business model, Weiss outperformed Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, A.M. Best and Duff & Phelps (now Fitch) in warning of future life and health insurance company failures according to a 1994 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), while also outperforming its competitors in identifying the safest insurers, according to its follow-up study using the GAO’s research methodology. Similarly, Weiss was the only one to identify, in advance, nearly all major banks that failed or required a federal bailout in the 2008-2009 debt crisis. Contact

Print: Maryellen Murphy, 561-818-8885 mmurphy@weissinc.com

Broadcast: Pam Reimer, 608-727-2600 pam.reimer@wicw.net


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 01:30:43 PM
Fitch: 'AAA' rating in jeopardy
Politico ^ | 7/18/11 | JENNIFER EPSTEIN


Another major bond rating firm on Monday reiterated its threat to downgrade the U.S. government to a B-plus rating if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by August 2 and the government defaults on its debts.

The warning from Fitch Ratings comes after Moody’s and S&P warned last week that they would lower the U.S. rating from the top mark of AAA if the country is unable to repay its debts next month.

Fitch said Monday that it will place the U.S. rating in what it calls “ratings watch negative,” a status that can lead to downgrading in three-to-six months.

The ratings agency said it still expects congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama to reach a deal in the next few weeks, but would downgrade the rating if the Treasury Department is unable to pay the $90 billion in Treasury bills that mature on August 4.

“Agreement on a credible fiscal consolidation strategy will secure the U.S. ‘AAA’ status; failure to do so will inevitably weaken the sovereign credit profile and may result in a sovereign rating downgrade,” the agency said in a statement.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: 240 is Back on July 18, 2011, 01:33:20 PM
Doesnt matter.   Bachmann made a gaffe. 

great point man.  She wants to unseat obama and save us from the obama depression... but she can't read a simple pledge before signing it?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Kazan on July 18, 2011, 01:34:38 PM
great point man.  She wants to unseat obama and save us from the obama depression... but she can't read a simple pledge before signing it?

Apparently Obama can't read a simple health care bill before signing it, which has done more damage?

You see what I did there spinmeister? Just when I think you are showing signs of intelligence you back slide.

You see one is a non binding pledge to some group, while the other one is a law, do you get it now?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 01:37:28 PM
Apparently Obama can't read a simple health care bill before signing it, which has done more damage?

The fucker does not even know when his own birth day is! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 03:22:47 PM
Goldman Sachs cuts U.S. second-quarter growth estimates (Q2 GDP slashed to 1.5%; Q3 cut to 2.5%)
Reuters via Yahoo Finance ^ | 7/18/2011 | Reuters



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs has cut its forecast for U.S. second-quarter growth to 1.5 percent from 2 percent, citing weak consumer spending.

The downgrade follows last week's raft of weak reports on retail sales, manufacturing and consumer sentiment, which have raised concerns that some of the factors impeding growth are no longer of a temporary nature, as previously thought.

"Some of this weakness is undoubtedly related to the disruptions to the supply chain -- specifically in the auto sector -- following the east Japan earthquake," said Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius in a weekly note to clients issued late on Friday.

"But the slowdown of recent months goes well beyond what can be explained with these temporary effects."

The economy grew at a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter, slowing sharply from a 3.1 percent rate in the final three months of 2010. The government will release its first estimate for second-quarter GDP on July 29.

Goldman Sachs also slashed its third-quarter growth forecast to 2.5 percent 3.25 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: GigantorX on July 18, 2011, 03:59:31 PM
Goldman Sachs cuts U.S. second-quarter growth estimates (Q2 GDP slashed to 1.5%; Q3 cut to 2.5%)
Reuters via Yahoo Finance ^ | 7/18/2011 | Reuters



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs has cut its forecast for U.S. second-quarter growth to 1.5 percent from 2 percent, citing weak consumer spending.

The downgrade follows last week's raft of weak reports on retail sales, manufacturing and consumer sentiment, which have raised concerns that some of the factors impeding growth are no longer of a temporary nature, as previously thought.

"Some of this weakness is undoubtedly related to the disruptions to the supply chain -- specifically in the auto sector -- following the east Japan earthquake," said Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius in a weekly note to clients issued late on Friday.

"But the slowdown of recent months goes well beyond what can be explained with these temporary effects."

The economy grew at a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter, slowing sharply from a 3.1 percent rate in the final three months of 2010. The government will release its first estimate for second-quarter GDP on July 29.

Goldman Sachs also slashed its third-quarter growth forecast to 2.5 percent 3.25 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...



This has been slowing going on for the past several months, the downgrades keep coming at a nice steady pace. Several trillion dollars in bailouts, stimulus, printed money, deficits etc doesn't buy you quit what it used to, huh?

GDP will continue to decline as the law of diminishing returns makes itself known once again and with the decline in GDP (which if you take out price deflators has been negative for a while) there will be a further decline in tax revenue. It's been stated and sourced before, tax revenue is historically around 20-25% of GDP. You want more revenue then you grow the economy, simple as that. Raising taxes without reform wouldn't do shit for raising any real revenue that would mean anything. Like trying to squeeze water from a rock.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 07:02:42 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/economy-collapsing-michael-snyder-2011-7?op=1



Cool article. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 07:31:37 PM
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Borders liquidates: 10,700 jobs lost
cnn ^ | 7/18/2011 | Ben Rooney
Posted on July 18, 2011 9:58:43 PM EDT by tobyhill

Group will liquidate its remaining assets after efforts to find a buyer fell through, the bookstore chain announced Monday.

The nation's second largest book seller, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, currently operates 399 stores and employs approximately 10,700 workers.

The liquidation process is expected to start as soon as Friday, pending bankruptcy court approval, Borders said in a press release.

Mike Edwards, president of Borders Group, said in a written statement that he was saddened by the development and that the decision came despite "the best efforts" of all parties.

"We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now," Edwards said.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...






Hey at least they can get jobs at Micky d's. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 08:02:29 PM
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Cisco to cut workforce by 15 percent, sell factory
Reuters/Yahoo ^ | 7/18/11
Posted on July 18, 2011 8:44:21 PM EDT by markomalley

Cisco Systems plans to cut 15 percent of its jobs and sell a factory as part of a plan to cut annual expenses by $1 billion as the network equipment maker tries to revive its fortunes.

The cuts are deeper than what financial analysts expected. The company said on Monday that it will cut 11,500 jobs, compared with the several thousand that analysts predicted.

The cuts come after Cisco's chief executive John Chambers said in April that the company lost its way.

The company had 73,408 employees as of the end of the last quarter, a spokeswoman said. Cisco will transfer 5,000 to contract manufacturer Foxconn which will buy a Cisco plant in Juarez, Mexico. Of the other 6,500 who are leaving, 2,100 will get early retirement.

"This is a net positive for the company and for investors," said Morningstar analyst Grady Burkett.

It is also one half of a bigger blow dealt to U.S. companies on Monday. The announcement comes on the same day that Borders Group Inc, the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain, canceled its bankruptcy auction plans and said it would close for good. Nearly 11,000 people will lose their jobs.

Cisco said in May that it would reorganize the company, which has been losing ground in the network equipment business.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 08:38:38 PM
Baldwin Hardware closing, laying off 159 (Moving To Mexico)
readingeagle.com ^

Posted on July 18, 2011 11:25:06 PM EDT by freejohn

Baldwin Hardware, the internationally renowned maker of high-end brass fixtures that has been based in Reading for more than a half-century, no longer will make those products locally and 159 employees will lose their jobs by the end of next year.

(Excerpt) Read more at readingeagle.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 08:50:56 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque police say at least one vandal was likely seriously injured trying to steal copper from an elementary school because the thieves left behind several melted tools and a scorched T-shirt.

They cut into a power line at East San Jose Elementary School over the weekend and triggered a 480-volt electrical shock.

Albuquerque Public Schools officials tell KOB-TV the vandals were on top of the roof, equipped with tools and a plan to rip off copper wire.

Investigators say the thieves likely knew they were cutting into a live hot-wire but did it anyway.
Police have been checking emergency rooms looking for burn victims.
___
Information from: KOB-TV, http://www.kob.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2011, 09:09:22 PM
Rahm Emanuel Lays Off 625+ Chicaco City Employees to Close Budget Gap
TownHall ^ | 7/18/2011 | Nicholas Freiling
Posted on July 19, 2011 12:20:08 AM EDT by Rennes Templar

Does Rahm Emanuel, newly-elected governor of Chicago, finally get it? The Chicago Tribune reports:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is sending pink slips to up to 625 city employees Monday and privatizing many of their jobs to finish closing a $30 million budget hole, but union leaders said the mayor jumped the gun and never gave them time to negotiate. Nearly 130 seasonal transportation workers will be told to leave immediately. That means fewer sidewalks, curbs and gutters will be repaired.

Emanuel said he intends to get private companies to clean the city's airports and libraries, work now done by city employees. Operators at the city's water-bill call center and employee benefit managers also will see their jobs outsourced. Those union workers will receive 30- and 45-day layoff notices.

And not only that, but the Chicago Sun Times reported today that:

Determined to deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to 359,000 Chicago households without it, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday he would privatize four of six service areas and allow city employees to compete in the other two. Within four months of the so-called "managed competition," blue-cart recycling will come to 20,000 additional households who live in Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square. Even more homeowners will get the service next year.

Strong-arming unions, laying off public employees in favor of private corporations, closing budget gaps without raising taxes, "managed competition"? Since when has Rahm Emanuel, once President Obama's Chief of Staff, been a conservative?

Mayor Emanuel inherited a disastrous financial situation, as Chicago faces budget deficits over $1 billion per year. Could it be that Rahm Emanuel has finally seen the light? Perhaps he could teach his friends in Washington a thing or two, especially as Congress faces a similar battle over spending cuts and balanced budgets.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: 240 is Back on July 18, 2011, 09:35:53 PM
Rahm Emanuel Lays Off 625+ Chicaco City Employees to Close Budget Gap

Pretty cool of Rahm to reduce the size of govt like that.  Less taxpayer spending, I like it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2011, 05:45:58 AM
(SC) Chief: Copper Thief Found Dead; 3,000 Lose Power
WYFF TV ^ | 7/19/11



COWPENS, S.C. -- Thousands of people in Cherokee County were left without power overnight Monday after a man was killed trying to steal copper from a Duke Energy substation, according to firefighters at the scene.

Cowpens Fire Chief James Caggiano said the incident happened about 9:40 p.m., and fire crews were at the scene less than five minutes later.

They found the man's body inside the fenced-in power station, Caggiano said.

The man was not authorized to be at the substation and was carrying some very suspicious equipment, Caggiano said.

"They did find some items that would be used in the metal theft industry, cutters and that type thing," Caggiano said.

The fire knocked out the power to more than 3,000 people in the surrounding area, according to the Duke website.

That number included about half of the population of Cowpens, but power to the other half of the city also had to be turned off so crews could safely work on the substation to get it back on line, according to Duke Energy.

Power was restored to the area just before 3 a.m. Tuesday.

The coroner did not immediately release the name of the victim.




________________________ ________________

SIGN OF THE TIMES. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2011, 06:45:05 PM
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Fed Preparing For US Default Says Plosser
Zero Hedge ^ | 7/20/11 | Tyler Durden
Posted on July 20, 2011 8:52:15 PM EDT by Kartographer

That giant whooshing, and humming, sound you hear are all the printers at the basement of Marriner Eccles getting refills and start the warm up process. Because according to the Fed Charles Plosser the Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default. Which can only mean one thing: an immediate paradrop of millions of $100 bricks to every man woman and child in the US since as we all know by know Tim Geithner has repeatedly confirmed the Treasury has absolutely no default plans. None.

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

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Fed Preparing For US Default Says Plosser
Zero Hedge ^ | 7/20/11 | Tyler Durden
Posted on July 20, 2011 8:52:15 PM EDT by Kartographer

That giant whooshing, and humming, sound you hear are all the printers at the basement of Marriner Eccles getting refills and start the warm up process. Because according to the Fed Charles Plosser the Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default. Which can only mean one thing: an immediate paradrop of millions of $100 bricks to every man woman and child in the US since as we all know by know Tim Geithner has repeatedly confirmed the Treasury has absolutely no default plans. None.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2011, 06:50:15 PM
Fox News Poll: More Say Obama Administration Making Economy Worse
Fox News ^ | July 20, 2011 | Dana Blanton
Posted on July 20, 2011 10:00:25 PM EDT by Clairity

American voters are divided on Barack Obama's overall performance as president, and by double-digit margins they not only think the economy is getting worse, but also that it’s the Obama administration's fault.

Voters are more than twice as likely to say the economy is getting worse than to say it is getting better. The new poll found 58 percent of voters think the economy is getting worse.

...more voters say the Obama administration has made the economy worse (49 percent) rather than better (34 percent).

...a 58-percent majority thinks it is unfair for President Obama to continue to blame former President George W. Bush for the country's economic problems.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2011, 09:03:54 PM
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Layoffs Deepen Gloom
The Wall Street Journal ^ | JULY 21, 2011 | CONOR DOUGHERTY
Posted on July 20, 2011 10:15:31 PM EDT by MinorityRepublican

Companies are laying off employees at a level not seen in nearly a year, hobbling the job market and intensifying fears about the pace of the economic recovery.

Cisco Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and troubled bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. are among those that have recently announced hefty cuts, while recent government numbers underscore how companies have shifted toward cutting jobs.

The increase in layoffs is a key reason why the U.S. recorded an average of only 21,500 new jobs over the past two months, far below the level needed to bring down unemployment, which now stands at 9.2%.

The cuts also reflect the shifting outlook of employers, many of whom had expected the economy to gain speed as the year progressed. Instead, growth has faltered. If the pace continues to disappoint, more companies will feel pressure to pull back. "Layoffs have played a big role [in weak job growth] over the last few months," said Mike Montgomery, an economist at IHS Global Insight. "The soft patch is more layoffs and nothing else to pick up the slack."

The trend is evident across several sectors. On Monday, following two straight quarters of lower profits, Cisco, the San Jose, Calif., networking-equipment giant, revealed plans to lay off 6,500 employees—about 9% of its staff. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., struggling with an unexpectedly steep decline in its trading business, said Tuesday that it is eliminating 1,000 jobs and indicated it may need to cut more.

Also on Tuesday, top Pentagon weapons supplier Lockheed Martin made a voluntary-layoff offer to approximately 6,500 U.S.-based employees. The announcement came not long after the company said it would eliminate positions in its aeronautics and space systems segments. In recent months, around 600 senior Lockheed executives ended up taking a prior buyout offer floated last year.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2011, 04:42:31 AM
Edited on Thu Jul-21-11 10:59 AM by marmar
from MarketWatch:


Why we’ll have 10% unemployment soon
Commentary: 3 key sectors show just how weak job market is

By Jeff Reeves


ROCKVILLE, Md. — After the nationwide unemployment rate peaked above 10% in late 2009, we saw a fairly rapid decline in jobless rolls during the next 12 months. By March of this year, the headline jobless number had crept back under 9% and renewed optimism in the economic recovery and equity markets.

Well, we’ve been reading a much different story in the last month or two, with disappointing job creation and a rise in the overall unemployment rate as the meager number of new positions can’t keep up with the sheer volume of folks looking for work.

To make matters worse, we are now seeing a disturbing new spate of layoff announcements — not just a dozen or so workers here and there, but pink slips issued by the thousands at some of the biggest blue chips on Wall Street. Read about 6,500 jobs cut at Cisco.

In short, there aren’t enough jobs to go around now and there will be even fewer jobs a few months down the road. All this points to significantly higher unemployment in the near future, possibly over the 10% mark. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-well-have-10-unemp...
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2011, 05:46:12 AM
Source: Bloomberg


More Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting the volatility of applications during the annual auto-plant retooling period.

Applications for jobless benefits increased 10,000 in the week ended July 16 to 418,000, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 410,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The data included about 1,750 additional job cuts due to the Minnesota government shutdown, the agency said.

Employers have been reluctant to hire more workers over the past two months on concern the recovery was slowing, and over stalled negotiations to extend the federal debt ceiling and reduce the budget deficit. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said the recovery was “still fragile,” with recent data showing “continuing weakness” in the labor market.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty with businesses about the recovery,” Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, said before the report. “It still looks like there isn’t much progress on the hiring side.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/first-time-job...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2011, 07:37:56 AM
Unemployment Benefits Rise as Job Growth Falters
CNBC ^ | Published: Thursday, 21 Jul 2011 | 8:40 AM ET | Staff




New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, pointing to a labor market that is struggling to regain momentum after job growth faltered in the last two months.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 418,000, the Labor Department said.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 410,000. The prior weeks figure was revised up to 408,000 from the previously reported 405,000.

The claims data covered the survey period for the closely watched nonfarm payrolls count for July. Initial claims dropped 11,000 between the June and July survey periods, suggesting a modest improvement in payrolls after Junes paltry 18,000 gain.

A rise in layoffs held back payroll growth in May, according to the departments latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which was released last week. Layoffs were probably be hind the downshift in employment growth in June as well.

A government shutdown in Minnesota following a budget impasse resulted in an additional 1,750 state employees filing claims for jobless benefits last week.

Initial claims have now been above the 400,000 mark for 15 straight weeks. That level is usually associated with a stable labor market.

The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, slipped 2,750 to 421,250.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid dropped 50,000 to 3.70 million in the week ended July 9.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits declined 80,133 to 3.15 million in the week ended July 2, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 7.33 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 159,000 from the prior week.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2011, 08:27:34 AM
NASA Layoffs Planned as Space Shuttle Program Ends


NASA TV(HOUSTON) -- Now that space shuttle Atlantis has returned home safely, America's human spaceflight program faces a period of retrenchment and doubt.

Atlantis' landing early Thursday morning marked the end of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program and the beginning of layoffs for the space agency.  On Friday, 1,500 shuttle workers are scheduled to get their pink slips.  By the time all the layoff notices are handed out, a total of 8,000 workers will have been cut.


At its peak, the shuttle program had about 11,000 people working for it.

NASA's space program, however, is hardly over.  Astronauts will continue to live for months at a time on the International Space Station until at least 2020.  Eventually, the Obama administration proposes they go explore a passing asteroid and ultimately land on Mars.

An ambitious probe to orbit Jupiter is on the launch pad, scheduled for an August launch.  A new Mars rover, called Curiosity, is scheduled to leave in November.  NASA says it would announce Friday where on the Martian surface Curiosity would try to land.

But for now, the one way for Americans to reach orbit will be by hitching seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of $60 million a pop. 

NASA says that in a few years the job will be taken over by private companies such as SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, or Boeing.  Each has a spacecraft and launcher in the works, though so far, only governments have ever launched people into orbit.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio


________________________ _______________

8,000 less obama voters. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2011, 01:59:00 PM
Could You Survive Another Great Depression?
Townhall.com ^ | July 21, 2011 | Paul Kengor



I just read two very interesting articles on the U.S. economy, written from historical perspectives. They compelled me to share my own historical perspective. And what I want to say is more about our changing culture than our economy.

One of the articles, by Julie Crawshaw of MoneyNews.com, notes that the "Misery Index"—the combined unemployment and inflation rates—made infamous under President Jimmy Carter, has hit a 28-year high. It's also 62 percent higher than when President Obama took office.


But that's nothing compared to Mort Zuckerman's article in U.S. News & World Report. Zuckerman measures the current situation against the Great Depression. He writes:

jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off.... We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression.
Zuckerman is a perceptive writer who looks at economies from a historical perspective. In my comparative politics course at Grove City College, I use his article on the Russian collapse in the 1990s, which Zuckerman showed was worse than our Great Depression.
I can't say we're teetering on that precipice, but Zuckerman's article got me thinking: Imagine if America today experienced an economic catastrophe similar to the 1930s. How would you survive?

I remember asking that question to my grandparents, Joseph and Philomena. How did they survive the Great Depression?

My grandmother, never at a loss for words, direly described how her family avoided starving. Compensation came via barter. Her father, an Italian immigrant, baked bread and cured meats in an oven in the tiny backyard, among other trades he learned in the old country. My grandmother cleaned the house and babysat and bathed the children of a family who owned a grocery store. They paid her with store products. Her family struggled through by creatively employing everyone’s unique skills.

What about my grandfather? When I asked that question as he sat silently, my grandmother raised her loud Italian voice and snapped: "Ah, he didn't suffer! Don’t even ask him!"


My grandfather, also Italian, returned the shout: "Ah, you shut up! You're a damned fool!"

Grandma: "No, you're a damned fool!"

After the typical several minutes of sustained insults, my grandfather explained that, indeed, his family didn’t suffer during the depression. They noticed no difference whatsoever, even as America came apart at the seams.

Why not? Because they were farmers. They got everything from the land, from crops and animals they raised and hunted to fish they caught. They raised every animal possible, from cattle to rabbits. They ate everything from the pig, from head to feet. There were eggs from chickens and cheese and milk from goats and cows. There were wild plants.

I was captivated as my grandfather explained his family's method of refrigeration: During the winter, they broke ice from the creek and hauled it into the barn, where it was packed in sawdust for use through the summer. They didn’t over-eat. They preserved food, and there was always enough for the family of 12.

When their clothes ripped, they sewed them. When machines broke, they fixed them. They didn't over-spend. Home repairs weren’t contracted out. Heat came from wood they gathered.

And they didn't need 1,000 acres of land to do this.

They were totally self-sufficient—and far from alone. Back then, most Americans farmed, knew how to grow things, or provided for themselves to some significant degree.


That conversation with my grandparents came to mind as I read Zuckerman's piece and considered life under another Great Depression. I realized: The vast majority of Americans today would be incapable of providing for themselves. If you live in the city with no land, you'd be in big trouble. Even most Americans, who have a yard with soil, wouldn’t know what to do.

Isn’t it ironic that with all our scandalously expensive education—far more than our grandparents' schooling—we've learned so little? We can't fix our car let alone shoot, gut, skin, and butcher a deer.

Think about it: If you lacked income for food, or if prices skyrocketed, or your money was valueless, what would you do for yourself and your family?

Americans today are a lifetime from their grandparents and great grandparents. God help us if we ever face a calamity like the one they faced—and survived.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2011, 01:36:15 PM
America’s jobless ask: Where’s the recovery?
By Elaine L. Chao - 07/21/11 06:37 PM ET
   


Students entering college four years ago could reasonably assume that the recession would be a rapidly receding speck in America’s rearview mirror by the time they graduated. After all, in the four deepest previous recessions — those of 1953, 1957, 1973 and 1981— employment three years after those downturns began was on average 4.7 percent higher than the pre-recession peak.

Not so this time around. The recession that officially began in December 2007 officially ended in June 2009. Yet today’s graduates face a dismal job market.


As tough as it is for many college graduates to get their planned careers on track, it could be worse: They could be trying to find a job without a college degree. In April, the unemployment rate for recent college grads was 6.4 percent, compared to 3.5 percent four years ago. For college graduates overall, the rate stands at 4.4 percent. The rate more than doubles — to 10 percent — for those with only a high school degree. It more than triples — to 14.3 percent — for high school dropouts. And teens, now competing more than usual with experienced and educated jobseekers, are experiencing 24.5 percent unemployment.

The most recent unemployment report was chock full of more bad news: Only 18,000 net new jobs in June, an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.2 percent and a downward revision of previous months’ estimates of job creation (meaning even the earlier anemic reports of job creation overstated the recovery). To put it in perspective: Canada created more net new jobs last month (28,400) than we did — and we have nine times their population.

The situation is actually worse than reported. Of the 14 million Americans officially counted as unemployed, 6.3 million — 45 percent, the highest since 1983 — have been out of work for more than half a year. Another 8.6 million workers have had to settle for part-time work, either because their hours have been cut back or that was all they could find. If these 8.6 million underemployed workers were included, the reported unemployment rate would be nearly 15 percent.

This dismal situation won’t improve markedly, as long as weekly initial unemployment claims are running higher than 400,000 — as they have for the last 13 weeks. The weekly initial claims figure must drop to a consistent mid- to low-300,000 range, at most, before significant job growth can occur.

So where’s the recovery?

Since the summer of 2009, the American economy, as measured by gross domestic product, has been expanding, slowly. First-quarter GDP growth was a tepid 1.9 percent. In contrast, coming out of the 1981-82 recession, we had five straight quarters of 7 percent-to-9 percent GDP growth.

Layoffs are down from their peak in early 2009, but job creation is still in the trough — stuck about where it was two years ago. This leaves us short about half a million new jobs each month from what’s expected in a good economic recovery. This jobs deficit reflects the fact that creation of new businesses — the traditional engine of job growth — was down 23 percent in 2010 from 2007.

Why? Confidence, capital and credit fuel entrepreneurship and economic expansion. Confidence is currently the most sorely lacking component, and takes a beating with every headline about high unemployment, higher taxes, expensive government mandates, lawsuit-promoting legislation and federal fiscal recklessness. Diminishing faith in the present and future cripples a recovery. It also damages consumer confidence. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was down in June, to 58.5. A few years ago, figures in the 90s were the norm.

Washington could hardly have waged a more effective war on private-sector job creation these last two years. To foster entrepreneurship, expansion and job creation, more leaders at all levels of government have to demonstrate some understanding of what it takes to build and grow businesses in the private sector.

Even a healthy economy and labor market would have struggled under the additional expenses enacted and proposed in 2009 and 2010 — from healthcare mandates and higher taxes, to carbon cap-and-trade and delay in extending the last decade’s tax reforms. We’re just 18 months away from a repeat of that latter circus. Unless Washington’s job-killing agenda is reversed, this economy cannot rev up enough to get American back anywhere near full employment.

Chao served as secretary of labor from 2001-2009 and is a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.






Source:
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/172879-americas-jobless-ask-wheres-the-recovery


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2011, 07:40:29 PM
Automakers Warn of Huge Job Losses Under Obama Fuel Efficiency Plan (More job-killing regulations)
Fox News ^ | 7/22/2011 | Jim Angle
Posted on July 22, 2011 9:48:02 PM EDT by tobyhill

Automakers are pushing back against an Obama administration proposal that would almost double vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, launching a new ad campaign warning of hundreds of thousands of job losses across the country.

The White House has long been negotiating with automakers and environmentalists over the enormous increase in fuel efficiency standards. But the automakers, who say the standards would stagger the auto industry, appear to be losing faith in the possibility of a compromise.

President Obama was hoping to get automakers to sign off on a nearly 100 percent increase in mileage standards by 2025, aiming for another Rose Garden announcement like the one in May 2009 when he announced they would raise it to 29.5 miles-per-gallon for model year 2012, on their way to 34 miles-per-gallon for 2016.

But now the White House has a much bigger goal in mind.

"They're floating ideas to increase this fuel efficiency standard to 56 miles per gallon fleet-wide by the year 2025, which would be a significant ramp-up, even from the fuel efficiency standards that we have set in place to 2016," said Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2011, 06:01:30 AM
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/return-mass-layoffs-grim-sign-u-workers-190228219.html



Love this guy.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2011, 08:38:48 AM
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BAX Global to close hub at Toledo Express; 700 jobs lost
Toledo Blade ^ | July 22, 2011 | LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE
Posted on July 24, 2011 11:30:31 AM EDT by Beaten Valve

BAX Global Inc., a division of German transportation giant DB Schenker, announced Friday that it will close its U.S. air hub at Toledo Express Airport and shed its fleet of leased planes as part of what it is calling a “strategic realignment” of its North American business model.

About 700 jobs, mostly part-time, will be affected, the company said. Some employees will be given an opportunity to “redeploy to other parts of our business,” the company said.

Heiner Murmann, chief executive officer of Schenker, said in a statement: “We deeply regret that there will be some layoffs as part of this realignment. However, we are working to redeploy as many employees as possible to other parts of our business.”

The company said the phasing out of the U.S.-dedicated air fleet, which represents less than 10 percent of the company’s business in North and South America, will take place over the next several weeks, and “is in response to changing marketplace conditions and along with the renewed focus on transportation management services is aimed at positioning the company for continued growth and success.”

(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2011, 05:16:26 AM
RIM to Cut 2,000 Jobs on BlackBerry Share Decline   


(Bloomberg) Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to cut about 2,000 jobs, or about a tenth of its workforce, as sales slow amid market share losses to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone.

The reductions, across all functions, are part of a plan to “focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities,” RIM said today in a statement. The company also assigned new responsibilities to senior managers.

RIM predicted last month that quarterly revenue may drop for the first time in nine years. The company is losing market share in the U.S. to Apple’s iPhone and handsets running Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software, in part because it hasn’t introduced a major new BlackBerry model since August. Cheaper Google phones are also making inroads in Latin America, Asia and Europe, threatening the popularity of less expensive BlackBerry models like the Curve. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/research-in-mo...

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2011, 05:19:23 AM
Broke! 10 Facts About The Financial Condition Of American Families That Will Blow Your Mind


The crumbling U.S. economy is putting an extraordinary amount of financial stress on American families.  For many Americans, "flat broke" has become a permanent condition.  Today, over half of all American families live paycheck to paycheck.  Unemployment is rampant and those that do actually have jobs are finding that their wages are rising much more slowly than prices are.  The financial condition of average American families continues to decline and this is showing up in all of the recent surveys.  For example, according to a new Gallup poll, "lack of money/low wages" is the number one financial concern for American families.  To make ends meet, many American families are going into even more debt and more American families than ever are turning to government assistance.  Right now, more Americans than at any other point since World War II are flat broke and have lost hope.  Until this changes, the frustration level in this country is going to continue to grow.

The following are 10 facts about the financial condition of American families that will blow your mind.....

#1 Only 58 percent of Americans have a job right now.

#2 Only 56 percent of Americans are currently covered by employer-provided health insurance.

#3 The median yearly wage in the United States is $26,261.

#4 The average American household is carrying $75,600 in debt.

#5 Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#6 At this point, American families are approximately 7.7 trillion dollars poorer than they were back in early 2007.

#7 The poorest 50% of all Americans now own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#8 According to one study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States were living below the poverty line in 2010.

#9 Today, there are more than 44 million Americans on food stamps, and nearly half of them are children.

#10 According to Newsweek, close to 20 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 54 do not have a job at the moment.

So what is causing all of this?

Where in the world did all of the good jobs go?

Well, the truth is that millions of them have been shipped overseas.

Our politicians promised us that merging our economy with the economies of other nations where it is legal to pay slave labor wages to workers would not create more unemployment inside America.

They were dead wrong.

Now we are being told that we just need to accept a lower standard of living.

For example, billionaire Howard Marks says that it is time for all of us to just accept that the standard of living of American workers is inevitably going to decline to the level of the rest of the world....

"In addition to balancing the budget and growing the economy, I think we have to accept that the coming decades are likely to see U.S. standards of living decline relative to the rest of the world. Unless our goods offer a better cost/benefit bargain, there’s no reason why American workers should continue to enjoy the same lifestyle advantage over workers in other countries. I just don’t expect to hear many politicians own up to this reality on the stump."
Are you willing to accept that?

Well, most Americans appear to be willing to accept this "new reality" because they keep sending most of the exact same bozos back to Washington D.C.

Meanwhile, the job losses continue to get worse.  As I wrote about the other day, as the U.S. economy has started to slow down again we are starting to see another huge wave of layoffs all over America.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out where all of our jobs are going.  But unfortunately, most Americans don't understand what is happening because neither the mainstream media nor our politicians are telling them the truth.

For much more on how millions of our good jobs are being shipped out of the country, please see another article I recently published entitled "How Globalism Has Destroyed Our Jobs, Businesses And National Wealth In 10 Easy Steps".

But it is not just the globalization of the economy that is destroying our jobs.

The federal government bureaucracy has become so oppressive that it is amazing that anyone is still willing to hire workers in this day and age.

Hiring workers has become so complicated and so expensive that many small business owners want to avoid it at all cost.

For example, a small business owner identified as "007" recently left the following comment on one of my recent articles....

Speaking as a small employer, I would rather have a root canal than another employee. Let’s see. You first have to hire someone you trust without some labor lawyer suing you for some type of discrimination. Then you have OSHA to make sure your work place is safe. Then you have workmans compensation insurance, unemployment taxes, health insurance, liability insurance, now Obamacare. Oh be careful not to be deemed to have a “hostile work environment”. Then you have to negotiate the labor laws. The Department of Labor is constantly cranking out regulation.

Then you get the pleasure of paying payroll taxes both state and federal along with the required filing of a multitude of payroll forms. Miss filing or paying these taxes and you will be crushed with interest and penalties.

Of course, you are competing with businesses that can hire at a fraction of the cost of American Labor and with very little regulations. In this economy, no one in their right mind is hiring into this unstable and declining economy.

If business turns down all you have to worry about is laying off workers. Of course your unemployment insurance tax will go up 200% for years. Then you only have to then worry about a wrongful termination law suit.
The entire system is stacked against American workers.

If you are a blue collar worker, you should give up hope that things are going to get better.  The system has failed you.

You can stop waiting for the "good jobs" to come back.

They aren't coming back.

That is one reason why I try to encourage everyone to become more independent of the system.

As our economic system continues to degenerate, Americans are going to become increasingly desperate.

Sadly, desperate people do desperate things.  Already we are starting to see signs that the fabric of American society is starting to be ripped to shreds.

So what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse?

There is a limit to how many people we can actually put in prison.  The reality is that the number of Americans in prison has nearly tripled since 1987.

Our prisons are already dangerously overcrowded.  As society falls apart, many communities will simply not be able to shove more people behind bars.

Even with our prisons stuffed to the gills, many of our largest cities continue to be transformed into absolute hellholes.

Detroit is now the 3rd most dangerous city on the entire planet and New Orleans is now the 9th most dangerous city on the entire planet.

So what are our leaders doing about all of this?

Well, they appear to be too busy fighting with each other and cheating on their wives to do much about our problems.

According to Politico, U.S. Representative David Wu is the latest member of Congress to be accused of a sex scandal....

Rep. David Wu has been accused of an “unwanted sexual encounter” with the teenage daughter of a longtime friend, the latest scandal to engulf the troubled Oregon Democrat.
This country is a complete and total mess.  Tens of millions of American families are flat broke and are about to slip into poverty.  Meanwhile, our politicians continue to prove that they are some of the most corrupt on the planet.

There are many out there that still believe that America has a bright future ahead.

It is getting really hard to see why anyone could possibly believe that.


http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/broke-10-facts-about-the-financial-condition-of-american-families-that-will-blow-your-mind

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: garebear on July 25, 2011, 05:21:04 AM
You must be hell on Facebook.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2011, 05:24:35 AM
You must be hell on Facebook.



Actually an old girlfriend looked me up on facebook and asked me out.   She looks better now than even when we were in college. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: garebear on July 25, 2011, 05:32:51 AM
Copy and past a few articles and message her them.

We'll see if she really likes you.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2011, 05:35:11 AM
Copy and past a few articles and message her them.

We'll see if she really likes you.

 ;D  ;D  ;D


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2011, 01:51:46 PM
U.S. New Home Sales Show Unexpected Drop In June
RTT News ^ | 7/26/11




Sales of new homes in the U.S. saw a modest decrease in the month of June, according to figures released Tuesday by the Commerce Department, with the drop in sales coming as a surprise to economists.

New single-family home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 312,000 in June, a 1 percent drop from revised figures that showed the May rate at 315,000.

Most economists had predicted a slight rebound to an annual rate of 321,000 new home sales. Additionally, the May figures were revised downward from initial reports that showed an annual rate of 319,000.


(Excerpt) Read more at rttnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2011, 01:55:07 PM
Alabama county readies for biggest bankruptcy in US history
drudgereport.com/ ^ | 7/26/2011 | http://drudgereport.com


http://news.yahoo.com/ala-county-readies-possible-record-bankruptcy-155646239.html



BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's largest county began laying the groundwork Tuesday for what would be largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy

Officials in Jefferson County hope to avoid new layoffs but may have to raise sewer rates or trim public services. On Tuesday, county commissioners approved resolutions to hire prominent bankruptcy lawyers and to sell bonds later in case money is needed to emerge from a Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the type that can be filed by governments.

Jefferson County's bankruptcy filing would be nearly twice as large as the record one filed by Orange County, Calif., in 1994

The county already has laid-off hundreds of workers and reduced services because of problems unrelated to the bankruptcy threat, and commissioners said they did not anticipate additional immediate reductions should the county file for bankruptcy.

The county — the state's historic economic hub with some 658,000 residents — has been trying to avoid filing bankruptcy since 2008.

Loan payments skyrocketed because of increasing interest rates as global credit markets struggled, and the county could no longer afford to repay the money. In the meantime, a string of elected officials, public employees and business people were convicted of rigging the sweetheart deals that helped put the county in dire straits.

As if the sewer debt wasn't enough, the county has another major problem: Jefferson County already has laid off about 550 of its 2,300 workers and scaled back government services because courts struck down an occupational tax and business license that provided more than $74 million annually for its operating budget. Callers to a main county telephone number now get a recording telling them the automated system has been taken out of service because of the budget and to look up department numbers the old-fashioned way, in a phone book.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2011, 05:05:08 AM
Egan-Jones Downgrades US credit rating to AA
Dow Jones Newswire ^ | 7/26/2011 | Ackerman & Taylor




Egan-Jones downgrades U.S. rating to AA+ from AAA

-Small ratings agency unlikely to have market-moving implications, but comes amid possible downgrades from larger ratings agencies.

-Egan-Jones cites rising debt-to-GDP ratio for downgrade rather than delay in raising the debt ceiling.

By Andrew Ackerman and Mark Taylor

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Egan-Jones Ratings Co. over the weekend lowered its rating on U.S. debt, the ratings firm's president, Sean Egan, announced Monday.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2011, 06:05:47 AM
U.S. durable-goods orders fall 2.1% in June
Marketwatch ^ | 7.27.11 | Greg Robb



WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Weaker orders for airplanes and automobiles translated into a steeper-than-forecast 2.1% decline in durable-goods orders in June, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday.


For durable-goods orders, raising fears that manufacturing is running out of steam after leading a tepid recovery over the past two years. Without a strong manufacturing sector, it is hard to see how forecasts of a strong second-half recovery can be realized.


The decline was a surprise to even the closest observers. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been forecasting a flat reading.


(Excerpt) Read more at www.marketwatch.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2011, 11:47:03 AM
Layoffs, Layoffs Everywhere You Look There Are Layoffs
The Economic Collapse ^ | 07/25/2011 | Michael Snyder





The competition for jobs in the United States is absolutely brutal right now, and it is about to get worse. A new wave of layoffs is sweeping across America. During tough economic times, Wall Street favors companies that are able to cut costs, and the fastest way to "cut costs" is to eliminate employees. After a period of relative stability, the employment picture in the U.S. is starting to get bleaker again. New applications for unemployment benefits have now been above 400,000 for 15 straight weeks. Finding a good job is kind of like winning the lottery in this economy. Our federal government and the state governments have made it incredibly complicated and extremely expensive to have employees on the payroll. It is getting harder and harder to get a large enough return to justify the time and expense that hiring employees requires. So many firms now find themselves trying to do more with the employees that they already have. Other companies are turning to temp agencies as a way to reduce costs and increase workplace flexibility. A lot of the big corporations are sending as much work as they can overseas where the wages are far lower and where the regulatory environment is much simpler. All of this is really bad news for American workers that just want good jobs that will enable them to provide for their families.

When we first started seeing huge numbers of layoffs a few years ago, I encouraged people to look into government jobs because I thought that they would be a lot more stable in this economic environment.

But today that is no longer true. In fact, state and local governments all over the United States are responding to massive budget problems by slashing payrolls in an unprecedented fashion.

Sadly, the reality is that the number of "secure jobs" is rapidly declining in America. If you have a "job" ("just over broke") right now, you might not have it for long. That is one reason why everyone should be trying to become more independent of the system.

Once upon a time the U.S. economy produced a seemingly endless supply of good jobs. This helped us develop the largest and most vibrant middle class in modern world history.

But now employees are regarded as "costly liabilities", and businesses and governments alike are trying to reduce those "liabilities" as much as they can.

This summer the pace of layoffs seems to be accelerating all over the nation. Just check out what has been happening over the past few weeks....

-Lockheed Martin has made "voluntary layoff offers" to 6,500 employees.

-Detroit is losing even more jobs. American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings has told the remaining 300 workers at its manufacturing facility in Detroit that their jobs will be ending in early 2012.

-Layoff notices have been sent to 519 employees of Milwaukee Public Schools, and more than 400 open positions are going to go unfilled.

-The Gap has announced that up to 200 stores will be closed over the next two years.

-Cisco has announced plans to lay off 9 percent of their total workforce.

-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that 625 city employees will be losing their jobs as a result of cutbacks.

-Pharmaceutical giant Merck recently dumped 51 workers from an office in Raleigh, North Carolina.

-Perkins has revealed that they will be closing 58 restaurants.

-This week, Goldman Sachs announced that they will be eliminating 1,000 jobs.

-Cracker Barrel is rapidly reducing staff at its headquarters.

-Telecommunications and web marketing firm Crexendo has announced that it will be laying off about 30 percent of its workforce.

-Borders has announced that they will be shutting down their remaining 399 stores and that 10,700 employees will lose their jobs.

-Now that the space shuttle program has ended, thousands of NASA employees will be losing their jobs.

Sadly, there are hundreds of more examples of recent layoffs and job losses. One website that tracks these layoffs daily is Daily Job Cuts. It is pretty sad when there are entire websites that are devoted to chronicling how fast our economy is bleeding jobs.

What is worse is that it looks like the pace of layoffs is going to keep increasing.

One report that was recently released found that the number of job cuts being planned by U.S. employers increased by 11.6% in June.

That is not good news.

Things don't look good for employees of state and local governments either.

State and local governments have eliminated approximately 142,000 jobs so far this year.

That is bad, but this is just the beginning.

UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will combine to slash a whopping 450,000 jobs by the end of next year.

Ouch.

Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke keep trying to tell us that the economy is improving, but that simply is not the case. Yes, some of the largest corporations have announced big earnings, but that is not translating into lots of jobs for American workers.

Today, most large corporations only want to have as many U.S. workers as absolutely necessary. In a world where labor has been globalized, it just doesn't make sense for corporations to shell out massive amounts of money to American workers when they can legally get away with paying slave labor wages to workers on the other side of the globe.

So if it seems like it is far harder to get a good job in America today than it used to be, the truth is that you are not imagining things.

Our entire system discourages job creation inside the United States. Every single year, even more ridiculous job-killing regulations are being passed on the federal and state levels. It has become extremely expensive and ridiculously complicated to hire people.

So how are American families surviving? Those that still do have jobs are finding that wages are not going up but the cost of living rapidly is. Many American families are making up the difference by using their credit cards more.

In June, credit card purchases in the U.S. increased by 10.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

It looks like a whole lot of people have not learned their lessons about how bad credit card debt is.

Millions of other American families have fallen out of the middle class completely. Today, one out of every six Americans is enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program. The level of economic suffering in this country continues to soar.

In fact, the number of Americans that are now sleeping in their cars or living in tent cities remains at staggering levels.

What we are witnessing in this country is not just a "recession" or an "economic downturn". What we are witnessing are fundamental economic changes.

Until there are fundamental policy changes in the United States, there will continue to be huge waves of layoffs and millions of jobs will continue to be shipped out of the country.

In the old days, one could go to college, get a good job with one company for 30 years and retire with a big, fat pension.

Now, that way of doing things is completely and totally dead.

Today, there is virtually no loyalty out there. It doesn't matter how long you have been working at a particular job. When it becomes financially expedient to get rid of you, that is exactly what is going to happen.

It is a cold, cruel world out there right now. Don't assume that you will always have a good job. The world is rapidly changing.

Don't get caught in the trap of believing that the way that things were is the way that things are always going to be in the future.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2011, 11:58:24 AM
Why we'll have 10% unemployment soon
Market Watch via Fidelity.com ^ | July 21, 2011 | Jeff Reeves




ROCKVILLE, Md. -- After the nationwide unemployment rate peaked above 10% in late 2009, we saw a fairly rapid decline in jobless rolls during the next 12 months. By March of this year, the headline jobless number had crept back under 9% and renewed optimism in the economic recovery and equity markets.

Well, we've been reading a much different story in the last month or two, with disappointing job creation and a rise in the overall unemployment rate as the meager number of new positions can't keep up with the sheer volume of folks looking for work.

To make matters worse, we are now seeing a disturbing new spate of layoff announcements -- not just a dozen or so workers here and there, but pink slips issued by the thousands at some of the biggest blue chips on Wall Street.

In short, there aren't enough jobs to go around now and there will be even fewer jobs a few months down the road. All this points to significantly higher unemployment in the near future, possibly over the 10% mark.

So where will the biggest damage be done? I think these three sectors top the list:


(Excerpt) Read more at news.fidelity.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2011, 01:01:58 PM
Suicide spikes among middle-aged women 
 Source: MSNBC



At 23, Julie Boledovich Farhat decided to leave her boyfriend, three siblings and beloved hometown in Michigan to focus on saving her mother.

After watching her mom, Gail Boledovich, battle schizophrenia for three years and suffer from hallucinations and delusions, Julie resolved to take an engineering job in Bowling Green, Ky., and buy a house where her mom could live with her and have a beautiful garden and even an art studio to create her mosaics. Gail would be spared the stress of having to work or pay bills. Everything would work out, Julie thought.

But Gail Boledovich never made it to Kentucky. She took her own life on May 1, 2005, two days before her 49th birthday. She died from an overdose of prescription-strength Benadryl pills that doctors had prescribed to her to help her sleep at night. Boledovich took the lethal dose in the middle of the day.

Farhat’s mom could have been anyone’s mom, or aunt — or wife.

A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows a 49 percent increase in emergency department visits for drug-related suicide attempts for women aged 50 and older.

Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43714272/ns/today-today_h... /
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2011, 07:32:19 AM
A rising hunger among children
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/07/28/ranks_of_hungry_children_swell_worrying_doctors/ ^




Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin young children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families.

Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems.

Before the economy soured in 2007, 12 percent of youngsters age 3 and under whose families were randomly surveyed in the hospital’s emergency department were significantly underweight. In 2010, that percentage jumped to 18 percent, and the tide does not appear to be abating, said Dr. Megan Sandel, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health at BMC.

“Food is costing more, and dollars don’t stretch as far,’’ Sandel said. “It’s hard to maintain a diet that is healthy.’’

The emergency room survey found a similarly striking increase in the percentage of families with children who reported they did not have enough food each month, from 18 percent in 2007 to 28 percent in 2010.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: GigantorX on July 28, 2011, 07:40:55 AM
The problem was that the govt. didn't spend enough money.

I mean, 800 billion dollar stimulus? 3.5 trillion dollar budget? 1-1.5 trillion dollar deficits?

You need to take those numbers and multiply them by a factor of 5 and then, maybe, you'd have something.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2011, 07:43:33 AM
The problem was that the govt. didn't spend enough money.

I mean, 800 billion dollar stimulus? 3.5 trillion dollar budget? 1-1.5 trillion dollar deficits?

You need to take those numbers and multiply them by a factor of 5 and then, maybe, you'd have something.

Dont forget to hobble the nation with onerous new regulations, inflation, etc. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2011, 06:46:18 PM
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Unemployment Rate Soars Among African-Americans
Brian Koenig ^ | 7/28/11 | Brian Koenig
Posted on July 28, 2011 9:57:17 PM EDT by Freemarkets101

To put it lightly, the economy is a disaster, but for African-Americans, is it the Great Recession or the Great Depression? It could very well be the latter, according to newly-released data revealing widespread unemployment in the black community.

(Fox News) - Take Charlotte, N.C., for example. It is a jewel of the “new South.” The largest financial center outside of New York City, it's the showcase for next year’s Democratic National Convention. It was a land of hope and opportunity for many blacks with a four-year college degree or higher.

According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, in Charlotte, N.C., the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2 percent. If you add in people who have given up looking for jobs, that number exceeds 20 percent, which, according to economists Algernon Austin and William Darity, has effectively mired blacks in a depression.

ll, maybe that 96 percent of blacks who voted for Obama in 2008 will reverse their votes in 2012. I think the torrent of racial exuberance has peaked.

Indeed, it's time to fix the damn economy.

www.brianekoenig.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2011, 06:50:23 PM
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Container-Ship Plunge Signals U.S. Slowdown
Hellenic Shipping News ^ | July 29, 2011 | Hellenic Shipping News
Posted on July 28, 2011 9:47:20 PM EDT by Vince Ferrer

Plunging rates for chartering container vessels that carry sneakers, furniture and flat-screen TVs may signal a U.S. consumer slowdown and losses for shipping lines in what is traditionally their busiest time of the year. Fees for hiring vessels have fallen 9.3 percent since the end of April, according to the Howe Robinson Container Index, which tracks charter rates for a range of vessels. Last year, the index surged 56 percent in the period, as lines added ships on demand from U.S. and European retailers restocking for the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods.

“The troubling part is that charter rates are falling in the peak season,” said Johnson Leung, head of regional transport at Jefferies Group Inc. in Hong Kong. “Sentiment among consumers and retailers isn’t very strong.” Lines including Hanjin Shipping Co., Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. have also delayed the introduction of peak-season surcharges on Asia-U.S. routes by about two months as U.S. unemployment above 9 percent and slowing sales of new homes damp demand. Combined inbound container traffic at Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two busiest U.S. ports, dropped 4.6 percent last month, the first decline since January 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

‘Dire’ Situation

“The delay in imposing peak-season surcharges shows how dire the situation is,” said Um Kyung A, a Shinyoung Securities Co. analyst in Seoul, who cut her rating on Korean shipping lines to “neutral” from “overweight” yesterday. “The U.S. economy isn’t recovering fast enough to help increase demand.” China Shipping Container Lines Co., the nation’s second- biggest cargo-box carrier, fell 6.9 percent, the biggest drop in almost two years, to close at HK$2.17 in Hong Kong. China Cosco Holdings Co., the nation’s largest, declined 3.7 percent to HK$5.50. Hanjin Shipping Co., South Korea’s largest container shipping company, dropped 4.3 percent, the steepest drop in more than two weeks, in Seoul.

U.S. orders for durable goods unexpectedly dropped 2.1 percent in June, the Commerce Department said yesterday, as companies lost confidence in the strength of the recovery.

The cost of shipping 40-foot containers to the U.S. West Coast from China has slumped 42 percent over the past year to about $1,600 per box, according to data from Clarkson Securities Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker. Derivatives show the price won’t exceed $1,962 before the end of next year.

Shorter Periods

Concerns about the sustainability of economic growth are also contributing to container lines renting ships for shorter periods. Average charter lengths have declined to seven months from 10 months at the beginning of the year, according to Alphaliner. U.S. retailers have slowed imports after inventories reached the highest since January 2009 in May, according to Commerce Department data. Their container shipments likely declined 0.8 percent from a year earlier in June, and they will probably drop 1.3 percent this month before rising 0.6 percent in August, according to the Washington-based National Retail Federation. Shipping lines are also contending with fuel costs that have jumped 53 percent in a year in Singapore trading, alongside a rise in oil prices, and an expanding global fleet. There were 5,056 container ships afloat at the start of July, compared with 4,968 at the start of January, according to shipbroker Clarkson Plc. Total capacity increased 5 percent in the period to 14.89 million boxes.

First-Half Loss

Rising fuel costs and declining rates mean that China Shipping will likely report a first-half loss, it said yesterday. Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas last week said the full-year outlook was “disappointing.” Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (9107), Japan’s third-biggest shipping line, has also made losses on some container routes, President Jiro Asakura said in an interview last month. “Container rates have fallen slightly short of our expectations,” he said. The shipping line has plunged 30 percent in a year in Tokyo trading. In Hong Kong, Orient Overseas has slumped 25 percent and China Shipping Container has tumbled 24 percent. Lines including K-Line, Orient Overseas, Mitsui O.S.K. and Hanjin Shipping are seeking to impose peak-season levies of $400 per 40-foot containers for shipments to the U.S. west coast from Asia, beginning on Aug. 15. Surcharges of that size were expected to be introduced June 15, according to a statement last year from the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement. The group, comprising 15 lines, has limited antitrust protection, which enables it to advise on rates and surcharges.

Retail Inventories

Freight rates may rise later in the year as U.S. retail inventories are still low by historic standards. May stockpiles were 7 percent down from three years earlier. That could help cause retail container imports to jump more than 10 percent from last year in September, October and November, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retailers have pared stock levels as they “are so fearful of getting stuck with inventory” after losses during the 2009 slump, said Barclays Capital analyst Jon Windham. “That means more people will be trying to stuff in cargo later in the year.” Shipping lines have also cut services in a bid to boost rates. Mitsui O.S.K. and partners APL Ltd. and Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. suspended an Asia-U.S service earlier this month. Compania Sudamericana de Vapores S.A. has also halted a similar route. A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM, the world’s three largest container lines, also delayed the start of a joint Asia-U.S. service to next year from May, according to Alphaliner.

Expanding Fleet

Overall, shipping lines have cut Asia-Europe capacity by 3.5 percent and trans-Pacific space by 3.9 percent, according to Um. The size of the laid-up container fleet may also more than double to a capacity of about 400,000 20-foot containers by the end of this year from 120,000 boxes, according to Alphaliner.

Still, with the overall fleet expanding as new ships enter service, that may not be enough to revive earnings, Um said.

“Any hope of a rebound in the container-shipping industry has been pretty much washed away for this year,” she said. “Demand hasn’t improved much, while capacity and fuel costs have jumped at a much faster pace.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 06:22:14 AM
GDP grows slender 1.3% in second quarter (1Q revised SHARPLY down, markets tanking)
Marketwatch ^ | 7.29.11 | MarketWatch




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Gross domestic product expanded at a paltry 1.3% annual rate, the Commerce Department said Friday to mark the weakest six-month period since the recovery began.


Furthermore, first-quarter GDP was drastically revised downward to show just a 0.4% gain from the initially reported 1.9% improvement. And the recession proved to be deeper than initially projected. See related story about the recession.


Economists had forecast GDP, the inflation-adjusted, seasonally adjusted value of all goods and services produced in the United States, growing at a 1.6% rate in the second quarter.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on July 29, 2011, 06:41:26 AM
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Unemployment Rate Soars Among African-Americans
Brian Koenig ^ | 7/28/11 | Brian Koenig
Posted on July 28, 2011 9:57:17 PM EDT by Freemarkets101

To put it lightly, the economy is a disaster, but for African-Americans, is it the Great Recession or the Great Depression? It could very well be the latter, according to newly-released data revealing widespread unemployment in the black community.

(Fox News) - Take Charlotte, N.C., for example. It is a jewel of the “new South.” The largest financial center outside of New York City, it's the showcase for next year’s Democratic National Convention. It was a land of hope and opportunity for many blacks with a four-year college degree or higher.

According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, in Charlotte, N.C., the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2 percent. If you add in people who have given up looking for jobs, that number exceeds 20 percent, which, according to economists Algernon Austin and William Darity, has effectively mired blacks in a depression.

ll, maybe that 96 percent of blacks who voted for Obama in 2008 will reverse their votes in 2012. I think the torrent of racial exuberance has peaked.

Indeed, it's time to fix the damn economy.

www.brianekoenig.com



Its all whiteys fault.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on July 29, 2011, 06:42:32 AM
GDP grows slender 1.3% in second quarter (1Q revised SHARPLY down, markets tanking)
Marketwatch ^ | 7.29.11 | MarketWatch




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Gross domestic product expanded at a paltry 1.3% annual rate, the Commerce Department said Friday to mark the weakest six-month period since the recovery began.


Furthermore, first-quarter GDP was drastically revised downward to show just a 0.4% gain from the initially reported 1.9% improvement. And the recession proved to be deeper than initially projected. See related story about the recession.


Economists had forecast GDP, the inflation-adjusted, seasonally adjusted value of all goods and services produced in the United States, growing at a 1.6% rate in the second quarter.


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



Guys, only more pain for a long long time. Be prepared or be fucked.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 10:00:05 AM
New Balance struggles as last major athletic shoe brand still manufacturing in U.S.
The Washington Post ^ | Thursday, July 28, 2011 | Peter Whoriskey





The last major athletic shoe brand manufacturing in the United States is watching closely as the Obama administration negotiates a free-trade agreement with Vietnam and seven other countries, and it is unclear whether the company can stand up to a flood of shoes from overseas.

NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine — At the factory here owned by New Balance, the last major athletic shoe brand to manufacture footwear in the United States, even workers on the shop floor recognize that in purely economic terms, the operation doesn’t make sense.

The company could make far more money if, like Nike and Adidas, it shifted virtually all of these jobs to low-wage countries.

So employees try working each shift to make it up. Conversations on the shop floor are sparse at best, and the tasks at each work station have been stripped of waste and precisely timed. Workers cut leather for a pair of shoes in 88 seconds, handle precise stitching in 37 seconds and glue soles to uppers even faster.

“The company already could make more money by going overseas, and they know it,” said Scott Boulette, 35, a burly team leader who has his son’s name tattooed in Gothic letters down his left forearm. “So we hustle.”

Now, however, comes what may be an insurmountable challenge. The Obama administration is negotiating a free-trade agreement with Vietnam and seven other countries, and it is unclear whether the plant can stand up to a flood of shoes from that country, already one of the leading exporters of footwear to the United States.

“We are deeply concerned by the inclusion of Vietnam in a potential free-trade agreement,” said Rob DeMartini, president and chief executive of New Balance.


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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 11:22:08 AM
Medical-device manufacturer to lay off 1400 in the US
Hot Air ^ | 7/29/11 | Ed Morrissey





In March 2010, Nancy Pelosi warned us that we had to pass ObamaCare to “find out what’s in it.” What is in it is jobs for China. What’s not in it is jobs for Americans, as the Boston Globe reports today (via NewsAlert):  


Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since last year.

The company would not say how many jobs will be lost in Massachusetts, where fewer than 2,000 of its 25,000 employees are based. In February 2010, Boston Scientific said it would pare 1,300 jobs worldwide, but similarly did not say where.

Yesterday’s move, a day after Boston Scientific disclosed it was investing $150 million and hiring 1,000 people in China, raised fears that the company will gradually shift more work to foreign sites with less government oversight and lower costs than the United States.

Massachusetts state Senator James Elridge (D-Acton) reacted … predictably:

“My sense is, sadly, that like many other American companies, they are shedding jobs in Massachusetts and adding jobs overseas,’’ Eldridge said. “And this is a company making greater profits, so it’s even more outrageous.’’

Yes, that’s what happens when the American government makes it more expensive to do business in the US.


(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 11:56:18 AM
Economy grinds to halt as consumers pull back
CNN Money ^ | 7/29/2011 | Annalyn Censky




NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Consumers all but shut their wallets in the second quarter, causing the U.S. economy to grow at a tepid pace.

To make matters worse, growth in the first quarter was much slower than initially thought, according to new government figures released Friday.

"It's quite worrisome as the economy remains at stall speed in the second quarter," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets. "If that continues, then it would raise the risks of a double dip."

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, rose at an annual rate of 1.3% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said.

While that's an increase from the revised 0.4% growth rate in the first three months of the year, it is hardly good news. The government originally reported that the economy grew at a 1.9% annualized rate in the first quarter.

The growth in the second quarter was also below the 1.8% increase expected by economists surveyed by CNNMoney.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 12:38:28 PM
Improving Mexican economy draws undocumented immigrants home from California
smagagnini@sacbee.com
Published Thursday, Jul. 28, 2011


http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/28/v-print/3799513/improving-mexican-economy-draws.html



There are fewer undocumented immigrants in California – and the Sacramento region – because many are now finding the American dream south of the border.

"It's now easier to buy homes on credit, find a job and access higher education in Mexico," Sacramento's Mexican consul general, Carlos González Gutiérrez, said Wednesday. "We have become a middle-class country."

Mexico's unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness in the United States.

An estimated 300,000 undocumented immigrants have left California since 2008, though the remaining 2.6 million still make up 7 percent of the population and 9 percent of the labor force, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Among metropolitan areas with more than 1 million residents, Sacramento County ranks among the lowest, with an unauthorized population of 4.6 percent of its 1.4 million residents in 2008, according to Laura Hill, a demographer with the PPIC.

The Sacramento region, suffering from 12.3 percent unemployment and the construction bust, may have triggered a large exodus of undocumented immigrants, González Gutiérrez said.

The best-paid jobs for undocumented migrants are in the building industry, "and because of the severe crisis in the construction business here, their first response has been to move into the service industry," González Gutiérrez said. "But that has its limits. Then, they move to other areas in the U.S. to find better jobs – or back to Mexico."

Hill said it's hard to know whether the benefit of having fewer undocumented migrants outweighs the cost to employers and taxpayers.

California may have to provide less free education to the children of undocumented immigrants and less emergency medical care, she said, but it will also get less tax revenue.

In 2008, at least 836,100 undocumented immigrants filed U.S. tax returns in California using individual tax identification numbers known as ITINS, said Hill, who conducted the tax survey.

Based on those tax returns, the study found there were 65,000 undocumented immigrants in Sacramento County that year, far fewer than in many other big counties.

Sacramento's undocumented population ranked 10th in the state that year, behind Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Alameda, Contra Costa and Ventura.

There were an estimated 12,000 undocumented immigrants in Yolo County; 9,000 in the Sutter-Yuba area; and 8,000 in Placer County.

An analysis of local ZIP codes showed that Sacramento (95815, 95823, 95824), West Sacramento (95605), Clarksburg (95612), Esparto (95627), Guinda (95637), Knights Landing (95645), Winters (95694) and Woodland (95776) each had an undocumented population of 10 percent to 15 percent.

Yolo County relies heavily on migrant workers to grow and harvest crops.

"People in construction are now turning to agriculture; it's the start of the tomato season so the harvesters will be jump-started pretty soon," said Woodland Mayor Art Pimentel, whose 55,000 residents are 48 percent Latino, some of them undocumented.

Some aren't sticking around for the upcoming tomato harvest, said Sylvina Frausto, secretary of Holy Rosary Church in Woodland. "Some have a small parcel in Mexico. They own their own home there, so instead of renting here they go back to their small business there."

Many raise animals, run grocery stores or sell fruits and goods on street corners.

"They're going back home because they can't get medical help or government assistance anymore," Frausto said, "And when it's getting so difficult for them to find a job without proper documentation, it's pushing them away."

Anita Barnes, director of La Familia Counseling Center on Franklin Boulevard in Sacramento, said she recently spoke to a high school graduate who had lost his job in a restaurant and was thinking of going back to Mexico.

"He came over with his mom, who was in the process of losing her restaurant job," Barnes said. "It's frightening, especially for the children. They feel this is their country, they don't know anything else, and they find they can't get driver's licenses or jobs."

As its economy rebounds, Mexico "is becoming a better option than it was in the past, but you still have to find a job and reconnect," Barnes said.

While the weakened U.S. economy, rising deportations and tougher border enforcement have led to fewer undocumented migrants, changes in Mexico are playing a significant role, González Gutiérrez said.

Mexico's average standard of living – including health, education and per capita income – is now higher than those in Russia, China and India, according to the United Nations.

Mexico's growing middle class "reduces the appetites to come because there are simply many more options" at home, González Gutiérrez said. "Most people who decided to migrate already have a job in Mexico and tend to be the most ambitious and attracted to the income gap between the U.S. and Mexico."

Mexico's economy is growing at 4 percent to 5 percent, benefiting from low inflation, exports and a strong banking system, the consul said.

Mexico's birthrate is also declining sharply. "As a natural consequence of us transforming from a rural to an urban society, we are running out of Mexicans to export," González Gutiérrez said. "Our society's growing at a rate of 2.1 children per woman – in the 1970s it was more than five."

Once the U.S. economy recovers, the flow of migrants moving north "may go up again, although most likely they will not reach the peak levels we saw in the first half of the decade," González Gutiérrez said.

WORKSHOP TODAY

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will host a free information session in Spanish at 650 Capitol Mall, second floor, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. today on how to avoid scams. Immigrants who can't come in person or access the workshop online can call (800) 857-4862 and provide the pass code SERVICIO when asked for a password.

• For more information, visit www.uscis.gov/enlace.


© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

 
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.

• Read more articles by Stephen Magagnini





________________________ ________________________ ___


Maybe Obama's Depression does have one bright spot. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 07:15:54 PM
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Spending Has Collapsed, The Economy Is Next
SHTF Plan ^ | 7-29-2011 | Mab Slavo
Posted on July 29, 2011 9:24:01 PM EDT by blam

Spending Has Collapsed, The Economy Is Next

Mac Slavo
July 29th, 2011
SHTFplan.com

We’ve been warning about it since the beginning of this crisis – that consumers are simply not interested in spending money they don’t have. In the first quarter of 2011 the government attempted to convince us that the economy was growing at a slow, but steady, rate of 1.8%. This was used as evidence the economic recovery had taken hold.

President Obama and his administration specifically told us that a depression had been avoided:

We can safely say that we are no longer facing the potential collapse of our financial system and we’ve avoided the depression many feared.

President Barrack Obama – December 9, 2009

But today’s growth domestic product revisions suggest otherwise.

That 1.8% that convinced the average uninformed American economic activity had increased was nothing but a fabrication – a bold faced lie – and that’s official. The government revised that number to 0.4% – a significant difference. They were only off by about 75%.

Today, the government released it’s second quarter GDP numbers, and as was predicted in many alternative media circles, it’s a clear indication that things are turning for the worse. Karl Denninger weighs in:


Sorry guys, the clock has rung. It’s not ringing any more, it has rung and the spring-powered alarm has run out.



There is no recovery to speak of.

Four years into this the policies of the government and Fed have failed.

It gets worse:

“The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 3.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 4.0 percent in the first Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.” (source: US Dept. of Commerce)

Your standard of living is being shredded.

“Real personal consumption expenditures increased 0.1 percent in the second quarter, comparedwith an increase of 2.1 percent in the first.” (source: US Dept. of Commerce)

Spending has effectively collapsed.

This puts into stark relief the reality of the government deficit spending – it is doing nothing more than covering up an economic Depression, and the so-called “exit plan” – that private consumption, investment and borrowing will “take the baton back” is not working.

Some analysts – those who are either in the tank for the government or are completely ignorant to the real facts – will claim that while the second quarter GDP is low, it’s still positive, which suggests there’s still growth.

As we have pointed out in several reports previously, this is simply not the case once you factor in price inflation and monetary easing:

Note that they have the CPI at 10%. If we use that to convert nominal GDP to actual GDP, then we get big negative economic growth. In other words, the reported GDP growth is just price increases.

Source: Global GDP Growth Numbers are Fictitious, Fail to Account For Inflation

If it wasn’t clear up until today, it should be now. Nothing the government tells us can be trusted. They will say anything and do anything to avoid panic. But despite their “best” efforts they cannot stop the inevitable. Rest assured, panic is coming.

TOPICS: Politics; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: budget; cwii; debt; economy; gdp; government; growth; Click to Add Keyword

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Fury on July 29, 2011, 07:17:30 PM
Will the liberal cries of "Bush's fault" drown out the hunger pains coming from the stomachs of tens of millions of starving Americans? I doubt it.  :-\
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2011, 07:20:37 PM
Will the liberal cries of "Bush's fault" drown out the hunger pains coming from the stomachs of tens of millions of starving Americans? I doubt it.  :-\

The problem is that we are living through bushs' third term.  The worst of bush got a jolt w Obama x 100.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Fury on July 29, 2011, 07:22:19 PM
The problem is that we are living through bushs' third term.  The worst of bush got a jolt w Obama x 100.

100 is a bit of an understatement. In 2.5 years Obama has knocked off over 2/3 of what Bush spent in 8 (and that's even factoring in the 2 years of profligate spending courtesy of Piglosi/Dingy Reid).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2011, 04:40:35 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/nyregion/new-york-moves-to-stop-foraging-in-citys-parks.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print


Ha ha ha.     Now people are foraging NYC parks for food animals and waterfowl.   


Trickle up poverty. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2011, 11:46:37 AM
Merck - 13,000 , HSBC - 10,000 , RIM - 2,000. Serious Layoff Problem
   
Advertisements [?]

 
Edited on Fri Jul-29-11 02:48 PM by OverDone
Source: WSJ

Merck reported a second-quarter profit increase in line with analysts’ expectations, affirmed its revenue guidance for the full year and said it would cut as many as 13,000 additional jobs by the end of 2015



Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/07/29/a-m-vitals-merck... /


Has anyone been paying attention, to the now serious unemployment problem we have here. Just recently we have had a huge up spike in listing. Here are some links below

http://www.dailyjobcuts.com


http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/07/29/a-m-vitals-merck... /
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=14177984
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/HSBC-may-cut-more-than-10...


And theses are just some of the large ones.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2011, 03:48:16 AM
Skip to comments.

Homeless hell in America's Midwest
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020265/Homeless-hell-Americas-Midwest-thousands-middle-class-families-forced-bunker-mattresses-economic-crisis-bites.html ^
Posted on August 1, 2011 6:24:31 AM EDT by kcvl

Thousands of middle-class U.S. families are being forced to sleep on floors in public buildings because so many have lost their homes and jobs in the economic crisis.

These shelters were once the preserve of drug addicts and alcoholics but now normal Americans are having to bed down in halls and corridors as they have no other place to go.

An investigation has also found many from the Midwest are spending their benefits to stay in motels for up to ten days a month to avoid having every night on mattresses surrounded by dozens of strangers. 

Experts say that these middle-class people are from 'the boom suburbs that have now gone bust'. 

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: whork25 on August 01, 2011, 03:50:08 AM
I thought poor homeless people were just leaches who dosnt want to work ???
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2011, 05:09:21 AM
HSBC Eliminating 30,000 Jobs
WSJ ^


HSBC announces plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs by 2013.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2011, 07:30:10 AM
HUGE MISS ON ISM: Manufacturing Index Collapses To 50.9 (DJIA Plunges)
TBI ^ | 8-1-2011 | Joe Weisenthal




HUGE MISS ON ISM: Manufacturing Index Collapses To 50.9

Joe Weisenthal
Aug. 1, 2011, 9:55 AM


The number: Huge miss. July ISM came in at just 50.9 vs. estimates of 54.5. It's also well below 55.3.

The prices paid index plunged from 68 to 59.0.

According to Bloomberg, it's the lowest since July 2009.

Stocks are in the red.

Bad news for the economy.

Original post: Given the run of weak data, this will be a closely-watched one..

July ISM (a survey of manufacturing) is expected to come in at 54.5 vs. 55.3 last month.

The "whisper" is probably lower.

Stocks are up, but have came way below earlier highs.

The number is out at 10:00 AM. We'll have it here LIVE.


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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2011, 11:06:25 AM
Source: Bloomberg



U.S. auto sales have stalled, casting doubt on a rebound this year as persistent unemployment and tighter lending deter buyers.

Light-vehicle deliveries in July, to be released tomorrow, may have run at an 11.8 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would trail the 12.5 million rate in the first half.

The auto industry may lose 1.5 million in projected sales in 2011, according to consultant AlixPartners LLP. The economy isn’t picking up as fast as anticipated, and the drag may continue beyond this year, AlixPartners said. That may put a return to average annual sales of 16.8 million vehicles from 2000 to 2007 out of reach. Unemployment reached the highest level this year in June.

“This curve of unemployment looks like it’s got a lot of legs,” Mark Wakefield, an AlixPartners director in Southfield, Michigan, said in a telephone interview. “This is one of the first recent cycles where demand is not going to go back above its prior peak, because there are just so many structural things that are different this time around.”

MORE...

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-01/auto-sales-sta...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2011, 09:28:59 AM
..Americans cut spending for first time in 20 months

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER - AP Economics Writer | AP – 45 mins ago


....tweet106ShareEmailPr int......Related Content.

...In this June 23, 2011 photo, Billy Garlin, left, a sales and leasing consultant at …

....WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years after seeing their incomes grow by the smallest amount in nine months. The latest data offered a troubling sign for an economy that is adding few jobs and barely growing.

Consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. It was the first decline since September 2009.

Some of the decline was the result of food and energy prices moderating after sharp increases earlier this year. When excluding spending on those items, consumer spending was flat.

Still, consumers also cut back on big-ticket items, such as cars and appliances, which help drive growth.

Incomes rose 0.1 percent, the smallest gain since September. Many people are also pocketing more of their paychecks. The personal savings rate rose to 5.4 percent of after-tax incomes, the highest level since August 2010.

The data confirmed last week's report that showed the economy expanded at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the spring after only 0.4 percent growth in the first three months of the year. It also highlighted that consumer spending softened at the end of the April-June quarter, which could mean the sluggish economy is worsening.

Stocks fell after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 100 points in morning trading. Broader indexes also declined.

"The recent run of weak economic news has made us more concerned that any rebound will be more modest than previously looked likely," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

High gas prices and unemployment have squeezed household budgets this spring. Many Americans are cutting back on purchases of cars, furniture, appliances and electronics. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Employers have responded by reducing hiring. The economy added just 18,000 net jobs in June, the fewest in nine months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest level this year.

The government issues its July employment report on Friday.

Businesses are creating fewer jobs despite reporting strong earnings and sitting on large cash reserves.

"What worries me is that businesses are deriving their strong earnings growth through productivity gains, limited wage increases and foreign activities," said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "While that may be good for an individual firm, when most companies do that, income gains become so limited that spending and ultimately growth fades. That is the problem we are now facing."

The biggest drop in spending occurred in such items as food and gasoline. Spending on such non-durable goods fell 5.5 percent, reflecting price declines after spikes early this year. An inflation gauge tied to consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in June, the biggest one-month decline since September 2009. Outside of food and energy, prices were up 0.1 percent.

Still, spending on durable goods, such as autos, also fell in June 1.1 percent. One reason for the decline may be the shortage of popular car models in showrooms. Supply chain disruptions caused by the March earthquake in Japan have limited production of auto and electronic parts.

Many analysts are still hopeful that growth will rebound in the second half of the year. They expect auto production and sales to pick up once supply chain disruptions ease.

But the turnaround may not come for a while. Manufacturers had their weakest growth in two years in July, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

And gas prices remain high, even after coming down from their peak of nearly $4 a gallon in early May. The average price for a gallon was $3.70 on Tuesday — 14 cents higher than a month ago and almost a dollar more than the same month last year.

Some economists have begun to trim their forecasts for the second half of the year. Dales and his colleagues at Capital Economics have cut their outlook for second half growth to 2 percent, down from a previous forecast of 2.5 percent growth in the second half of this year.

..
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2011, 11:58:30 AM
Stocks drop as economic worries resurface (DJIA drops below 12K)
CNN Money ^ | 8/2/2011 | Ken Sweet




NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks declined sharply Tuesday, as another disappointing economic report did little to calm investors' fears over the pace of the recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) sank 151 points, or 1.3%; the S&P 500 (SPX) was down 19 points, or 1.5%; and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) was down 38 points, or 0.8%.

The Dow is on pace for a eighth straight day of declines, the first since October 2008 -- when the financial system was in the depths of the 2008 crisis. The S&P 500 has broken through several key technical resistance points as well, including the index's closely-watched 200-day moving average.

Stocks were weighed down by a consumer spending report showing Americans continued to pull back in June. The Commerce Department said personal incomes edged up 0.1%, while spending slipped 0.2%. Economists were expecting income and spending to rise 0.1%.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2011, 01:46:16 PM
Dow Logs 8-Day Loss, S&P Negative for Year
Published: Tuesday, 2 Aug 2011 | 4:20 PM ET Text Size By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC.com Writer



Stocks sold off sharply to end at session lows Tuesday with the Dow down for an eighth day amid economic worries and even after President Obama signed a bill to avoid a debt default.


Major U.S. Indexes.DJIA11866.62-265.87-2.19%.NCOMP2669.24-75.37-2.75%0.SPX1254.05-32.89-2.56%0

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 265.87 points, or 2.19 percent, to end below the psychologically-important 12,000 mark at 11,866.62. The last time the blue-chip index declined for eight-consecutive days was in October 2008.

All 30 Dow stocks ended lower, with Pfizer [PFE  18.14    -0.87  (-4.58%)   ] and GE [GE  17.21    -0.76  (-4.23%)   ] leading the biggest laggards.

The S&P 500 plummeted 32.89 points, or 2.56 percent, to close at 1,254.05, slipping into negative territory for the year. 

The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 75.37 points, or 2.75 percent, to finish at 2,669.24. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are both below their 200-day moving averages.

The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, gained above 24.

All 10 key S&P sectors tumbled, led by consumer discretionary and industrials.

Volume was better than usual with the consolidated tape of the NYSE at 5.1 billion shares, while 1.25 billion shares changed hands on the floor.


RELATED LINKS
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Just hours before a deadline to avert a debt default, President Obama signed a bill that raises the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and sets in motion a plan to reduce U.S. deficits over 10 years. Obama said the bill was a "first step" toward ensuring the U.S. lives within its means but that more was needed to rebuild the economy.

Meanwhile, rating agency Fitch said while the risk of a sovereign default is "extremely low," the government still has more work to do to maintain its credit rating.

“I’m not so sure that the debt deal is well received or if it’s what everyone wanted,” said Steven Carl, head equity trader at Williams Capital Group. “[Traders have] more of a macro view to see if anything happens overseas.”

In Europe, the spreads for Spanish and Italian 10-year bonds dropped, pushing yields up to a new record high amid worries that slowing economic growth will hamper efforts to tame the nations’ debt loads. 



"There's no way for [Spain and Italy] to sustain their debt," said Dave Rovelli, managing director of equity trading at Canaccord Genuity. "All the banks in Europe own each others' debt...It wasn't so bad when it was Greece and Portugal, but now you're getting Italy and Spain."

Industrials have tumbled in recent weeks amid worries over a slowing global economy, sending the sector into correction mode. Companies including GE [GE  17.21    -0.76  (-4.23%)   ], Deere [DE  76.82    -1.90  (-2.41%)   ], Ingersoll Rand [IR  35.22    -2.05  (-5.5%)   ] have sank almost 20 percent from their highs in April/May.

Gold surged above $1,645 an ounce—its ninth record high this year amid growing fears about the euro zone debt crisis in addition to the gloomy outlook for the U.S. economy. Gold miners were among the only sectors in the black led by firms including Newmont Mining [NEM  56.13    0.80  (+1.45%)   ] and Anglogold [AU  43.29    1.02  (+2.41%)   ].

Wal-Mart [WMT  51.68    -0.94  (-1.79%)   ] declined after Jefferies cut its rating on the big-box retailer to "hold" from "buy."

Poll: Are You Buying Walmart Amid Downgrades?
Meanwhile, automakers including Ford [F  11.85    -0.50  (-4.05%)   ] and GM [GM  27.05    -1.02  (-3.63%)   ] posted July sales in line with expectations. Meanwhile, Toyota [TM  81.29    -0.48  (-0.59%)   ] sales plunged 23 percent, as the Japanese automaker struggles to recover after the earthquake. Toyota also posted its first earnings loss in two years as production was hammered.

Also among earnings, Pfizer [PFE  18.14    -0.87  (-4.58%)   ] reported profit and sales that edged expectations, but were still lower due to generic competition.

Archer Daniels Midland [ADM  28.60    -1.88  (-6.17%)   ] slipped after the agricultural processor said earnings declined as a sharp jump in income tax expenses dragged on results.

Coach [COH  61.03    -4.26  (-6.52%)   ] tumbled after the handbag maker said margins declined. Meanwhile, Jefferies raised its price target on the firm to $60 from $54.

Ctrip.com [CTRP  40.06    -4.92  (-10.94%)   ] plunged to lead the Nasdaq 100 laggards after the Chinese travel agency reported lighter-than-expected revenue, while profit came in line with estimates.

CBS [CBS  26.28    -1.00  (-3.67%)   ] is expected to report earnings after-the-bell. Evercore Partners boosted its price target to $31 from $28.

Among European banks, Barclays [BCS  14.02    -0.33  (-2.3%)   ] slipped after the bank said profits fell and announced it is cutting about 3,000 jobs this year. This comes after HSBC  [HBC  49.30    -0.36  (-0.72%)   ] also said it would be cutting up to 30,000 jobs worldwide.

On the economic front, consumer spending unexpectedly slid in June to post the first decline since September 2009, according to the Commerce Department, suggesting growth could remain tepid in the third quarter. The disappointing news follows a weak manufacturing report in the previous session.

The government's key monthly jobs report for July is expected Friday and will be closely watched by investors.

European shares hit their lowest close in 11 months amid concerns over weak global growth and concerns over the euro zone debt crisis.

Coming Up This Week:

WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps, Challenger job-cut report, ADP employment report, factory orders, ISM non-mfg index, oil inventories; Earnings from Comcast, MasterCard

THURSDAY: Weekly jobless claims, money supply, chain-store sales; Earnings from GM, AIG, Kraft, Sunoco
FRIDAY: Employment situation, consumer credit; Earnings from P&G

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 05:51:24 AM
"Sudden And Unexpected" Burst Of Downsizing Causes Layoffs To Explode Nearly 60% In July
TBI ^ | Joe Weisenthal




"Sudden And Unexpected" Burst Of Downsizing Causes Layoffs To Explode Nearly 60% In July

Joe Weisenthal
Aug. 3, 2011, 7:32 AM

July was a HUGE month for layoffs according to a survey from Challenger.

The announcement is here:

A sudden and unexpected burst in private-sector downsizing pushed the number of announced job cuts to a 16-month high of 66,414 in July, according the latest report on downsizing activity released Wednesday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

The 66,414 job cuts last month were up 60 percent from the previous month, when employers announced plans to shed 41,432 workers. The July figure was 59 percent higher than the 41,676 layoffs recorded in July 2010. It was the largest monthly total since March 2010, when 67,611 job cuts were announced by the nation’s employers.

The July job-cut surge was dominated by a flurry of large layoffs by a handful of private-sector employers, including Merck & Co., Borders, Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Boston Scientific. The job cuts from these five companies alone accounted for 38,100 or 57 percent of the July total.

Here's a look at month-by-month totals:




Next up: The ADP report comes out at 8:15.


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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 07:52:10 AM
Job Cuts Surge 59% In July 2011, Highest Since March 2010 As Hiring Intentions Plunge
Zero Hedge ^ | 08/03/2011 | Tyler Durden


Wednesday, August 03, 2011 10:51:36 AM



Those looking for an optimistic early look of this Friday's NFP (nobody cares about the ADP any longer) should probably avoid the Challenger lay off data just released. As Bloomberg summarizes, U.S. planned firings up 59% Y/y in July to 66,414, led by pharma, retail; largest number in 16 months. The number includes Merck’s plan to cut ~13k jobs. This 3rd consecutive increase; “seems to provide additional evidence” recovery has stalled, according to CEO John A. Challenger. New Jersey (where MRK is based) led states, with 13,330 cuts, followed by Michigan. Employers also announced plans to hire 10,706 after prior month’s 15,498: this is just barely better than the lowest number this year printed in May when just 10,248 businesses announced intention to hire, and well off the 72,581 highs in February. Bottom line: subzero NFP print coming?

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 10:19:50 AM
Forget Recession, Think Depression
Townhall.com ^ | August 3, 2011 | Bill Tatro




I’m not sure how the math works, and once again it seems I’m lost in political definitions.

No, I’m not talking about raising the debt ceiling by $10 trillion over ten years, reducing it to $7 trillion (maybe?), and then having a kumbaya moment about responsibility.

Rather, I’m referring to Sir Isaac Newton’s laws regarding a body in motion remaining in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

I’ve talked to businessmen, laborers, housewives, and even teenagers, and they all say the same thing about our current economy.

“I sure hope it gets better soon, but it really looks like things are only getting worse.”

These words are also being echoed by statisticians who measure such things. The most recent ISM report shows that manufacturing has come to a standstill, thus discarding the term “soft patch” in favor of the newest global buzzwords: “global slowdown.”

Housing, as represented by Case-Shiller, continues its decline to what seems to be a bottomless pit. Unemployment continues to accelerate as the next rounds of layoffs, from Cisco to HSBC, are announced with no relief in sight.

The European Union is imploding as CDS spreads tell the tale of a strategy in crisis. Finally, the charade in Washington, D.C. …well, enough said. Everything seems to be getting worse, and the facts bear this conclusion.

Let’s examine the trend, in Newton’s law.

Third quarter 2010 GDP revised downward from 2.6% to 2.5%. Fourth quarter 2010 GDP changed from 3.1% to 2.3%, and first quarter 2011 GDP adjusted from 1.9% to 0.4%.

So the revised numbers show that each quarter was worse than the last, now a body in slower motion.

However, what confuses me is the most recent 2011 GDP report for the second quarter, which was reported at 1.3%.

While most economists were shocked, exclaiming this was a very low number, I was shocked it was that high.

What could have happened to make the GDP 225% better in the second quarter than in the first quarter of this year? Absolutely nothing, and that’s where revision comes into play over the next several months.

Look for the second quarter of 2011 to be revised down, down, down. If not ultimately adjusted to a negative number, it will be very close. This sets the stage for a collapsing third and fourth quarter of this year.

Everyone is worried about the double-dip, and some even think recession. If we only get away with a recession, we’ll be lucky.

I, think Newton has it right.

This “body” (economy) has much more painful “motion” in its future before we ever see improvement.

Recession can be followed by depression, and I believe a depression is inevitable.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 10:23:44 AM
US Less Than 3 Years Away From Being Greece: Walker
CNBC ^ | 8/2/11 | Jeff Cox




The US is only a few years away from reaching the same debt levels that pushed Greece to the brink of ruin, former comptroller general and head of the Comeback America Initiative David Walker said.

As the ratio of its debt to gross national product eclipsed 100 percent and surged toward 150 percent, Greece has twice in the last two years nearly defaulted on its debt. Only successive bailout packages from the European Union and International Monetary Fund prevented catastrophe


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 10:41:26 AM
Unemployment rose in nearly all US cities
AP via Yahoo! News ^ | August 3, 2011




WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment rose in more than 90 percent of U.S. cities in June, mirroring a national slowdown in hiring.

The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose in 345 large metro areas. It dropped in 20 cities and was unchanged in seven. That's worse than May, when the rate rose in only 210 cities and a sharp reversal from April, when unemployment actually fell in nearly all metro areas.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2011, 03:45:48 PM
Analysis: Obama, Bernanke out of ammo to boost jobs, growth

U.S. avoids default but fails to dispel economy fears

Tue, Aug 2 2011Analysis & OpinionDebt deal puts off tax decisions for another day



 President Barack Obama meets with Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, June 29, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

By Alister Bull and Jonathan Spicer

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK | Wed Aug 3, 2011 5:07pm EDT

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States has a jobs problem and there's not a lot President Barack Obama or Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can do about it.

In the face of rising risks of a recession that could imperil his re-election chances next year, Democrat Obama wants Congress to extend a payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits that are due to expire in December.

But the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is emboldened by budget concessions it made Obama swallow to lift the country's debt limit this week and he has little political leverage to win significant fresh spending to aid growth.

"Obama does not have much presidential persuasion left. He is running out of capital," said James Thurber, of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

Obama's political opponents have been openly scornful of the impact of two previous stimulus packages, which were accompanied by extraordinary measures by the Federal Reserve to kick-start the U.S. economy.

"It seems we've thrown everything at it. We've had QE1 and QE2, Stimulus 1 and Stimulus 2, and the unemployment rate is still 9.2 percent," said John Makin, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Maybe there are just not many options here at this point," he said.

World stock markets shuddered after disappointing U.S. growth and manufacturing numbers and investors rushed to buy long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds in a move that suggests deep concerns about the economic outlook.

Data on Friday is expected to confirm the U.S. unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.2 percent in July.

Lawrence Summers, a top Obama adviser until last year, wrote in a Reuters column on Tuesday the odds of another U.S. recession were 1 in 3. Goldman Sachs has said a slight tick up in the unemployment rate could provide a strong recession signal.

HARD-WON COMPROMISE

Obama signed a hard-won compromise on Tuesday to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt limit in return for measures that will reduce deficits by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years.

Joel Prakken of the forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers estimates an extension of the payroll tax cut could add about 0.25 percentage points to U.S. growth next year.

Republicans fought hard to cut spending but are open to tax cuts, and the White House expects bipartisan support when Obama advances the idea in the coming months.

But analysts are skeptical it will make much difference for an economy that is having trouble gaining traction.

"A major option is extending the payroll tax cut. We did that in December, and the economy grew at a 0.6 percent annual rate over the first half of the year," said Makin.

But the economic benefit of extending the payroll tax cut will be curbed by the government spending cuts agreed to Obama, and a weak economy will make hitting deficit-reduction targets that much more difficult.

JPMorgan's Michael Feroli estimates fiscal policy will subtract about 1-3/4 percentage points from growth next year as spending cuts kick in, if the earlier payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance extensions expire on schedule.

"Given that GDP growth has been 1.6 percent over the past four quarters when fiscal policy has been much less of a drag, this doesn't bode well for next year," he said.

JPMorgan has cut its first half 2012 growth forecast to 2 percent from 2.5 pct due to fiscal drag.

Bernanke also seems to have few options at his disposal.

The Fed is not expected to announce an extension of its so-called quantitative easing, or QE, measures to stimulate economic activity at a policy meeting on Tuesday, despite the sense of gloom descending on the economy.

If push comes to shove, the Fed would likely look to cement its promise of keeping in place a loose monetary policy for a long period. It might even consider shifting the composition of its Treasury note holdings toward longer maturities, an option Bernanke has raised as a way to give the economy some relief.

"Someone should do something. Given that the Congress has declared itself unwilling to provide support for the economy, the Fed will feel pressure to try to do what it can," said Barry Eichengreen, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

NO GAME-CHANGER

However, the Fed's options hardly add up to a game-changing play to dramatically improve the U.S. outlook.

"Everyone is really looking to the Fed to support the economy, and I think (Bernanke) would realize that you could only do so much with monetary policy," said Mike Knebel at Portland, Oregon-based Ferguson Wellman Capital Management.

The Fed's scope for more easing of monetary policy has been narrowed by a rise in core inflation, which bottomed at 0.9 percent in December but has since hit 1.3 percent.

As Obama signed the debt deal, which averted a devastating default and reduced the risk to the country's AAA credit rating, he promised more ideas to boost hiring soon.

The White House declined to say what he had in mind or when he would lay out suggestions. But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that Congress could make space to fund a payroll tax cut extension by "locking in" long-term budget savings.

With lawmakers out of town for a summer recess, no major initiative is likely before September, although Obama does plan a Midwestern bus tour from August 15 to August 17 to talk up jobs.

When it comes, the odds favor small steps that allow Obama to show he is taking action, without disturbing investors.

"There is a good case to be made for additional stimulus, but given our fiscal situation it has to be targeted to create more jobs," said Karen Dynan, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

(Additional reporting by Ann Saphir in Chicago and Tim Reid in Washington; Writing by Alister Bull; editing by Vicki Allen and Christopher Wilson)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 04, 2011, 05:57:40 AM
Unemployment aid applications tick down to 400K
AP ^ | August 4, 2011 | Christopher S. Rugaber





WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week, a sign the job market may be improving slowly.

The Labor Department says that applications for unemployment benefits edged down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000. That's the lowest level in four months. The previous week's figure was revised upward from 398,000 to 401,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on August 04, 2011, 06:31:34 AM
Unemployment aid applications tick down to 400K
AP ^ | August 4, 2011 | Christopher S. Rugaber





WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week, a sign the job market may be improving slowly.

The Labor Department says that applications for unemployment benefits edged down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000. That's the lowest level in four months. The previous week's figure was revised upward from 398,000 to 401,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


Fool me once...shame on you.

Fool me 679 times....consider yourself a dipshit.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 04, 2011, 06:41:18 AM
What is so even more disastrous about this is that we are still at 400k a week with a labor force that is millions and millions smaller than 2009!

So it makes that 400k all the more worse.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on August 04, 2011, 06:59:42 AM

I didn't say 'change we can believe in tomorrow'...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"It's been a long, tough journey. But we have made some incredible strides together. Yes, we have. But the thing that we all ought to remember is that as much as good as we have done, precisely because the challenges were so daunting, precisely because we we were inheriting so many challenges, that we're not even halfway there yet. When I said 'change we can believe in' I didn't say 'change we can believe in tomorrow.' Not change we can believe in next week. We knew this was going to take time because we've got this big, messy, tough democracy," President Obama said at a campaign fundraiser in Chicago on Wednesday night.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 04, 2011, 07:02:16 AM
Until and unless obama is walked out of the WH in chains and sent to a rubber room for the remainder of his term, he are going to continue to spiral downward. 

Like Wynn said, he is like a diseased blanket over the nation. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Kazan on August 04, 2011, 09:15:07 AM
Good thing we got that debt ceiling thing sorted out, markets are doing really well now ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 04, 2011, 12:19:57 PM
Dems warn long-term jobless could derail recovery
AP ^ | 8-4-11 | Sham HANANEL




WASHINGTON—The number of long-term unemployed workers—those out of a job for six months or more—remains at near-record levels, an ominous sign that could derail any economic recovery. That's the conclusion of a report from congressional Democrats that recommends new job search and training programs to help the long-term unemployed get back to work. About 42 percent of the nation's 14.4 million jobless are considered long-term unemployed. That includes disproportionately high rates for workers 55 and older, those with only a high school degree, workers in construction or manufacturing and African American workers.


(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Kazan on August 04, 2011, 12:24:26 PM
I guess if you keep saying there is a recovery over and over again you start to believe it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 04, 2011, 12:26:44 PM
I guess if you keep saying there is a recovery over and over again you start to believe it.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 08:25:37 AM
Man Who Jumped White House Fence Speaks Out
7:44 PM, Aug 3, 2011  | 


http://wusa9.com/news/article/161244/373/White-House-Fence-Jumper-It-Was-A-Cry-For-Help




WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- The man who jumped a White House fence Tuesday night talked to us Wednesday after a court appearance.

James Dirk Crudup told 9NEWS the move was a cry for help because he can't find a job in this economy. Crudup says he jumped the fence with partial hopes of being shot by police because he has six kids with two women and felt like a deadbeat dad.

"Any real man would want to provide for their children and in today's economy it is so hard that especially when you have labors you can not make those achievements and the ridicule that I received and feel, you can't imagine," said Crudup.

He is living with a friend and looking for a job. He says he is a handyman and went to a technical school to learn about electrical work. He also got a real estate license.

The White House was put on lockdown for nearly 2 hours after Crudup climbed the north side fence around 7:35 p.m. Tuesday. He was taken into custody and the backpack he was wearing was examined by EOD personnel. No explosives were found -- just books and personal papers.

The 41-year-old was charged with his second felony of contempt of court Wednesday afternoon in DC Superior Court. He said his first felony was for arson.


Tuesday night, a Secret Service spokesperson said Crudup violated an order to stay away from the White House. A document we received Wednesday shows that a judge ordered Crudup to stay away from the area on or about June 7.

Crudup was released Wednesday.

He is expected back in court August 23.

 

Earlier in the week, CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller tweeted that a young girl slipped through the bars of a fence outside the White House.  Secret Service eventually caught her and she was returned to her parents on the other side of the fence.



________________________ ________________

Obama Depression
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 08:38:10 AM
Food stamp use rises to record 45.8 million
By Blake Ellis August 4, 2011: 5:03 PM ET
Food stamp use hit an all-time high in May.



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The number of Americans using the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- more commonly referred to as food stamps -- shot to an all-time high of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That's up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two years ago.

86818PrintThe program provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families, which they can use at stores that accept SNAP benefits.

To qualify for food stamps, an individual's income can't exceed $1,174 a month or $14,088 a year -- an amount that is 130% of the national poverty level.

The average food stamp benefit was $133.80 per person and $283.65 per household in May.

The highest concentration of food stamp users were in California, Florida, New York and Texas -- where more than 3 million residents in each state received food stamps in May.

0:00 / 3:36 Healthy eating on $1 per meal: impossible?

The rise in food stamp use comes as the U.S. job market continues to sputter, and food prices across the country climb.

Unemployment benefits at risk

But a spike in food stamp users in Alabama may have been responsible for pushing total usage unusually higher in May. Following a series of devastating storms, many residents received disaster assistance under the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the USDA said. Food stamp use in the state surged from 868,813 in April to 1,762,481 in May.

"USDA does not anticipate that trend of increase to continue, given that it appears to represent a response to a single disaster," the USDA said.

Are you a new food stamp user? If you're interested in sharing your story about how you get by on food stamps and budget your costs, e-mail blake.ellis@turner.com for the chance to be included in an upcoming story on CNNMoney.com.

First Published: August 4, 2011: 12:21 PM ET
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 09:10:42 AM
Home Ownership Falls to Lowest Level Since 1965
 Source: CNN Money



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As the foreclosure crisis continues to wreak havoc on the housing market, a source of national pride has taken a sour turn. Home ownership is on the decline and, according to a recent Morgan Stanley report, the United States is fast becoming a nation of renters.

<skip>

In fact, once they factored in delinquent mortgage borrowers (the ones who are likely to lose their homes at some point), Morgan Stanley calculated that the home ownership rate is more like 59.2%.

That's the lowest level since the Census Bureau started keeping quarterly records back in 1965 (before that, it recorded home ownership rates once a decade). The Census Bureau's statistics, however, do not factor in mortgage delinquencies.

<more>

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/05/real_estate/home_owners...

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 02:42:20 PM
Wind-Turbine Maker That Obama Praised Files for Bankruptcy
Industry Week ^ | 7/1/11 | Josh Cable



"Renewable energy isn't something pie in the sky," Obama said during a speech at Cardinal. "It's not part of a far-off future. It's happening all across America right now.

" ... It can create millions of new jobs and entire new industries if we act right now."

Jeff Grabner, vice president and head of the company's wind business, told the Plain Dealer earlier in the week that Cardinal had been losing business to European suppliers who had underbid Cardinal, forcing the company to trim its workforce by 15 employees a year ago.


(Excerpt) Read more at industryweek.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: heycomedy on August 05, 2011, 03:05:45 PM
(http://artthreat.net/wp-content/uploads/glenn_beck.jpg)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 07:39:09 PM
Skip to comments.

Obama's Depression by Other Means
Townhall. ^ | August 5, 2011 | Bill Tatro
Posted on August 5, 2011 4:28:20 PM EDT by Kaslin

Having used the “D” (depression) word for what we will experience over the next few years instead of the “R” (recession) word, I’ve been inundated with emails and texts that say I’m simply out of touch with reality.

So, for everyone who disagrees with me, let me provide a clear dose of reality by revisiting the past.

Most people have an image of the 1930’s and the Great Depression as a time period of monumental job loss, vast family dislocation, widespread famine, and severe uncertainty. The typical head of household toiled daily in order to put bread on the table and keep a roof over their family’s head. New clothes were a luxury and an automobile was in many instances, way out of reach.

Quite frankly, many people are in the exact same situation today. Uncertainty, fear, and even panic are pervading the land as our economy grinds slower and slower.

One reason most people cannot make the link between now and the 1930’s is because of the visual image of the soup kitchens.

Today, we still have this important service, as it seems more and more middle class come to find life’s necessities have become life’s luxuries. A hot meal and a warm bed are definitely finding a new audience. But alas, we haven’t seen the lines of people extending around the block like the 30’s.

Why? Are things not as bad, or is there something else?

In the 1930’s, either you had money or you didn’t. There were no credit cards to max and no home equity loans to borrow against. If you didn’t make your house payment, you were foreclosed on and kicked out of your house.

Today, we let people exist as squatters in their own home because it’s favorable for the bank’s balance sheet. However, the main reason it doesn’t feel like a depression to most people is due to the marvel of food stamps.

Almost 46 million people (a record number) are living on food stamps. There’s no need for a soup kitchen when you’re receiving $135 per month from the government. In fact, most recipients receive $285 per household per month. If food stamps existed in the 30’s, there would have been no need for those long lines that we remember seeing in those old black and white photos.

Recently, it was announced the latest monthly jump in food stamp recipients was almost 1.1 million people. Imagine that being the pattern for the rest of Obama’s term.

Extremely frightening and very sad; that’s a potential of 100 million people receiving the equivalent of a daily soup kitchen pass.

In addition, the old photos of men and women in those long soup kitchen lines illustrate they were dressed very properly in suits, dresses, and hats. They were suffering, yet managed to maintain their dignity. From a fashion standpoint, today is totally different.

But make no mistake; the suffering is just as severe.

You can change the way people receive food, but it doesn’t change the simple fact that it was given to them.

Yes, the overall images and perception of our current economic situation may seem less stark, yet millions of Americans are truly experiencing the 1930’s all over again.

That’s just the reality of the situation.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 05, 2011, 07:44:57 PM
Skip to comments.

Obama's Depression by Other Means
Townhall. ^ | August 5, 2011 | Bill Tatro
Posted on August 5, 2011 4:28:20 PM EDT by Kaslin

Having used the “D” (depression) word for what we will experience over the next few years instead of the “R” (recession) word, I’ve been inundated with emails and texts that say I’m simply out of touch with reality.

So, for everyone who disagrees with me, let me provide a clear dose of reality by revisiting the past.

Most people have an image of the 1930’s and the Great Depression as a time period of monumental job loss, vast family dislocation, widespread famine, and severe uncertainty. The typical head of household toiled daily in order to put bread on the table and keep a roof over their family’s head. New clothes were a luxury and an automobile was in many instances, way out of reach.

Quite frankly, many people are in the exact same situation today. Uncertainty, fear, and even panic are pervading the land as our economy grinds slower and slower.

One reason most people cannot make the link between now and the 1930’s is because of the visual image of the soup kitchens.

Today, we still have this important service, as it seems more and more middle class come to find life’s necessities have become life’s luxuries. A hot meal and a warm bed are definitely finding a new audience. But alas, we haven’t seen the lines of people extending around the block like the 30’s.

Why? Are things not as bad, or is there something else?

In the 1930’s, either you had money or you didn’t. There were no credit cards to max and no home equity loans to borrow against. If you didn’t make your house payment, you were foreclosed on and kicked out of your house.

Today, we let people exist as squatters in their own home because it’s favorable for the bank’s balance sheet. However, the main reason it doesn’t feel like a depression to most people is due to the marvel of food stamps.

Almost 46 million people (a record number) are living on food stamps. There’s no need for a soup kitchen when you’re receiving $135 per month from the government. In fact, most recipients receive $285 per household per month. If food stamps existed in the 30’s, there would have been no need for those long lines that we remember seeing in those old black and white photos.

Recently, it was announced the latest monthly jump in food stamp recipients was almost 1.1 million people. Imagine that being the pattern for the rest of Obama’s term.

Extremely frightening and very sad; that’s a potential of 100 million people receiving the equivalent of a daily soup kitchen pass.

In addition, the old photos of men and women in those long soup kitchen lines illustrate they were dressed very properly in suits, dresses, and hats. They were suffering, yet managed to maintain their dignity. From a fashion standpoint, today is totally different.

But make no mistake; the suffering is just as severe.

You can change the way people receive food, but it doesn’t change the simple fact that it was given to them.

Yes, the overall images and perception of our current economic situation may seem less stark, yet millions of Americans are truly experiencing the 1930’s all over again.

That’s just the reality of the situation.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 06, 2011, 11:14:34 AM
 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 07, 2011, 07:14:36 PM
As U.S. Stumbles, Companies Invest In Consumer Growth Overseas [No Confidence in Obama's U.S.]
LATimes ^ | August 07, 2011 | Don Lee
Posted on August 7, 2011 10:15:31 PM EDT by Steelfish

As U.S. Stumbles, Companies Invest In Consumer Growth Overseas Many begin to give up on the ailing American shopper and make plans to chase growing demand in Asia and Latin America.

Shoppers crowd a mall in Brazil, where a growing middle class with more money to spend is a strong incentive for U.S. companies to invest there instead of at home. (Adriano Machado,

By Don Lee

August 8, 2011 Reporting from Washington— Many major U.S. companies are making big plans to expand overseas even as some of them announce new layoffs at home, and there's a chilling reason why: They're beginning to give up on the American consumer as a source of future growth.

For years, U.S. companies went off shore to get cheaper labor and lower manufacturing costs for products to be sold to Americans. Now, as the nation's economy stalls and personal incomes stagnate, they see consumers in Asia and Latin America as offering brighter prospects for future sales and profits.

In effect, as many corporate executives look ahead, the United States has a diminishing place in their thinking.

The nation's tax laws reinforce the pattern. American companies have piled up mountains of profits overseas, but they must pay very high taxes if they bring the money home. So instead of investing back home, they are more apt to put the money into overseas expansion, adding jobs there.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 08, 2011, 05:56:38 AM
NY Times: Second Recession in U.S. Could Be Worse Than First
NY Timies via Yahoo! News ^ | August 7, 2011 | CATHERINE RAMPELL





If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.

Given the tumult of the Great Recession, this may be hard to believe. But the economy is much weaker than it was at the outset of the last recession in December 2007, with most major measures of economic health — including jobs, incomes, output and industrial production — worse today than they were back then. And growth has been so weak that almost no ground has been recouped, even though a recovery technically started in June 2009.

“There is no approachable precedent, at least in the postwar era, for what happens when an economy with 9 percent unemployment falls back into recession,” said Nigel Gault, chief United States economist at IHS Global Insight. “The one precedent you might consider is 1937, when there was also a premature withdrawal of fiscal stimulus, and the economy fell into another recession more painful than the first.”


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 08, 2011, 06:10:13 AM
Rasmussen Consumer Index: Consumer Confidence Falls After Credit Downgrade (70% -- economy worse)
Rasmussen Reports ^ | Monday, August 08, 2011





The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell another point on Monday. At 61.5, consumer confidence is down three points since Standard & Poor’s downgraded the federal government’s credit rating. Seventy percent (70%) now believe that the economy is getting worse. That’s up from 45% at the beginning of 2011.

Data for these updates is derived from a series of nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, today’s update includes two days of data collection after Standard & Poor’s announced their decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. For those two days, consumer confidence is even lower (below 60.0). The Rasmussen Consumer Index has not been below 60.0 for a full three-days since early March 2009.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index is down five points from a week ago, down 10 points from a month ago and 23 points from three months ago. Confidence is now just one point above the lowest levels of the past two years.

For the third straight day, investor confidence has fallen to a new two-year low. The Rasmussen Investor Index fell another point on Monday to 64.7. , investor confidence is down 10 points from a week ago, down 16 points from a month ago, and down 31 points from three months ago. Investor confidence has not been lower since March 13, 2009.

Among Investors, just 10% believe the economy is getting better while 71% believe it is getting worse. At the beginning of the year, investors were evenly divided on this question.


(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 09, 2011, 06:39:57 AM
Many turning to pawn shops amid hard times
SFGATE ^ | August 8, 2011 | Carolyn Said




A steady stream of people in need flows through Granters Jewelry & Loan, an El Cerrito pawn shop with a carved carousel horse in the window and a cigar-store Indian in the vestibule.

Two guys hock a guitar for $300 to get rent money. A woman offers up a diamond ring for cash to pay her PG&E bill.

A man pawns a laptop for $40 to last until payday. A mother with two toddlers in tow counts out $99 to repay a loan plus interest so she can retrieve a necklace and some rings.

"It's hard times," said Tammi Owens of San Pablo. A student of early childhood education, she was pawning her removable "grillz" gold teeth until the school year starts and she gets her financial aid check.

"There are no other options," she said. "I have to pay my bills."

Pawn shops fling open a window onto how hard many Americans are struggling to make ends meet these days.

With credit tight and jobs scarce, more people than ever - including middle-class consumers and small businesses - are hocking possessions to get quick cash, although they pay a price in interest and fees.


(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 09, 2011, 10:55:25 AM
Second-quarter U.S. productivity falls 0.3%
CBS Marketwtch ^ | 8-9-11 | Jeffry Bartash






The productivity of U.S. businesses fell in the second quarter, the government said Tuesday, while first-quarter figures were revised lower to show a decline as labor costs accelerated.

Second-quarter productivity fell by a 0.3% annual rate on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Labor Department. Productivity in the first quarter was revised lower to a 0.6% decline instead of a 1.8% increase.

The economy hasn’t experienced two straight drops in productivity since the second half of 2008. The government also revised productivity for the prior three years, showing a higher increase in 2010 and lower gains in 2009 and 2008.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 11, 2011, 07:31:43 AM

Big Companies With Devastating Layoffs In 2011
24/7 Wall St. | Aug. 11, 2011, 5:00 AM | 5,534 | 4



 
 
Financial markets have been reeling as investors grow more concerned about the economy: An S&P downgrade of the full faith and credit of the United States, dismal GDP data, and ongoing weak employment data trends are just some of the issues contributing to the recent turmoil. What has so far received very little attention in 2011 are the incidents of corporate layoff announcements, especially this summer.

Click here to see the Layoff Kings of 2011 >
The announcements are almost always tied to restructuring of companies, but you can’t have that many big companies simultaneously hiding behind this excuse. What is obvious as a sore thumb is that the weak economy is continuing to hurt business fundamentals, forcing companies to pare down their head counts. Economists also know that there is a difference between furloughs and layoffs. Layoffs generally imply that businesses are anticipating a longer period of slowness. When you see this many layoffs at this many companies at once, the obvious answer is that a system wide weakness is not just present — it is building.

This trend comes at a time when corporate balance sheets are stronger than ever, with many buying back stock and increasing dividends. Interest rates are close to record lows again. The gridlock over the debt ceiling and budget deficits further motivated companies to sit back and not hire. The growing sense is that the new round of layoffs at the major companies may be followed by more layoffs at rival companies.

How long can that last if the economy keeps sliding? From Borders to Research In Motion, to Cisco, pharmaceutical companies, banks, and Wall Street firms — all are getting pushed out the door. Meanwhile, economic indicators are getting worse rather than better. If the numbers get any softer, don’t be surprised by more layoff announcements. At a minimum, this will keep the larger corporate employers from having to make new hires.

Next page: The Layoff Kings of 2011

The Layoff Kings of 2011


Borders Group is now bankrupt and the last of the workers are solely conducting store-closure sales. All stores were being closed, and more than 10,000 workers are wondering if they can get a job at a library or another book store. While particularly in Borders’ case, the shift to digital may be partly to blame, along with with poor management, but the economy is certainly also playing its part in curbing consumer purchases.

Boston Scientific Inc. (NYSE: BSX) announced plans in July to trim an additional 5% to 6% of its workforce. This puts the layoffs between 1,200 to 1,400 employees through the end of 2013. The aim is to cut $225 million to $275 million from the yearly operating costs. Sadly, this is at the same time the company is expanding its China workforce.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has recently announced it would lay off 6,500 employees, or 9% of its full-time workforce. The company aims to trim about $1 billion from its operating costs. But some question whether this is enough, so this number could increase. Consequently, news outlets have claimed that as many as 10,000 layoffs will be announced. This “rebalance” is going to be somewhat system wide and affect many management positions, including about 2,100 who accepted early retirement packages.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is not imminently sending its workers home packing, but it announced in late July that about 2,000 workers — out of its more than 80,000 workers — have accepted voluntary buyouts as the carrier trims flights. Whether the latest drop in fuel matters or not is up in the air (no pun intended).

Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI), in its most recent round of layoffs, announced earlier this summer another 700 employees will lose their jobs. The move will trim another 2% of its nearly 22,000 workforce. Gannet’s more than 80 community and other newspaper units have been affected by the advertising community’s environment slowness. The big problem in media operations is that the trajectory remains one of decline.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) left the door open to changes, but said in July it could cut roughly 1,000 jobs. The aim is to trim about $1.2 billion from operating costs. If you just use the headcount and the implied savings, it comes to about $120,000 per worker per year. Goldman’s headcount was close to 35,500 in its most recent quarter.

HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HBC) has exited retail operations in Poland and Russia, as well as three insurance operations. It also sold 195 nonstrategic branches (mostly in New York). The aim is to achieve some $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion of sustainable cost savings by 2013 through layoffs. HSBC began restructurings in Latin America, United States, United Kingdom, France and the Middle East, aiming to reduce its headcount by around 5,000. The total reported job cuts was actually put at 30,000 over the next 3 years. HSBC’s global headcount is about 295,000.

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) announced in June that of the 28,000 employees in its Aeronautics business unit it was shedding about 1,500 workers to improve affordability and to increase operational efficiency. Many workers are being offered voluntary buyout packages. Lockheed’s total headcount at the time was about 126,000.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) most recently cut 12,000 to 13,000 jobs following the merger with Schering-Plough. The workforce is close to 91,000 after previous layoffs, but even as the company is firing, it is also hiring elsewhere, lessening the blow. The new cuts aim to trim $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in operating costs as Merck tries to be more nimble to compete globally.

Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) has been under siege and, frankly, the viability of the BlackBerry is becoming an issue. This company’s layoffs you might blame on Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Android, but in the end, this might just be one more business buried by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) that turns out to be an economic event. RIM’s “headcount reduction” will amount to 2,000 of about 19,000 of its workforce. What is sad is that it might be very easy to assume that more cuts will be coming soon if the market share trends continue in the same manner.

Sears Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) announced the layoffs of about 700 workers in the higher-ticket appliances department of the Kmart stores in June. Some of those workers might have been transferred to other locations, and other employees were  trained to answer questions from customers about the appliances, according to Sears. With more than 300,000 workers, 700 might not seem like much.  The problem is that it is just one more “death of a salesman” report of a company that has lost its greatness and is in decline.

Next page: Then there is the next wave …

Then there is the next wave …

Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) are both in the midst of layoffs. The final numbers are still outstanding and will include wealth management, IT, and investment banking positions if all of the reports remain accurate. The tally is expected to be between 5,000 to 7,000 layoffs between the two Swiss banks. Some of the cuts will be international, but the firms have not left the prized Wall St. jobs out of the hangman. Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (NYSE: RBS) also announced thousands of cuts.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was widely reported to be considering thousands of layoffs. So far, no official announcement has been made, but one has to question if it is just a matter of time with so many inside “sources” in multiple reports.

Express Scripts Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX) is in the process of acquiring of Medco Health Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MHS) — if the merger is allowed. Express Scripts has more than 13,000 workers and Medco has over 23,000 workers.  While the “efficiencies and synergies” were not outlined in detail, there is some obvious headcount overlap that exists at these two companies if they combine.

The data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas last week does very little to show that the end of layoffs is coming. While the report showed that there were fewer layoffs in the first 7 months of 2011 than the same period in 2010, the problem is it also showed an acceleration in job cuts. July alone was at a 16-month high with more than 66,000 announced cuts in the private sector.  The report also noted that July was the third consecutive month of increased layoffs.

So far it has been local, state, and federal agencies that had led the layoff kings. Many Americans want to see more of that continue as government austerity measures are needed more and more. The problem is that if corporate layoffs are increasing then it will lead to just that many more able workers per available job opening. That doesn’t just drive up unemployment, it also allows companies to offer lower and lower salaries to prospective and even to existing workers who are afraid to be next ones out the door.

JON C. OGG

Published at 24/7 Wall Street >

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.



Read more: http://247wallst.com/2011/08/10/the-2011-layoff-kings-bsx-csco-dal-gci-gs-hbc-lmt-mrk-rimm-shld-cs-ubs-ms-esrx-mhs/#ixzz1UjLr9j86

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 11, 2011, 08:10:19 AM
U.S. June trade gap widens unexpectedly (trade collapsing)
marketwatch ^ | 08/11/2011 | greg robb




Edited on Thursday, August 11, 2011 10:55:59 AM by Admin Moderator. [history]


The U.S. trade deficit widened by 4.4% in June to $53.1 billion, the Commerce Department said Thursday.




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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 12, 2011, 09:16:48 AM
Consumer Sentiment Drops to Three-Decade Low
QBy Jillian Berman - Aug 12, 2011 10:39 AM ET .


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/u-s-consumer-sentiment-falls-more-than-expected-to-54-9-in-michigan-index.html




Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the U.S. climbed 0.5 percent in July, the most in four months, following a 0.3 percent increase June that was larger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today. Excluding auto sales, purchases rose more than projected. Michael McKee and Betty Liu report on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
 

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Institutional Trust, discusses today's reports on U.S. retail sales and consumer confidence, and volatility in the stock market. He speaks with Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Dominic Chu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)


Recession signals in the world's largest economy are flashing red again. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg


.Confidence among U.S. consumers plunged in August to the lowest level since May 1980, adding to concern that weak employment gains and volatility in the stock market will prompt households to retrench.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment slumped to 54.9 from 63.7 the prior month. The gauge was projected to decline to 62, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The biggest one-week slump in stocks since 2008 and the threat of default on the nation’s debt may have exacerbated consumers’ concerns as unemployment hovers above 9 percent and companies are hesitant to hire. Rising pessimism poses a risk household spending will cool further, hindering a recovery that Federal Reserve policy makers said this week was already advancing “considerably slower” than projected.

“The mood is very depressed,” said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Consumers are very fatigued and very uncertain. In the short term, people are going to pull back on spending.”

Estimates of 69 economists for the confidence measure ranged from 59 to 66.5, according to the Bloomberg survey. The index averaged 89 in the five years leading up to the recession that began in December 2007.

Stocks, which initially pared gains after the report, climbed as higher-than-estimated earnings tempered concern the economy is slowing. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.8 percent to 1,182.45 at 10:37 a.m. in New York. Treasuries increased, pushing down the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.24 percent from 2.34 percent late yesterday.


A report from the Commerce Department today showed sales at U.S. retailers climbed 0.5 percent in July, the most in four months, indicating consumers are holding up even as employment slows. Purchases excluding automobiles rose more than forecast.

Today’s confidence figures parallel the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which fell to minus 49.1 in the period to Aug. 7, its lowest level since mid-May.

The Michigan survey’s index of current conditions, which reflects Americans’ perceptions of their financial situation and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items like cars, fell to 69.3 from 75.8 the prior month.

The index of consumer expectations for six months from now, which more closely projects the direction of consumer spending, decreased to 45.7 from 56 the prior month.

Consumers in today’s confidence report said they expect an inflation rate of 3.4 percent over the next 12 months matching July as the lowest since February.

Inflation Expectations

Americans expected a 2.9 percent rate of inflation over the next five years, the figures tracked by Federal Reserve policy makers, the same as the prior month.

Limited employment gains are a headwind for consumers. U.S. employers added 117,000 jobs in July as the unemployment rate fell to 9.1 percent. The cost of gas, which reached $3.70 earlier this month, could also be eating into Americans’ wallets.

Consumer spending dropped in June for the first time in almost two years as savings climbed, the Commerce Department reported earlier this month. The economy grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate following a 0.4 percent gain in the prior quarter that was less than earlier estimated, Commerce Department figures showed.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee said it may keep the benchmark interest rate close to zero through mid-2013 to bolster the recovery. Central bankers said they are “prepared to employ” additional tools to bolster an economy hobbled by weak hiring and anemic household spending.

The announcement came after the biggest one-week plunge in stocks since November 2008 followed by the first-ever downgrade of the nation’s top credit rating.

S&P’s credit downgrade came after lawmakers agreed on Aug. 2 to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and put in place a plan to enforce $2.4 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years, less than the $4 trillion S&P had said it preferred. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings kept their top rankings on U.S. debt.

Limited jobs gains and elevated gas prices are heightening the risk for slow growth in the second half of the year, said Donnie Smith, chief executive officer of Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN)

“Unemployment’s still over 9 percent, gas prices continue to take a bigger piece of disposable income with the average price of unleaded peaking at almost $4 a gallon in May,” Smith said on an Aug. 8 conference call with analysts. “These macroeconomic factors have, of course, affected consumer behavior in both the foodservice and the retail channels.”

Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat producer, said it will lose money in the chicken business this quarter as a weak economy eroded demand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jillian Berman in Washington at jberman13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: garebear on August 12, 2011, 09:38:05 AM
Consumer Sentiment Drops to Three-Decade Low
QBy Jillian Berman - Aug 12, 2011 10:39 AM ET .


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/u-s-consumer-sentiment-falls-more-than-expected-to-54-9-in-michigan-index.html




Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the U.S. climbed 0.5 percent in July, the most in four months, following a 0.3 percent increase June that was larger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today. Excluding auto sales, purchases rose more than projected. Michael McKee and Betty Liu report on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
 

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Institutional Trust, discusses today's reports on U.S. retail sales and consumer confidence, and volatility in the stock market. He speaks with Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Dominic Chu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)


Recession signals in the world's largest economy are flashing red again. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg


.Confidence among U.S. consumers plunged in August to the lowest level since May 1980, adding to concern that weak employment gains and volatility in the stock market will prompt households to retrench.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment slumped to 54.9 from 63.7 the prior month. The gauge was projected to decline to 62, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The biggest one-week slump in stocks since 2008 and the threat of default on the nation’s debt may have exacerbated consumers’ concerns as unemployment hovers above 9 percent and companies are hesitant to hire. Rising pessimism poses a risk household spending will cool further, hindering a recovery that Federal Reserve policy makers said this week was already advancing “considerably slower” than projected.

“The mood is very depressed,” said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Consumers are very fatigued and very uncertain. In the short term, people are going to pull back on spending.”

Estimates of 69 economists for the confidence measure ranged from 59 to 66.5, according to the Bloomberg survey. The index averaged 89 in the five years leading up to the recession that began in December 2007.

Stocks, which initially pared gains after the report, climbed as higher-than-estimated earnings tempered concern the economy is slowing. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.8 percent to 1,182.45 at 10:37 a.m. in New York. Treasuries increased, pushing down the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.24 percent from 2.34 percent late yesterday.


A report from the Commerce Department today showed sales at U.S. retailers climbed 0.5 percent in July, the most in four months, indicating consumers are holding up even as employment slows. Purchases excluding automobiles rose more than forecast.

Today’s confidence figures parallel the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which fell to minus 49.1 in the period to Aug. 7, its lowest level since mid-May.

The Michigan survey’s index of current conditions, which reflects Americans’ perceptions of their financial situation and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items like cars, fell to 69.3 from 75.8 the prior month.

The index of consumer expectations for six months from now, which more closely projects the direction of consumer spending, decreased to 45.7 from 56 the prior month.

Consumers in today’s confidence report said they expect an inflation rate of 3.4 percent over the next 12 months matching July as the lowest since February.

Inflation Expectations

Americans expected a 2.9 percent rate of inflation over the next five years, the figures tracked by Federal Reserve policy makers, the same as the prior month.

Limited employment gains are a headwind for consumers. U.S. employers added 117,000 jobs in July as the unemployment rate fell to 9.1 percent. The cost of gas, which reached $3.70 earlier this month, could also be eating into Americans’ wallets.

Consumer spending dropped in June for the first time in almost two years as savings climbed, the Commerce Department reported earlier this month. The economy grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate following a 0.4 percent gain in the prior quarter that was less than earlier estimated, Commerce Department figures showed.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee said it may keep the benchmark interest rate close to zero through mid-2013 to bolster the recovery. Central bankers said they are “prepared to employ” additional tools to bolster an economy hobbled by weak hiring and anemic household spending.

The announcement came after the biggest one-week plunge in stocks since November 2008 followed by the first-ever downgrade of the nation’s top credit rating.

S&P’s credit downgrade came after lawmakers agreed on Aug. 2 to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and put in place a plan to enforce $2.4 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years, less than the $4 trillion S&P had said it preferred. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings kept their top rankings on U.S. debt.

Limited jobs gains and elevated gas prices are heightening the risk for slow growth in the second half of the year, said Donnie Smith, chief executive officer of Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN)

“Unemployment’s still over 9 percent, gas prices continue to take a bigger piece of disposable income with the average price of unleaded peaking at almost $4 a gallon in May,” Smith said on an Aug. 8 conference call with analysts. “These macroeconomic factors have, of course, affected consumer behavior in both the foodservice and the retail channels.”

Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat producer, said it will lose money in the chicken business this quarter as a weak economy eroded demand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jillian Berman in Washington at jberman13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

What are the odds you go out and do something this weekend?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 14, 2011, 08:02:01 AM
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White House Thinks Unemployment Creates Jobs
Townhall.com ^ | August 14, 2011 | Mike Shedlock
Posted on August 14, 2011 11:00:42 AM EDT by Kaslin

Real Clear Politics notes Unemployment Benefits Could Create Up To 1 Million Jobs

"I understand why extending unemployment insurance provides relief to people who need it, but how does that create jobs," Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler asked Jay Carney at Wednesday's WH briefing. 

Carney responded: "Oh, uh, it is by, uh, I would expect a reporter from the Wall Street Journal would know this as part of the entrance exam." 

"There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance," Carney said. 

Carney answers the question: "It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren't running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They're not going to save it, they're going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually." 

"Every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring. So, there are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance, Carney said.
So there you have it. The unemployed create jobs. If only we had millions more unemployed, we could create millions more jobs, simply by giving the unemployed more money. 

I suppose we could triple unemployment benefits and create three times as many jobs on the theory that the unemployed would still spend every penny of three times as much money. 

We could be even more creative and extend unemployment benefits to infinity thereby creating an infinite number of jobs. However, creation of an infinite number of jobs would sound unrealistic as a news headline, even for a liberal media, if only barely. So let's just do this for three more years at three times the benefits. 

I have the headline ready: "Obama to create 9 million jobs by giving the unemployed three times as much money if they agree to spend it." 

Addendum: 

A couple of people argued spending will create jobs but asked "how many?" Certainly 1 million seems ridiculous. 

More to the heart of the matter, to paraphrase a response from "Fedwatcher", such activities will create jobs but not efficiently or permanently. 

Therein is the crux of the matter. Certainly if the government gave $20,000 to everyone who was unemployed we would see a burst of activity, followed by another crash. Throwing money around does not create lasting jobs, only another heroin high. 

Worse yet, in response to stimulus, businesses may invest more in productive capacity only to find out as the stimulus wore off, they really didn't need it. Heaven help any business that borrows money on such false signals.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2011, 06:26:09 AM
Empire State index negative for 3rd month: Future expectations lowest since Feb '09
Marketwatch ^ | 8.15.11 | Greg Robb




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturing activity in the New York region remained below zero for the third straight month, raising concern that the downshift in manufacturing in the second quarter may last longer than expected.

The Empire State index fell to negative 7.7 in August from negative 3.8 in July, according to the Empire State manufacturing survey released Monday by the New York Federal Reserve.


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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2011, 08:28:53 PM
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Moodys lowers US economic outlook through 2012
AP ^ | August 15, 2011
Posted on August 15, 2011 11:41:44 PM EDT by george76

Moody's Analytics on Monday lowered its outlook for growth in the U.S. economy this year and next, saying it sees "significantly weaker" prospects for the economy than just a month ago as the country struggles to avoid another recession.

The report ...cites the recent political wrangling over the U.S. debt ceiling and the revived debt crisis in Europe as leading factors in the bleaker economic picture. "The odds of a renewed recession over the next 12 months, already one in three, will increase if stock prices continue to fall

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...







Jobs jobs jobs. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 16, 2011, 06:48:36 AM
Economists Increasingly Bearish on U.S. Recovery
IndustryWeek ^ | Aug. 16, 2011 | Paul Handley





Slowing global expansion, the plunge in U.S. stock markets after Standard & Poor's cut the country's credit rating, and political pressure on the government to cut spending rather than stimulate growth are all putting the brakes on the world's largest economy, economists say.

Mostly negative data -- though with a few bright spots -- has reinforced feelings that the recovery from the 2008-2009 recession is in trouble.

And the Federal Reserve's own warning last week of increased "downside risks" to growth in the second half has added to the gloomy picture.

Mark Zandi, the top economist for Moody's Analytics, said Monday that the firm cut its growth outlook for the second half to 2%, from a 3.5% forecast just last month.

"The near-term economic outlook is significantly weaker than it was just a month ago," he said in a new report.

"The odds of a renewed recession over the next 12 months are one in three, and rising with each 100-point drop in the Dow."

Goldman Sachs said the economy appeared to be moving at less than "stall speed" after, at best, a mere 0.8% growth in the first half.

"With growth clearly below trend, the unemployment rate has crept up slightly, suggesting the possibility of a self-reinforcing deterioration in the economy," Goldman said -- also predicting a 33% chance for a recession.

Grim Data

A raft of poor economics statistics -- on second-quarter growth, layoffs and job creation, industrial production, consumer spending, and consumer and business sentiment -- underpin the lower projections.

On Friday, a University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment at its lowest level since May 1980.

And on Monday, the Fed's New York manufacturing survey for August also took a sharp downward turn.

The Fed gave no sense of optimism last week when it announced it would keep interest rates at ultralow levels for two more years because of the weak economy.

After a one-day meeting, the U.S. central bank's policy board forecast growth at a "somewhat slower pace" over the coming quarters than it had estimated in June.

"Downside risks to the economic outlook have increased," it added.

Also darkening the picture is the context, points out Goldman: the ongoing debt troubles in Europe, that are beginning to affect US financial institutions, and the expectation that Republicans will force more fiscal tightening domestically in the wake of the Aug. 2 debt-ceiling deal.

One key will be whether the government can push through any short-term stimulus measures, such as extending unemployment benefits or the payroll tax cut about to expire at year-end.

But S&P's downgrade "has if anything increased the likelihood of fiscal restraint," Goldman said.

The Fed hinted it is reviewing its tools to support growth, but nothing concrete has emerged, and economists are skeptical it could add much of a short-term charge.

Unemployment, Stock Markets Are Key Variables

Aside from Europe, two other variables are important -- first, the direction of unemployment, which if it worsens will slow consumer spending; and secondly, the markets.

Zandi says that if stock markets continue to fall, it will drag down wealth, confidence and spending.

"Since equity prices peaked in late April, well over $3 trillion in wealth has evaporated. Since every $1 decline in stock wealth is estimated to reduce consumer spending by three cents, the loss to date means spending will take a $100 billion hit over the coming year," he said.

Not all are as pessimistic. Jeffrey Rosen at Briefing.com has grabbed onto positive retail sales data for July released last week as a rosier sign for the rest of the year.

With falling prices for fuel and food commodities, he said, inflation will ease and consumer spending will get a boost in coming months, Rosen predicted.

Briefing, an economics consultancy, boosted its forecast for the third quarter to 2.2% from 2%.

But Rosen warned that the United States will find it hard to get growth back to more than 2.4% until consumers cut more of their debt -- a process that he said could take another decade or more.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 16, 2011, 07:07:12 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 17, 2011, 10:48:30 AM
Core wholesale inflation up most in 6 months
Companies paid more for wholesale goods, though inflation pressures muted


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Core-wholesale-inflation-up-apf-2544789783.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=


Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer, On Wednesday August 17, 2011, 1:24 pm




WASHINGTON (AP) -- A key measure of wholesale inflation rose in July by the most in six months.

The measure, called core wholesale inflation, excludes volatile food and energy prices. It surged 0.4 percent last month.

But most economists say they aren't concerned about the increase. One reason is that it was driven largely by costlier tobacco products and pickup trucks, which economists say are probably one-time events.

Raw material prices also fell in July. Those figures should lead to lower wholesale prices in coming months.

And the costs of components are rising more slowly than the costs of the finished goods calculated in the inflation measure.

The Federal Reserve and private economists tend to focus on core inflation. It's seen as a better predictor of price changes than overall inflation is.

Higher wholesale prices tend to raise pressure on department stores, groceries and restaurants to pass along higher costs to consumers. But that will be difficult now at a time of high unemployment and stagnant wages, which have caused consumers to tighten spending.

Combined with falling oil and gas prices, lower consumer spending should slow inflationary pressures, economists say.

Wednesday's Labor Department report on the Producer Price Index reflects price changes in goods before they reach consumers. The overall index, which includes energy and food, rose 0.2 percent in July. That follows a 0.4 percent drop in June, the first decline in 17 months.

Gas prices fell for the second straight month. Food costs rose by the most since February.

Tobacco prices, which are affected by seasonal factors, jumped 2.8 percent. That was the largest increase in more than two years.

Truck prices rose 1 percent. But that mostly reflects supply shortages stemming from Japan's earthquake. The impact of those disruptions has started to fade, based on other figures.

"Overall, these data do little to alter our belief that most of the recent surge in core consumer price inflation is temporary and that it will fall back next year," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist with Capital Economics.

Over the past 12 months, the PPI has jumped 7.2 percent. That's up sharply from earlier this year, though below May's 7.3 percent rise, the biggest in 2 1/2 years. The core index has risen 2.5 percent in the past 12 months, the most since June 2009.

On Thursday, the government will report on consumer prices for July. Economists predict that core consumer prices rose just 0.2 percent, half the increase in core wholesale prices.

Bricklin Dwyer, an economist at BNP Paribas, said a smaller increase in core consumer prices would suggest that retailers are reluctant to raise prices. That trend would help keep broader inflation in check.

Consumers are seeing some relief from high gas prices, which are expected to keep falling.

Earlier this year, food and gas prices spiked and caused the PPI to jump 1.5 percent in February, after a 1 percent rise the previous month.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has faced criticism that the Fed's policies are contributing to higher inflation. The Fed has kept the short-term interest rate it controls at nearly zero since December 2008.

But gas prices fell from a peak in early May of nearly $4 a gallon to a nationwide average of $3.59 a gallon on Tuesday. Behind the drop is a decline in oil prices, which had spiked this spring because of turmoil in the Middle East.

Concerns about slower global economic growth have pushed oil prices down from about $97 a barrel a month ago to about $88.

Still, the 12-month increase in the core PPI is large enough to make it harder for the Federal Reserve to take further steps to boost the economy, analysts said, for fear of sparking more inflation.

Last week, Fed policymakers said they will keep its benchmark short-term rate at nearly zero at least until mid-2013. Previously, the central bank had never given a clear time frame. It hopes the certainty of low rates will encourage consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more.

The central bank forecast in June that inflation will remain within its informal target range of below 2 percent this year and next.

Follow Yahoo! Finance on Twitter; become a fan on Facebook.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 17, 2011, 03:09:31 PM
Aug 17, 5:22 PM EDT
Obama: Another year or more for housing turnaround
By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-17-13-49-33




 
On the last leg of a Midwest bus tour, President Barack Obama has been hearing from heartland voters worried about jobs -- and the housing crunch. AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports.
 
 
ATKINSON, Ill. (AP) -- Confronting the most public anxiety yet of his Midwestern tour, President Barack Obama sought Wednesday to reassure an audience in his home state of Illinois that the economy would recover, but warned that Washington is not the answer to the nation's economic troubles.

He conceded that it will take at least a year for housing prices and sales to start rising, a key marker of an improved economy.

On the final leg of a three-state bus tour, Obama rolled into Atkinson, in western Illinois, for a town hall with residents, and their questions - about government regulations, housing, jobs and the fate of Social Security - underscored the anxiety people across the country are feeling.

The jobless rate in Illinois was 9.2 percent in June, matching the national rate for that month. The Illinois rate is also several points higher than in Minnesota and Iowa, the two other states Obama visited on his tour.

His housing comments were in response to a grilling from a real estate company owner who said she had begun to see a turnaround in late spring but that her phones stopped ringing after last month's "debt ceiling fiasco," when a government default seemed possible.

"We have no consumer confidence after what has just happened," she told the president. "I should be out working 14 hours a day and I am not."

Obama agreed that the tense, last-minute negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling had sapped consumer confidence. "It was inexcusable," he said.

He said, without getting specific, that the administration was mulling ways to encourage banks to resume lending. Companies are more profitable than ever, he said, but are hoarding cash instead of investing it. He said banks that are in the financial clear also aren't lending as freely as they had before.

He said growing the economy overall will trickle down to the housing sector, but that it will take time.

"I'll be honest with you, when you've got many trillions of dollars' worth of housing stock out there, the federal government is not going to be able to do this all by itself, government is not going to be able to do this all by itself," Obama said. "It's going to require consumers and banks and the private sector working alongside government to make sure that we can actually get the housing moving back again."

"It will probably take this year and next year for us to see a slow appreciation again in the housing market," he added, offering no backup for the prediction.

The housing industry remains mired in the doldrums years after the housing bubble burst, despite historically low mortgage interest rates that during better economic times would encourage home-buying. The Commerce Department reported this week that the number of homes under construction is the fewest in 40 years - just 413,000 compared to 1.6 million homes being built a decade ago.

Obama used the rural setting - he spoke inside a warehouse in front of sacks of seed corn stacked high on pallets - to make it appear that he is not a fixture of Washington and is as worried about local concerns as he is about issues vexing the nation's capital. Obama represented Illinois in the state Senate and the U.S. Senate and told a man asking about federal regulations that he spent a lot of time thinking about "downstate issues."

Obama also mocked the tea party, without mentioning it by name, and Republican candidates who sign anti-tax and other pledges.

"I take an oath," he said. "I don't go around signing pledges."

As he has done throughout the tour, the president made another pitch Wednesday for the public to help him win policy and political fights with Congress by pressuring their elected representatives to put the country's interests above all else.

"If you're delivering that message, it's a lot stronger than me delivering that message," he said.

Obama easily won Illinois, his home state in 2008. Henry County, where Atkinson is located, is a heavily Republican district, which Obama nevertheless won three years ago. But Illinois elected five Republicans in 2010 and also sent Republican Mark Kirk to fill Obama's former U.S. Senate seat.

Obama was to preside over a second question-and-answer session Wednesday with residents of Alpha, Ill., before leaving his customized black bus and boarding Air Force One for the return trip to Washington.

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 06:07:22 AM
Breaking: July Jobless Claims 408,000
Fox News | 18 August 2011



Fox News has reported July jobless claims at 408,000. Economists were expecting 400,000.



________________________ _______________

Give obamanomics a chance! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 06:41:40 AM
Jobless Claims, Inflation Rise More Than Expected
ECONOMY
CNBC.com | 18 Aug 2011 | 08:37 AM ET




New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that suggested hiring in August was steady but not robust.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department says the Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent in July, following a drop of 0.2 percent in June. Gas prices accounted for much of the swing. Prices increased by a seasonally adjusted 4.7 percent, after falling sharply in June.

The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy, rose 0.2 percent. That's below the 0.3 percent rise in each of the previous two months.

Prices are 3.6 percent higher than they were a year ago, matching the 12-month increase in May and June. Core prices are 1.8 percent higher than they were a year earlier, the largest increase in two years.

Meanwhile, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 408,000, the Labor Department said.


Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 400,000. The prior week's figure was revised up to 399,000 from the previously reported 395,000.

The claims data covers the survey week for August nonfarm payrolls. Claims dropped by 14,000 between the July and August survey periods, but there are fears that financial markets turbulence could have slowed hiring this month.

Employers added 117,000 jobs in July, a significant improvement from the prior two months' combined 99,000 gain.

Fears of a second recession, the loss of the nation's top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe have inflicted damage on global stock markets. That has hurt consumer confidence and may make businesses more reluctant to hire more workers.

The rise in jobless claims, which took them just above the 400,000 threshold, is unlikely to change perceptions that the economy will dodge another downturn. Claims below the 400,000 mark are usually associated with a stable labor market.

So far, data ranging from retail sales to industrial production suggest the economy found some momentum early in the third quarter after barely growing in the first half of the year.

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, fell 3,500 to 402,500.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 7,000 to 3.70 million in the week ended August 6.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 27,704 to 3.13 million in the week ended July 30, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 7.34 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 143,737 from the prior week.


© 2011 CNBC.com
URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44187274/


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.
© 2011 CNBC.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 07:15:21 AM
Startups by unemployed at all-time low
Orange County Register ^ | 8-18-11 | Jan Norman




The unemployed, once a rich source of new entrepreneurs, started businesses at the slowest pace on record in the second quarter, reports Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement firm that has been tracking this activity since 2000.


(Excerpt) Read more at jan.ocregister.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 08:00:02 AM
Sales of existing homes fall 3.5% in July (8 month low; high cancellation rate)
Marketwatch ^ | 8.18.11 | Steve Goldstein




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales of existing homes fell 3.5% in July to an eight-month low, with a high cancellation rate again taking its toll on an already troubled market, according to data released Thursday.

The National Association of Realtors said sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 4.99 million annual rate.

The numbers for the second straight month went against the increase in pending home sales, again showing the difference between agreed and closed transactions.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 08:03:14 AM
By Mark Gongloff
The Philly Fed index of mid-Atlantic has plunged to -30.7 from 3.2 in July.
Economists  expected the index to rise to 4.2.



This is awful, plain and simple.

The market is tanking more on this, with the Dow down 432 points.

Before the data, the Dow was down about 345 points, the S&P down 40 and the Nasdaq down 100.

The 10-year yield was at 2.04%.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2011, 01:31:46 PM
Gas, food and clothing prices are on the rise
@CNNMoney ^ | August 18, 2011: 9:50 AM ET | By Annalyn Censky




Americans paid more for necessities like gas, food, clothing and shelter in July, as prices rose more than expected over the month. Food prices are up 4.2% and gas rose 33.6% over the last 12 months.

The Consumer Price Index, the government's key inflation measure, rose 0.5% in July, led by a 4.7% increase in gas prices.

"We're looking at a situation where income isn't growing, so large price jumps right now without job growth and income growth behind it, basically mean that consumers are looking at more of their money going out the door at a time when less of it's coming back in on an income side," Daniel Penrod said.

Higher clothing prices, predicted by the industry earlier this year, have also taken hold. Apparel prices rose 1.2% in July alone, and over the last three months, are up 3.9%. Over the entire year, apparel prices have increased at their fastest rate since 1992.

Part of that rise could still be due to cotton prices hitting a record high in March, following supply shortages. The weak dollar is also driving prices for imports, including clothing, higher, said Jennifer Lee, senior economist with BMO Capital Economics.

"We import a lot of clothing from China for example, and a weak dollar means it costs more to ship to bring these goods over to the U.S." she said.

Economists hadn't expected the overall CPI number to come in as high as it did. Forecasts, according to a survey from Briefing.com, were for a 0.2% rise in July.

Overall, consumer prices have risen 12 of the last 13 months, and compared to a year ago, consumers are paying 3.6% more for goods and services.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Roger Bacon on August 18, 2011, 01:34:26 PM
No offense 333386, but it's only 4:30!  Shouldn't you be meeting with clients or something?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 19, 2011, 04:49:38 AM
Bad News
TEC ^ | 8-19-2011

Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011 6:47:11 AM by blam

Bad News

August 19,2011



The bad news about the economy just keeps rolling in. If this is an economic recovery, what in the world is the next "recession" going to look like? Today there was another huge truckload of bad economic news. The stock market had another 400 point "correction", applications for unemployment benefits are up again, inflation is higher than expected, home sales have dropped again and Europe is coming apart at the seams. The financial markets have been in such a state of chaos recently that days like today don't even seem "unusual" anymore. But we should all be alarmed at what is happening. We haven't seen anything quite like this since the darkest days of 2008 and 2009. If more bad news keeps pouring in, we may soon have a very real panic on our hands.

I would have thought that my article yesterday, "20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012", would have contained enough bad economic news to last for a while. But today there was another huge bumper crop of depressing numbers.

Are you ready for the carnage?

*The Dow fell 419 points today. That was a 3.7% drop. The S&P 500 shot down 4.5% and the Nasdaq plummeted by a whopping 5.2%.

*European bank stocks got absolutely hammered.

*The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped back above 400,000 last week.

*The recent inflation numbers have really taken analysts by surprise. The consumer price index rose at a 6.0% annual rate during the month of July. As I mentioned yesterday, the producer price index in the U.S. has increased at an annual rate of at least 7.0% for the last three months in a row.

So now we have high unemployment and high inflation. Oh goody! All of this stagflation is almost enough to make one nostalgic for the 1970s.

*The housing market is getting even worse. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of previously owned homes dropped 3.5 percent during July. That was the third decline in the last four months. Sales of previously owned homes are even lagging behind last year's pathetic pace. Mortgage rates are now the lowest they have been since the 1950s, but there are very few interested buyers in the marketplace.

*The Philadelphia Fed's latest survey of regional manufacturing activity was absolutely nightmarish....

The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, decreased from a slightly positive reading of 3.2 in July to -30.7 in August. The index is now at its lowest level since March 2009

*Morgan Stanley now says that the U.S. and Europe are "hovering dangerously close to a recession" and that there is a good chance we could enter one at some point in the next 6 to 12 months.

All of this bad news is sending the price of gold through the roof. The price of gold soared to a brand new all-time high of $1,829.70 (1865.0 Friday morning) an ounce on Thursday morning. So far, the price of gold is up almost 30 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, millions of average American families are deeply suffering and are desperately hoping that things won't get even worse. Everywhere you turn, there is a tremendous amount of stress in the air.

According to the New York Times, 25 million Americans "could not find full-time jobs last month".

As the economy crumbles, good paying full-time jobs are becoming increasingly scarce. People are hurting and they are looking for leadership.

Well, Barack Obama is running around the country promising that he will unveil some "solutions" very shortly.

So what are those solutions going to include? Well, the plans are still in the development stage, but the Obama administration is reportedly considering the following....

-The creation of a new government agency that will be dedicated to job creation. This will entail more government spending and more government paper pushers, but it will probably not do much to create good paying full-time jobs.

-Pushing even more free trade agreements through Congress. That way even more of our good jobs can be shipped to countries on the other side of the globe where paying slave wages to workers is still legal.

-A "reverse boot camp" that will train military veterans for civilian jobs. That sounds like a good idea, but we already have millions and millions of highly trained Americans that can't get jobs.

-An extension of the payroll tax cut for at least another year. That will put more money into the pockets of U.S. workers, but it will also mean less revenue for the federal government. The existing payroll tax cut has not exactly resulted in a "jobs boom", but removing that tax cut is certainly not going to help the economy either.

-An extension of long-term unemployment benefits. Yes, that will help the unemployed survive and will give them some money to spend into the economy, but it will not create many jobs for them. Plus it will put the government into even more debt.

-The creation of an infrastructure bank. Like most of the proposals above, this will entail even more government spending. I know that a "shovel-ready" joke is called for about now, but I can't think of one at the moment.

The ironic thing is that Barack Obama is riding around on his multistate "jobs tour" in a $1.2 million bus that was made in Canada.(Now he's on vacation in Martha's Vinyard.)


You just can't make this stuff up.

Things have gotten so bad out there that even Wal-Mart is suffering now. Sales at Wal-Mart stores that have been open for at least a year have fallen for nine quarters in a row.

Not that anyone should have much sympathy for Wal-Mart, but it is a sign of just how bad things are getting out there.

So is there much hope for the future? Well, considering the fact that only 32 percent of 15-year-olds in the United States are proficient in math(send more money, it's for the children), things don't look good.

Our education system is a joke, tens of thousands of factories have already closed, more are closing every day, millions of jobs have been shipped overseas and most of our politicians are either incompetent or corrupt (or both).

So you would think that with all of our problems, authorities would be focused on the big issues.

But no, time after time they just keep picking on average Americans.

For example, a woman that lives in the Salem, Oregon area that is fighting terminal bone cancer tried to raise some money for her medical bills by holding a few garage sales on the weekends.

Well, the authorities in Salem got wind of this and now they are shutting her down.

This is absolutely unbelievable. A video news report about this incident is posted below....

(Please go to the site to see the video)


Massive fraud and corruption at the big banks caused a worldwide financial crisis in 2008 and yet not a single Wall Street executive has gone to prison because of it.

Yet a cancer-stricken lady tries to hold a few yard sales to pay her bills and authorities come down on her like a ton of bricks.

Does that seem fair to you?

Our world is getting crazier every day. The bad news is going to keep pouring in. Global financial markets are being held together with chicken wire and duct tape. At some point the pyramid of corruption and con games is going to come crashing down.

If you still have faith in the system, you are not very wise. We are heading for an economic collapse that will be absolutely unprecedented, and you need to be getting prepared.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 19, 2011, 05:03:31 AM
Bank of America Job Cuts May Reach 10,000 as Industry Reels 
 Edited on Fri Aug-19-11 07:55 AM by marmar
from 24/7WallStreet:



Bank of America Job Cuts May Reach 10,000 as Industry Reels
Posted: August 19, 2011 at 6:34 am


A memo from Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan (NYSE: BAC) says that the financial firm will cut 3,500 jobs this quarter. Further restructuring could push that number as high as 10,000. Analysts have forecast that the bank industry will have to restructure again, though perhaps not as radically as in 2008. Balance sheets are still weak and earnings have been hurt by the loss of proprietary trading operations and the slow economy.

The fortunes of the banking sector were good just a year ago. Several large banks and investment houses posted near-record earnings in 2010. That was immediately after their unprecedented losses in 2008 and 2009. Bank proprietary trading and a rapid increase in corporate finance and M&A activity drove earnings higher.

Analysts have become concerned that banks could face the same kind of breakdown that they did in late 2008. That is because the assets they hold could be devalued by ongoing problems in the mortgage market and the possible collapse of the banking industry in Europe. Financial firms in France are at particular risk, and there are rumors that Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas could suffer huge losses due to investments in the sovereign debt in weak European nations. The global credit system is tied together closely enough that a bank failure in Europe would severely damage the financial prospects of banks in the U.S.

Whatever the cause, banks will start to lay off workers as predictions of earnings collapses become true. Banks perfected the art of layoffs three years ago, and that will come in handy throughout 2011 and 2012. Some estimates put the possible job cuts on Wall St. as high as 50,000. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://247wallst.com/2011/08/19/bank-of-american-job-cu...
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 19, 2011, 09:01:14 PM
66 Percent of CEOs Plan to Freeze or Downsize Workforce Size
ChiefExecutive ^ | August 11, 2011
Posted on August 19, 2011 9:28:28 PM EDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Despite a politically and economically tumultuous start to the month of August, CEO confidence stayed steadily pessimistic. Although the index did rise – for the first time in months and by only 0.4 percent—it still remains at a low 5.30 out of a possible 10. The Index, Chief Executive’s monthly gauge of CEOs’ perceptions of overall business conditions, has seen a 17 percent drop from February’s 2011 high of 6.39. Now, only 45.3 percent of CEOs expect business conditions to be at least ‘good’ in the next year, up from July’s 41 percent.

Despite the debt ceiling drama and the S&P’s downgrade, the view of current conditions only dropped .01 from July to 4.64 out of 10.

One CEO attributes the steady, albeit tepid, numbers to individual company performances versus business conditions as a whole, “Individual companies may do well coming out of the recessions, but the cyclical economy will accelerate. This will be exacerbated by poor domestic policy in a world of countries hungry to compete.”

Expectations for the future remain wary and generally pessimistic. Fewer chief executives expect to see an increase in revenue over the next year as compared to July; only 59.11 percent expect a revenue increase versus July’s 60.6 percent. This is a 20 percent drop from April when 74 percent of CEOs expected to see increased revenues.

Just over half of CEOs do, however, expect to see an increase in profits, a slight improvement over last month. In July, 52 percent of chief executives expected a profit increase, whereas 53.13 expected a profit increase in August.

July’s better-than-expected unemployment numbers also seem to be echoed here. The unemployment rate moved down slightly to 9.1 percent and 34.43 percent of CEOs expected to increase hiring over the next year (although the 66 percent majority of CEOs don’t expect to increase hiring).

Following the debt ceiling circus, attitudes toward the government have remained sour. One CEO said, “As I approach my 44th year in business, the last 20 as CEO, I can never remember a time when I felt so disenfranchised from our leadership in Washington. They seem determined to continue their ongoing anti-business attitude and to frustrate small and mid-sized businesses by uncertainty on taxes, government regulations, and simply too many bureaucratic restrictions. We desperately need a change in Washington.”

CEO Confidence Index — August 2011

(CHARTS AT LINK)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 21, 2011, 05:20:24 AM
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Social Security disability on verge of insolvency
AP/Yahoo ^ | August 21, 2011 | STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Posted on August 21, 2011 7:55:34 AM EDT by lowbridge

Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security's disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can't find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that's been running in the red for years.

New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security's much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 22, 2011, 11:24:56 AM
Number of Delinquent Mortgages on the Rise Again
Monday, 22 Aug 2011
By: www.CNBC.com

 



After several quarters of improvements, the number of U.S. homeowners who are late on their mortgages increased in the second quarter, according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

 
Fuse | Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The second-quarter mortgage delinquency rate rose to 8.44 percent of all mortgage loans outstanding, according to the MBA's Mortgage Deliquency Survey. That is an increase of 0.12 percent from the previous quarter, but is still down 1.41 percent from the same period a year ago.

"While overall mortgage delinquencies increased only slightly between the first and second quarters of this year, it is clear that the downward trend we saw through most of 2010 has stopped," MBA's Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann said in a statement. "Mortgage delinquencies are no longer improving and are now showing some signs of worsening."

The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due, but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure.

Foreclosure starts, which make up 0.96 percent of all loans, were down 0.12 percent from the previous quarter. Loans in the foreclosure process fell to 4.43 percent, down slightly quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year.

"The good news is the continued decline in long-term delinquencies, those mortgages that are three payments or more past due," said Brinkmann. "The bad news is that drop is offset by an increase in newly delinquent loans one payment past due."

Overall, 12.54 percent of all U.S. mortgage loans outstanding are either late in payments or in the foreclosure process, and that is up 0.23 percent from the previous quarter. That's still down 1.43 percent from the same quarter a year ago, and off a peak of around 14 percent.

The data suggest that persistently high U.S. unemployment rate is making it harder for people to keep up on their mortgage payments, and offer a grim outlook for a housing sector.

"Mortgage loans that are one payment, or 30 days, past due are very much driven by changes in the labor market, and the increase in these delinquencies clearly reflects the deterioration we saw in the labor market during the second quarter," Brinkmann said.

The greatest percentage of foreclosures continued to be highly concentrated in five states: Florida (14.4 percent); New Jersey (8.0 percent); Illinois (7.0 percent); New York (5.5 percent); and California (3.6 percent).

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 23, 2011, 10:17:47 AM
Richmond Fed gauge at worst level since June 2009
Marketwatch ^ | 8.23.11 | Staff




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Richmond Fed said Tuesday that its manufacturing index slumped to -10 in August from -1 in July...


The article is very short so I pulled the below data from the Richmond Fed release:


In August, the seasonally adjusted composite index of manufacturing activity — our broadest measure of manufacturing — declined nine points to −10 from July's reading of −1. Among the index's components, shipments lost sixteen points to −17, and new orders dropped six points to finish at −11, while the jobs index inched down three points to 1.


Other indicators also suggested additional softening. The index for capacity utilization declined eight points to −14 and the backlogs of orders fell seven points to end at −25. Additionally, the delivery times index moved down twelve points to end at −4, while our gauges for inventories were virtually unchanged in August. The finished goods inventory index held steady at 17 in August, while the raw materials inventories index added one point to finish at 19.


Hiring activity at District plants slowed in August. The manufacturing employment index subtracted three points to 1 and the average workweek index moved down five points to −5. Moreover, wage growth eased, losing eight points to finish at 2.


Respondents in the current survey were notably less optimistic about their business prospects over the next six months. All indicators for future activity fell but remained in positive territory. The index of expected shipments decreased eighteen points to end at 17, and the volume of new orders index fell twenty-three points to 17. Backlogs moved down twenty-one points to end at 4 and the capacity utilization index dropped fifteen points to 15.


More here:


http://www.richmondfed.org/research/regional_economy/surveys_of_business_conditions/manufacturing/2011/mfg_08_23_11.cfm




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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 27, 2011, 06:45:22 PM
San Francisco Is Building A Net Around The Golden Gate Bridge To Stop People From Killing Themselves
Henry Blodget    | Aug. 27, 2011, 8:16 PM | 609 | 9
A A A
 
 
inShare
23

Image: zoonabar via flickr
See Also:

So Much For The Economic Downturn: Congressional Candidates Set New Fundraising Record

More Than 100 Business Leaders Sign Schultz's No Campaign Donations Pledge

Buffett To Co-Host Obama Fundraiser In NYC

24 people have killed themselves by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge so far this year, putting 2011 on a pace to have the most such suicides ever (the previous high is 1977, which had 39), reports Scott James for the New York Times.
Another 12 people have thrown themselves under trains in the area, which exceeds the 11 who killed themselves that way all last year.
San Francisco's suicide prevention lines say many people who call are mentioning the economy as a factor in their despair:
“We constantly hear, ‘I’m going to be homeless; I would rather be dead than be homeless,’ the head of the suicide hot line said.
About 500,000 Californians have been unemployed for so long that they've run through their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.
At least 1,400 people have killed themselves by leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge since it was built in 1937. And it turns out it's a brutal way to go: Many jumpers suffer "blunt force trauma" with cracked ribs and other limbs and then drown.

In response to the Golden Gate suicides, the city of San Francisco is planning to build a net around the bridge, at a cost of $45 million. (That's $10 million more than the $35 million it originally cost to build the bridge.) The net will be made of metal, and it will hurt to to jump into it--a factor that the city hopes will dissuade people from jumping.

One woman who jumped a few months ago, 55-year old Barbara Sue Beaver, emailed a friend from the deck of the bridge and asked him to check in on her pit bull. Beaver had been unemployed for two years since losing her job in a bookstore, and she had no health insurance. A letter found at her home said "I'm too lazy to navigate further."

Read Scott James' article at the New York Times >
(via @ariannahuff).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 29, 2011, 06:39:19 AM
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=336701
Monday, August 22, 2011

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why Obama economy won't improve
Exclusive: Michael Master & Jack Tymann offer 7 ideas BHO wouldn't touch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: August 22, 2011
2:27 pm Eastern




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Contrary to the assertions of President Obama, the private sector has not produced 2 million jobs since January of 2009 when he was inaugurated. He lied one more time.

In January 2009 the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in its Employment Situation News Release, showed that total employment in the United States was at 142.1 million. Of that number, 22.4 million were employed by governments at all levels. Thus, 119.7 million were in the private sector, and the overall unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.

Fast forward to June of 2011; the Employment Situation News Release for that month revealed that total employment was at 139.3 million (a drop of 2.8 million from January 2009). Within the total employment number were 22.1 million government workers at the federal, state and local levels. In summary, there were 117.2 million employed in the private sector, a decline of 2.5 million. The overall unemployment rate was 9.2 percent.

The reality is 2.5 million jobs in the private sector have been eliminated since President Obama assumed office.

When this is combined with the fact that 2 million new applicants for jobs enter the work force each year, Obama is really behind in the creation of 7.5 million jobs just to maintain the same unemployment percentage he inherited.

Another 3 million will enter the work force by the end of 2012, so he needs to create 10.5 million jobs by the end of 2012 just to get back to the 7.6 percent unemployment that was in effect when he took office.

Obama needs to create 617,000 new jobs each month just to break even with what he inherited. To date, the average has been more like 50,000 per month – and that is with all of Obama's spending ... a $1.75 trillion federal deficit, $700 billion per year increase to the government budget, QE1, QE2, bank bailouts, auto-union bailouts and the $800 billion stimulus bill. He burned through our money just as the high-tech startups did in the late '90s. And he burned through it for the same reasons as those startups did: He and those young CEOs lacked experience.

So is there anyone who thinks that Obama will be able to create 617,000 new jobs each month from now until the end of 2012? Is there anyone who thinks that Obama knows what he is doing? Is there anyone who thinks that experience is not important? Is there anyone who thinks that Obama tells us the truth?

(Column continues below)


So what should Obama be doing?

Allow private corporations to drill for more oil, mine for more coal and build more nuclear sites with their own money. That will stop the drain of 5 percent of the economy each year to foreign countries for oil, it will employ more people, and it will drive down the price of gasoline and other energy so there is more money in the economy.


Cut back on spending for services and government employees (cut their pay by 7 percent), and eliminate all payments to foreign governments. Then use that money to buy products made in the USA with USA components – like tanks and planes and tractors – to leverage the manufacturing multiplier effect on the economy.


Eliminate all grants, scholarships and loans for liberal arts, and increase all grants, scholarships and loans for engineering, science and math.


Increase tax deductions for dependent children, and offer a $10,000 tax credit for any child born between June 2012 and March 2013 to encourage more child birth.


Repeal Obamacare. This will put $2.4 trillion of additional insurance costs and taxes back into the economy.


Repeal all the new business regulations by the NLRB and EPA.


Eliminate taxes on profits generated by sales in the manufacturing supply chains.

Will Obama do any of this? Of course not. Instead, Obama will request QE3, more revenues (taxes) and more stimulus money for infrastructure and social welfare programs. He will use them as payoffs to his voter base of unions and those who are dependent on government.

Obama did not learn from his mistakes. These seven proposed ideas are all contrary to his political ideology and the wishes of his political base. He would rather use class warfare for political reasons than correct the economic problems he exacerbated.

Therefore, Obama's economic recovery will continue to fail.

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 29, 2011, 09:03:52 AM
Youth employment in July 2011 hits record low--BLS
Bureau of Labor Statistics ^ | August 26, 2011




In July, the employment-population ratio for youth—the proportion of the 16- to 24-year old civilian noninstitutional population that was employed—was 48.8 percent, a record low for the series, though only marginally lower than in July 2010. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.)

The employment-population ratios were little changed in July from a year earlier for all major demographic groups—men (50.2 percent), women (47.3 percent), whites (52.3 percent), blacks (34.6 percent), Asians (40.5 percent), and Hispanics (42.9 percent).

In July 2011, 18.6 million 16- to 24-year-olds were employed, about the same as last year. This summer's increase in youth employment—from April to July—was 1.7 million, down slightly from last summer (1.8 million).

Twenty-six percent of employed youth (4.8 million) worked in the leisure and hospitality sector (which includes food services), about the same as in July 2010. Another 21 percent (3.9 million) were employed in the retail trade industry, also about the same proportion as last year.

The number of unemployed youth in July 2011 was 4.1 million, down from 4.4 million a year ago. The youth unemployment rate declined by 1.0 percentage point over the year to 18.1 percent in July 2011, after hitting a record high for July in 2010.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. The data are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more about youth unemployment and employment, see "Employment and Unemployment Among Youth—Summer 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 11-1246.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2011, 08:43:42 AM
Leading Economics Blog: US Economy Already In Recession

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/08/leading-economics-blog-us-economy-already-in-recession
 

^ | August 31, 2011 | Jim Hoft





Thanks Barack.

Forget the ifs, ands or buts… According to the top economics blog on the internet the US economy is already in recession.

The Economy Quietly Entered A Recession On Friday Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge reported:

While the key market moving event from last Friday may have been Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech which merely left the door open to future QE episodes, the most important event from an economic standpoint was the first GDP revision Q2, which dropped from preliminary 1.3% to a sub stall speed, in real terms, 1.0%.

What is just as important is that as the following chart from Bloomberg demonstrates, the YoY change in real GDP, which is now at 1.5%, is a slam dunk indicator of recession: “Since 1948, every time the four-quarter change has fallen below 2 percent, the economy has entered a recession. It’s hard to argue against an indicator with such a long history of accuracy.”

Bernanke agreed that “growth has for the most part been at rates insufficient to achieve sustained reductions in unemployment.” And while Bernanke is shifting dangerously into Greenspan territory with the open-ended interpretation of his statement, another thing that is more actionable is the observation that virtually every time real YoY GDP has dropped below 1.5%, this has led to a negative nonfarm payroll number.

Granted, the result may not be as shocking as what the Philly Fed implied vis-a-vis this Friday’s NFP, but we believe a subzero print in the August labor report will convince the three Fed holdouts that the time for yet another monetary intervention is here (Arab Spring part deux consequences be damned).

And, here are the latest micro-economic charts that tell the real story behind the Obama economy.


(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 01, 2011, 06:06:20 AM
Jobless Claims in U.S. Fell by 12,000 Last Week

By Bob Willis - Sep 1, 2011 Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week as the influence of the strike at Verizon Communications Inc. waned.



Jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 409,000 in the week ended Aug. 27, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a drop to 410,000, according to the median forecast. The figure remains higher than it was three weeks earlier, before the labor dispute at Verizon pushed the numbers up.

Companies like American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) are stepping up job cuts, which may prompt consumers to pull back on the spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. A report tomorrow may show employers added 70,000 workers to payrolls in August, down from 117,000 the prior month, and the jobless rate held at 9.1 percent, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

“Claims are still quite elevated, which shows the U.S. job market remains very soft,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, who had forecast claims would drop to 408,000. “There’s still a lot of nervousness about how the global economy is playing out. Growth in the U.S. is not enough to bring down the unemployment rate significantly.”

Jobless benefits applications were projected to fall from the 417,000 initially reported for the prior week, according to the median forecast of 46 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Estimates ranged from 400,000 to 420,000.

Stock-index futures recovered from earlier losses after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring this month climbed 0.5 percent to 1,218.89 at 8:52 a.m. in New York.

Nothing Special
There were no special circumstances affecting last week’s claims data, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released, adding that there was no indication that striking workers at Verizon influenced the numbers.

The number of jobless claims stood at 399,000 in the period ended Aug. 5, the week before some of the roughly 45,000 workers on strike at Verizon started filing for benefits.

A second report from the Labor Department today showed the productivity of U.S. workers fell more than previously estimated in the second quarter, pushing up labor costs from 2010’s record low. The measure of employee output per hour decreased at a 0.7 percent annual rate, the second straight quarterly drop, revised figures showed. Expenses per employee climbed at a 3.3 percent rate.

Four-Week Average
Today’s data showed the four-week moving average, a less- volatile measure than the weekly figures, rose to 410,250 last week from 408,500.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits fell by 18,000 in the week ended Aug. 20 to 3.74 million. The prior week’s reading was revised up to 3.75 million from a prior estimate of 3.64 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments increased by about 38,000 to 3.68 million in the week ended Aug. 13.

The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 3 percent in the week ended Aug. 20, today’s report showed.

States, Territories
Twenty-seven states and territories reported a decrease in claims, while 26 reported an increase. These data are reported with a one-week lag.

Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to fall as job growth -- measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls report -- accelerates.

Tomorrow’s forecast gain in payrolls would compare with 117,000 in July which brought the average increase over the past three months to 111,000. That was about half the 204,000 increase on average in the first four months of the year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, speaking at the annual central bank symposium last week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said the Fed still had tools at its disposal to stimulate the economy even as he declined to specify which measures it might use.

Fed’s Bernanke
“It is clear that the recovery from the crisis has been much less robust than we had hoped,” Bernanke said. “Economic growth has, for the most part, been at rates insufficient to achieve sustained reductions in unemployment.”

Job cuts have accelerated as recent data showed the economy slowed more than previously reported in the first half of the year. American Superconductor, a global power technologies company, announced Aug. 11 that it plans to cut about 150 jobs to better align costs with revenue expectations.

“These workforce reductions are necessary to maintain the health of the business,” said Daniel McGahn, chief executive officer of the Devens, Massachusetts-based company. “Expenses have been reduced in virtually all departments, levels and major geographies.”

Solyndra Inc., a maker of solar modules that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department, dismissed 1,100 employees this week as it suspended operations, citing economic and industry conditions. Fremont, California- based Solyndra said it will seek Chapter 11 protection.

“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra’s President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison said in a statement Aug. 31.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 01, 2011, 06:42:53 AM
Jobless Claims Stuck Above 400,000, Productivity Falls.Article Comments (9)
MarketBeat
by Mark Gongloff



Stock futures are rallying for some strange reason, though the morning’s plate of economic data was sort of ugly.

Jobless claims came in at 409,000, just a little higher than the 407,000 economists expected. The prior week’s claims were revised up, as they always are, to 421,000 from 417,000. This level of claims is really too high and indicates the job market isn’t healthy, even if it’s not quite on its deathbed.

Second quarter productivity was revised down to a decline of 0.7%, the biggest drop since the fourth quarter of 2008, from a first reading of -0.3%. It has fallen for three quarters in a row, for the first time since 1979.

Some might say that falling productivity could be good if it means businesses are going to hire more people, but falling productivity is really hard to spin as great news. It’s bad for living standards, raises inflation risks and hurts corporate profits.

Stock futures haven’t moved much. Dow futures are down 12 points, S&P futures are down about 2.

The 10-year Treasury note’s yield is at 2.21%, down a bit from yesterday.

Update: The market has opened a little higher, perhaps in the hope that the Fed will rush in with more stimulus. Here’s why such hopes are hypocritical.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 01, 2011, 11:12:08 AM
Sam Stein
 stein@huffingtonpost.com
 
White House Report: Unemployment Rate Above 6 Percent Until 2016
 


First Posted: 9/1/11 01:46 PM ET Updated: 9/1/11 02:01 PM ET



WASHINGTON -- A series of sharp spending battles and a wave of new tax receipts have improved the nation's long-term fiscal outlook, a new report by the Obama administration concludes. But the jobs crisis remains a major problem for lawmakers, as the White House projects the unemployment rate to remain above nine percent in 2012 and not fall below six percent until 2016.

The Office of Management and Budget released its Mid-Session Review (MSR) on Thursday, updating the forecasts that it completed last November and released last February when it put together its 2012 budget outline. The findings are a bit rosier, but are largely consistent with other economic analyses. On the jobs-front, the news remains largely grim.

The administration projections, which were based off of data up through June, have the unemployment rate at an average of 8.8 percent in 2011, 8.3 percent in 2012 and 7.7 percent in 2013. Those numbers are a touch better than projections made by the Congressional Budget Office, which pegged unemployment to be at 8.9 percent in 2011 and 8.7 percent in 2012-2013. In an effort to take into consideration changes in the economic climate that have occurred since June, however, OMB offers an "alternative economic forecast" along with the Mid-Session Review. Under that model, the unemployment rate takes even longer to decline, going from 9.0 percent in 2012, to 8.5 percent in 2013 to 7.8 percent in 2014. In 2016 it hits 6.1 percent.

The slow uptick in aggregate hiring -- both in the MSR and the alternative forecast -- is owed to a less-than-ideal uptick in the nation's growth domestic product (economic growth is expected to average 2.5 percent in the long run) as well as "discouraged workers" rejoining the labor force as labor market conditions improve.

While the jobs crisis has proved tough to turn, lawmakers have managed to chip away at the deficit. As a result of both higher-than-expected tax receipts and legislation to avert a government shutdown and a Treasury default, the nation's fiscal outlook has improved from earlier projections. According to the OMB, the 2011 deficit is now estimated to be $1.316 trillion, a 20 percent reduction from the $1.645 trillion estimate made this past winter. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the authors write, "the deficit is now projected to equal 8.8 percent, down from 10.9 percent projected in February."

The long-term outlook has also improved. Owing to $2 trillion in expected savings from the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as an expected $1.5 trillion in savings set to be recommended by a congressional super committee, the deficit as a percentage of GDP will be brought down to approximately 2.2 percent in ten years, the OMB concludes.



That number still means that the nation's debt will rise, just at a slower pace. For 2012, debt held by the public -- as in debt not held for foreign sovereignties -- is projected to increase to $11.307 trillion, or 72.1 percent of GDP. That number will rise to 73.5 percent of GDP in 2013. By the end of the 10-year budget window, the OMB projects that it will be reduced to 70.5 percent of GDP.

Beneath the macro numbers, the MSR provides some specific insights into how the nation's economy has stalled for workers during the past two years. In particular, the report shows that while corporate profits have grown at a fast rate over the past three years, labor compensation has fallen below the long-run average.


In 2009, domestic corporate profits were $906 billion. By 2011, that number had risen to $1.322 trillion -- an increase of roughly 46 percent. During that same time period, employee compensation went from $7.812 trillion to $8.264 trillion -- an increase of just 5.7 percent.

Unemployment compensation, however, is on the decline when compared to projections that were made in February. The OMB calculates that the government will spend $11 billion less on unemployment benefits in 2011 and $17 billion less on unemployment benefits in 2012 than it initially planned. That reduction is "driven by a lower-than-expected insured unemployment rate as well as a decline in the average weekly unemployment benefit," the study notes.



________________________ ________________________ __

LMFAO!   


and the Stim Bill was going to keep UE under 8% too. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 01, 2011, 01:09:29 PM
 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Fury on September 01, 2011, 05:16:28 PM
How bad are tomorrow's jobs numbers going to be? Even Goldman is only predicting a NFP of +25k so it'll probably print at -100k given their ability to not predict anything correctly.  :-X
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2011, 06:40:37 AM
Poll: 81% say Obama economic policies not working
Washington Examiner ^ | September 6, 2011 | Byron York



There's a lot of terrible news for President Obama in new polls by the Washington Post-ABC News and the Wall Street Journal-NBC News.  The number of Americans who say the country is on the wrong track has risen to its highest level since just before Obama took office -- into what one commentator calls the "incumbent death zone." His job approval rating is down.  The number of people who disapprove of his handling of the economy is rocketing upward.  And then there is this question, asked by the Post-ABC:

Do you think Obama's economic program is making the economy better, making it worse, or having no real effect?

Just 17 percent say the president's program is making the economy better, while 34 percent say Obama's program is making the economy worse and 47 percent say it is having no real effect.  Combine those last two numbers, and 81 percent say the Obama economic program is not working -- a devastating number in a country in which economic concerns top all other issues in voters' minds.


As far as the traditional right-track/wrong-track question is concerned, 77 percent of those surveyed by the Post-ABC say the country is on the wrong track, while just 20 percent say it is on the right track.  The last time that number was so high in the Post-ABC poll was January 16, 2009, on the eve of Obama's inauguration, when 78 percent of those surveyed said the country was on the wrong track.  If Obama does not reverse the trend in the wrong-track number, it could approach the levels it reached in the last months of the George W. Bush administration, when it topped 80 percent.

As for opinion on how Obama is handling the economy, 62 percent disapprove of his job performance on economic issues in the new Post-ABC poll, while just 36 percent approve.  In the Journal-NBC poll, those numbers are 59 percent disapproval versus 37 percent approval.  Finally, on the question of general job approval, Obama is down to 43 percent approval in the Post-ABC poll and 44 percent in the Journal-NBC poll.  His disapproval ratings are 53 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

All that adds up to a president in major trouble as he faces re-election next year.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2011, 06:48:10 AM
More restaurants are targeting customers who use food stamps
USA Today | 9/05/2011 | Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther




Gannett paper. Link only:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-09-05/More-restaurants-are-targeting-customers-who-use-food-stamps/50267864/1



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Deicide on September 06, 2011, 06:53:06 AM
More restaurants are targeting customers who use food stamps
USA Today | 9/05/2011 | Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther




Gannett paper. Link only:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-09-05/More-restaurants-are-targeting-customers-who-use-food-stamps/50267864/1





Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2011, 07:49:09 AM
September 6, 2011
An Economics Lesson Even a Liberal Can Grasp
By Herbert E. Meyer



The more President Obama calls for a second stimulus spending spree to create those jobs the first spending spree failed to create, the more he sounds like the grocer in that old joke about the lady who wants her money back because the dietetic ice cream the grocer talked her into buying hasn't helped her lose weight.  The grocer thinks for a moment and says, "Eat more of it."

Since the president and his advisers haven't got a clue about how our economy works -- which isn't surprising, since these people have less practical business experience than any kid with a lemonade stand -- here's an economics lesson so short and simple even a liberal can grasp it:

The key point to understand is that an economy is a kind of operating system.  This means that if you want the economy to "do" something -- such as create more jobs -- you have to go about it the way the operating system is designed to work.  Otherwise you cannot possibly succeed.

Think of it this way: our cell phones have operating systems built into them.  There's no Republican way to make a phone call with your iPhone, and no Democratic way to do it.  There's no conservative approach to checking your email with a BlackBerry or an Android, and no liberal approach to doing it.  You just do it the way your cell phone's operating system requires.

It's the same with an economy.  Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of economic operating systems: a free-market economy and a command economy.  In a free-market economy, the government sets the rules and enforces them, but otherwise stays out of the way and allows individuals and businesses to call the shots.  In a command economy, the government's role is so large that it not only sets and enforces the rules, but also calls the shots.

Because each country -- unlike each cell phone owner -- designs its own economic operating system, no two economies are precisely the same.  So our country's free market is somewhat different from Canada's, which itself isn't quite the same as Germany's, Poland's, France's, Australia's, and so forth.  Still, in all free-market economies, the government makes and enforces the rules, and then gets out of the way.  Likewise with command economies: left-wing communist economies differ somewhat from right-wing fascist economies, but once again, the similarities are more important than the differences.  In all command economies, you do what the government tells you to do, or you get your brains kicked in.

Entrepreneurs Create Jobs

In a free-market economy like ours, it's the entrepreneurs who create jobs.  They do this by starting new businesses, and by expanding businesses that are already up and running.  If you want to create more jobs, you create an environment in which entrepreneurs will thrive.  They'll take it from there, because creating jobs by starting and expanding businesses is what thriving entrepreneurs do.

Think of it this way: if you want more milk, create an environment in which cows will thrive.  And just as it makes no sense to say you want more milk but oppose cows because they're smelly, dirty, and leave their droppings all over the place -- it makes no sense to say you want more jobs but oppose entrepreneurs because when they succeed they often wind up with more money than the rest of us.  You cannot have it both ways.

Entrepreneurs thrive when they are confident about the future.  Every time an entrepreneur makes a decision to start a new business, or to expand his business by launching a new product or service, he or she is putting his own money -- and his employees' futures -- on the line.  So an entrepreneur wants to know what taxes he's going to pay in the years ahead.  He wants to know what his costs will be for high-priced expenses such as his employees' health care.  He wants some certainty that the regulations in place when he launches that new product or service won't change six months later and destroy his investment overnight.  And an entrepreneur wants some confidence that the overall economy will be sufficiently robust to provide customers who'll buy that new product or service and by doing so enable the entrepreneur to earn back his investment and make some profit besides.

Why did the world's largest and most powerful economy create zero jobs in August?  It's because our country's entrepreneurs lack confidence in the future.  They cannot calculate what taxes they'll pay, they cannot calculate their costs for health care, they have no idea what new regulations may suddenly appear that will cripple their investments, and they don't believe the customers they'll need to buy their products and services will be there.

Most of all -- and this is anecdotal rather than statistical -- many of our country's entrepreneurs have come to believe that the president and his liberal allies in Congress are out to get them -- that their ultimate objective is to turn our free-market economy into a command economy.

Our CEOs Have Had Enough

Let me give you one example to illustrate this point: in the course of my lecture business I meet a great many owners of small- and medium-sized companies -- precisely the men and women we depend upon to create jobs for all the rest of us.  One evening, when my lecture to a group of these entrepreneurs had ended and we were all having a drink in the hotel bar, the CEO of a rock-solid manufacturing company said something that stopped the conversation cold: "I'll be damned before I start hiring people now, just in time to send the unemployment rate plunging so it re-elects the president next year.  In a second term, this guy'll kill my business."  There was a dead silence, and then every other business owner at the table nodded in agreement.

The point isn't whether these CEOs are right or wrong.  The point is that this is what they've come to believe, and their actions will be based upon their perceptions.  For all of us who depend on our country's entrepreneurs to create jobs -- which is to say, for all of us without safe government jobs -- this is more than depressing.  It's terrifying.

Let's go back to the observation that an economy, like a cell phone, has an operating system built into it.  Imagine that you have a new cell phone, and you ask me how to make a call.  I tell you to punch in a phone number, then rub the phone against your leg and fling it against the wall.  Did your call go through?  No?  Okay, I say, now try it again -- but this time fling your phone harder.  Your call still didn't go through?  Would you like to try it a third time?  Or have you finally figured out that I have no idea what I'm talking about; that if you keep listening to me you're going to break your phone; that it's time to settle down, read the operator's manual, and do it the way your cell phone's operating system is designed to work?

The good news is that our economy is more resilient than our cell phones.  It can take a lot of abuse and still be made to work if only we start doing things the right way.  The bad news is that if we keep doing things to create jobs that make absolutely no sense and cannot possibly work, at some point even the world's most powerful and dynamic economy will be broken beyond repair.

And that's a lesson in economics even a liberal can understand.

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of Central Intelligence and vice chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council.  He is the author of two eBooks, How to Analyze Information and The Cure for Poverty.


Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/09/an_economics_lesson_even_a_liberal_can_grasp.html at September 06, 2011 - 09:48:13 AM CDT
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 07, 2011, 04:45:36 AM
Why the markets are giving up hope
By CHARLES GASPARINO

Last Updated: 12:17 AM, September 7, 2011




There was once a time when trouble in foreign markets, whether in Asia or as now in Europe, would be good for US stocks.

Sure, our markets can get hammered when news like the 1997 Asian currency crisis hits. But we often make a comeback as investors digest the news and come to the conclusion that the best place to bet for future growth is on the companies at the heart of the US economy.

No longer.

And it’s not just the zero-percent job growth and 9.1 percent unemployment we’ve got now.

The mainstream business media will tell you that the problem lies in the “dysfunction of Washington.” In other words, the economic slump and all the market turbulence, including yesterday’s 100-point drop in the Dow, stem from a bipartisan cause -- lawmakers and President Obama can’t manage to craft a sensible plan to grow the economy.

But talk to enough investors, and they’ll tell you this isn’t really a bipartisan problem. Rather, it largely remains at the top, meaning with Obama and his economic advisers -- who, when they aren’t threatening to raise the taxes of “millionaires and billionaires” who make just $200,000 a year, are offering up the leftovers of previously failed economic policies, such as this “infrastructure bank” gimmick that the president plans to unveil in what’s being billed as a major economic speech later in the week.

The stock market bounced back after the 1997 Asian crisis because investors had much to look forward to as the Clinton administration, prodded by a Republican-led Congress, embraced a pro-growth agenda of tax cuts and welfare reform.

Contrast that to what we have now: an administration looking to purge high unemployment and slow growth with an “infrastructure bank” -- which might put a few construction workers back to work, but can’t come close to reversing the Great Recession.

Put aside the fact that such government-mandated “infrastructure spending” often leads to fraud and waste; the history of such plans actually creating enough new jobs to spur significant economic growth is pretty dismal.

Whether it was FDR’s Works Projects Administration in the 1930s, the stimulus offered by President George W. Bush just before the financial crisis went into high gear, or Obama’s nearly $1 trillion spending spree in his first year, government mandated growth plans fail to deliver and often make a bad situation even worse. The spending has to be paid for -- and whether that means higher taxes or new debt, it’s not worth the price.

The markets -- that is, investors who are paid to bet on the future of US prosperity -- know this history all too well. They also know we now have $14 trillion in debt that Obama’s “infrastructure” gimmick will only add to. And they know that this president is either too economically naá¯ve or too ideologically rigid to reverse course from his failed policies.

Then there’s the other “big idea” expected in his upcoming speech -- extending the “payroll tax cut.” First off, the cut that’s already in place hasn’t worked any miracles so far. Plus, everyone knows it’s only temporary -- and he’s looking to raise income taxes on a permanent basis.

And that’s why investors are increasingly tuning him out.

“Markets tend to be smart,” says David Ader, a strategist at CRT Capital Group, “or [at least] capable of learning. Thus if we constantly hear the same optimistic plans from politicians and they keep failing, eventually we’ll learn not to pay too much attention.”

We can only hope investors tune out the president’s speech on Thursday. The last time they listened to what he was saying about the economy, when he addressed the country after the S&P downgrade, the Dow dropped more than 600 points.

Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_the_markets_are_giving_up_hope_q2D53DMfhkalgghCpp3WOK#ixzz1XGZCfhKc
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2011, 06:25:51 AM
New jobless claims rise, July trade gap narrows

A man and woman enter a job fair at the Phoenix Workforce Connection in Phoenix, Arizona August 30,

2011. REUTERS/Joshua Lott

On Thursday September 8, 2011, 9:14 am

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa



WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, further evidence of a weak labor market just hours before President Barack Obama unveils a plan on job creation in a major address to Congress.

A separate report showed a considerably narrower trade deficit for July, a positive signal for growth in the third quarter after a sluggish first half of the year.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 414,000 in the week ending September 3 from an upwardly revised 412,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Wall Street analysts had been looking for a dip to 405,000.

"Jobless claims numbers have been stabilizing in recent weeks. We're probably seeing an economy that's just growing slowly," said Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.

U.S. stock index futures extended losses after the data, while Treasury debt prices held gains.

Excluding one week in early August, claims have held above 400,000 since early April. The Labor Department said there was no discernible effect from recent hurricanes and storms on the national figures this week.

The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out volatility, rose to 414,750 from 411,000 the prior week.

Continuing claims eased to 3.72 million from 3.75 million in the week ended August 27, the latest available data. The number of total recipients on benefit rolls was 7.17 million in the August 20 week.

TRADE HELPS

U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in August, with zero net job creation raising fears of a new recession and putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy further at its meeting later this month.

But in a respite from the negative news, the trade gap shrank to $44.8 billion in July, Commerce Department data showed, down sharply from June's $53.1 billion deficit and much lower than forecasts around $51 billion.

The 13.1 percent decline was the biggest month-to-month percentage drop in the deficit since February 2009.

"The trade numbers are probably sufficiently better than expected to cause some upward revision in the GDP forecast," said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

U.S. exports rose 3.6 percent to a record $178.0 billion, driven by record shipments to countries in South and Central America and higher demand from China and major oil producers. Records were also set for two large categories, goods and services, as well as for capital goods and autos.

U.S. imports slipped 0.2 percent in July to $222.8 billion, as the average price for imported oil declined for a second consecutive month to $104.27 per barrel and the volume of crude oil imports also fell. Imports from China, however, rose 2.1 percent.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington and Ellen Freilich in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2011, 07:11:05 AM
IBD Editorials Sponsored by:
. Obama's Recovery A Flop Of Historical Proportions
By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON
Posted 09/06/2011 05:18 PM ET
www.investors.com




As President Obama prepares to deliver yet another speech about stimulating the economy — this one to a joint-session of Congress (with or without the NFL game on the monitors) — it's worth reviewing the results of his efforts to date.

It has now been a little over two years — and eight full economic quarters — since the end of the recession Obama inherited. It's time to ask: How does his record of economic growth in the wake of a recession stack up against the records of other presidents?

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession as "a period between a peak and a trough" during which "a significant decline in economic activity spreads across the economy and can last from a few months to more than a year."

By consensus, the most recent recession ended in June 2009, less than six months after Obama took office.

According to the NBER, in the 60 years prior to Obama's tenure, we had 10 recessions.  In the two years following those respective recessions, average real (inflation-adjusted) quarterly GDP growth was 5%, according to federal government figures. In the two years of Obama's "recovery," average real quarterly GDP growth has been just 2.4%, less than half of the historical norm coming out of a recession.

What's the difference (in more practical terms) between 2.4% and 5% growth over two years?  According to Obama's own budget, this year's GDP will be about $15 trillion.  (It's running neck and neck with the national debt.)  A 2.6% shortfall, therefore, equals about $780 billion over two years.

If you divide that evenly among the U.S. population of 312 million people, that works out to a shortfall of $2,500 per person — or $10,000 for the average family of four. Call it the Obama penalty.

Some might argue that the anemic post-recession growth rate under Obama has resulted from his having inherited a worse recession than most. There's little doubt that he inherited a particularly long (18-month) and significant recession. But the historical record suggests that, pre-Obama, the general rule was: the worse the recession (or depression), the better the recovery.

In other words, one would have expected such a severe downturn to be followed by a particularly strong stretch of economic growth. That, of course, hasn't happened.

But it has historically. If we look only at the six postwar recessions that lasted at least half as long (that is, at least nine months) as the recession Obama inherited, we find the following:

Average real quarterly GDP growth in the two years coming out of those recessions was 6.2%.  The 2.4% figure under Obama has been a mere 39% of that — which, come to think of it, roughly matches Obama's current approval rating.

And strikingly, among those six prior long recessions in the postwar era, even the lowest rate of GDP growth in the two years to follow was 4.7%. That's almost double the tally under Obama.

The worst economy that any American president has inherited, of course, was when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression. According to the NBER, the Depression actually involved two separate downturns (or "contractions").

The first was from August 1929 to March 1933. The federal government doesn't publish quarterly GDP growth figures from that far back, but average annual real GDP growth for 1934 and 1935 was 9.9% — more than quadruple Obama's 2.4.

After FDR's landslide (and unsurprising) reelection in 1936, the economy plunged into the second deep trough of the Great Depression, from May 1937 to June 1938.  Coming out of that, average annual real GDP growth for 1939 and 1940 was 8.5% (leading to FDR's subsequent reelection).

In truth, one might say that Barack Obama was elected at a very enviable time. He came into office when the economy was down but poised to start recovering within the next several months. All he had to do was be within the ballpark of the historical rate of 5% real growth coming out of recessions (or 6.2% coming out of longer recessions), not do anything horribly unpopular — like spearheading the passage of ObamaCare — and he could have ridden to an easy victory in 2012.

Now he'll have to get the American people to validate both ObamaCare and a growth rate that's less than half of what his predecessors generally achieved under similar circumstances.

• Anderson is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2011, 07:46:16 AM
Source: Street


EO Brian Moynihan has plans to split the company's banking operations into consumer and commercial units, which will include up to 600 branch closings, according to Charlotte, N.C.-based WCNC News Channel 36.



Read more: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11242484/1/bank-of-ameri...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not that this is unexpected but its definitely shows you were the economy is heading for sure

http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2011, 08:13:26 AM
Kroger Hosts Job Fair for Shnucks Employees (1200 Jobs could be lost)
WREG TV Memphis ^ | 9/7/11 | Daniel Hight




(Memphis 09-07-11) - Patrick Ferguson has worked at the Collierville Schnucks for the last seven years. "[I've been] the face of the meat department and helping out all of the customers," said Ferguson.


He and nearly 1200 other Schnucks employees will soon be out of work. That is, unless, Kroger grocery stores offers them a job.


(Excerpt) Read more at wreg.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2011, 09:23:12 AM
Source: The Washington Post


Nearly one in three Americans who grew up middle-class has slipped down the income ladder as an adult, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Downward mobility is most common among middle-class people who are divorced or separated from their spouses, did not attend college, scored poorly on standardized tests, or used hard drugs, the report says.

“A middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime,” the report says.

The study focused on people who were middle-class teenagers in 1979 and who were between 39 and 44 years old in 2004 and 2006. It defines people as middle-class if they fall between the 30th and 70th percentiles in income distribution, which for a family of four is between $32,900 and $64,000 a year in 2010 dollars.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/many-in-...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2011, 04:03:38 AM
Free Republic
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Skip to comments.

BofA discussing about 40,000 job cuts - WSJ
REUTERS ^ | Sep 9, 2011
Posted on September 9, 2011 5:37:12 AM EDT by markomalley

Bank of America Corp officials have discussed slashing roughly 40,000 jobs during the first wave of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans.

The number of job cuts are not final and could change. The restructuring aims to reduce the bank's workforce over a period of years, the Journal said.

The newspaper said BofA executives met Thursday in Charlotte and will gather again Friday to make final decisions on the reductions, putting the finishing touches on five months of work.

(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 10, 2011, 08:22:58 AM
Medical device tax could kill 11 percent of U.S. med-tech jobs, AdvaMed says
 MassDevice ^ | September 7, 2011 | Emily Greenhalgh




An excise tax on medical devices, set to go into effect in 2013, could mean a nearly 11 percent cut for the U.S. medical technology sector and add $2.67 billion to the industry's annual tax bill, according to a study funded by the Advanced Medical Technology Assn.

Medical device industry lobby AdvaMed says that the new 2.3 percent excise tax, slated to go into effect in 2013, will be "the last straw on the camel's back" for medical device companies trying to thrive in the struggling American economy.

The tax puts more than 43,000 U.S. jobs at risk by all but forcing medical device companies to move production offshore to avoid higher taxes, according to the study.

"The medical device industry is a leader in innovation and in well-paying jobs," lead author and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth said on a conference call. She argued that the government should make the US a more "job-friendly environment" instead of imposing taxes that could push companies outside its borders.


(Excerpt) Read more at massdevice.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 07:41:15 AM
Census bureau: U.S. poverty rises to 15.1%, highest since 1983
Comments 9 By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY Updated 4m ago



The U.S. poverty rate has risen to 15.1%, the highest since 1983, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.


Trudi Renwick, the bureau's chief of the Poverty Statistics Branch, says "the single most important factor" in the increase in poverty might be the increase in the number of people who did not work at all last year.

Renwick says the number of people over 16 who did not work at least one week increased from 83.3 million in 2009 to 86.7 million last year.


The bureau says that if Social Security payments were excluded from income, the number of people 65 and over in poverty would be 14 million higher in 2010.















TRICKLE UP POVERTY
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 07:43:34 AM
Summary of Key Findings


The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.

Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median.

The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ? the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, while the percentage without coverage ?16.3 percent - was not statistically different from the rate in 2009.

This information covers the first full calendar year after the December 2007-June 2009 recession. See section on the historical impact of recessions.

http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 08:52:46 AM
Census: US poverty rate swells to nearly 1 in 6
Yahoo ^ | 9/13/11 | Hope Yen - ap




WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau reports the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, a 27-year high.

About 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, were in poverty. That is up from 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009. It was the highest level since 1983.




(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 09:16:45 AM
Student Loan Defaults Reach Highest Level In More Than A Decade
First Posted: 9/12/11 06:01 PM ET Updated: 9/12/11 06:01 PM ET

www.huffingtonpost.com



Students at for-profit colleges are more than twice as likely to default on federal loans as their peers at public institutions, according to new data released Monday by the Department of Education that also shows the highest percentage of students defaulting on loans in more than a decade.

The overall student loan default rate increased from 7 percent last year to 8.8 percent -- the highest rate since the government released similar data in 1999. An outsized share of that increase came from the for-profit college sector, which had both the highest percentage of defaults and the greatest increase in defaults, compared to public universities and private nonprofit schools.

Defaults at for-profit schools jumped from 11.6 percent to 15 percent this year, as opposed to an increase of 6 percent to 7.2 percent at public institutions and 4 percent to 4.6 percent at private nonprofit schools, raising questions about the degree to which for-profit schools are preparing students for careers that will allow them to pay off debts.

Because the government must track loan repayment over two years, Monday's data represents the first full assessment of students' ability to repay college loans in the Great Recession. And the numbers were bleak: the overall student loan default rate increased at the highest rate in two decades.


"We do think the economy is a big factor in the growth of these student loan default rates," said James Kvaal, a deputy undersecretary of education. "Another trend worth highlighting is the growth in for-profit colleges. Many of those colleges offer excellent, innovative programs, but we do also see disproportionate default rates among students who are enrolled in those programs."

For-profit colleges have been conspicuous beneficiaries of the economic downturn, as many of the publicly traded corporations that own such institutions expanded enrollments rapidly as legions of unemployed Americans looked to college as a way to improve their fortunes.

The high number of student loan defaults at for-profit institutions has prompted heightened government scrutiny in recent years, amid evidence that some schools aggressively market their programs to students but fail to deliver on the promise of careers. For-profit schools typically cost nearly twice as much as public colleges and universities, and students on average graduate with much higher student loan debt.


Because of the high costs, students at for-profit colleges borrow at much higher rates than those who attend public or private nonprofit schools. According to an analysis of federal education data by The Institute for College Access and Success, 92 percent of students at for-profit colleges took out student loans in the 2007-'08 school year, compared to 27 percent of students at public colleges and 60 percent at private nonprofit colleges.

For-profit colleges have also aggressively targeted minority students. Black and Hispanic students make up 28 percent of undergraduate students nationwide, but they represent nearly half of all students in the for-profit college sector.

"When you see 15 percent of borrowers at for-profit colleges are defaulting, its important to remember that almost all students at those colleges are borrowing, so that shows a much more significant problem in that one sector," said Debbie Cochrane, program director at the Institute of College Access and Success.

Nearly half of all student loan defaults measured by the Department of Education could be attributed to students at for-profit colleges, even though students at such schools represent less than 28 percent of all borrowers.

The federal government measures student loan default rates as a way to gauge student success, and to determine whether certain schools should be eligible to receive federal student aid dollars.

Student loan debt is among the most difficult to discharge, persisting beyond even bankruptcy. Borrowers in default on student loans can be subject to wage garnishment as well as deductions from federal income tax refunds, and they are ineligible to receive federal student aid in the future.

"What is really sad about this is that most of these people are done -- this is their last chance, because they have now defaulted," said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. "That will follow them to their grave. You can default on your house, but you can’t default on a student loan."

The Department of Education data released Monday is a snapshot of students over two years: the government tracked those who began repaying loans between October 2008 and September 2009, and measured whether they defaulted on those loans before October 2010. A loan is considered in default if no payment has been made after 360 days.

In a statement, Brian Moran, the head of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profit colleges, said he was "disappointed" to see the data but noted, "we believe that the default rates will go down when the economy improves and the unemployment rate drops."

"Despite today's disappointing news, we should remain focused on the overarching missions, which is to help individuals rise as high as their talent, ability and ambition will take them," Moran’s statement read.

Under current regulations, schools that have student loan default rates in excess of 25 percent for three consecutive years can face sanctions or lose access to federal student lending programs. Five schools were subject to sanctions this year, four of which were for-profit schools.

Beginning in 2014, the Department of Education will start to analyze student loan default rates over three years, as opposed to the current two-year window. Data from the Department of Education shows that many more students default in the third year after entering loan repayment. And some schools have actively managed their default rates by putting students into loan deferment or forbearance plans that prevent defaulting within the two-year window, but do little beyond that timeframe.

"That’s a good thing if that helps those students manage their student loan responsibilities, but in some cases it may serve just to delay the default and increase the amount of the loan," said Kvaal, the deputy undersecretary of education.












________________________ _________



HOPE & CHANGE BITCHES - YOU FOOLS VOTED FOR THIS.   

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 09:35:54 AM
College grads increasingly among ranks of bankrupt
Washington Post ^ | Sept. 13, 2011 | Ylan Q. Mui




College graduates are the fastest-growing group of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past five years, according to a new study by a financial nonprofit group, which underscores the broad reach of the Great Recession.

The survey by the Institute for Financial Literacy, slated for release Tuesday, found that the percentage of debtors with a bachelor’s degree rose from 11.2 percent in 2006 to 13.6 percent in 2010. The group tracked similar but smaller increases in consumers with two-year associate and graduate degrees. Meanwhile, the percentage of debtors with a high school diploma or who did not finish college declined.

“We’re told that if you do go and get advanced education, you’re going to be almost guaranteed this economic success,” said Leslie Linfield, the group’s executive director. But the recession proved that “higher education was no guarantee that you weren’t going to be at risk.”


(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 10:22:31 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/census-us-poverty-rate-swells-nearly-1-6-142639972.html



HOPE & CHANGE DOUCHEBAGS.    YOU PEOPLE VOTED FOR THIS - ENJOY IT!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 10:28:01 AM
Poverty continues to rise in U.S., now 15.1%
cbs ^ | 9/13/2011 | David Morgan





The number of people in the U.S. living in poverty in 2010 rose for the fourth year in a row, representing the largest number of Americans in poverty in the 52 years since such estimates have been published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Median household income in the U.S. also declined.

According to a report issued Tuesday, 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009. Data in the Census Bureau covers the first full calendar year following the December 2007-June 2009 recession.

The nation's official poverty rate increased for the third year in a row - 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009.

Real median household income in the United States also fell in 2010, to $49,445 (a 2.3 percent drop from 2009).


(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 10:49:55 AM
Household Income Falls, Poverty Rate Rises (So what does Obama wish to do?Increase taxes, of course
wsj ^ | 9/13/11 | By CONOR DOUGHERTY




The typical American household saw its income fall for the third straight year in 2010 and the poverty rate clicked up to its highest level since 1993 as the aftermath of the latest recession continued to take a toll.

The median household income—what the statistical middle earns in a year—fell 2.3% to $49,445 in 2010, adjusted for inflation, according to the Census Bureau's annual snapshot on living standards released Tuesday. This comes on the heels of a so-called lost decade for earnings: Inflation-adjusted household income is down 7.1% from its 1999 peak, and 2010 was the first time since 1997 that American households made less than a median of $50,000. The official poverty rate—defined as a family of four earning less than $22,314—was at 15.1% in 2010, up from 14.3% last year and up from 12.5% in 2007, before the recession was in full force. The official poverty rate has been criticized by economists and researchers because it doesn't take into account many of the programs the government uses to aid the poor, such as subsidized housing and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Reflecting the lingering impact of the recession, the U.S. poverty rate from 2007-2010 has now risen faster than during any three-year period since the early 1980s, when a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment.

Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty is the largest on record dating back to when the census began tracking poverty in 1959. Based on percentages, it tied the poverty level in 1993 and was the highest since 1983.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2011, 09:53:41 PM
RUMORMONGER
BY JOHN COOK SEP 12, 2011 4:45 PM 29,774     206 Share

 FACEBOOK   TWITTER   NEWSLETTER

Is Barack Obama Depressed?
Wouldn't you be? Barack Obama is at the nadir of his political popularity and effectiveness. He has been maneuvered into an economic corner of 9%-plus unemployment by a relentlessly nihilistic Congress. His achievements—killing bin Laden, saving the auto industry at negligible cost—are written off as flukes. Plus all this 9/11 anniversary stuff! We hear the New York Times is looking into whether it's all starting to get to him—like, clinically.
We're told by a source inside the Times that the paper is preparing a story arguing that Obama no longer finds joy in the political back-and-forth, has seemed increasingly listless to associates, and is generally exhibiting the litany of signs that late-night cable commercials will tell you add up to depression. Or maybe Low T.

Either way, the investigation was described to us as taking seriously the notion that Obama may be suffering from a depressive episode. Of course, absent a telltale Wellbutrin prescription or testimony from the man himself, it's really impossible to achieve a reliable diagnosis. And a story like "Obama Appears to Suffer From Depression" can be easily downgraded to "Political Travails Begin to Take Personal Toll on Obama." So the story in question, if it ever comes out, may not end up supporting the depression thesis. But rest assured: There are people at the Times who, based on the paper's reporting, believe Obama is depressed—the kind of depression where, if he weren't the president of the United States, he wouldn't be getting out of bed in the morning.

As per usual, a Times spokeswoman declined to comment: "In keeping with our policy that we don't comment on stories that we may or may not be working on, we will not comment in this case."

[Image via Getty]


http://gawker.com/5839440/is-barack-obama-depressed



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 15, 2011, 06:20:45 AM
Jobless Claims, Inflation Rise, Manufacturing Gets Weaker
Published: Thursday, 15 Sep 2011 | 8:37 AM
www.CNBC.com

 

Applications for unemployment benefits continued to rise in the past week, while inflation pushed higher and a key manufacturing index weakened.

 
Getty Images
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The weekly jobless claims number, which is closely watched as an indicator for employment trends, unexpectedly rose 11,000 to 428,000, well ahead of estimates of 411,000.


The consumer price index, meanwhile, gained 0.4 percent when including volatile food and energy prices, after an increase of 0.5 percent in July. The so-called core CPI, though, gained 0.2 percent, which was in line with expectations.

Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up inflation and squeezing Americans' purchasing power.

For the 12 months ending in August, the core index surged 2 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly three years. That's at the top end of the Federal Reserve's informal inflation  target. It could limit the central bank's ability to take further steps to try to revive the economy.

Food prices rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase since March. That was due to higher prices for cereals and dairy products. Energy costs increased 1.2 percent.

Other indicators from a major government data release this moring also were not not encouraging: New York manufacturing activity contracted in September for the fourth consecutive month.

Also, the US current account deficit narrowed unexpectedly to $118 billion in the second quarter from a revised $119.6 billion in the first quarter as exports hit a record high.


RELATED LINKS
Current DateTime: 05:38:37 15 Sep 2011
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Confidence Drop Hits RetailEconomy: Bad to WorseSlideshow: Back-to-School-EconomyThe Deadliest Jobs
As a percentage of gross domestic product, the current account deficit—which measures the flow of goods, services and investments in and out of the US—narrowed to 3.1 percent in the second quarter from 3.2 percent in the first quarter.

Exports of goods and services rose to $716.7 billion, eclipsing the previous high set in the second quarter of 2008.

Economists had been expecting the current account gap to widen to $122.5 billion from a previously reported $119.3 billion.

Jobs Market Languishing

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level in three months.

Applications have been rising over the past month, a signal that the job market remains depressed.

Applications typically drop during short work weeks, as was the case with the Labor Day observation. In this case, applications didn't drop as much as the department expected, so the seasonally adjusted value rose. A Labor spokesman said the total wasn't affected by Hurricane Irene.

Still, applications appear to be trending up. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the fourth straight week to 419,500.

Applications need to fall below 375,000 to indicate that hiring is increasing enough to lower the unemployment rate. They haven't been below that level since February.

The economy added zero net jobs in August, the worst showing since September 2010. The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent for the second straight month.

The job figures were weak because companies hired fewer workers and not because they stepped up layoffs, economists said. Business and consumer confidence fell last month after a series of events renewed recession fears.

The government reported that the economy barely grew in the first half of the year. Lawmakers fought over raising the debt ceiling. Standard & Poor's downgraded long-term U.S. debt for the first time in history. Stocks tumbled—the Dow lost nearly 16 percent of its value from July 21 through Aug. 10.

Businesses added only 17,000 jobs in August, which was a sharp drop from 156,000 in July. Government cut 17,000 jobs. Combined, total net payrolls did not change.

Unemployment benefit applications are considered a measure of the pace of layoffs.

The total number of people receiving benefits dipped 12,000 to 3.73 million, the third straight decline. But that doesn't include about 3.4 million additional people receiving extended benefits under emergency programs put in place during the recession. All told, about 7.14 million people received benefits for the week ending Aug. 27, the latest data available.

More jobs are desperately needed to fuel faster economic growth. Higher employment leads to more income. That boosts consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of economic growth.

Higher gas and food prices have cut into their buying power this year. The economy expanded at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent, the slowest growth since the recession officially ended two years ago.

The weakness has raised pressure on the Federal Reserve and the White House to take steps to boost economic growth.

Many economists expect they will decide at its meeting next week to shift money out of short-term mortgage-backed securities and into longer-term Treasury bonds. The move could push down longer-term interest rates, including rates on mortgages, auto loans and other consumer and business borrowing.

President Barack Obama has proposed a $447 billion job-creation package. He wants to cut Social Security taxes for workers, extend unemployment benefits, cut taxes for small businesses and spend more federal money to build roads, bridges and other public works projects.

Republicans oppose the president's plan, particularly after he said he wants to pay for it with higher taxes on wealthier households, hedge fund managers and oil companies.

© 2011 CNBC.com


________________________ ________________________ ____

HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 15, 2011, 06:27:07 AM
NY manufacturing activity dips again: Fourth straight negative monthly reading (-8.8)
Marketwatch ^ | 9.15.11 | Greg Robb




WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Manufacturing activity in the New York region weakened again in September, according to data released Thursday, raising fresh concern over the strength of the factory sector in the third quarter.

The Empire State index decreased slightly to negative 8.8 in September from negative 7.7 in August, according to the manufacturing survey released by the New York Federal Reserve. This is the fourth month in negative territory.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the index to improve to negative 4.0.


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


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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 15, 2011, 09:14:17 AM

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/14/billions-in-unemployment-benefits-paid-in-error/tab/print


Billions in Unemployment Benefits Paid in Error.

Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show.


Source: Labor Department
Click image for a full-size interactive mapThe amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. (See a sortable chart of each states’ overpayments) The tally covers state programs, which offer benefits for up to 26 weeks, from July 2008 to June 2011. Layers of federal programs that help provide benefits for up to 99 weeks weren’t included.

The figures were released Wednesday as the Obama administration promotes its bid to reduce waste at federal agencies. The federal government foots the bill for administering the programs, and states are supposed to pay for the benefits. Many states exhausted their unemployment insurance trust funds during the long recession and slow recovery, prompting them to borrow from the federal government to replenish their funds.

Improper payments most often occur when recipients claim benefits even though they have returned to work; employers or their administrators don’t submit timely or accurate information about worker separations; or recipients don’t correctly register with a state’s employment-service organization.

The Labor Department launched a plan to crack down on the improper payments, targeting Virginia, Indiana, Colorado, Washington, Louisiana and Arizona in particular for their high error rates. Those states will undergo additional monitoring and technical assistance until their error rates dip below 10% and remain there for at least six months, according to the Labor Department.

“The Unemployment Insurance system is a unique partnership between the federal government and the states. States bear the responsibility of operating an efficient and effective benefits program, but as partners the federal government must be able to hold them accountable for doing so,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a release.

Indiana had the highest error rate, with improper payments accounting for more than 43% of the total amount paid. But Mark Everson, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said the differences in error rates stem from variations in state programs.

“To characterize it as waste, fraud and abuse is just manipulative,” Mr. Everson said. “There’s no way in the world you could cut the 43% of people off.”

Mr. Everson pointed out that in Indiana, benefit recipients are required to list three work searches. If a recipient fills out only two of the three searches correctly, there are cases when the recipient can still receive benefits. But that counts as an error.

The Labor Department noted, “it may be misleading to compare one state’s payment accuracy rates with another state’s rates… States with stringent or complex provisions tend to have higher improper payment rates than those with simpler, more straightforward provisions.”

Follow Sara Murray on twitter at @SaraMurray

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 16, 2011, 10:28:27 AM
Updated 9/16/11 11:29 a.m.
Posted 9/15/11 12:56 p.m.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WLS) - Illinois' unemployment rate shot up almost half a percentage point in August to 9.9 percent. It was a fourth straight month of diminishing job prospects that state officials blame on weak consumer confidence and the struggles of the national economy.





Even the state's manufacturing sector, which had been a bright spot even as other types of employers shed jobs the past few months, cut employment in August.

Illinois' unemployment rate surged up from 9.5 percent in July but has been increasing since it was at 8.7 percent in May, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The national jobless rate held steady in August at 9.1 percent.

"We know that consumer confidence drives our economy, and that confidence has been shaken across our country," Department of Employment Security spokesman Greg Rivara said. "So it is a challenge for any state to sustain positive momentum while the national economy remains so uncertain."

Nationally, pessimism about the economy increased sharply in August, according to the Conference Board, the private group that surveys Americans every month about consumer confidence. The board's monthly index fell more than 14 percent.

The number of unemployed people in Illinois actively looking for work increased in August by 25,400 to 653,000, the department said. That's an increase of 4 percent.

The biggest job losses in August were the 2,800 jobs cut by government employers and the decrease in manufacturing employment by 1,000 jobs.

The government jobs lost were almost entirely at the local level, Rivara said.

Local governments continue to struggle with tight finances, driven down both by decreasing tax revenues and the state's troubles finances. Illinois' government is months behind on payments to local governments and institutions around the state because of its ongoing multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

In all, Illinois has shed about 12,000 government jobs since May, down to 843,300, or 1.4 percent. Rivara wasn't sure how many of those jobs may have belonged school employees who don't work over the summer.

Manufacturing had been a bright spot as unemployment inched up over the summer, with Illinois-based companies such as Caterpillar and Deere continuing to prosper on strong exports.

Food production and auto manufacturing have both been strong, too, said Jim Nelson, vice president of the Illinois Manufacturers Association. But even some strong categories of manufacturers have begun to see sales flatten.

"When we have a net loss of a thousand over the month, there's more cause for concern than there is optimism," he said.

Gov. Pat Quinn plans to leave Friday on a trade mission to China intended to boost Illinois export prospects, for raw agricultural goods such as soybeans but also other sectors of the state's economy.

Talking about that trip Friday in Chicago, the governor said the state's economy and the confidence of its businesses and its residents has been battered by the uncertainty created by events in Washington such as the debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling but also economic problems in European countries such as Greece.

"I think everyone knows that it was a rough summer," he said. "It has been a turbulent year for the world economy and all of us are affected by it."

Illinois' summer job losses are translating into tough times for people already struggling, said Jason Greenly, a supervisor at The TIME Center, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in Champaign.

Demands on the center's soup kitchen have increased the past few months, he said.

"The curve is definitely going upwards," he said. "Of those who are able to work, the challenge is there's just less work to be had."

Among sectors that increased employment in August, according to the Department of Employment Security, the state's professional and businesses services companies, which include banks, added 2,200 jobs. Construction employers added 1,000 jobs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 22, 2011, 06:26:53 AM
Weekly Jobless Claims Fall, Offering Glimmer of Hope [423K new, last week rev up 432K]
Reuters/CNBC.com ^ | September 22, 2011




Applications for unemployment benefits slipped to 423,000 in the week ending Sept. 17 from an upwardly revised 432,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.


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


________________________ ________________________

Glimmer of hope? 

LMFAO!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 22, 2011, 08:12:02 AM
1740s Tavern Becomes Victim of Recession

The Marlborough Tavern will close on Saturday.By Ryan Hanrahan |  Thursday, Sep 22, 2011  |  Updated 8:26 AM EDTView Comments (113)
| Email| Print 

advertisement Since 1740, the Marlborough Tavern has been a fixture of this small town southeast of Hartford, but it will close this weekend.

The establishment, which has operated off and on as a tavern and restaurant, has been a host to presidents and even the French army during the Revolutionary War, but Saturday will be the tavern's last day until a new owner is found.

Jim Bradley took over the restaurant in 1985 with three friends. The building had been vacant since the previous owner closed the place in 1979. After a rough start, "the whole thing took off," Bradley said.

For nearly two decades, the Marlborough Tavern prospered near the center of town off Route 2. When gas prices spiked several summers ago, business took a big hit.

"It fell right off a cliff. It went down from June 2008 to July 2008," Bradley recalled.

Multimedia Michelle Obama Style Guide
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Weird News Photos More Multimedia He and a co-owner put money into the business to keep it afloat for the last three years, but with business down nearly a third, it became too much.

Bradley said losing food after Tropical Storm Irene disrupted his cash flow too much that he needed to shut the tavern's doors.

"Emotionally, it takes a toll after awhile when you realize you've been swimming hard against the tide," Bradley said.

Customers were surprised to hear about the landmark closing. Many assumed that the tavern would be in Marlborough forever.

"This is one of the places we come all the time and I can't believe it's not going to be here anymore," said Karen Pietrusziewicz, who met her husband at the tavern years ago.

Bradley said he's not sure what he's going to do yet after Saturday.

"I'll just join the 20 or 30 million other Americans in the same boat," he said.

The Marlborough Tavern will remain open through dinner on Saturday and then they will hold an auction to sell off antiques, bar, and restaurant supplies on Tuesday.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: OzmO on September 22, 2011, 08:18:21 AM
Stories like this have Played out all over America for the last 10 years.  If people would start choosing family owned business over chains more places like this would still be around.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 22, 2011, 08:46:51 AM
ROUBINI: Recession Is At This Point Unavoidable, And It Could Be Worse Than 2008
Business Insider ^ | 09/22/2011 | Gus Lubin




Nouriel Roubini is calling it this morning, following a bout of dismal economic data around the world. Europe and the U.S. are "effectively in recession" and there's nothing policy makers can do to save them.

@Nouriel tweets:

Economy already in recession. Whatever the Fed does now is too little too late

UK in double dip @MarkitEconomics: CBI Trends total orders at -9 in. UK Man PMI highlights real weakness in order books twitpic.com/6onoto

EZ in recession @MarkitEconomics: Flash Eurozone Composite PMI comes in below consensus for the 4th time in past 5 mths twitpic.com/6oneor

China slowing @MarkitEconomics: release saw HSBC Flash China Man PMI remain <50 at 49.4 (Aug:49.9).


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 22, 2011, 01:26:47 PM
El-Erian: World on Eve of Next Financial Crisis
By Shamim Adam - Sep 22, 2011




The world is on the eve of the next financial crisis, with sovereign debt its epicenter, said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the biggest bond fund.

The European Central Bank hasn’t put in place a “circuit breaker” to contain the region’s debt crisis, El-Erian, who is also Pimco’s co-chief investment officer, said at an event in Washington today.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 are meeting in Washington this weekend as markets tumble on concern the world economy is slowing and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis threatens to spread beyond Greece. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sank 4.6 percent to 214.89 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London, the lowest since July 2009.

“There has been a significant increase in the financial requirements of international intervention,” El-Erian said. “You need a lot more firepower in order to be a circuit breaker. Look at how much the ECB has put in and ask yourself the question: has it created a circuit breaker? The answer is no, even though the amounts involved have been massive.”

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said the G-20 nations will coordinate a response to the European sovereign debt crisis. Baroin, speaking to reporters today in Washington, said European nations must approve a July 21 accord on further financial aid to Greece.

Greek Budget Cuts
The Greek government said today it will accelerate budget cuts to keep emergency loans flowing, extending austerity measures that have deepened a recession and failed to ease doubts that it can avoid default. The latest round of deficit fighting was demanded by international lenders to ensure Greece reaches targets in a 110 billion-euro ($151 billion) bailout and receive a payment due next month.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the global economy is “in a danger zone,” and his counterpart at the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, said “downside risks” are high.

“We’re in it together and we will be able to solve it together,” Lagarde, a former French finance minister, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Europe will act “with more force” to combat its debt crisis.

In the U.S., stocks tumbled on concern central banks are running out of tools to prevent another recession and after the Federal Reserve said yesterday it saw “significant downside risks” to the economy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 2.9 percent to 1,133.09 at 12:51 p.m. on New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Washington at sadam2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Badertscher at pbadertscher@bloomberg.net
.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2011, 12:20:53 PM
Disability claims by the unemployed skyrocketing
Sun Sentinel ^ | 09/24/11 | Sally Kestin




Laid-off workers desperate for money, many of them aging baby boomers, are flooding South Florida Social Security offices like never before to apply for disability benefits.

Demand is so great nationwide that congressional estimates show the disability program will run out of money and won't be able to cover all beneficiaries in just six years.

n Florida, applications are up more than 40 percent since 2007. Many are coming from people with mental or physical conditions who once were able to work and now can't, or who lost their job and are unable to find a new one.


(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...


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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2011, 12:23:13 PM
Long Lines At State Offices For Low-Income Aid; Confusion About Food Stamps

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Long lines formed early Monday at state Department of Social Services field offices, as low-income residents sought one-time payments for losses they had in Tropical Storm Irene. (SCOTT VARGAS/FOX CT / September 26, 2011)

 
Waterbury By JANICE PODSADA AND HILDA MUNOZ, jpodsada@courant.com
 
The Hartford Courant
 
1:55 p.m. EDT, September 26, 2011
Long lines formed early Monday morning outside state Department of Social Services field offices, as low-income residents sought one-time payments for losses incurred during Tropical Storm Irene.

By mid-morning Monday, more than 400 people stood in line outside the DSS office on North Main Street, next to the Connecticut Works center. The office is one of 12 statewide where state officials are distributing ATM-style cards allowing people to make approved purchases.

But many of those standing in the long, snaking line early Monday said it wasn't clear who was eligible for the one-time payments or who needed to stand in line. Information was not readily available to applicants until they reached the front of the line, a two to four hour wait.

The program is not available for recipients of food stamps, which is the regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Eligible food stamp clients are already receiving disaster aid under another program and do not need to apply in person.


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Despite that, many of the people waiting in line Monday, including Taushanin Valle, were regular food stamp recipients. Valle, a waitress who recently moved to Manchester, said she was away from her Hartford apartment during the tropical storm, and had left her windows open. Carpets and clothing was damaged and the food in her refrigerator spoiled after her building lost power.

At 10 a.m. Valle said she had been on line for about two hours. Valle said she had heard that the program is not for food stamp clients, but she said a friend on food stamps had received $375. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "We'll see….I'm still going to give it a try."

Shantae Ortiz, 32, a food stamp recipient, got to the front of the line only to be told that she did not need to have stood in line. "It's only for people who don't receive food stamps," Ortiz, a single mother, began telling others.

"This is for the people who don't receive food stamps. If you already get them, you will see the relief on your benefits card," Ortiz said.

About noon, a woman with End Hunger CT! began distributing fliers explaining the program's rules and requirements to those standing in line. When it became clear that there weren't enough fliers to go around, the woman told people to "share this information."

A spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Social Services said this is the first time the state has offered disaster SNAP benefits and DSS wasn't sure what the response would be.

"I don't think we've ever seen anything like this at our offices," David Dearborn, the agency's spokesman said.

"We've had to send reinforcements to our regional offices to help with the number of applications," Dearborn said.

"We have people who used to be eligibility specialists, trainers, hearing officers, staff who work in other parts of the agency have been dispatched to regional offices to try to keep up with the applications," he said.

He said the number of applicants has built up over the past few days. Last Wednesday the first day, the agency had 451 applicants statewide.

Thursday the number of applicants rose to 1,292 applicants and by Friday, the tally was 1,949.

They've had 3,701 applicants statewide, but the number doesn't include today's applicants nor does it include "rain checks," given to people who didn't get to apply by the end of the day.

The offices are accepting applications from 8:30 until 3:30 pm., but Dearborn says lines have started well before 8:30 a.m.

He said lines have formed at most, if not all of the agency's 12 offices, with major cities like New Haven, Bridgeport, Manchester, Waterbury and Hartford reporting the longest lines.

People already enrolled in SNAP are not eligible because there is already a process in place to help them. This is for people who are not enrolled in SNAP who incurred losses related to Tropical Storm Irene.

But information and apparently misinformation about the federal government storm relief program spread rapidly through word-of-mouth and on Facebook over the weekend.

"Somebody went and got some money and posted it on Facebook," Jones said "And you know how many people are on Facebook."

Jessica Dejesus, of Manchester, said she had received the one-time disaster aid on her most recent her food stamp allotment.

"On my card they just added an extra $50 for storm relief," said Dejesus said, who said she was waiting for a friend.

Millie Jones, of Bloomfield, hoped to receive a storm relief payment for the two weeks' worth of groceries that spoiled when the electricity went out in her home. Jones is not currently receiving food stamps, so she needed to stand in line to be eligible for compensation.

"I lost power for three days. I just need enough to cover what I lost — about $200. I don't have any receipts. Who keeps receipts?" said Jones, 49, a certified nursing assistant.

The assistance, under a federal program called Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP), offers aid ranging from $200 for a single adult to $952 for a family of six, the department said. Tuesday is the last day for people to apply.

Although the program is financed through the federal food assistance agency, eligible expenses can include loss of income, medical costs, child care or repair or replacement of property — as long as no insurance or other disaster relief also covered the same losses.

To be eligible for the one-time D-SNAP aid, applicants must have a combination of take-home income and bank accounts for the period from Aug. 27 to Sept. 25 that does not exceed $2,186 for a single person; $2,847 for a household of two; $3,272 for a household of three; and $3,859 for a household of four. The income counted includes public assistance.

More information is available at http://www.ct.gov/dss or by calling 2-1-1.



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Comments (150)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ
fitandfurious at 3:08 PM September 26, 2011
Judging by how overweight everyone is in the picture they don't need a handout.  Go on a diet and you will save enough money to pay for damages.  Make Michelle O. proud!
Mullah Mike at 3:08 PM September 26, 2011
I don't blame those welfare leeches that are in line. They are still leeches, but when they have something to grab on to... why wouldn't they do so?

It is the welfare system that is the problem. Good luck trying to get someone who is strong enough to pluck those leeches and use pumps to drain the pond they have made their home.
FrustratedDadinBurbs at 3:05 PM September 26, 2011
Poor comes in all colors, so why is that line lacking any, um, diversity?  I mean, is there even one person in that picture who is not AA?

Oh, and loving the, 'I left my windows open before fleeing town...because of the coming storm....and someone needs to pay for my stuff' excuse for a handout - living near Detroit, I'm very familiar with that type of in your face humility.



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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2011, 12:24:20 PM
These leeches need to be put on work farms.  They are unemployable in this economy and not going to do a damn thing.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2011, 09:12:32 AM
Report: Consumers spent less, earned less in 2010
Government survey shows consumer spending and incomes fell for 2nd straight year in 2010

 
tweet4EmailPrint.

Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer, On Tuesday September 27, 2011, 11:41 am

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers earned less and spent less for a second straight year in 2010. The government data shows how Americans are struggling after the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The Labor Department says in its annual survey of consumer behavior that spending fell 2 percent last year, only the second decrease since the government began the survey in 1984.

People spent less last year on food, cut back on entertainment and eating in restaurants and gave less to charity. At the same time, they paid more for gas and health care -- trends that have continued this year.

Incomes fell 0.6 percent in 2010 after a 1.1 percent drop in 2009.

Consumer spending and income have increased only modestly this year.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 30, 2011, 01:19:08 PM
Report: Friendly's prepares for bankruptcy
YahooFinance ^ | September 29, 2011 | staff reporter



NEW YORK (AP) -- The Friendly's restaurant chain is preparing for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and potential sale, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people it said were familiar with the matter.

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., based in Wilbraham, Mass., operates more than 500 casual-dining restaurants known for sundaes and hamburgers. The chain could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as next week and then try to sell itself through a bankruptcy auction, according to the report.

Sun Capital Partners Inc. acquired Friendly's in 2007 and the private-equity firm is among its creditors.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2011, 08:51:36 AM
Kodak shares plunge as bankruptcy fears escalate
YahooFinance ^ | Sep 30, 2011 | MICHAEL LIEDTK




Investors dumped Eastman Kodak's stock Friday amid fears that the photography pioneer is headed toward bankruptcy.

After its stock lost more than half its value in a volatile day of trading, Kodak tried to paint a rosier picture. "Kodak is committed to meeting all of its obligations and has no intention of filing for bankruptcy," the company said in a statement. The reassurance lifted Kodak shares in extended trading, but the rebound wasn't enough to undo the damage sustained in a brutal week for a hallowed name in U.S. business.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 05, 2011, 08:20:47 AM
This Economist Is Forecasting A Recession, And He's Never Been Wrong
TMO ^ | 10-4-2011 | Money Morning

Posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2011 12:34:16 AM by blam




This Economist Is Forecasting A Recession, And He's Never Been Wrong

Economics / Double Dip Recession
Oct 04, 2011 - 07:03 AM
By: Money Morning


David Zeiler writes: The U.S. economy is "tipping into a new recession" and there's nothing President Barack Obama or the U.S. Federal Reserve can do to prevent it, according to Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI).



Now, if you're wondering why you should believe this prediction ahead of others then there's something you should know: According to The Economist, Achuthan's predictions on the direction of economy - either toward recession or recovery - have never been wrong.

"We don't make false alarms," Achuthan said, noting that ECRI did not forecast a recession last year when other prognosticators were.

A new recession could topple the stock markets into another deep funk like the one caused by the 2008-2009 downturn when the markets plummeted more than 50%.

The ECRI uses dozens of leading indexes to make its forecasts, and as of last week, Achuthan said those indicators were all pointing to a recession.

"We're seeing the weakness spread widely," Achuthan told MarketWatch. "There's a contagion...that's not going to be snuffed out. The nature of a recession is not a statistic. It's a vicious feedback loop. Sales fall, production falls, income falls and that depresses sales. We're in that and it's going to run its course."

Worse still, he doesn't think any governmental policy changes can prevent it.

"It is not reversible," Achuthan told Bloomberg Radio. "There is virtually nothing that can be done to avert what is going to happen."

The ECRI recession forecast landed last week amid some mildly positive economic news - the nation's gross domestic product for the second quarter was revised up from 1% to 1.3%, and initial jobless claims fell below 400,000 for the first time since early August, to 391,000.

But Achuthan dismissed such data along with sentiment from chief executives who have cited improving revenue and earnings.

"These leading indicators are objective," Achuthan said on CNBC. "They don't listen to all the hubbub. They have a certain pattern they present in front of a recession and that is in right now."

That sentiment mirrors what Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald has been telling investors for weeks. Fitz-Gerald has been warned that the weakening economy will eventually result in a bear market that sends stocks hurling back towards March 2009 lows.

"There's nothing President Obama or Bernanke can do at this point," Fitz-Gerald said. "Our debt is once again a problem, our jobs situation stinks, our government is dysfunctional, and then, of course, there's Europe."

Prepare for More Recessions

Although it would seem too soon for a recession so quick on the heels of the last one, ECRI pointed out that shorter cycles are actually closer to the historic norm. In the 1799 to 1929 period, ECRI said almost 90% of U.S. economic expansions lasted three years or less.




Based on that, as well as a decades-long pattern of slowing growth and evidence of increasing economic volatility, ECRI predicts recessions will continue to hit more frequently in the years ahead.

When asked how severe this next recession is likely to be, Achuthan said that was "unknowable," although a major financial shock - such as a Greek default on its sovereign debt - would make things significantly worse.

"Back in the last recession in August of '08, prior to the Lehman debacle, these indicators were pointing to the worst global recession in 30 years," Achuthan said. "Then you had Lehman."

The collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global financial crisis that not only intensified that recession, it set the conditions for the weak recovery that followed.

Even absent such a shock, Achuthan predicted this recession will have dire consequences.

"It means the jobless rate, already above 9%, will go much higher, and the federal budget deficit, already above a trillion dollars, will soar," Achuthan said. "If you think this is a bad economy, you haven't seen anything yet."

Don't Bail on the Market

Given the economy's bleak prognosis, it might be tempting to bail on stocks entirely. But Money Morning's Fitz-Gerald says there are five steps investors can take to protect their portfolios and eke out some gains, as well:

1. Sell Strategically:Sell into strength and capture profits using trailing stops that are gradually ratcheted up as the bounce begins. This will help you raise cash (that can be used to buy into the rebound when it eventually happens)

2. Hedge Your Bets: Usespecialized inverse funds to hedge downside risk that will accompany the rollover to the downside and rack up significant gains at the same time.

3. Consider Alternatives: Buy commodities - most notably gold and oil - on pullbacks. These alternative assets will help preserve the value of your portfolio as the markets roll over. Their value will accelerate dramatically when the world economy recovers - as it eventually will.

4. Think Globally: Put new money to work in so-called"glocal" stockswith fortress-like balance sheets, diversified revenue and experienced management. Not only will they help hedge the value of your portfolio, but by concentrating your focus on them you are building in upside potential even if we haven't hit a bottom. Those offering big dividends are best because that will help you keep pace with the inflation the government debt will ultimately induce.

5. Stay in the game:It's tempting to bail out given my prognosis for more downside, but attempting to time the markets is a fool's errand -- and never works. You just wind up getting skinned twice -- once on the way down and again because you were standing on the sidelines and got left behind when the markets ultimately reverse -- which they will.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 06, 2011, 07:29:33 PM
Census: Housing bust worst since Great Depression (Women and Minorities Hardest Hit)
AP ^ | 6 Oct 2011 | Hope Yen
Posted on October 6, 2011 9:16:30 PM EDT by SkyPilot

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American dream of homeownership has felt its biggest drop since the Great Depression, according to new 2010 census figures released Thursday.

The analysis by the Census Bureau found the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year. While that level remains the second highest decennial rate, analysts say the U.S. may never return to its mid-decade housing boom peak in which nearly 70 percent of occupied households were owned by their residents.

The reason: a longer-term economic reality of tighter credit, prolonged job losses and reduced government involvement.

Unemployed young adults are least likely to own, delaying first-time home purchases to live with Mom and Dad. Middle-aged adults 35-64, mostly homeowners who were hit with mortgage foreclosures or bankruptcy after the housing bust in 2006, are at their lowest levels of ownership in decades.

Measured by race, the homeownership gap between whites and blacks is now at its widest since 1960, wiping out more than 40 years of gains.

"The changes now taking place are mind-boggling: the housing market has completely crashed and attitudes toward housing are shifting from owning to renting," said Patrick Newport, economist with IHS Global Insight. "While 10 years ago owning a home was the American Dream, I'm not sure a lot of people still think that way."

He noted the now-diminished roles of mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which for decades at the urging of government helped enable loans to borrowers with poor credit, many of them minorities. In a shift, the Obama administration earlier this year said it would move from a longtime government focus on promoting homeownership for all and instead steer people with low incomes toward renting where appropriate.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 06, 2011, 08:01:51 PM
Free Republic
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Skip to comments.

A job is becoming a dim memory for many unemployed
AP/WorldMag ^ | Oct 6, 10:46 PM EDT | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Posted on October 6, 2011 11:00:36 PM EDT by quantim

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For more Americans, being out of work has become a semi-permanent condition.

Nearly one-third of the unemployed - nearly 4.5 million people - have had no job for a year or more. That's a record high. Many are older workers who have found it especially hard to find jobs.

And economists say their prospects won't brighten much even after the economy starts to strengthen and hiring picks up. Even if they can find a job, it will likely pay far less than their old ones did.

The outlook is unlikely to improve on Friday, when the government issues its monthly jobs report. Economists predict it will show that employers added a net 56,000 jobs in September.

That's far fewer than needed to reduce unemployment. The unemployment rate is expected to remain 9.1 percent for a third straight month.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week called long-term unemployment a "national crisis" and said it should be one of Congress' top priorities.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2011, 10:25:06 AM
Home ownership: Biggest drop since Great Depression
CNNMoney ^ | 10/7/2011 | Les Christie




NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The percentage of Americans who owned their homes has seen its biggest decline since the Great Depression, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The rate of home ownership fell to 65.1% in April 2010, 1.1 percentage points lower than it was in 2000. The decline was the biggest drop since the 1930s, when home ownership plunged 4.2%.

The most recent decade-over-decade drop, however, only tells half the story.

Home ownership during the 2000s "was really high in the middle of the decade, up to almost 70% at one point around 2004," said Ellen Wilson, a survey statistician with the bureau.

The crash from that peak was more than 4 percentage points in just about five years -- a far more dramatic decline than the 1.1% drop over the 10-year period.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2011, 12:01:00 PM
Our Rundown Of Obama's Failing Foreclosure Programs
Lois Beckett, ProPublica | Oct. 7, 2011, 1:53 PM | 197 | 4



 
More than six million Americans are behind on their mortgage payments or facing foreclosure [1]. Housing prices have continued to drop [2], and many neighborhoods across the U.S. are filled with foreclosed homes [3].

What exactly has the administration done in the face of such historic need?

We've put together a guide to the administration's major efforts to help homeowners, laying out the promise of each and how they've actually performed.

It's a sobering list. Obama himself has called his approach to the foreclosure crisis one of his biggest mistakes [4] dealing with the recession. Overall, the foreclosure programs have failed to reach more than a fraction of the homeowners they were designed to help.

Here are the depressing details:

Programs That Have Been Enacted

Plan: Help millions of homeowners by encouraging servicers to lower mortgage payments

Obama launched his "homeowner bailout," Making Home Affordable [5], in the spring of 2009, with the aim of helping at least 3 to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure. The program gives banks and other mortgage servicers modest incentives to adjust the terms of mortgages so that homeowners who can't afford their current monthly payments can stay in their homes.

Reality: Mistakes, lost documents, lax oversight; billions remain unspent

As we've detailed, the program has been marked by deep dysfunction [6]. Mortgage servicers mishandled cases, made errors and lost documents, while government watchdogs looked on and did almost nothing [7]. In one case, a government auditor found that mortgage servicer GMAC had made errors on 80 percent of audited cases -- but kept the failure secret. GMAC said it never reversed a single foreclosure action as a result of the sobering audit results [8].

Meanwhile, as of August, only about 816,000 homeowners [9] have received loan modifications through HAMP, or fewer than one in four of those who applied [9]. The government is on track to spend only about $7 billion of the $45.6 billion in bailout funds [10] set aside to help homeowners. As a result, nearly $30 billion meant to address the foreclosure crisis may instead ultimately be used to pay down the deficit [10].

Plan: Allow millions of homeowners to refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates

Launched in 2009, the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was designed to allow some homeowners to take advantage of this year's historically low interest rates [11] and refinance their loans. The administration estimated "up to 4 to 5 million" homeowners [12] would be able to take part. In his jobs speech in early September [13], Obama promised to work with federal agencies to make this option available to more people.

Reality: May not help the hardest-hit, and a government regulator stands in the way of change

As of this June, just 838,000 homeowners had refinanced through the program [14]. While Obama promised to increase the number [15] of homeowners in the program, the government regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may make this difficult [14]. While refinancing is good for homeowners, it means more risk for taxpayer-owned Fannie and Freddie, which own or guarantee 5 million mortgages that are higher than the value of the home [16].

Meanwhile, even if Obama succeeds in giving more homeowners access to the program, refinancing may not do much to address the underlying crisis [17]. "Anything that is called a 2018refinancing' program is just a joke," a member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys told iWatch News [18].

Plan: Loan money to jobless homeowners so they can avoid foreclosure

The $1 billion Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program [19] introduced last year aimed to reach 30,000 families [20]. It offered interest-free federal loans of up to $50,000 [21] to qualifying homeowners who had lost income because of unemployment or a medical condition.

Reality: Slow start, few people qualified, at least half of money left unused

The program, which only got off the ground this June [20], had a deadline of Sept. 30 to give out money to eligible homeowners before returning unused funds to the treasure. As CNN Money reported, its success was hampered by delays and a tangle of stringent requirements [21]. A spokesman from the Housing Department, which ran the program, said earlier this week that -- at best -- the program would only succeed in loaning out half the allotted money [21]. Only 10,000 to 15,000 of the roughly 100,000 applicants qualified for the loans.

Plan: Give money to states to experiment with programs for homeowners

In February 2010, the government promised $7.6 billion [22] to finance innovative programs to deal with foreclosures in states hardest-hit by the crisis [23].

In Arizona, for instance, where nearly half of homeowners [24] with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth, the state housing department launched a loan reduction program that they hoped would aid 3,500 to 4,000 homeowners [25].

Reality: Only a small fraction of the money has been used

As of this July, only $478 million of the government's $7.6 billion [22] had been actually loaned, used or spent, and some states who implemented new programs have struggled with their enrollment levels.

For instance, as the New York Times reported yesterday, in the first year of the Arizona program, the state only approved three homeowners [24] for the reduction. The problem? Banks declined to participate, even though the state was willing to pay half the cost [24] -- and taxpayer-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also been an obstacle [24].

The Road Not Taken

Promise Undelivered: Giving bankruptcy judges the power to lower mortgage payments

During his campaign, Obama promised to change bankruptcy laws [26] to give judges the authority to lower mortgage payments -- a tactic called "cramdown." Democrats pushed for the change after Obama's election, but Obama's economic advisers were privately dismissive of the plan [26], and Obama's promised support never came. With the administration silent, and banks fighting hard against the change, the measure was voted down [26].

Popular Idea: Reducing the amount people owe on 'underwater' mortgages

With millions of homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth, one popular proposal for dealing with the financial crisis is principal reduction [27], or asking banks to adjust the total amount owed on a mortgage based on the post-bubble value of a home. The idea is controversial, since some economists argue it would create an incentive for borrowers to take out riskier loans in the future.

But it is also seen as a way to address one of key underlying factors of the housing crisis: that American mortgage-holders owe an estimated $700 billion to $800 billion more than their homes are actually worth.

Because the American people ultimately own or guarantee the majority of the country's home loans through taxpayer-owned Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, a government-approved program of principal reduction could have an enormous impact [24], even without buy-in from other mortgage servicers.

But the federal regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has refused to consider principal reduction, because it would be bad for Fannie and Freddie's bottom line. (They are still $141 billion in the red after a taxpayer bailout [28].) Proponents of principal reduction argue that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have to deal with the decline in home values eventually [29] -- and by keeping losses off their books at the moment, Americans are losing their homes.

Back to the Drawing Board -- With Few Options Left

In July, President Obama noted that his administration had not made enough progress on dealing with the foreclosure crisis [30]. "We're going back to the drawing board," he said. But the administration's new proposals for tackling the crisis are modest. Part of the problem is that an estimated $30 billion in unused TARP money [10] from the previous foreclosure programs cannot be used to fund new programs [31].

Proposed Plan: Turning foreclosed homes into rental properties

This summer, the administration put out a call for proposals about how to turn foreclosed houses into rental properties [32], a way of simultaneously dealing with the glut of foreclosed properties and addressing the steeply rising price of rental units [33]. No version of the plan has been implemented yet, and the idea [34] itself has gotten mixed reviews [32].

Proposed Plan: Dedicating $15 billion to refurbish foreclosed and vacant properties

As part of his jobs bill [35], President Obama would spend $15 billion to refurbish vacant and foreclosed homes [35] or businesses, a way to help neighborhoods blighted by foreclosure, while also creating more construction jobs. Obama is pressing Congress to pass the bill quickly, but this seems unlikely to happen [36].

This post originally appeared at ProPublica.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Lois Beckett on Twitter.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 09, 2011, 01:49:19 PM
 :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 10, 2011, 05:57:38 AM
Obama--The Numbers Don't Lie
Townhall.com ^ | October 10, 2011 | Lurita Doan





Listening to President Obama speak to the Congressional Black Caucus about his past 32 months in office, two bizarre facts become apparent. First, Obama seems to believe that his policies and efforts have been successful. Second, Obama thinks we need to continue down the same path, that he "stood up for a different vision and did what was right. The future rewards those who press on."


Sadly, it would seem that our President is not merely wrong, but delusional. Let’s take a look at what Obama’s policies have actually produced.


Largest wealth destruction in American history: Net Wealth Lost 2009-2011 --$8.7 Trillion

Highest sustained Unemployment in decades: 9.1%

Brutal Unemployment for minorities: Black Americans : 16.7%

Unprecedented Unemployment: Black Teenage Americans :46.5%

Historic loss in American credit: U.S. Credit Rating drops to: AA-plus

Historic jump in Number of people in U.S. on Foodstamps : 45.8 Million

Quixotic investment in mythic Green Jobs : $80 billion

· Supposed Number of Green Jobs Created : 255,000

· Approximate Cost of each Green Job: $313,725.50

Stimulus Program: TARP : $475 Billion
Stimulus Program: Shovel Ready projects : $787 Billion

Stimulus Programs: Cash for Clunkers : $3 billion

Stimulus Programs: Cash for Caulkers : $10 Billion

Changes in Unemployment after $1.5 Trillion of government stimulus: +3% change

Averaged cost of a gallon of gas : $3.45 +$1.25 change

New Regulations 2009-2011 : 75 Major New Regulations, 1,827 Rules Amended

Executive Orders signed by Obama : 96

Cost of New Regulations : + $1.75 Trillion annually

Public Debt : $18.8 Trillion

2012 Federal Budget Proposed by Obama : $3.73 Trillion

Percentage of Americans that pay no taxes: 51%

Percentage of Federal Spending required from borrowing: 40%

Percentage of Government Spending on Entitlements: 60%

Number of Obama proposals to limit entitlement spending: ZERO


By any measure, President Obama’s economic policies and leadership have produced an unambiguous tale of woe. Not once has a single Obama policy produced the anticipated or promised benefits. Moreover, these many policies have made existing problems much worse.


During Obama's presidency, Americans have lost a collective $8 trillion in national wealth. Even now, his policies continue to crush business development, rob the prudent of their savings, and continue the awful trend of blaming others for his own inexperience and his policy mistakes. Perhaps the saddest fact of all is that President Obama believes that these failures represent success.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 13, 2011, 09:04:32 AM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44885991/ns/business-real_estate



Only getting drastically worse and and worse and worse. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 20, 2011, 06:02:45 AM
U.S. "misery index" rises to highest since 1983
Reuters ^ | 10/19/11 | Ann Saphir
 



U.S. "misery index" rises to highest since 1983

Wed, Oct 19 2011

By Ann Saphir

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An unofficial gauge of human misery in the United States rose last month to a 28-year high as Americans struggled with rising inflation and high unemployment.

The misery index -- which is simply the sum of the country's inflation and unemployment rates -- rose to 13.0, pushed up by higher price data the government reported on Wednesday.

The data underscores the extent that Americans continue to suffer even two years after a deep recession ended, with a weak economic recovery imperiling President Barack Obama's hopes of winning reelection next year.

Inez Stallworth, an underwriting assistant for a financial services company, recently gave up her car, in part because of rising costs for gasoline and groceries.


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


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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 20, 2011, 06:26:45 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-number-of-underemployed-people-keeps-growing-2011-10


Wow.    Hope n Fing Change MOFO's!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 24, 2011, 05:21:22 AM
More suburban, middle class slide into poverty
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | Updated: October 24, 2011 6:23AM | Francine Knowles

Posted on Monday, October 24, 2011 7:40:46 AM by Graybeard58

Fourteen months ago, Aurora resident Prentiss Bailey was going about happily living his life as usual.

He was employed at a printing company where he’d worked for 10 years—a job that paid $17 an hour and that with the consistent overtime and $4,000 and $5,000 annual Christmas bonuses he got, enabled him to take care of his family and enjoy what he considered a middle income life.

Today, he and his 10-year–old daughter live in a homeless shelter.

So does 33-year-old Robert Estes, also of Aurora.

They’re among the nearly 193,000 people who’ve been added to the ranks of the poor in Illinois since the Great Recession began and among the nearly 440,000 that have been added since 1999, bringing the state total to 1.73 million, according to the latest 2010 Census data.

The numbers reflect many newly poor people like Bailey, who previously held good paying full-time jobs that were cut; and folks like Estes, who was low-income, but had heretofore been able to make ends met. Both are now left unable to support themselves and their families without help from social service agencies and non-profits—among many people in that same boat.

The latest Census numbers also paint a picture of poverty that continues to spread beyond urban areas to suburban communities in Chicago and across the country that are ill equipped to handle the growing population of poor.

“I had a job; we had what we needed,” said Bailey, as he sat inside the Hesed House shelter in Aurora where he now resides.“I was able to pay my rent. We were middle class.”

That was before he was laid off 13 months ago.

“Now there’s a lack of opportunity, a lack of jobs,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be this hard finding another job.”

Bailey, who for the first time in his life is receiving public aid, has lived at the shelter for about five months. Initially, he and his daughter slept on mattresses in a gymnasium-like room with others. Now the two share a small room in the transitional housing section of the shelter furnished with bunk beds.

“It was hard at first, but I’m glad I took that step,” he said, noting he’s receiving guidance on getting back on his feet from a case worker at Hesed House. He plans to enroll in truck driver training program to improve his prospects of landing work.

Estes, who’s been at the shelter for about six weeks, says after losing his $12.50-an-hour job at a local grocery store where he’d worked for two years, he hasn’t yet been able to find another one.

The economy is “pretty horrible,” he said. “You have people here of all ages that are struggling. Some people tell me how they used to make $20 bucks an hour, $25 bucks an hour. Now they’re here. Nobody wants to hire them.

“I always had my own place, my own car, bought my own food,” he said. “I was making it paycheck to paycheck. Then this happened, and it’s like a slap in the face. I’ve been working and paying taxes my whole life, and now all of a sudden I can barely get into the door for an interview. I’m a strong guy. I can work. I know I don’t belong here.”

The shelter sits next door to the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, where on a recent Monday morning the parking lot was packed as people arrived seeking food.

“When I first started here in ’08, if we had 80 families, 90 families come in one distribution day, that was a big day,” said Marilyn Weisner, executive director of the pantry. “Now we have routinely 260, 280 families come,” said Marilyn Weisner, executive director of the pantry.

“One of the things that we’ve noticed is the family sizes have increased. We’re wondering if people aren’t moving in together because they’re struggling to survive.”

Census data suggests that is occurring. The bureau recently noted the poverty rate among young adults ages 25 to 34 living with their parents nationally was 8.4 percent, but that rate would be 45.3 percent if the poverty level was determined by their own income.

“We often hear, ‘I lost my job or my husband lost his job, my daughter lost her job and now she’s moved in with me and now I need some extra help,’” Weisner said.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago Chief Executive Officer Monsignor Michael Boland said among trends he has observed among the clients the group assists are “a lot more people coming today who have never come before to Catholic Charities or to a social service agency, people that are unemployed, underemployed. I think the recession has really hit a lot of people who were probably doing okay, but now are put below the poverty line. People are coming to us for emergency assistance, food, shelter, clothes. The numbers are extraordinary.”

At the Christian Outreach of Lutherans Food Pantry in Waukegan and Ingleside in Lake County, pantry operations manager Gayle Olson said she’s seeing more “people that don’t know where to go, how to get help, people that had been employed all their lives and now they can’t find a job and they don’t know how to get the resources they need like food stamps and medical coverage for their children, or help with the mortgage, rent or utilities.”

Many of the clients receiving help through Chicago-based Heartland Human Care Services’ Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program in Chicago “in the past, they had their own social safety networks of family and friends they could turn to for help if they fell on hard times,” said Lisa Mayse-Lillig, Heartland’s director of housing services. “Those things just have been exhausted for a lot of households because everyone is on hard times.”

Social service providers say they have seen dramatic increases in requests for help from the growing number of poor in Chicago’s suburbs.

New census data shows the rate of poverty in Chicago rose 2.9 percent from 1999 to 2010. In Chicago’s suburbs, it rose a bigger 3.7 percent.

The poverty rate, stood at 21.2 percent in Chicago 2006, the year before the recession began, but climbed to 22.5 percent last year. By comparison, in the suburbs, the rate rose from 7.3 percent to 9.3 percent.

Boland noted Catholic Charities has seen requests for food in some Chicago suburbs rise anywhere from 110 to 150 percent, compared to about 25 percent in Chicago.

A Brookings Institute poverty study released last year by University of Chicago researchers looking at 30 Chicago suburbs found most of those suburbs experienced more than 50 percent increases in the number of poor from 2000 to 2008.

The study also found that few suburban communities have the social services infrastructure in place to address the challenges of poverty.

The rise in poverty in Illinois and nationally can’t simply be attributed to the recent recession, said Amy Terpstra, associate director of the Social Impact Research Center at Heartland Alliance said. She noted poverty rates have risen significantly since 1999 as median household incomes have dropped and added the poverty numbers include people who work full-time, year-round, but are still poor. The drop in income is affecting the poor, and middle-income families.

The U.S. Census Bureau sets the poverty level as:

†One individual: $11,344

†Two adults: $14,602

†Two adults and one child: $17,552

†Two adults and two children: $22,113

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

An analysis of Census data done by the center shows that in Cook County, the median household income last year was $51,466, down $8,625 from 1999 and down $3,351 from 2006. In DuPage County, the median was $72,471, down $16,362 from 1999 and down $7,203 from 2006. In Lake County, it was $74,705, down $12,932 from 1999 and down $6,583 from 2006.

“That really points to a job quality issue,” Terpstra said. “We’re seeing the impact of job loss in the numbers, changes in our economy that have led to less stable and fewer good paying jobs.”

Many more people are in poverty “or just above poverty, not officially poor but still struggling with low income due to job loss, but not just a straight out job loss,” she added. “We’re seeing the effects of hours decline, people having to take part-time jobs instead of a full-time job because full-time jobs aren’t available. You see all of that stuff play out with this new data.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





HOPE N F'NG CHANGE!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 24, 2011, 05:55:58 AM
Mexico: Sharp Increase in Number of Immigrants Leaving the US
Fox News Latino ^ | August 24, 2011 | Unknown




Mexico City – The number of Mexican emigrants who opted to return to their homeland from the United States increased sharply over the past five years to almost 1 million, according to census data.

The deputy secretary of Population, Migration and Religious Affairs, Rene Zenteno Quintero, told a press conference that that figure was 2.7 times higher than the amount registered in Mexico's 2000 census.

The exodus of Mexicans to the United States has likewise been reduced, "seen in a net zero balance between emigrants and immigrants who return to Mexico, meaning we're experiencing a historic moment," he said.

The official also referred to a recent National Occupation and Employment Survey that shows a 70 percent decline in the rate of emigration over the past four years.


(Excerpt) Read more at latino.foxnews.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 26, 2011, 04:18:59 AM
Last week the White House picked a Virginia fire station as the venue for the president's principal campaign stop—er, legislative sales pitch. The choice was apt. At roughly the same time the president was lamenting how "cities and states like Michigan and New Jersey . . . have had to lay off big chunks of their forces," Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid declared, "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers."

Oh. Guess you can go home now, Wall Street occupiers! All those unemployment reports? False alarms.

To be fair to Reid—which may be more than he deserves—he was defending the part of the American Jobs Act that would appropriate $35 billion for state and local government hiring. That might help offset the savage cuts of the past year, except for one thing: The cuts have not been that savage. From September of last year to this past month, state and local payrolls have shrunk by 260,000 positions out of more than 20 million. That comes to roughly 1 percent of the work force.

The situation looks much worse for the private sector. It has added jobs at an anemic rate in the past few months, but it still has far to go before it claws its way back to the employment peak of November 2007. At that time total non-government employment stood at 124 million. It's now 109 million. Barack Obama has joined George W. Bush in a dubious category. They are the only two presidents besides Herbert Hoover to see the number of job-holding Americans decline on their watch.

The parallels with Hoover don't end there. It's commonly believed Hoover took a hands-off approach to the country's economic distress, and that his administration's tight-fisted refusal to spend prolonged the misery. But Hoover was about as stingy with a government dollar as "Jersey Shore" is with hairspray.

Hoover increased federal spending by more than 50 percent, signed the biggest peacetime tax increase to that point, lavished money on public works, and signed the disastrous Smoot-Hawley protectionist tariff. FDR slammed Hoover's "reckless and extravagant" spending and accused him of wanting to "center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, denounced Hoover for "leading the country down the path of socialism."

Hoover's massive government interventionism did not end the Great Depression. George W. Bush's rapid spending increases did not forestall the current malaise. And the massive government outlays of the past three years—federal spending has increased 30 percent; despite layoffs, state and local spending has grown, not shrunk—have not cured the country's economic ills, either. Yet the answer, say countless voices in the prestige press, is to stop Washington's ruinous "austerity" and start spending.

How many moons orbit the planet they're living on? If a $900 billion spending hike is austerity, what in the world does extravagance look like?

Actually, it looks something like the $440,000 Washington spent on a museum for antique bikes. Or the half-million-dollar federal outlay for beautifying decorative rocks. Those are some of the things Sen. John McCain recently urged Congress to stop using tax dollars for—along with the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky and a giant coffee pot in Pennsylvania—on the theory that maybe the money could be used better elsewhere. The Senate didn't buy it, and last Wednesday his colleagues shot down his proposal 59-39.

This kind of thinking shows why the congressional super-committee has deadlocked. The super-committee is supposed to hash out a deal by Thanksgiving to reduce the deficit. According to the narrative in the prestige press, blame for the impasse falls on the GOP's tax intransigence. Democrats won't agree to spending cuts until Republicans agree to revenue hikes, goes the story, and Republicans are fanatical. But that narrative—like Hoover's austerity and the austerity of this summer's recent budget deal—is a myth. Given the recent spending explosion, blaming the GOP for not meeting Democrats halfway is like blaming the victim of a mugging who hands over 95 dollars and then refuses to go halfsies on the last five bucks. Man, what kind of selfish jerk isn't willing to meet his opponent halfway?

As even The New York Times conceded a couple of months ago, "There is something you should know about the deal to cut federal spending that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday: It does not actually reduce federal spending. By the end of the 10-year deal, the federal debt would be much larger than it is today. Indeed, both the government and its debts will continue to grow faster than the American economy."

That story also noted, "The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal debt is likely to exceed 100 percent of the nation's annual economic output by 2021." Well. According to the latest figures, U.S. debt is on track to exceed GDP by Halloween—this Halloween.

Herbert Hoover would be proud.

A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This article originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 27, 2011, 02:16:34 PM
Underemployed And Hating Life (millions of smart, hard working folks are working dead end jobs)
The Economic Collapse ^ | 10/25/2011 | Michael Snyder





Today, millions of smart, hard working Americans are flipping burgers, waiting tables or working dead end retail jobs not because they want to, but because they have no other options. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 14 million Americans are currently unemployed and another 9.3 million Americans are currently "underemployed". During this economic downturn, a lot of Americans have been forced to take part-time jobs because they have been unable to find full-time jobs. For many, this can be a soul-crushing experience. It can be easy to become very bitter when you have worked very hard all your life and yet you find yourself having to take a job that only pays you a fraction of what you used to make. A lot of young college graduates end up hating life because the only jobs that they can seem to find do not even require a college degree and don't even come close to enabling them to keep up with their crippling student loan debt payments. Sadly, the underemployment problem continues to grow even worse. In September alone, the number of underemployed Americans rose by close to half a million.

There are other measurements that indicate that unemployment in America is even worse that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is indicating.

For example, a recent Gallup poll found that approximately one out of every five Americans that currently have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

In addition, according to author Paul Osterman about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

When you try as hard as you can and you still can't pay the bills, it is easy to end up hating life.

What some Americans are going through is absolutely heart breaking. Just consider the following story from a recent article on Fox News....

Damian Birkel, of Winston-Salem N.C., found himself in similar circumstances. He was a marketing manager at Sarah Lee in the early 1990s when he was downsized. Since then, he has been laid off from three other jobs, including one at a recruiting firm.

“I felt like I had ‘loser’ tattooed to my forehead, and ‘will work for food’ tattooed to my chest,” he says.

The hardest part was telling his young daughter that there might not be enough money to pay the bills -- among them, sending her to summer camp. “She brings her piggy bank and says, 'Daddy, why don’t you break into the piggy bank so that you can pay some of the bills.'”

How would you feel if your little daughter said that to you?

Unfortunately, the number of good jobs just continues to decrease.

There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

And the mix of jobs that our economy is producing continues to change.

Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

What that means is that the middle class is shrinking.

A lot of young people are coming out of college right now and are having their dreams absolutely crushed. Large numbers of them are entering the "real world" with nightmarish student loan debt burdens and only a limited number of them can find decent jobs.

A recent USA Today article told the story of one of these very frustrated young Americans....

Kate Wolfe chased a dream when she moved to New York after college, looking to break into acting while working as a maître d'.

Her $50,000 worth of student loans were a distraction she could handle. Then the uninsured 25-year-old was mugged last year, and the final indignity was the $30,000 emergency room bill.

We are pumping out tons of college graduates, but we are not pumping out nearly enough jobs for all of them.

If you can believe it, in the United States today there are 317,000 waiters and waitresses that actually have college degrees.

That is an absolutely horrifying statistic.

But the truth is that the lack of good jobs is hitting every age level really hard.

For example, the average American family is under a tremendous amount of financial stress in this economy. Once you adjust it for inflation, median household income in the United States has declined approximately 10 percent since December 2007.

Meanwhile, the cost of food, gas, health insurance and just about everything else a family needs has gone up significantly.

Our politicians keep talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs" but the number of decent jobs continues on a very clear downward trend.

Back in 1980, 52 percent of all jobs in the United States were middle income jobs. Today, only 42 percent of all jobs in the United States are middle income jobs.

Sadly, it now looks like even the low income jobs are starting to dry up.

Mall vacancies recently hit a brand new all-time record. Major retail chains all over the country are announcing layoffs. Things do not look very promising for the upcoming holiday season.

So what are our leaders doing about all of this?

Well, unfortunately they continue to fumble the football very badly.

According to a recent ABC News report, the U.S. government actually gave a $529 million loan guarantee to an electric car company that decided to make its cars in Finland....

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

If we don't figure out how to stop millions of jobs from leaving this country we are going to be in a world of hurt.

The trade policies of the federal government are neither "free" nor "fair" and they are causing the standard of living of American workers to rapidly sink toward the level of the rest of the world.

We are told that it is "inevitable" that we are going to be deindustrialized and that we are going to become a service economy.

But guess what?

Service jobs generally pay a lot less than manufacturing jobs do.

A "one world economy" where our labor force is merged with the labor forces of the rest of the globe is not a good thing for the average American worker and it is not a good thing for America.

But of course trade is not the only reason why we are losing good jobs. There are a whole bunch of reasons why this is happening. For many more reasons, just check out this article.

A lot of you that are reading this article are unemployed or underemployed right now.

Unfortunately, there is not much hope that the U.S. economy is going to experience a significant turnaround any time soon.

In fact, it is likely that things are going to be getting even worse.

Our economic system is dying. Now is the time to try to get as independent of it as you can.

Don't count on a job ("just over broke") as your only source of income. In this economy, no job is safe.

There are millions upon millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans that never dreamed that their lives would go so horribly wrong.

But they did.

Our nation is experiencing the consequences of decades of very bad decisions.

There is no help on the horizon and the cavalry is not on the way to rescue us.

You better prepare accordingly.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 30, 2011, 06:59:01 PM
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USDA Predicts Surging Food Prices in Coming Year
The Blaze ^ | October 30, 2011 | Christopher Santarelli
Posted on October 30, 2011 9:55:00 PM EDT by JDW11235

The USDA has released their projections for food price inflation in 2011/2012, showing troubling forecasts that may send you to the grocery store today, before paying higher prices tomorrow. The report shows that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food increased 0.8 percent between 2009 and 2010, and is forecasted to increase 3.5 to 4.5 percent in 2011.

Items that are expected to inflate the most include beef, cooking oils, and seafood. Processed vegetables and beverages were projected to to see smaller changes in the CPI. The Wall Street Journal notes that “the midpoint of the new USDA outlook signals the sharpest acceleration in the food inflation rate from one year to the next since 1978, and makes the increase itself the biggest since 2008, when prices rose 5.5%.” While things may seem bleak for the rest of the year, the USDA projects that prices will rise only 2.5 percent next year.

(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 31, 2011, 07:18:52 AM
Slouching toward the 1930s (We are headed for an unavoidable event worse than the Great Depression)

American Thinker ^ | 10/30/2011 | Monty Pelerin



The current economic crisis rivals the one of the 1930s.  Despite shameless propaganda by government and its cronies in the media, people understand that the situation is getting worse.  Consumer confidence continues to decline as does confidence in the future.

We are headed for an event that history will record as worse than the Great Depression.  It is unavoidable.

The Level of Debt

The principal reason for the dire prediction is the level of debt outstanding.  Current debt levels are simply not sustainable.  Assets and cash flows cannot support or service this debt.

No economic recovery can occur without massive debt reduction.  As shown below, current debt is much higher than the 1930s:




As a percentage of GDP, debt is at an all-time high.  Immediately prior to the Great Depression US debt was about 200% of GDP.  It rose briefly to 300% as a result of massive government interventions to combat the Depression.

At the beginning of the current downturn, debt was about 370% of GDP. It is about 400% currently.

Eyeballing the chart from 1870 forward, debt levels are generally in the range of 150% of GDP.  That appears to be the norm for the last 140 years.  Only in the 1920s and recently did debt exceed 180% of GDP.  Even funding World Wars I and II did not drive debt above 180%.




(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 01, 2011, 05:17:01 PM
Source: Bloomberg

The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached a record 45.8 million in August, the government said.

The figure was 1.1 percent higher than the previous month and 8.1 percent more than a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report on its website. Assistance rolls are increasing as joblessness remains at 9.1 percent of the workforce.

Texas had the most food-stamp recipients in August, at 4.12 million, followed by California with 3.82 million, according to the USDA. Spending was a record $6.13 billion.

The number of Americans receiving food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has set records every month but one since December 2008.




Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/u-s-food-stamp...



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 02, 2011, 10:15:12 AM
Syms, Filene's Basement file for bankruptcy
Bloomberg News ^ | November 2, 2011




Headline only as original source is Bloomberg News.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 02, 2011, 12:30:31 PM
Fed Lowers Growth Forecast, Raises Jobless Projections
Reuters via CNBC ^ | 2 Nov 2011 | Reuters




The Federal Reserve on Wednesday slashed its forecast for economic growth, raised projections for unemployment, and suggested Europe's debt crisis posed big downside risks to the U.S. economy.

[Snip]

Policymakers did not see the jobless rate falling to a level they consider consistent with full employment even at the outer edge of their forecasting horizon, the final quarter of 2014.

Officials now expect the world's largest economy to expand by a tepid 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent next year, down from the rosier 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent they were expecting in June.

They saw the unemployment rate going no lower than 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent by the end of 2012, up from the more sanguine 7.8 percent to 8.2 percent range envisioned in June.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 04, 2011, 03:27:40 AM
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Economy: The rising cost of eating
Messenger Post ^ | Posted Nov 03, 2011 @ 09:48 AM | By Scott Pukos, staff writer
Posted on November 3, 2011 11:26:01 PM EDT by DeaconBenjamin

A surge in food prices this year is impacting local grocery stores and restaurants, which in turn affects the people buying food from these places.

But in many cases, owners of eateries and shopping venues say they have little choice but to raise prices to keep up with costs.

“Oh yeah, prices have gone up like crazy,” said Mike Hetelekides, owner of The Villager Restaurant and Diner in Canandaigua. “We can’t keep up.”

The U.S. Agriculture Department said last week that it expects retail food prices to increase 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year, after climbing just 0.8 percent in 2010.

Jo Natale, the director of media relations at Wegmans, said a couple factors have led to the increase.

“Higher commodity costs, higher energy costs and a greater demand for food globally has contributed to driving food costs up,” said Natale. “Cost increases are pretty consistent across the board.”

She said that specific commodity costs that have increased include wheat, corn, soy and anything that feeds on those three foods. Transportation costs are also up, she added, which factors into the pricing.

For restaurants, there are other things to consider, aside from just the price of the food specifically.

Hetelekides said his establishment changed its menus — and prices — just over a year ago, and as a result, hasn’t raised the prices again to keep up with the more recent inflating food costs. That’s mostly because it would cost too much to change the menus, he said.

But with the steady rise in flour, bread, meat and especially coffee prices, he fears they’ll have to change those menus sooner, rather than later.

“There’s nothing else you can do,” he said. “It’s easier for distributors to raise prices, but restaurants have to deal with customers.”

Some customers may still go to their favorite spots even with a slight increase in cost.

“We changed prices (over a year ago) because of the economy, but it didn’t take that much of a toll on our business,” said Helen Hendershot, a waitress at The Villager in Canandaigua. “We still have our regulars.”

Hetelekides said a majority of customers will understand why restaurants need to adjust pricing.

“Most people understand,” he said. “They’ll see the changes for themselves at the supermarket.”

However, some supermarkets — like Wegmans — have taken measures to combat those changes.

“We committed in February to keeping prices of 40 items frozen, and to keep those prizes frozen through 2011,” Natale said referring to “everyday items” like bananas, ground beef, baby-cut carrots and some coffee products. Spread out through different categories, flavors and varieties, this impacted about 200 products, she said.

Natale said she didn’t know where the prices on those products would stand after 2011.

“Beyond that, we do our best to consider prices for customers,” she said. “We check competitors’ prices regularly as well.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 04, 2011, 03:30:38 AM
Rock Bottom? Debt-Ridden Detroit Suburb Literally Rips-Out 1,000 Streetlights, Darkens Town
The Blaze ^ | 3 November, 2011 | Tiffany Gabbay
Posted on November 4, 2011 1:33:28 AM EDT by Watchdog85

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (The Blaze/AP) — As the sun dips below the rooftops each evening, parts of this Detroit enclave turn to pitch black, the only illumination coming from a few streetlights at the end of the block or from glowing yellow yard globes.

It wasn’t always this way. But when the debt-ridden community could no longer afford its monthly electric bill, elected officials not only turned off 1,000 streetlights. They had them ripped out – bulbs, poles and all. Now nightfall cloaks most neighborhoods in inky darkness.

“How can you darken any city?” asked Victoria Dowdell, standing in the halo of a light in her front yard. “I think that was a disgrace. She said the decision endangers everyone, especially people who have to walk around at night or catch the bus.

Highland Park‘s decision is one of the nation’s most extreme austerity measures, even among the scores of communities that can no longer afford to provide basic services.

Other towns have postponed roadwork, cut back on trash collection and closed libraries, for example. But to people left in the dark night after night, removing streetlights seems more drastic. And unlike many other cutbacks that can easily be reversed, this one appears to be permanent.

The city is $58 million in debt and has many more people than jobs, plus dozens of burned-out or vacant houses and buildings. With fewer than 12,000 residents, its population has dwindled to half the level from 20 years ago.

Faced with a $4 million electric bill that required $60,000 monthly payments, Mayor Hubert Yopp asked the City Council to consider reducing lighting. Council members reluctantly approved it, even in an election year.

“We knew it was going to hurt,” Councilman Christopher Woodard said. “We’re all hurting.”

In late August, contractors from DTE Energy began rolling through the streets, taking out two-thirds of the light poles.

“It is a winning proposition, but that doesn’t make it a winner with the citizens who find themselves in the dark,” Woodard added. “We had to watch our backs when we got out of our cars before. Now we have to watch them even more closely.”

Unless the government gets an unexpected infusion of cash or sees an uptick in its dying tax base, many parts of Highland Park will remain beneath a shroud every night.

The city’s monthly electric bill has been cut by 80 percent. The amount owed DTE Energy goes back about a decade, but utility executives hesitated to turn off the juice.

“We are extremely concerned with public safety,” said Trevor Lauer, vice president of marketing and renewables for the Detroit-based utility. “We recognize that street lighting is something that contributes to public safety.”

Now, he said, the company has “a municipal lighting customer I’m confident can pay its monthly bill.”

Most of the 500 streetlights still shining in Highland Park are along major streets and on corners in residential areas. DTE Energy has listed the city’s overdue bill as an uncollectable expense.

The leader of a nonprofit group that works to reduce energy costs for low-income families said he’s not heard of any other communities becoming so desperate to save money that they turned off streetlights. It might be a sign of things to come.

“If it works in Highland Park, I could not imagine other cities not looking at that as one option,” said David Fox, executive director of the National Low Income Energy Consortium in Alexandria, Va.

In its heyday, Highland Park was one of Michigan’s urban jewels, with large yards, spacious homes and tree-lined streets.

Henry Ford put his first moving assembly line here, and his factory eventually churned out a car every minute. By 1930, the city had grown to 50,000 people.

Ford later moved his primary manufacturing operations to River Rouge, southwest of Detroit, in search of room to expand. Highland Park survived that loss. But it never recovered from Chrysler’s decision in the 1990s to move its world headquarters 50 miles north to Oakland County.

“That took away $6 million” in taxes, Woodard said. “That was a lot of money to not have anymore. It was a major industrial operation moving out of here. When Chrysler moved out, things started to happen.”

Small businesses catering to Chrysler workers began to fail, and the city struggled to pay its bills. And like Detroit, which lost 250,000 residents from 2000 to 2010, people moved out, leaving hundreds of abandoned houses.

In 1980, the census counted 27,000 people living in Highland Park. By 2010, that number had fallen to 11,776.

The median household income is $18,700, compared with $48,700 statewide. And 42 percent of the city’s residents live in poverty.

“It’s pretty ghetto,” Cassandra Cabil said from her front yard. Voices drift in the darkness from down the street, but the speakers can’t be seen.

The 31-year-old short-order cook works odd hours and sometimes makes it home late at night. She watched recently as crews removed the streetlight and pole from in front of her rented home.

“It’s really dark unless people have their lights on,” she said. “There’s a lot of vandalism going on, people breaking into these houses.”

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 06, 2011, 05:45:09 PM
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/extreme-poverty-is-now-at-record-levels-19-statistics-about-the-poor-that-will-absolutely-astound-you



Wow!!!!     hopey Changey is not going to like this. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: 240 is Back on November 06, 2011, 05:52:53 PM
what % of the global depression do you attribute to Bush, and what % to Obama?

33, what say you?

(A lack of an answer will mean you cannot compare repub reign to dem reign... thus any endorsement of a repub ticket woudl be hollow).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 06, 2011, 05:54:08 PM
what % of the global depression do you attribute to Bush, and what % to Obama?

33, what say you?

(A lack of an answer will mean you cannot compare repub reign to dem reign... thus any endorsement of a repub ticket woudl be hollow).

Obama took a bush mess and turned it into a global catastrophe. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 06, 2011, 07:26:49 PM
A Shocking 52% Of Unemployed Americans Have Exhausted Their Benefits (What next?)
Business Insider ^ | 11/06/2011 | Via AP
Posted on November 6, 2011 10:29:55 PM EST by SeekAndFind

WASHINGTON (AP) — The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits. Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise.

The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They've had no job for more than 99 weeks. They're no longer eligible for benefits.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 03:11:52 AM
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US wealth gap between young and old is widest ever
Yahoo News ^ | 11/7/11 | Hope Yen
Posted on November 7, 2011 3:14:37 AM EST by floridarunner01

WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation.

The analysis reflects the impact of the economic downturn, which has hit young adults particularly hard. More are pursuing college or advanced degrees, taking on debt as they wait for the job market to recover. Others are struggling to pay mortgage costs on homes now worth less than when they were bought in the housing boom.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 03:16:38 AM
Most of the unemployed no longer receive benefits
Published: Saturday, 5 Nov 2011 | 11:13 AM ET Text Size
      
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WASHINGTON - The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year's end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They've had no job for more than 99 weeks. They're no longer eligible for benefits.

Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August, a record total. That figure could grow as more people lose unemployment benefits.

So could the government's disability rolls. Applications for the disability insurance program have jumped about 50 percent since 2007.

"There's going to be increased hardship," said Wayne Vroman, an economist at the Urban Institute.

The number of unemployed has been roughly stable this year. Yet the number receiving benefits has plunged 30 percent.

Government unemployment benefits weren't designed to sustain people for long stretches without work. They usually don't have to. In the recoveries from the previous three recessions, the longest average duration of unemployment was 21 weeks, in July 1983.

By contrast, in the wake of the Great Recession, the figure reached 41 weeks in September. That's the longest on records dating to 1948. The figure is now 39 weeks.

"It was a good safety net for a shorter recession," said Carl Van Horn, an economist at Rutgers University. It assumes "the economy will experience short interruptions and then go back to normal."

Weekly unemployment checks average about $300 nationwide. If the extended benefits aren't renewed, growth could slow by up to a half-percentage point next year, economists say.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that each $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates up to $1.90 in economic growth. The CBO has found that the program is the most effective government policy for increasing growth among 11 options it's analyzed.

Jon Polis lives in East Greenwich, R.I., one of the 20 states where 99 weeks of benefits are available. He used them all up after losing his job as a warehouse worker in 2008. His benefits paid for groceries, car maintenance and health insurance.

Now, Polis, 55, receives disability insurance payments, food stamps and lives in government-subsidized housing. He's been unable to find work because employers in his field want computer skills he doesn't have.

"Employers are crying that they can't find qualified help," he said. But the ones he interviewed with "weren't willing to train anybody."

From late 2007, when the recession began, to early 2010, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose more than four-fold, to 11.5 million.

But the economy has remained so weak that an analysis of long-term unemployment data suggests that about 2 million people have used up 99 weeks of checks and still can't find work.

Contributing to the smaller share of the unemployed who are receiving benefits: Some of them are college graduates or others seeking jobs for the first time. They aren't eligible. Only those who have lost a job through no fault of their own qualify.

The proportion of the unemployed receiving benefits usually falls below 50 percent during an economic recovery. Many have either quit jobs or are new to the job market and don't qualify.

Today, the proportion is falling for a very different reason: Jobs remain scarce. So more of the unemployed are exhausting their benefits.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has noted that the long-term unemployed increasingly find it hard to find work as their skills and professional networks erode. In a speech last month, Bernanke called long-term unemployment a "national crisis" that should be a top priority for Congress.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to continue the extended benefits by the end of this year. If the program ends, nearly 2.2 million people will be cut off by February.

Congress has extended the program nine times. But it might balk at the $45 billion cost. It will be the first time the Republican-led House will vote on the issue.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 05:35:28 AM

America’s Eight Worst-Performing Retail Chains
Posted: November 3, 2011 at 5:15 pm



Filene’s Basement and parent company Syms declared bankruptcy recently. The situation is so grim that Syms will shutter all 46 locations, and 2,500 employees will lose their jobs. The company, founded in 1959, was once an important discount retailer. According to the company, it has been suffering from competition as sales of big apparel brands have become concentrated at large retailers with hundreds of outlets.

Analysts predict that the holiday shopping season will be difficult for many retailers this year. The National Retail Federation reported that industry sales will be up only 2.8% to $465.6 billion, not enough to make up for three brutal years. Thousands of stores have been closed as a consequence of a drop in retail activity because of the recession. Stores closures for many retailers will continue.

Several of the largest retailers have consistently performed poorly between 2005 and 2010 for reasons that go beyond the recession. 24/7 Wall St. has identified the eight retailers that lost the most in total sales during that period. The stores that fared the worst have a great deal in common.

First, some specialty retailers compete with larger chains. This is certainly the case for Foot Locker because the big box retailers and most department stores sell high-end athletic shoes.

The presence of direct competitors that are similarly sized is yet another reason for the poor performance of some stores on the list. The office products retail sector is occupied by Office Depot, Office Max and Staples. Walmart’s Sam’s Club has created lines of merchandise that also compete in the same market.

The third reason that some of the retailers have done poorly is weak management. Robert Nardelli was a former Jack Welch lieutenant at GE. Nardelli was passed over for Welch’s job. He was hired by Home Depot to run the company after he failed to get the promotion. Between 2000 and 2007, Nardelli managed to alienate both employees and shareholders with poor results and his extravagant pay packages. JCPenney has had similar management problems. Poor merchandising decisions by CEO Mike Ullman, who has run the company since 2004, hurt revenue. He was recently replaced by the head of Apple’s retail store operation, Ron Johnson.

The retail industry has fared relatively well in the past five years, despite the recession, buoyed by strong sales during 2005 to 2007. GDP grew by 16% over these same five years. Also, most big operators have been able to increase revenue since the middle of the last decade. U.S. Sales at industry giants such as Walmart, Target and Costco have risen by 21%, 13% and 28%, respectively. With $600 billion a year in combined sales, the trio are a reasonable proxy for the entire industry.

To identify the large retailers in America with the worst sales, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data published by National Retail Federation’s Stores Magazine. We relied on “Top 100 Retailers” list to identify the retailers that had lost the most in annual retail sales from 2005 to 2010. Only public companies were ranked in order to demonstrate how declining sales affect the overall health of corporations. Because sales numbers can be distorted, companies with significant M&A activity were also excluded.

These are America’s eight disappearing store chains.

8. JCPenney
> Drop in sales: 5.9%
> 2005 sales: $18.8 billion
> 2010 sales: $17.7 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -59%

JCPenney is an iconic U.S. brand. It was started by James Cash Penney in 1902. At one point, it employed Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. JCPenney suffers from two problems. The first is that it is in the highly competitive middle-market department store business, which includes Kohl’s, Macy’s and Dillard’s. Poor management has allowed competitors to flank the company in store locations and merchandise selection. Mike Ullman, who joined the company as CEO in 2004, was the head of JCPenney during its decline. Problems at the retailer have been severe enough that the board has replaced Ullman with former Apple Store chief Ron Johnson. Looking to the future, Penney’s typical middle class customer may have little discretionary income for spending this year. JCPenney same-store sales dropped 2.6% in October.

7. The Gap
> Drop in sales: 9.4%
> 2005 sales: $16 billion
> 2010 sales: $14.5 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -3%

The situation at Gap has become more desperate recently. It announced it would close 21% of its flagship store locations by 2013. The Gap, which was founded in 1969, was the cool location for casual dress during the 1990s, capturing the nation with its slogan, “Fall into the Gap.” Until recently, the company had 3,100 stores, including Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic locations. The Gap’s competition has grown both because of merchandise decisions at large department stores and the rise of retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch. Gap has been through several CEOs since it fired its famed chief Mickey Drexler.

6. Foot Locker
> Drop in sales: 12.3%
> 2005 sales: $5.7 billion
> 2010 sales: $5.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -3%

In 1974, Woolworth, another famous American retailer, founded Foot Locker to take advantage of the growing interest in athletic shoes. Nike was started ten years earlier, and a surge in interest in athletic shoes had begun. Unfortunately for Foot Locker, Nike shoes are now sold by almost every department store and big-box retailer in the United States. Also, the parent company of Nike as well as Adidas and Under Armour have taken a larger part in building their brands, in some cases by having their own stores. Foot Locker’s sales did rebound in the second quarter of the year.

5. The Home Depot
> Drop in sales: 16.6%
> 2005 sales: $81.5 billion (restated to $77.1 billion due to HD Supply, August 2007)
> 2010 sales: $68.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: flat

The Home Depot is the world’s largest retailer of building materials and home improvement products. The company has over 2,200 stores worldwide. The chain has been badly damaged by the housing crisis, which began in earnest in 2007. Home Depot’s prospects were also hurt by the presence of Robert Nardelli, who operated the chain in the first half of the decade. One of Home Depot’s greatest challenges is that it has a large direct competitor in Lowe’s. The other is that the housing market has shown no sign of a recovery.

4. Office Depot
> Drop in sales: 16.8%
> 2005 sales: $14.3 billion
> 2010 sales: $11.9 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -89%

All three of the major office supply companies — the other two being OfficeMax and Staples — have done poorly for three reasons. First, there are too many competitors in the sector. Second, retailers from outside the sector, particularly the Walmart/Sam’s Club franchise, have further divided market share and depressed the margins. The last and most obvious challenge is the toll taken by the recession, particularly among the small businesses that frequent these stores. Office Depot’s last quarter disappointed Wall Street. Sales for the period were off by 2%.

3. OfficeMax
> Drop in sales: 22.8%
> 2005 sales: $9.2 billion
> 2010 sales: $7.1 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -83%

Office Max is the smallest of the three retailers in the office supplies industry, with a total annual revenue of $7 billion, compared with $25 billion for market leader Staples. Staple’s size and number of locations make it almost impossible for OfficeMax to gain market share. Its modest revenue also prevents it from having the purchasing and distribution leverage that its bigger rivals do. OfficeMax’s revenue fell 2.2% in the last reported quarter. The firm blamed weak back to school sales.

2. Dillard’s
> Drop in sales: 23.1%
> 2005 sales: $7.8 billion
> 2010 sales: $6.0 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: +82%

Dillard’s is another huge American retailer founded in the first half of the century that now finds itself in the crowded general department store sector, which includes Saks and Macy’s. All three companies have struggled to expand and have posted only modest net incomes. Dillard’s has staged a modest recovery recently. Same-store sales rose 8% in October.

1. Sears
> Drop in sales: 23.5%
> 2005 sales: $54 billion
> 2010 sales: $41.3 billion
> 5 yr. change in stock price: -53%

Sears Holdings was created in November 2004 by a merger between Sears Roebuck and Kmart. Sears Roebuck was once among the largest retailers in the country and essentially created the catalog business. The merger was engineered by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert. Both of the chains were weak before the transaction. Kmart was in bankruptcy. Management has been unable to improve the company’s fortunes, which to some extent are hurt by the size and discounting power of Target and Walmart. Sears missed earnings expectations in the past quarter and said it had closed 29 stores during the period.

Douglas A. McIntyre


Read more: America’s Eight Worst-Performing Retail Chains - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/11/03/americas-eight-worst-performing-retail-chains/#ixzz1d1grubgd

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 11:17:07 AM
http://www.lohud.com/article/20111107/NEWS05/111070317/New-Yorkers-need-food-stamps-spikes?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage



Hope and Change assholes.    Vote Obama in 2012 - a food stamp in every mouth! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 01:25:14 PM
Obama Jobs Effort Boosts His Approval
 7-in-10 Blame Economy for Hiring Freeze
November 7, 2011




The Obama economy is so bad that 77 percent of small business owners do not plan to hire any more workers despite all of Washington's hype that the business climate is getting better. Worse: 64 percent of small business owners in a new survey provided to Whispers see the nation teetering on the verge of another recession.

Most shocking of all in the survey of small and medium sized business owners is that many would like to hire more workers but can't, and new financing rules imposed by hurting banks have made getting loans sharply more difficult than in the past. [Read: What Obama Can and Can't Do to Create Jobs.]

"Despite positive job numbers for the month of October, it is clear that business owners have a differing view of the economy," said Connie Certusi, executive vice president and general manager of Small Business Accounting Solutions, a division of Sage North America. Sage, a business management software supplier, conducted the survey among its 3.2 million customers. [See the 10 best cities to occupy.]

"The Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery survey found that 64 percent of business owners who participated in the survey believe that we are either already in a recession or are headed for one in the next six months," said Certusi. "Not surprisingly, 65 percent of respondents in the Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery said that the negative economy has had an impact on their own business." And, "The most telling statistic," she added, "is that 48 percent of business owners would like to hire additional employees but cannot due to issues related to the bad economy."

[Read about the president's proposed student loan rules.]

The survey will provide fodder to those in Washington worried most about the economic impact on small businesses, the sector Democrats and Republicans agree is key to creating jobs.

Sage broke its survey down by the numbers of employees businesses have. Below is the average response of all of those small businesses surveyed.

Key findings of the Sage SMB Perspective on Economic Recovery:

• 64 percent of respondents believe that the U.S. is either in or is headed toward another recession.

• 65 percent of business owners believe the economy has had a negative impact on their business for the last six months; 45 percent believe the economy will have a negative impact on their business during the next six months.

• 45 percent of business owners don't feel the economy has an impact on the number of employees they have.

• 77 percent of business owners think they will maintain the number of employees they have; 7 percent believe they will increase their employee count over the next six months and 8 percent believe that they will decrease their employee count over the next six months.

• 48 percent of business owners would like to hire but can't because of various reasons including economic uncertainty (65 percent), lack of revenue (59 percent).

• 77 percent of small business owners have sought access to financing this year; 67 percent found it more difficult to obtain financing than in the past; 61 percent were able to obtain the financing they were looking for.

• When asked about the effect the U.S. debt downgrade would have, 31 percent responded negative, 41 percent said no effect, and 27 responded don't know.



http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/07/7-in-10-blame-economy-for-hiring-freeze

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 07, 2011, 07:42:40 PM
Generation Jobless: Young Men Suffer Worst as Economy Staggers
The Wall Street Journal ^ | NOVEMBER 7, 2011 | CONOR DOUGHERTY
Posted on November 7, 2011 8:30:01 PM EST by MinorityRepublican



Cody Preston, 25, keeps looking for work that will pay what he made installing granite counters.

PORTLAND, Ore.—Few groups were hit harder by the recession than young men, like Cody Preston and Justin Randol, 25-year-old high-school buddies who didn't go to college.

The unemployment rate for males between 25 and 34 years old with high-school diplomas is 14.4%—up from 6.1% before the downturn four years ago and far above today's 9% national rate. The picture is even more bleak for slightly younger men: 22.4% for high-school graduates 20 to 24 years old. That's up from 10.4% four years ago.

In contrast to those men, Messrs. Preston and Randol are old enough to have had some time in the job market. They worked together installing granite counters before the housing bust.

Mr. Preston married his girlfriend and settled into what he assumed would be a secure pattern of long hours on job sites and enough cash to travel and enjoy restaurants and bars. Mr. Randol at one point felt flush enough to buy a 63-inch television set and a 50-gallon fish tank for his apartment.

Then the recession hit. Neither man has found steady work since that pays as much as he earned before. Mr. Preston's marriage broke up and he moved back in with his parents, an increasingly common pattern for jobless young men. Mr. Randol has made do with help from girlfriends and by living in houses packed with roommates to keep the rent low.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...





Hope n fucking change! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 08, 2011, 08:07:46 PM
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Adobe to lay off hundreds of workers (750)
Mercury News ^ | November 8th 2011 | Jeremy C. Owens
Posted on November 8, 2011 8:54:20 PM EST by Cardhu

Despite predicting record-setting revenue for the current quarter, San Jose software company Adobe (ADBE) announced Tuesday that it will lay off up to 7.5 percent of its workforce.

Adobe is making a push for greater control of the digital media and marketing sectors, a decision that "will result in the elimination of approximately 750 full-time positions primarily in North America and Europe," the company said in a news release. Adobe reported at the end of its last quarter that it employed 10,040 people.

In an email, Adobe spokeswoman Jodi Sorensen declined to state how many employees will be laid off as opposed to eliminating open positions. She also would not say what divisions of the company would be targeted for layoffs nor how many of the layoffs will come from Adobe's San Jose headquarters.

"These reductions span our business units and geographies, and they reflect our shifts in investment toward the high-growth Digital Media and Digital Marketing categories as a result of priority changes and reduction in some projects," she wrote.

The move will cost the company $87 million to $94 million, with $70 million to $75 million going to employees as severance payments, Adobe reported.

Adobe stuck to its previous guidance for fourth-quarter revenue, which it said will be a record-setting $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion.

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

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 09, 2011, 03:10:40 PM

From  To    Email Sent!You have successfully emailed the post.
Jefferson County Just Filed For The Largest Municipal Bankruptcy In U.S. History
Grace Wyler | Nov. 9, 2011, 5:42 PM | 325 | 3





A Vegas Bookie Says LSU-Alabama Could Be The Most Heavily Bet College Football Game EverState Tax Revenues Are Up Almost 11 Percent Compared To Last YearGOLDMAN: Property Tax Receipts Are Going Negative, And Local Finances Will Be A "Renewed" Source Of Weakness
 
Commissioners of Jefferson County, Alabama, voted today to file for the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy today, ending nearly three years of drama over the county's $3.1 billion sewer debt.

The decision comes less than two months after the county reached a provisional agreement with its creditors, that included $1.1 billion in concessions. But county officials have been unable to get signed commitments from its creditors before today's vote, according to Bloomberg.

Another factor in the decision was that the county's legislative representatives and the state legislature have not been able to unite behind bills that would help Jefferson County deal with its fiscal issues. Alabama's Republican Gov. Robert Bentley had promised creditors that the state would find a way for Jefferson County to increase its revenues.

Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies are rare, and tend to end poorly for all of the parties involved. In the case of Jefferson County, the bankruptcy could have disastrous consequences for the state — as Alabama's largest county, it is a major economic driver for the state. It will also likely result in millions of dollars in losses for the county's creditors, and could lead to major sewer rate hikes for the county's residents, something commissioners have sought to avoid.

Here's the full Bloomberg report >
Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Grace Wyler on Twitter.




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jefferson-county-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-history-2011-11#ixzz1dFiz8dJo

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 11, 2011, 07:33:12 PM
It Is 1931. We Are Austria. If The Fed Doesn't Save Us Here Comes Another Great Depression...
TBI ^ | 11-9-2011 | Henry Blodget
Posted on November 9, 2011 6:27:31 PM EST by blam

DELONG: It Is 1931. We Are Austria. If The Fed Doesn't Save Us Here Comes Another Great Depression...

Henry Blodget
Nov. 9, 2011, 5:21 PM

How does Berkeley professor Brad Delong feel about what's going on in Europe?

He's freaking out:

Time to Spread Foam on the Runway: The Federal Reserve Needs to Act Now to Firewall Off the Eurocrisis

I have been complaining for some time now that Reinhart and Rogoff think that the time is always 1931 and that we are always Austria--that the great fiscal crisis is about to erupt and send us lurching down toward Great Depression II.

Well, right now guess what?

The time is 1931, and we are Austria.

The Federal Reserve needs to buy up every single European bond owned by every single American financial institution for cash before the increase in eurorisk leads American finance to tighten credit again and send us down into the double dip. The Federal Reserve Needs to do so now.

Professor Delong cites professor Paul Krugman, who is also freaking out:

This is the way the euro ends.

Not with a bang but with bunga-bunga.

Seriously, with Italian 10-years now well above 7 percent, we’re now in territory where all the vicious circles get into gear — and European leaders seem like deer caught in the headlights. And as Martin Wolf says today, the unthinkable — a euro breakup — has become all too thinkable:

A eurozone built on one-sided deflationary adjustment will fail. That seems certain. If the leaders of the eurozone insist on that policy, they will have to accept the result.

Every even halfway plausible route to euro salvation now depends on a radical change in policy by the European Central Bank. Yet as John Quiggin says in today’s Times

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 18, 2011, 09:53:07 AM
Heinz to close 3 more factories, cut 1,000 jobs
Pittsburgh Business Times ^ | November 18, 2011 | Paul J. Gough

Posted on Friday, November 18, 2011 11:33:31 AM by mdittmar

H.J. Heinz Co.said Friday that it would shutter three more factories and cut 1,000 jobs as it continues to cut costs worldwide.

The cuts are in addition to a previously announced plan to close five factories, including one in King of Prussia, Pa., and eliminate between 800 and 1,000 positions. H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) made the announcement in the release of its second-quarter earnings, which saw net income drop 7 percent on higher costs. A Heinz spokesman said the plan would help it "further accelerate long-term growth and help offset higher commodity costs."

The locations have not been determined yet, a Heinz spokesman said. Heinz would take a pretax charge of $55 million and 15 cents per share in relation to the new cuts.


Meanwhile, Heinz's net income dropped in the second quarter as sales rose in what the company said was tough economic times, particularly in the United States.

The Pittsburgh-based company had net income of $240 million, or 74 cents a share, in the quarter ended Oct. 26, down 7 percent from the $251 million, or 78 cents a share, during the same period a year ago. Sales were $2.8 billion in the quarter, compared to $2.6 billion a year ago. Costs increased 12 percent during the quarter, including a 10 percent rise in commodity costs.

Emerging markets, global ketchup and its top brands saw 8 percent sales growth in the quarter. Heinz said it would launch products in the United States and Europe that would be focused at price-conscious consumers and at a cost of between 99 cents and $1.99. That includes Heinz Ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, beans, Ore-Ida French fries and Heinz 57.

"Developed markets are experiencing low consumer confidence, high unemployment and economic uncertainty," said William R. Johnson, chairman, CEO and president of Heinz in a prepared statement. "As a result, Heinz is launching a number of innovative new products in the third quarter that have been tailored specifically to meet the needs of U.S. consumers with tight grocery budgets."

H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) was upbeat about its prospects despite conditions in the United States and Australia in particular. It said that it was "on track" regarding its outlook. Now more than halfway into its fiscal year, Heinz said Friday that it expected earnings per share of $3.24 to $3.32 on sales growth of 7 percent to 8 percent.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 19, 2011, 04:20:37 AM
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Something Big Is Coming... and It's Going to Be BAD
Zero Hedge ^ | 1/18/11 | Phoenix Capital Research
Posted on November 18, 2011 5:20:36 PM EST by Nachum

Something major is occuring in the markets today.

The US economy peaked in 2007. However, throughout much of 2008, the stock market continued to rally despite the economic collapse as well as the financial system imploding.

Throughout this period the credit markets jammed up and implied something VERY BAD was in the system. However, stock investors continued to pile into stocks because, well, frankly stocks always are the last to "get it."

And when stocks finally did get it... it was quite a thing.

This same environment is occurring today. Only this time the collapse is sovereign in nature: entire countries are going bust.

We have been getting MAJOR warning signs of a collapse for months now. No less than the Bank of England, the IMF, and legendary asset management firm Franklin Templeton have warned that we are facing an epic, hellish crisis.

We got the first taste of this in August when the S&P 500 literally wiped out a year's worth of gains in two weeks The only thing that brought us back from the brink at that time was the belief that the EU mess might be solvable and a coordinated intervention from the world Central Banks.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 19, 2011, 04:31:18 AM
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There Are No Longer Any Excuses For Obamanomics
Forbes ^ | November 17, 2011 | Peter Ferrara
Posted on November 19, 2011 1:34:35 AM EST by 2ndDivisionVet

The history of America’s recessions is provided at the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Before this last recession, since the Great Depression recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months. Yet here we are 47 months after the last recession started, and we still have no real recovery.

Instead, unemployment has been stuck at 9% or above for the longest period since the Great Depression. Unemployment for blacks has remained over 15% for over 2 years, with Hispanic unemployment stuck well into double digits over that time as well. Teenage unemployment has persisted at nearly 25%, with black teenage unemployment still nearly 40%.

The U6 unemployment rate, reflecting all of the unemployed still wanting work and the underemployed who can’t get full time work, is still 16.2%. That includes an army of the unemployed or underemployed of over 26 million Americans. And that still doesn’t fully count the millions of Americans who have given up and dropped out of the work force altogether....

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 19, 2011, 08:42:55 AM
November 18, 2011

Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the CensusBy JASON DePARLE, ROBERT GEBELOFF and

SABRINA TAVERNISE


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/us/census-measures-those-not-quite-in-poverty-but-struggling.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=print




WASHINGTON — They drive cars, but seldom new ones. They earn paychecks, but not big ones. Many own homes. Most pay taxes. Half are married, and nearly half live in the suburbs. None are poor, but many describe themselves as barely scraping by.

Down but not quite out, these Americans form a diverse group sometimes called “near poor” and sometimes simply overlooked — and a new count suggests they are far more numerous than previously understood.

When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.

After a lost decade of flat wages and the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the findings can be thought of as putting numbers to the bleak national mood — quantifying the expressions of unease erupting in protests and political swings. They convey levels of economic stress sharply felt but until now hard to measure.

The Census Bureau, which published the poverty data two weeks ago, produced the analysis of those with somewhat higher income at the request of The New York Times. The size of the near-poor population took even the bureau’s number crunchers by surprise.

“These numbers are higher than we anticipated,” said Trudi J. Renwick, the bureau’s chief poverty statistician. “There are more people struggling than the official numbers show.”

Outside the bureau, skeptics of the new measure warned that the phrase “near poor” — a common term, but not one the government officially uses — may suggest more hardship than most families in this income level experience. A family of four can fall into this range, adjusted for regional living costs, with an income of up to $25,500 in rural North Dakota or $51,000 in Silicon Valley.

But most economists called the new measure better than the old, and many said the findings, while disturbing, comported with what was previously known about stagnant wages.

“It’s very consistent with everything we’ve been hearing in the last few years about families’ struggle, earnings not keeping up for the bottom half,” said Sheila Zedlewski, a researcher at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social research group.

Patched together a half-century ago, the official poverty measure has long been seen as flawed. It ignores hundreds of billions the needy receive in food stamps, tax credits and other programs, and the similarly large sums paid in taxes, medical care and work expenses. The new method, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, counts all those factors and adjusts for differences in the cost of living, which the official measure ignores.

The results scrambled the picture of poverty in many surprising ways. The measure shows less severe destitution, but a bit more overall poverty; fewer poor children, but more poor people over 65.

Of the 51 million who appear near poor under the fuller measure, nearly 20 percent were lifted up from poverty by benefits the official count overlooks. But more than half were pushed down from higher income levels: more than eight million by taxes, six million by medical expenses, and four million by work expenses like transportation and child care.

Demographically, they look more like “The Brady Bunch” than “The Wire.” Half live in households headed by a married couple; 49 percent live in the suburbs. Nearly half are non-Hispanic white, 18 percent are black and 26 percent are Latino.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that 28 percent work full-time, year round. “These estimates defy the stereotypes of low-income families,” Ms. Renwick said.

Among them is Phyllis Pendleton, a social worker with Catholic Charities in Washington, who proudly displays the signs of a hard-won middle-class life. She has one BlackBerry and two cars (both Buicks from the 1990s), and a $230,000 house that she, her husband and two daughters will move into next week.

Combined, she and her husband, a janitor, make about $51,000 a year, more than 200 percent of the official poverty line. But they lose about a fifth to taxes, medical care and transportation to work — giving them a disposable income of about $40,000 a year.

Adjust the poverty threshold, as the new measure does, to $31,000 for the region’s high cost of living, and Ms. Pendleton’s income is 29 percent above the poverty line. That is to say, she is near poor.

While the phrase is new to her, the struggle it evokes is not.

“Living paycheck to paycheck,” is how she describes her survival strategy. “One bad bill will wipe you out.”

It took her three years to save $3,000 for the down payment on her house, which she got with subsidies from a nonprofit group, Capital Area Asset Builders. But even after cutting out meals at Red Lobster, movie nights and new clothes, she had to rely on government aid to get health insurance for her daughters, 11 and 13, and she is already worried about college tuition.

“I’m turning over every rock looking for scholarships,” she said. “The money’s out there, you just have to find it.”

The findings, which the Census Bureau plans to release on Monday, have already set off a contentious debate about how to describe such families: struggling, straitened, economically insecure?

Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, rejects the phrase “near poverty,” arguing that it conjures levels of dire need like hunger and homelessness experienced by a minority even among those actually poor.

“I don’t have any objection to this measure if you use the term ‘low-income,’ ” he said. “But the emotionally charged terms ‘poor’ or ‘near poor’ clearly suggest to most people a level of material hardship that doesn’t exist. It is deliberately used to mislead people.”

Bruce Meyer, an economist at the University of Chicago, warned that the numbers are likely to mask considerable diversity. Some households, especially the elderly, may have considerable savings. (Indeed, nearly one in five of the near poor own their homes mortgage-free.) But others may be getting help with public housing and food stamps.

“I do think this is a better measure, but I wouldn’t say that 100 million people are on the edge of starvation or anything close to that,” Mr. Meyer said.

But Ms. Zedlewski said the seeming ordinariness of these families is part of the point. “There are a lot of low-income Americans struggling to make ends meet, and we don’t pay enough attention to them,” she said.

One group likely to gain attention is older Americans. By the official count, only 22 percent of the elderly are either poor or near poor. By the alternate count, the figure rises to 34 percent.

That is still less than the share among children, 39 percent, but it erases about half the gap between the economic fortunes of the young and old recorded in the official count. The likeliest explanation is high medical costs.

Another surprising finding is that only a quarter of the near poor are insured, and 42 percent have private insurance. Indeed, the cost of paying the premiums is part of the previously uncounted expenses they bear.

Belinda Sheppard’s finances have been so battered in the past year, she finds herself wondering what storm will come next. Her adult daughter lost her job and moved in. Her adult son does not have one and cannot move out.

That leaves three adults getting by on $46,000 from her daughter’s unemployment check and the money Ms. Sheppard makes for a marketing firm, placing products in grocery stores. Take out $7,000 for taxes, transportation and medical care, and they have an income of about 130 percent of the poverty line — not poor, but close.

Ms. Sheppard pays $2,000 in rent and says her employer classifies her as part time to avoid offering her health insurance, even though she works 40 hours a week. Unable to buy it on her own, she crosses her fingers and tries to stay healthy.

“I try to work as many hours as I can, but my salary, it’s not enough for everything,” she said. “I pay my bills with very small wiggle room. Or none.”


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 25, 2011, 11:51:56 AM
25 Bitter And Painful Facts About The Coming Baby Boomer Retirement Crisis That Will Blow Your Mind
The Economic Collapse ^ | 11/23/2011 | Michael Snyder





For decades we were warned that when the Baby Boomers started to retire that this country would be facing a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Well, that day has arrived ladies and gentlemen. Back on January 1st, the Baby Boomers began to retire and more than 10,000 of them will be retiring every single day for years to come. Most of them have not saved up nearly enough money for retirement. At the same time, private sector pension plans are failing all over the place, hundreds of state and local government pension plans from coast to coast are woefully underfunded, and the Social Security system is on the road to complete and total disaster. A massive wave of humanity is hitting retirement age at a moment in history when the U.S. economy is coming apart at the seams. We do not have the resources to keep the promises that we made to the Baby Boomers, and most of them have not made adequate preparations for retirement. What we have is a gigantic mess on our hands, and millions of Baby Boomers are going to find retirement to be very bitter and very painful.

A lot of younger Americans just assume that Social Security is enough to take care of the needs of elderly Americans. But that is just not the case.

Have you ever tried to live solely on a Social Security check?

It is not easy. The truth is that those checks are just not that large.

The following comes directly from the Social Security Administration....

The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,177 at the beginning of 2011.

Could you live on less than 300 dollars a week?

And keep in mind that the $1,177 monthly figure is just an average. Many receive a lot less than that.

In addition, Social Security benefits have been seriously squeezed by inflation in recent years. The cost of food and other basics has risen briskly and Social Security benefits have not.

Today, many elderly Americans have to make a choice between buying food, heating their homes or buying medicine that they need. They simply do not have enough money to do all of them.

It would have been nice if all of the Baby Boomers had been busy saving money for retirement all these years, but that just did not happen. In fact, the Baby Boomers as a group are trillions of dollars short of what they need for retirement.

So why doesn't the U.S. government step in to help them out?

Well, the reality of the situation is that the U.S. government is flat broke. The federal government is now over 15 trillion dollars in debt. During the Obama administration so far, the U.S. government has accumulated more new debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

Lawmakers are already looking at ways to make the Social Security program less costly. No, the federal government is not going to be riding to the rescue.

In fact, it will be a minor miracle if the Social Security program is able to survive until the end of this decade, and it will be a major miracle if the Social Security program is able to survive until 2030.

As for myself, I do not believe that I will ever see a single penny from Social Security, and many other working age Americans feel the same way.

Retirement is supposed to be a fun time, but sadly most Americans that are approaching retirement age are not going to have any "golden years" to look forward to.

Rather, millions of elderly Americans are going to find the years ahead absolutely agonizing as they struggle just to survive.

The following are 25 bitter and painful facts about the coming Baby Boomer retirement crisis that will blow your mind....

#1 According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#2 According to a recent poll conducted by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about "maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement". Last year, that figure was at 73 percent.

#3 A study conducted by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research has found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

#4 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#5 On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers started to retire. For almost the next 20 years, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will be retiring every single day.

#6 At the moment, only about 13 percent of all Americans are 65 years of age or older. By 2030, that number will soar to 18 percent.

#7 Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens. By 2050 that number is projected to increase to 89 million.

#8 Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has declined to 23 percent.

#9 According to one recent survey, 74 percent of American workers expect to continue working once they are "retired".

#10 According to a recent AARP survey of Baby Boomers, 40 percent of them plan to work "until they drop".

#11 A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.

#12 A study by a law professor at the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.

#13 Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.

#14 What is causing most of these bankruptcies among the elderly? The number one cause is medical bills. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#15 Public retirement funds all over the United States are woefully underfunded. For example, it has been reported that the $33.7 billion Illinois Teachers Retirement System is 61% underfunded and is on the verge of complete collapse.

#16 Most U.S. states have huge pension obligations which threaten to bankrupt them. For example, pension consultant Girard Miller told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities. When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in the state of California.

#17 Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management have calculated the combined pension liability for all 50 U.S. states. What they found was that the 50 states are collectively facing $5.17 trillion in pension obligations, but they only have $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds. That is a difference of 3.2 trillion dollars. So where in the world is all of that extra money going to come from?

#18 According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system paid out more in benefits than it received in payroll taxes in 2010. That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016. Sadly, in the years ahead these "Social Security deficits" are scheduled to become absolutely nightmarish as hordes of Baby Boomers retire.

#19 In 1950, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers. According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.

#20 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#21 The total cost of just three federal government programs - the Department of Defense, Social Security and Medicare - exceeded the total amount of taxes brought in during fiscal 2010 by 10 billion dollars. In the years ahead expenses related to Social Security and Medicare are projected to skyrocket dramatically.

#22 The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is the agency of the federal government that pays monthly retirement benefits to hundreds of thousands of retirees that were covered under defined benefit pension plans that failed. The retirement crisis has barely even begun and the PBGC is already dead broke. The PBGC says that it ran a deficit of $26 billion during the fiscal year that just ended and that it will probably need a huge bailout from the federal government.

#23 According to a survey by careerbuilder.com, 36 percent of all Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.

#24 More than 30 percent of all investors in the United States that are currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k plans invested in equities. So what is going to happen to them if the stock market crashes?

#25 A survey taken earlier this year found that 20 percent of all U.S. workers admitted that they had postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the last 12 months. Back in 2008, that number was only at 14 percent.

Our politicians should have addressed the retirement crisis decades ago before we got to the point of being in debt up to our eyeballs.

It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will hit 344% of GDP by the year 2050, and the Congressional Budget Office says that U.S. government debt held by the public will reach a staggering 716% of GDP by the year 2080.

Obviously those figures will never be reached because our financial system would totally collapse long before then.

So what do we do?

We have tens of millions of elderly Americans that are completely and totally dependent on Social Security and Medicare, but those programs also threaten to bankrupt us as a nation.

Anyone that believes that there is a "quick fix" to these issues is being naive.

The "supercommittee" was supposed to address this problem, but they failed so spectacularly that they have become a national joke.

Sadly, most of our politicians just keep kicking the can down the road. They hope that somehow things will just magically "work out".

Well, the truth is that things are not going to "work out". The poverty level among the elderly is going to continue to increase. Pension plans all over this nation are going to continue to fail in staggering numbers. Social Security and Medicare are going to bleed more red ink with each passing year.

Something should have been done about this problem a long, long time ago.

But it wasn't.

This crisis was ignored, dealing with it was put off time after time and all the doomsayers were laughed at.

Now the crisis is here, and we are all going to pay the price.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 25, 2011, 01:39:41 PM
Dow, S&P Log Worst Thanksgiving Week Since 1932 (CNBC)
CNBC ^ | 11-25-11 | By: JeeYeon Park





Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.

The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased their gains to finish lower, led by H-P [HPQ 25.39 -0.39 (-1.51%) ] and Chevron [CVX 92.29 -1.46 (-1.56%)].

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also ended lower, logging a seventh consecutive decline. Some traders are watching for 1,150 on the S&P as the next key level.

The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, ended above 34.

Among key S&P sectors, consumer staples and utilities led the gainers, while energy and techs lagged.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 26, 2011, 04:10:20 PM

Back to previous page


Wall Street, downsized: From largess to loss

By Max Abelson and Ambereen Choudhury, Saturday, November 26, 6:16 PM

John Brady, co-head of MF Global’s Chicago office, was having a vodka cocktail at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla., on the day his company reported its largest-ever quarterly loss.

“Wow, the sun just set,” Brady said to his wife and two colleagues attending a conference with him. “I hope it doesn’t set on MF Global.”

A week later, on Oct. 31, the firm led by former Goldman Sachs co-chief executive Jon Corzine collapsed. Brady and 1,065 colleagues joined a wave of layoffs that has washed away more than 200,000 jobs in the global financial-services industry this year, eclipsing 174,000 in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show. BNP Paribas and UniCredit announced cuts last week, and the carnage will probably worsen as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis roils markets.

“This is something very different,” said Huw Jenkins, a former head of investment banking at UBS who’s now a London-based managing partner at Brazil’s Banco BTG Pactual. “This is a structural change. The industry is shrinking.”

Wall Street rebounded from the financial crisis of 2008 with the help of unprecedented government support, including loans from the Federal Reserve. Goldman Sachs posted record profits the following year, and bonuses paid to securities-firm employees in New York City rose 17 percent to $20.3 billion, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

‘Nothing there’

Now, faced with higher capital requirements, the failure of exotic financial products and diminished proprietary trading, the industry is undergoing what Steven Eckhaus, chairman of the executive-employment practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman, called “a paradigm shift.” The New York attorney — whose clients have included Erin Callan, the former chief financial officer at Lehman Brothers — said he stopped giving his “spiel” about inherent talent leading to new work.

In interviews, a dozen people who have lost jobs at firms including Societe Generale, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Jefferies Group described a grim banking landscape, darkened further by the Occupy Wall Street protests against unemployment stuck above 9 percent and income inequality.

“These are by far my darkest days,” said Scott Schubert, 49, who was dismissed in late 2008 as a mergers-and-acquisitions banker at Jefferies, a New York-based securities firm, and has been unemployed since. “It’s harder and harder to look for a job and feel that there’s nothing there.”

Banks, insurers and asset managers in Western Europe have been hardest hit, announcing about 105,000 dismissals this year, 66 percent more than the region’s losses in 2008 at the depths of the financial crisis. The 50,000 job cuts in North America this year are more than twice last year’s and fewer than the 175,000 in 2008.

Almost every week since August has brought news of firings by the world’s biggest banks. HSBC, Europe’s biggest lender, announced that month it would slash 30,000 jobs by the end of 2013. In September, Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender, said it would cut the same number of jobs. Both banks are trimming about 10 percent of their employees. Last week, BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, said it will cut about 1,400 jobs at its corporate and investment-banking unit, and UniCredit, Italy’s biggest, said it plans to eliminate 6,150 positions by 2015.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation challenge,” said John Purcell, founder of London-based executive search firm Purcell & Co. “Everyone who has worked in the City since 1985 will have no idea of how to cope with this level of dislocation.”

Panic attacks

Neil Brener, a psychiatrist whose patients work in London’s City and Canary Wharf, financial districts said the stress is contributing to panic attacks, binge drinking and chest pains.

“Because there are fewer jobs, people are unhappy about being stuck,” Brener said. “They don’t have options about moving, and there is a sense of feeling trapped.”

London hiring could be frozen next year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Wall Street won’t regain its lost jobs “until about 2023,” said Marisa Di Natale, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.

That’s not encouraging for Michael Reiner, 44, who lost his job in June as a credit strategist in New York for Societe Generale, France’s second-largest bank, whose shares are down 60 percent this year. When he called his wife to tell her the news, she was home watching “The Company Men,” a film about corporate downsizing, he said.

It wasn’t the first time Reiner had lost a job on Wall Street. He worked at Bear Stearns for 14 years until the firm collapsed in March 2008 and was taken over in a fire sale by J.P. Morgan Chase. He said he was happy to have some time off with his family and go to Little League games.

When he began looking for a job, he “wanted to find a place for the next 14 years,” he said. A recruiter brought him to Paris-based Societe Generale. It didn’t last that long.

It’s harder to talk about losing a job the second time, Reiner said. “There are a lot of people I haven’t told.”

Opportunities for employment “evaporated” as the European debt crisis escalated, he said. Now he spends his time going to his daughter’s field-hockey games and managing his investments. He’s planning to make maple syrup from the trees in his back yard.

‘Fruitless’ search

For Schubert, the former Jefferies banker in his third year looking for work, the longer he’s out of a job, the harder it is for him to tell his 10-year-old son to do his homework, he said.

“It might seem outwardly to him that I’ve given up,” he said from his four-bedroom home in New Jersey. “I can’t come to the table and say, ‘Well, when you were five, I worked nonstop.’ ”

Schubert, who received a master’s degree in business administration from New York University in 1989 and was a managing director specializing in middle-market mergers-and-acquisition deals at Jefferies, said he wasn’t surprised when he lost his job in 2008 during the financial crisis. He thought unemployment would last a year at most.

“The first year out was fruitless,” he said. “There wasn’t much hiring going on at all.”

By the middle of 2010, more potential employers seemed interested, and he felt “something was imminent,” he said. Nothing happened.

This year, he has become increasingly disheartened by bad news on Wall Street, and it’s more difficult to stay in touch with former colleagues as time goes by, he said.

Although his investment choices haven’t been “too terrible,” he will consider selling his house if he doesn’t find a job. “God, I hope it’s in the next six months,” he said.

Hetal Patel, 44, a foreign-exchange trader who worked at London-based Lloyds Banking Group for more than 20 years until last month, said he doesn’t plan to look for work until early next year, “when budgets become clearer and perhaps conditions improve.”

Shares of his former company, controlled by the British government since a bailout in 2008, have fallen 64 percent this year, and the bank has posted a pretax loss of $6 billion in the first nine months. It announced 15,000 job cuts in June.

Another lender backed by Britain, Edinburgh-based RBS, has announced about 30,000 job cuts, including 2,000 this year, since receiving the world’s biggest government bailout in 2008. Its shares are down 50 percent in 2011, and chief executive Stephen Hester said Nov. 4 that the investment bank “will have to shrink further.”

Tim Leary, 29, a director in high-yield and distressed trading, lost his job there Nov. 7. After he got the news, he called his wife to say he’d see her and their 4-month-old son for breakfast.

He drove back to Manhattan from his office in Stamford, Conn., and put together a résuméfor the first time in years. He said he plans to spend “a fair amount of time figuring out what the landscape is” before starting his search.

Falling bonuses

“Unfortunately, the industry always seems to get it wrong and they over-hire,” said Philip Keevil, 65, a former head of investment banking at S.G. Warburg and now a partner at New York-based advisory firm Compass Advisers. “They are over-optimistic and then periodically throw large numbers out.”

Morale on Wall Street and London is “probably as bad, if not worse” than it has been in decades, Keevil said.

Wall Street bonuses are expected to fall in 2011 from the $128,530 average last year, DiNapoli, the state comptroller, said in October. Even so, when Goldman Sachs set aside 24 percent less to pay employees in the first nine months than in the same period last year, the amount, $10 billion, was equal to $292,836 for each of its 34,200 workers as of Sept. 30. That’s nearly six times the median household income in the United States, where 49.1 million live in poverty, according to Census Bureau data.

Quitting for Quito

Wyatt Laikind, 26, made three times as much in his first year out of college working at Citigroup as his single mother earned when he was growing up in western Massachusetts.

“It was like winning the lottery to get that job,” said Laikind, who worked as an associate on the New York-based bank’s high-yield credit-trading desk.

He got a job on Wall Street because he “was under the impression that it was a more meritocratic environment,” and “my hard work and intelligence would be paid off,” he said.

At first, he liked the excitement, he said. Then, after financial regulations curtailed proprietary trading, the job became “less appealing.” He said he didn’t like smiling at clients while having to figure out how to profit from them.

In July, after a vacation, he called his boss to quit, he said in an interview from Quito, Ecuador, where he is now working for Equitable Origin, a start-up that offers a certification system for oil exploration. His salary is less than 5 percent of what he made at Citigroup, he lives with intermittent hot water, and he was robbed at knifepoint last month, he said.

“I feel happier on a daily basis,” Laikind said.

His tone was different in a later e-mail.

“I wasn’t brought up in luxury, so I like to think I can tough it out,” he wrote, describing the sagging mattress he slept on in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt to stay warm. “But I may have to give it up and try going back to finance soon.”

If he does, it won’t be easy.

“Until now, at many firms, a lot of investment bankers have been convinced that we are living now in a limited period where things are a bit more difficult and afterward the old world will come back,” said Kaspar Villiger, 70, chairman of Zurich-based UBS. “This illusion has now vanished.”

Increased capital requirements agreed to by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision will limit banks’ use of borrowed funds to boost profit, lower their return on equity and likely reduce executive compensation, analysts say. High leverage “was the juice in the system,” said Ilana Weinstein, chief executive of New York-based search firm IDW Group. “It’s gone.”

No deal for MF Global

For Brady, 42, the vanishing point at MF Global arrived after he returned to Chicago from Florida. He thought the New York-based futures brokerage would “weather the storm,” even as Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating and shares plunged, he said. He got word that another company would buy the firm while at a Talking Heads cover-band concert and celebrated with a friend by drinking Anchor Steam beer and shots of Jameson.

He woke on Oct. 31 at 4:40 a.m. and searched for deal reports on his phone. He didn’t find any.

The acquiring firm, Interactive Brokers Group, pulled out after a discrepancy in client accounts surfaced, and MF Global filed for bankruptcy later that day.

At first, Brady thought his company would survive, he said. His wife thought he was in denial. His mood changed when he was sitting in the home office, looking at the value of his holdings.

“My Fidelity account looks like my bar tab from just a week ago,” Brady said.

On Nov. 11, a human resources executive asked colleagues on Brady’s floor to gather by his desk, which looks out on the Willis Tower, the tallest building in the United States. They were all fired. She told them to show receipts for large personal belongings to the plainclothes security guards by the elevators, and that checks would be sent in the mail, Brady said. Someone asked whether the checks would bounce. She said she didn’t know.

Brady, who said he wasn’t aware of the size of the bets MF Global made on European sovereign debt, wrote to clients this month saying he’s looking to join a firm that believes “integrity and honesty are the single most important ingredients to success.”

— Bloomberg News


© The Washington Post Company
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 27, 2011, 05:49:58 AM
http://biggovernment.com/cstreet/2011/11/26/fed-warns-unemployment-may-double-great-depression


Braden for impact.  



http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2011/11/28/fitch-keeps-us-credit-rating-at-aaa-cuts-outlook-to-negative



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2011, 06:39:26 PM
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/number_of_nj_residents_on_food.html



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2011, 07:16:56 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-delinquencies-starting-to-creep-back-up-2011-11?op=1



Hope n Fng Change !!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2011, 07:56:01 PM
Waiting for midnight, hungry families on food stamps give Walmart 'enormous spike'
MSNBC ^ | 11/28/11 | Jessica Hooper
Posted on November 28, 2011 4:37:21 PM EST by Nachum

At the stroke of midnight, a growing number of Americans are lining up at Walmart not to cash in on a holiday sale, but because they’re hungry. The increasing number of Americans relying on food stamps to survive the sluggish economic recovery has changed the way the largest retailer in the United States does business. Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each

(Excerpt) Read more at rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com ..






Damn. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2011, 08:29:23 PM
CRAMER: 'We Are In DEFCON 3, Two Stages Away From A Financial Collapse So Huge It's Hard...
TBI ^ | 11-28-2011 | Joe Weisenthal
Posted on November 28, 2011 11:29:36 PM EST by blam

CRAMER: 'We Are In DEFCON 3, Two Stages Away From A Financial Collapse So Huge It's Hard To Get Your Mind Around'

Joe Weisenthal
Nov. 28, 2011, 8:09 PM

Forget today's rally.

In his opening segment on Mad Money tonight (via The Fly) Jim Cramer warns that Europe could easily spoil any party we're having in the US due to the collapse in credit.

He walks through a fairly long (but very basic) explanation of what credit is, and how central it is to the economy, before (around the 6:30 mark) declaring that we're in "DEFCON 3, two stages from a financial collapse so huge it's hard to get your mind around."

In the video below, he continues to expound on his point from the first video.

(Go to the site to view the video)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 29, 2011, 10:14:22 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45477559


Awesome - we are becoming a broke squatter nation.   


Hope n FNG Change!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 29, 2011, 09:39:25 PM
A Hidden America: Living in Cars, Tents and Cheap Motels *Video Report*
SHTFPlan plus Video from CBS News ^ | 11/29/2011 | Mac Salvo
Posted on November 30, 2011 12:19:41 AM EST by JohnKinAK

The following must-see 60 Minutes segment further highlights the deteriorating economic conditions across the United States. It turns out some families are losing their grip on the motels and discovering that the homesless shelters are full. Where do they go then? They try to keep up appearances by day and try to stay out of sight at night – holding on to one another in a hidden America, a place you wouldn’t notice unless you ran into the people we met in the moments before dawn.

There are millions of Americans right now that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Inevitably, as things get worse, many more will join those who have already been forced to abandon their old lifestyles to live in short-term low cost motels, homeless shelters, tent cities or in their cars. To be sure, some of those living on the streets made mistakes and poor decisions that have brought them where they are today. Others, however, are the collateral damage from a government run amok and the decades long unfettered sociopathic thievery of law abiding hard working Americans.

The longevity of homelessness continues to rise. So people are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out. The family that lent them money does not have it anymore because they are looking at economic hardship. And, before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they just ran out of all options.

For those whose timetable for economic collapse lies at some arbitrary time in the future, take a serious look at what’s happening around you. Millions have lost their homes. Even more have lost their jobs. Those who are still spending are doing so with the money they have left in their savings or the available credit left on their charge cards. Record numbers of people are living in poverty and the same is true for those seeking food assistance from the government. The collapse is here. It’s staring us in the face. It can’t be ignored. And, it’s not even close to being over.

None of us will remain untouched by the events playing out in the world around us. We can take steps to prepare to the best of our abilities, but circumstances may get the better of us. If and when hard times befall us – and there’s a strong possibility they will – and the seemingly uncontrollable feelings of helplessness and failure take hold, we can only hope to have the strength, optimism and realistic perspective of the 15 year old girl featured in the 60 Minutes story:

It’s not really that much of an embarrassment. It’s only life. You do what you need to do, right?

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 30, 2011, 07:07:17 AM
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/11/30/long-lines-for-free-holiday-food-vouchers


Hope n FNG CHANGE!!!! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 01, 2011, 01:30:44 PM
US Debt/GDP Hits Post WW2 High 99.5% Following $55 Billion Overnight Debt Increase: Total Debt Now Over $15.1 Trillion

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/01/2011 16:19 -0500


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-debtgdp-hits-post-ww2-high-995-following-55-billion-overnight-debt-increase-total-debt-now-o




Gross Domestic Product


It seems like it was only yesterday that we celebrated 15,OOO,OOO,OOO,OOOBAMA day. Two weeks later, we are now well over 100 billion in debt over this historic landmark, or $15.11 trillion to be precise, following the predicted $55 billion increase in debt with the settlement of all auctions from last week. And aside from the mind-staggering rate of new debt increase why else is this number notable? Because as we learned 10 days ago, total Q3 GDP in current dollars is $15.18 trillion. In other words, US debt/GDP is now 99.5%, the highest it has been in the post WW2 period, and rapidly rising. What is worse is that the delta to 100% debt/GDP is only $70 billion: this is about half of the next two weekly gross issuances of 3,10,30s and 2,5,7s of about $160 billion over the next two weeks. In other words by the end of 2011, debt/GDP will finally be a triple digit number percentage. And the other notable thing is that the debt limit still is $15.194 trillion. It is ironic that the economic growth ceiling and the debt issuance ceiling are now one and the same: if the the debt target number does not rise neither will the US economy. Q.E.D.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 04, 2011, 09:02:19 AM
http://www.timescall.com/business/local-business/ci_19465302?source=rss&utm_source=Longmont+Times-Call+List&utm_campaign=d48f2029c1-RSS_TC_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email



Great fucking job obama.   PRINT PRINT PRINT    REGULATE REGULATE REGULATE 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 05, 2011, 11:34:24 AM
Over 46 Million Americans On Foodstamps For The First Time Ever
Zero Hedge ^ | December 5, 1011 | Tyler Durden




While the capital markets may be cheering that in the past month 120,000 people supposedly found jobs, even if these were largely temporary or part-time just in time for the year end shopping sprees, we wonder how they will react when learning that according to the latest update from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), some 423,000 Americans found their way to minimum way subsistence, courtesy of Food Stamp handouts from Uncle Sam. Since the start of the Second Great Depression, food stamp participation has increased by 18.7 million, and is now at an all time higher 46.3 million. All Bush's fault, or something. At least the chart below appears to be plateauing... Actually, sorry, no isn't.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 07, 2011, 06:28:34 AM
Citi cuts 4,500 jobs, will take $400 million charge (Ooops, not taking Teddy Obama's advise)
reuters ^ | 12/6/2011 | Reuters


Citigroup Inc (C.N) is cutting 4,500 staff positions worldwide and the bank expects to record a $400 million charge related to the job cuts, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Tuesday.

Pandit, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference, said the bank's expense reduction plan generated $1.4 billion in savings so far this year, nearly 4 percent of the bank's $37.72 billion of operating expenses in the first three quarters.


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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 08, 2011, 03:12:36 PM
U.S. Household Wealth Takes Biggest Hit Since 2008 (Down 4% In Q3 HOPEY CHANGEY!)
LATimes ^ | 12-8-11 | Associated Press




Americans' wealth last summer suffered its biggest quarterly loss in more than two years as stocks, pension funds and home values lost value.

At the same time, corporations increased their cash stockpiles to record levels.

Household net worth fell 4 percent to $57.4 trillion in the July-September quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday. It was the sharpest drop since the October-December quarter of 2008 and was the second straight quarterly decline.

Household wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets like homes, bank accounts and stocks, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards.

The value of Americans' stock portfolios fell 5.2 percent last quarter. Home values dropped 0.6 percent.

Lower net worth can hurt the economy. When people feel poorer, they spend less. That slows growth. Businesses typically then cut back on hiring and expansion.


(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2011, 08:43:17 AM
Average US Family Lost $21K in 6 Months Due To Property Values, Stock Market
Updated: Friday, 09 Dec 2011, 10:21 AM EST


Published : Friday, 09 Dec 2011, 7:26 AM EST


By New York Post

NEW YORK - The average US household lost $21,261 of net worth this summer, the largest decline in family wealth in nearly three years.

The drop in the third quarter, tied to falling home values and a cratering stock market, is the second straight quarter of eroding wealth, according to the Federal Reserve's quarterly report, released Thursday.

Prior to the back-to-back quarterly declines in household net worth, which wiped out $2.55 trillion from families' ledgers, Main Street experienced three straight quarters of growth, the report said.

Household net worth is the value of assets like homes, bank accounts and stocks, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards.

Consumers began this year ahead of the game, with overall net worth of $511,224 per household, which dropped to $498,751 as of Sept. 30 -- after an average $9,757 per household gain in the first three months of the year and a $912 decline in quarter two.

Read more: nypost.com



Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/money/average-us-family-lost-21k-in-6-months-due-to-property-values-stock-market-ncxdc-120911#ixzz1g3Z8ekMv

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2011, 02:04:43 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/more-americans-are-turning-to-cremation-than-ever-before-2011-12


obama economy - cant even afford a funeral.   


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2011, 03:59:12 AM
Skip to comments.

Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end
Reuters ^ | 12/11/11 | Lucia Mutikani
Posted on December 12, 2011 6:58:25 AM EST by TigerLikesRooster

Long-term jobless eye bleak future as benefits end

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:20am EST

(Reuters) - George Parks has been out of work for 21 months and his unemployment benefits will run out at the end of the month.

At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management.

A similar story is recounted by John Jones, 52, a fellow resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jones lost his teaching job last July as the Pennsylvania state government tried to close a funding shortfall.

Parks and Jones are among the nearly 7 million Americans receiving jobless benefits under seven different state and federal programs. Around a quarter of those will fall off the rolls in January if Congress does not renew an extended benefits program that expires at year end.

Parks' savings are almost exhausted and his house has lost more than 30 percent of its value, making it hard for him to seek job opportunities outside Pennsylvania.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2011, 05:12:31 AM
Is The Pawn Shop The New Spot For Holiday Shopping?
December 9, 2011 8:45 AM


http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/12/09/is-the-pawn-shop-the-new-spot-for-holiday-shopping



Century Novelty Christmas Supplies, Favors & Gifts GARDEN CITY (WWJ) - Doing your holiday shopping at the pawn shop?  WWJ’s Sandra McNeill reports that’s not so odd anymore.

Tom Blaine owns the Garden City Exchange and says his business though October is already up 49 percent over December of last year.  The bad economy means he’s getting people selling new and high-end electronics like iPads and he says the popularity of reality shows mean people aren’t as embarrassed to shop there.


(WWJ Photo/Sandra McNeil)

“Sometimes I’m sure they are.  They might want to try and make it look as new as possible,” said Blaine. “But, you know, times are tough. People don’t mind as much.  They’re looking for a deal more than anything.”

Shopper Jason Miller has no problem buying gifts there.

“Yeah, it’s a good place to shop. You know, you get a good deal on everything,” he said. “My daughter plays video games and everything for like the (Nintendo) Wii. So, if I found some good deals on Wii games I’d come up here and pick ‘em up.”

Brian Lesher says it’s better than the mall.

“They’re selling, you know, mass-produced stuff. You know, where you can find more unique stuff here at pawn shops,” said Lesher.

Lesher said he once bought a girlfriend a diamond ring at the pawn shop. And, no, he didn’t tell her where it came from.

“It’s the thought that counts, right? If it looks good, I mean, you shouldn’t ask questions like that,” he added, with a laugh.

Blaine said he does provide brand new boxes with jewelry purchases
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2011, 08:37:44 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/paul-krugman-its-time-to-_n_1142921.html#comments


Ha ha ha - even Krugman is admitting what we knew a long time ago.   

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: xpac2 on December 12, 2011, 08:55:04 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/paul-krugman-its-time-to-_n_1142921.html#comments


Ha ha ha - even Krugman is admitting what we knew a long time ago.   



Are you mentally all there? Serious question
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: LurkerNoMore on December 12, 2011, 09:13:16 AM
Page 20 - Ozmo is the sole person to make 1 post on that page other than 333 whining to himself.
Page 21 - 240 is the only other person with a single post on that page except 333 crying to himself.
Page 22 - One other person besides me making a post here in the middle of 333 talking to the voices in his head.

See a pattern here?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2011, 09:16:11 AM
Page 20 - Ozmo is the sole person to make 1 post on that page other than 333 whining to himself.
Page 21 - 240 is the only other person with a single post on that page except 333 crying to himself.
Page 22 - One other person besides me making a post here in the middle of 333 talking to the voices in his head.

See a pattern here?


Definately - you stalking people like a jilted lover. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: LurkerNoMore on December 12, 2011, 09:16:48 AM

Definately - you stalking people like a jilted lover. 

Gay projections = evidence of mental instability.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: xpac2 on December 12, 2011, 10:57:06 AM
Page 20 - Ozmo is the sole person to make 1 post on that page other than 333 whining to himself.
Page 21 - 240 is the only other person with a single post on that page except 333 crying to himself.
Page 22 - One other person besides me making a post here in the middle of 333 talking to the voices in his head.

See a pattern here?

Look at the pattern of the whole board. Its basically 333 copying and pasting and whining to himself. He doesn't understand that noone cares what he has to say..His life is so sad.. I mean how pathetic is someones life when they make 73000 posts about politics on a bodybuilding message board?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2011, 11:09:36 AM
Look at the pattern of the whole board. Its basically 333 copying and pasting and whining to himself. He doesn't understand that noone cares what he has to say..His life is so sad.. I mean how pathetic is someones life when they make 73000 posts about politics on a bodybuilding message board?

 ::)  ::)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 13, 2011, 12:41:23 PM
Report: Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY



One in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness.


By M. Scott Moon, (Kenai, Alaska) Peninsula Clarion, via AP
From left, Levi Gibbs, Isaiah Munk, and Stephanie Gibbs get food at a homeless facility.
EnlargeCloseBy M. Scott Moon, (Kenai, Alaska) Peninsula Clarion, via AP
From left, Levi Gibbs, Isaiah Munk, and Stephanie Gibbs get food at a homeless facility.
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As Seen on Good Morning America!


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The numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.

"This is an absurdly high number," says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. "What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing."

STORY: Face of American poverty is often a child's
MORE: Read the report
The report paints a bleaker picture than one by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which nonetheless reported a 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010.

Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor of social policy, says HUD's numbers are much smaller because they count only families living on the street or in emergency shelters.

"It is a narrower standard of homelessness," he says. However, Culhane says, "the bottom line is we've shown an increase in the percentage of homeless families."

The study, a state-by-state report card, looks at four years' worth of Education Department data. It assesses how homeless children fare based on factors including the state's wages, poverty and foreclosure rates, cost of housing and its programs for homeless families.

The states where homeless children fare the best are Vermont, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and Maine.

It finds the worst states for homeless children are Southern states where poverty is high, including Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, and states decimated by foreclosures and job losses, such as Arizona, California and Nevada.

At the First Light shelter in Birmingham, Ala., the fastest-growing group is women with children, executive director Ruth Crosby says. She says the emergency shelter, which houses about 125 women and children, is full every night. An overflow room with mats on the floor fills up every night, too.

"We try not to turn people away," Crosby says. "Poverty in Alabama is severe at best. We were already in dire straights, and then you get the economy. It's kept us on the bottom."

Shelly Jordan, a case manager for the homeless in Hattiesburg, Miss., says it has become common for two-parent households or families headed by professionals to turn to the city's lone homeless shelter.

"People had savings or unemployment and that's run out," she says. "This is their last resort."

A small portion of homeless households with children, 4,355, are headed by veterans. That's less than 5% of the veterans who are homeless.

The number of homeless veterans fell 12% from 76,329 in 2010 to 67,495 this year, according to a report released Tuesday by HUD and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan credits the decline
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 13, 2011, 01:28:37 PM
People now moving in to storage units aka Obamavilles   

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/12/12/fire-destroys-several-units-at-gloucester-city-storage-facility

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: xpac2 on December 13, 2011, 01:58:21 PM
::)  ::)



meltdown
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 13, 2011, 02:12:32 PM
meltdown


MONSTER TROLLING.    ::)  ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: xpac2 on December 13, 2011, 05:11:19 PM

MONSTER TROLLING.    ::)  ::)

 Gayer then posting over 74000 times about politics on a bodybuilding forum  ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 15, 2011, 08:55:14 AM
This slump won’t end until 2031
Market Watch ^ | Dec. 14, 2011 | Matthew Lynn




Our predicament parallels Long Depression of 1870s.

In retrospect, it wasn’t hard to see that the markets were becoming dangerously unstable. Germany had just adopted a new monetary system, and Europe was being flooded with cheap German money. Greece had signed up to a monetary union with Italy and France but was struggling to hold it together.

Financial markets had been deregulated. New technologies were transforming production and communications, allowing money to move across borders at lightening speed.

And a massive new industrial power was flooding the world with cheap manufactured goods, blowing apart old industries.

When it all fell apart in an almighty crash, it was only to be expected.

A prophesy for London, New York or Berlin in 2012? Not exactly. It is a description of Vienna in 1873. In that year, in one of the great crashes of all time, the Austrian markets triggered collapses across Europe, swiftly followed by an equally spectacular collapse in New York. It was the start of what economic historians call the Long Depression, a prolonged period of volatility, unemployment and slumps that lasted an epic 23 years, only coming to an end in 1896.

I have been researching that episode for my new e-book ”The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031.” The parallels with our own time are fascinating.

...

And there are five key lessons we should learn from it.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 15, 2011, 09:11:51 AM
'Dismal' prospects: 1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income
AP via MSNBC ^ | 12/15/2011 | AP




WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.


(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.msnbc.msn.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 16, 2011, 11:21:16 AM
50 Economic Numbers About The US That Are "Almost Too Crazy To Believe"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/16/2011 13:57 -0500





The Economic Collapse Blog does a terrific job of periodically putting together a compilation of the scariest data points about the US economy. Today is one such day, and the list of 50 economic numbers presented is indeed, as the author puts it, "almost too crazy to believe"... Almost. As noted: "At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point.  Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends.  If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse." Or, far more likely, 99% of the population can continue watching Dancing with the Stars, as what little wealth remains is terminally transferred to those who are paying attention right below everyone's eyes.

From the Ecopnomic Collapse Blog:

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

 

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

 

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

 

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

 

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

 

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

 

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

 

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

 

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

 

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

 

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

 

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

 

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

 

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

 

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

 

#15 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.

 

#16 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.

 

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

 

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

 

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

 

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

 

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant.  That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

 

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

 

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

 

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

 

#25 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%.

 

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

 

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

 

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

 

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

 

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse.  According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

 

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

 

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

 

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

 

#34 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.

 

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

 

#36 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.

 

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

 

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

 

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

 

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America.  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.

 

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

 

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

 

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

 

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

 

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars.  That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

 

#46 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.

 

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars.  When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

 

#48 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.

 

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

 

#50 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.

As for the culprit, there is no surprise here - all central planning, all the time.

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence.  If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape.  The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based.  That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

 

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.

 

Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Indeed it will - in it America will pick yet another president that it so rightfully deserves.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 22, 2011, 04:15:02 AM
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Rising food prices impact struggling families
abc chicago ^ | 12/22/2011 | Eric Horng
Posted on December 22, 2011 6:56:18 AM EST by tobyhill

Rising food prices are making it harder for a lot of people to put together a Christmas dinner this year.

The higher prices make it especially tough on families that are already struggling to get by and highlight the need for holiday donations.

These days there's not much in Tasha Ward's refrigerator.

"Cereal, Miracle Whip, and that's it," she said as she looked inside.

Ward is on disability and unable to work. And just before Thanksgiving, her husband lost his job as a security guard. Their five children and one grandson know this Christmas will be different.

"They don't have a tree this year," said Ward. "We don't have presents. They understand that...They know if we had it, they gets it. They gets it. And they really have been supportive."

Adding to their financial problems are rising food prices, which have forced them to get creative.

"We buy more potatoes now as opposed to buying French fries. You know you can get a bag of potatoes. You can bake them, boil them," said Ward.

(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 22, 2011, 06:31:37 AM
Economic Growth Revised Lower for 3rd Quarter (OBAMANOMICS IS A DISASTER)
WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | 12.22.11 | By LUCA DI LEO And JEFFREY SPARSHOTT





The U.S. economy expanded less than thought during the third quarter as consumer spending fell short of an earlier estimate, though signs point to stronger growth in the final months of the year.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...



________________________ _____________________


1.8% - WHAT A FUCKING DISASTER
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2011, 05:34:42 AM
Sears to close more stores as holiday sales slump
reuters ^ | 12/27/2011 | Reuters




Sears Holdings Corp will close up to 120 stores in its Kmart and namesake chains, blaming poor sales of consumer electronics so far this holiday season and saying it would focus its energy on its better performing stores.

Sales at Sears Holdings, whose chairman and top shareholder is hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, have fallen every year since it was formed through the merger of Sears and Kmart in 2005.

And so far this holiday season, the drop has continued. Same-store sales at Kmart were down 4.4 percent in the current quarter through Christmas Day, and down 6 percent at Sears' U.S. stores. Companywide, they were down 5.2 percent, the company said on Tuesday.

Sears said that typically, it would keep "marginally performing" stores open to give them time to improve, but "we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment."

The store closings follow its announcement last quarter it would shutter 10 stores. Kmart and Sears have a combined 2,177 U.S. full service locations and another 500 in Canada.


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





________________________ _________________



Those numbers after New years Day are going to be great right obamabots?   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2011, 11:00:47 AM
America's Dirty Little Housing Secret Is Rocking The Suburbs
Michelle Hirsch, The Fiscal Times | Dec. 27, 2011, 11:38 AM | 4,897 | 19


 

For years, the food pantry in Crystal Lake, Ill., a bedroom community 50 miles west of Chicago, has catered to the suburban area's poor, homeless and unemployed. 

But Cate Williams, the head of the pantry, has noticed a striking change in the makeup of the needy in the past year or two.

Some families that once pulled down six-figure incomes and drove flashy cars are now turning to the pantry for help.

A few of them donated food and money to the pantry before their luck soured, according to Williams.

“People will shyly say to me, ‘You know, I used to give money and food to you guys.  Now I need your help,’” Williams told The Fiscal Times last week.  “Most of the folks we see now are people who never took a handout before.  They were comfortable, able to feed themselves, to keep gas in the car, and keep a nice roof over their head.”

Suburbia always had its share of low-income families and the poor, but the sharp surge in suburban poverty is beginning to grab the attention of demographers, government officials and social service advocates.

The past decade has marked the most significant rise in poverty in modern times.  One in six people in the U.S. are poor, according to the latest census data, compared to one-in-ten Americans in 2004. This surge in the percentage of the poor is fueling concerns about a growing disparity between the rich and poor — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent in the parlance of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But contrary to stereotypes that the worst of poverty is centered in urban areas or isolated rural areas and Appalachia, the suburbs have been hit hardest in recent years, an analysis of census data reveals.  “If you take a drive through the suburbs and look at the strip mall vacancies, the ‘For Sale’ signs, and the growing lines at unemployment offices and social services providers, you’d have to be blind not to see the economic crisis is hitting home in a way these areas have never experienced,” said Donna Cooper, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

In the wake of the Great Recession, poverty rolls are rising at a more rapid pace in the suburbs than in cities or rural communities. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of suburban households below the poverty line increased by 53 percent, compared to a 23 percent increase in poor households in urban areas, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of census data.

Last year, there were 2.7 million more suburban households below the federal poverty level than urban households, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was the first time on record that America’s cities didn’t contain the highest absolute number of households living in poverty. There are many reasons for the dramatic turnabout in the geographic profile of poverty.

While many once depressed urban areas are being revitalized in an effort to draw in more affluent residents, other areas are attracting lower-income families who have moved to the suburbs in search of more affordable housing and better schools. This shift in low-income families to the suburbs coincided with a move of low-wage, low-skilled jobs to those same suburban areas between the 1970s and early 2000s, experts say.

Meanwhile, the introduction of new commerce and high-cost housing in the urban neighborhoods pushed overall prices upward, providing added incentive for low-income people to head for the suburbs.

“These are families that were living on the edge in the city, but in many cases over the last 20 to 30 years, regained some stability when they found affordable housing in the suburbs,” said Cooper. “Now, the economy tanks, they lose their jobs, they’re poor, and they’re out in the suburbs on the edge once again.”

Both urban and suburban America were badly hammered by the financial meltdown and recession, leading to  stubbornly high unemployment, widespread foreclosures and “underwater” homes, high food and gas prices and sharp cutbacks in government and private social services. But the overall impact has been worse in suburban areas, because many low-skilled jobs disappeared along with the plants and businesses that once provided employment. Other companies shifted their business strategy towards developing a high-skill, high-tech labor force.

To be sure, the picture of poverty in American suburbs is an uneven one.  According to the census analysis, some suburban regions took bigger economic hits than others. Poverty rolls increased 121.8 percent in the Atlanta suburbs between 2000 and 2010, compared to a 6.8 percent increase in the city.  Chicago and Seattle saw similarly large suburban-urban splits in poverty.   The poverty rate increased by 76.3 percent in the Chicago suburbs compared to only 9.7 percent in the city during that period.   In Seattle, the number of people living below the poverty line rose 74.4 percent in the suburbs versus 26.1 percent in the city proper over the decade.

The 10-year surge in suburban poverty is putting enormous budgetary pressure on county and local governments and non-profits, which are struggling to meet a rising demand for social services, counseling and financial assistance.  The number of students qualifying for subsidized lunches in Conyers, an Atlanta suburb, grew by 63 percent  this year, compared with a  46 percent  increase in 2006. Many suburban areas of Columbus, Ohio have also seen their subsidized lunch enrollment more than double over the past five years, the Columbus Post Dispatch reported earlier this year.


This post originally appeared in The Fiscal Times.



Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/12/27/Americas-Best-Kept-Secret-Rising-Suburban-Poverty.aspx#page1#ixzz1hlN9mFLh














Hope & Change!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2011, 01:45:45 PM
Home prices down in most major US cities
NBC26 ^ | Dec 27 2012 | AP



U.S. home prices fell in most major cities for the second straight month, further evidence that the housing recovery will be bumpy. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index shows prices dropped in October from September in 19 of the 20 cities tracked. Prices in a majority of cities declined for the second straight month.


(Excerpt) Read more at nbc26.com ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: arce1988 on December 27, 2011, 02:08:34 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-27/obama-administration-debt-limit/52243230/1
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2011, 02:11:12 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-27/obama-administration-debt-limit/52243230/1


Its really amazing.   

A Trillion more?   For what?   

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-usa-treasury-debt-idUSTRE7BQ0KU20111227

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2011, 07:42:02 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/case-shiller-house-prices-october-data-2011-12


Wow!    thank god I did not buy into this ponzi scheme. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on December 28, 2011, 07:58:05 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/case-shiller-house-prices-october-data-2011-12


Wow!    thank god I did not buy into this ponzi scheme. 

Wow thank god you love answering and replying to yourself in posts since noone else does or cares.

 ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 29, 2011, 01:17:06 PM
After One Month Respite, Pink Slips Are Flying Again
Zero Hedge ^ | 12/28/2011 | Tyler Durden





Following 4 weeks of supposed improvements in the labor picture courtesy of declining initial jobless claims, even as we all know too well that Wall Street has been firing thousands and thousands of highly paid bankers and CNBC talking heads left and right (are bankers too good for that $400/week paycheck from Uncle Sam?) today initial claims for the week ended December 24 once again resumed their drift higher, printing at 381k, up 15k from the perpetually upward revised prior week total of 366K (previously 364K). And as usual, the Seasonal Adjustment process smoothed out a whooping jump in actual terminations of 69k, which rose from 421K to 490K. Continuing claims also rose by 34K, from 3567K (upwardly revised, duh) to 3601K.

Finally, those on EUCs and Extended Benefits once again saw a net drop off from the 99 week cliff as more and more people fall out out of the workforce in perpetuity following 2 years of being unable to find a job.

The total amount of jobless on extended claims is now down by 1 million from a year ago, down from 4.5 million to 3.5 million, and dropping. We for one, can't wait to hear what the media spin will be next month when employers put the pinkslipmobile on turbo boost next month and fire all those temp workers they has been stockpiling to help with the EOY inventory liquidations, and we get another 400K claims print.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 30, 2011, 06:13:42 AM
The Number One Catastrophic Event That Americans Worry About: Economic Collapse
TEC ^ | 12-30-2011




The Number One Catastrophic Event That Americans Worry About: Economic Collapse

December 30, 2011



Can you guess what the number one catastrophic event that Americans worry about is? There are certainly many to choose from. Many Americans are deathly afraid of a major terrorist attack. Others live in constant fear of natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes. Still others are incredibly concerned that a massive pandemic will break out at any time or that World War III will erupt in the Middle East. Yes, there are certainly a lot of potential catastrophic events that one can worry about in the times in which we live, but the number one catastrophic event that Americans worry about is actually "economic collapse".
At least that is what a recent survey conducted by Leiflin Inc. for the EcoHealth Alliance found. But this goes along with what so many other polls have found over the past few years. Over and over again, opinion polls have found that the number one issue that American voters are concerned about is the economy. The truth is that average Americans are deeply, deeply concerned about unemployment, debt, the housing crash and the steady decline in the standard of living. It has been years since the U.S. economy has operated at a "normal" level, and many Americans are afraid that things could soon get a whole lot worse.

In the new survey mentioned above, those contacted were asked to select the top three potential catastrophes that worry them the most.

The following results come directly from the survey....


Economic Collapse: 63%
Natural Disaster: 46%
Terrorist Attack: 44%
Global Disease Outbreak: 33%
Global War: 27%
Nuclear Accident: 25%
Global Warming: 22%
Fuel Shortage: 15%
Cyber War: 8%
Famine: 8%
Oil Spill: 6%
Industrial Accident: 5%


As you can see, "economic collapse" was the winner by a wide margin.

So are there good reasons for the American people to be concerned about an economic collapse?

Of course there are.

Back in 2008, a financial crisis that began on Wall Street was felt in the farthest corners of the globe.

This time, ground zero for the financial crisis is going to be in Europe. As I have written about previously, the European financial system is rapidly coming apart at the seams. The euro continues to drop like a rock, and banking stocks continue their long-term decline.

Many people expect a "financial collapse" to happen on a particular day. But that is not how it happens usually. Instead, it is often like a snowball that starts rolling downhill very slowly at first but that eventually become a huge avalanche.

Right now, we are seeing the financial world come apart in slow motion. A recent article posted on Automatic Earth included a list of the year-to-date performance of some of the most prominent global banking stocks. These numbers are absolutely staggering....


BofA: -60.38%
Citi: -44.76%
Goldman Sachs: -46.41%
JPMorgan: -23.03%
Morgan Stanley: -45.24%
RBS: -50%
Barclays: -34.32%
Lloyds: -63.02%
UBS: -29.33%
Deutsche Bank: -28,55%
Crédit Agricole: -56.04%
BNP Paribas: -37.67%
Société Générale: -59.57%

But because these numbers happened over the course of a year and not on a single day it doesn't feel quite as much like a "collapse".

Unfortunately, things are about to get a whole lot worse. Global credit markets are really freezing up - especially in Europe.

Considering the fact that the entire global financial system is based on credit and debt, that is a very bad thing.

Our system simply does not work when banks do not want to lend money to each other or to businesses.

Just yesterday there was an article in the Guardian that talked about how it looks like the credit crunch may be getting even worse....

"If European banks are still this concerned, it's not a good sign," said Karl Schamotta, senior markets strategist with Western Union Business Solutions. "That underlines the possibility that this liquidity crunch is getting worse and will continue into the new year." When banks cut back on lending, that causes the money supply to shrink. When the money supply shrinks substantially, it is almost impossible to avoid a recession. A recent article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard detailed how the money supply in many eurozone nations is shrinking at a very rapid pace right now....

Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors said "narrow" M1 money – which includes cash and overnight deposits, and signals short-term spending plans – shows an alarming split between North and South.

While real M1 deposits are still holding up in the German bloc, the rate of fall over the last six months (annualised) has been 20.7pc in Greece, 16.3pc in Portugal, 11.8pc in Ireland, and 8.1pc in Spain, and 6.7pc in Italy. The pace of decline in Italy has been accelerating, partly due to capital flight. "This rate of contraction is greater than in early 2008 and implies an even deeper recession, both for Italy and the whole periphery," said Mr Ward. Those are very, very frightening numbers.

About the only thing propping up European banks right now is the fact that the European Central Bank is loaning them gigantic piles of cheap money.

But there is a big problem.

European banks are running out of collateral for those loans as an article in the Wall Street Journal recently noted....

Even after the European Central Bank doled out nearly half a trillion euros of loans to cash-strapped banks last week, fears about potential financial problems are still stalking the sector. One big reason: concerns about collateral.

The only way European banks can now convince anyone—institutional investors, fellow banks or the ECB—to lend them money is if they pledge high-quality assets as collateral.

Now some regulators and bankers are becoming nervous that some lenders' supplies of such assets, which include European government bonds and investment-grade non-government debt, are running low. So what happens when banks all over Europe start running out of collateral and can't get any more loans?

The answer should be obvious.

As I detailed a few days ago, many prominent voices in the financial world now believe that we could be looking at a financial crisis that will be even worse than 2008.

If you want to see what happens when a collapse happens and a depression begins, just look at what is happening in Greece....

*100,000 businesses have been closed since the beginning of the crisis.

*About a third of the nation is now living in poverty.

*The unemployment rate for those under the age of 24 is 39 percent.

*The number of suicides has increased by 40 percent in the past year.

*Thefts and burglaries nearly doubled between 2007 and 2009.

Things have gotten so bad that hundreds of families in Greece are abandoning their children.

Some are taking their children to charitable institutions and others are handing them directly over to the government.

The following sad story of one Greek family comes from an article in the Guardian....

"Psychologically we were all in a bit of a mess," said Gasparinatos. "We were sleeping on mattresses on the floor, the rent hadn't been paid for months, something had to be done."

And so, with Christmas approaching, the 42-year-old took the decision to put in an official request for three of his boys and one daughter to be taken into care.

"The crisis had killed us. I am ashamed to say but it had got to the point where I couldn't even afford the €2 needed to buy bread," he told the Guardian. "We didn't want to break up the family but we did think it would be easier for them if four of my children were sent to an institution for maybe two or three years." Does that seem shocking to you?

Well, all of this is coming to America eventually.

Someday we will see American parents abandoning their children because they cannot take care of them anymore.

Someday we will see suicides absolutely skyrocket in America because people have lost all hope.

Someday we will see thefts and burglaries soar to unprecedented heights as millions of desperate people attempt to try to find some way to survive.

It is all coming.

The federal government cannot pile up a trillion dollars of additional debt every year indefinitely.

We cannot afford to see an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day in the United States shut down. Eventually there won't be anymore factories to shut down.

We cannot afford to keep putting millions more Americans on welfare. At this point the government is feeding 46 million Americans a month. Will the government eventually be feeding most of us?

The U.S. economy is getting weaker and weaker and weaker. All of the long-term trends are absolutely nightmarish. We are accumulating debt faster than ever, and our ability to produce wealth is diminishing faster than ever.

There is no way that things are going to be okay if we stay on the path that we are currently on.

So the truth is that Americans should be very concerned about an economic collapse.

It is coming and it is going to be very painful.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 30, 2011, 10:28:09 AM
Have the youth given up on Obama?


Editor's Note: Brad Chase is a partner with Capitol Media Partners, a Los Angeles-based communications and public affairs consultancy.

By Brad Chase - Special to CNN

In 2008, the youth vote helped sweep Barack Obama into office.  Americans 18-29 spread the word on social media, energized fundraising and went to the polls.

In 2012, the youth vote is moving on and throwing those omnipresent “Hope” bumper stickers and t-shirts in garbage bins.

Not because of apathy.  Not because another candidate generates more enthusiasm.  Not because of his character.  Not because they think voting is pointless.  The 18-29 vote is up for grabs in 2012 because youth can’t afford cars to put bumper stickers on and those t-shirts are worn out from too many days sitting on the couch unemployed.

The sobering reality:  just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs.  And earlier this year, Americans’ student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever.


Rather than develop a lasting initiative to help young unemployed Americans, the President launched “Greater Together” – a campaign tool that offers community forums rather than jobs.  Rather than provide a bailout to those crushed by the burden of educational loans, his student debt relief program was pathetic – only reducing interest rates by a measly 0.5 percent.

No wonder less than half of Americans 18-29 approve of Obama.

It’s no surprise the President is ignoring millenials.  They’re too poor to donate to his campaign this election cycle.  Older Americans are 47 times richer than the young – a striking generational gap in prosperity that has widened from a 10 to 1 ratio when Ronald Reagan was running for reelection in 1984.  At the same time, Obama is ringing up donations from older voters.  In the first 10 months of 2011, he attended 58 fundraisers – twice the number President George W. Bush attended during the comparable period before his reelection.  That’s overkill when the GOP candidate is still TBD.

Millenials haven’t embraced any of the GOP candidates yet, but there’s a huge opportunity for the eventual nominee to swoop in and win over the youth vote.  They have a short memory, filled mostly with three difficult years under President Obama’s economic stewardship.  The Center for the Study of the American Electorate reports that the youth vote won’t come out strongly this time around, but there’s little doubt the voting bloc is up for grabs to the first candidate who offers up viable policies – not themes and slogans – to address their issues.

To win the youth vote in November, a Presidential candidate could start by:

- Creating a limited student debt forgiveness program:  It would be impractical and foolhardy to create complete debt amnesty.  Instead, erase all federal student debt for those with more than $30,000 in federal student loan debt and cut the bill by 10 percent for those with debts under that threshold.  That still leaves students accountable – no free rides – but it eases the crushing burden on millions of millenials.  H.Res. 365 by Rep. Hansen Clark (D-MI) was a well-intentioned (albeit pie-in-the-sky) call for debt relief and it’s a good starting point for future efforts.

- Controls on Predatory Lenders/Servicers:  Most students need their parents to co-sign loans and then take care of the bills themselves.  But private loan servicers like American Education Services (AES) have no oversight and resort to bully tactics to threaten students’ parents with credit rating ruin as little as five days after a bill comes overdue for the first time.  Not even credit card companies are that ruthless.  There’s nothing more humiliating and stressful to students or parents than getting harassed for short-term delinquencies.  There’s no need for a Credit Protection Financial Bureau, just more oversight on predators like AES.

- Allowing Student Loan Discharge in Bankruptcy:  In 2005, bankruptcy law changed to specifically exclude private student loans from being discharged in bankruptcy proceedings.  Young adults don’t want the headache or stigma of going bankrupt, but sheltering private lenders at the expense of recent graduates is wrong.  H.R. 2028 will restore pre-2005 terms – support for the bill would be huge in generating millennial votes.

The ancillary benefit of student debt relief is a stimulus to the economy.  Older Americans might say that giving money back to the young is an invitation to run up debt again, but millenials have watched their parents get underwater with mortgages and credit cards – it’s the pot calling the kettle black to deny young adults their own bailout.  The stimulus will come in the form of solid and responsible purchases:  a first couch, a first bed, a first set of dinner plates.  This isn’t reckless spending, it’s the type of economic stimulus that Obama’s much-touted stimulus should have been.

Without the youth vote in 2008, the President would have lost North Carolina and Indiana – a 26 delegate swing equal to nearly 10 percent of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win.  The 2012 election promises to be closer and the swing of the youth vote could be enough to tip the balance.  It’s time the President did some soul searching on his feelings toward the youth vote.  And he better do it soon, because the GOP candidate is waiting in the wings and won’t hesitate to take the youth vote.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of Brad Chase.

  http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/30/have-the-youth-given-up-on-obama

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 30, 2011, 12:04:37 PM
We’ve Been Impoverished and It’s Only Going to Get A Whole Lot Worse
SHTFPlan ^ | 12/30/2011 | Mac Slavo




The dollar is losing value, but this fact is not just some recent phenomenon. In case you missed the charts comparing the decline of the US dollar to the Roman silver denarius, what they show is that the US dollar has, over the course of the last one hundred years, experienced a steady decline amounting to about a 95% loss in purchasing power, closely mimicking the fall of the world’s reserve currency circa the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Every single day our central bank and the US government utilize the stealth tax known as inflation to make you poorer by increasing your cost of living. It’s so subtle that most Americans don’t even notice – or care.

In just the last decade alone, Brits have lost about 43% of their purchasing power for the most essential of all goods – food and energy.

Ordinary families have been crippled by the rocketing cost of essential goods over the past decade, a report has found.

The price of basic purchases, such as food and fuel, soared by 43 per cent over the decade from 2000.

These rising costs – far above general inflation – have already wiped out most of the gains in living standards made by families on low and modest incomes in the early 2000s, before the downturn began, according to research.

The statistics in the United States don’t fair any better. According to the inflation calculator, an item costing $100 in 2000 would now cost you $126, destroying some 26% of your purchasing power in just ten years. And, these calculations are based on the official statistics. Utilizing the actual, alternative data, prices have soared over 50% for essentials like food and gas in the last ten years.

Had you kept your money in cash since 2000, half of your wealth would have been wiped out by inflation (not including investment losses).

Despite what we’re told about our monetary policy and efforts to maintain a strong dollar, the evidence clearly shows that the dollar is moving in exactly the opposite direction over time, and it’s not done yet.

You can fully expect costs to rise going forward, as reported by the LA Times:

Get ready for more high food prices going into 2012 –- the USDA is projecting that next year will bring an overall spike of 2.5% to 3.5%.



Grocery store shoppers this year watched prices rise as much as 4.75% while diners in restaurants saw menu prices go up as much as 2.5%, with a surge near the end of the year.

As of last month, beef prices were up 9.8% compared with the same month last year. Pork prices were up 6.9% and poultry was 3% higher.

These predictions, of course, are based on the official projections. As we’ve learned from past experience, whatever the government projects, you can triple it. In this case, we’ll likely see another ten percent plus increase in prices, and thus, even more erosion in your standard of living.

In normal times the price inflation could be ignored, as wages would adjust somewhat accordingly and employment would be plentiful. But the last decade has been anything but normal, and what’s actually happening is that our wealth is being deliberately and progressively transferred into the hands of government and the corporate elite.

Recent data reiterate this point, with some 100 million Americans in poverty or right on the edge. We are, by all accounts, becoming poorer and inflation has played a huge role.

The thing is, the historical perspective on inflation isn’t even the scary part.

What’s scary is that the US dollar’s domination as the world’s reserve currency may very well be coming to an end over the next few years. As that happens the dollar will lose even more value, likely more rapidly than ever before. So, what was once just a subtle and easily ignored effect on personal wealth and finances, will become a major crisis area for most American families.

And that doesn’t even consider the real possibility of a waterfall event, in which major US creditors and private sector investors lose complete confidence in the US central bank and Treasury department, and choose to take their credit investments elsewhere. If and when this happens the poverty rate in this country will sky rocket – and fully 90% or more of the population would, almost overnight, become as impoverished as those living in any third world nation.

It can happen, and the way things have gone historically, and the multitude of problems we face on an economic, financial, social and political scale, it is becoming increasingly probable the this will be the eventual result.

The only way to protect yourself in an atmosphere where wealth is being destroyed by the powers that be is to put as much of it into assets that completely take you out of their game. As we wrote in January of 2010 in Buy Commodities at Today’s Lower Prices, Consume at Tomorrow’s Higher Prices. It is our view that, even though we’re two years hence since we first made that recommendation, the advice is still as timely today as it was then. Consider those things that become money when the traditional mechanism of exchange is wiped out. Most essential assets like food, firearms and tools will not only retain their value, but increase it – and if stored and maintained properly, they’ll be available for use many years down the road.

So, while most Americans are scrambling to the perceived safety of things like cash, blue chip stocks and US Treasury bonds, leaving themselves at risk because those assets are denominated in dollars and require exchanges to operate, you can become your own central bank and commodities warehouse by investing in assets such as the 11 foods that last a lifetime and other post-collapse barter items and trade skills that will maintain their inherent value when other traditional assets become worthless.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 02, 2012, 10:20:11 AM
Americans’ Incomes Have Dropped 6.7 Percent During the ‘Recovery’
Weekly Standard ^ | November 1, 2011 | JEFFREY H. ANDERSON
Posted on January 2, 2012 12:21:59 PM EST by upchuck

New evidence suggests there’s a reason why this economic “recovery” hasn’t felt much like a recovery. Figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the “recovery” has actually been harder on most Americans than the recession from which they’ve allegedly been recovering. 

According to Sentier’s report, the median American household income has actually fallen during the “recovery.”  Not only that, but it has fallen even more than it did during the recession. Gordon Green, former chief of the Governments Division at the U.S. Census Bureau and co-author of the report (with fellow Census veteran John Coder), says, “Real income fell by 3.2 percent during [the recession].  And during the recovery it went down by 6.7 percent.” So “income [has] declined twice as much in the recovery as in the recession itself.”

According to the report — which has been referenced by both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — in early 2000, Americans’ median annual household income was $55,836, in real (inflation-adjusted, June 2011) dollars. By the start of the recession (in December 2007), Americans’ real incomes had fallen 0.9 percent, to $55,309 — a decline of $527. During the recession (which ended in June 2009), their incomes fell an additional 3.2 percent, to $53,518 — a decline of another $1,791. During the first two years of the “recovery” (from June 2009 to June 2011), they fell an additional 6.7 percent, to $49,909 — a decline of another $3,609.

So, from the start of 2000 to mid-2011, the typical American household’s real income dropped nearly $6,000 — and more than 60 percent of that drop (over $3,600) came after the start of the “recovery” and thus squarely on Obama’s watch. 

While the real median income of American households dropped 6.7 percent during the first two years of the “recovery,” the incomes of many households dropped even more than that. The income drop was steeper for those under 25 years of age (their incomes were down 9.5 percent), for those between 25 and 34 years of age (down 9.8 percent), for black Americans (down 9.4 percent), for families with three or more children (down 9.5 percent), and for families headed by part-time workers (down 11.5 percent). And that’s despite the fact that the report’s income tallies include unemployment compensation and monetary public assistance (both state and federal).

In fact, the anemic economy has meant that Americans’ incomes have declined during the “recovery” even without adjusting for inflation. According to Green, in actual (non-inflation-adjusted) dollars, the median American household income was $51,140 at the start of the “recovery,” but it fell to $49,909 two years later. 

Suffice it to say, such declining incomes are giving new meaning to the word “recovery.”

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 03, 2012, 09:20:47 AM
30 Statistics That Show That The Middle Class Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes As We Enter 2012
Submitted by ilene on 01/02/2012 22:13 -0500





30 Statistics That Show That The Middle Class Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes As We Enter 2012
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse

Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, that is rapidly changing.  The statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a doubt that the U.S. middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012.

The decline of the middle class is not something that has happened all of a sudden.  Rather, there has been a relentless grinding down of the middle class over the last several decades.  Millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas, the rate of inflation has far outpaced the rate that our wages have grown, and overwhelming debt has choked the financial life out of millions of American families.  Every single day, more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty.  In fact, more Americans fell into poverty last year than has ever been recorded before.  The number of middle class jobs and middle class neighborhoods continues to decline at a staggering pace.

As I have written about previously, America as a whole is getting poorer as a nation, and as this happens wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated at the very top of the income scale.  This is not how capitalism is supposed to work, and it is not good for America.

Today I went over to Safeway and I was absolutely appalled at the prices.  I honestly don't know how most families make it these days.  I ended up paying over 140 dollars for about two-thirds of a cart of food.  That was after I "saved" 67 dollars on sale items.

When the cost of the basic things that we need - housing, food, gas, electricity - go up faster than our incomes do, that means that we are getting poorer.

Sadly, if you look at the long-term numbers, some very clear negative trends emerge....

-The number of good jobs continues to decrease.

-The rate of inflation continues to outpace the rate that our wages are going up.

-American consumers are going into almost unbelievable amounts of debt.

-The number of Americans that are considered to be "poor" continues to grow.

-The number of Americans that are forced to turn to the government for financial assistance continues to go up.

After you read the information below, it should become abundantly clear that the U.S. middle class is in a whole heap of trouble.

The following are 30 statistics that show that the middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012....

#1 Today, only 55.3 percent of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have jobs.

#2 In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people.  Only about 140 million of them are working.

#3 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.

#4 Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs.  In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#5 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in "the fretful zone just above it".

#6 According to that same article in the New York Times, 34 percent of all elderly Americans are living in poverty or "near poverty", and 39 percent of all children in America are living in poverty or "near poverty".

#7 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.

#8 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 adjust for inflation.

#9 The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today.  Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class.

#10 Many formerly great manufacturing cities are turning into ghost towns.  Since 1950, the population of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has declined by more than 50 percent.  In Dayton, Ohio 18.9 percent of all houses now stand empty.

#11 Since 1971, consumer debt in the United States has increased by a whopping 1700%.

#12 The number of pages of federal tax rules and regulations has increased by18,000% since 1913.  The wealthy know how to avoid taxes, but most of those in the middle class do not.

#13 The number of Americans that fell into poverty (2.6 million) set a new all-time record last year and extreme poverty (6.7%) is at the highest level ever measured in the United States.

#14 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

#15 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years.  During 2010 it got even worse.  Last year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.

#16 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#17 Most Americans are scratching and clawing and doing whatever they can to make a living these days.  Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#18 Food prices continue to rise at a very brisk pace.  The price of beef is up9.8% over the past year, the price of eggs is up 10.2% over the past year and the price of potatoes is up 12% over the past year.

#19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#20 The average American household will have spent a staggering $4,155 on gasoline by the end of 2011.

#21 If inflation was measured the exact same way that it was measured back in 1980, the rate of inflation in the United States would be well over 10 percent.

#22 If the number of Americans considered to be "looking for work" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#23 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.  Most of that debt is owed by members of the middle class.

#24 Incredibly, more than one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps at this point.

#25 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14.3 million.

#26 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#27 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".  By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

#28 According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.

#29 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#30 The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5%of all the wealth in the United States.

Sadly, this article could have been much, much longer.  There are so many other statistics about the middle class that could have been included.

For even more insane economic numbers that show just how dramatically the U.S. economy is declining, just check out this article: "50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe".

What is even more frightening is that this is about as good as things are going to get.

We have already had "the economic recovery", such as it was.

Now we are heading for another major financial crisis.  Just like back in 2008, the entire world is going to feel the pain.

But we never recovered from the last financial crisis.  We are like a boxer that is not ready to handle another blow.

And who is going to get hurt the most?  It will be those at the bottom of the food chain of course.  Tens of millions of Americans that are living in poverty will experience a massive amount of pain, and millions more Americans will fall out of the middle class and will join them.

If you have a good job, do your best to hang on to it.  If you don't have a job, do your best to get one while you still can. Jobs will become very precious in the years ahead.

But also try to do what you can to become less dependent on the system.  Almost anyone can find ways to make some extra money on the side.  Yes, it will likely cut into your television time.  If someday you were to lose your job you don't want to be left with zero income.

Right now, the U.S. economy is slowly dying and as time goes by the number of middle class Americans it will be able to support will continue to decrease.

Yes, it is like a perverse game of musical chairs, but this is where we are at.

I encourage all of you to think about how you plan to make it through the collapse that is ahead.

Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is going to be okay is not going to help anyone.

But if we all start planning for the storm that is ahead, and if we get others around us to wake up as well, that is going to do a great deal of good in the long run.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/30-statistics-show-middle-class-dying-right-front-our-eyes-we-enter-2012


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2012, 04:42:08 AM
Tracking the Unreported (15.6%) Unemployed
By Aparna Mathur & Matt Jensen
President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 after having campaigned on the broad promise of "hope" and "change." However, to stay in office, there is one thing President Obama should hope for: an improvement in the employment picture before the 2012 elections.

The last three years have seen some of the highest unemployment rates reported since the Great Depression. The official rate moved from 5 percent in January 2008 to a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009, and a current rate of 8.6 percent. It rests 3 points above the 1948-2007 average of 5.6 percent. Unfortunately, the reality is even worse than these numbers suggest.

This is because of the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the official unemployment rate. Conceptually the unemployment rate seems simple - it is just the number of unemployed divided by the number of people in the labor force. However, deciding whom to include in the labor force is a complicated task. In the official unemployment rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the labor force as those who are employed or who have actively looked for work within the last four weeks. As a consequence, the official rate excludes workers who have decided to drop out of the labor market altogether because economic conditions have discouraged them, or for other reasons. The official rate also ignores those who settle for part-time work since they are unable to find a full-time job.


So, the way in which we calculate unemployment might mask the actual weakness of our economy. Paradoxically, if pessimism about the economy drives workers to stop looking for work or to settle for a part time job, it could actually cause the official unemployment rate to fall because of a bad outlook.

To compensate for this problem, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has published an alternative measure of the unemployment rate based on an analysis of the Current Population Survey, a household survey. This measure, referred to as the "U-6 rate", includes those that would still like a job and have looked for work in the last twelve months, not just the last four weeks. It also includes people who opted to work part-time even though they would like full-time jobs. Unfortunately, this measure is not cited nearly enough.

The U-6 rate offers a clearer picture of how precarious a situation we are in. It has moved from 8.8 percent in December 2007 to 17.4 percent in October 2009 and 15.6 percent in November 2011. Today the gap between the U-6 rate and the official rate is 7 percentage points, meaning that the number damaged by the weak job market is almost twice what the official number would suggest. At the start of the recession, there was only a 3.8 percentage point difference. By comparison, during the 2001 recession, which lasted only a few months, the difference grew by a meager 0.9 points from 3 percent to 3.9 percent.

For a historical perspective, we obtained data on these two measures going back to 1994. The evidence reveals the gap between the official rate and the U-6 rate has averaged less than 4 percentage points, and has not exceeded 5 percentage points except for the first month in 1994. October 2008 is the first time that the difference exceeded 5 points, and since then has averaged around 7 points.

Currently more than 5.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks, or an astounding 43 percent of all unemployed. The tremendous increase in long-term unemployment is one factor driving the unprecedented disparity between the official measure of unemployment and the alternative measure. Long-term unemployment has a damaging psychological impact on workers' willingness to keep searching for work and motivates them to accept part-time work.

More importantly, however, long-term unemployment has a real impact on their ability to find a job because skills erode and employers tend to recoil from large gaps on a resume.

The silver lining of this bleak jobs outlook might be that more workers are settling for part-time work rather than dropping out of the labor force completely. When individuals opt for and are able to obtain part-time work, it enables them to retain their skills and, at least partly, finance their household expenses and needs. In December 2007, only 0.2 percent of the labor force was discouraged from looking for work for economic reasons. Today, the number is 0.7 percent. The percent of the labor force that is willing to settle for part-time work has grown much more, from 3 percent to 5.4 percent.

The frailty of the labor market may be a symptom of broader issues facing the economy. Trillions of dollars of spending portend an unsustainable fiscal future, and regulatory uncertainty is high. The reasonable response of businesses to higher expected tax rates and the possibility of new regulations may be to offer part-time and temporary jobs instead of hiring full-time workers. As bad policy forces businesses to seek flexibility, the chasm between the U-6 and official unemployment rates may become a permanent fixture of the economic landscape.

The main challenge facing the Obama administration is to improve the employment situation. An easy way to start is by restoring faith in the economy and providing certainty about the future in the minds of consumers and businesses. To do this, President Obama needs Benjamin Franklin's kind of "change." A penny saved is a penny earned, and today, it may also be a job saved.

 

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) economist and resident scholar Aparna Mathur writes about wages and taxes.  Matt Jensen is an economic researcher at AEI. 

   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2012, 06:32:42 AM
Jobless black hole
By JOHN CRUDELE

Last Updated: 12:38 AM, January 3, 2012

Posted: 12:32 AM, January 3, 2012

This coming Friday could be a very tricky day for America’s psyche.

People in this country are more confident about the economy these days than they have been since last summer.

But there really isn’t any reason to be: the housing crisis is getting worse, the Federal budget deficit is still ballooning; European countries are deteriorating financially and there aren’t nearly enough jobs being created here or abroad.

And that’s just to name a few of the problems.

So why are polls showing that folks are feeling more confident about the economy than they were five months ago? Mostly because people think the job market is improving.

Now I’m going to tell you why this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

First, here are some facts you need to know.

The Labor Department will announce the December jobs figures at precisely 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The experts think 150,000 jobs were created in December compared with 120,000 in November.

Even 150,000 new jobs would be a paltry number.

But that figure could be difficult to achieve because — one, it wasn’t a banner retail season where stores were hiring aggressively and, two, December isn’t one of those months when Washington is fast and loose with assumptions about hidden jobs allegedly being created by companies that might not exist.

But the blow to the American confidence won’t be coming from that part of the Friday report.

The number to watch this month is the unemployment rate.

In the most recent Labor Department announcement, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent from 9 percent.

People who didn’t know any better heralded this as a wonderful achievement. Those who were savvy realized that more than half that astounding decline occurred not because people had found jobs but because they had stopped looking for work.

People aren’t considered unemployed if they haven’t looked for work in a particular month. And people typically stop looking for a job when they think the quest would be fruitless.

Fast forward to today when Americans are expressing more confidence about the job market. So unemployed folks should be getting off the couch and looking for work.

And when that happens the unemployment rate should rise again — maybe, even, by a stunning amount.

That’ll make the American psyche groan.

How many people would have to start looking again for a job to make the unemployment rate rise?

There are only guesses.

The Labor Department surveys about 110,000 people each month in 60,000 households. That’s a big number as far as scientific surveys go and it is intended to represent 240 million employable people in the American population.

So, every one person who is surveyed represents about 2,200 people who weren’t questioned.

Using that formula, only 100 people who weren’t looking for work in November would have to tell surveyors that they were searching in December and didn’t find a job for the unemployment rate jump 0.1 percentage point.

So, if 400 people tell Labor they are now looking for a job — but weren’t in November — then the jobless rate will go back to 9 percent.

The Labor Department estimates that there are 6.6 million employable Americans who have given up looking for work but could be coaxed back into the job hunt if optimism finally comes back into vogue.

If even a fraction of those 6.6 million became optimistic enough to seek unemployment, the jobless rate would suddenly head skyward.

*

John: I stop at Costco at least twice a month and I eat the samples.

However, those samples end up costing me an average of $100 to $200 every time I visit the store.

I somehow never feel that those samples are “free.” Another John

Hey Another John: You just aren’t eating enough. If you keep filling your face with food you won’t have time to shop — and spend.

And, of course, leave the wife at home because she, too, would have to be an eating machine to make out at Costco.

Personally, I always get a kick out of supermarket shopping. At the end the cashier hands me my receipt for $200 and says “today you saved $30” because I used the store card.

To which I reply, “If I keep saving like this I’m going to go broke.”

*

Only two of you — Joe and Danny — passed the test that was cleverly concealed in my column last Tuesday.

In that column I referred to the “external combustion engine” when clearly it should have been the “internal” combustion engine.

Now some of you may have thought this was a careless error by me that was missed by my copy editors.

Oh no!

I like to think of it as a test of your attention level. And only two people passed. So, wake up, eveybody! The holidays are over.

There will undoubtedly be other tests like this in future columns. You may think of them as errors. I like to think I’m just keeping you on your toes.

jcrudele@nypost.com



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/jobless_black_hole_2UGRBpjbWPJCY1ZoqZUFhJ#ixzz1iV48TgZx

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on January 04, 2012, 06:39:05 AM
do u get joy out of copying and pasting nonsense that none reads?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2012, 06:40:53 AM
do u get joy out of copying and pasting nonsense that none reads?

No one reads?    Hey moron - look at the views this thread has gotten jackass! 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on January 04, 2012, 07:45:08 AM
All from you reject..this is what happenes when you bump your own post and just put up copy and paste shit..Noone else looks at it..You're a loser and your life is a waste..

Hope this helps
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2012, 07:45:47 AM
All from you reject..this is what happenes when you bump your own post and just put up copy and paste shit..Noone else looks at it..You're a loser and your life is a waste..

Hope this helps

LOL.  Keep telling yourself that.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 06:34:17 AM
Boeing Will Lay Off More Than 2,100 Workers At Wichita Plant
January 4, 2012 12:55 PM
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Boeing says it will shut down over 2,000 jobs in Kansas. (credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)




Aviation industry, boeing, Defense budget cuts, Job losses, San Antonio, Seattle WICHITA, Kan. (AP/CBS Seattle) – Faced with defense budget reductions, the Boeing Co. announced Wednesday it will close its defense plant in Wichita by the end of 2013, moving future aircraft maintenance, modification and support to its plant in San Antonio, Texas, and engineering work to Oklahoma City. Work on the Air Force refueling tanker will be performed in Puget Sound, Wash.

Boeing did not clarify whether the work would be done in Everett or Seattle.

The closure will cost more than 2,160 workers their jobs and end the firm’s presence in a city where it has been a major employer for generations.

The decision was not entirely unexpected. The company said in November it was studying whether to close the Wichita facility, which specializes in modifying commercial aircraft for military or government operations, to address Defense Department budget cuts. The first layoffs are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2012.

The company said the 24 Kansas suppliers on that program will continue to provide parts as originally planned.

“In this time of defense budget reductions, as well as shifting customer priorities, Boeing has decided to close its operations in Wichita to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and drive competitiveness,” said Mark Bass, vice president and general manager for the Boeing Defense, Space & Security facility in Wichita.

The study came even as the Pentagon had been working to prevent $500 billion in automatic, across-the-board defense budget cuts over 10 years in the wake of the failure by a bipartisan congressional supercommittee to agree on $1.2 trillion or more in deficit reductions.

Wichita had hoped the number of jobs at the facility would grow after Boeing won a contract worth at least $35 billion to build 179 Air Force refueling tankers. The modification work on the planes had been expected to be done at Boeing’s Wichita plant — bringing with it 7,500 direct and indirect jobs with an overall economic impact of nearly $390 million.

Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer said the city, which prides itself as being the air capital of the world, has a long history with Boeing in the community. Brewer noted he worked there for 20 years before the company sold off its commercial operations.

“Many people — generations upon generations — have had an opportunity to be employed there and that could very easily be the end of that … They are a very important part of us here,” Brewer said.

But the mayor said the city would move on and take care of those families and continue working to be the “air capital of the world.”

“This is not the first time we have had something of this magnitude. We have had other challenges and we have always managed to work through it and been able to survive,” Brewer said.

Boeing has had a facility in Wichita since it bought the Stearman Aircraft Co. in 1929. During World War II, employment at the plant peaked at more than 40,000 as the company churned out four bombers a day. For decades the company remained the city’s largest employer.

Then in 2005, Boeing spun off its commercial aircraft operations in Kansas and Oklahoma. At that time, the company still had roughly 15,000 employees in Wichita. After the divestiture, Boeing retained 4,500 workers for its defense work in Wichita but layoffs since have slashed that remaining workforce.

The Wichita facility is facing the end of some programs, such as the international tanker program that supplied refueling tankers to other countries. Over the summer, Boeing announced it would cut 225 jobs at its Wichita defense plant through the end of this year.

Even with the loss of the defense plant, Boeing would continue to have an economic impact in this aircraft manufacturing city. Spirit AeroSystems, which took over Boeing’s commercial operations, continues to build parts here for Boeing’s commercial airplanes.

“But it would be different to a certain extent because of the fact that, you know, it is kind of like family that you actually have and a member of the family is moving away,” Brewer said. “So there is a lot of emotional and economic attachment tied to this.”

The Kansas congressman whose district includes Boeing’s soon-to-close defense plant is promising to keep pressure on the company to bring new jobs to the state.

Freshman Republican Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called Boeing’s announcement that the plant would close a confession that it wouldn’t honor previous commitments.

Pompeo said he’s mystified over why, in his words, the company would squander 80 years of goodwill in the Wichita community.

Kansas officials are upset because they put pressure on the Air Force in recent years to reverse a decision to give a $35 billion contract to build a new refueling tanker a competing consortium. Boeing eventually landed the contract, and Pompeo says the state was promised new jobs.

Gov. Sam Brownback says he’s disappointed in Boeing Co.’s decision to close its Wichita plant despite efforts by what he calls “Team Kansas” to help the company in recent years.

The governor said growth opportunities in commercial aviation work at other Kansas companies might offset the Boeing job losses.

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on January 05, 2012, 11:43:48 AM
LOL.  Keep telling yourself that.   

proof is in the thread
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 11:44:48 AM
proof is in the thread

Absolutely!   Obama is trying to collapse the nation by the second.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 11:54:05 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 4, 2012
Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs

By JASON DePARLE




WASHINGTON — Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion.

But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.

Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a Republican candidate for president, warned this fall that movement “up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe, than it is in America.” National Review, a conservative thought leader, wrote that “most Western European and English-speaking nations have higher rates of mobility.” Even Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who argues that overall mobility remains high, recently wrote that “mobility from the very bottom up” is “where the United States lags behind.”

Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new.

“It’s becoming conventional wisdom that the U.S. does not have as much mobility as most other advanced countries,” said Isabel V. Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution. “I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will argue with that.”

One reason for the mobility gap may be the depth of American poverty, which leaves poor children starting especially far behind. Another may be the unusually large premiums that American employers pay for college degrees. Since children generally follow their parents’ educational trajectory, that premium increases the importance of family background and stymies people with less schooling.

At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints.

Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes.

Despite frequent references to the United States as a classless society, about 62 percent of Americans (male and female) raised in the top fifth of incomes stay in the top two-fifths, according to research by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths.

By emphasizing the influence of family background, the studies not only challenge American identity but speak to the debate about inequality. While liberals often complain that the United States has unusually large income gaps, many conservatives have argued that the system is fair because mobility is especially high, too: everyone can climb the ladder. Now the evidence suggests that America is not only less equal, but also less mobile.

John Bridgeland, a former aide to President George W. Bush who helped start Opportunity Nation, an effort to seek policy solutions, said he was “shocked” by the international comparisons. “Republicans will not feel compelled to talk about income inequality,” Mr. Bridgeland said. “But they will feel a need to talk about a lack of mobility — a lack of access to the American Dream.”

While Europe differs from the United States in culture and demographics, a more telling comparison may be with Canada, a neighbor with significant ethnic diversity. Miles Corak, an economist at the University of Ottawa, found that just 16 percent of Canadian men raised in the bottom tenth of incomes stayed there as adults, compared with 22 percent of Americans. Similarly, 26 percent of American men raised at the top tenth stayed there, but just 18 percent of Canadians.

“Family background plays more of a role in the U.S. than in most comparable countries,” Professor Corak said in an interview.

Skeptics caution that the studies measure “relative mobility” — how likely children are to move from their parents’ place in the income distribution. That is different from asking whether they have more money. Most Americans have higher incomes than their parents because the country has grown richer.

Some conservatives say this measure, called absolute mobility, is a better gauge of opportunity. A Pew study found that 81 percent of Americans have higher incomes than their parents (after accounting for family size). There is no comparable data on other countries.

Since they require two generations of data, the studies also omit immigrants, whose upward movement has long been considered an American strength. “If America is so poor in economic mobility, maybe someone should tell all these people who still want to come to the U.S.,” said Stuart M. Butler, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

The income compression in rival countries may also make them seem more mobile. Reihan Salam, a writer for The Daily and National Review Online, has calculated that a Danish family can move from the 10th percentile to the 90th percentile with $45,000 of additional earnings, while an American family would need an additional $93,000.

Even by measures of relative mobility, Middle America remains fluid. About 36 percent of Americans raised in the middle fifth move up as adults, while 23 percent stay on the same rung and 41 percent move down, according to Pew research. The “stickiness” appears at the top and bottom, as affluent families transmit their advantages and poor families stay trapped.

While Americans have boasted of casting off class since Poor Richard’s Almanac, until recently there has been little data.

Pioneering work in the early 1980s by Gary S. Becker, a Nobel laureate in economics, found only a mild relationship between fathers’ earnings and those of their sons. But when better data became available a decade later, another prominent economist, Gary Solon, found the bond twice as strong. Most researchers now estimate the “elasticity” of father-son earnings at 0.5, which means if one man earns $100,000 more than another, his sons would earn $50,000 more on average than the sons of the poorer man.

In 2006 Professor Corak reviewed more than 50 studies of nine countries. He ranked Canada, Norway, Finland and Denmark as the most mobile, with the United States and Britain roughly tied at the other extreme. Sweden, Germany, and France were scattered across the middle.

The causes of America’s mobility problem are a topic of dispute — starting with the debates over poverty. The United States maintains a thinner safety net than other rich countries, leaving more children vulnerable to debilitating hardships.

Poor Americans are also more likely than foreign peers to grow up with single mothers. That places them at an elevated risk of experiencing poverty and related problems, a point frequently made by Mr. Santorum, who surged into contention in the Iowa caucuses. The United States also has uniquely high incarceration rates, and a longer history of racial stratification than its peers.

“The bottom fifth in the U.S. looks very different from the bottom fifth in other countries,” said Scott Winship, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, who wrote the article for National Review. “Poor Americans have to work their way up from a lower floor.”

A second distinguishing American trait is the pay tilt toward educated workers. While in theory that could help poor children rise — good learners can become high earners — more often it favors the children of the educated and affluent, who have access to better schools and arrive in them more prepared to learn.

“Upper-income families can invest more in their children’s education and they may have a better understanding of what it takes to get a good education,” said Eric Wanner, president of the Russell Sage Foundation, which gives grants to social scientists.

The United States is also less unionized than many of its peers, which may lower wages among the least skilled, and has public health problems, like obesity and diabetes, which can limit education and employment.

Perhaps another brake on American mobility is the sheer magnitude of the gaps between rich and the rest — the theme of the Occupy Wall Street protests, which emphasize the power of the privileged to protect their interests. Countries with less equality generally have less mobility.

Mr. Salam recently wrote that relative mobility “is overrated as a social policy goal” compared with raising incomes across the board. Parents naturally try to help their children, and a completely mobile society would mean complete insecurity: anyone could tumble any time.

But he finds the stagnation at the bottom alarming and warns that it will worsen. Most of the studies end with people born before 1970, while wage gaps, single motherhood and incarceration increased later. Until more recent data arrives, he said, “we don’t know the half of it.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 02:52:59 PM
AP Item on 'Summer Jobs Initiative' Omits That Most of 180,000 'Opportunities' Are Unpaid
Newsbusters ^ | 1/5/12 | Tom Blumer




An unbylined item appearing at the Associated Press shortly after midnight (captured in full as a graphic here due to its brevity; for fair use and discussion purposes) crowed about how President Barack Obama "is looking to boost summer job prospects for kids," has "gotten commitments for nearly 180,000 youth employment opportunities for next summer," and only says that "Many of the positions would be unpaid training opportunities."

How many? Well, most, according to the Hill's Eric Wasson:

Obama to launch summer-jobs initiative

President Obama on Thursday will unveil a summer-jobs initiative that the White House says is already on track to create 180,000 “work opportunities” in the private sector in 2012.

That is the number of opportunities, which includes mentoring and unpaid internships, that companies have told the administration they are willing to create. Some 70,000 jobs are paid, the White House says.

The initiative was hatched after Congress failed to approve a $1.5 billion summer-jobs fund that President Obama had been seeking as part of the American Jobs Act.

“Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of executive actions the Obama administration is taking to strengthen the economy and move the country forward because we can’t wait for Congress to act,” a White House statement reads.


(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...






LMFAO!!!!!!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 08:50:41 PM
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Closing: 5 Macy's And 4 Bloomingdale's Stores
Yahoo ^ | 1/4/12 | AP
Posted on January 5, 2012 11:41:39 PM EST by Lmo56

CINCINNATI (AP) — Macy's Inc. says it will close five Macy's and four Bloomingdale's stores that are underperforming.

Clearance sales will begin at the stores Sunday and run for 10 weeks.

More than 830 workers will be affected by the closings — 375 at Macy's stores and 463 at Bloomingdale's. But many may have the option of taking jobs at new stores the company plans to open.

The closing Macy's stores are in Topeka, Kan.; Laurel, Md.; Parma, Ohio; Antioch, Tenn.; and Texas City, Texas. The Bloomingdale's closures are in Atlanta; Oak Brook, Ill.; North Bethesda, Md.; and in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on January 05, 2012, 09:05:26 PM
Absolutely!   Obama is trying to collapse the nation by the second.   

obama is the best thing u idiot americans have... and unlike u he has  a life and a job
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2012, 09:06:21 PM
obama is the best thing u idiot americans have... and unlike u he has  a life and a job

holy Shit!     outed!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: xpac2 on January 05, 2012, 09:09:18 PM
holy Shit!     outed!   

I'm just trying to get u going idiot. i dont care about this stuff> im sure ur posts on getbig eally elp ur cause in the big picture  ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 08, 2012, 07:58:41 PM
http://theintelhub.com/2012/01/02/senior-obama-admin-official-we-are-going-to-kill-the-dollar


Wow!!!   It's intentional even according to Obama officials
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2012, 03:56:33 AM
Hostess Brands Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing

Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark the second significant court restructuring for the Twinkie and Wonder Bread baker in the past several years.

The privately held Irving, Texas, company, which employs roughly 19,000 people and carries more than $860 million in debt, has been facing a cash squeeze amid high labor costs and rising prices for sugar, flour and other ingredients, according to people familiar with the matter. Those costs together have proved higher than the company's roughly $2.5 billion in annual sales, creating losses and cash shortfalls, they said.

Hostess also currently owes more than $50 million to vendors, which have been demanding payments on shortened timeframes after delivering goods because of Hostess's financial condition, one of the people said.

Hostess's filing would mark what's known as a "Chapter 22" in restructuring circles, since the company had already sought bankruptcy protection once before. Hostess, before called Interstate Bakeries Corp., slashed debt and costs during a four-year stint in bankruptcy court that began in 2004. The company has struggled since emerging from bankruptcy proceedings in February 2009.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577151211961572458.html






Wow!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2012, 07:02:10 PM
does hostess make chocadiles ?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2012, 03:16:11 AM
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Food Lion stores closing
JACKSONVILLE,COM ^ | Jan 12,2012 | swampsniper
Posted on January 12, 2012 1:48:04 AM EST by SWAMPSNIPER

All Food Lion stores on the First Coast, including a dozen in Jacksonville, are closing, company officials announced Wednesday night.

The stores will be closed within 30 days, the company said.

Stores in Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Baker and Alachua counties are also closing. In addition, the Food Lion in Waycross is among the Georgia stores slated to be closed.

The company will convert its Food Lion in Lake City to a Harveys store. All of the other stores in Florida are closing.

(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: 240 is Back on January 12, 2012, 05:29:00 AM
Food lion has been closing stores in FL since... hm.... 1997, I worked at one in SW florida... crumy store, in the same plaza as that Kmart/Sears mess that was put out of business by the new super walmart across the street.

the store was empty most of the time.  lots of spoilage and waste.  Their prices were high like the high-end stores, but the place was understaffed, and dirty.

I'm not sure why this article is in this thread - do you blame obama for Food lion closing?  Cause kash n karry was bought by food lion in the 90s here, cause they sucked.... then albertson's bought many of the food lions... and Food lion has just been limping thru.  I'm surprised any more of their stores are still open.

Is it obama's fault that food lion was a shity store with higher prices than winn dixie but lower quality products/service than publix, back in 1997?   Are you just hatin obama that much, that you attribute food lion closing to him?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2012, 07:54:30 AM
Some Inconvenient Facts
Townhall.com ^ | January 12, 2012 | Michael Reagan




Mr. President: Do you really think you are riding high with the rate of unemployment standing at a whopping 8.5 percent?

8.5 percent! Wow!!

Perhaps we should take a real good look at the real numbers.

The rate of unemployment was 7.8 percent when you took office, and look how much money you have spent since then trying to improve it. Remember that before you took office our deficit was about $400 billion. Now it's well over a trillion -- $1.5 trillion, more or less, and the national debt totals $15 trillion. Can you even begin to count to 15 trillion, much less deal with that number?

Moreover, as of December there were 6 million fewer jobs than there were in December 2007. You know, when the younger George Bush was president. Oh, and by the way, using the best-case scenario, Mr. Obama, you will end up 4 million short at the end of this year.

By the way, let's not forget that the Congress was controlled by your party from January 2007 to January 2011. And they held the purse strings!

There are also 170,000 fewer people looking for jobs now, and 42,000 of the new jobs end up being temporary jobs during the Christmas season only.

Also while you are touting the unemployment numbers remember that they are national numbers and elections, even though they are national, really take place at the state level; there, Mr. President, it doesn't look so good.

Let's look at the unemployment numbers in some key states:

Florida: 10 percent

Ohio: 8.5 percent

Pennsylvania: 7.9 percent

Michigan: 9.85 percent

Do those numbers worry you, Mr.President? They should. Let's look at some more, shall we?

In Illinois, your home state, the unemployment rate stands at 10 percent. In Nevada, it is 13 percent. And California, the Bluest of the Blue, it is at 11.3 percent. Do you really think you can't be beaten with numbers like that?

Even Ron Paul's chances of winning the White House look good against these numbers!

Republicans need to take a good look at these numbers and run against them, not against each other, and if they do they will win.

Remember, it really is the economy, stupid, and when that's faltering nothing else matters.

Oh! And let's not forget that unemployment in the black community is at a whopping 15.8 percent -- that is a full point higher than when you took office. Do you expect that black voters will ignore the damage you've done to the economy and to them?

Fat chance.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2012, 10:30:35 AM
Obama's State of the Union Address to Mark 1,000 Days Without a Democrat Budget
ATR ^ | 2012-01-12 | Mattie Duppler




When President Barack Obama offers his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, it will mark exactly 1,000 days since the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate has passed a budget. The Senate has not bothered to pass a budget since April 29, 2009.

“The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the Paul Ryan budget that reduced Obama’s spending levels by six trillion dollars over the next decade. The Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in three years," said Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist. "When President Obama tries to blame a ‘do nothing’ congress for his problems….he is half right. The Democrat Senate has done nothing.”

The President should be alarmed that as the economy flounders, Senate Democrats have refused to offer significant budget solutions. A serious joint address to Congress must confront the Senate Democrats’ abdication of their duties.

President Obama is sure to try to blame Republicans in both chambers for his administration’s failed economic policies. However, on the 1,000th day without a Democrat budget, the President will be forced to explain how anyone else is to blame; it is his party’s Senate leaders who have ignored their basic Congressional responsibility for almost three years.

A short look back on the fiscal recklessness of the last few years shows that if President Obama is upset about budget hostilities in Washington, he has no one to blame but himself. If he is serious about fixing the ailing economy, the President should demand Senate Democrats get back to work:

•0…Number of Senate votes taken on the massive Democrat spending package crafted last year in place of an actual budget.
•0…Number of votes the President’s FY 2012 budget received in the Senate.
•0…Senate Budget Committee budget mark-ups scheduled last year.
•3…Number of years the deficit has topped $1 Trillion.
•3…Number of years total government spending has exceeded $3 Trillion.
•34…number of months unemployment has been above 8 percent, the jobless rate the “stimulus” was supposed to prevent.
•1.4 million…number of jobs killed by President Obama
•$16.4 Trillion…amount of debt held by the nation after three years of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending binge.
•$80 Billion…Amount by which Obama would have increased spending in 2011 without Republican resolve to cut spending.


Read more: http://www.atr.org/obamas-state-union-address-mark-days-a6680#ixzz1jGgeNEmm

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2012, 11:38:08 AM

December U.S. Budget Deficit Wider Than Expected
Published January 12, 2012
Reuters




The monthly U.S. budget deficit climbed to $85.97 billion during December from $78.13 billion in the same month a year earlier, partly because some payments normally made in January were shifted to December, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Outlays rose to $325.93 billion from $315.01 billion in December 2010. Among the payment shifts to December was about $4 billion in military retirement pay that was sent early because Jan. 1 fell on a Sunday.

Government receipts, mainly from taxes, rose modestly to $239.96 billion in December 2011 from $236.88 billion in December 2010.

Under the government's accounting system, last October was the opening month of fiscal 2012. During fiscal 2011 which ended Sept 30, the budget deficit totaled $1.296 trillion.



Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2012/01/12/december-us-budget-deficit-wider-than-expected/#ixzz1jH4ucJDX

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2012, 08:02:57 PM
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Nearly 1 Million Workers Vanished Under Obama
http://news.investors.com ^ | January 12 2012 | JOHN MERLINE
Posted on January 12, 2012 7:13:01 PM EST by Para-Ord.45

Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped by 24,000 last week to 399,000 as more workers lost their jobs, the Labor Department said Thursday. At the same time, the economy continues to lose workers.

In the 30 months since the recession officially ended, nearly 1 million people have dropped out of the labor force — they aren't working, and they aren't looking — according to data from Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the past two months, the labor force shrank by 170,000.

This is virtually unprecedented in past economic recoveries, at least since the BLS has kept detailed records.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2012, 03:59:52 AM
 
 



 


Peter Ferrara, Contributor
I cover public policy, particularly concerning economics.
OP/ED | 1/12/2012 @ 2:34PM |42,389 views
The Worst Economic Recovery Since The Great Depression

Image via Wikipedia

The record of President Obama’s first three years in office is in, and nothing that happens now can go back and change that.  What that record shows is that President Obama, with his throwback, old-fashioned, 1970s Keynesian economics, has put America through the worst recovery from a recession since the Great Depression.

The recession started in December, 2007.  Go to the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org) to see the complete history of America’s recessions.  What that history reveals is that before this last recession, since the Great Depression recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months.

When President Obama entered office in January, 2009, the recession was already in its 13th month.  His responsibility was to manage a timely, robust recovery to get America back on track again.  Based on the historical record, that recovery was imminent, within a couple of months or so.  Despite widespread fear, nothing fundamental had changed to deprive America of the long term, world-leading prosperity it had enjoyed going back 300 years.

Supposedly a forward looking progressive, Obama proved to be America’s first backward looking regressive.  His first act was to increase federal borrowing, the national debt and the deficit by nearly a trillion dollars to finance a supposed “stimulus” package, based on the discredited Keynesian theory left for dead 30 years ago holding that increased government spending, deficits and debt are what promote economic growth and recovery. That theory arose in the 1930s as the answer to the Great Depression, which, of course, never worked.

That was the beginning of President Obama’s Rip Van Winkle act, pretending not to know anything that happened over the previous 30 years proving the dramatic, historic success of the new, more modern, supply side economics, which holds that incentives for increased production are what promote economic growth and recovery.  Indeed, that Rip Van Winklism pretended not to remember the 1970s either, when double digit inflation and double digit unemployment proved Keynesian economics grievously wrong.

As should have been long expected, Obama’s trillion dollar Keynesian stimulus did nothing to promote recovery and growth, and almost surely delayed it.  That is because borrowing a trillion dollars out of the economy to spend a trillion back into it does nothing to promote the economy on net. Indeed, it is probably a net drag on the economy, because the private sector spends the money more productively and efficiently than the public sector.

The National Bureau of Economic Research scored the recession as ending in June, 2009.  Yet, today, in the 49th month since the recession started, there has still been no real recovery, like recoveries from previous recessions in America.

Unemployment actually rose after June, 2009, and did not fall back down below that level until 18 months later in December, 2010.  Instead of a recovery, America has suffered the longest period of unemployment near 9% or above since the Great Depression, under President Obama’s public policy malpractice.  Even today, 49 months after the recession started, the U6 unemployment rate counting the unemployed, underemployed and discouraged workers is still 15.2%.  And that doesn’t include all the workers who have fled the workforce under Obama’s economic oppression.  The unemployment rate with the full measure of discouraged workers is reported at www.shadowstats.com as about 23%, which is depression level unemployment.

Today, over 4 years since the recession started, there are still almost 25 million Americans unemployed or underemployed.  That includes 5.6 million who are long-term unemployed for 27 weeks, or more than 6 months.  Under President Obama, America has suffered the longest period with so many in such long-term unemployment since the Great Depression.

Notably, blacks have been suffering another depression under Obama, with unemployment today, 49 months after the recession started, still at 15.8%. Black unemployment has been over 15% for 2 ½ years under Obama.  Black teenage unemployment today is over 40%, where it has persisted for over 2 years as well.

Hispanics have also been suffering a depression under Obama, with unemployment today still in double digits at 11%.  Hispanic unemployment has been in double digits for three years under President Obama.  Over one fourth of Hispanic youths remain unemployed today, which also has persisted for years.

The Census Bureau reported in September that more Americans are in poverty today than at any time in the entire history of Census tracking poverty. Americans dependent on food stamps are at an all time high as well.

Real wages and incomes have been falling so steadily under Obama and his confused, throwback, Keynesian/neo-Marxist Obamanomics, that the Census Bureau also reported that real median family income in America has fallen all the way back to 1996 levels.

Obama apologists cannot argue that this is because the recession was so bad, because the historical record in America is the worse the recession the stronger the recovery.  Based on historical precedent, we should at worst be finishing the second year of a booming recovery by now.

Compare Obama’s lack of a recovery 2 ½ years after the recession ended with the first 2 ½ years of the Reagan recovery.  In those years under Reagan, the American economy created 8 million new jobs, the unemployment rate fell by 3.6 percentage points, real wages and incomes were jumping, and poverty had reversed an upsurge started under Carter, beginning a long term decline.

While Obama crows about 200,000 jobs created last month, the most for a month during his entire Administration, in September, 1983 the Reagan recovery less than a year after it began created 1.1 million jobs in that one month alone.  Under Obama, we are still almost 6 million jobs below the peak before the recession started over 4 years ago! In the second year of the Reagan recovery, real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years.

The chief excuse of the Obama apologists is that what we have suffered was not just a recession, but a financial crisis, and, they argue, recovery from a financial crisis takes a lot longer than recovery from a recession.  But that is not the experience of the American, free market, capitalist economy.

The experience of the American economy is reported in full at the National Bureau of Economic Research, as cited above – recessions since the Great Depression previously have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously 16 months, and the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery.  That is the standard by which the performance of Obamanomics is to be judged.  Which of those American recessions was a “financial crisis” that breaks the pattern?

The apologists cite in their support the book, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. That book “covers sixty-six countries over nearly eight centuries.”  It “goes back as far as twelfth century China and medieval Europe.”  The data “come from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania.”  The experience from 12th century China, medieval Europe, spendthrift demagogues and socialist economies from Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia, do not set the standard of expectations for post depression, free market, capitalist America over the last 70 years, the most powerful economic engine in the history of the world.

The data in the book is marshaled to explain why, in fact, “this time is different” is actually always wrong.  Seizing upon the data in the book to try to give some sort of pass to Obamanomics for failing the economic performance standards of American history is just political propaganda.

Indeed, exactly none of President Obama’s policies have been well designed to restore economic recovery and traditional American prosperity.  They have consistently been the opposite of everything that Reagan did to end the American decline of the 1970s, and restore booming growth for 25 years. That is why Rush Limbaugh is saying Obama deliberately wants to trash the economy, thinking the resulting dependency will lead a majority to continue to vote for the liberal political machine.  President Obama certainly thinks that traditional American, world leading prosperity is morally embarrassing because of the global inequality it represents.

The American economy will likely show continued, long overdue, signs of life in 2012, which will amount to way too little, way too late, based on historical standards.  But even worse than his first term is what Obama is brewing up for 2013 on his current course.

Most people do not know that already enacted in current law for 2013 are increases in the top tax rates of virtually every major federal tax.  That is because the tax increases of Obamacare become effective that year, and the Bush tax cuts expire, which Obama has refused to renew for singles reporting income over $200,000 per year, or couples reporting over $250,000 per year (in other words, the nation’s small businesses, job creators and investors, in plain English).

As a result, if the Bush tax cuts just expire for these upper income taxpayers, along with the Obamacare taxes, in 2013 the top two income tax rates will jump nearly 20%, the capital gains tax rate will soar by nearly 60%, the tax on corporate dividends will nearly triple, and the Medicare payroll tax will leap by 62% for those disfavored taxpayers.

This is on top of the U.S. corporate income tax rate, which is virtually the highest in the industrialized world.  The federal rate is 35%, with state corporate rates taking it close to 40% on average.  But even Communist China has a 25% rate.  The average rate in the social welfare states of the European Union is less than that.  Formerly socialist Canada has a 16.5% rate going down to 15% next year.

These U.S. corporate tax rates leave American companies uncompetitive in the global economy.  Yet under President Obama there is no relief in sight.  Instead, he has spent the past year barnstorming the country calling for still further tax increases on American business, large and small, investors, and job creators.

Higher tax rates mean producers can only keep a smaller percentage of what they produce.  So tax rate increases reduce the incentive for productive activities, such as saving, investment, starting businesses, expanding businesses, job creation, entrepreneurship and work, resulting in less of each. And that is what the tax tsunami of 2013 would do, which would once again swamp the weak economy.

Most small business profits are reported from households earning more than $200,000/$250,000 per year, and those small businesses produce more than half the new jobs.  So the 2013 tax tsunami effectively targets small business, and the nation’s job creators.  That will hurt working people the most, because they will lose the jobs and the wage income they need to maintain their basic standard of living.

In addition, the Obama administration is in the process of imposing a blizzard of new regulatory costs and barriers that will be building to a crescendo by 2013 as well. Academic studies estimate the total costs of regulation in the economy to be rapidly rising towards $2 trillion per year, or $8,000 per employee.  That is close to 10 times the corporate income tax burden, and double the individual income tax.  When the resulting effects on the economy are considered, the total losses due to regulatory burdens may total $3 trillion, or one fifth of our entire economy.

But by 2013 these regulatory costs will have exploded in unprecedented fashion.  That reflects the Obama Administration’s global warming crusade, assault on private energy production, the still oncoming Dodd-Frank regulatory burdens on the financial community, Obamacare regulations, particularly the job killing employer mandate, and many others.

By 2013, the Fed may be in contractionary mode as well.  If history is any guide, the Fed might decide that right after the election would be the perfect time to cut back on its historically loose monetary policy with record low interest rates that have persisted for years.  Adding rising interest rates to the above brew of soaring marginal tax rates across the board and exploding regulatory costs would accumulate to a powerful contractionary force.

Art Laffer predicted the Coming Crash of 2011 on the basis of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on the upper income earners alone.  Those tax rate increases were extended to 2013 in December, 2010 out of fear that prediction was right.  But now in 2013 in addition to those tax rate increases we have all of the tax increases of Obamacare, the further exploding costs of Obama’s building regulatory blizzard, and the possible contractionary effect of the Fed’s monetary policies, all at the same time.  Unless we reverse course, the result may well be one big, bad crash in 2013.

Adding that on top of Obama’s first term, the entire period will look like an historical reenactment of the 1930s.  Unless the American people choose to change leadership this year, we will have achieved that result the old fashioned way – we will have earned it.


This article is available online at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/01/12/the-worst-economic-recovery-since-the-great-depression/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2012, 05:37:06 AM
We’re Number Ten
National Review ^ | 01/13/2012 | Deroy Murdock




Good news! On economic freedom, America is in the global Top 10.

Bad news: America is No. 10 — one blond hair ahead of Denmark.

According to the 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released Thursday by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong enjoys the earth’s freest economy. The Chinese Special Administrative Region invariably has topped this list since it began in 1995. No. 2 Singapore leads Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, and Ireland. Agnostic on political freedom, the Index evaluates fiscal discipline, taxes, regulations, monetary policy, rule of law, corruption, and other measures of economic liberty.

Because the United States keeps slipping in those areas, America has slid from No. 9 in 2011 to tenth place today. Indeed, this is the fourth consecutive year in which the U.S. fell a notch. Out of a perfect score of 100, America declined 1.5 points to 76.3. Denmark, No. 11, scored 76.2.

“As recently as 2008, the United States was ranked 7th, rated 81, and considered a ‘free’ economy,” Heritage notes. “Today, it is ‘mostly free’ — the runner-up category.”

The Index’s authors — Amb. Terry Miller, Kim Holmes, and Ed Feulner, all at Heritage — lament that in America, “recent government interventions have eroded limits on government, and public spending by all levels of government now exceeds one-third of total domestic output. The regulatory burden on business continues to increase rapidly, and heightened uncertainty further increases regulations’ negative impact. Fading confidence in the government’s determination to promote or even sustain open markets has discouraged entrepreneurship and dynamic investment within the private sector.”

U.S. tax-and-spend scores are appalling: Among 179 countries surveyed, America is No. 127 in government spending and No. 133 in fiscal freedom, far below average on both counts. The U.S. suffers an “overall tax burden amounting to 24 percent of total domestic income,” the Index states. “Government expenditures have grown to 42.2 percent of GDP, and the budget deficit is close to 10 percent of GDP. Total public debt is now larger than the size of the economy.” Such boulders bow American shoulders.

Meanwhile, U.S. businesspeople moan beneath the regulatory rubble. “Over 70 new major regulations have been imposed since early 2009, with annual costs of more than $38 billion,” the Index observes. “There were only six major deregulatory actions during that time, with reported savings of just $1.5 billion.”

Another problem: “Corruption is a growing concern as the cronyism and economic rent-seeking associated with the growth of government have undermined institutional integrity,” the Index declares. For Freedom from Corruption, the U.S. is ranked No. 22; approximating Transparency International’s finding that America is the earth’s 24th most honest country.

What fuels suspicions of American shadiness? Consider Big Labor’s waivers from Obamacare and the administration’s granting union payouts ahead of the contractually protected claims of Chrysler’s and General Motors’ secured bondholders.

Republican- and Democrat-approved subsidies for campaign donors in the ethanol and sugar industries also are as crooked as sidewinders. Solyndra’s $535 million contributions-for-loans-for-bankruptcy scandal could have been scripted in Caracas.

No. 7 Chile has surpassed America on economic freedom, confirming the wisdom of its reforms — including its social-security system’s wildly popular and highly successful personal-account option. These were inspired by the ideas and disciples of the late, great economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman.

Even No. 8 Mauritius is economically freer than America, the first time an African nation has left the U.S. behind.

Thankfully, America’s economy is not repressed, like those of the ten least free countries: No. 170 Equatorial Guinea, followed by Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Venezuela, Eritrea, Libya, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and — dead last — No. 179 North Korea. Alas, America is sinking toward these economic dungeons, not climbing away from them.

How can the U.S. reverse course and restore economic freedom? Uncle Sam should put down the fiscal fork and stop devouring national income. Repealing and replacing Obamacare, junking Dodd-Frank, enacting an optional 15 percent flat tax, and modernizing the slowly imploding Social Security system via voluntary personal accounts all would turbocharge U.S. economic freedom. So would grounding Helicopter Ben Bernanke and hiring Steve Forbes. The publisher would unplug Washington’s monetary printing press and, instead, implement sound money — ideally through the gold standard. This would trump Bernanke’s technique: prying monetary targets from a hat.

Free-marketeers should campaign for economic liberty and hammer President Obama, the fiscally reckless Bush-Rove administration, and congressional spendthrifts and uber-regulators of both parties. They jointly have battered this formerly pride-inducing aspect of American exceptionalism. Advocates of economic freedom should explain how to prevent the U.S. from slouching out of the Top 10 and begin ascending toward the No. 1 spot — right where America belongs.

— New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University



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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2012, 07:48:16 AM
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24 Stats To Crush Anyone Who Thinks America Has A Bright Economic Future
Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse | Jan. 13, 2012, 9:28 AM | 863 | 10




24 Statistics To Show To Anyone Who Believes That America Has A Bright Economic Future
How To Prepare For The Difficult Years Ahead
 
Beware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about how the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream media can be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television your brain tends to go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it becomes easy to slip thoughts and ideas past your defenses. Sometimes when I am watching television I realize what the media is trying to do and yet I can still feel it happening to me. 

In this day and age, it is absolutely critical that we all think for ourselves. When you look at the long-term trends and the long-term numbers, a much different picture of the U.S economy emerges than the one that is painted for us on television.

Over the long-term, the number of good jobs in America has been steadily going down. Over the long-term, the number of Americans living in poverty and living on food stamps has been steadily going up. Over the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of our national wealth have gone out of the country.

Our debt is nearly 15 times larger than it was 30 years ago, and U.S. consumer debt has soared by 1700% over the past 40 years. Year after year the rate of inflation goes up faster than our incomes do, and this is absolutely devastating the middle class. Anyone who believes that we can keep doing the same things that we have been doing and yet America will still have a bright economic future is delusional. Until the long-term trends which are taking the U.S. economy straight into the toilet are reversed, any talk of a bright economic future is absolute nonsense.

In America today, we have such a short-term focus. We are all so caught up with what is happening right now. Our attention spans seem to get shorter every single year. At this point it would not be hard to argue that kittens have longer attention spans than most of us do. (If you have ever owned a kitten you know how short their attention spans can be.) Things have gotten so bad that most of our high school students cannot even answer the most basic questions about our history. If people are not talking about it on Facebook or Twitter it is almost as if it does not even matter.

But any serious student of history knows that is is absolutely crucial to examine long-term trends. And when you look at the long-term trends, it rapidly becomes apparent that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a nightmarish long-term decline.

The following are 24 statistics to show to anyone who believes that America has a bright economic future....

#1 Inflation is a silent tax that steals wealth from all of us. We continue to shell out increasing amounts of money for the basic things that we need, and yet our incomes are not keeping pace. Just check out the following example. Gasoline prices have been trending higher for several years in a row as one blogger recently noted....

January 2009           $1.65

January 2010           $2.57

January 2011           $3.04

January 2012           $3.29

#2 If you can believe it, the average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011.

#3 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#4 Health care costs continue to rise at a very alarming pace.  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%.

#5 Getting a college education has also become insanely expensive in America.  After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

#6 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.

#7 To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1913 you would have to have more than $457 today.

#8 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added more than 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#9 The U.S. economy is bleeding millions of good jobs.  Greedy CEOs are systematically shipping them overseas and our politicians are standing around and doing nothing about it.  This has gone on year after year after year.  The following is from a recent article by Paul Craig Roberts....

In the first decade of the 21st century, Americans lost 5,500,000 manufacturing jobs. US employment in the manufacture of computer and electronic products fell by 40%; in the production of machinery by 30%, in motor vehicles and and parts by 44%, and in the manufacture of clothing by 66%.

#10 Our economic infrastructure is being torn apart right in front of our eyes.  In 2010, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.  Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have shut down since 2001.

We have made it legal for big corporations to send millions of jobs to countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages, where the tax burden is much lighter and where there are barely any regulations.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article posted on Economy in Crisis....

Back in the ‘80s, I called my friend Walter in California and asked: “On your next expansion we need a plant in South Carolina.” Walter replied: “We don’t produce anything in the United States. It’s all in China. China furnishes you the plant on a year-to-year basis. If your investment works out, you don’t have to pay any corporate tax; just reinvest it for another plant and more profit. If it doesn’t work out, you can walk away with no legacy costs. I send a quality controller to watch production. I check on it every day. I don’t have any labor, health, safety, or environmental concerns, and have time to play a round of golf.” The bleeding of jobs off-shore started in the ‘80s — now hemorrhages under Bush and Obama. Waiting for the economy to bounce back; calling this “the worst recession” is a bum rap. The reason the economy hasn’t bounced back since 2008 is because the economy is being off-shored.

#11  As a result of our insane economic policies, our trade balances are absolutely exploding.  For example, the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#12 As you read this, there are millions of Americans out there wondering why they can't find any jobs.  According to Reuters, 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.

#13 The number of good jobs has been steadily shrinking in America.  Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs.  In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#14 Over the last three decades, the percentage of low income jobs has consistently risen.  Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#15 The number of middle class neighborhoods also continues to decline.  In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".  By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

#16 A decade ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult.  By 2010, the United States had fallen to seventh.

#17 Our incomes continue to go down.  Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#18 Unfortunately, middle class Americans have been seeing their incomes decline for a very long time.  According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

#19 Since 1971, consumer debt in the United States has increased by a whopping 1700%.  Unfortunately, U.S. consumers have still not learned how to stay out of debt.  According to a recent article posted on Financial Armageddon, the rate of personal savings in the United States is rapidly falling right now at the same time that the total amount of consumer credit is absolutely skyrocketing.

#20 The number of children living in poverty in America keeps rising year after year. The percentage of children living in poverty in the United States increased from 16.9 percent in 2006 to nearly 22 percent in 2010.

#21 The number of Americans on food stamps continues to set new all-time records.  Just check out the following progression....

October 2008: 30.8 million Americans on food stamps

October 2009: 37.6 million Americans on food stamps

October 2010: 43.2 million Americans on food stamps

October 2011: 46.2 million Americans on food stamps

#22 The U.S. debt problem has gotten completely and totally out of control.  Recently, the debt of the federal government surpassed 100% of GDP for the first time ever.

#23 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.

#24 Barack Obama's proposed 2012 budget projects that the national debt will rise to 26 trillion dollars a decade from now.  And his budget numbers are ridiculously optimistic.

Are you starting to get the picture?

All of the long-term economic numbers are progressively getting worse.

As the economy continues to crumble, large numbers of Americans are becoming really desperate.  For example, a recent Mother Jones article detailed how large numbers of formerly middle class Americans are now actually growing marijuana in an effort to make ends meet.

As things continue to get worse, people will become even more desperate.  There are millions of people out there that find themselves unable to pay the mortgage and put food on the table for their families.  When people hit rock bottom, they often find themselves doing things that they never dreamed that they would do.

Meanwhile, the big Wall Street banks just keep getting larger and more powerful.  We have allowed the "too big to fail" banks to become much bigger than they have ever been before.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

Wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated at the very top even as the overall economic pie in America continues to get smaller.

As our economic problems become worse, more Americans than ever are trying to find ways to "escape".

For example, according to one new government report one out of every six adults in America is a binge drinker.

Other Americans "tune out" by watching endless hours of television, by playing endless hours of video games or by indulging in endless hours of other forms of entertainment.

There are even some Americans that are giving up completely.  For example, one elderly man actually robbed a bank just so that he could get arrested and be taken to prison where he would get free health care.

But as I have written about previously, now is not the time to give up.  Instead, now is the time to prepare for the great challenges that are ahead.

Almost every generation in history has been faced with great challenges and great hardships at some point.

Yes, there will be some incredibly hard times ahead, but that also means that there will be a need for some great heroes.

Just because the U.S. economy is falling apart does not mean that life is over.

We are living during one of the most exciting times in all of human history.  Instead of cowering in fear, let us embrace these times and focus on becoming the people that we were created to be.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-snyder-economic-collapse-2012-1#ixzz1jLyiEm00

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2012, 09:40:16 AM
http://news.investors.com/Article/597677/201201121844/us-declines-in-world-economic-freedom-rankings.htm


Its intentional.   Obama is trying to end this nation.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 17, 2012, 01:14:25 PM
Kraft to cut 1,600 positions in North America (The Obama Recovery continues...)
Chicago Tribune ^ | 1/17/12 | Emily Bryson York




Kraft Foods plans to cut 1,600 positions in the U.S. and Canada this year as it prepares to split into two companies, the Northfield-based packaged food giant announced Tuesday.

Representing 3.4 percent of Kraft's North American 46,500 employees, the positions are primarily in sales, corporate and its business units, as the company plans to close three corporate offices.


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


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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 19, 2012, 01:49:52 PM
The Only 26 US Cities That Have Regained All Of The Jobs They Lost During The Recession
Business Insider ^ | 01/19/2012 | Mamta Badkar




There are a 154 million workers in the U.S., and the current 8.5%, unemployment rate means about 13.1 million Americans are still out of work.

A new report commissioned by the United States Council for Mayors and prepared by IHS Global Insight shows that only 26 of 363 metropolitan statistical areas have completely recovered the jobs they lost during the recession.

We drew on the report to show the number of jobs these metros lost during the recession, their pre-recession peak level, and the metro area's employment level as a share of overall state employment.

Note: The “pre-recession peak” date varies from metro area to metro area, but represents a quarter between Q1 2007 and Q2 2009, where the metro area reached its highest employment before suffering recession job losses.


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







9 are in Texas BTW   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 22, 2012, 05:32:13 AM
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High Rents, Low Wages and the Coming Homeless Surge
Fiscal Times ^ | 01/22/2012 | By MICHELLE HIRSCH and ALIX PIANIN
Posted on January 22, 2012 8:36:13 AM EST by SeekAndFind

Get ready for the next big financial bubble—the growth of America’s homeless population.

The biggest boon for the homeless was President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, that appropriated $1.5 billion to the Homeless Prevention and Rapid-Re-Housing Program that temporarily aided homeless and near-homeless households. According to a report issued Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the program has helped more than one million impoverished individuals find housing, but it is set to end this fall.

“The resources provided by [the program] have run out in many communities … and the debt and deficit at the federal level have already begun to shrink assistance available to the most vulnerable,” Nan Roman, president and CEO of NAEH, said at a news conference. “The failure to sustain this early recipe for success threatens to undermine progress now and in the future.” A separate report from the same organization released in September noted that the ranks of the nation’s homeless could swell by five percent over the next three years if no similar programs replace the program.

The View from the Street Veda Simpson, a former methadone addict, was homeless for ten years, living in shelters, crack houses and what she dubbed “abandominiums” in public housing complexes. Then last year, thanks to a federal housing voucher, she moved into an apartment in Washington, D.C.’s North Capitol area.

“I used to go in the kitchen and fit my body up under the sink in the cabinet—you have to adjust your body to get up under there—and I used to have to sleep in there so security wouldn’t find me,” Simpson told the Fiscal Times. “I slept in there for about six months, and it was rough.”

Simpson, a vendor for StreetSense, a daily newspaper about the homeless, is one of thousands of people who managed to get off the streets and into housing in recent years, despite one of the worst recessions in modern history, according to experts and homeless advocates. Now she lives in subsidized housing with her eight cats, and says she is two months away from earning certification as a veterinary technician through an online program. “It’s really hard being homeless,” she said. “I don’t see nobody who wants to continue like that. They’re trying to better themselves.”

There are glimmers of good news about the homeless. The NAEH report found a slight decrease in the overall number of people living on the street between 2009 and 2011 -- the ranks of the nation’s homeless fell by one percent, or about 7,000 people.

Across the country, 636,017 people were identified as homeless in 2011 compared to 643,067 in 2009, according to the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Commerce and Health and Human Services.

With the troubling spectacle of homeless people and panhandlers loitering on street corners of downtown areas in many cities, it’s hard to imagine that the problem of homelessness is actually waning. The NAEH study cautions that the plight of the homeless is likely to grow more acute because of low-paying jobs, high housing costs and the loss of emergency federal assistance.

Double-Up Trouble One of the report’s chief findings is that the number of people “doubling up”—living with friends, family, or nonrelatives—rose by more than 50 percent between 2005 and 2010, and 13 percent between 2009 and 2010. Those arrangements are the most common gateway to homelessness, and the increases mean more people are getting to that “last stage” before they are forced onto the streets, Roman said. “Doubled-up people have an elevated risk of homelessness….Thirty percent of all homeless shelter residents and 44 percent of adults in families who use homeless shelters were doubled-up prior to entering the shelter system,” the report said.

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., told reporters that children are bearing the worst of the emotional brunt of “doubling up,” and many of them show that by acting up in school.

“The homeless people I see are not alcoholic, drunk men lying on a grate—the stereotype of a homeless person,” said Moore, a member of both the House Budget and Financial Services Committees. “They’re kids who live with grandma one weekend, the other grandma the next, auntie the next week, moving from school to school to school.”

The report also highlights the fast rising number of poor households that are devoting more than half their income to rent. Those families and groups are highly vulnerable to losing their housing in the coming years, the report stated. Between 2007 and 2010, there was a 22 percent increase in the number of these so-called “severely housing cost burdened” households.

Shamekia Murray knows this situation all too well. She couldn’t keep up with her rent payments after she was forced to accept a $15,000-a-year pay cut at her Washington, D.C. community health clinic job. She and her then-five-year-old son were evicted from their apartment and her car was repossessed.

Murray and her son slept on friends’ and family members’ sofas for eight months, while she continued to hold down her job as a dental assistant. “I wasn’t used to having to ask someone, ‘Can I borrow $20 to pay for the Metro subway?’ I was used to turning the key in my own home, having family gatherings, and having my son sleep in his own bed. “All that got taken away from me in less than a year,” she added. “It got to the point where I just broke inside.”

Murray, now 33, sought transitional housing for eight months to get on her feet before going out on her own. She recently received a job promotion, and now rents a two-bedroom apartment. “It’s a matter of knowing what it is that you want, and knowing that you’re not ever going to go back,” she said.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 23, 2012, 05:53:02 AM
CURL: The truly dismal state of the union
By Joseph Curl
-
The Washington Times
Sunday, January 22, 2012


ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There is one person — one American among the 300 million of us — who is not to blame for the state of the union. Everyone else, each of you, in some small or large way, bears some share of the blame, but not this guy. Not one little bit.

This guy is Barack Obama. He is not the least bit to blame for the dismal state of the U.S. economy. George W. Bush is, for sure, and that evil Dick Cheney, oh, no doubt. House Speaker John A. Boehner — evil, too — is, of course, to blame. But guess what? So is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and every Democrat in the House and Senate.

Now, President Truman made it very clear: The buck stops with him. No passing the buck for that guy. But Mr. Obama blames everyone but himself. Mr. Bush, he says, left the nation in a ditch, a deep ditch, and he's been digging out since he took office. And Congress? Those guys are just plain awful, he says. So mean. Wah, they won't do anything I want done! Mr. Obama feels so sure about it that he's basing his re-election campaign on bashing Capitol Hill.

But with the president delivering his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night, let's pause here to take as hard look at the real state of America, by the numbers, using only cold, hard facts.

The unemployment rate when Mr. Obama was elected was 6.8 percent; today it is 8.5 percent — at least that's the official number. In reality, the Financial Times writes, "if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent."

In addition, there are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 — 12 years ago — and now, 40 percent of those jobs are considered "low paying," up 10 percent from when President Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.

Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it's $3.39 — that's a 102 percent increase in just three years. (By the way, if you're keeping score at home, gas was $1.40 a gallon when George W. Bush took office in 2001, $1.68 when he left office — a 20 percent increase.)

Electricity bills have also skyrocketed, with households now paying a record $1,420 annually on average, up some $300.

Some 48 percent of all Americans — 146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as "low-income" or living in poverty, up 4 million from when Mr. Obama took office; 57 percent of all children in America now live in such homes.

Since December 2008, a month before Mr. Obama took office, food-stamp use has increased 46 percent. Total spending has more than doubled in just four years to a record high of $75 billion. In 2011, more than 46 million people — about one in seven Americans — got food stamps. That's 14 million more than when Mr. Obama took office.

Median household income has dropped nearly 7 percent in the last six years, taking inflation into account. What's more, nearly 20 percent of males age 25 to 34 now live with their parents.

Low- and middle-income Americans 65 and older now hold more than $10,000 in credit card debt, up 26 percent since 2005. The average age of the American car is 10 years; in 1990, it was 6.5 years old (by the way, in 1985, Americans bought 11 million cars; in 2009, less than half that, 5.4 million).

On the macro side, America's annual budget has jumped to $3.8 trillion — and yet the United States brings in only about $2.1 trillion in revenue. The U.S. trade deficit for 2011 was $558 billion. America's total public debt stands at $15.23 trillion; in January 2009, the debt was $10.62 trillion. Mr. Obama is on pace to borrow $6.2 trillion in just one term — more debt than was amassed by all presidents from Washington through Bill Clinton combined. The debt is rising by $4.2 billion every day — $175 million per hour, nearly $3 million per minute.

So, America, that is the State of Your Union. But remember, Mr. Obama had not one thing to do with it. So don't blame him when you go to the polls. Blame everyone else, especially yourself.

• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at jcurl@washingtontimes.com.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/22/curl-the-truly-dismal-state-of-the-union/print


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 23, 2012, 12:31:43 PM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-unrecovery


Wow.   Crazy article and graphs 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 23, 2012, 08:29:30 PM
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The 10 Worst Cities for Finding a Job
Yahoo Finance | US News & World Report ^ | 01/23/2012 | Danielle Kurtzleben
Posted on January 23, 2012 11:31:09 PM EST by Olog-hai

Vicious cycles of debt and irresponsible lending helped to cause the Great Recession, and now another vicious cycle of housing weakness and unemployment is keeping many cities from recovering. …

Of the 10 metropolitan areas with the toughest job situations, seven are in California. Cities in the Golden State, as well as in Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, have suffered greatly from falling housing prices and high unemployment. These places saw skyrocketing home prices during the housing bubble. After it became clear that many buyers had purchased homes well out of their price range and the market collapsed, many of those houses went vacant. …

Among U.S. metropolitan areas with 200,000 people or more, here are the 10 worst metro areas for finding a job.

Metro Area   Unemployment Rate, Nov. 2011   Y-Y Change
1. Merced, Calif.   16.9   -1.7
2. Fresno, Calif.   15.7   -1.7
3. Modesto, Calif.   15.5   -1.7
4. Stockton, Calif.   15.5   -2.3
5. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.   15   -1.8
6. Atlantic City-Hammonton, N.J.   12.4   0.1
7. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.   13.4   -2.2
8. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C.   11.7   -0.7
9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.   12.5   -2.0
10. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas   11.2   -0.5
. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 25, 2012, 02:50:14 AM

A Generation Losing Hope: The Shattering of the American Dream
By Frank Ryan

 
Before our very eyes, a generation of Americans is losing faith in the American dream and adopting attitudes and behaviors that emphasize living for the day, not planning to take care of their own futures.  They clearly see the problems ahead and draw rational conclusions.
Most of our problems have been caused by government.  The unintended consequences of poorly thought out legislation or legislation designed merely to garner votes for re-election is wreaking havoc on economic opportunity for our country.
For one, the regulatory burden by our government on economic growth is well-known.  The regulatory impact of the Dodd-Frank bill, the Affordable Care Act, No Child Left Behind, and the EPA all influence costs but, concurrently, adversely affect productivity and our competitiveness in world markets.
The Social Security underfunding has been known since the mid-1970s, yet Congress has failed to enact any meaningful solution to the problem.  The most recent extension of the 2% tax holiday on the FICA tax will only exacerbate the budget shortfall.
 The cost of college education has continued to skyrocket such that student debt is at an all-time high.  Many students now find it almost impossible to repay their student loans.
The cost of medical insurance and medical care is prohibitive for most Americans.  The Affordable Care Act was passed with the intent of providing insurance for all Americans.  In reality, all the Act does is reduce income for the medical care providers and increase costs for younger workers.   
Concurrently, despite rapidly dropping home prices, homes are not appreciably more affordable for the average American.  Increasing property taxes, pay freezes, and tighter credit standards have made home ownership seem less likely for today's generation.    
When all of these issues and structural changes are reviewed, it should be no wonder that the millennial generation views work differently from how an older-generation worker does.
 In a class that I recently presented to a group of CPAs, I mentioned these structural changes as a cause for concern in attempts to restart the economy.  I indicated that my concern was that today's employee may not be taking a long-term perspective toward his career and their community.
A student suggested to me that her generation had lost hope.  I was a little stunned by her remark.  Her response was not that they have lost hope for themselves, but instead that they have lost hope in the system.
The student indicated that the people of her generation have no hope of receiving Social Security, yet they are paying into it.  Furthermore, the people of her generation understand that they will have to provide for their retirement while attempting to pay off substantial student loans, thereby further cutting disposal income.  She also indicated that her generation realizes that investing in equities for a better future has borne limited results, as seen by the decimated 401(k) plans and IRAs, such that continued investing makes little sense.
The student then went on to advise me that parents are living longer, and her generation expects to need to care for aging parents.   
The student was convinced that all that she was taught by her parents -- to save, to work hard, to provide for another day -- is pure fiction.  Her parents' American Dream is her generation's nightmare.
She and her generation have seen bad behaviors continuously rewarded by our government.  They have seen the victimization of society in the minds of elected leaders with no one held accountable for his or her actions.  The current generation has seen an unparalleled growth of entitlement behavior in many of their peers.
The net result of all of this is that the productive element of her generation intends to live for the moment.  She and her friends intend to achieve a work-life balance that properly reflects this new understanding of what life will be like for her generation.  In their minds, why plan for retirement if retirement is never an option?    
My student received a rousing ovation.  It turns out that my students, young and old alike, agreed with her completely.   
Is this what has our country come to?  What have our elected leaders done to our nation in the name of getting re-elected?
It is time that we demand that our nation re-establish its moral compass.  It is essential that we reward hard work and end the mentality of an "entitled society."  It is essential that our society make our decisions based upon the long run, not based upon the short run, if we are to recreate the American Dream of a better tomorrow for our children.

If our nation fails to understand the consequences of this short-term thinking, our days as a great nation will have ended.   

The time for serious solutions to serious problems has come.  The decision is yours.  The decision is mine.  Our government works for us, not the other way around.  Demand serious solutions to serious problems.
Frank Ryan, CPA specializes in corporate restructuring and lectures on ethics for the state CPA societies.  Frank is a retired colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve and served in Iraq and briefly in Afghanistan.  He is on numerous boards of publicly traded and non-profit organizations.  He can be reached at FRYAN1951@aol.com.

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 26, 2012, 08:36:55 AM
..US new-home sales fell in Dec., finish dismal 2011


By DEREK KRAVITZ | Associated Press – 1 hr 2 mins ago....EmailNew: Now the email button gives you a quick and easy way to start a conversation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans bought new homes in December, making 2011 the worst sales year on record.

The Commerce Department says new-home sales fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.

Total sales last year were less than the 323,000 sold in 2010, making it the worst year on records dating back to 1963.

The median sales prices for new homes dropped in December, as builders continued to slash prices. It fell 2.5 percent to $210,300.

The decline in sales comes as other signs suggest the depressed housing market is starting to recover. Construction picked up, sales of previously occupied homes are rising, and builders are slightly more confident.

..














HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE YOU ASSHOLES! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2012, 09:09:48 AM
HUSSMAN: This Pace Of GDP Growth Is 'Always' Associated With Recession
TBI ^ | 1-30-2012 | Joe Weisenthal




HUSSMAN: This Pace Of GDP Growth Is 'Always' Associated With Recession

Joe Weisenthal
January 30, 2012

Fund manager John Hussman continues to hammer away at the economy and the market.

His latest note is called Goat Rodeo, which is defined as: "Appalachian slang for a chaotic, high-risk, or unmanageable scenario requiring countless things to go right in order to walk away unharmed."

After discussing the leading indicators, he writes:

...while we typically discourage drawing inferences from any single indicator, it's at least worth noting that with the release of Q4 GDP figures, the year-over-year growth rate of real U.S. GDP remains below 1.6% (denoted by the red line below). A decline in GDP growth to this level has always been associated with recession, usually coincident with that decline, though with a two-quarter lag in two instances (1956 and 2007), and with one post-recession dip in growth during the first quarter of 2003. As it happens, the GDP growth rate dropped below 1.6% in the third quarter of 2011.




Given the strong and rather obvious relationship between the most recent year-over-year rate of GDP growth and the prospect of oncoming recession, it's difficult to understand why Wall Street so completely rejects the likelihood of an economic downturn. Then again, that's exactly why we're expecting a Goat Rodeo.

Read the whole thing >


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 03:46:57 AM
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Home prices fall more than expected (Obama's Fault!)
MSNBC ^ | 1/31/2012 | staff
Posted on February 1, 2012 6:17:19 AM EST by tobyhill

U.S. single-family home prices fell more than expected in November, highlighting a sector that continues to struggle to make a meaningful recovery, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, a bigger drop than the 0.5 percent economists had expected.

The decrease added on to the 0.7 percent decline seen in October. The new data suggest the home price index has “taken a turn for the worse,” Ellen Zentner, an economist at Nomura, said in a research note.

Home prices continue to decline “despite continued low interest rates and better real GDP growth in the fourth quarter,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s. “The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand.”

(Excerpt) Read more at bottomline.msnbc.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 04:08:28 AM
U.S. home prices fell for a third straight month in nearly all cities tracked by a major index. The declines show that most homeowners are not reaping the benefits from some signs of an improving housing market.


Getty Images

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index shows prices dropped in November from October in 19 of the 20 cities tracked.

The biggest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Phoenix was the only city to show an increase.

Prices declined in 18 of the 20 cities in November compared to the same month in 2010. Only Washington and Detroit posted year-over-year increases.

"As much as anything else, when one looks at housing there are hints at better times in terms of supply, in terms of single-family starts," David Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor's Index Committee, told CNBC. "Prices will probably be the last thing to move. We have to get demand up, we have to tighten supply a bit before we will see any shift in prices and we haven't seen that."

The decline partly reflects the typical fall slowdown after the peak buying season. Still, prices have fallen 33 percent nationwide to 2003 levels.


RELATED LINKS
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© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 04:39:09 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2012-01-31/home-prices-ownership/52907436/1?loc=interstitialskip


Nice. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 08:41:43 AM
AA to Cut Up to 15,000 Jobs

1,000 jobs expected to be lost at AllianceBy Scott Friedman|  Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012  |  Updated 9:39 AM CST
AP



The company may cut up to 15,000 jobs.


NBC 5 has learned that Fort Worth-based American Airlines may cut between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs across the company.

Sources familiar with the plan said they company plans to announce the cuts during a meeting Wednesday morning in Fort Worth.

It is estimated that 1,000 of those jobs to be cut will be at the company's maintenance base at Alliance Airport in north Fort Worth.

After the company presents the plan they will begin negotiating with unions, so the final numbers of lost jobs lost may change.

American Airlines' parent company AMR filed for bankruptcy in November of last year and said Tuesday that they lost $904 million in the month of December -- more than the first nine months of 2011 combined.

NBC 5 will have more on this story throughout the day.

NBC 5's Frank Heinz contributed to this report.
 

 
 
 
 

 
Find this article at:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/AA-to-Cut-Up-to-15000-Jobs-138477399.html?dr

 











HOPE AND CHANGE ASSHOLES!
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 08:44:23 AM
Bad Economy Forces Welfare Agency Hiring Spree

The city’s Human Resources Administration has already hired 100 new employees and plans to hire another 100.


Wednesday, Feb 1, 2012  |  Updated 9:39 AM EST


Getty Images




Economic woes have forced at least one city agency into a hiring spree -- adding more workers to process the demand for food stamps and other assistance.

The Human Resources Administration added more than 100 workers last July and plans to hire another 100 to serve the burgeoning number of New Yorkers applying for food stamps and rent assistance at their offices, according to the Daily News.

About 1.8 million New Yorkers are now on food stamps, which marks nearly a 65 percent increase from four years ago, according to city records. The increase in applicants has led to overcrowding at HRA offices throughout the city, and the agency said at a council hearing Tuesday that it had to hire scores of new workers and supervisors to manage the situation.

The HRA has also expanded its waiting rooms to accommodate the swell in applicants.

The city implemented a web-based food-stamp application program last year, but applicants still must be finger-printed at HRA centers before they can become eligible for benefits.

Advocates for the poor applauded HRA’s efforts to address overcrowding but, citing a survey that found long wait lines prevent nearly half of applicants from receiving welfare benefits, said more needs to be done.

“HRA faces an overcrowding emergency that is a result of a high level of need resulting from a lagging economy in the wake of the great recession,” said Liz Accles, an analyst for the advocacy group Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, according to the News.

The HRA’s deputy commissioner said alleviating overcrowding is a top priority.

The agency has recently lost $200 million in state funding due to budget cuts.
 

 
 
 
 

 
Find this article at:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Welfare-Human-Resources-Administration-Food-Stamp-Rent-Assistance-New-York-City-138471289.html?dr


 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2012, 10:10:21 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/wow-the-cbo-projects-13-less-growth-than-the-fed-2012-2


Wow.   How will thugbama spin this disaster?   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 06, 2012, 08:56:00 AM
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Huge Plunge In Petroleum and Gasoline Usage
Global Economic Trend Analysis ^ | 2/6/12 | Mish Shedlock
Posted on February 6, 2012 12:00:17 PM EST by DeaconBenjamin

Reader Tim Wallace writes

Hello Mish

As I have been telling you recently, there is some unprecedented data coming out in petroleum distillates, and they slap me in the face and tell me we have some very bad economic trends going on, totally out of line with such things as the hopium market - I mean stock market.

This past week I actually had to reformat my graphs as the drop off peak exceeded my bottom number for reporting off peak - a drop of ALMOST 4,000,000 BARRELS PER DAY off the peak usage in our past for this week of the year.

I have added a new graph to my distillates report, a "Graph of Raw Data" to which I have added a polynomial trendline. You can easily see that the plunge is accelerating and more than rivals 2008/09 and in gasoline is greatly exceeding the rate.

An amazing thing to note is that in two out of the last three weeks gasoline usage has dropped below 8,000,000 barrels per day.

The last time usage fell that low was the week of September 21, 2001! And you know what that week was! Prior to that you have to go back to 1996 to have a time period truly consistently below 8,000. We have done it two out of the last three weeks.

The second graph once again shows the year on year change in usage of distillates. The Obama "stimulus" package and Fed monetary actions masked the underlying systemic problems.

The third and final graph shows the changes in usage off the peak year of 2007. Once again you can see the effect of the stimulus and how now we are heading below 2008/09 in an accelerating fashion.

Looking at these numbers I believe we are about to have a surge in unemployment - by the end of April latest, possibly as early as beginning of March.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 08, 2012, 05:48:32 AM
Study: Government Dependence Shoots Up 23% Under President Obama
Investor's Business Daily ^ | 2/8/2012 | John Merline




The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 08, 2012, 07:39:08 PM
Wow.   


http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2012/02/08/more_than_5_million_people_missing_from_the_us_labor_force/?p1=News_links


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 15, 2012, 01:48:05 PM
Gallup: 85% of small businesses not hiring.
Hotair ^ | 02/15/2012 | Ed Morrissey





Gallup polled small-business owners (value under $20M) about their expansion plans in early January, which for some strange reason didn’t get reported until today. Among those who do not plan to hire — 85% of the entire sample — almost half of all such businesses cited expected costs from health care coverage and government regulation:


U.S. small-business owners who aren’t hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly half of small-business owners point to potential healthcare costs (48%) and government regulations (46%) as reasons. One in four are not hiring because they worry they may not be in business in 12 months.


Remember all of those hiring tax credits Obama included in his stimulus bill and in his proposals in the State of the Union speech? What kind of impact did they have on hiring plans among the 15% of businesses looking to expand? Not much:

Small-business owners who are currently hiring are most likely to say they are doing so because their business operations expanded, consumer or business demand increased, sales and revenues justify adding more employees, and they need to replace an employee who left. Thirteen percent of owners point to their ability to get new capital, while 7% indicate they were influenced by government tax incentives.

Seven percent of a subset of 15% think Obama’s economic plans have helped them. Forty-six percent of a subset of 85% think Obama’s regulations hurt them. What does that say about Obama’s policies? Small businesses are looking at this administration and seeing hostility and costly interference rather than a partner for long-term investment — and for very good reasons, one might add.


Respondents could choose multiple reasons in the survey, and the two most cited reasons for non-expansion are a lack of need for more employees and a lack of sales volume to justify hiring, which are of course related. Coming in a close third at 66% are worries over the status of the economy, which probably comes rationally from seeing the lack of demand that would allow these businesses to grow. Considering that small businesses of this class are the engine of job creation, this signals that we will not see any rapid expansion of employment in the near term, much as the CBO predicted last month. It’s a vote of no-confidence from the innovators and risk-takers that drive our economy.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 16, 2012, 06:36:03 PM
America on Verge of Economic Collapse Because of Obama's Cooked Reports
News Blaze ^ | 2/16/12 | Chuck Ness
Posted on February 16, 2012 9:28:25 PM EST by OneVike

The Obama administration has released an economic report that claims everything is coming up roses, and it is making the rounds of the MSM's news outlets. Truth is, when you look into the numbers, it's rather easy to come to the conclusion that the economic reports are as screwy as the administration's employment numbers. In order to convince Americans that his economic measures are working, Obama is claiming there has been an increase in retail sales from December to January by a seasonally adjusted .4%. The administration goes on to explain that while the economy is moving in a positive direction, it is still slow. They also point out that the recently reported gains reduced unemployment to 8.3%, proving that Socialist economic policies are working. However, Obama's unemployment numbers have since been proven to be lies. Have I stated that we are in an election year and that Obama needs to get re-elected in order to continue transforming the greatest country in the history of mankind into a Soviet style basket case? To assist in the destruction, the MSM has been knowingly repeating this administration's lies.



Instead of reporting how America's real unemployment is actually up between 19 and 25%, they report that Obama has been able to get unemployment down to 8.3%. Instead of reporting that the government is spending more money than it is taking in, and that retail sales have dropped by almost $100 billion from December to January, we are told by the administration's propaganda machine that retail sales have increased by .4%. In an election year, the MSM will do everything in their power to convince Americans that Obama is even greater than Ronald Reagan.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsblaze.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 17, 2012, 02:35:57 PM
The Family Prostitute - as the recession continues, more and more women are turning to...
laweekly ^ | 2-17-12 | Albo




In the workplace lunchroom, dominated by a Formica table stocked with a condiment cradle that holds four kinds of hot sauce, Nikki furrows her brow as she fishes into her purse and retrieves her driver's license. A resident of Riverside, Nikki is filling out some paperwork for her new job. "There's a lot of stuff they want to know," she says.

It's been a busy day for the former administrative assistant. "I flew in and saw the doctor before I even got here," she says. Dressed in "business casual," Nikki is an attractive 24-year-old African-American woman with a retro hairstyle reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore on the actress's eponymous '70s sitcom. Speaking with a slight but charming lisp, Nikki notes that she can't work until she gets cleared by the authorities, and the doctor visit is the first part of that process. In the meantime, she says, "I'll stay here and get some training because I don't know anything. Tomorrow, I'll get my license at the sheriff's office, and then I can work."

Nikki is one step away from becoming a prostitute in one of Nevada's legal brothels.

She's the sole supporter of two small children and her mother, and the work is important to Nikki. "In the Inland Empire," she laments, "there are no jobs at all. I couldn't even get a job at McDonald's right now."

And so she's come to Moundhouse, Nevada, just east of Carson City, where four of the state's 28 brothels are located just off U.S. Route 50, a desolate track that cuts through a high plain of sage and scrub and is known as "the loneliest road in America."


(Excerpt) Read more at laweekly.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 18, 2012, 07:27:16 AM
Are We Coming Apart?

http://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2012/02/18/are_we_coming_apart ^ | February 18, 2012 |

John C.Goodman


Posted on Saturday, February 18, 2012 9:37:10 AM by Kaslin

We are experiencing an ever widening cultural divide, according to Charles Murray.


Upper-middle class professional types may pretend that they are cultural relativists, accepting of whatever lifestyle their fellow human beings happen to choose. In reality, they live by old fashioned puritan values, however. They get married and stay married. They work hard and work long hours.


Not so for the blue collar, never-got-beyond-high-school class, however. A shocking number aren't even working at all. Many are not getting married in the first place. Of those that get married, the divorce and separation rates are soaring.


What about happiness and well-being? About 65% of the upper middle class professional types say they are in happy marriages. That number has been dropping steadily for the past 40 years for the working class types; and today it stands at 25%!


Murray, by the way, is the author of Losing Ground, the book generally credited with sparking welfare reform in the United States, and The Bell Curve, the book that generated a national debate on the role of IQ in our society. When he speaks, people on both the right and the left tend to listen. His latest book, Coming Apart, is another block buster.


Just so you don't think what Murray is describing is all about race or about immigrants, the entire analysis in it is focused on non-Hispanic whites. Within the white population a cultural cataclysm is underway. One part of that population (about 20% of the total) is firmly attached to traditional values. The other part (about 30% of the total) is undergoing cultural disintegration.


In 1960, these two groups of people lived similar lives. Today, they are headed in opposite directions.


Take divorce. Between 1960 and 1980, Murray shows that working class whites' divorce/separation rate rose from about 5% to about 15%. Over the next 20 years it more than doubled again, rising from 15% to 35%. The professional class also saw an increase in the divorce rate rise between 1960 and 1980: from about 1% to about 7.5% between 1960 and 1980. But it then completely leveled off: the professional class divorce/separation rate has been flat for the last thirty years. The same pattern holds for children growing up in broken homes. There has been a steady increase for the working class and a low plateau for the professional class.


What about work? In 1968, only 3% of prime age males with no more than a high school education were "out of the labor force." By 2008, that figure climbed to 12% — almost one in eight. Meanwhile, little has changed among males with a college education.


Part-time work is another indicator of the decline of industriousness among the working class. Among prime age males with no more than a high school education, the fraction working fewer than 40 hours a week doubled — from 10% in 1968 to 20% in 2008. Among the college graduates, the rise was much smaller: from 9% to 12%.


Writing in The New York Times the other day, David Brooks noted that the key ingredient in the cultural disintegration of working class life style is the role of men:


Tens of millions of men have marred life chances because schools are bad at educating boys, because they are not enmeshed in the long-term relationships that instill good habits and because insecure men do stupid and self-destructive things.


Over the past 40 years, women's wages have risen sharply but, as Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney of the Hamilton Project point out, median incomes of men have dropped 28 percent and male labor force participation rates are down 16 percent. Next time somebody talks to you about wage stagnation, have them break it down by sex. It's not only globalization and technological change causing this stagnation. It's the deterioration of the moral and social landscape, especially for men.


Religious beliefs are changing too. Secularism rose 11 percentage points (from 29% to 40%) for the upper middle class, but rose 21 percentage points (from 38% to 59%) for the working class.


What about cause and effect? It should be obvious that culture affects economic outcomes, but some on the left think it's the other way around. Here's an amazing statement by Paul Krugman writing in The New York Times:



Traditional values aren't as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe — and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America's working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause.

As usual, Krugman has it completely wrong. When Charles Murray was in Dallas the other day I suggested to him that culture is like the economists' notion of a "public good." We all benefit from it, even if we personally do nothing to create it, nurture it, or defend it. But if the institutions that sustain a culture are weak and eroding, then the culture itself will disappear and everyone will be affected by that change.


What is happening in working class America is the disintegration of the American way of life.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: JBGRAY on February 18, 2012, 09:39:26 AM

Religious beliefs are changing too. Secularism rose 11 percentage points (from 29% to 40%) for the upper middle class, but rose 21 percentage points (from 38% to 59%) for the working class.



Maybe he has something there.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 18, 2012, 10:35:52 PM
White House hides the big drop in percentage of working Americans (11 M not in the work force)
American Thinker ^ | 02/18/2012 | Rick Moran
Posted on February 18, 2012 4:23:34 PM EST by SeekAndFind

It's not the same as the unemployment rate. It is the workplace participation rate that shows the true horror of Obama's jobless "recovery."

Quite simply, the percentage of working-age Americans who have a job is crashing. Daily Caller:

A new chart produced by the Republican Study Committee shows the downward jumps of that job-participation rate, even after President Barack Obama deployed his trillion-dollar stimulus in February 2009, and after Obama declared the summer of 2010 a "Recovery Summer."

"I expect you will be seeing this chart on the House floor during debates, it will be shown at town hall meetings and in district events," committee spokesman Brian Straessle told The Daily Caller.

Amid the optimistic text in today's economic report, the detailed tables reveal a sharp statistical decline.In 2000, 64.4 percent of working-age Americans had formal jobs, either full-time or part-time, according to Table B-35 on page 361. That was the measure's high water mark.

The ratio drifted down to 63.0 percent in 2007 before hitting the skids in the 2008 recession that was largely caused by federal real-estate policies.

By October 2009, five months after the recession technically ended, the ratio hit bottom at 58.5 percent, where it remained two years later in December 2011.

Given the nation's working-age population of 240.5 million, that 4.5 percent drop means that roughly 11 million Americans have fallen out of the workforce. They are excluded, however, from the nation's formal unemployment rolls - which document only 13.75 million unemployed Americans.

By excluding those non-working Americans, the White House can claim that the formal unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3 percent in January 2012, down from a peak of 10 percent in 2009.

Some of those 11 million workers not being counted retired early or have started their own businesses.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 19, 2012, 10:52:15 AM
Report: Millions of jobless file for disability when unemployment benefits run out
Fox News ^ | 2/19/12
Posted on February 19, 2012 1:19:32 PM EST by Libloather

Report: Millions of jobless file for disability when unemployment benefits run out
Published February 19, 2012 | FoxNews.com

Being unemployed for too long reportedly is driving people mad and costing taxpayers billions of dollars in mental illness and other disability claims.

The New York Post reported Sunday that as unemployment checks run out, many jobless are trying to gain government benefits by declaring themselves unhealthy.

More than 10.5 million people -- about 5.3 percent of the population aged 25 and 64 -- received disability checks in January from the federal government, the Post wrote, a 18 percent jump from before the recession.

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





Yeah, real fuvking recovery! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 19, 2012, 03:19:54 PM
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152654/Health-Costs-Gov-Regulations-Curb-Small-Business-Hiring.aspx


Yeah, real recovery right there! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 19, 2012, 07:36:43 PM

Jobless disability claims soar to record $200B as of January
New York Post ^ | Last Updated: 10:41 AM, February 19, 2012 | By JANET WHITMAN
Posted on February 19, 2012 10:13:27 PM EST by Behind Liberal Lines

With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 20, 2012, 03:47:01 AM
http://news.investors.com/article/601526/201202171525/obama-economic-stimulus-turns-three.htm


FAIL.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 20, 2012, 02:05:16 PM
For boomers, it's a new era of 'work til you drop'

By JOHN ROGERS
Associated Press

 
 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When Paula Symons joined the U.S. workforce in 1972, typewriters in her office clacked nonstop, people answered the telephones and the hot new technology revolutionizing communication was the fax machine.

Symons, fresh out of college, entered this brave new world thinking she'd do pretty much what her parents' generation did: Work for just one or two companies over about 45 years before bidding farewell to co-workers at a retirement party and heading off into her sunset years with a pension.

Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She's been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen.

So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans.

"I'll probably just work until I drop," she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group.

Like 78 million other U.S. Baby Boomers, Symons and her husband had the misfortune of approaching retirement age at a time when stock market crashes diminished their 401(k) nest eggs, companies began eliminating defined benefit pensions in record numbers and previously unimagined technical advances all but eliminated entire job descriptions from travel agent to telephone operator.

At the same time, companies began moving other jobs overseas, to be filled by people willing to work for far less and still able to connect to the U.S. market in real time.

"The paradigm has truly shifted. Now when you're looking for a job you're competing in a world where the competition isn't just the guy down the street, but the guy sitting in a cafe in Hong Kong or Mumbai," says Bill Vick, a Dallas-based executive recruiter who started BoomersNextStep.com in an effort to help Baby Boomers who want to stay in the workforce.

Not only has the paradigm shifted, but as it has the generation whose mantra used to be, "Don't trust anyone over 30," finds itself now being looked on with distrust by younger Generation X managers who question whether boomers have the high-tech skills or even the stamina to do what needs to be done.

"I always have the feeling that I have to prove my value all the time. That I'm not some old relic who doesn't understand social media or can't learn some new technique," says Symons, who is active on Twitter and Facebook, loves every new time-saving software app that comes down the pike, and laughs at the idea of ever sending another fax.

"Ahh, that's just so archaic," she says.

Meanwhile, as companies have downsized, boomers have been hurt to some degree by their own sheer numbers, says Ed Lawler of the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

The oldest ones, Lawler says, aren't retiring, and more and more the youngest members of the generation ahead of them aren't either. It's no longer uncommon, he says, for people to work until 70.

"People who would have normally been out of the workforce are still there, taking jobs that would have gone to what we now call the unemployed," he said.

John Stewart of Springfield, Mo., sees himself becoming part of that new generation that never stops working.

"No, I don't see myself retiring," says Stewart, who is media director for a large church. "I think I would be bored if I just all of a sudden quit everything and did whatever it is retired people do."

Then there are the financial considerations. Like many boomers, the 60-year-old acknowledges he didn't put enough aside when he was younger.

For more than 30 years, Stewart ran his own photography business, doing everything from studio portraits to illustrating annual reports for hospitals and other large corporations to freelancing for national magazines and newspapers.

As the news media began to struggle, the magazine and newspaper work dried up. As the economy tanked, his large corporate clients began to use cheaper stock photos purchased online rather than hire him to take new ones. Eventually he took his current job, producing videos of pastors' sermons and photos for church publications. He says he is glad to be one boomer to make a late career change and keep working.

"There were times when the money was really rolling in," he says of his old business. "But somehow retirement wasn't really in the forefront of my thinking then, so saving for it wasn't an automatic thing."

Steve Wyard, of Los Angeles, says he and his wife have planned carefully for retirement.

He's worked for 30 years for a company that sells and services commercial washers and dryers, and she's been with a health maintenance organization for even longer. They've invested cautiously, lived in the same house for decades and meticulously paid down the mortgage.

Plus he's one of the few boomers who figures that, no matter what technology comes along, his job won't go away.

"Everyone has to do the laundry," he says.

Still, he and his wife have two sons, 19 and 21, to put through college, and Wyard, 61, sees that pushing back retirement for several years.

Until then he plans to keep working, which is what every physically able boomer should consider doing, says USC's Lawler.

Union membership, which has been declining for years, now includes only about 10 percent of all eligible U.S. employees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, the number of defined benefit retirement funds offered by private enterprise have fallen from about one in three employers in 1990 to about one in five in 2005.

With unions no longer in a strong position to fight for benefits like pensions, with jobs disappearing or going overseas, and with Gen Xers and even younger Millennial Generation members coveting their jobs, Lawler warns this is no time for boomers to quit and allow the skills they've spent a lifetime building to atrophy.

"My advice is above all don't retire," he says. "If you like your job at all, hold onto it. Because getting back in in this era is essentially impossible."

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 21, 2012, 06:36:03 AM
Gallup Finds Unemployment Climbing to Nine Percent in February
By Matt Cover
February 20, 2012
   

A man looking for work stands on a street corner in Portland, Maine. (AP)




(CNSNews.com) – Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is “premature” to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season.

Gallup figures typically provide an indication of what the government will report at the end of the month.

“The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February,” Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. “The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.”

Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the official unemployment rate in early March, when it publishes its February figures.

Gallup’s mid-month figures are not seasonally adjusted, and so may not predict the official unemployment rate precisely. However, because Gallup and BLS both conduct their unemployment surveys at the same time – in the middle of the month – Gallup’s early figures can provide a barometer of where the official rate is likely headed.

“Gallup’s mid-month unemployment reading, based on the 30 days ending Feb. 15, serves as a preliminary estimate of the U.S. government report, and suggests the Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely report on the first Friday of March that its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased in February,” Gallup said.

The survey also found that “underemployment” – those unemployed and those working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable – rose to 19 percent, up from the 18.7 percent Gallup found in January.


Gallup said its report reflected a continuing trend of weakness in U.S. labor markets, marking a “sharp deterioration” in job market conditions.

“Regardless of what the government reports, Gallup’s unemployment and underemployment measures show a sharp deterioration in job market conditions since mid-January.”

That decline was consistent with an economy struggling with weak growth and rising energy prices, Gallup said, making it “premature” to think that the economy would not be a major factor in November’s presidential elections.

“Further, it suggests that it is premature to assume the condition of the economy will not remain a major issue for Americans both financially and politically in 2012.”

Gallup’s survey is a random telephone tracking survey of 30,000 adults conducted through February 15, whereas BLS’s survey is done over one week in the middle of each month and surveys 60,000 households. BLS adjusts its results for seasonal changes in the job market – regular changes in the labor market that occur every year and aren’t reflective of the demand for labor or the supply of available jobs, such as temporary hiring around the holiday shopping season.

Since Gallup’s figures are not seasonally adjusted, the 0.7 percent rise in unemployment tracked in its survey almost certainly includes some of the seasonal factors that typically contribute to unemployment after the holiday shopping season.

Nonetheless, Gallup predicted that BLS would find an increase in unemployment in February.

“Although the government seasonally adjusts the U.S. unemployment rate, and the workforce participation rate could decline – both of which could drive down its unemployment rate – it still seems likely that the BLS will report an increase in the seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate for February.”

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 21, 2012, 07:03:03 AM
Unemployment Rate Not as Rosy as it Appears
Mich Cap Con ^ | 2-21-12 | Tom Gantert




The days of Michigan leading the nation in the unemployment rate appear to be in the rear view mirror.

Michigan’s unemployment rate of 9.3 percent in December ranks it 11th highest in the nation. The state's unemployment rate was 11.2 percent just four months earlier.

But a big reason for the state’s rosier outlook is a large drop in the state’s labor force, something University of Michigan economist Don Grimes calls “one of the least understood results” of the economic recovery.

Michigan’s workforce has dropped from 5.1 million in January 2006 to 4.6 million in December 2011. Michigan added 13,000 jobs in December of 2011, but the labor force decreased by 11,705 jobs.

“The labor force and employment are moving in opposite directions and that’s strange,” said James Hohman, a fiscal policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Hohman estimates that if Michigan had maintained the same number of people in the workforce as December 2007, and if all of the labor force drop-outs were instead classified as unemployed, Michigan’s unemployment rate would be at 16 percent.

Most experts are not quite sure why the state’s labor force has decreased.

Some of the reasons include “discouraged workers,” or a person who was once actively searching for a job but stopped due to lack of success. There also are more people retiring or more stay-at-home moms and dads. And there are more people leaving the state.

Grimes also pointed to two other possible factors — an increase in what he calls “the underground economy” — or workers who are not reporting income to the IRS and not admitting they are employed.

“If someone — for example a former construction worker — is not reporting their income to the tax authorities they are not going to tell some census employee that they are working, and they are not going to fit the test to determine if they are ‘unemployed,' which requires that they are actively searching for, and available to start a new job,” Grimes wrote in an email. “Thus they end up being counted as out of the labor force. But the truth is nobody really knows what is going on here.”

Grimes also wondered if a national trend could also be playing a part. That trend saw some long-time unemployed workers whose benefits were running out move to filing for disability with Social Security.

“Nobody knows if the labor force is going to continue to decline like this or rebound as people return to work,” Grimes said.

At a November conference, Grimes said economists ran an experiment and held the labor force constant over 2012 and 2013 — negating the current declining trend — and found the unemployment rate was 1 percent lower than it would have been by the end of 2013.

“If the labor force shrinks, the drop in the unemployment rate will be even greater,” Grimes said. “So we could run into a problem of relatively low unemployment rates, where firms are having a very hard time finding qualified workers much sooner than expected. But, since a lot of these labor force dropouts will not have any income (or much less income) our prosperity will be much lower than the unemployment rate would indicate.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 21, 2012, 12:39:39 PM
Gallup Finds Unemployment Climbing to Nine Percent in February. (Underemployment 19.5%)
Gallup ^ | 2/20/12 | Dennis Jacobe

Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 3:36:00 PM by xuberalles

PRINCETON, NJ -- The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February, up from 8.6% for January. The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.

Gallup's mid-month unemployment reading, based on the 30 days ending Feb. 15, serves as a preliminary estimate of the U.S. government report, and suggests the Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely report on the first Friday of March that its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased in February. Gallup found that unemployment decreased to 8.3% in its mid-January report, and suggested that the U.S. unemployment rate the BLS reported for January would decline.

Gallup also finds 10.0% of U.S. employees in mid-February are working part time but want full-time work, essentially the same as in January. The mid-February reading means the percentage of Americans who can only find part-time work remains close to its high since Gallup began measuring employment status in January 2010.

Underemployment, a measure that combines the percentage of workers who are unemployed with the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work, is 19.0% in mid-February. This is higher than the 18.7% recorded for January, and is up significantly compared with January's mid-month reading of 18.1%.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 22, 2012, 05:12:55 AM
Americans' Satisfaction Almost as Low as It Was Under Carter
By Lauren Fox


http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/02/21/americans-satisfaction-almost-as-low-as-it--was-under-carter


February 21, 2012



It's February, nine months before a presidential election, and only 22 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going. Voters haven't been this unhappy with the country since George H.W. Bush's presidency, when only 21 percent of Americans reported being happy with the country's direction. And before that, the lowest approval rating was 19 percent during Jimmy Carter's first term.

What do the two presidencies have in common? Neither of them won re-election. And, if the trends holds true, Obama looks to be in an equally precarious situation. [Read about the 10 Worst Presidents.]

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research released its 2012 campaign outlook, and it's clear Obama's sitting in the same position George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were in during the February before their election losses—voters don't feel good about the country.

Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush—presidents who won re-election—all had at least 41 percent of voters optimistic with the state of the union.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 22, 2012, 06:19:53 AM
 :o
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 24, 2012, 04:21:00 AM
BY MIGUEL BUSTILLO AND DANA MATTIOLI

After seven years of trying to rebuild the iconic retailer Sears, hedge-fund manager Edward S. Lampert reversed course on Thursday, announcing that Sears Holdings Corp. will unload more than 1,200 stores in an effort to raise up to $770 million of much-needed cash.

Many on Wall Street interpreted the move as the beginning of the breakup of the company. Sears on Thursday reported a loss of more than $3 billion for 2011, and same-store sales have fallen for six straight years. The company's shares, which fell below $30 last month, rose almost 19% on Thursday to $61.80 on news of ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 24, 2012, 05:26:06 AM
In Retreat, Sears Set to Unload Stores [Obama's America: End of An American Retail Giant]
Wall St. J ^ | February 23, 2012 | MIGUEL BUSTILLO AND DANA MATTIOLI

Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 1:31:44 AM by Steelfish

FEBRUARY 24, 2012 In Retreat, Sears Set to Unload Stores

[Subscriber Content Preview] BY MIGUEL BUSTILLO AND DANA MATTIOLI

After seven years of trying to rebuild the iconic retailer Sears, hedge-fund manager Edward S. Lampert reversed course on Thursday, announcing that Sears Holdings Corp. will unload more than 1,200 stores in an effort to raise up to $770 million of much-needed cash.

Many on Wall Street interpreted the move as the beginning of the breakup of the company. Sears on Thursday reported a loss of more than $3 billion for 2011, and same-store sales have fallen for six straight years. The company's shares, which fell below $30 last month, rose almost 19% on Thursday to $61.80 on news of ..


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 24, 2012, 01:34:09 PM
A Million US Families Are Living On A Shocking $2 Per Day (Obama's Depression/Michelle In Vail)
TBI ^ | 2-24-2012 | Noelia de la Cruz




Over A Million US Families Are Living On A Shocking $2 Per Day

Noelia de la Cruz
Febuary 24,2012






More than 1.46 million families in the U.S. are living on $2 or less per day, a new study found.

That's up from the 636,000 households who lived under the same conditions in 1996.

Two dollars or less per day translates to about $60 per person, per month.

While 43 percent of American households receive government benefits, a decreasing proportion of those benefits go to the poor, the researchers from University of Michigan and Harvard University, said.

The study based its definition of income on the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

It includes such factors as a person's pension and retirements, cash income from public programs, and reported income from friends and family members who are not part of the household.

When the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is included as income, the number of households living on $2 or less per day drops to about 800,000.

Additionally, the study found about 37 percent of the households living in poverty were headed by a married couple, while 51 percent were headed by a single female.

In 2011, nearly 50 percent of the households were headed by white non-Hispanics, 25 percent by African Americans, and 22 percent by Hispanics.

While minority groups do not represent the majority of these households, they're increased the most since 1996, the study found.


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 25, 2012, 06:32:16 AM
The Next 17 Big Companies That Are At Risk Of Bankruptcy
Business Insider ^ | Jan. 25, 2012 | Gus Lubin and Jana Kasperkevic
Posted on February 25, 2012 9:12:55 AM EST by iowamark

American Airlines, Eastman Kodak, Hostess...

Lots of iconic brands have filed for bankruptcy recently. Some blamed weak consumer demand, others pointed to rising commodity costs and pension demands. In any case, you can count on many more companies to follow suit.

GovernanceMetric's International provided us with a list of companies with the greatest probability of financial distress. We picked out the biggest names.

Caesars Entertainment Financial distress probability: 7.28% Total assets: $28.9 billion Founded: 1937

Caesars Entertainment is the world's largest casino entertainment company.

Clearwire (CLWR) Financial distress probability: 9.54% Total assets: $8.8 billion Founded: 2003

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

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
1 Caesars Entertainment
2 Clearwire (CLWR)
3 McClatchy
4 AK Steel Holding
5 Republic Airway Holdings
6 Tennessee Valley Authority
7 Office Depot
8 Barnes & Noble
9 Standard Pacific
10 Dynegy
11 Talbots
12 KB Home
13 Unites States Postal Service
14 Thomas Cook Group
15 Air France
16 Imperial Sugar
17 Dendreon
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 28, 2012, 06:32:50 AM
HOUSE PRICES FALL WORSE THAN EXPECTED, DOWN 4% FOR 2011
Joe Weisenthal    | 41 minutes ago | 468 | 4
A A A
 
 
inShare
10

Wikimedia CommonsORIGINAL POST: The granddady of housing data: Case-Shiller housing comes out at 0.

Analysts expect to see a 0.35% monthly decline in home prices.
On a year over year basis, the decline for December is expected to be 3.65%.
We'll have the number here LIVE as it comes out.
UPDATE:

Worse than expected...

House prices in December fell 0.5% sequentially, worse than the 0.35% decline that was expected.
That's modestly better than the 0.74% decline from last November, but still it's a bummer.
On a year over year basis, house prices fell 3.99%, worse than the 3.65% expected.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 28, 2012, 08:04:13 AM
..Home prices fell in December in most US cities
Survey: Prices fell in 18 of 20 US cities in final months of 2011, prices back to 2002 level

By Derek Kravitz, AP Economics Writer | Associated Press – 1 hour 9 minutes ago
....
Share8EmailPrint.....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices fell in December for a fourth straight month in most major U.S. cities, as modest sales gains in the depressed housing market have yet to lift prices.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index shows prices dropped in December from November in 18 of the 20 cities tracked. The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Miami and Phoenix were the only cities to show an increase.

The declines partly reflect the typical slowdown that comes in the fall and winter.

Still, prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities in December compared to the same month in 2010. Only Detroit posted a year-over-year increase. Prices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa dropped to their lowest points since the housing crisis began.

Nationwide, prices have fallen 34 percent nationwide since the housing bust, back to 2002 levels. A gauge of quarterly national prices, which covers 70 percent of U.S. homes, fell to its lowest point on records dating back to 1987 after being adjusted for inflation.

"The pick-up in the economy has simply not been strong enough to keep home prices stabilized," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P's index committee. "If anything, it looks like we might have reentered a period of decline as we begin 2012."

The Case-Shiller monthly index covers half of all U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The December data is the latest available.

Home values remain depressed despite some hopeful signs at the end of last year.

Builders are growing more optimistic after seeing more people express interest in buying this year. Sales of previously occupied homes are at their highest level since May 2010. More first-time buyers are making purchases. And the supply of homes fell last month to its lowest point in nearly seven years, which could push home prices higher.

Homes are the most affordable they've been in decades. And mortgage rates have never been cheaper.

Much of the optimism has come because hiring has picked up. More jobs are critical to a housing rebound.

There's hope among some economists that an increase in sales could stop prices from falling further by the late winter or early spring. A rise in prices could lead to a positive cycle of better sales, too.

"Stability in home prices will likely persuade more potential buyers that it is now worth getting into the market," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

Conditions are improving for those in position to buy a home. Still, many people can't afford to buy or are unable to qualify for mortgage. Some people in position to buy are holding off, worried that prices could fall even further.

The biggest reason why prices are still falling is foreclosures, which are still high across the country. Foreclosures and short sales — when a lender accepts less for a home than what is owed on a mortgage — are selling at an average discount of 20 percent.

..
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 28, 2012, 08:38:26 AM
Durable Goods Demand Falls Most in 3 Years; Down 4%
Published: Tuesday, 28 Feb 2012 | 10:19 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 



New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell in January by the most in three years as demand fell across the board from machinery to aircraft, suggesting the economy started the year on weaker footing than expected.

 
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Durable goods orders dropped 4.0 percent, the biggest drop since January 2009 when the country was still mired in a deep recession, according to Commerce Department data on Tuesday.

Economists had forecast orders falling 1.0 percent.

Durable goods range from toasters to big-ticket items like aircraft which are meant to last three years and more.

Excluding transportation, orders fell 3.2 percent. Economists had expected that reading to be flat. Machinery orders dropped 10.4 percent, the largest decline since January 2009.

Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for future business investment, fell 4.5 percent, the steepest drop in a year.

A 6.1 percent drop in bookings for transportation equipment — including a 19 percent fall in civilian aircraft orders — dragged on the overall reading for durable goods.



Boeing received 150 orders for aircraft during the month, according to the plane maker's website, down from 287 in December.

Orders for motor vehicles edged up 0.9 percent.

Shipments of non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, which go into the calculation of gross domestic product, fell 3.1 percent in January, the biggest decline since April 2009.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2012, 07:47:52 AM
February 29, 2012 1:17 PM PrintText Inflation: Not as low as you think
By Kathy Kristof

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57387655/inflation-not-as-low-as-you-think




Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government's widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

The not-for-profit research group measures inflation without looking at the big, one-time purchases that can skew the numbers. That means they don't look at the price of houses, furniture, appliances, cars, or computers. Instead, AIER focuses on Americans' typical daily purchases, such as food, gasoline, child care, prescription drugs, phone and television service, and other household products.


The institute contends that to get a good read on inflation's "sticker shock" effect, you must look at the cost of goods that the average household buys at least once a month and factor in only the kinds of expenses that are subject to change. That, too, eliminates the cost of housing because when you finance your home with a fixed-rate mortgage, that expense remains constant until you refinance or move.


Will gas prices stall the economy?
Why higher oil and gas prices are good news
VIDEO: Ask the experts -- gas prices


The group maintains that this index better measures the real-world impact of price changes, particularly for people on a budget. And, largely as the result of the recent run-up in gas prices, this "everyday price index" (EPI) suggests that Americans are being pinched far more tightly than the official inflation measure would have you believe.

Over the past year, the EPI is up just over 8 percent, according to the economics group. The biggest factor: Motor fuel and transportation costs are up 21.06 percent from year-ago levels. The cost of food, prescription drugs, and tobacco also have increased faster than the government's inflation measure, rising 3.56 percent, 4.21 percent, and 3.4 percent, respectively.


On the bright side, prices of household fuel (natural gas and electricity) and supplies have increased only 2.74 percent; recreation and personal care products are up less than 1 percent; and telephone or Internet services are down 0.66 percent.


Admittedly, the purchases that the EPI tracks make up slightly less than 40 percent of the average household budget. But Steven Cunningham, research and education director at AIER, says these items are what contribute to the "sticker shock at the gasoline pump and the supermarket check-out line."

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2012, 08:11:12 AM
Only 54% Of Young Adults In America Have A Job
Zero Hedge ^ | 3/1/2012 | Tyler Durden




A month ago, Zero Hedge readers were stunned to learn that unemployment among Europe's young adults has exploded as a result of the European financial crisis, and peaking anywhere between 46% in the case of Greece all they way to 51% for Spain. Which makes us wonder what the reaction will be to the discovery that when it comes to young adults (18-24) in the US, the employment rate is just barely above half, or 54%, which just happens to be the lowest in 64 years, and 7% worse than when Obama took office promising a whole lot of change 3 years ago.

And while technically this means 46% are unemployed, or the same percentage as in Greece, the US ratio, which comes from Pew, shows the ratio as a % of the total population: a very sensitive topic now that every month we see another 250,000 drop off mysteriously from the total labor force. However, unlike those on the trailing age end, young adults by definition are the labor force in their age group demographic, so it would be difficult to explain away this horrendous number by claiming that ever more 24 year olds are retiring. Although, yes, we agree that some may be dropping out of the labor force in order to go to college, incidentally the locus of the latest credit bubble, where they meet a fate worse even than secular unemployment: they become debt slaves of the Federal System, with non-dischargable debt at that, which even assuming they can get a job would take ages to pay back!


But wait: there's more - of all age groups, this is the one that has actually seen its wages drop the most under the Obama administration.

So not only are they unemployed, young adults are at least poor.


Net result: double the change, zero the hope.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2012, 06:57:07 PM
The latest quarterly report out of CoreLogic is as usual full of curious insights about the state of US housing. Key among them is the finding that "negative equity and near-negative equity mortgages accounted for 27.8 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in the fourth quarter, up from 27.1 in the previous quarter. Nationally, the total mortgage debt outstanding on properties in negative equity increased from $2.7 trillion in the third quarter to $2.8 trillion in the fourth quarter." In other words, courtesy of no Mark To Market, there is at least $2.8 trillion in debt held by investors (read banks and GSEs) that is marked at par and should be impaired. And one wonders why Fannie lost $16.9 billion in 2011 (up from $14.0 billion in 2010), and needed another taxpayer injection of $4.6 billion in Q4: it is so banks can pretend reality exists, and in the process avoid evicting tenants who live in these underwater homes, and who can pretend they don't have to pay their bills, but can spend money on iGadgets instead. Yet the scariest data point is that if one is currently in Nevada and looks at three houses right this second, two of them are underwater, or said otherwise, have negative or near-negative equity.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2012, 01:24:24 PM
For 99% of Americans, the Obama recovery has been no recovery at all
American.com ^ | 3/5/12 | James Pethokoukis




Liberal economist Emmanuel Saez has updated his much-referenced income inequality research. Here’s how the recovery is going after the Great Recession:

In 2010, average real income per family grew by 2.3%, but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery. Such an uneven recovery can help explain the recent public demonstrations against inequality. It is likely that this uneven recovery has continued in 2011 as the stock market has continued to recover.

National Accounts statistics show that corporate profits and dividends distributed have grown strongly in 2011 while wage and salary accruals have only grown only modestly. Unemployment and non-employment have remained high in 2011.

This suggests that the Great Recession will only depress top income shares temporarily and will not undo any of the dramatic increase in top income shares that has taken place since the 1970s. Indeed, excluding realized capital gains, the top decile share in 2010 is equal to 46.3%, higher than in 2007.

Looking further ahead, based on the US historical record, falls in income concentration due to economic downturns are temporary unless drastic regulation and tax policy changes are implemented and prevent income concentration from bouncing back. Such policy changes took place after the Great Depression during the New Deal and permanently reduced income concentration until the 1970s.

1. So this isn’t exactly an endorsement of the Obama recovery is it? I mean, for 99% of Americans there has been no recovery, according to Saez. In other news, Wall Street paid its employees more than $40 billion in bonuses the past two years.


(Excerpt) Read more at blog.american.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2012, 01:31:15 PM
Couple Lives In $1.3 Million, 4,900 Square Foot Home For Five Years Without Making A Single Mortgage Payment

www.zerohedge.com


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/05/2012 - 14:50




Fannie Mae Foreclosures Housing Market Personal Income Real estate recovery

Wonder how Americans can afford to buy millions of iGadgets, a second LCD TV for the shoe closet, and eat at restaurants more than almost any time in the past despite sliding personal income? Simple - increasingly fewer pay the biggest staple bill in a US household: their mortgage. The following story of Keith And Janet Ritter, who have lived in their Fort Washington, MD $1.29MM, 4,900 square foot McMansion for 5 years (which they purchase with no money down) without ever making a single mortgage payment, and who are not even close to being evicted, may explain much about the way US society currently operates, and why other perfectly responsible and hard-working taxpayers (who do have to pay for their mortgage) continue to fund tens of billions in Fannie and Freddie losses who are first on the hook to absorb the implicit losses by allowing families such as the Ritters to live in perpetuity without paying, and the banks to keep said mortgage on the books at par without any impairments.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2012, 08:40:05 PM
35 Shocking Facts That Prove That College Education Has Become A Giant Money Making Scam
The American Dream ^ | 03/05/2012
Posted on March 5, 2012 8:18:43 PM EST by SeekAndFind

College education in America is a bad joke. Instead of preparing the next generation of leaders for the jobs of tomorrow, the college education "industry" has become a giant money making scam. We constantly preach to our high school students that they "need" to go to college and we tell them to not even worry about how much it is going to cost because a college education is "always" worth the money. Then we lend them outrageous amounts of money so that they can pay the gigantic bills for the "education" that they are receiving. But the truth is that the quality of education at America's colleges and universities is absolutely abysmal these days. I spent 8 years at U.S. universities, and most of the courses that I took could have been passed by the family dog. Sadly, once our young people graduate they quickly discover that there are way too many college graduates and not nearly enough good jobs. Today, we have millions upon millions of young Americans that are enslaved to student loan debt for the rest of their lives. They were promised a bright future, but instead most of them are discovering that they are going to be working really hard to pay off financial predators for decades to come. Unfortunately, for most college graduates a diploma is simply a ticket to a crappy job and a lifetime of debt slavery.

The following are 35 shocking facts that prove that college education in America has become a giant money making scam....

The Student Loan Debt Bubble

#1 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

#2 According to the College Board, college tuition is absolutely soaring. The following comes from a recent CBS News article....

Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8.3 percent this year and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.

#3 Average yearly tuition at private universities in the United States is now up to $27,293. That figure has increased by 29% in just the past five years.

#4 In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.

#5 In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.

#6 According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark in early 2012.

#7 The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.

#8 Over the past 25 years, the cost of college tuition has increased at an average rate that is approximately 6% higher than the general rate of inflation.

#9 Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600. Today, it is $35,568.

#10 The cost of college textbooks has tripled over the past decade.

#11 One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.

#12 According to recent Pew Research Center polling, 75% of all Americans believe that college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.

#13 College has become so expensive that it is causing many college students to do desperate things in order to pay for it. For example, an increasing number of young college women are actively advertising on the Internet for "sugar daddies" who will help them pay their college bills.

#14 The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.

#15 Approximately 14 percent of all students that graduate with student loan debt end up defaulting within 3 years of making their first student loan payment.

The Quality Of College Education In America Stinks

#16 The typical U.S. college student spends less than 30 hours a week on academics.

#17 According to very extensive research detailed in a new book entitled "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses", 45 percent of all U.S. college students exhibit "no significant gains in learning" after two years in college.

#18 Today, college students spend approximately 50% less time studying than U.S. college students did just a few decades ago.

#19 35% of U.S. college students spend 5 hours or less studying per week.

#20 50% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to write more than 20 pages.

#21 32% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to read more than 40 pages in a week.

#22 U.S. college students spend 24% of their time sleeping, 51% of their time socializing and 7% of their time studying.

#23 Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor's degree within four years.

Not Enough Jobs For College Graduates

#24 Only 55.3% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed last year. That was the lowest level that we have seen since World War II.

#25 According to the Economic Policy Institute, the "official" unemployment rate for college graduates younger than 25 years old was 9.3 percent in 2010.

#26 One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don't even require college degrees.

#27 In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.

#28 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

#29 In the United States today, approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.

#30 In the United States today, 24.5 percent of all retail salespeople have a college degree.

#31 The percentage of mail carriers with a college degree is now 4 times higher than it was back in 1970.

#32 Right now, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.

#33 According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

#34 Record numbers of Americans are going to college, but incomes for young American adults just keep falling. 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 adjust for inflation.

#35 Once they get out into the "real world", 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the "real world" while they were still in school.

So is going to college always a bad idea?

Of course not.

But it is a huge gamble.

There is no guarantee that all of the time, money and effort that you put into getting a college education is going to pay off with a promising career.

If you want to go to college, my advice would be to get someone else to pay for it. Failing that, try to get the best quality education that you can at the lowest price possible.

And try to go into as little debt as you possibly can in the process.

Today, there are millions of college students that wish that they had done things differently.

For example, the following student loan horror story comes from a recent Business Insider article....

"I am the first in my family to go to college. Without family support, I self-financed three college degrees (BA, MA and PhD) at state colleges between 1988 and 2005 using Pell Grants, multiple jobs, scholarships and $90,000 in subsidized and unsubsidized student loans.

My loans have been bought and sold so many times it is impossible to keep track of changes in rates, balances and terms of service since I have never had to resign any promissory notes. Eventually, I was able to consolidate the loans with Sallie Mae at a 7% interest rate. My loan payments have ranged from $400-600/mo. depending on the loan provider and lowest possible payment option available.

...I am currently a public school teacher with an income of $50,000, barely enough income to pay the interest-only payments. I have never missed a payment in over ten years ... and my loan balance stands at $105,000. To date, I have paid over $40,000 in loan payments and because my income restricts me to interest-only payments, and the 7% daily capitalized interest rate, I now owe $15,000 more than I borrowed....

My student loan situation has nothing to do with a lack of financial responsibility.

I have never missed a student loan payment and I have paid off $20,000 in credit card debt and a $10,000 car loan since graduation. I have no mortgage or any other outstanding debt, just my student loans. I have a credit score of 820. However, because of the usurious interest rates, capitalization of interest and the sole option of interest-only payments, I will never be able to pay off my student loan.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 07, 2012, 07:51:14 AM

JIM ROGERS: The Government Is Lying About Inflation And It's Crushing The Consumer
Mamta Badkar | 41 minutes ago | 1,341 | 5



Business Insider recently spoke with commodities guru Jim Rogers about oil prices, gold, and the global economy.  He also shared with us what life is like in Singapore.


This is the first of our multi-part interview with Rogers.  Here, he offers his thoughts on commodities and the global economy.
---

What is feeding into oil prices at the moment?

Iran obviously, is one thing, but another is in the U.S. it’s the infrastructure problem. We have oil but it’s in the wrong places. On the east coast, they use imported oil, and imported oil is higher because of Iran. And it comes from Europe. North Sea production is in decline. There are supply-demand reasons that oil prices are high in many parts of the world. And known reserves of oil are in decline worldwide. And the IEA is going around telling people that known reserves are in a steady decline and we’re going to have a huge problem in a decade or two, a gigantic problem, unless somebody finds a lot of oil very quickly.  So underneath the supply-demand, shorter term it's infrastructure and Iran probably.

At what level do you think oil prices will break the back of the American recovery?

We are going to have a slowdown. Such is the staggering debt that America has, it has caused more and more of a drag on our economy. I would also point out to you that every four to six years we’ve had an economic slowdown in the U.S., since the beginning of time, so by 2012, 2013, 2014, we are well overdue for an economic slowdown for whatever reason. Whether it’s caused by high oil or what, we’re going to have a slowdown in the foreseeable future.

How do you see oil prices impacting consumers in emerging markets, especially in Asia, when many of them are struggling to rein in inflation and drive growth?

Everybody is paying higher prices for oil and that obviously impacts consumption everywhere and its not just oil, its food and everything else that’s going up. There’s inflation everywhere, the U.S. lies about it, I mean the U.S. government lies about inflation but there’s inflation everywhere. I mean I don’t know if you go shopping, but if you do, you know prices are up. The government says they’re not, I don’t know where they shop. Everybody else’s prices are up.

If you could own / invest in just one commodity which would it be?

I guess it would have to be one of the agricultural commodities, it would depend on which is down the most but it would be agriculture I can tell you that.

You said earlier this year that if gold moved towards $1,600 you would be interested in buying more.  Are you looking at gold now?

I’m certainly watching, if it goes below $1,600 I’m sure I’ll buy more. If it goes to $1,200 I hope I’m smart enough to buy a lot more. Gold has been up 11 years in a row now, which is extremely unusual for any asset. So it would not surprise me if gold doesn’t have, continue to have a nice correction in 2012, if it does, if it does, I hope I’m smart enough to buy a lot more. I’m not selling. I’m not selling. I have not sold and will not sell until the bubble comes. There will be a bubble in gold some day but that’s ten years, I don’t know several years from now. I hope I’m smart enough to sell when the bubble comes.

Stay tuned to Business Insider for the next segment of our exclusive interview with Jim Rogers.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-government-lying-inflation-consumer-2012-3#ixzz1oRkNXSBA


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 08, 2012, 08:55:51 AM
Economic Outlook: Worse after the Election (Economy is getting better, but it won't last long)
American Thinker ^ | 03/08/2012 | Jeffrey Folks




Despite everything Obama has done to ruin it, the economy is getting better. And while a growth rate of 2.3% and an unemployment rate of 8.3% are not exactly worth bragging about, the president is doing just that. The direction of the economy, it seems, is more important than the record of the past three years.

The problem is that the present direction is largely the product of this administration's unprecedented deficit spending and of monetary loosening on the part of the Fed. Once these forms of stimulus are withdrawn, as they must be after the election, the direction of the economy will reverse.

The real question for voters is not direction of the economy in the months leading up to the election. It is Obama's record over the previous four years and the likely direction of the economy after the election.

Half of that information is already known. In what may be the understatement of the year, the Congressional Budget Office recently noted that "in the recovery [from the 2008-2009 recession], the pace of growth in the nation's output has been anemic compared with that during most other recoveries since World War II." In fact, in every month of Obama's presidency, the unemployment rate has been above 8%. And at no time has GDP growth been higher than 3%. That is the worst post-recession record of any president in American history.

But what of the future? In its report entitled "Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021," the CBO reported that, given likely policy outcomes, "production and employment are likely to stay well below the economy's potential for a number of years." Indeed, the CBO projects that the economic growth rate will remain 2.3% throughout the decade,


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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 09, 2012, 06:58:14 AM
Former Comptroller General Warns of Greek Scenario in U.S. (We’re just 2 years away)
ABC News ^ | 03/09/2012 | Chris Good

Posted on Friday, March 09, 2012 9:46:23 AM by SeekAndFind

Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker has warned that the U.S. could slide into a debt scenario similar to what Greece is experiencing.

“The truth is if you count total U.S. government debt as compared to many of the European nations that are in the news, we’re already worse than they are, and we’re two years away from where Greece was when it had its crisis,” Walker said in a recent interview with CYInterview.com. But he said that the size and economic power of the U.S. means it would have more time to right itself before disaster.

Walker served as U.S. comptroller general from 1998-2008, heading the Government Accountability Office under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

He’s been warning of fiscal troubles since 2007, when he told CBS’s Steve Kroft in a “60 Minutes” segment, “I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility.”

In this election year, Walker’s current message is simple: A broken political process is driving the U.S. toward fiscal ruin.

Walker is pushing to “shake up” that system, serving on the leadership board of Americans Elect, the group that aims to put an Internet-nominated presidential candidate on the November ballot in every U.S. state. The group told ABC News in an editorial meeting last month that it would almost certainly achieve that goal.


(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 11, 2012, 06:21:59 PM
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/10/pennsylvania-harrisburg-idUSL2E8E9DMS20120310


LOL. Some recovery! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 15, 2012, 08:45:38 PM
Skip to comments.

Sears to close 62 more stores
MSN Money ^ | March 15, 2012 | Kim Peterson
Posted on March 15, 2012 10:46:39 PM EDT by Altariel

Sears Holdings (SHLD +4.34%) already said it would close as many as 120 Sears and Kmart stores this year in an effort to turn the business around. But that wasn't enough.

The struggling retailer said Thursday it will have to tighten its belt even more. Sears is now planning to close 43 Hometown stores, 10 Sears Hardware stores and all nine stores in the Great Indoors chain. Hometown stores are independently operated, and sell hardware in mostly rural areas.

Sears is also getting rid of clothing in 10 Sears stores -- perhaps in a test run for a chain-wide initiative in the future. Instead, those stores will sell more household items such as mattresses and furniture, the Associated Press reports. Shoppers have requested more choices in those areas, the company told the AP.

Sears has been busy with a number of moves designed to stem the bleeding from its bottom line. It's been trying to spin off its Hometown and Outlet stores, but the closure of 43 of those may show how well that's going. It's also selling 11 locations to General Growth Properties (GGP -1.07%).

Scratching clothing from its lineup could be a very good move for Sears. Most people don't shop there for clothes. They might pick up some clothing as an afterthought, but they visit Sears stores for appliances and hardware.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 27, 2012, 07:32:59 AM
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-prices-hit-10-low-131200327.html


Awesome! 

Hope & Change ! ! ! ! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on March 27, 2012, 09:25:00 AM
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2074002_2339854,00.html
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 28, 2012, 05:46:59 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-worst-performing-cities-in-america-2012-3?op=1


HOPE AND FNG CHANGE ! ! ! ! !
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 29, 2012, 08:29:13 PM
The U.S. dollar has probably been the closest thing to a true global currency that the world has ever seen. For decades, the use of the U.S. dollar has been absolutely dominant in international trade. This has had tremendous benefits for the U.S. financial system and for U.S. consumers, and it has given the U.S. government tremendous power and influence around the globe. Today, more than 60 percent of all foreign currency reserves in the world are in U.S. dollars. But there are big changes on the horizon. The mainstream media in the United States has been strangely silent about this, but some of the biggest economies on earth have been making agreements with each other to move away from using the U.S. dollar in international trade. There are also some oil producing nations which have begun selling oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, which is a major threat to the petrodollar system which has been in place for nearly four decades. And big international institutions such as the UN and the IMF have even been issuing official reports about the need to move away form the U.S. dollar and toward a new global reserve currency. So the reign of the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency is definitely being threatened, and the coming shift in international trade is going to have massive implications for the U.S. economy.

A lot of this is being fueled by China. China has the second largest economy on the face of the earth, and the size of the Chinese economy is projected to pass the size of the U.S. economy by 2016. In fact, one economist is even projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

So China is sitting there and wondering why the U.S. dollar should continue to be so preeminent if the Chinese economy is about to become the number one economy on the planet.

Over the past few years, China and other emerging powers such as Russia have been been quietly making agreements to move away from the U.S. dollar in international trade. The supremacy of the U.S. dollar is not nearly as solid as most Americans believe that it is.

As the U.S. economy continues to fade, it is going to be really hard to argue that the U.S. dollar should continue to function as the primary reserve currency of the world. Things are rapidly changing, and most Americans have no idea where these trends are taking us.

The following are 10 reasons why the reign of the dollar as the world reserve currency is about to come to an end....

#1 China And Japan Are Dumping the U.S. Dollar In Bilateral Trade

A few months ago, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement....

China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade.

The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other.

Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.

#2 The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Plan To Start Using Their Own Currencies When Trading With Each Other

The BRICS continue to flex their muscles. A new agreement will promote the use of their own national currencies when trading with each other rather than the U.S. dollar. The following is from a news source in India....

The five major emerging economies of BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to inject greater economic momentum into their grouping by signing two pacts for promoting intra-BRICS trade at the fourth summit of their leaders here Thursday.

The two agreements that will enable credit facility in local currency for businesses of BRICS countries will be signed in the presence of the leaders of the five countries, Sudhir Vyas, secretary (economic relations) in the external affairs ministry, told reporters here.

The pacts are expected to scale up intra-BRICS trade which has been growing at the rate of 28 percent over the last few years, but at $230 billion, remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses.

#3 The Russia/China Currency Agreement

Russia and China have been using their own national currencies when trading with each other for more than a year now. Leaders from both Russia and China have been strongly advocating for a new global reserve currency for several years, and both nations seem determined to break the power that the U.S. dollar has over international trade.

#4 The Growing Use Of Chinese Currency In Africa

Who do you think is Africa's biggest trading partner?

It isn't the United States.

In 2009, China became Africa's biggest trading partner, and China is now aggressively seeking to expand the use of Chinese currency on that continent.

A report from Africa’s largest bank, Standard Bank, recently stated the following....

“We expect at least $100 billion (about R768 billion) in Sino-African trade – more than the total bilateral trade between China and Africa in 2010 – to be settled in the renminbi by 2015.”

China seems absolutely determined to change the way that international trade is done. At this point, approximately 70,000 Chinese companies are using Chinese currency in cross-border transactions.

#5 The China/United Arab Emirates Deal

China and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to ditch the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies in oil transactions with each other.

The UAE is a fairly small player, but this is definitely a threat to the petrodollar system. What will happen to the petrodollar if other oil producing countries in the Middle East follow suit?

#6 Iran

Iran has been one of the most aggressive nations when it comes to moving away from the U.S. dollar in international trade. For example, it has been reported that India will begin to use gold to buy oil from Iran.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are not likely to go away any time soon, and Iran is likely to continue to do what it can to inflict pain on the United States in the financial world.

#7 The China/Saudi Arabia Relationship

Who imports the most oil from Saudi Arabia?

It is not the United States.

Rather, it is China.

As I wrote about the other day, China imported 1.39 million barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia in February, which was a 39 percent increase from one year earlier.

Saudi Arabia and China have teamed up to construct a massive new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, and leaders from both nations have been working to aggressively expand trade between the two nations.

So how long is Saudi Arabia going to stick with the petrodollar if China is their most important customer?

That is a very important question.

#8 The United Nations Has Been Pushing For A New World Reserve Currency

The United Nations has been issuing reports that openly call for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world.

In particular, one UN report envisions "a new global reserve system" in which the U.S. no longer has dominance....

"A new global reserve system could be created, one that no longer relies on the United States dollar as the single major reserve currency."

#9 The IMF Has Been Pushing For A New World Reserve Currency

The International Monetary Fund has also published a series of reports calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the reserve currency of the world.

In particular, one IMF paper entitled "Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability" that was published a while back actually proposed that a future global currency be named the "Bancor" and that a future global central bank could be put in charge of issuing it....

"A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank (see Supplement 1, section V) would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy. As trade and finance continue to grow rapidly and global integration increases, the importance of this broader perspective is expected to continue growing."

#10 Most Of The Rest Of The World Hates The United States

Global sentiment toward the United States has dramatically shifted, and this should not be underestimated.

Decades ago, we were one of the most loved nations on earth.

Now we are one of the most hated.

If you doubt this, just do some international traveling.

Even in Europe (where we are supposed to have friends), Americans are treated like dirt. Many American travelers have resorted to wearing Canadian pins so that they will not be treated like garbage while traveling over there.

If the rest of the world still loved us, they would probably be glad to continue using the U.S. dollar. But because we are now so unpopular, that gives other nations even more incentive to dump the dollar in international trade.

So what will happen if the reign of the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency comes to an end?

Well, some of the potential effects were described in a recent article by Michael Payne....

"The demise of the dollar will also bring radical changes to the American lifestyle. When this economic tsunami hits America, it will make the 2008 recession and its aftermath look like no more than a slight bump in the road. It will bring very undesirable changes to the American lifestyle through massive inflation, high interest rates on mortgages and cars, and substantial increases in the cost of food, clothing and gasoline; it will have a detrimental effect on every aspect of our lives."

Most Americans don't realize how low the price of gasoline in the United States is compared to much of the rest of the world.

There are areas in Europe where they pay about twice what we do for gasoline. Yes, taxes have a lot to do with that, but the fact that the U.S. dollar is used for almost all oil transactions also plays a significant role.

Today, America consumes nearly a quarter of the world's oil. Our entire economy is based upon our ability to cheaply transport goods and services over vast distances.

So what happens if the price of gasoline doubles or triples from where it is at now?

In addition, if the reign of the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency ends, the U.S. government is going to have a much harder time financing its debt.

Right now, there is a huge demand for U.S. dollars and for U.S. government debt since countries around the world have to keep huge reserves of U.S. currency lying around for the sake of international trade.

But what if that all changed?

What if the appetite for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt dried up dramatically?

That is something to think about.

At the moment, the global financial system is centered on the United States.

But that will not always be the case.

The things talked about in this article will not happen overnight, but it is important to note that these changes are picking up steam.

Under the right conditions, a shift in momentum can become a landslide or an avalanche.

Clearly, the conditions are right for a significant move away from the U.S. dollar in international trade.

So when will this major shift occur?

Only time will tell.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on April 09, 2012, 03:36:50 AM
Couple of questions:

1. Got any more links?

2. How does it feel to suck at being a man?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 09, 2012, 04:10:00 AM
CBO: $777 billion deficit for first six months of fiscal year (Friday news dump)
The Hill ^ | 4/06/12 | Bernie Becker
Posted on April 7, 2012 8:40:31 PM EDT by Libloather

CBO: $777 billion deficit for first six months of fiscal year
By Bernie Becker - 04/06/12 12:44 PM ET

The federal government racked up a deficit of $777 billion in the first half of fiscal 2012, the Congressional Budget Office said in an estimate released Friday.

The shortfall is the latest sign that the government is well on its way to compiling at least a $1 trillion deficit for the fourth consecutive year.

But as CBO noted on Friday, the deficit is also a $53 billion reduction from the same period in fiscal 2011.

The budget scorekeeper said that most of the $46 billion jump in revenues — a 4.5 percent increase — was due to corporations making higher tax payments or receiving a smaller refund.

CBO also said that spending in a variety of areas — Medicaid, education and unemployment insurance, among others — also fell during the first six months of the fiscal year.

The budget office’s release comes as budget deficits are poised to play a key role in this year’s election, and weeks after CBO estimated that the 2012 deficit would be roughly $1.2 trillion.

The 2012 deficit is now expected to be some $93 billion higher than earlier expected, in large part because of the extension of the payroll tax cut for workers.

On Capitol Hill, House Republicans recently passed a budget that would cut $5 trillion more than President Obama’s 2013 framework.

Obama slammed that proposal, largely crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in a speech this week, saying that he was employing a centrist approach while the GOP approach was radical.

“This congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan horse,” Obama said Tuesday. “Disguised as deficit-reduction plans, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country.”

For their part, Ryan and other Republicans have cast Obama as not being serious about reining in deficits.

“Our country faces serious economic and fiscal challenges,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in response to Obama’s speech. “Americans continue to be disappointed that the president is shrinking from those challenges rather than displaying the courage needed to solve them.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 16, 2012, 06:38:33 AM
DISASTER: EMPIRE FED MANUFACTURING REPORT PLUNGES TO 6.56
Joe Weisenthal | Apr. 16, 2012, 8:33 AM | 1,594 | 6



UPDATE:

Big miss: The headline empire Fed manufacturing survey report came in at 6.56, well below estimates of 18.00

Here's the summary announcement:

April’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that manufacturing activity in New York State improved modestly. Although the general business conditions index fell fourteen points, it remained positive at 6.6. The new orders and shipments indexes also remained positive, but showed only a small increase in orders and shipments. The prices paid index inched downward but remained high, and the prices received index climbed six points to 19.3. The index for number of employees rose to its highest level in nearly a year, indicating a significant increase in employment levels, while the average workweek index fell to a level that indicated only a small increase in hours worked. Future indexes remained quite positive, suggesting a strong and persistent degree of optimism about the six-month outlook.

In a series of supplementary survey questions—previously posed in August 2011 and March 2007—respondents were asked how much difficulty they had experienced finding workers proficient in mathematical, computer, interpersonal, and other workplace skills. As was the case last August, the most widespread difficulties were cited for advanced computer skills. One skill category that has reportedly grown harder to find is basic math. Interestingly, respondents reported at least as much difficulty finding workers with each of these skills than they did prior to the recession, in March 2007. Responses to other supplemental questions indicated that firms expected wages to rise by 2.3 percent, on average, over the next twelve months, and that, for more than a third of the firms, retaining skilled workers would become increasingly difficult over the next twelve months.

Here's a chart from some historical perspective:



If you look in the internals the number is a bit better. Employment and sales were both okay, but still that's a pretty halting drop.

 

ORIGINAL POST: Let's start the next round of regional Fed survey 1 releases its April survey.

Analysts are expecting a downtick from 20.21 to 18.00.

We'll be paying particularly close attention -- as we always do -- to sales and hiring numbers.

Refresh this post for the latest.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/april-empire-fed-manufacturing-2012-4#ixzz1sD6SI3KH








Double dip yo! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 16, 2012, 08:31:06 AM
Many U.S. Immigrants’ Children Seek American Dream Abroad

By KIRK SEMPLE




Samir N. Kapadia seemed to be on the rise in Washington, moving from an internship on Capitol Hill to jobs at a major foundation and a consulting firm. Yet his days, he felt, had become routine.

By contrast, friends and relatives in India, his native country, were telling him about their lives in that newly surging nation. One was creating an e-commerce business, another a public relations company, still others a magazine, a business incubator and a gossip and events Web site.

“I’d sit there on Facebook and on the phone and hear about them starting all these companies and doing all these dynamic things,” recalled Mr. Kapadia, 25, who was born in India but grew up in the United States. “And I started feeling that my 9-to-5 wasn’t good enough anymore.”

Last year, he quit his job and moved to Mumbai.

In growing numbers, experts say, highly educated children of immigrants to the United States are uprooting themselves and moving to their ancestral countries. They are embracing homelands that their parents once spurned but that are now economic powers.

Some, like Mr. Kapadia, had arrived in the United States as young children, becoming citizens, while others were born in the United States to immigrant parents.

Enterprising Americans have always sought opportunities abroad. But this new wave underscores the evolving nature of global migration, and the challenges to American economic supremacy and competitiveness.

In interviews, many of these Americans said they did not know how long they would live abroad; some said it was possible that they would remain expatriates for many years, if not for the rest of their lives.

Their decisions to leave have, in many cases, troubled their immigrant parents. Yet most said they had been pushed by the dismal hiring climate in the United States or pulled by prospects abroad.

“Markets are opening; people are coming up with ideas every day; there’s so much opportunity to mold and create,” said Mr. Kapadia, now a researcher at Gateway House, a new foreign-policy research organization in Mumbai. “People here are running much faster than the people in Washington.”

For generations, the world’s less-developed countries have suffered so-called brain drain — the flight of many of their best and brightest to the West. That has not stopped, but now a reverse flow has begun, particularly to countries like China and India and, to a lesser extent, Brazil and Russia.

Some scholars and business leaders contend that this emigration does not necessarily bode ill for the United States. They say young entrepreneurs and highly educated professionals sow American knowledge and skills abroad. At the same time, these workers acquire experience overseas and build networks that they can carry back to the United States or elsewhere — a pattern known as “brain circulation.”

But the experts caution that in the global race for talent, the return of these expatriates to the United States and American companies is no longer a sure bet.

“These are the fleet-footed; they’re the ones who in a sense will follow opportunity,” said Demetrios G. Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit group in Washington that studies population movements.

“I know there will be people who will argue all about loyalty, et cetera, et cetera,” he said. “I know when you go to war, loyalty matters. But this is a different kind of war that affects all of us.”

The United States government does not collect data specifically on the emigration of the American-born children of immigrants — or on those who were born abroad but moved to the United States as young children.

But several migration experts said the phenomenon was significant and increasing.

“We’ve gone way beyond anecdotal evidence,” said Edward J. W. Park, director of the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Mr. Park said this migration was spurred by the efforts of some overseas governments to attract more foreign talent by offering employment, investment, tax and visa incentives.

“So it’s not just the individuals who are making these decisions,” he said. “It’s governments who enact strategic policies to facilitate this.”

Officials in India said they had seen a sharp increase in the arrival of people of Indian descent in recent years — including at least 100,000 in 2010 alone, said Alwyn Didar Singh, a former senior official at the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

Many of these Americans have been able to leverage family networks, language skills and cultural knowledge gleaned from growing up in immigrant households.

Jonathan Assayag, 29, a Brazilian-American born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in South Florida, returned to Brazil last year. A Harvard Business School graduate, he had been working at an Internet company in Silicon Valley and unsuccessfully trying to develop a business.

“I spent five months spending my weekends at Starbucks, trying to figure out a start-up in America,” he recalled.

All the while, Harvard friends urged him to make a change. “They were saying: ‘Jon, what are you doing? Go to Brazil and start a business there!’ ” he said.

Relocating to São Paulo, he became an “entrepreneur in residence” at a venture capital firm. He is starting an online eyewear business. “I speak the language, I get the culture, I understand how people do business,” he said.

Calvin Chin was born in Michigan and used to live in San Francisco, where he worked at technology start-ups and his wife was an interior decorator. Mr. Chin’s mother was from China, as were his paternal grandparents. His wife’s parents were from Taiwan.

They are now in Shanghai, where Mr. Chin has started two companies — an online loan service for students and an incubator for technology start-ups. His wife, Angie Wu, has worked as a columnist and television anchor.

“The energy here is phenomenal,” Mr. Chin said.

The couple have two children, who were born in China.

Reetu Jain, 36, an Indian-American raised in Texas, was inspired to move to India while taking time off from her auditing job to travel abroad. Everywhere she went, she said, she met people returning to their countries of origin and feeling the “creative energy” in the developing world.

She and her husband, Nehal Sanghavi, who had been working as a lawyer in the United States, moved to Mumbai in January 2011. Embracing a long-held passion, she now works as a dance instructor and choreographer and has acted in television commercials and a Bollywood film.

“We’re surrounded by people who just want to try something new,” Ms. Jain said.

For many of these émigrés, the decision to relocate has confounded — and even angered — their immigrant parents.

When Jason Y. Lee, who was born in Taiwan and raised in the United States, told his parents during college that he wanted to visit Hong Kong, his father refused to pay for the plane ticket.

“His mind-set was, ‘I worked so hard to bring you to America and now you want to go back to China?’ ” recalled Mr. Lee, 29.

Since then, Mr. Lee has started an import-export business between the United States and China; studied in Shanghai; worked for investment banks in New York and Singapore; and created an international job-search Web site in India. He works for an investment firm in Singapore. His father’s opposition has softened.

Margareth Tran — whose family followed a path over two generations from China to the United States by way of Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong and France — said her father was displeased by her decision in 2009 to relocate.

“It’s kind of crazy for him that I wanted to move to China,” said Ms. Tran, 26, who was born in France and moved to the United States at age 11. “He wants me to have all the benefits that come from a first-world country.”

But after graduating from Cornell University in 2009 at the height of the recession, she could not find work on Wall Street, a long-held ambition. She moved to Shanghai and found a job at a management consulting firm.

“I had never stepped foot in Asia, so part of the reason was to go back to my roots,” she said.

Ms. Tran said she did not know how long she would remain abroad. She said she was open to various possibilities, including moving to another foreign country, living a life straddling China and the United States or remaining permanently in China.

Her father has reluctantly accepted her approach.

“I told him, ‘I’m going to try to make it in China, and if things work out for me in China, then I can have a really great career,’ ” she said. “He didn’t hold me back.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/us/more-us-children-of-immigrants-are-leaving-us.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print








LOL  - HOPE & CHANGE!!!!!!!


4 MORE YEARS!!!!!

4 MORE YEARS !!!!!

4 MORE YEARS!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 05:46:30 AM
ANOTHER MISS: March Housing Starts Badly Miss Expectations At 654K
Joe Weisenthal | 23 minutes ago | 128 | 1




National Archives
UPDATE:

The string of mediocre housing numbers continues.

Today it's housing starts, which fell to 654K. That's well below expectations of 705K, and down heavily from last month's downwardly revised 694K.

With the housing data, it's been a miss after miss lately.

The good news: Building permits jumped to 747K, well ahead of estimates of 710K.

------------

ORIGINAL POST: Analysts are expecting a print of 705K annualized when March housing starts are announced at 8:30.

This is up slightly from the 698K that was reported last month.

In general, the housing data has been disappointing lately. Whereas housing numbers have been better than they ere a year ago, we've had a string of meh numbers after considerable improvement in the previous months.

Yesterday's NAHB sentiment index was a disappointment, suggesting that after a really hot runup, the business of building houses is cooling off a little.

We'll have the numbers here when they come out.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/march-housing-starts-2012-4#ixzz1sIjZWkCe

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 06:52:09 AM
HUGE MISS: Industrial Production Flat In March
Eric Platt | 27 minutes ago 





Industrial production remained unchanged for the second consecutive month as weakness in construction weighed on the U.S. economy, new data out of the Federal Reserve shows.

The total industrial index ticked slightly down sequentially, falling to 78.6 in March.

Measurements of production of materials and business equipment logged slight increases during the month, but were unable to counter a 1.3 percent fall in the construction sector. Nonetheless growth in business equipment was at its slowest pace since June.

"The production of construction supplies fell 1.3 percent in March after having advanced 1.9 percent in February," the Fed said in its report. "For the first quarter, construction supplies recorded an increase of 11.5 percent at an annual rate, its largest gain in nearly two years; nevertheless, production remained about 20 percent below its pre-recession level."

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipated a 0.3 percent increase in March.

ORIGINAL:

Minutes away from the final data point out of the U.S. today: March Industrial Production.

Economists polled by Bloomberg forecast production increased 0.3 percent during the month, reversing a flat reading in February.

Capacity utilization is expected to increase slightly as well, up 10 basis points to 78.5 percent.

Follow the announcement live here >

See Also

India's Industrial Production Jumps 5.9%, Beating Expectations
10 Things You Need To Know This Morning
This Was The Chart That Predicted Apple's Demise


Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/industrial-production-2012-4#ixzz1sJ0EFEI2

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 02:34:54 PM
More U.S. cities set to enter default danger zone
 
April 17 | Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:43pm EDT




April 17 (Reuters) - America's swelling ranks of fallen municipal borrowers have been blamed in the past year on 'what-were-they-thinking' causes, be it a Taj Mahal sewer system in Alabama or an overpriced trash incinerator in Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg.

But the next series of major cities and counties in danger of defaulting on their debt can hardly point to one single decision for their malaise. Whether it be Detroit, Miami or Providence, Rhode Island, their problems have a lot more to do with financial policies that put them on course to live well beyond their means.

Municipal defaults have shot up since 2007 and are on pace for another high year in 2012, according to Richard Lehmann, publisher of the Distressed Securities Newsletter.

Many failures will be due to local politicians' willingness to give unionized local government workers lucrative pensions and health care benefits when times were good. For others, the housing bust was enough to destroy their real estate tax base. They almost all share the failure to prepare for a rainy day.

Now, belt tightening by state and federal governments is adding to the pain - as contributions to governments at city and county levels get squeezed. Many of the places in the worst condition are in the Northeast, Midwest, California and Florida.

The new tide of defaults may worry some investors in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market who have so far shrugged off the fiscal crises of local governments and yield cuts in local government services.

"This is a lagging process," said Richard Ciccarone, managing director at McDonnell Investment Management. "Capitulation may not come for years. In the crash of 1929, the defaults did not come until 1934 or 1935. The marginals hang on as they can."

Take a look at Miami. The city just added a futuristic baseball stadium to its skyline and is gaining prominence as a global business center even as Miami's exposure to declining housing values, low reserves and high pension obligations worry some bond buyers.

The long-running housing crisis threatens Miami because drops in city property values are only now strongly hurting tax payments, according to institutional investor Chris Ihlefeld of Thornburg Investment Management.

"Miami was dealt a pretty big blow following and during the recession in terms of property tax revenues," he said. "Part of the smoothing process implies that when you had a problem two years ago, it'll show up now."

Ihlefeld said his firm had concluded that Miami, which is wrestling with a budget shortfall nearing $40 million, had relatively high debts and other credit negatives.

Detroit, where the long decline of the region's car-making industry and $300 million a year in pension costs may help lead to a state-government takeover, also suffers from weakened tax collections, along with many other local governments.

Administrators of Chicago's vast public schools system face a $700 million budget gap created by shrinking federal funds and widening debt, pension and other costs. Chicago's mayor warned last week that property taxes in the city would have to be hiked 150 percent if government-workers pensions are left as they are.

One of New York's wealthiest counties, Suffolk County on Long Island, in March declared a financial emergency and reported worryingly low liquidity and a projected three-year deficit of $530 million blamed partly on overspending.

Twenty three villages and cities in Ohio, as well as five school districts in the state with a slowly expanding economy and a history of heavy home foreclosures, are in fiscal emergency, according to the Ohio state auditor's office.

Badly hit by the burst of the property boom, California's Stockton, with 292,000 people and east of San Francisco, has endorsed defaults on $2 million of debt payments and may file for municipal bankruptcy if it cannot reach deals with creditors. The California ski resort, Mammoth Lakes, is also bargaining with creditors in a bid to avoid bankruptcy.

By far the most populous state and issuer of muni bonds, California suffers from sagging home prices, with values in Los Angeles and San Francisco off 40 percent in the five years through January, according to data reported by Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller.

Declining property values that result in lower property tax assessments are likely to continue since property assessments trail by years falls in market prices.

"Over the next year or two, there is a big risk of more Chapter 9 filings in certain parts of the country: California, Rhode Island and the Midwest," said municipal bankruptcy lawyer David Dubrow of Arent Fox.

In California, in addition to Stockton, Monrovia and Pomona could find themselves in crisis, according to an analyst who sees low liquidity, excessive debt loads and outsized pension liabilities as key warnings.

In Rhode Island, where the governor backs legislation to reduce operating costs for distressed local governments, cities such as Providence and Pawtucket are seen as possible candidates for bankruptcy. Afflicted by underfunded pensions, the state's Central Falls is bankrupt.

Despite the growing list of potential defaults, it is still a relatively rare occurrence for issuers to miss scheduled bond payments in America's $3.7 trillion municipal debt market.

Still, such failures have ballooned in the past years.

Bond defaults were $25.355 billion in 2011, or nearly five times the value of defaults in 2010, according to Lehmann. In 2012's first quarter, defaults totaled $1.245 billion, or more than double the $522 million of last year's first quarter.

Municipal bankruptcies, such as last November's landmark, $4.23 billion Chapter 9 filing by Alabama's Jefferson County mainly because of its excessively expensive sewer system mocked as a Taj Mahal project, have picked up, too.

Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filings doubled to 13 in 2011 from six in 2010, but still remain rare among the more than 60,000 issuers, with only 49 of the 264 cases since 1980 being towns, cities, villages or counties, according to James Spiotto of Chapman and Cutler LLP. States are ineligible for Chapter 9.

Outsized pension-deficit payments and other liabilities, as well as depressed local economies or failing government projects such as Harrisburg's trash incinerator, often herald crises, according to Ciccarone.

Many local governments struggle even as broad, if muted, economic gains lift revenues for states and some local governments, which reported to the U.S. Census that overall revenue rose in late 2011 to a 23-year quarterly high of $387.2 billion.

That was a ninth consecutive up quarter for local government and state revenue and solidified 2011 as the best-ever year with total revenue of $1.35 trillion..

That broad snapshot obscures often crushing pension deficits and other dogged problems that individual local governments face.

Persistently high jobless rates and reductions in state and federal aid, as well as round after round of government layoffs, service cuts and fee increases in recent years, leave mayors and other local officials with few ready remedies, according to Moody's Investor Service Managing Director Naomi Richman.

At an industry conference last month in Philadelphia, Richman said, "A lot of the easy fixes are gone."

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 03:09:56 PM
N.Y. / REGION

New York's Poverty Rate Rises, Study Finds

By SAM ROBERTS

Published: April 17, 2012




The number of New Yorkers classified as poor in 2010 increased by nearly 100,000 from the year before, raising the poverty rate by 1.3 percentage points to 21 percent - the highest level and the largest year-to-year increase since the city adopted a more detailed definition of poverty in 2005.

The recession and the sluggish recovery have taken a particularly harsh toll on children, with more than one in four under 18 living in poverty, according to an analysis by the city's Center for Economic Opportunity that will be released on Tuesday.

Families with children were also vulnerable. They had a poverty rate of 23 percent, and a significant number of households were struggling to remain above the poverty line. Even families with two full-time earners were more likely to be considered poor in 2010; their ranks swelled by 1.3 percentage points to 5 percent compared with 2009.

By the city measure, more than 1.7 million residents were poor in 2010, the last year for which an analysis could be calculated.

The center placed most of the blame on reduced earnings caused by higher unemployment during the recession, which struck in New York later than in the rest of the country. The analysis emphasized that the poverty rate would have soared higher - to 23.7 percent over all, and to 27.6 percent for families with children - without the expansion of government tax credits, food stamps and other benefits since 2007.

In part because of a city outreach program, the number of New Yorkers using food stamps catapulted to more than one million in 2010 from 773,000 in 2008.

Unlike the official federal poverty rate, the city's measure takes into account tax credits and benefits as well as expenses, like medical care, child care, commuting and housing. Those expenses increased the city's version of the poverty threshold for a two-adult, two-child family to $30,055 in 2010, compared with the federal threshold of $22,113.

By the federal measure, 7.7 percent of New Yorkers were living in extreme poverty, meaning below 50 percent of the poverty line. By the city's measure, 5.5 percent were in extreme poverty.

The city classified 12.4 percent of New York residents as near poor - living at 100 percent through 124 percent of the poverty level - compared with 5.4 percent by the federal measure.

From 2009 to 2010, according to the federal standard, the city's poverty rate increased 1.5 percentage points to 18.8 percent.

The poverty rate had declined for years from a high of 20.5 percent in 2005 but began climbing in 2008, when the recession hit. Hispanic and black New Yorkers, including children, were hit especially hard.

"Given the priority that policy makers have given to child poverty," the analysis by Mark Levitan, the center's director of poverty research, said, "the rise in the poverty rate for children, from 22.9 percent in 2008 to 25.8 percent in 2010, is particularly notable."

The analysis concluded that without government programs - including the Bush administration's tax rebate and the Obama administration's stimulus package of unemployment benefits and tax credits - the poverty rate would have risen even higher. The analysis recommended subsidized employment programs and expanded child tax credits to help alleviate poverty.

Robert Doar, the city's human resources commissioner, sought to emphasize city programs that helped keep the poverty rate from climbing even more.

"We have to continue applying the policy instruments we have in place," he said in an interview. "Our city's economy is not stronger than the rest of the country's by accident; our success compared to the nation has been a result of Mayor Bloomberg's sound policy decisions."

Among racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics recorded the highest poverty rate (26 percent), followed by Asians (25 percent), blacks (21.7 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (15.2 percent). Noncitizens had a higher rate (27.8 percent) than native-born (19.9 percent) and naturalized citizens (17.8 percent).

"What's happening is we're building an enormous group of people who are not working at all," David R. Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York, an antipoverty group, said in an interview. "We may continue to see high levels of poverty even as the recession recedes."






________________________ _____


REAL FUCKING RECOVERY WE GOT GOING ON!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 03:10:52 PM
N.Y. / REGION
 
New York'S Poverty Rate Rises, Study Finds

By SAM ROBERTS

Published: April 17, 2012




The number of New Yorkers classified as poor in 2010 increased by nearly 100,000 from the year before, raising the poverty rate by 1.3 percentage points to 21 percent - the highest level and the largest year-to-year increase since the city adopted a more detailed definition of poverty in 2005.

The recession and the sluggish recovery have taken a particularly harsh toll on children, with more than one in four under 18 living in poverty, according to an analysis by the city's Center for Economic Opportunity that will be released on Tuesday.

Families with children were also vulnerable. They had a poverty rate of 23 percent, and a significant number of households were struggling to remain above the poverty line. Even families with two full-time earners were more likely to be considered poor in 2010; their ranks swelled by 1.3 percentage points to 5 percent compared with 2009.

By the city measure, more than 1.7 million residents were poor in 2010, the last year for which an analysis could be calculated.

The center placed most of the blame on reduced earnings caused by higher unemployment during the recession, which struck in New York later than in the rest of the country. The analysis emphasized that the poverty rate would have soared higher - to 23.7 percent over all, and to 27.6 percent for families with children - without the expansion of government tax credits, food stamps and other benefits since 2007.

In part because of a city outreach program, the number of New Yorkers using food stamps catapulted to more than one million in 2010 from 773,000 in 2008.

Unlike the official federal poverty rate, the city's measure takes into account tax credits and benefits as well as expenses, like medical care, child care, commuting and housing. Those expenses increased the city's version of the poverty threshold for a two-adult, two-child family to $30,055 in 2010, compared with the federal threshold of $22,113.

By the federal measure, 7.7 percent of New Yorkers were living in extreme poverty, meaning below 50 percent of the poverty line. By the city's measure, 5.5 percent were in extreme poverty.

The city classified 12.4 percent of New York residents as near poor - living at 100 percent through 124 percent of the poverty level - compared with 5.4 percent by the federal measure.

From 2009 to 2010, according to the federal standard, the city's poverty rate increased 1.5 percentage points to 18.8 percent.

The poverty rate had declined for years from a high of 20.5 percent in 2005 but began climbing in 2008, when the recession hit. Hispanic and black New Yorkers, including children, were hit especially hard.

"Given the priority that policy makers have given to child poverty," the analysis by Mark Levitan, the center's director of poverty research, said, "the rise in the poverty rate for children, from 22.9 percent in 2008 to 25.8 percent in 2010, is particularly notable."

The analysis concluded that without government programs - including the Bush administration's tax rebate and the Obama administration's stimulus package of unemployment benefits and tax credits - the poverty rate would have risen even higher. The analysis recommended subsidized employment programs and expanded child tax credits to help alleviate poverty.

Robert Doar, the city's human resources commissioner, sought to emphasize city programs that helped keep the poverty rate from climbing even more.

"We have to continue applying the policy instruments we have in place," he said in an interview. "Our city's economy is not stronger than the rest of the country's by accident; our success compared to the nation has been a result of Mayor Bloomberg's sound policy decisions."

Among racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics recorded the highest poverty rate (26 percent), followed by Asians (25 percent), blacks (21.7 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (15.2 percent). Noncitizens had a higher rate (27.8 percent) than native-born (19.9 percent) and naturalized citizens (17.8 percent).

"What's happening is we're building an enormous group of people who are not working at all," David R. Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York, an antipoverty group, said in an interview. "We may continue to see high levels of poverty even as the recession recedes."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 07:14:40 PM


www.flickr.com
 
The Too Big To Fail Banks Are Now Much Bigger And Much More Powerful Than Ever
25 Signs That Middle Class Families Have Been Targeted For Extinction
Tony Robbins, Ron Paul And Ben Bernanke All Agree: The National Debt Crisis Could Destroy America
The middle class in America is being systematically wiped out, and most people don't even realize what is happening.
Every single year, millions more Americans fall out of the middle class and become dependent on the government. The United States once had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world, but now the middle class is rapidly shrinking and government dependence is at an all-time high. 
So why is this happening? Well, America is becoming a poorer nation at the same time that wealth is becoming extremely concentrated at the very top. At this point, our economic system is designed to funnel as much money and power to the federal government and to the big corporations as possible. Individuals and small businesses have a really hard time thriving in this environment. 
To most big corporations these days, workers are viewed as financial liabilities. Most corporations want to reduce their payrolls as much as possible. You see, the truth is that most corporations want to be just like Apple. If you can believe it, Apple makes $400,000 in profit per employee. Big corporations don't care that you need to pay the mortgage and provide for your family. Their goal is to make as much money as possible. And most of the control freaks that run our bloated federal government don't care much about middle class families either. 
To many politicians and federal bureaucrats, middle class families are "useless eaters" that are constantly damaging the environment with their "excessive" lifestyles. In this day and age, neither the federal government nor the big corporations really have much use for middle class Americans, and that is really, really bad news for the the future of the middle class family in America.
There are three key factors that are constantly chipping away at the middle class....
-Globalization
-Inflation
-Taxes
Labor has become a global commodity, and American workers are often 10 to 20 times as expensive as workers on the other side of the world are.  Middle class jobs (such as manufacturing, etc.) have been leaving this country at an astounding pace.  Competition for the jobs that remain has become extremely fierce, and this has driven wages down.  The following is from a recent article in the New York Times....
But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed, economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among Americans without college degrees, today’s new jobs are disproportionately in service occupations — at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital attendants or temporary workers — that offer fewer opportunities for reaching the middle class.
As paychecks have stagnated, the cost of living has continued to escalate. Middle class families are finding that their paychecks simply do not go nearly as far as they did before. This is creating a tremendous amount of financial stress in households all over America.
Meanwhile, our politicians are taxing the middle class like crazy.  Most people only focus on federal and state income taxes, but that is only a small part of the story.  As I detailed the other day, our politicians are taxing us in literally dozens of different ways and it is almost always the middle class that ends up getting hit the hardest.
If America wants to be great again, it is going to need a thriving middle class.  But right now the federal government and the big corporations are gobbling up all of the power and all of the money and the middle class is shrinking rapidly.
If current trends continue, eventually there will not be much of a middle class left.
The following are 25 signs that middle class families have been targeted for extinction....
#1 Over the past several decades, millions upon millions of middle class Americans have been systematically turned into government dependents.  Back in 1960, social welfare benefits made up approximately 10 percent of all salaries and wages.  In the year 2000, social welfare benefits made up approximately 21 percent of all salaries and wages.  Today, social welfare benefits make up approximately 35 percent of all salaries and wages.
#2 Unemployment is at epidemic levels and the vast majority of the new jobs that have been "created" in recent years have been low paying jobs.  Of those Americans that do have a job at this point, one out of every four works a job that pays $10 an hour or less.
#3 The "working poor" is a group that is rapidly growing in this country.  If you can believe it, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
#4 Over the past several decades, the percentage of low income jobs has steadily increased.  Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#5 The way that our economic system is structured today, almost all of the economic rewards go to the very top of the food chain.  The following is how income gains in the United States were distributed during 2010....
-37 percent of all income gains went to the top 0.01 percent of all income earners
-56 percent of all income gains went to the rest of the top 1 percent
-7 percent of all income gains went to the bottom 99 percent
#6 Several decades ago, there was a much more even distribution of income in this country.  Back in the 1970s, the top 1 percent of all income earners brought in about 8 percent of all income.  Today, they bring in about 21 percent of all income.
#7 As the middle class shrinks, the number of "low income" and "poor" Americans is rapidly rising.  Today, approximately 48 percent of all Americans are currently either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.
#8 Manufacturing jobs once enabled huge numbers of Americans to enjoy a middle class lifestyle.  Unfortunately, those jobs are leaving this country at a breathtaking pace.  Back in 1940, 23.4% of all American workers had manufacturing jobs.  Today, only 10.4% of all American workers have manufacturing jobs.
#9 In the old days, any man that was willing to work hard and wanted a job could get one.  Today, there are millions of American men sitting on their couches at home wondering why nobody will hire them.  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.
#10 The middle class is shrinking at the same time that America is getting poorer as a nation.  In the middle of the last century, the United States was #1 in the world in GDP per capita.  Today, the United States is #13 in GDP per capita.
#11 Every year now, we see millions of Americans fall out of the middle class.  In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.
#12 The shrinking middle class is having a disproportionate impact on children.  At this point, approximately 22 percent of all American children are living in poverty.
#13 In the old days, most Americans grew up in middle class neighborhoods.  Sadly, this is no longer true.  In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".  By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".
#14 The concentration of wealth at the very top of the food chain is astounding.  Right now, over 50 percent of all stocks and bonds are owned by just 1 percent of the U.S. population.
#15 When you concentrate too much power in the hands of the federal government and the big corporations, it is inevitable that massive amounts of wealth will become concentrated in just a few hands.  In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.
#16 There is nothing wrong with making money, but there is something wrong with a game where individuals and small businesses cannot compete fairly.  According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.
#17 When the number of poor people rapidly expands in a society, that is a recipe for social unrest.  At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.
#18 The hidden tax of inflation is absolutely devastating middle class families all over America.  Since 1970, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 83 percent of its value.  Any dollars that middle class families try to save are constantly losing a little bit more value every single day.
#19 American workers that try to play by the rules find that they are constantly fighting a losing battle.  According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.
#20 In recent years, many middle class families have seen their paychecks get smaller.  Median household income in the United States has fallen 7.8 percent since December 2007 after adjusting for inflation.
#21 In recent years, many middle class families have seen many of their basic expenses absolutely soar.  For example, health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president.
#22 Just turning on the lights and heating their homes has become a major burden for many middle class families.  Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#23 Just putting gas in the car has become a major financial ordeal for millions of hard working Americans.  The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by more than 100 percent since Barack Obama became president.
#24 Sadly, government dependence is now at an all-time high, and that is the way that many among the elite like it.  When Barack Obama took office, there were 32 million Americans on food stamps.  Now, there are more than 46 million Americans on food stamps.  In particular, an astounding number of children are on food stamps right now.  At this point, approximately one-fourth of all American children are enrolled in the food stamp program.
#25 Many middle class families will not be in the middle class for too much longer.  According to a shocking new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, 200,000 U.S. households will use the money from their tax refunds this year "to pay for bankruptcy filing and legal fees".
Unless major changes are made on a national level, the middle class is going to continue to disappear.
If you are playing the game the way that the system tells you to play it and you expect to live a middle class lifestyle for many years to come there is a good chance that you will be deeply disappointed at some point.
Millions upon millions of Americans have done everything that the system told them to do and the system has still failed them.  They got good grades all the way through school, they went to college, they worked really hard, they stayed out of trouble and they gave everything they could to their employers.  In spite of all that, millions of hard working families have still lost their jobs and their homes in recent years.
Do not trust that the system will take care of you, and you should not trust that the government will take care of you either.
We don't need the federal government to hand out more money to everyone.  Government handouts are already at record levels and the government is not even coming close to paying for all of this reckless spending.
More government spending is not going to solve any of our problems.
Instead, what we need is an environment where the size and power of the federal government is limited and the size and the power of the big corporations is limited.  We need an environment where individuals and small businesses can thrive and compete fairly.
Unfortunately, neither major political party is going to move us in that direction, so there is not much hope for solutions on the national level any time soon.

On an individual level, we can all learn how to prepare for the very difficult years that are coming.  It is imperative that we all work to become more independent of the system, because the system could fail at any time.

If you have blind faith that your job will always be there and that the federal government will rescue you if the economy crashes then you are likely to be bitterly disappointed at some point.
The truth is that our economy is slowly dying and the great American middle class is being systematically wiped out.

Many of the things that worked in the past are not going to work any longer.
You can choose to adapt or you can suffer the consequences.
Our world is rapidly changing, and we all need to prepare for what is coming.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2012, 07:18:29 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/25-signs-that-middle-class-families-are-being-wiped-out-2012-4


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 18, 2012, 11:57:37 AM
http://www.profitconfidential.com/video/ca/index.php?sb=BRNEWS5


Crazy FNG video  -  hold on to your seats.   

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 19, 2012, 06:19:50 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/initial-claims-week-of-april-14-2012-4


Jobs number disaster.


HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 19, 2012, 07:19:54 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/march-existing-home-sales-2012-4



Housing disaster number - we are headed for double dip people. 


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 19, 2012, 07:39:44 AM
Economic Miss Trifecta Not Bad Enough For "THE NEW QE" Rumors
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/19/2012 - 10:12

Consumer Confidence Eurozone Housing Inventory Philly Fed Reality

Continuing today's disappointing data releases, we now get the Philly Fed, Existing home sales (aka the NAR's monthly advertising update), and Eurozone confidence. Sure enough, all missed, since we are now in NEW QE prep mode.

•Philly Fed: 8.5, missed expectations of 12.0, and lower than the previous print of 12.5 (source)

◦New Orders down from 3.3, to 2.7

◦Prices Paid spike from 18.7 to 22.5,

◦but, just to add confusion to injury following the much weaker claims data, the Employment index rose from 6.8 to 17.9

•Existing home sales, reported by the inherently conflicted NAR, missed, dropping from 4.61MM to 4.48MM, a data set which we caution readers is about 0.0% accurate and valid.

◦Total housing inventory at the end of February rose 4.3 percent to 2.43 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 6.4-month

◦The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $156,600 in February, up 0.3 percent from February 2011.

◦All-cash sales rose to 33 percent of transactions in February from 31 percent in January; they were 33 percent in February 2011

◦Single-family home sales declined 1.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million in February from 4.10 million in January

•Finally, Eurozone consumer confidence also missed sliding to -19.8, on expectation of an improvement to -19.0 from -19.1

Judging by the kneejerk reaction lower, the misses were not big enough to send the market soaring.



WWW.ZEROHEDGE.COM



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 20, 2012, 04:04:49 AM
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It  said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014.


Click for larger CBO infographic.
Spending for the program, not including administrative costs, rose to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion four years earlier. The CBO projected that one in seven U.S. residents received food stamps last year.

In a report, the CBO said roughly two-thirds of jump in spending was tied to an increase in the number of people participating in the program, which provides access to food for the poor, elderly, and disabled. It said another 20% “of the growth in spending can be attributed to temporarily higher benefit amounts enacted in the” 2009 stimulus law.

CBO said the number of people receiving benefits is expected to fall after 2014 because the economy will be improving.

“Nevertheless, the number of people receiving SNAP benefits will remain high by historical standards,” the agency said.

It estimated that 34 million people, or 1 in 10 U.S. residents, would receive SNAP benefits in 2022 “and SNAP expenditures, at about $73 billion, will be among the highest of all non-health-related federal support programs for low-income households.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 20, 2012, 05:29:35 AM
5.4 Million Join Disability Rolls Under Obama
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 08:02 AM ET




A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program.

This is straining already-stretched government finances while posing a long-term economic threat by creating an ever-growing pool of permanently dependent working-age Americans.

Since the recession ended in June 2009, the number of people who've signed up for disability benefits is twice the job growth figure. (See nearby chart.) In just the first four months of this year, 539,000 joined the disability rolls and more than 725,000 put in applications.

As a result, by April there were 10.8 million people on disability, according to Social Security Administration data released this week. Even after accounting for all those who've left the program — mainly because they hit retirement age or died — that's up 53% from a decade ago.

To be sure, disability rolls have grown steadily as a share of the workforce since the 1990s (see nearby chart).

The main causes of this broader trend, according to a study by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan, are the loosening of eligibility rules by Congress in 1984, the rise in disability benefits relative to wages, and the fact that more women have entered the workforce, making them eligible for disability.

Their research found that the aging of the population has contributed only modestly to the program's growth.

But the big factor in the recent surge is the slow pace of the economic recovery after the severe recession. That has kept the unemployment rate above 8% and created an enormous pool of long-term unemployed and discouraged workers. More than 5 million people have been jobless for 27 weeks or more, nearly twice the previous high set in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"We see a lot of people applying for disability once their unemployment insurance expires," said Matthew Rutledge, a research economist at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research.

The number of applications last year was up 24% compared with 2008, Social Security Administration data show.

As the Congressional Budget Office explained : "When opportunities for employment are plentiful, some people who could quality for (disability insurance) benefits find working more attractive ... when employment opportunities are scarce, some of these people participate in the DI program instead."

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 20, 2012, 07:56:45 PM
Free Republic
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US barrels toward a fiscal cliff
MSN Money ^ | 4/18/2012 | Anthony Mirhaydari
Posted on April 19, 2012 4:40:19 PM EDT by Vintage Freeper

For all the well-paid analysts and sophisticated computer systems that dominate trading, Wall Street still can't seem to focus on more than one thing at a time.For now, the focus has returned to the European debt crisis, as the issues that cut down Greece, Portugal and Ireland have hit Spain hard.

But very soon, as Election Day approaches, the attention will turn back to U.S. debt and deficit issues, which, as in Spain, are caused by too much debt and a government trying to avoid its budget-cutting duties. Remember last summer's debt-ceiling debacle and the market meltdown caused partly by the loss of the Treasury's AAA credit rating? Get ready for the sequel. (Snip)

Economic research suggests both higher debt and deep short-term austerity limit economic growth. So we can pick our poison. (Snip)

A decision on all of these issues -- the deficit, the debt ceiling, tax cuts and unemployment benefits -- will need to be made in the context of a fierce, polarized presidential election, the lame-duck congressional session that will follow and an even-more-divided government in 2013. Prediction markets suggest President Barack Obama will win re-election and Republicans will hold the House and retake the Senate. (Snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at money.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 23, 2012, 03:31:43 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.
Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.
"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.
Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so.
Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he got financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. "There is not much out there, it seems," he said.
His situation highlights a widening but little-discussed labor problem. Perhaps more than ever, the choices that young adults make earlier in life — level of schooling, academic field and training, where to attend college, how to pay for it — are having long-lasting financial impact.
"You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it's not true for everybody," says Harvard economist Richard Freeman, noting the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion. "If you're not sure what you're going to be doing, it probably bodes well to take some job, if you can get one, and get a sense first of what you want from college."
Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University who analyzed the numbers, said many people with a bachelor's degree face a double whammy of rising tuition and poor job outcomes. "Simply put, we're failing kids coming out of college," he said, emphasizing that when it comes to jobs, a college major can make all the difference. "We're going to need a lot better job growth and connections to the labor market, otherwise college debt will grow."
By region, the Mountain West was most likely to have young college graduates jobless or underemployed — roughly 3 in 5. It was followed by the more rural southeastern U.S., including Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Pacific region, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, also was high on the list.
On the other end of the scale, the southern U.S., anchored by Texas, was most likely to have young college graduates in higher-skill jobs.
The figures are based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers and supplemented with material from Paul Harrington, an economist at Drexel University, and the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor's degrees who were "underemployed."
About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years. In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, before the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.
Out of the 1.5 million who languished in the job market, about half were underemployed, an increase from the previous year.
Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that require a high school diploma or less.
In the last year, they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined (100,000 versus 90,000). There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs (163,000 versus 100,000). More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers (125,000 versus 80,000).
According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren't easily replaced by computers.
College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level; those with nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science degrees were among the most likely.
In Nevada, where unemployment is the highest in the nation, Class of 2012 college seniors recently expressed feelings ranging from anxiety and fear to cautious optimism about what lies ahead.
With the state's economy languishing in an extended housing bust, a lot of young graduates have shown up at job placement centers in tears. Many have been squeezed out of jobs by more experienced workers, job counselors said, and are now having to explain to prospective employers the time gaps in their resumes.
"It's kind of scary," said Cameron Bawden, 22, who is graduating from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in December with a business degree. His family has warned him for years about the job market, so he has been building his resume by working part time on the Las Vegas Strip as a food runner and doing a marketing internship with a local airline.
Bawden said his friends who have graduated are either unemployed or working along the Vegas Strip in service jobs that don't require degrees. "There are so few jobs and it's a small city," he said. "It's all about who you know."
Any job gains are going mostly to workers at the top and bottom of the wage scale, at the expense of middle-income jobs commonly held by bachelor's degree holders. By some studies, up to 95 percent of positions lost during the economic recovery occurred in middle-income occupations such as bank tellers, the type of job not expected to return in a more high-tech age.
David Neumark, an economist at the University of California-Irvine, said a bachelor's degree can have benefits that aren't fully reflected in the government's labor data. He said even for lower-skilled jobs such as waitress or cashier, employers tend to value bachelor's degree-holders more highly than high-school graduates, paying them more for the same work and offering promotions.
In addition, U.S. workers increasingly may need to consider their position in a global economy, where they must compete with educated foreign-born residents for jobs. Longer-term government projections also may fail to consider "degree inflation," a growing ubiquity of bachelor's degrees that could make them more commonplace in lower-wage jobs but inadequate for higher-wage ones.
That future may be now for Kelman Edwards Jr., 24, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., who is waiting to see the returns on his college education.
After earning a biology degree last May, the only job he could find was as a construction worker for five months before he quit to focus on finding a job in his academic field. He applied for positions in laboratories but was told they were looking for people with specialized certifications.

"I thought that me having a biology degree was a gold ticket for me getting into places, but every other job wants you to have previous history in the field," he said. Edwards, who has about $5,500 in student debt, recently met with a career counselor at Middle Tennessee State University. The counselor's main advice: Pursue further education.

"Everyone is always telling you, 'Go to college,'" Edwards said. "But when you graduate, it's kind of an empty cliff."
___
Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Seattle; Travis Loller in Nashville, Tenn.; Cristina Silva in Las Vegas; and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 23, 2012, 08:13:43 PM
For first time since Depression, more Mexicans leave U.S. than enter

By Tara Bahrampour, Monday, April 23, 9:06 PM

A four-decade tidal wave of Mexican immigration to the United States has receded, causing a historic shift in migration patterns as more Mexicans appear to be leaving the United States for Mexico than the other way around, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

It looks to be the first reversal in the trend since the Depression, and experts say that a declining Mexican birthrate and other factors may make it permanent.

“I think the massive boom in Mexican immigration is over and I don’t think it will ever return to the numbers we saw in the 1990s and 2000s,” said Douglas Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, which has been gathering data on the subject for 30 years.

Nearly 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the United States to Mexico between 2005 and 2010, double the number who did so a decade earlier. The number of Mexicans who moved to the United States during that period fell to less than half of the 3 million who came between 1995 and 2000.

The trend could have major political consequences, underscoring the delicate dance by the Republican and Democratic parties as they struggle with immigration policies and court the increasingly important Latino vote.

Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most emotional political issues in the country — one that dominated much of the Republican presidential contest and has proven complicated for President Obama.

Mitt Romney has courted conservatives with aggressive anti-illegal immigration rhetoric. But the GOP presidential hopeful has said in recent days that he wants to build ties with Hispanics, many of whom have chafed at his statements, and the new immigration trends could offer him a chance to soften his stance.

Obama has been criticized by immigrant advocates for stepped-up deportation policies that analysts have said were partly responsible for the decreasing flow of Mexicans into the United States. The trend could offer the president a political silver lining: the chance to take credit for a policy success that, his aides have said in the past, should persuade Republicans to embrace a broad immigration overhaul plan.

According to the report, the Mexican-born population, which had been increasing since 1970, peaked at 12.6 million in 2007 and has dropped to 12 million since then.

The reversal appears to be a result of tightened border controls, a weak U.S. job and housing construction market, a rise in deportations and a decline in Mexican birthrates, said the study, which used U.S. and Mexican census figures and Mexican government surveys. Arrests of illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States have also dropped precipitously in recent years.

Whether the reversal is temporary or permanent, it could have significant implications for the United States. Many Mexican immigrants work in agriculture and construction.

One in 10 people born in Mexico live in the United States, and more than half entered illegally. Most live in California and Texas; about 120,000 live in the Washington region.

The report does not specify how many of those who moved to Mexico had been in the United States illegally. But the statistics imply that many of them had been: The number of undocumented Mexicans here dropped from 7 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2011, while the number of those here legally increased slightly, from 5.6 million in 2007 to 5.8 million in 2011.

“The diminished flow appears largely to be a drop in unauthorized immigrants,” said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew and a co-author of the report. He said an estimated 5 to 35 percent of the recent returnees to Mexico were deported.

Although most Mexican deportees say they will try to return, their numbers are shrinking, too, the study said: According to a Mexican government survey, 20 percent of deportees in 2010 said they would not return to the United States, compared with 7 percent in 2005.

Half of those returning to Mexico took their entire families, including more than 100,000 U.S.-born children of Mexican immigrants. Children born in the United States to Mexican nationals are citizens of both countries.

The drop comes at a time when overall immigration to the United States continues to grow, and reflects several factors specific to Mexico, including a relatively strong economy and a sharply diminished birthrate.

In 1960, a typical Mexican woman was expected to have more than seven children, but by 2009 that number had dropped to just over two — a decline that presages a sharp reduction in the number of young workers seeking to come to the United States.

As immigration reform continues to be a divisive political issue, experts on both sides of the debate disagreed over the implications of the report.

Those advocating for a path to legalization for immigrants here illegally said the plummeting of Mexican immigration should allow for thoughtful reform to take place without the pressure of trying to stem the flow across the border.

“It gives us the space to figure out how do we fix the legal immigration system so when the economy bounces back, how do we respond?” said Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and civic engagement at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization.

Others warned that the trend could reverse itself if the U.S. economy improves or the Mexican economy falters. “The idea that this respite means the problem is over is just jumping the gun,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration controls. “It’s wishful thinking by people who just want amnesty.”

But the era of entire villages moving from Mexico to the United States may be over, said Randy Capps, a senior policy analyst and demographer at the Migration Policy Institute.

Instead, he said, the current reversal may be similar to the reduced flow from Germany and Ireland a century ago. He predicted a negative feedback loop as fewer potential immigrants have connections to the United States.

“If this goes on for much longer, it’s going to take a lot to reverse it,” Capps said. “A lot of migration is based on networks — people who know people who know about the environment they’re going to be moving into. When the jobs disappear and the people you know aren’t there anymore, this channel of communication either dries up or it becomes so negative that it just changes everybody’s mind.”

Gustavo Velasquez, 38, who came from Oaxaca, Mexico, 12 years ago and serves as the director of the D.C. Office on Human Rights, said that the scarcity of U.S. jobs is causing more Mexicans to think twice about moving.

It is better to be unemployed in Mexico than to be unemployed in the United States, he said, because most migrant workers leave their families in Mexico. “They miss the warmth of being in a welcoming community,” he said, adding that with tougher border control and more deportations, Mexicans would rather be in a “precarious situation than in a situation of fear.”


Staff writers Stefanie Dazio, Carol Morello and Peter Wallsten contributed to this report.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 24, 2012, 04:12:00 AM
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2012/04/30/120430ta_talk_surowiecki


Amazin they printed this in the NY'er. 

4 more years  4 more years 4 more years!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 26, 2012, 11:57:13 AM
Jobless Claims Stay Elevated as Labor Market Gains Stall
Published: Thursday, 26 Apr 2012 | 8:34 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 



New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week but a trend reading rose to its highest since January, the latest sign of a weaker pace of healing in the still-struggling labor market.

 
Mark Ralston | Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to 389,000 from the previously reported 386,000.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a closely followed measure of labor market trends, rose 6,250 to 381,750, its highest since the week that ended Jan. 7.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims falling to 375,000 last week.

The reading was the latest example of fizzling momentum in the labor market recovery. New claims fell sharply during early winter but the improvement has largely stalled in recent weeks.

Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months.

"We seem to be chasing our tail with the labor market now with seemingly reported declines in weekly numbers coming from persistently higher levels week-after-week," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economist strategist at Miller Tabak in New York. "Today’s reading also gives the uncomfortable drift upwards in initial claims the feel of a trend rather than aberration."

Many economists believe a mild winter boosted payrolls growth earlier in the year and view recent stagnation as payback for those gains.



A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data in the claims report.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 3,000 to 3.315 million in the week ended April 14.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment  benefits fell 45,930 to 2.73 million in the week ended April 7, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 6.68 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 87,160 from the prior week.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2012, 06:24:38 AM
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Friday, April 27, 2012 -- 8:45 AM EDT
-----

U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 2.2% Rate, Report Says

The economic output of the United States grew at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of the year, easing from the prior quarter’s growth rate of 3 percent, as expected, but maintaining what many economists have started to call a “sustainable” pace of recovery.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/business/economy/us-economic-growth-slows-to-2-2-rate-report-says.html?emc=na

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2012, 06:36:30 AM
Big GDP Miss: 2.2% Vs Expectations Of 2.5%, Composition Even Uglier
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/27/2012 08:41 -0400




So much for the +3.0% GDP whisper number. Instead of printing at the expected number of +2.5%, the first preliminary GDP data point (two more revisions pending) came out at 2.2%, a big disappointment for a quarter which had a substantial boost from the weather. And while of the 2.2%, Personal Consumption came in strong - as expected, as it was precisely the factor most impacted by pulling in demand forward courtesy of "April in February", 0.59% of the 2.2% was an increase in inventories, something which was not supposed to happen as it means that the quality of the economic growth in Q1 was far worse than expected. Cementing the ugly composition of Q1 GDP was fixed investment which added just a paltry 0.18% - this is the number which is critical for ongoing cashflow generation and unfortunately, the very low print means that growth outlook for Q2 is now even worse than before and we expect economists will promptly trim their already bearish predictions for Q2 GDP. Finally, government "consumption" subtracted just 0.6% from the total number, a decrease from the 0.84% in Q4, which means that once again the government is starting to become less of a detractor to growth - a dagger in the heart to anyone who claims there is "quality" in GDP growth. And the number you have all been waiting for: At March 31, US Debt/GDP was 100.8%.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2012, 07:22:30 AM
US Economy Grows at Tepid 2.2% Pace; Misses Estimates
Published: Friday, 27 Apr 2012 | 8:34 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter
 


U.S. economic growth cooled in the first quarter as businesses cut back on investment and restocked shelves at a moderate pace, but stronger demand for automobiles softened the blow.

 
Peter Dazeley | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Gross domestic product  expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its advance estimate, moderating from the fourth quarter's 3 percent rate.

While that was below economists' expectations for a 2.5 percent pace, a surge in consumer spending took some of the sting from the report. However, growth was still stronger than analysts' predictions early in the quarter for an expansion below 1.5 percent.

Although the details were mixed, the GDP report offered a somewhat better picture of growth compared with the fourth quarter, when inventory building accounted for nearly two thirds of the economy's growth. In the first quarter, demand from consumers took up the slack.

Consumer spending which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 2.9 percent rate - the fastest pace since the fourth quarter of 2010. That compared to a 2.1 percent rise in the fourth quarter.

There were some signs of underlying strength, with even home construction rising at its fastest pace since the second quarter of 2010, thanks to the unusually warm winter.

But business spending fell for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2009, with investment in equipment and software rising at its slowest pace since the recession ended.

Business spending fell at a 2.1 percent pace after rising 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

The report will probably not change views on monetary policy. Federal Reserve  Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday expressed comfort with the current stance of Fed policy, but held out the prospect of more bond buying if the economy deteriorated.

Americans stepped up spending on automobiles in the first quarter, with motor vehicle sales rising by the most in four years. Part of that reflected pent-up demand after last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan disrupted supplies and left showrooms bereft of popular models.

And encouraged by a spurt in job growth, some households may have replaced older vehicles after tightening their belts during the 2007-09 recession. Motor vehicle output contributed 1.12 percentage points to first-quarter GDP growth.

But with the labor market showing early signs of fatigue after employment growth averaged 246,000 per month between December and February, consumer spending could soften in the second quarter.

Some gauges of regional factory activity eased as the second quarter started, and consumer confidence ebbed. In addition, first-time applications for unemployment benefits have spiked in recent weeks, although many economists pin the rise on seasonal quirks.

While the unseasonably warm weather helped the economy by boosting home building and renovations, it undercut demand for utilities, spending at ski resorts and sales of winter apparel.

As a result, weather was probably not the biggest contributor to growth during the quarter.



Inventories also helped GDP growth, just not as much as in the fourth quarter. Inventories increased $69.5 billion after rising $52.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

The change in inventories contributed just over half a percentage point to GDP growth compared to 1.81 percentage points in the fourth quarter.

Excluding inventories, GDP is rose at a 1.6 percent rate. In the fourth quarter, the comparable figure was just 1.1 percent.

Elsewhere, growth in the first quarter was held back by a another drop in government defense spending, which confounded expectations for a strong rebound. An increase in exports was offset by a rise imports, causing trade to have virtually no impact on growth.

Separately, civilian employment costs rose more modestly by 0.4 percent during the first quarter, primarily because growth in benefits slowed after a sharp rise in last year's fourth quarter, Labor Department data showed on Friday.

The gain in employee costs was slightly lower than the 0.5 percent rise forecast by analysts surveyed by Reuters. Costs had increased 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2011.

Benefit costs, which account for 30 percent of compensation, grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter after a sharp 0.7 percent rise in last year's fourth quarter.

Wages and salaries — the other 70 percent of costs — were up 0.5 percent in the first three months this year, a pickup from the 0.3 percent gain posted in last year's closing quarter.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2012, 07:27:41 AM

www.wsj.com
Slowing Growth Raises Fears of Stall .
BY ERIC MORATH




Economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year, adding to fears that the uneven recovery is hitting yet another soft patch.
 
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of all the goods and services produced in an economy, grew at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 2.2% in the first quarter of 2012, the Commerce Department said Friday. That marked a slowdown from the 3% growth rate of the October-to-December quarter.

First-quarter growth was slower than the projection by many economists in recent weeks of a 2.6% rate, but stronger than expectations at the start of the year. It ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 27, 2012, 07:49:17 AM
1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed
 Associated Press ^ | April 24, 2012 | HOPE YEN

Posted on Friday, April 27, 2012 10:24:15 AM by Academiadotorg

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.


(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on April 28, 2012, 04:27:20 AM
There you go, changing the world again with your copy and pastes.

You have the impact of a giant asteroid. You know that?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: blacken700 on April 28, 2012, 05:42:23 AM
garebear YOU HAVE 4 POSTINGS IN A ROW ,ARE YOU FILLING IN FOR 333386 WHILE HE'S ON HIS PRETEND VACATION WITH HIS PRETEND GIRL  ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on April 28, 2012, 07:46:46 AM
Yes. Also, I'm posting from my pretend jet.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2012, 07:54:42 PM

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Maybe no housing rebound for a generation: Shiller
April 24, 2012|Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Housing market is likely to remain weak and may take a generation or more to rebound, Yale economics professor Robert Shiller told Reuters Insider on Tuesday.

Shiller, the co-creator of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, said a weak labor market, high gas prices and a general sense of unease among consumers was outweighing low mortgage rates and would likely keep a lid on prices for the foreseeable future.


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"I worry that we might not see a really major turnaround in our lifetimes," Shiller said.

The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.2 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, the first uptick in prices in 10 months.

But Shiller called it "a very mixed bag." Nine of the 20 cities recorded falling or flat prices on the month.

He said suburban areas in particular might endure further price declines as high gas prices increase demand for "walkable cities."

(Reporting by Steven C. Johnson; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2012, 11:57:32 AM
U.S. homeownership rate drops to 15-year low in Q1
 Yahoo ^ | 4/30/12 | Reuters




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The share of privately owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter, government data showed on Monday, suggesting that falling house prices are discouraging Americans from owning homes.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2012, 12:09:05 PM
25 Horrible Statistics About The U.S. Economy That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To Know .


 Monday, 30 April 2012 07:17 American Dream




The human capacity for self-delusion truly is remarkable.  Most people out there end up believing exactly what they want to believe even when the truth is staring them right in the face.  Take the U.S. economy for example.  Barack Obama wants to believe that his policies have worked and that the U.S. economy is improving.  So that is what he is telling the American people.  The mainstream media wants to believe that Barack Obama is a good president and that his policies make sense and so they are reporting that we are experiencing an economic recovery.  A very large segment of the U.S. population still fully supports Barack Obama and they want to believe that the economy is getting better so they are buying the propaganda that the mainstream media is feeding them.  But is the U.S. economy really improving?  The truth is that it is not.

» If you like this article, please subscribe to Right Side News Daily

The rate of employment among working age Americans is exactly where it was two years ago and household incomes have actually gone down while Obama has been president.  Home ownership levels and home prices continue to decline.  Meanwhile, food and gasoline continue to become even more expensive.  The percentage of Americans that are dependent on the government is at an all-time record high and the U.S. national debt has risen by more than 5 trillion dollars under Obama.  We simply have not seen the type of economic recovery that we have seen after every other economic recession since World War II.
 
The horrible statistics about the U.S. economy that you are about to read are not talked about much by the mainstream media.  They would rather be "positive" and "upbeat" about the direction that things are headed.
 
But lying to the American people is not going to help them.  If you are speeding in a car toward a 500 foot cliff, you don't need someone to cheer you on.  Instead, you need someone to slam on the brakes.
 
The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was four or five years ago.
 
We have never come close to recovering from the last recession and another one will be here soon.
 
The following are 25 horrible statistics about the U.S. economy that Barack Obama does not want you to know....
 
#1 The percentage of Americans that own homes is dropping rapidly.  According to Gallup, the current level of homeownership in the United States is the lowest that Gallup has ever measured.
 
#2 Home prices in the U.S. continue to fall like a rock as well.  They have declined for six months in a row and are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble.  The last time that home prices in the United States were this low was back in 2002.
 
#3 Last year, an astounding 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.
 
#4 Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer.  Today, that number is above 30 percent.
 
#5 When Barack Obama first became president, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was 2.6 million.  Today, it is 5.3 million.
 
#6 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is about three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.
 
#7 Despite what the mainstream media would have us to believe, the truth is that the percentage of working age Americans that are employed is not increasing.  Back in March 2010, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed.  In March 2011, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed. In March 2012, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed.  So how can Barack Obama and the mainstream media claim that the employment situation in the United States is getting better?  The employment rate is still essentially exactly where it was when the last recession supposedly ended.
 
#8 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.
 
#9 In 1962, 28 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.  In 2011, only 9 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.
 
#10 In some areas of Detroit, Michigan you can buy a three bedroom home for just $500.
 
#11 According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.
 
#12 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the price of gasoline has risen by more than 100 percent.
 
#13 The student loan debt bubble continues to expand at a very frightening pace.  Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark.
 
#14 Incredibly, one out of every four jobs in the United States pays $10 an hour or less at this point.
 
#15 Household incomes all over the United States continue to fall.  After adjusting for inflation, median household income in America has declined by 7.8 percent since December 2007.
 
#16 Over the past several decades, government dependence has risen to unprecedented heights in the United States.  The following is how I described the explosive growth of social welfare benefits in one recent article....
 

Back in 1960, social welfare benefits made up approximately 10 percent of all salaries and wages.  In the year 2000, social welfare benefits made up approximately 21 percent of all salaries and wages.  Today, social welfare benefits make up approximately 35 percent of all salaries and wages.
 
#17 In November 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, more than 46 million Americans are on food stamps.
 
#18 Right now, more than 25 percent of all American children are on food stamps.
 
#19 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, today 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives some form of benefits from the federal government.
 
#20 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.
 
#21 During the first quarter of 2012, U.S. public debt rose by 359.1 billion dollars.  U.S. GDP only rose by 142.4 billion dollars.
 
#22 At this point, the U.S. national debt is rising by more than 2 million dollars every single minute.
 
#23 The U.S. national debt has risen by more than 5 trillion dollars since the day that Barack Obama first took office.  In a little more than 3 years Obama has added more to the national debt than the first 41 presidents combined.
 
#24 The Federal Reserve bought up approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department during 2011.
 
#25 The Federal Reserve continues to systematically destroy the value of the U.S. dollar.  Since 1970, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 83 percent of its value.
 
But the horrible economic statistics only tell part of the story.
 
In communities all over America there is a feeling that something fundamental has changed.  Businesses that have been around for generations are shutting their doors and there is a lot of fear in the air.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent interview with Richard Yamarone, the senior economist at Bloomberg Brief....
 

You have to listen to what the small businesses are telling you and right now they are telling you, ‘Hey, I’m the head of a 3rd or 4th generation, 75 or 100 year old business, and I’ve got to shut the doors’ or ‘I’ve got to let people go. And if I’m hiring anybody back, it’s only on a temporary basis.’
 
Sometimes they do this through a hiring firm so that they can sidestep paying unemployment benefit insurance. So that’s what’s really going on at the grassroots level of the economy. Very, very, grossly different from what you’re seeing in some of these numbers coming out in earnings releases.”
 
All over the country, millions of hard working Americans are desperately looking for work.  They have been told that "the recession is over", but they are still finding it incredibly difficult to find anyone that will hire them.  The following example is from a recent CNN article....
 

Joann Cotton, a 54-year-old Columbus, Mississippi, resident, was one of those faces of poverty we met on the tour. Unemployed for three years, Joann has gone from making "$60,000 a year to less than $15,000 overnight." Her husband is disabled and dependent on medicines the couple can no longer afford. They rely on food stamps, which, Joann says, "is depressing as hell."
 
Receiving government aid, however, has not been as depressing as her job search. Joann says she has applied for at least 300 jobs. Even though she can barely afford gas, she drives to the interviews only to learn that the employers want to hire younger candidates at low wages.
 
The experiences have taken a toll: "I've aged 10 years in the three years that I've been looking for a job," Joann told us. "I want to get a job so I can just relax and exhale ... but I can't. After a while you just give up."
 
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and his family continue to live the high life at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.
 
Even many Democrats are starting to get very upset about this.  The following is from a recent article by Paul Bedard....
 

Blue collar Democratic voters, stuck taking depressing “staycations” because they can’t afford gas and hotels, are resentful of the first family’s 17 lavish vacations around the world and don’t want their tax dollars paying for the Obamas’ holidays, according to a new analysis of swing voters.
 
It simply is not appropriate for the Obamas to be spending millions upon millions upon millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars on luxury vacations when so many Americans are deeply suffering.
 
But Barack Obama does not want you to know about any of this stuff.
 
He just wants you to buy his empty propaganda one more time so that he can continue to occupy the White House for another four years
 
SOURCE: American Dream
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2012, 06:45:33 AM
Citi: The Fiscal Cliff Is 'SO RIDICULOUSLY LARGE'
TBI ^ | 5-1-2012 | Joe Weisenthal

Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2012 8:43:13 AM by blam

Citi: The Fiscal Cliff Is 'SO RIDICULOUSLY LARGE'

 Joe Weisenthal
May 1, 2012

A quick paragraph from Citi's Steven Wieting which we found amusing, the gist of which is basically: The fiscal cliff coming in 2012 is so big, it's good, because it will have to get fixed.

The size of the so-called fiscal cliff at year end, which would unwind a decade’s worth of tax cuts and temporary income supports, is so “ridiculously” large relative to near- term growth prospects that markets may take some comfort in its scale. As Fed Chairman Bernanke warned Congress, the Fed would have “no chance” of offsetting an instantaneous shock so severe and noted he was “hoping” Congress would take action.

Wieting goes on...

The combined size of the year-end fiscal cliff implied in current law seems so flatly ridiculous relative to near-term growth prospects, that markets may in fact be feeling some calm that the resolve to once again delay and diffuse it will be found. In late 2010, figure 1 looked substantially the same before fiscal tightening pains were delayed to the period beyond the November 2012 elections. Since then, the size of the cliff grew with prospective spending cuts. Yet some doubt should remain, and we gather build at some point as to whether Congress and the President will be too divided to find an alternative to current law, particularly before the year is out and the new Congress is seated.

Here are the two charts showing the ridiculous changes in tax receipts and federal consumption.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2012, 12:49:55 PM
Why U.S. House Prices Won't Recover

Hough: Taking inflation into account, U.S. home prices are down to 1895 levels.

By JACK HOUGH


http://www.smartmoney.com/spend/real-estate/why-us-house-prices-wont-recover-1335877657114/?mg=com-sec-sm




When will U.S. house prices recover? Likely never. But that's no reason not to buy.
 







.
The latest S&P / Case-Shiller numbers, reported last week, show that prices in 20 major markets declined 3.5% over the year through February. They're now back to 2002 levels. If we subtract for inflation, they're back to 1998 levels.
 
But consider: After subtracting for inflation, prices are also back to 1986 levels. And 1955 levels. And 1895 levels (see chart).

That's because the natural rate of price appreciation for houses is zero after inflation. Prices will eventually stop falling. They'll resume rising. But over the long term, they're unlikely to resume rising faster than inflation.
 
That's why prospective buyers should stop focusing on the vague hope that house prices will jump from here and focus instead on the functional value houses provide for the money. In most markets, they provide enough of that to make buying a good deal.

To see why house prices and inflation are linked, consider that inflation is a general rise in the price of consumable goods and services. We measure it as a nation just as you might think: pollsters collect prices on thousands of items and statisticians turn those prices into an index, called the Consumer Price Index.

The inflation rate over the year through March was 2.6%. Behind that number is a lot of variation; dairy products got 6.3% more expensive, while utility gas service got 9.1% cheaper.



.

That's because inflation isn't the only thing that drives individual prices. Short-term supply and demand factors drive them, too. For example, the U.S. has a severe glut of natural gas at the moment. But prices have a way of self-correcting over time. Power companies have already sharply increased their electricity production from natural gas while pulling back on coal.

Few things escape the gravitational pull of the inflation rate forever. Even healthcare and college tuition are showing signs of slowing price growth. U.S. housing had spectacular booms and busts in the 1920s and mid-2000s, but smoothing out the swings and adjusting for inflation, prices have gone nowhere for more than a century.

Houses are ordinary consumable goods: wood, stone and metal bound pieced together through labor. There's no reason to believe they should enjoy a special rate of return distinct from those for, say, apples and shoes. My best guess for the rate of price increase of all three is 2.2% a year over the next 10 years--equal to the rate of inflation.



To get that number, I looked at yields on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. Those are a special kind of bond that adjusts in value each year for the rate of inflation. The difference between the yields on 10-year TIPS and those on regular 10-year Treasurys shows what investors expect inflation to look like over the next decade.
 
Of course, house buyers can also base projections on factors like house inventories, shadow inventories, the foreclosure rate, the construction rate and so on. But market prices already adjust for factors the public knows about, so buyers who try to form special predictions on prices had better have special knowledge the public isn't privy to.































..
The good news is that houses--like apples and shoes--have functional value, and right now buyers are getting plenty of it for what they spend. The easiest way to see this is by dividing yearly rents by purchase prices for similar properties, to come up with a "rent yield". Landlords literally collect rent yields; owner-occupants collect implied ones because they don't have to pay rent.

In more than half of U.S. housing markets, the rent yield is over 10%. That's a gross yield; buyers should subtract for things like taxes and maintenance. But even so, buyers in most markets will end up with yields of over 5%. That's a pretty good deal at a time when 10-year corporate bonds of decent credit quality pay only 3%. And with the average 30-year mortgage rate sitting below 4%, financing terms are attractive relative to rent yields (for buyers who can get loans).
 
Similar math led me to believe five years ago that buying a house had become a bad deal in most of the country (see "Renting Makes More Financial Sense Than Homeownership") and to decide last year that it had once again become a good deal in many markets (see "Time to Buy That House"). Prices declined 33% nationwide between those two columns, or by more than $80,000 for a typical house. I didn't time the top or the bottom of the market to the month, of course, but buyers who base their math on the functional value of houses don't have to worry about next month's price change. They just have to pay a price that allows them to extract good value from their house.































..
To see whether houses are a good deal in your market, start by checking a list of price-to-rent ratios like the latest one published by Trulia.com. To turn a price-to-rent ratio into a rent yield, simply divide "1" by the ratio. So the New York City area's price-to-rent ratio of 14.5 is equal to a rent yield of 6.9%. (That's not such a high number, especially after subtracting for taxes and maintenance costs, making New York one of a handful of markets where renters shouldn't be in any hurry to buy.)

Four last points to keep in mind: First, those price-to-rent ratios are based on average price data. Individual buyers can do better or worse than the averages, depending on how carefully they shop.
 
Second, your market is probably not special. It can be tempting to think that, because prices in your area have risen faster than the national average over the past five years, they will continue to do so. That temptation is called recency bias--the belief that things will always be the way they've been lately. They probably won't.
 
Third, renters who base their house buying decision on rent yields will come to a radically different conclusion than those who buy because they're optimistic about future price growth. For single-family houses, the way to maximize value is to buy only as much house as you need, rather than locking in as much house as you can afford.
 
Fourth, there are some useful buying-versus-renting calculators on the web. Some show buyers exactly how many years it will take for them to be better off owning versus renting. But most allow users to put in independent values for the inflation rate and the rate at which house prices increase. If you set inflation to 2% and house price growth to 6%, just about anything looks like a good deal. The prudent thing is to use the same rate for both. Again, use the difference between the 10-year TIPS yield and the 10-year regular Treasury yield, which works out to 2.2% at the moment.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 03, 2012, 09:00:42 AM
JCPenney Is Quietly Firing Lots Of Middle Managers Across The Country
Business Insider ^ | 05/03/2012 | Kim Bashin




Ron Johnson's plan to transform JCPenney continues to roll along, and many of its workers on the frontlines aren't happy about the changes.

JCPenney cut a bunch of middle managers across the country on Monday, according to multiple former managers we spoke with. We've withheld their names for their protection.

This appears to be part of the layoffs announced back in January, but it's unclear how exactly how many have been let go. One source says that the number may now be in the thousands.

JCPenney didn't immediately answer requests for comment, but a spokesperson did mention yesterday that the retailer will be “operating with fewer layers of management."

Here's how it went down, according to one assistant manager who was laid off Monday:

"One hundred store managers across the country were quietly laid off two days before they announced the home office reductions and the call center closing. The rest, phase two, happened Monday. They said it was done purely on year-end appraisal ratings, but someone in my store got a higher rating than I did (and was laid off anyway), and also they changed what the ratings stood for this year, and eliminated performance improvement documentation, so that they did not have to wait longer to do this. If my name or even state comes out I will lose my severance."


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 03, 2012, 09:04:57 AM
“As part of the corporate cost reductions, J.C. Penney has laid off 600 workers at its Plano [TX] office, and it will layoff an additional 300 when it closes a call center in Pittsburgh in July, according to The Associated Press.
 
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/324940/20120406/big-lay-offs-j-c-penney-ppg.htm


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on May 03, 2012, 09:09:48 AM
My foot is swollen and I haven't been able to run for a few days.

Who's to blame?

Oh, wait. I think I know.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 03, 2012, 11:10:54 AM
http://www.smartmoney.com/plan/banking/more-americans-keeping-valuables-in-safes-at-home-1334333683624



LOL!!!!! 

Hope & FNG CHANGE!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 03, 2012, 06:53:00 PM
http://money.cnn.com//2012/05/02/smallbusiness/startups/index.htm?section=money_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29


Hope n fng change.   New start ups at record lows!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2012, 07:03:23 AM
A teen with a job becomes a rarity in US economy
 TODAY - MSNBC ^ | May 4, 2012 | Allison Linn

Posted on Friday, May 04, 2012 9:44:28 AM by C19fan

Nick Gentry will be able to celebrate two major accomplishments this month: He’s graduating from high school and, after a very long job search, he has landed his first job. That Gentry, 18, will be collecting a paycheck makes him a rarity in today's working world. Only about 25 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds currently are working, a drop of 10 percentage points from just five years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


(Excerpt) Read more at lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn. com ...




4 MORE YEARS
4 MORE YEARS
4 MORE YEARS
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2012, 12:29:06 PM
The Crashing US Housing Metro Areas
Submitted by drhousingbubble on 05/04/2012 12:25 -0400


www.zerohedge.com



Case-ShillerDetroitForeclosuresHousing MarketLas VegasReal estateUnemployment


The Crashing US Housing Metro Areas – Atlanta home values crash by 17 percent in last year and Las Vegas continues to move lower

US home prices have once again made a post-bubble low in spite of all the artificial intervention and massive bailouts to financial institutions.  The bottom line unfortunately is that US household incomes have been strained for well over a decade.  You can slice it up by nominal or inflation adjusted data but household incomes have been moving in a negative direction during the 00s and continuing into this decade.  Keep in mind there is a massive pipeline of problems still in the housing market with over 5.5 million mortgage holders in some stage of foreclosure or simply not paying on their mortgage.  This is more than a housing crisis but a crisis of quality job growth.  At the core, that is truly the problem.  There are markets in the US that are still correcting severely even after record breaking declines from their peaks reached in 2006 or 2007.  Some of these markets are approaching two lost decades which seems stunning but again, this reflects weaker household balance sheets.

 

Correction still hitting major metro areas

While the US housing market overall did make post-bubble lows, there does appear to be some bottoming out in certain areas.  For example, Detroit saw year-over-year prices move up by 1.5 percent.  Then again, the median home price in Detroit is in the $60,000 range.  But overall the correction seems to be continuing as the large shadow inventory works its way through the market.

When looking at the hardest hit areas, it is interesting to see a mix of low price metros and two very expensive metros taking the biggest annual declines:



Atlanta was absolutely slammed in the last year.  Home prices have fallen by 17 percent only in the last year driving home values back to 1997 levels!  This is for a very large metro area plagued with massive numbers of foreclosures.  Atlanta was the only large Case-Shiller tracked metro area to have a double-digit annual decline.  The second biggest hit came to Las Vegas.  I’ve talked about this market in the past and cautioned people from diving in before doing careful due diligence.  The market has fallen another 8.5 percent in the last year bringing the total decline from the peak to a whopping 61 percent without even adjusting for inflation.

You also see a handful of large mid-tier markets with Chicago, Los Angeles (including Orange County), and San Francisco falling yet again in the last year.  For real estate in California, the economy continues to be weak and mid-tier home values are still inflated relative to local area incomes.  The mid-tier markets are taking the biggest hits.  For example with L.A. the mid-tier is down over 5 percent for the year but interestingly enough, the high tier has made a new post-bubble low.

The weakness is being driven by the large number of distressed properties being sold.  Even though foreclosure sales are trending lower, this is being over shadowed by a larger number of short sales being ushered through by lenders.  In other words, properties are exiting quicker from the system but they are still distressed.  Lenders have a front row seat to what is going on and essentially what they are saying with a swarm of short sales is they believe home prices in the intern will be going down.  Why else would you want to exit at this moment if you believed home prices would be soaring shortly?  Bank balance sheets are still inflated with poor performing properties and what the Case-Shiller report shows is there is likely to be little support for higher prices anytime soon.

Take a look at the nationwide data here:



Source:  Zero Hedge

If you look at a chart like the above, what is the major impetus to rush out and buy in 2012?  The trend to the contrary is showing weaker prices and lenders are openly discussing that more shadow inventory will be leaked into the market.  Certainly short sales are not going to prop prices up.  Here in Southern California, the number of MLS short sales is growing and this has been a big story for 2012.  I also realize that some folks think they are going to get a Beverly Hills property for $200,000.  That is not going to happen.  The biggest long-term driver for housing sustainability is going to be local area incomes and prices in places like Corona Del Mar for example will remain high for the average person because people do have high solid incomes in these markets.  A $4 million home going to $2 million is not exactly going to open the floodgates.  Those that pretended and over extended will be washed out of the market in the next few years but make no mistake, there are pockets of high priced housing that justify a high price simply because local incomes are able to support prices.  The mid-tier markets are the areas that are subject to the biggest shocks in the next year or so.  The issue is that many in mid-tier markets somehow believe they are in some of these tiny luxury markets (they are not).

Not sure if it got missed in all the news coverage but the California unemployment rate is back up to 11 percent meaning the underemployment rate is above 21 percent:



If you want to see leading indicators for solid potential growth look at unemployment but also the quality of jobs being added.  No use in having everyone working at K-Mart and trying to buy a $500,000 home.  The crashing markets of Atlanta and Las Vegas simply show that economic growth is not able to support current home prices even in cheap metros.  The lower prices in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco reflect the correction in the mid-tier markets.  What impact will 5.5 million distressed and foreclosed properties have on the market going forward?  So far, it has been to push prices lower which isn’t a surprise.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2012, 08:08:43 AM
Americans: Too broke to go bankrupt
 Yahoo ^ | 5/7/12 | Blake Ellis




This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to be too broke to file for bankruptcy. The average cost to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the most common form of consumer bankruptcy, is more than $1,500, according to recent research submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As a result, anywhere between 200,000 and one million consumers are estimated to be unable to afford that steep cost this year. The research, conducted by a group of professors from Columbia University, the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis, examined how bankruptcy filings spiked after people received their tax rebates in previous years. They estimate that another 200,000 consumers, who would otherwise not have enough money to file, will use their tax refunds to pay for bankruptcy this year.

 "For lots of people, bankruptcy has been taken off the table as an option because of the severe fees involved," said Jialan Wang, co-author of the report. Among those fees is a charge of about $300 just for filing the paperwork with the federal court, while the rest typically goes to bankruptcy lawyers, said Wang. And there are other expenses on top of that, including fees for mandatory pre-bankruptcy credit counseling and a pre-discharge debtor education course. These average about $85 altogether, according to a recent study sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

 That means many of the Americans who have seen their debt snowball out of control due to events like job loss, foreclosure or a medical emergency during the economic downturn are now left without their last financial lifeline, she said. "It becomes harder and harder to pay off the debt as interest payments get higher, so your debt grows larger and larger," she said.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 08, 2012, 08:05:49 AM
Economic Alert: If You’re Not Worried Yet…You Should Be


Tuesday, 08 May 2012 04:58 Brandon Smith




For the past four years I have been covering the progression of the global economic crisis with an emphasis on the debilitating effects it has had on the American financial system.  Only once before have I ever issued an economic alert, and this was at the onset of the very first credit downgrade in U.S. history by S&P.  I do not take the word “alert” lightly.  Since 2008 we have seen a cycle of events that have severely weakened our country’s foundation, but each event has then been followed by a lull, sometimes 4 to 6 months at a stretch, which seems to disarm the public, drawing them back into apathy and complacency.  The calm moments before each passing storm give Americans a false sense of hope that our capsized fiscal vessel will somehow right itself if we just hold on a little longer...

I don’t have to tell most people within the Liberty Movement that this is not going to happen.  Unfortunately, there are many out there who do not share our awareness of the situation.   Debt implosions and currency devaluation NEVER simply “fade away”; they are always followed by extreme social and political strife that tends to sully the doorsteps of almost every individual and family.  The notion that we can coast through such a tempest unscathed is an insane idea, filled with a dangerous potential for sour regrets.

There are some people who also believe that the private Federal Reserve with the Treasury in tow has the ability to prolong the worst symptoms of the collapse indefinitely, or at least, until they have long since kicked the bucket and don’t have to worry about it anymore (the ‘pay-it forward to our grandkids’ crowd) .  I can say with 100% certainty that most of us will live to see the climax of the breakdown, and that this breakdown is about to enter a more precarious state before the end of this year.  You can only stretch a sun-boiled rubber band so far before it snaps completely, and America’s financial elasticity has long been melted away.

A pummeling hailstorm of news items and international developments have made the first half of 2012 almost impossible to track and analyze.  The frequency at which negative information has surfaced is almost dizzying.  However, a pattern and a recognizable motion are beginning to take shape, and, I believe, a loose timeline is beginning to form. 

At the end of January, I covered the incredible nosedive of the Baltic Dry Index (a measure of global shipping rates that signals a fall in global demand) to historic lows.  I pointed out the tendency of stocks and the general economy to crash around 8 months (sometimes a little longer) after the BDI makes such a dramatic downturn.  Mainstream analysts, of course, attributed the fall to an “overproduction of ships”, which is the same exact excuse they used when the BDI collapsed back in 2008 just before the derivatives bubble burst.  It would seem that the cable TV talking heads were wrong yet again, as the international market facade quickly evaporates right in line with the BDI’s almost prophetic knack for calling an economic derailment in advance.

Here are some of the most important reasons why every American should be prepared for much harder days, especially before the end of 2012:

The European Union Is Officially Dead In The Water

Stick a fork in er’, the EU is done!  We are talking about full scale dismantlement, likely followed by a reformation of core nations and multiple collapse scenarios of peripheral countries.  The writing is all over the wall in the wake of the latest election results in Greece and France, where, as alternative researchers have been predicting for some time, the battle between the government spending crowd and proponents of austerity has reached a fever pitch. 

The Greeks and the French are royally pissed over draconian cuts in public programs and the destruction of pensions which have been a mainstay of their economies for quite some time.  They are also furious over being sold off like collateral to the IMF and World Bank.  Rightly so.  Like the American taxpayer, the taxpayers of floundering EU nations are wrongly being held responsible for the financial mismanagement and fraud of their governments and global banks which have remained untouched and unpunished for their trespasses.  The problem is, the voters of both countries are signing on to the socialist/quasi-communist bandwagon in response.  In Greece, the Left Coalition Party, a splinter group of the traditional communist party, has now taken a primary position of power:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/07/us-greece-idUSBRE8440DG20120507

In France, voters have elected socialist Francois Hollande (a Bilderberg attendee), whose latest promise is to spend France into recovery through his “pro-growth agenda”:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/french-president-elect-hollande-won-t-difficult-obama-195617064.html

I have no doubt that the elections of the EU are as manipulated by elitists as they are here in the U.S., and I’m sure false paradigms abound.  Have Europeans forgotten that it was overt government spending that set them on the path to calamity in the first place?  Or, are they like Americans; just desperate for any change in the ranks of leadership?  One would think that they would take note of the problems here in our country and realize that electing a socialist to replace another socialist is no way out of economic hardship.

Former officials like Nicolas Sarkozy may have claimed to be distanced from the socialist ideal, but, as with all globalist puppets, their actions did not match their rhetoric, and they have always supported policies of centralization and big government.  The French and the Greeks have essentially replaced closet collectivists with outspoken collectivists, and will see NO relief from the crisis in the Euro-zone as a result of the political reordering.  In fact, the stage has now been set for a volatile chain of dominos.  Germany, which is the only economy left holding the EU together, has been unyielding on austerity cuts.  A conflict between France and Germany is now inevitable.  Neither will compromise their position, and I can see no other eventual result than a reexamination and perhaps abandonment of the EU charter. 

How does this affect America?  Being that international banks and corporations have forced our countries into interdependency through the engineered chicanery of globalization, any collapse in Europe is going to strike hard around the world, but the worst will hit the U.S. and China.  Which is probably why China is disengaging trade away from the U.S. and the EU and focusing on other developing nations:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/08/us-china-economy-trade-idUSBRE84702N20120508

If you thought the Greek rollercoaster was a pain in the neck for investment markets, just wait until the whole of the EU is in a shambles! 

Spain is next in line, with a 25% official unemployment rate and a massive black market economy forming.  As I have been saying for years now, when governments disrupt the financial survival of the people, they WILL form their own alternatives, including black markets and barter markets.  It is about survival.  The Spanish government does not care much for these alternatives, though, and has now banned cash transaction over 2500 euros in a futile attempt to squeeze taxes out of the populace through digitally tracked payment methods:

http://thedailybell.com/3814/Spain-Bans-Cash

Another major concern for Americans is the fact that Europeans are inching towards an abandonment of the dollar.  Francois Hollande has openly called for an end to the dollar’s world reserve status, and with a majority backing of the French people, he could easily make this happen, at least where France is concerned.  All it takes is for a few key countries to publically and completely drop the Greenback and the dollar’s reputation as a safe haven investment will be quashed.  This could very well happen before 2012 is over.

QE3 Is The End

Here is the bottom line; U.S. growth is a theater of shadows.  There has been no progress, no recovery, only the misrepresentation of statistics.  Millions of Americans have fallen off unemployment rolls because they have been jobless for too long, which lowers the unemployment rate, but does not change the fact that they are still without work.  Durable goods orders are dropping like an avalanche.  U.S. credit has been lowered yet again by rating agency Egan-Jones.  With China making bilateral trade deals in numerous countries on the condition that the dollar be dropped as the primary purchasing mechanism, and with the EU turning to economic mulch, the currency’s safety is nonexistent.  Traditional investors who cling to the idea that a falling Euro spells dollar strength will be sorely disappointed when the currency is suddenly being rejected in international currency markets.

The Federal Reserve has already stated that any signs of “relapse” into recession (the recession that we never left) will be met with all options on the table, including QE3:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-usa-fed-idUSBRE83B1KD20120412

I believe that QE3 will probably be announced this year (due in large part to trauma from Europe), and, that this will trigger a mass movement by foreign nations to drop the dollar as the world reserve.  QE3 will be the straw that broke the camel.  How exactly this will play out socially and politically, I do not know (I could take a good guess though).  But, the technical results are predictable.  The Fed will respond to the lack of treasury purchases by ramping up fiat printing in order to cover the ever increasing costs of the government machine.  The Greenback will immediately lose a large portion of its value, at least in terms of imported goods, causing inflation in prices.  Oil and energy prices will skyrocket if OPEC follows suit (which they will, though the Saudis may still honor dollars for a time).  Doing any traditional business will become nearly impossible, and price inflation will dominate the lives and the minds of average unprepared citizens.             

The amount of time that it will take for these difficulties to unfold is also not clear.  We are operating in uncharted territory, and dealing with a collapse scenario on a truly planetary scale.  My best advice is to assume that the avalanche will move fast.

While markets in our country have seen only mild disruptions so far this year, their solidity is predicated on a host of props and costume pieces, any one of which could pull the rug out from under America’s suspension of disbelief if it strays but a little from the illusion.  As long as the dollar holds, stocks can be infused with bailout juice through major banks.  So can major companies and even desperate state governments on the verge of bankruptcy.  The Dow will remain relatively friendly, and day traders and the public will remain happy.  As soon as the dollar comes into question, all bets are off…

Does This Mean Doom, Or Just Another Bad Day?

The real beginning of today’s collapse is tied to the events of 2008.  The pace of it has been deceptive, but also, in a way, it is a gift.  Over the past four years, I have personally seen the awakening of thousands of people that may have never had the chance if the system had gone into full spectrum breakdown right away.  The question now is, how much longer can the U.S. wobble along on one wheel?  In my view, and from the evidence I see in markets at the moment, not much longer. 

It is hard to set aside any expectations that the next leg down will be easy to digest for the populace.  The reality of our predicament is starting to hit home.  All the tax return checks have been spent.  The credit cards have been maxed.  The new cars have been sold off and traded in for ghetto-mobiles.  The good jobs have been replaced with Taco Bell slavery.  A trip to see The Avengers is now the family vacation.  And, the distractions of reality TV just aren’t buttering our bread anymore.  It’s the little things at first that really signal the financial mood of a society, as well as reveal the more vital and looming issues just over the horizon.

All indicators suggest that this year will be unlike any other before.  In 2008, we saw the first trigger events for the collapse.  In 2008/2009, we saw the creation of the bailout culture, setting the stage for inflation and dollar disintegration.  In 2010, we saw the first bilateral trade deal cutting out the dollar between China and Russia, which is now the template for trade deals all over the globe.  In 2011, we saw the first downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and the crisis in the EU become epidemic.  In 2012, I see not just another difficulty to add to the mountain, but a culmination of all these detriments to produce something entirely new; a vast and subversive realignment forcing many of us to take a more aggressive stance in the fight for an economically and socially free America.

Financial disasters have always been a convenient catalyst for a host of even more frightening obstacles, including civil unrest, and blatant totalitarianism.  This is the cusp.  It is one of those moments that people of later generations read about in awe, and sometimes horror.  The “doom” is not in the event, but in the response.  What we make of the days approaching determines the darkness that they cast upon the future.  It is a test.  It is not something to be dreaded.  It is something to be seized upon, and dealt with, as great men and women before us have done.  At the very least, we know that it is coming.  That, in itself, could well seal our success…
 
 
 
 
 
You can contact Brandon Smith at:  brandon@alt-market.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 17, 2012, 12:39:37 PM
25,000 Job Cuts Are Coming To HP
 
Jay Yarow and Julie Bort|May 17, 2012, 1:39 PM|2,353|17

Source: Layoffs Are About To Hit HP
 




 HP is considering cutting 25,000 jobs, Bloomberg reports.

We had this yesterday, based on a tip from a source.
 
Bloomberg is confirming much of what we heard.
 
The key things we heard:
 Our source said HP wants to trim its workforce by 10%-15%. Given that HP has 320,000 employees, a 10% reduction would be 32,000 workers gone. However, that would include an early retirement program. We'd guess that this would include attrition, too, where new hires don't come in when employees leave. That number sounds high and we don't expect HP to promise it next week, because HP will also want to shift some jobs offshore. So, HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts.


 We're hearing that manufacturing staff won't be hit as hard as others. That makes sense to us given that HP is more of a product company than a software or services company.


 Speaking of services, keep an eye out for HP Services results, which one insider said is expected to have another abysmal quarter. HP's outsourcing units could be particularly hit hard with whatever layoffs come and many of their jobs moved offshore. We're hearing that people with 8-10 years of experience—or are at the top of the salary charts -- are the most vulnerable


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/25000-job-cuts-are-coming-to-hp-2012-5#ixzz1v9pbQ1HN

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 20, 2012, 04:57:48 AM
Nearly a quarter of N.J. residents sink into poverty, study shows
Star Ledger/NJ.com ^ | May 20, 2012 | By Megan DeMarco/Statehouse Bureau
Posted on May 20, 2012 7:39:42 AM EDT by SMGFan

TRENTON — New Jersey may be among the richest states in the nation, but a record number of Garden State residents lived in poverty during 2010, according to a report scheduled to be released today. Nearly a quarter of the state’s population — more than 2 million residents — was considered poor, the annual survey by Legal Services of New Jersey found. About 150,000 people slipped into poverty in 2010, even though the great recession ended a year earlier, the report said. And experts say more recent unemployment numbers show that the trend of increasing poverty likely continued into this year.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: garebear on May 20, 2012, 04:59:42 AM
It's be an adult and get a job time and you're late.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 20, 2012, 05:03:51 AM
It's be an adult and get a job time and you're late.

Troll.  Seek help.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 22, 2012, 06:31:59 AM
May 22, 2012
Whispering the Truth in Obama's America
By Stella Paul

 



The other day, I called a friend and interrupted her mid-cry. She'd just returned from putting her only son on a plane to China, where he was moving after giving up on getting a job here.
 
The next day in the supermarket, I bumped into another friend, looking downcast. She told me her only son was planning his move to Hong Kong, after a fruitless year-long search for a job in the financial sector.
 
"Obama's destroying the economy," she told me; then she looked nervously around at our hyper-Blue State neighbors.  "I feel like I have to whisper, or they're going to come and arrest me."
 
Welcome to Obama's America 2012, a joy-free zone in which the best and brightest youth are flocking to a Communist dictatorship, because they see more hope of economic opportunity there.
 
With 1 out of 2 recent college graduates out of work, the future leaders of the nation are hanging out in Mom's basement, enjoying their parents' health insurance coverage, while nodding off in a government-induced haze.
 
But many of the most driven, entrepreneurial types -- the kind of unstoppable hustlers who built America -- are bolting and may never return.
 
Why should they when they might land a fine job with that quintessential American company, Procter & Gamble? Its beauty unit is slamming the door on Ohio, and moving its headquarters to Singapore.
 
Or maybe they'll get a piece of Eduardo Saverin's next venture. He's the billionaire co-founder of Facebook who just tore up his U.S. citizenship.
 
Back in the halcyon pre-Obama days, Saverin emigrated here from Brazil, looking for opportunity.  Well, he found it -- and now he's following it to Singapore.
 
Ah yes, it's the glorious age of Hope and Change -- when Americans are renouncing their citizenship faster than Obama can grab cash at a George Clooney fundraiser. In 2011, a record 1,789 Americans gave up their US citizenship, exceeding the totals from 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.
 
But even though America is bleeding jobs and draining brains, talent, and opportunity, don't let Obama hear you complain.
 
The man gets very mad when you don't genuflect to his hokum. And if you make a big donation to Romney, expect O's wrath to pour down upon your cranium good and hard.
 
The Wall Street Journal tells us that Obama's campaign website publicly names and shames eight private citizens who gave to Romney.  The president's website accuses these new public enemies of living "on the wrong side of the law," where they reap illicit profits at "the expense of so many Americans, " thereby earning "less-than-reputable records."
 
After Obama denounced Romney donor Frank VanderSloot of Idaho Falls, Idaho, something rather curious happened. Michael Wolf, a former Democratic law clerk from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, began trolling through VanderSloot's divorce records. What a coincidence!
 
Yes, for the crime of donating to Obama's opponent, Frank VanderSloot is getting the full Roto-Rooter treatment, just like Joe the Plumber. Remember Joe?
 
When candidate Obama inconveniently told Joe that he wanted to "spread the wealth," Joe quickly became a target. Helen Jones-Kelley, head of Ohio's Department of Jobs and Family Services, authorized searches of confidential state databases, looking for Joe's child support and unemployment records.
 
Obey Obama, comrades, or pay the price!
 
But don't worry. I'm writing this very softly so Obama can't hear. Because just between you and me, I want to ask:  If Obama is pushing out our best and brightest entrepreneurs to distant shores, who's he pulling in?
 
Well, here's an interesting fact: a new survey reveals that the number of Muslims in the U.S. has soared 67% since the 9/11 attacks.  Thanks to our State Department's massive importation of Muslim immigrants, Islam is now the fastest growing religion in America, up from 1 million in 2000 to 2.6 million today.
 
What could possibly go wrong? Don't you trust the State Department to sift out wretched refuse like the Times Square bomber, and the convicted plotters against Fort Dix, the New York subway system, and JFK airport?
 
Driving out wealth creators and importing potential destroyers may seem like national suicide, but it's a winning formula for mansion-dwelling, Marxist politicians.   Just ask François ("3 Homes on the Riviera") Hollande, who catapulted into the French presidency by garnishing 93% of the Muslim vote.
 
Now France's successful citizens are stampeding out the door, desperate to get to England, Israel, or anywhere outside his sticky clutches.  And that means more votes for François next time around!
 
Meanwhile, back in the former land of the free, Obama plays the same cynical game, intimidating and threatening opponents, so that even a frightened mother in the supermarket feels like she has to whisper.             
 
But a million whispers sounds like a roar. Let's roar.
 
Write Stella Paul at Stellapundit@aol.com


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/whispering_the_truth_in_obamas_america.html#ixzz1vbZAt5qJ

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 23, 2012, 09:09:17 AM

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The Lost 5 Million (working-age adults who have dropped out of the labor market completely)
 American Thinker ^ | 05/23/2012 | Jeffrey Folks

Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 10:08:34 AM by SeekAndFind

Five million Americans have been thrown under the bus. They are walking around dazed, outcast, and defeated. Worst of all, they are not even counted in official tallies of the unemployed. They are those whom the Obama administration simply wishes to ignore: working-age adults who have dropped out of the labor market completely. They are those for whom the economic recovery underway should have created jobs but has not.

Despite Obama's latest assertion of having created 4 million jobs in the last 26 months, the reality is that in the past two years, 5.4 million workers have left the job market entirely. These are the 5.4 million whom academics like to call "discouraged workers," and as far as the administration and its media cheerleaders are concerned, they do not exist.

The fact is that these millions of Americans are not so much discouraged as they are hopeless. They are working-age adults who, in a normal economic recovery, would have found jobs in an expanding economy. But this recovery -- one can hardly call it that -- is not at all normal. The U.S. economy has expanded on average at something like 2% since Obama took office, and now, with the latest GDP growth figures for the first quarter of 2012 revised downward to 1.8%, the economy seems to be slipping back toward stagnation, if not recession.

During a normal period of recovery, the economy grows at a rate of more than 4%. This was the case during the Reagan recovery of the 1980s, the Clinton recovery of the 1990s (with a major assist on spending restraint from Newt Gingrich), and the Bush recovery of the mid-2000s. But ever since Obama took office, the economy has suffered.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 24, 2012, 02:00:03 PM
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200 pink slips handed out at Pratt & Whitney
 WFSB ^

Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2012 4:10:05 PM by matt04

Pratt & Whitney officials said the company was eliminating 300 positions nationwide, and 200 of them are coming from Connecticut.

The announcement was made Thursday morning.

Company officials said they continually assess staffing levels to ensure they are on track with the current business and economic condition.

They said when it's necessary, staffing adjustments are required to keep cost structures competitive.

As a result, company officials said Pratt & Whitney was reducing its salaried workforce by approximately 300 positions company-wide, effective immediately.

After the announcement was made on Thursday, Gov. Dannel Malloy released a statement and said, "When these announcements are viewed in the context of our overall economy, it's still clear we are moving in the right direction. The unemployment rate is down 20% from last January, and it's a full half-point below the national average."


(Excerpt) Read more at wfsb.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 06:29:05 AM
Prepare For The Coming Housing Collapse Or Face Possible Financial Ruin
Keith Jurow|55 minutes ago|2,460|15



Editor’s Note: Keith Jurow has been posting articles regularly for the past two years on BUSINESS INSIDER. He is the author of Minyanville.com’s Housing Market Report.

After being the only analyst who was spot-on correct in stating for the past two years that there is no housing bottom in sight, it’s time for me to tell you what I see ahead.

Housing pundits are nearly unanimous in declaring that housing markets are showing signs of bottoming. This is nonsense!

What is Really Happening Now

We hear that California markets are showing signs of revival and that prices are rising in certain markets. Let’s see. Here are the latest figures from trulia.com.

In Los Angeles, trulia reports that the average price-per square foot for homes sold in February through April was down 9.3% year-over-year for 3-bedroom homes and down 8.7% for 2-bedroom homes.

In San Francisco, allegedly one of the hottest areas in the nation, the 3-bedroom average price-per-square-foot was down 4.7%% year-over-year and 1-bedroom price-per-square foot was down 8.1%.

Price-per-square-foot statistics are the best way to compare prices because it does not matter how large the house is. Median prices are skewed by square footage as well as by the percentage of distressed properties sold.

Here in Connecticut where I live, double-digit price declines are commonplace:

Fairfield County – down 10.7% year-over-year
Darien – down 13.5%
New Canaan – down 15.7%
Norwalk – down 13.8%
New Britain – down 15.3%
Branford – down 15.9%
City of New Britain – down 15.3%
City of Hartford – down 14.4%

These statistics come from Wm. Raveis & Co.’s website – raveis.com. They are the largest family-owned brokerage firm in the northeast with offices in 7 states.

Their reputation for integrity is excellent. Try it. You can search any town/city in six states in the northeast plus Westchester County in New York. No indices here, just the raw data.

The figures above are for all single-family homes sold in the period February through April of 2012 compared to the year earlier time frame. You can also find price comparisons for different time periods to give you a broader perspective. My latest BUSINESS INSIDER article showed prices for several northeast states.

Serious Mortgage Delinquencies – The Real Story

We have been told that the rate of mortgage delinquencies has been declining over the last year. Let’s see.

In the NYC metro area, the banks drastically cut back foreclosing on properties in the spring of 2009 and have never changed their policy. This has nothing to do with the robo-signing scandal which occurred 18 months later.

Through sheer persistence, I obtained accurate statistics on serious delinquencies from the New York State Division of Banking. Let me explain.

In late 2009, the NYS legislature passed a law requiring all servicing banks in the state to send a “pre-foreclosure” notice to all delinquent owner occupants. It warned them of possible foreclosure and explained steps they could take to prevent this. These servicing banks were also required to report to the Banking Division all notices that were sent.

The Division published preliminary figures in October 2010 but has never updated these numbers. Here is what I learned.

Through the end of March 2012, a total of 192,000+ pre-foreclosure notices had been sent to delinquent owners in NYC. This does not include delinquent investor-owned properties because the law did not require servicers to send notices to them. There are lots of 2-3 family homes in the four outer boroughs of
NYC. I estimate that there are roughly 75,000+ delinquent investor-owners.

This means there are roughly 265,000 seriously delinquent homeowners in NYC who have not yet been foreclosed. Why so many? The banks do not foreclose in NYC. As of May 24, foreclosure.com reported a total of 301 foreclosed properties on the active MLS and 103 in Brooklyn. Together, these two boroughs
have a total of 4.7 million residents. That is more people than live in Maricopa County where Phoenix is situated.

Hard as it may be to believe, the situation is even worse on Long Island. With fewer than 3 million occupants, Nassau and Suffolk Counties showed a total of 175,000 pre-foreclosure notices sent out as of the end of March.

Banks Gamble Again By Closing the Foreclosure Spigot



If you think the reduction in foreclosing is limited to the NYC metro markets, you’re mistaken. Take a good look at this revealing chart for Phoenix from foreclosureradar.com.

Bank repossessions in Maricopa County plunged from 3,159 in April 2011 to a mere 767 a year later. Clearly, the banks are gambling that this will help to stem the decline of home prices.

Or let’s take a look at Miami -- a market that suffered one of the largest price collapses since the bubble popped. In 2010, the banks repossessed 23,000 properties just in Miami-Dade County. They foreclosed on 54,000 properties in the 3 south Florida counties of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Although they sharply curtailed repossessions in 2011, that number still totaled roughly 35,000.

I spoke with the head of data for the Miami Association of Realtors on May 18 and was amazed to learn that there were only 282 repossessed properties on the active MLS.

A similar tactic has been occurring in Phoenix. During the height of the credit crisis in early 2009, 2/3 of all homes sold in Maricopa County were repossessed properties. That percentage was down to 40% a year ago. Take a look at this chart from Phoenix broker Leif Swanson.
 


In April, only 17% of all homes sold in the Phoenix metro were REOs on the active MLS. Banks are hoping that this cutback of foreclosed properties for sale will steady home prices.

Why the Collapse is Coming

Despite all the mortgage modifications, refinancings, and cutbacks in REOs for sale that have taken place in the past 2 ½ years, prices continue to decline. Will this change anytime soon?

Let’s take a look at potential buyers. It’s an undeniable fact that the trade-up buyer is gone in every major metro market. Most of those who would like to sell and buy another house are unable to do so. Their house is underwater and their equity is gone.

I talk to Phoenix broker Leif Swanson on a regular basis. He has explained that the few normal sales he closes are for sellers over 70 years old. Because they have owned the property for decades, they have equity. The trade-up buyer of the past – ages 30-60 -- has disappeared.

That leaves first-time buyers and investors. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, their survey of roughly 2,500 brokers nationwide finds that roughly 30% of all purchases nationwide are by investors, many paying all-cash. Some analysts have argued that this is a good thing for housing markets. This is rubbish. There aren’t enough potential all-cash investors to make-up for the collapse of the trade-up market.

Furthermore, investors are concentrating in the sand states where prices have collapsed more than anywhere else – Arizona, Nevada, and Florida. Prices have plunged so much in the past year here in Connecticut because there are not many investors.

That leaves first-time buyers. Do you really think there are enough potential first-time buyers out there to keep prices from declining further? I’ve written extensively about renters and the changing attitude toward buying a home.

Had it not been for the FHA’s program of mortgage insurance, buying by first- timers would have collapsed. The latest FHA Single-Family Outlook revealed that 78% of all purchase mortgages went to first-time buyers.

When you look at securitized mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the picture is very grim. In the fourth quarter of 2011, 80% of all Fannie/Freddie mortgage originations were refinancings. The average down payment was 30%. How many first-time buyers can put that much down?

More recently, an April 2012 Federal Reserve Board survey of bank loan officers found that fewer than 4% of those surveyed said that their bank had eased mortgage lending standards for prime mortgages.

Worst of all is what I’ve been saying for more than a year. A growing number of prospective first-time buyers are reluctant to buy even though they can afford to. Their attitude is this: What’s the rush? I think prices are headed lower. And I like the flexibility that renting gives me.

As prices continue to decline, this new attitude feeds on itself – it becomes a vicious circle.

What About the Potential Sellers?
 
Over the past two years, I have written extensively about the so-called “shadow inventory.” It’s real, growing and very scary in what it says about where things are heading.

You need to keep in mind that the total number of underwater homeowners is far larger than just those who purchased during the bubble years 2004-2007. Millions of homeowners took out what became known as “cashout” refis. Banks were only too willing to shovel out cash to owners whose homes were rising at double-digit rates.

What has been almost completely overlooked by the media is the enormous number of properties with second liens. There are still nearly 12 million home equity lines of credit (HELOC) outstanding. It’s safe to say that 98% or more of these properties are underwater. Roughly 30% of all HELOCs were originated in
California. There are millions of owners there with HELOC balances in excess of $100,000.

The HELOC boom began in 2003. Most of these revolving lines of credit were interest-only loans for the first ten years. After that, they convert into 15-year fully amortizing loans. This means that beginning next year, these loans start to transform into a fully-amortizing loan. The number of HELOCs which do this increases in 2014 and even more in 2015 and 2016.

What will these homeowners do when their HELOC payment soars from a few hundred dollars per month to more than $1,000. The monthly payments that will go into effect in California are mind-boggling.

Finally, let’s not forget all those homeowners who have pulled their home off the market in the past year. A recent survey published by ProTeck Valuation Services showed that MLS listings had dropped more than 35% over the last year in metros such as Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa and Riverside,
CA. Dozens of others saw reductions of more than 15%.

Many are frustrated homeowners who were unwilling to take the hit and do a short sale. Nearly all are simply hoping that the pundits are right that housing markets are bottoming this year. Sooner or later, some of these homes will be put back on the market.

Conclusion

Let’s put this housing credit bubble and collapse in historical perspective. Prior to this disaster, the largest bubble and collapse in American history was the U.S. stock market from 1927 to 1932. Most of you probably don’t know that during that stock market boom, you could buy stocks with only 10% down. Brokers
would lend you up to 90% of the price. Sounds like the housing bubble, doesn’t it?

The Dow Jones Industrials peaked at nearly 400 in October 1929. When it finally hit bottom, the DJI had collapsed to 34. Now that’s a true collapse. Every few months, pundits would claim that the worst was over. Sound familiar? Then the stock market would plunge lower.

Do I see anything on the horizon that could turn things around and correct the growing imbalance between potential homebuyers and sellers. No. Nothing whatsoever. Wishful thinking won’t do it.

My advice to homeowners in nearly all major metros is quite simple. Get an appraisal from a professional appraiser to find out what the market value of your home is. Seriously consider putting your home on the market within the next six months. You will have a chance of selling it.

Within a year, I expect many of the weakest markets to show signs of unraveling. Perhaps the most vulnerable market is the entire NYC metro area. Sooner or later, the banks will have to start foreclosing or even doing short sales. When these properties hit the market in significant numbers, I have no doubt that prices in the entire region – where 19 million people reside – will collapse.

For other major metros, the plunge will depend on how crazy the bubble was during 2004-2007 and how large the total number of underwater owners becomes.

Predictions are always iffy. But I am convinced that things will get ugly from here and that there is no solution that can prevent this collapse. The wisest thing is for you to do is prepare for the worst. Is there anything wrong with renting a nice house or condo to ride out this perfect storm?


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/another-housing-collapse-is-coming-soon-2012-5#ixzz1wMLA2PJ0
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 07:10:48 AM
Young Americans Getting Worst of Obama's Economy
 Townhall.com ^ | May 30, 2012 | Bob Beauprez

Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 10:05:23 AM by Kaslin

"While we have rescued our economy from catastrophe, we have also begun to build a new foundation for growth." -Barack Obama from the White House, August 7, 2009

In 2008, Obama inspired legions of young Americans who bought into his "Change you can believe in" campaign message. According to the Pew Research Center, voters under the age of 30 supported Obama over John McCain 66:31 – by far the largest disparity between young voters and other age groups in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972. In addition to the critical vote totals, Obama attracted thousands of high energy campaign volunteers that brought unbridled enthusiasm to his campaign of Hope-and-Change.

Sadly, three years later, it is more like Hopeless Change that millions of young Americans face. In exchange for that 2:1 vote of confidence they gave Obama in 2008, the 18-29 year-olds are feeling the brunt of the economic stagnation – often by twice the degree of all other age groups. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The U.S. labor market is in a malaise, but young adults are in crisis."

Maybe you hadn't noticed, but the recession supposedly ended almost three years ago. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER, the economic downturn that began in December 2007, lasted 18 months and officially ended  in June, 2009. NBER defines a recession is a period of falling economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. Economists declare the end of a recession when the declining trend is reversed.

The point at which the economy begins to create more new jobs than it sheds each month is crucial in making a determination of when a recovery begins. The following graph analyzes job loss through the eleven U.S. recessions since the end of World War II. Clearly this has been the deepest recession in terms of job loss and it has also been by far the slowest to recover to pre-recession employment levels. Note the rapid recovery to normal employment in all the previous recessions. It will take nearly 6 million more new jobs before the current labor force resembles employment numbers in late 2007 when this recession began.



When economists declared the recession over and the beginning of a period of recovery, the President was quick to react. Not being one to miss a chance to spike-the-football, Barack Obama took full credit with a speech outside the Oval Office in the summer of 2009. Notice the "we have rescued" reference in the above statement from the President. But, the pain of the economic "catastrophe" he claimed to have ended drags on with no real end in sight. And, whatever " new foundation for growth" he was talking about must have been built out of Jell-O.

So, for 35 of the 40 months that he's been in office, Barack Obama has been the beneficiary of an economy technically in expansive, recovery mode – on the way up. That deep into an economic recovery usually means good things are happening like significant GDP growth, new job creation, wages and salaries on the rise – except none of that has happened with this recovery, even though that was the promise of The One as he campaigned for the job and during the honeymoon period of his first term. Now, he says he just needs more time. The American people just need to practice patience. And, of course, it is still George W. Bush's fault.

In his "American Promise" speech in Denver on August 27, 2008, Obama promised an America beyond the "broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush." He used the word "promise" 32 times, so this time he must have really meant it – or, maybe he just thought we didn't hear it the other 31 times.

Unfortunately, what has happened is persistent unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, depressed wages and purchasing power, massive depreciation of home values, doubling of gas prices, rapid increase in food and health care costs, and nearly stagnant economic growth. Virtually everyone and every sector have been negatively impacted, but young Americans just entering the workforce are suffering the most.

A new economic report by Gallup says 32% of 18-29 year-olds in the U.S. workforce were underemployed in April. That number is greater than the previous month of March (30.1%) and also higher than a year ago (30.7%), so nearly three years after the recovery supposedly began the trend is still worsening. Unemployment among this age group (13.6%) is nearly twice as high as any other age group, according to Gallup. Another 18.4% are working part-time, "but wanting to work full time." This trend is also worse than in March as well as April, 2011.

"Today's slow economic growth is a disaster for those unemployed and underemployed as they look for jobs when so few new jobs are being created. For younger Americans as a group, this is a particularly acute issue," summarized Gallup.

According to newly released research by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, only 49% of college graduates from the classes of 2009-2010-and 2011 had found a full-time job within a year of graduation, compared with 73% for students who graduated in the prior three years. Meanwhile, the cost of that college degree for the job they can't find continues to increase. Average student loan debt for the class of 2010 (the latest available data) was $25,250; a 5% increase over 2009.

Among young people entering the workforce with lower education levels, the prospects are even worse. For young workers with only a high school degree, unemployment is "astonishingly high" according to the Economic Policy Institute. EPI reports that the unemployment rate for young high school graduates jumped from 17.5 percent in 2007 to 32.7 percent in 2010, "dwarfing the increases in prior recessions," and remains above 31% still today. A staggering one-out-of-two black high school graduates (49.1%) are unemployed. For Hispanics, it is 33.8%.

If fortunate enough to find a job, new graduates likely have to settle for less than their predecessors, too. According to EPI, the starting hourly wages had declined for both young men (7.6%) and women (6%) as compared to 2000, and wages are barely above 1989 levels when adjusted to 2011 dollars.

Obama ravaged the economic record of his predecessor pointing out that during Bill Clinton's two terms in office, "the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush." But, under Obama first 39 months, median household income has declined $4.300 - $2,900 since June 2009 when the recovery supposedly began.

Nearly four years into Obama's "American Promise" young people are finding they have to compete with more than 20 million other unemployed or underemployed Americans. Degree in hand and ready to claim their place in America's great "middle class" they discover that 95% of the net job losses during the recession were in the middle-skill occupations like office workers, sales associates, bank tellers, and machine operators. And, thus far, those mid-level jobs haven't started coming back.

According to the Pew Research Center, since 2010 the share of young adults 18-24 years old currently employed (54%) has been the lowest since the government began collecting data in 1948. Additionally, the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults is the widest in recorded history – about 15%.

For all of the soaring rhetoric in that laced Obama's 2008 American Promise speech, young Americans are hard pressed to see much fulfillment of his litany of promises. According to Pew, by huge margins, Americans of all ages believe reaching some basic financial goals is harder for today's young adults than it was for their parents. Whether the objective is finding a job (82%), saving for the future (75%), paying for college (71%), or buying a home (69%), Americans believe that today's younger generation has a tougher row-to-hoe. The prolonged bad economy has affected the personal lives of young Americans, too, and the nation's culture and future as a result; 31% say they have postponed getting married or having a baby. Nationally, the birthrate has fallen every year since 2007. Pew also found that 24% of young adults moved back in with their parents for economic reasons after living on their own.

As with all other age groups, the economy is the number one issue on the minds of young adult voters, too, and they are not happy. A newly released survey showed just 34% of 18-to-24 year olds are "satisfied" with Obama, while 51% said they were "disappointed," "worried" or "angry." The survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University's Berkeley Center sampled 2000 young adults and found Obama held a narrow 48:41 lead over a "generic" Republican candidate – a dramatic shift from the 66:31 advantage he enjoyed over McCain with young voters in 2008.

A day can change a lot in politics. A week is like forever, and the election is still 25 weeks away. The landscape could change, but "Things are very, very bleak and very different than four or five years ago," according to Cliff Zukin, a political science professor at Rutgers University's Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, of the economic situation facing young adults. "These guys are in trouble and they know it," says Zukin.

In 2008, young people voted for the candidate most like them; he liked to have a good time, didn't have much in the way of experience, but talked a really good game. He seemed more like a cool older brother than their grandfather.

But, this time it is more like, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." It is clear that Obama was all talk, or "big hat, no cows." Instead of some new American Promise when they get out of school ready to take on the world, today's young Americans face the lowest employment-to-population ratio since 1948. "Their employment prospects are dim, their debt is high, their lives are on hold and a stunning number are living with their parents, even into their 30s," even the blindly liberal MSNBC admitted.

Mitt Romney may resemble a wise, successful, experienced, and staid older uncle rather than the try-anything, live-for-today big brother with his hair on fire, but a little more composure, dignity, and a strait-laced sense of propriety might be the "Change" that voters are looking for in 2012.

Rather than just somebody that might be fun to hang out with, Romney gives voters an option of a President with vastly more experience, a steady hand who has successfully steered large, complex, troubled enterprises – public as well as private – through very difficult circumstances. In the end, Romney may not entirely erase the 2:1 edge Obama held with young voters in 2008, but I'll bet he gets pretty close, and in the critical swing states like my Colorado, that "change" for 2008 might make all the difference.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 10:19:57 AM
Pending Home Sales Unexpectedly Slide in April
FoxBusiness.com ^ | 5/30/2012 | Reuters

Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 10:43:30 AM by mykroar

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in April to a four-month low, undermining some of the recent optimism that the housing sector was touching bottom.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April, fell 5.5 percent to 95.5, its lowest level since December.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which lead existing home sales by a month or two, to rise 0.1 percent after a previously reported 4.1 percent gain.

The housing market has been one of the U.S. economy's weakest links as it recovers from the 2007-09 recession, but many economists think the sector will actually add to economic growth in 2012 for the first time since 2005.

The report on pending contracts in April could temper some of that optimism.

Millions of Americans owe more on their homes than they are worth, making them more cautious about spending and holding back the economic recovery.

After a debt-fueled housing bubble, prices have fallen about a third since 2006 according to some measures and the housing market continues to be saddled with an oversupply of unsold properties.

There have been some signs that the deflation in prices could be bottoming out. On Tuesday, the S&P/Case Shiller composite index showed home prices rose for the second month in a row in March.

But Wednesday's report showed contracts fell 12 percent in the western United States and 6.8 percent in the South. Contracts edged lower in the Midwest and rose slightly in the Northeast.

The National Association of Realtors downplayed the declines.

"All of the major housing market indicators are expected to trend gradually up," said Lawrence Yun, chief NAR economist.

Signed contracts were up 14.4 percent in the 12 months to April.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 11:37:52 AM
Auto Jobs: Sign of the Times
Published: Wednesday, 30 May 2012 | 11:22 AM ET Text Size By: Phil LeBeau
CNBC Correspondent
Hyundai Motors America Montgomery Manufacturing Plant


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
It should not come as a surprise with unemployment over 8% that good paying jobs in manufacturing are harder than ever to land.

At the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama more than 20,000 people have applied for one of the 877 job openings.

The surge of people applying may seem unusual, but it's not.

Take a look:

Last summer Ford had more than 18,000 people apply for one of 1,800 jobs at the retooled Louisville plant. That plant will open and start building the Edge SUV in mid-June.

In 2011, more than 41,000 applied for one of the 1,300 positions at the new Toyota plant in Tupelo, Mississippi.

In 2009, more than 65,000 applied for one of the 2,700 jobs at the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN. Since opening, that plant has added shifts and is currently hiring another 820 workers.

There's no doubt the recession and the fact so many Americans are still out of work was the primary factor driving the waves of people applying for jobs at auto plants.

Another huge factor is the type of jobs being offered. Good pay and benefits with solid companies in an industry set for steady growth over the next 3-5 years. Those jobs are hard to find in blue-collar America.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 02:41:11 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/job-recovery-is-scant-for-americans-in-prime-working-years/2012/05/29/gJQAnza9zU_story.html



Wow.   

Hope and Change everyone!   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2012, 07:27:25 PM
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Subpar Obama Recovery: 6.5 Million Jobs Below Average
IBD Editorials ^ | May 30, 2012 | JOHN MERLINE
Posted on May 30, 2012 8:52:48 PM EDT by Kaslin

In his recent speeches on the campaign trail and at official functions, President Obama typically touts the fact that over the past two years, the economy has created more than 4 million new jobs, with more than 1 million in the past six months alone.

At a fundraiser last month, he called this "extraordinary progress."

But the economic recovery that Obama has presided over has been far from extraordinary. It hasn't even been ordinary.

In fact, it's come in well below average on several key indicators compared with the previous 10 economic recoveries, dating back to 1949, according to an IBD analysis of various economic data.

And on several measures, the current recovery — which started five months after Obama took office and is now in its 35th month — is the worst on record since World War II.

Here are the results.

Employment: By this point, the average job growth in the past 10 recoveries was 6.9%. Under Obama, jobs have grown by just 1.9%, according to data from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.

Had the current recovery kept pace with just the average recovery over the past 60 years, there would be 6.5 million more people with jobs today, and the unemployment rate would be below 7%, instead of above 8%. That assumes several million more Americans would have joined the workforce. If the current anemic labor force were unchanged, those 6.5 million jobs would drive unemployment to 4%.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 05:56:17 AM
March 15: Reported - 351,000, Revised - 353,000
 
March 22: Reported - 348,000, Revised - 364,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
March 29: Reported - 359,000, Revised - 363,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
April 05: Reported - 357,000, Revised - 367,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
April 12: Reported - 380,000, Revised - 388,000 Reported - up, Actual - up
 
April 19: Reported - 386,000, Revised - 389,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
April 26: Reported - 388,000, Revised - 392,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
May 03: Reported - 365,000, Revised - 368,000 Reported - down, Actual - down
 
May 10: Reported - 367,000, Revised - 370,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
May 17: Reported - 370,000, Revised - 372,000 Reported - no change, Actual - up
 
May 24: Reported - 370,000, Revised - 373,000 Reported - down, Actual - up
 
May 31: Reported - 383,000, Revised - TBD












HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 07:46:02 AM
Q1 GDP revised downward to 1.9% [Welcome to the Wreckovery Summer]
 Hot Air ^ | MAY 31, 2012 | Ed Morrissey




The Commerce Department released its second estimate of economic growth in the first quarter, and as expected, the number got revised downward. The advance report a month ago showed Q1′s annualized growth number at 2.2%, down from 2011Q4′s 3.0%, a significant drop, but the second estimate pegs Q1 growth even lower at 1.9%:  

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.



The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.2 percent (see “Revisions” on page 3).



The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.



The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment, an acceleration in imports, and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in exports and in PCE.


(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 07:56:59 AM
Under Obama, Things Keep Getting Worse
 Townhall.com ^ | May 31, 2012 | Matt Towery




No matter what propaganda we see from the elite media or from Obama supporters, the American people will not be fooled. The May report by The Conference Board showed consumer confidence at its lowest point in the last five months.

That might shock those who swallow the Obama administration's argument that it has produced significant job growth and reduced unemployment. That's all wonderful until you run into someone who has been unemployed for years and is not even counted in the unemployment figures. The fact is that the American people can feel it when things are not improving, and despite being told that the nation is making the turn toward a strengthening economy, the public feels the squeeze at every turn.

Yes, we keep being told things are getting better, like the advance estimate of the first quarter's gross domestic product, which was originally reported at 2.2 percent. Oops, that number was revised at the end of May to be a tepid 1.9 percent. That is hardly news for celebration and additional reason not to trust any rosy projections that might arrive right before the November elections. Oh, and by the way, sales for existing houses dropped in April, shocking the experts who did not see it coming.

Of course we are all told, based on our antiquated way of measuring inflation, that the cost of goods and services in America is really not rising much at all. Perhaps that is the case, but it seems hard to leave a grocery store these days with any reasonable amount of products and not drop at least a hundred dollars. And all of this for food and other products that seem to be in smaller and smaller packages. I guess that's not inflation, it's just imagination.

As for the thrill we should all have over the decline in gas prices, well, many just are not so overjoyed. We are nowhere near the average price for gas on the day President Obama was inaugurated. That price, even "deemed" as correct under this new print media "judge and jury" known as "Politifact," was $1.79. While oil prices rise and fall (and, curiously, often fall when the public starts to really complain), the price in most areas of the nation is well into the three dollar plus range. Now, of course, that's not inflation, it's just imagination.

Let's just tell the truth: Our health care premiums are rising, interest rates on credit cards soared partially due to overreaction by the Obama administration, college tuition is getting out of hand, and the list goes on and on. Who wants to buy in an economy in which the statistics the government uses suggests costs are barely rising, but in which at the end of the week people have empty pockets or big additions to their credit cards?

What about the other side of the equation -- savings and investments? Because we allegedly have no real inflation, the Federal Reserve is giving money away, and their low interest rates also guarantee that you will get next to nothing for parking your money in a money-market account. In fact, about the only place the average American can make any real money is in the stock market. This is a market that has risen while the rest of the nation has been stalled out. Now does anyone really trust the stock market long term, in light of the high jinks we have seen surrounding just the new public offering of Facebook stock? The answer is, not likely.

Businesses are already building in the increased costs of doing business in America if Obama wins a second term. They have already been regulated to death, but the threats that come with four years, particularly if Republicans do not control both the House and Senate, have virtually every entity that employs people -- from the largest to the smallest -- preparing for the worst.

They know an Obama re-election means that the Bush tax cuts go away and that marginal rates will rise for virtually anyone who participates in our free enterprise system. Most deductions will disappear, and the natural reaction from businesses will be to trim more fat (is there any left to trim?) and try to charge more for a product or service.

If anyone doubts how desperate companies can get in a crunch, just look to the airlines. Most charge you extra for everything but the supply of oxygen and cabin pressurization onboard. If we don't look out, they may start charging us to breathe while in flight.

It appears President Obama believes in his own form of trickledown economics -- we just trickle down to nothing.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 08:20:14 AM
U.S. 1Q GDP Growth Revised Down to 1.9%
 

Published May 31, 2012
 
Reuters
 










U.S. economic growth was a bit slower than initially thought in the first quarter as businesses restocked shelves at a moderate pace and government spending declined sharply.
 
Gross domestic product increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate on Thursday, down from last month's 2.2 percent estimate. The economy grew at a 3.0 percent rate in the fourth quarter.
 
The report also showed that after-tax corporate profits dropped for the first time in three years.
 
A modest downward revision to consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, and stronger import growth also accounted for the weaker first-quarter output. Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth would be revised down to a 1.9 percent pace.
 
Business inventories increased $57.7 billion, instead of $69.5 billion, adding only 0.21 percentage point to GDP growth compared with 0.59 percentage point in the previous estimate.
 
While the small inventory build-up held back growth in the January-March quarter, restocking of shelves, retreating gasoline prices and an improving housing market should provide a boost to output in the second quarter.
 
Growth in the second quarter is currently estimated at a pace of about 2.5 percent.
 
Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a revised 1.7 percent rate in the first quarter, rather than 1.6 percent and up from 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
 
Consumer spending grew at a 2.7 percent pace instead of the previously reported 2.9 percent. It was still an acceleration from the fourth-quarter's 2.1 percent pace.
 
Government spending fell at a much steeper 3.9 percent rate, instead of the previously reported 3.0 percent. Both exports and imports were much stronger than initially estimated.
 
On the positive side, business spending on equipment and software was revised up to show a much firmer 3.9 percent growth rate instead of the previously reported 1.7 percent.
 
However, there are signs business spending weakened early in the second quarter.
 
Residential construction was revised slightly up and the retrenchment in investment on nonresidential structures was not as deep as previously thought.
 
When measured from the income side the economy expanded at a 2.7 percent rate. Gross domestic income rose at a revised 2.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter, previously reported as a 4.4 percent rate. Real disposable personal income for the fourth quarter was revised down to a 0.2 percent growth rate from 1.7 percent.
 
For the first quarter, real disposable income rose 0.4 percent.
 
While GDP and GDI estimates for a given quarter may differ because they are calculated using different data, over time, they tend to follow similar patterns of change.
 
The department also said after-tax corporate profits fell at a 4.1 percent rate, the biggest decline since the fourth quarter of 2008, as taxes took a big bite from earnings. After-tax profits rose 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter.


Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2012/05/31/us-1q-gdp-growth-revised-lower/#ixzz1wSdpI8li


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 08:30:05 AM
UPDATE IIII: CHART OF THE DAY: 1.53760%
 


Joe Weisenthal|8 minutes ago|1,819|7
 

inShare.4




 
   












AAA

 





.



























 














ORIGINAL POST: This is all you need to know.
 
All the economic data was bad today:
 
ADP, initial claims, Chicago PMI, Challenger Job Cuts, and GDP were all bummers.
 
US stocks are down (S&P off 0.66%) and the yield on the 10-year -- what people are willing to accept to lend to the US government for 10 years, is down to just 1.57970%.
 
UPDATE:
 
The rates fall further. 1.5780%
 
UPDATE II:
 
The yield just keeps dropping. Now 1.5746%
 
UPDATE III:
 
MORE DROPPING! Now the yield is down to 1.55610%
 
UPDATE IIII:

The yield, it's melting! Now down to 1.53760%



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-157970-2012-5#ixzz1wSgBOBOe







HEY LEFTISTS - LETS TALK ABOUT REAL ISSUES  HUH? 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 09:21:46 AM
Economy weaker than first thought
 Associated Press ^ | May 31,2012

Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy is looking slightly weaker one day before a critical report on May job growth. Growth was a little slower in the first three months of the year than first estimated, largely because governments and consumers spent less and businesses restocked their supplies more slowly.

The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits rose to a five-week high last week.


(Excerpt) Read more at wzzm13.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 31, 2012, 09:48:27 AM
America Lost 129,000 Millionaires in 2011
Published: Thursday, 31 May 2012 | 11:59 AM ET Text Size By: Robert Frank
CNBC Reporter & Editor


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
America’s millionaire population declined last year for the first time since the financial crisis, according to a new report.

The population of U.S. millionaire households (households with investible assets of $1 million or more) fell to 5,134,000 from 5,263,000 in 2011, according to The Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth study.

Total private wealth in North America fell by 0.9 percent, to $38 trillion.


The ultra-rich were the largest losers in dollar terms. Households in North America with investible assets of more than $100 million saw their wealth decline 2.4 percent. Their population declined slightly to 2,928 from 2,989.

The main reason for all this wealth loss? Stocks.



Robert Frank
CNBC Reporter
& Editor
With the wealthy today increasingly dependent on stocks for wealth, last year’s stalled stock market shrunk the population of millionaires and nicked the fortunes of existing millionaires. According to BCG, the amount of wealth held in equities declined 3.6 percent last year.

Globally, the picture looked a little brighter. Virtually all of the growth in global millionaires came from emerging markets last year. While the United States lost nearly 130,000 millionaires, the rest of the world added 175,000 millionaires. There are now 12.6 million millionaire households globally, according to BCG.

The country with the highest “millionaire density” – proportion of population who are millionaires – was Singapore. More than 17 percent of Singapore’s households are millionaires.

While 2011 saw declines in U.S. millionaires, the future looks brighter, BCG said. They expect wealth held by millionaires globally to grow at around six percent a year in Asia-Pacific. “We are in a two-speed world,” said the report. “All of the growth is being driven by developing markets.”

-By CNBC's Robert Frank
Follow Robert Frank on Twitter: @robtfrank

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2012, 06:36:48 AM
U.S. PMI HITS 54, SLOWEST GROWTH IN THREE MONTHS
Eric Platt|38 minutes ago|516|1

 



UPDATE:
 
U.S. manufacturing grew at its slowest rate in three months, new data out of Markit Economics shows.
 
Click here for updates >
 
The key U.S. PMI reading registered at 54.0, slightly above a preliminary reading that pegged the figure at 53.9.
 
However, that represents a substantial dip from the 56.0 reading in April. Markit attributed the weakness to lower order books, employment needs, and output.
 
"The weakest order book trend was seen for producers of consumer goods, as has been the case over the past year, where a further easing in the rate of increase was reported in May," Markit Economics said in its release. "However, producers of investment goods, such as plant and machinery, saw an especially steep easing in growth of new orders, with the May survey showing one of the smallest inflows of new business seen since a steep downturn was reported in the sector in late-2010."
 
Below, key output from the report.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-pmi-2012-6#ixzz1wY4JncxI

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2012, 08:43:00 AM
Veteran Unemployment Skyrockets In May
Walter Hickey|2 minutes ago|4|



This Collapse In US Interest Rates Is History In The Making—Here's What It Really Means

 
In an already dismal month for jobs data, with national unemployment rising to 8.2% after a miserable jobs report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported that unemployment has hit 12.7% for veterans who served in the military since 2001.
 
This is a jump up from 9.2%, the unemployment rate for recent vets in April. May's figures were disastrous all around, but hit recent veterans much harder than the general workforce or veterans measured as a whole (7.8% unemployment).
 
The Department of Veteran's Affairs has tried to push a bill — a GI education benefit — which would grant assistance to veterans returning home.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/veteran-unemployment-skyrockets-in-may-2012-6#ixzz1wYa1QIJx

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2012, 08:51:20 AM
766,000 More Women Unemployed Today Than When Obama Took Office
June 1, 2012
   



Former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama at the White House on May 31, 2012 for the unveiling of President Bush's portrait. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

 
(CNSNews.com) - The number of American women who are unemployed was 766,000 individuals greater in May 2012 than in January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
In January 2009, there were approximately 5,005,000 unemployed women in the United States, according to BLS. In May 2012, there were 5,771,000.
 
The BLS derives its employment statistics from an overall number it calls the civilian non-institutional population. This includes all Americans 16 or over who are not on active duty in the military and who are not in an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home. From this civilian non-institutional population, BLS determines a subset it calls the civilian labor force, which includes all members of the civilian non-institutional population who are either employed or have made specific efforts to find work in the past four weeks. People who are not employed and who have not sought work in the past four weeks are considered by the BLS to have dropped out of the labor force.
 
Unemployed people are those who are in the labor force but do not have a job—despite having looked for one in the past four weeks. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the overall civilian labor force that does not have a job—that is, who have sought a job in the past four weeks and not found one.
 
In January 2009, according to BLS, the unemployment rate for American women was 7.0 percent. In May 2012, it was 7.9 percent.
 
When Obama took office in January 2009, the female civilian non-institutional population was 121,166,000. In May 2012, it hit 125,788,000—an increase of 4,622,000 since January 2012.
 
However, at the same time the female civilian non-institutional population was increasing, the percentage participating in the labor force was declining—following a long-term trend. In January 2009, 59.4 percent of women participated in the labor force, while in May 2012 it was 57.8.
 
May’s 57.8 percent female participation rate in the labor force was up from April’s rate of 57.6 percent—but that level (57.6 percent) was the lowest it had been since March 1993.Female participation in the labor force peaked at 60.3 percent in April 2000. The last time it was above 60 percent was March 2001, when it hit 60.2 percent.
 
Despite the increase in the female non-institutional population over the past three years, the actual number of women employed in the United States in May 2012 was about 83,000 lower than it was in January 2009. In January 2009, there were 66,969,000 women employed in the United States and in May 2012 there were 66,886,000.
 
The number of women employed in the United States peaked at 68,102,000 in April 2008, according to BLS.  The number of women employed in the United States today is 1,216,000 less than that.
 
BLS posts historical data on female employment going back to 1948. Since then, the female unemployment rate hit its lowest level—2.7 percent—in May 1953. At that time, however, only 34.0 percent of non-institutionalized American civilian women 16 or older participated in the labor force.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 01, 2012, 07:58:56 PM
'Beware a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008': Head of World Bank warns Europe is heading...
Daily Mail ^ | 06/01/12 | Hugo Duncan
Posted on June 1, 2012 10:53:15 PM EDT by TigerLikesRooster

'Beware a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008': Head of World Bank warns Europe is heading for 'danger zone' as world markets suffer bleakest day of the year so far

Robert Zoellick: 'Far from clear leaders ready for impending catastrophe'

Raft of dismal news from around world wreaked havoc on market

Manufacturing output crashed in Britain, jobless up in Europe and U.S.

Fast-emerging economies such as Brazil and China running out of steam

By Hugo Duncan

PUBLISHED: 15:49 GMT, 1 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:52 GMT, 1 June 2012

The head of the World Bank yesterday warned that financial markets face a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008.

On the bleakest day for the global economy this year, Robert Zoellick said crisis-torn Europe was heading for the ‘danger zone’.

Mr Zoellick, who stands down at the end of the month after five years in charge of the watchdog, said it was ‘far from clear that eurozone leaders have steeled themselves’ for the looming catastrophe amid fears of a Greek exit from the single currency and meltdown in Spain.

The flow of money into so-called ‘safe havens’ such as UK, German and US government debt turned into a stampede yesterday.

In Berlin the two-year government bond yield fell below zero for the first time, with the bizarre result that jittery international investors are now paying – rather than being paid – for lending to Germany.

There was a raft of dismal economic news from around the world, with manufacturing output falling in Britain and Europe, unemployment jumping in the eurozone and America, and fast-emerging economies such as Brazil and China showing signs of running out of steam.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 02, 2012, 12:52:14 PM
“Recovery Summer” Scorecard: 170,000 More on Disability Than Decline in Unemployment
Confounded Interest ^ | June 2, 2012 | Anthony B. Sanders
Posted on June 2, 2012 1:23:01 PM EDT by whitedog57

Since President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, I will ignore the summer of 2009 since the economic policies adopted by his Administration did not have time to fully kick-in. So, I am starting the “Recovery Summer” scorecard as of July 1, 2010.

So, we have had two recovery summers (2010 and 2011) and we are entering the third recovery summer. Here is the scorecard beginning with July 1 2010 and ending with the latest BLS report for May 1, 2012.

While unemployment has fallen since the beginning of the 2010 recovery summer by 1,899,000, the number of people going of disability grew by 2,059,000 for a NET INCREASE of 170,000 going on disability.

Last month, the net increase in people going on disability was 100,000 greater than the decline in unemployment. So, the disability-to-unemployment situation is worsening.

Since the 2010 recovery summer began, the Federal debt held by the public has swelled by $2.38 trillion. And the employment to population ration has risen by 0.10% to 58.60%.

And U6 unemployment is at just under 15% after two recovery summers while labor force participation fell to 63.8 from 65.3.

So, we have $2.38 trillion MORE in debt and 170,000 MORE people going on disability than the reduction in unemployment. That is a disastrous performance record for the Obama/Romer/Summers/Goolsbee top-down, BIG government, Keynesian/Hicks-Hansen/Krugman philosophy.

I have a suggestion for The Obama Administration. Just change your mantra to “Slumber Summer.” And change the Department of Labor’s logo to Slumber Inc from the James Bond flick “Diamonds are Forever.”

(Excerpt) Read more at confoundedinterest.wordp ress.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2012, 07:52:10 PM
Layoffs to Begin Monday at RG Steel(4th Largest U.S. Flat-Rolled Steel Company)
WYTV.com ^ | June 3, 2012 | WYTV.com
Posted on June 3, 2012 8:34:39 PM EDT by Son House

Layoffs will begin on Monday for workers at RG Steel in Warren.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week in Delaware. The financial problems will idle plants in Warren, West Virginia and Maryland. Over a thousand employees are effected.

RG Steel said that despite cost reductions and improvements, it has been unable to succeed in the current market.

The company is looking to sell its operations.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2012, 08:12:56 PM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303552104577440342850277660.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop



Obama = typhoid Mary.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2012, 07:59:21 AM
BIG MISS: April Factory Orders Fall 0.6%, Ex-Cars Fall 1.1%
Business Insider ^ | 6/4/2012 | Joe Weisenthal

Posted on Monday, June 04, 2012 10:10:03

ORIGINAL POST: Last economic datapoint of the day: April factory orders come out at 10:00 AM ET. Analysts expect an increase of 0.2%. That compares to a decline of 1.9% in the previous month. Given all the bad news in econ data-world these days, this one will be closely watched for confirmation or negation of the trend. UPDATE: The numbers are out and bad. Factory orders fell 0.6% in April, which is way worse than the 0.2% growth anticipated. Last month was revised to a decline of 2.1% from a decline of -1.5%. And ext-transport, the decline was a solid 1.1%. Not good. Markets are at their lows of the day.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 05, 2012, 06:54:28 AM
The Lowlights Of Obamanomics
Posted 06/04/2012 07:14 PM ET

www.investors.com


The Obama Record
 
The Obama Record: May's weak jobs report further confirms the president's policies are failing to help the economy. This is, indeed, the worst recovery since the Depression.
 
Negative superlatives associated with this presidency keep piling up. The toll so far:
 
• The share of Americans who've been out of work a long time — now at 42% of the unemployed — is the highest since the Great Depression (source: Labor Department).
 
• The proportion of the civilian working-age population actually working, at 58%, is the smallest since the Carter era (Labor Department).
 
• Growth in nonfarm payroll jobs since the recovery began in June 2009 is the slowest of any comparable recovery since World War II (Hoover Institution).
 
• The rate of new business startups — the engine of job growth — has plunged to an all-time low of 7.87% of all businesses (Census Bureau).
 
• 3 in 10 young adults can't find jobs and live with their parents, highest since the 1950s (Pew Research).
 

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast

• 54% of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 are jobless or underemployed, the highest share in decades (Northeastern University).
 
• Black teen unemployment, now at 37%, is near Depression-era highs (Labor Department).
 
• Almost 1 in 6 Americans are now poor — the highest ratio in 30 years — and the total number of poor, at 49.1 million, is the largest on record (Census).
 
• The share of Hispanics in poverty has topped that of blacks for the first time, 28.2% to 25.4% (Census).
 
• The number of Americans on food stamps — 45 million recipients, or 1 in 7 residents — also is the highest on record (Congressional Budget Office).
 
• Total government dependency — defined as the share of Americans receiving one or more federal benefit payments — is now at 47%, highest ever (Hoover).
 
• The share of Americans paying no income tax, at 49.5%, is the highest ever (Heritage Foundation, IRS).
 
• The national homeownership rate, now at 65.4%, is the lowest in 15 years (Census).
 
• The 30-point gap between black and white Americans who own their own homes is the widest in two decades and one of the widest on record (Census).
 
• Federal spending, now at 23.4% of GDP, is the highest since WWII (CBO).
 
• Excluding defense and interest payments, spending is the highest in American history, at 17.6% of the economy (First Trust Economics).
 
• The federal debt, at 69% of GDP, is the highest since just after WWII (CBO).
 
• The U.S. budget deficit, now at 9.5% of the economy, is the highest since WWII (CBO).
 
• U.S. Treasury debt has been downgraded for the first time in history, meaning the U.S. government no longer ranks among risk-free borrowers (S&P).
 
This is what Obamanomics has wrought. Fiscal promiscuity. Trickle-up poverty. Shared misery.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 05, 2012, 01:23:38 PM

CBO: Debt will be double GDP by 2037

 By Erik Wasson - 06/05/12 12:19 PM ET




U.S. debt is on track to be nearly twice the size of the U.S. economy by 2037, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned Tuesday.

 The new CBO report states that increased entitlement spending driven by the retirement of the baby boomers and insufficient revenue is making the long-term outlook for the national debt increasingly dire.
 







Under CBO’s most likely scenario, in which lawmakers extend current tax rates and fail to curb entitlement spending, debt held by the public would reach 109 percent of the economy by 2026, and it would be almost 200 percent of GDP by 2037. 


 
Many economists have warned that if debt held by the public approaches 100 percent of GDP, it can bring on the kind of fiscal crisis being felt in European countries today, in which governments must suddenly slash spending and laying off workers in the face of rising interest rates caused by spooked investors. 


 
CBO’s latest prediction is similar to its 2011 report despite the $2.1 trillion in budget cuts enacted in last August’s debt-ceiling deal between the White House and Congress. 


 
CBO said last year that debt as a share of GDP would reach 109 percent of the economy by 2023 — rather than 2026 — and would approach 190 percent in 2035.


 
In its new report, CBO says that if current policies continue, including allowing the Bush-era tax rates to increase in January and going forward with large cuts in payments to doctors under Medicare, the debt path would be less explosive. In that scenario, debt held by the public moves from 73 percent of GDP this year to 61 percent by 2022 and 53 percent by 2037.


 
This prediction is slightly rosier than last year, when CBO predicted federal debt held by the public would grow from about 70 percent in 2011 to 84 percent by 2035 under the current-law scenario. The problem is that Congress is unlikely to allow scheduled spending cuts and tax increases, including an expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax, to take effect.
 
“The explosive path of federal debt under the alternative fiscal scenario underscores the need for large and timely policy changes to put the federal government on a sustainable fiscal course,” the CBO report urges. 


 
CBO notes that the debt stood at 40 percent of GDP at the end of 2008 before Obama took office, and will rise to 70 percent this year.

 Tuesday’s report will likely provide additional campaign fodder for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Republicans, who are emphasizing the need to tackle the long-term debt as a way to create business certainty and boost jobs. 


 
“Today’s CBO report confirms that President Obama has placed us on a path to fiscal ruin," Romney for President policy director Lanhee Chen said in a statement.

"On the heels of last week’s dismal jobs report, today’s CBO report on the deteriorating fiscal situation underscores the obvious: The president’s policies are not working," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement. "Repeating Europe’s mistakes, the president’s policies call for job-crushing tax increases and harsh disruptions for beneficiaries of government programs as the debt spirals out of control. … CBO’s report is the latest in a series of warnings for policymakers to advance principled solutions that responsibly confront our generation’s most pressing challenges."

 Already, super-PACs supporting Romney have been running television advertisements that blame President Obama for the exploding debt.


 
The White House has responded that Romney’s fiscal plans would hurt the poor while protecting tax breaks for the wealthy, and it urged Congress to adopt a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.


 
Democrats used the CBO report to call for a “balanced” debt plan that includes spending cuts and tax increases.

"CBO’s report is a warning that we must get our fiscal house in order by achieving big and balanced deficit reduction that includes both spending and revenues," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “However, Republican leaders’ insistence on finding savings only from cuts to essential services for the most vulnerable Americans will not get us any closer to the real, comprehensive deficit reduction solution we need."

CBO’s report focuses on Medicare and Social Security spending as major drivers of the debt increase.

 Spending on healthcare entitlements in the report rises from 5 percent of GDP today to nearly 10 percent in 2037. Together, major healthcare entitlement spending and Social Security grows from more than 10 percent of GDP to almost 16 percent in the next 25 years.


 
Obama last fall proposed modest cuts to Medicare to try to stabilize its finances, but the White House has not put forth a specific Social Security plan.


 
The House-passed budget, authored by Ryan, seeks to tackle Medicare by partially privatizing it. 


 
Future seniors would be given the option of receiving subsidies to buy private insurance rather than remain in the traditional fee-for-service program. 


 
Democrats say that this approach will actually increase costs and, because the subsidies would be capped, would result in many seniors paying more for their healthcare. They are preparing again to paint the GOP as ending Medicare “as we know it” in the fall campaign. 


 
The Ryan budget was also essentially mum on fixes to Social Security. Bipartisan panels such as the Bowles-Simpson commission have proposed lower cost-of-living increases and an increased retirement age to shore up the program.
 
— This story was posted at 9:52 a.m. and last updated at 1:39 p.m.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 07, 2012, 06:03:01 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: whork on June 07, 2012, 07:31:08 AM
Get a job!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2012, 10:00:25 AM
 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 08, 2012, 08:10:21 PM
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/p-keeps-us-rating-unchanged-outlook-negative-210021912.html



Great job Thugbama
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 12, 2012, 12:44:27 PM
US Deficit More Than Doubles to $125 Billion
Published: Tuesday, 12 Jun 2012 | 3:35 PM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 

 

The government posted a budget deficit of $125 billion in May, more than twice the level registered in the same month last year.

 

The budget has become a key point of political contention in Washington during this election year. Economists worry another budget impasse like the one that cost the United States its "AAA" credit rating last year could be in store at the end of 2012, potentially derailing a fragile economic recovery.

The May deficit, which was close to analyst forecasts, followed a rare month of surplus in April that was due to higher budget receipts during tax season but also other temporary factors.

So far this fiscal year, the budget deficit stands at $844.5 billion, narrower than at the same time a year ago.

Under the government's accounting system, October is the opening month of fiscal 2012. During fiscal 2011 which ended September 30, the budget deficit totaled $1.296 trillion.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 13, 2012, 10:29:05 AM
Under Obama, New Bank Formation Has Dwindled to Nothing

http://libertarian-neocon.blogspot.com/2012/06/under-obama-new-bank-formation-has.html

 
Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:44:25





While listening to the Jamie Dimon testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee today, I was struck by a comment by one of the Senators.  He mentioned that he had heard, but hasn't verified, that in the last year no new bank charters were granted.  If true that is very damning.  We know that banks continue to shutter and if no new ones come on to take their place, that could explain some of our current malaise.  It looks like what that Senator had heard is true.  Here is what I got from the FDIC statistics:


 So far in 2012, there has not been a single bank charter approved.  In 2011, only three were approved (the lowest number since at least 1936!) and even they weren't actually new banks.  Those were charters given to banks specifically created to buy failed banks.  If you add up the number of new bank charters over the entire Obama administration, all 3+ years, the total is 37.  The lowest number in any one year was 50.  That is just abysmal.  To put another way, there were more banks created in the late 1930's, in the 1970's recession, in the 1980's recession and in the wake of the Savings and Loan crisis than there are today.  Also, the total number of banks shrank by 11.6% since Obama took office.  Fewer banks mean fewer places to apply for a loan and therefore less chances you'll get any money at all.

 Dodd-Frank and all those massive regulations that have been crammed down on banks is clearly a culprit.  As former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac commented back in March on the new regulations:

 The bigger banks can absorb it, the smaller banks can’t. I would not be surprised to see half of the community banks in this country go out of business if we don’t give some relief from Dodd-Frank for them...  I think that Dodd-Frank is a terrible piece of financial legislation.  It didn’t address any of the causes of the crisis that we just went through. It won’t prevent the next crisis. It’s heaped volumes and volumes of regulations.

 As Jamie Dimon testified today, he currently has hundreds of regulators onsite at any one time at JP Morgan, but with all the changes, they aren't clear who is in charge of what or who has the authority to do anything.  And this is JP Morgan which has an army of lawyers guiding them through the regulatory jungle.  If he is lost, community banks have no hope.  No wonder there has been almost no new banks formed.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2012, 05:43:14 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/jobless-claims-14-2012-6


Jobless claims on the rise again almost to 400k. 



HOPE AND CHANGE
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2012, 06:17:55 AM
Foreclosures spike 9% in May
 CNN/ YahooFinance ^ | 6/14/12 | Les Christie

Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2012 8:41:47 AM by EBH

Foreclosure filings in May spiked 9% compared with a month earlier, according to an industry group.

RealtyTrac reported that 205,990 U.S. properties received filings last month, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, marking the first monthly increase since January.

Bank repossessions climbed steeply, up 7% to 54,844, after hitting a four-year low in April.

The industry had anticipated that there would be a new wave of foreclosures once the industry resolved the "robo-signing" issues, which came to light in late 2010. A settlement was finalized last April.

Robo-signing put the methods used by the banks to repossess homes under intense scrutiny. That forced lenders to slow the foreclosure process to make sure their paperwork was legal and proper.


(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2012, 07:39:31 AM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-illinois-foreclosures-rise-29-percent-in-may-20120614,0,6903666.story


Sweet - real recovery we have going here.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 14, 2012, 07:48:52 AM
A Brand New Troubling Sign For The Housing Market
 
Mamta Badkar|Jun. 14, 2012, 9:14 AM|1,028|5



Despite talk of a housing bottom, new data shows that foreclosure filings jumped 9 percent from April to 205,990 according RealtyTrac's latest foreclosure report.
 
While the rise in foreclosure activity above the 200,000 mark is worrying, an even more worrisome sign is the rise in foreclosure starts - default notices or scheduled foreclosure auctions.
 
Foreclosure starts were filed on 109,051 U.S. properties and were up for the first time in 27 straight months on a year-over-year basis (YoY).
 
Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac said in an email interview that the uptick in foreclosure starts is troublesome "because the real estate market has started to stabilize over the past few months, helped in part by decreasing foreclosure activity. This new batch of properties entering the foreclosure process could threaten to destabilize the market once again."
 
For now Blomquist says lenders are pushing "smaller waves of distressed loans into foreclosure rather than filling the foreclosure pipeline all at once," which should prevent a sudden drop in home prices.
 
Foreclosure starts increased on an annual basis in 33 of 50 states. Some of the biggest increases were seen in the judicial foreclosure states like New Jersey, where foreclosure starts were up 118 percent YoY, Pennsylvania, 93 percent. In Tennessee, a non-judicial foreclosure state, foreclosure starts were up a whopping 165 percent YoY.
 
Going forward, a higher percent of these foreclosure starts are likely to end up as short sales or auction sales rather thank bank repossessions according to RealtyTrac CEO Brandon Moore. Pre-foreclosure sales have less of a negative impact on home prices than bank-owned sales but they can benefit the lender since, pre-foreclosure sales sell at a higher average price point than bank-owned homes.
 
Here's a chart from RealtyTrac that shows the rise in foreclosure starts:
 







Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-foreclosure-starts-2012-6#ixzz1xmNCmBGj

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2012, 06:11:23 AM
23% of Small Business Owners Went a Year Without Pay
by William Bigelow


 

Barack Obama has said the private sector is doing fine.
 
Tell that to small business owners; a new survey by Citigroup shows that 23% of small business owners have gone more than a year without pay. The study also says that 54% of them have gone without at least one paycheck; 38% of them said their employees had worked overtime without being compensated; and 18% of them had been unable to make a paycheck for their employees at least once.
 
During recent years, 78% of the owners have taken less profit, 70% have been working more hours, and 69% have used their own funds in order to keep their businesses afloat.
 
When asked what issues have been the most problematic for them, the owners didn’t rank their access to financing in the top five, instead claiming lack of sales and consumer confidence were the most troubling factors.
 
Maria Veltre, Citi's managing director of small business, commented:
 

“Business owners are wearing more hats, working more hours and taking less profit” to keep their businesses going. They don’t sit idle, they’re asking, ‘What do I need to do to make my business grow?’ There is a level of sacrifice small business owners take for their businesses.”
 
The small business owners are reluctant to borrow funds because they are worried about the costs of Obamacare and the financial hit the economy will take from expiring tax cuts.
 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/06/14/twenty-three-percent-small-busines

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2012, 06:37:17 AM






US factory production declined 0.4 pct. in May


       

CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER | June 15, 2012 09:33 AM EST |
Compare other versions »



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



WASHINGTON — U.S. factories produced less in May than April, as automakers cut back on output for the first time in six months. The report indicates that manufacturing, a key driver of the economic growth, is slowing.
 
The Federal Reserve said Friday that factory output declined 0.4 percent last month, after increasing 0.7 percent in April. Auto production fell 1.5 percent, the first drop since November. Auto sales rose sharply earlier this year but slowed in May.
 
Overall industrial production, which includes mines and utilities, dipped 0.1 percent, after a solid 1 percent rise in April. Both mines and utilities increased production.
 
Separately, a survey of manufacturers showed that factory activity in the New York region grew much more slowly in June than in May. The New York Federal Reserve Bank's Empire State index fell sharply to 2.3, from 17.1 in May. That means factories barely expanded this month. A reading below zero indicated contraction.
 
A measure of new orders in the Empire State survey also fell.
 
Consumers are spending less and businesses are purchasing fewer large capital goods, such as machinery and computers. That's reducing demand for factory goods.
 
Retail sales dipped in May for the second straight month, the government said Wednesday. It was the first back-to-back drop in two years.




 
And orders from businesses for machinery, computers and other capital equipment fell in April and March, according to a report released earlier this month.
 
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said manufacturing activity grew more slowly in May. Companies kept hiring, but not as quickly as in April.
 
Factories have been adding jobs at a healthy pace in the past two of years. But the sector isn't large enough to carry the whole economy.
 
Manufacturers added 12,000 jobs last month, the eighth straight gain. But overall, the economy generated only 69,000 jobs in May, the third straight month of sluggish hiring.
 
The economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the January-March quarter. That's slower than the 3 percent growth in the October-December quarter.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2012, 07:52:01 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/pew-china-economic-power-2012-6


Damn.   Fucking sad.   

Obama really is collapsing this nation. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2012, 08:19:58 AM
Manufacturing In The Northeast CRUMBLES, Fed Survey At 2.29
Eric Platt|Jun. 15, 2012, 8:30 AM|1,205|6




Manufacturing in the Northeast slowed from a strong May, with new data out of the Federal Bank of New York registering tepid growth in June.
 
The headline business conditions index declined to 2.29 from 17.09 one month ago. A reading above zero indicates expansion.
 
Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast a smaller drop to 12.50.
 
Employment conditions also worsened in the month, with the number of employees index falling 8.1 points to 12.4 and hours worked declining 9 points to 3.1.
 
However manufacturers in the Fed's second district, which includes New York, northern New Jersey, and Fairfield County in Connecticut, said they planned more robust capital expenditures over the second half of the year.
 
"Forty-three percent said that they expected to increase capital spending over the next six to twelve months, while just 16 percent planned reductions—a somewhat more positive balance than in the August 2010 survey," the Fed said in its statement.
 
Below, conditions recorded in the report over the past decade.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/empire-fed-report-2012-6#ixzz1xsLa7GcU
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 15, 2012, 10:18:48 AM
Heartbreaking Pictures Of Homeless People In New York City
Todd Shaffer via Flickr





 
Homelessness is everywhere you look in New York City, and the situation is only getting worse.
 
A recent report showed that the number of homeless people in the five boroughs is at an all-time high and the overall population has risen 39 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office 10 years ago.
 
Over 17,000 children were in the shelter system this past April, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, and over 112,000 people slept in shelters in 2011.
 
Photographer Todd Shaffer depicts the struggles of New Yorkers on the streets in the following images. 
 
Click here to see the pictures


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/-homeless-people-in-new-york-city-photos-2012-6?op=1#ixzz1xspSEUx8
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2012, 10:49:11 AM
Job Openings Report Shows Market Is...Really, Really Bad
CNBC ^ | 6/19/12 | Jeff Cox

Posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:20:42 PM by KingOfVagabonds

Job openings fell to a five-month low in April and showed their sharpest percentage decline in about seven and a half years, according to a government report Tuesday that helped confirm a slowdown in the labor market.


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





PRIVATE SECTOR DOING FINE! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2012, 11:27:14 AM
Young households ‘crushed’ by recession
 ny post ^ | 6-19-12 | PAUL THARP




Young US households — those aged 35-to-44 — lost a stunning 59 percent of their wealth during the recession, a government report released yesterday revealed. That’s the stiffest hit of any age group, said the report from the US Census Bureau. The age group — typically struggling with mortgages, tuition bills and rising tax bills — makes up the backbone of America’s middle class. The losses were mainly due to the drop in the value of their homes during the 2005 through 2010 period, the report said


(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2012, 12:48:12 PM
Economic bummer: 6.9 million homes ditch cable TV

June 19, 2012


Paul Bedard

Washington Secrets
The Washington Examiner
E@SecretsBedard



It started with homes, then cars, and now penny-pinching Americans, especially minorities, are giving up cable TV because they just can't afford it in the lingering recession.

Instead, they are switching back to free TV, improved with the recent switch to digital broadcast which requires a special antenna but eliminates the $70-$100 monthly cable, satellite or broadband service fee.
 
Industry officials had worried that Americans would begin "cord-cutting" in a shift to internet TV, but the recession is more to blame, not internet bling.
 
"It's not so much cord-cutting as cost-cutting that's motivating this. There's possibly recessionary issues here," said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.
 
An ownership survey conducted by GfK Media found that about 6.9 million homes abandoned pay TV last year, a shocking number that industry sources chalk up to the sagging economy. What's more, the survey found that the number of Americans watching only free-TV surged from 46 million to 54 million. GfK said that means about 18 percent of all homes with TVs, or 21 million, watch only free-TV, a jump from about 14 percent just five years ago.
 
"When asked why they cancelled TV service, the overwhelming majority, over 70%, cited cost-cutting; cord-cutting because of online options was cited by less than 20%," said Dave Tice senior vice president of GfK.
 
Younger Americans, minorities and low-income homes, socked by unemployment and the economy have jumped the cable ship in the highest numbers. The GfK poll found that minorities make up 44 percent of all broadcast-only homes.
 
But according to Wharton, the shift isn't all bad. He said that more and more cable-like shows are now on free digital broadcast, especially those for minorities. "There is sort of an explosion in free network programming," he said.


http://washingtonexaminer.com/economic-bummer-6.9-million-homes-ditch-cable-tv/article/2500031



________________________ _______________


Maybe they just sick to death of seeing this piece of garbage on tv every day? 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2012, 01:03:29 PM
Study: State pension shortfall ballooned in 2010
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS | Associated Press – 12 hrs ago...




SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Recession-plagued states diverted scarce money away from pensions to pay for more immediate concerns, leaving a $757 billion hole in the retirement funds covering millions of public employees, according to a study released Monday.

The Pew Center on the States found 34 states failed to maintain safe levels of money in the pension funds, which most experts agree is about 80 percent of long-term obligations. Four states — Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky and Rhode Island — didn't even have 55 percent of the money they'll need in the long run.

The total gap between the money states had available and what they'll have to pay out in the decades ahead reached $757 billion in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available. That was up 9 percent from the year before, according to the study entitled "The Widening Gap Update."

The Pew Center found most states were trying to address the funding gap, either through cutting benefits for future employees or requiring workers to pay more of their own money into their retirement funds. Some went after benefits for current employees, triggering court battles. States also adopted more conservative estimates for what they'll earn on investments down the road.

Pensions aren't the only retirement problem. States also faced a $627 billion shortfall in health care services for retirees. Essentially, for every $1 they'll eventually have to pay out in health care, states had set aside only 5 cents.

"So why should Americans care about these funding gaps? Because the larger they are the higher the cost to taxpayers today and for many years to come," said David Draine, a senior researcher for the Pew Center on the States.

Nationwide, some 22.5 million public workers fall under a state pension plan. When states fall behind in their retirement contributions, they'll have to come up with even more money later to make up the difference. In addition, pension and retiree health costs are growing, driving up state expenses even more. That leaves states less and less each year to spend on education, public safety and other government services.

Illinois had the worst funding level at just 45 percent. Officials there say fixing the problem is a top priority, but a proposal to cut cost-of-living increases for current employees and retirees has stalled in the General Assembly.

"Pensions are the biggest mountain we have to climb," Gov. Pat Quinn, a Chicago Democrat, said Monday.

While the new report looks at figures from 2010, pension expert Robert Rich, said there's no reason to think the situation has improved significantly.

Rich, executive director at the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs, stressed that the recession was not the chief cause of the pension problem, although it contributed by eating away at the value of investments. For years, states failed to pay their full share of pension costs, he said, so the problem won't be wiped away if the economy improves.

"It took us a long time to get into this hole, and it's going to take a long time to get out of it," Rich said.

The problem may be even larger than the report indicates. Many states calculate their funding levels by assuming an 8 percent return on their investments, a level that many experts believe is no longer realistic.

The Pew Center said that from 2009 to 2011, 43 states cut benefits for future employees, required them to pay more or did both. And six states took similar action in 2012.

Some states also cut benefits for people who have retired already. However, public-employee unions argue that amounts to breaking a contract, and some state constitutions impose tough restrictions on cutting benefits. So going after benefits for current employees and current retirees can result in legal challenges.

Staff at the Pew Center said Rhode Island has been most aggressive in overhauling its pension systems to cut costs. The state, whose systems were only 49 percent funded in 2010, decided to cut retirement benefits for current employees as well as those hired in the future. Officials limited cost-of-living increases, raised the retirement age from 62 to 67 and changed the formula for calculating benefits.

They also put workers in a new hybrid retirement system that combines elements of the traditional system where retirees are guaranteed a certain level of benefits and new 401(k)-style systems were money is invested on behalf of the retiree.

Rich, from the University of Illinois, questioned the emphasis on cutting benefits when much of the pension problem was created by states failing to contribute their share to retirement systems. States also should be promising to put more money into retirement systems over the long run, he said.

"It's neither shared sacrifice nor fairness if it's only employees who are paying for the problem," Rich said.

___

Online: http://www.pewstates.org

___

Follow Christopher Wills at https://twitter.com/chrisbwills



________________________ ________________________ __



Disgusting screw these govt leeches!
..
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2012, 09:39:30 AM
DISASTER: PHILLY FED REPORT COLLAPSES TO -16.6
Joe Weisenthal|Jun. 21, 2012, 10:00 AM|1,796|4


UPDATE:
 
The number is out and it's very bad.
 
A reading of -16.6 is WAY below the expected 0.0 reading, and it's well below the -5.5 number.
 
Not good.
 
Here's the rull report
 
Manufacturing firms responding to the Business Outlook Survey indicated weaker business conditions this month. The survey’s diffusion index of current activity fell to -16.6 from a reading of -5.8 in May, its second consecutive negative reading. The survey’s indicators of future activity remained positive and improved slightly.
 
Indicators for new orders, shipments, and average work hours were also negative this month, suggesting overall declines in business. Indexes for current unfilled orders and delivery times both registered negative readings again this month, suggesting lower levels of unfilled orders and faster deliveries.
 
In the special question this month, firms were asked about their expected spending on new plant and equipment over the next six to 12 months relative to actual spending in the past six to 12 months.
 
Special Question
 Almost 32 percent of firms expect to increase their spending on new plant and equipment in 2012, compared to 34.7 percent in November 2011, the last time this question was asked.
 Almost 20 percent of firms expect to decrease spending this year, compared to 33 percent in November.
 Forty-two percent of firms expect spending to remain unchanged in 2012, up from 25 percent in November.
 
Labor Market
 Firms’ responses suggest steady employment but shorter hours.
 The current employment index increased 3 points.
 Fourteen percent of the firms reported an increase in employment; 12 percent reported declines.
 The index for the average workweek was lower this month, decreasing 14 points. It is the third consecutive negative reading.
 
Prices
 Indexes for prices paid and prices received both decreased and were negative this month, suggesting that price pressures have moderated notably.
 Nearly 16 percent of the firms reported lower prices for inputs this month; 13 percent reported increases.
 Firms also reported that the prices received for their own products fell. For the second consecutive month, more firms reported a decrease in product prices (17 percent) than reported an increase (10 percent).
 
This survey, which was started in 1968, gathers information on the manufacturing industry in the Third Federal Reserve District covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware. The survey asks about the current pace of business in the participants' plants and their future expectations of business.
 
To arrange an interview, contact Katherine Dibling, the Bank’s public affairs specialist, at (215) 574-4119. The next Business Outlook Survey will be released at 10 a.m., Thursday, July 19, 2012, and will be made available on our website and over Businesswire. The aggregate historical data series is also available on the Bank’s website.
 
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia helps formulate and implement monetary policy, supervises banks and bank and savings and loan holding companies, and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. It is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank serves eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.
 
--------------
 
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Report is one of the most widely-watched regional Fed economic surveys there is.
 
The June number comes out today, and analysts are expecting a 0.0 reading, which would actually be an improvement from the -5.8 reading from May.
 
We'll have the number here LIVE at 10:00 AM.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-philly-fed-2012-6#ixzz1yRkUWAQk
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2012, 09:40:53 AM
Existing Home Sales MISS EXPECTATIONS, Fall 1.5% To 4.55M (Exp. -1.1% To 4.57M)
Eric Platt|Jun. 21, 2012, 10:00 AM|629|5



 
Existing home sales fell at a greater pace than expected in May, down 1.5 percent to an annual pace of 4.55 million sales, new data out of the National Association of Realtors shows.
 
Click here for updates >
 
The NAR attributed the decline to tight supply of lower-priced homes, particularly in the West.
 
"The slight pullback in monthly home sales is more likely due to supply constraints rather than softening demand. The normal seasonal upturn in inventory did not occur this spring," Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist, said.
 
Below, key numbers from the report:
 First time buyers accounted for 34 percent of May purchases, down from 35 percent in April
 All-cash sales declined 1 percentage point to 28 percent in May
 Investors purchased 17 percent of homes in May
 Single family home sales fell 1 percent to 4.05 million units
 Existing condo and co-op sales declined 5.7 percent to 500,000 units
 Sales fell 4.8 percent in the Northeast
 Sales increased 1.0 percent in the Midwest
 Sales fell 0.6 percent in the South
 Sales fell 3.4 percent in the West
 
ORIGINAL:
 
Minutes away from the final data point of the day: Existing Home Sales.
 
Economists polled by Bloomberg expect sales to cool slightly from April's pace, falling 1.1 percent to an annual pace of 4.57 million units.
 
The announcement from the National Association of Realtors is expected at 10:00 a.m.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/home-sales-may-2012-6#ixzz1yRl547H4

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2012, 02:23:34 PM
http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/06/21/5-housing-markets-where-renting-beats-owning



Wow 15 year lows.   


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2012, 03:06:31 PM
Deal Journal
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June 21, 2012, 5:33 PM
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Here Are the U.S. Bank Downgrades: Morgan Stanley Gets 2 Notches
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By WSJ Staff

Downgrade Day has arrived.
 
The markets have been awaiting this day since Moody’s put under review for a downgrade the credit ratings for 17 large global banks back in February, including five of the biggest U.S. financial firms by assets.
 
The downgrades are expected to raise borrowing costs and crimp some lucrative trading businesses at the banks, including at J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
 
Below are the long-term debt rating of the  five U.S. firms put under review and the impact the banks said in the first-quarter filings the downgrades would have:
 
J.P. Morgan
 

New Rating: A2 (2 notches)
 Previous Rating: Aa3
 Moody’s guidance:  Up to a two-notch downgrade
 What the Banks said: J.P. Morgan said its costs could hit $3.45 billion for a two-notch downgrade.
 
Bank of America
 

New Rating: Baa2 (one notch)
 Previous Rating: Baa1
 Moody’s guidance: Up to a one-notch downgrade
 What the bank said: Bank of America said a one-notch downgrade could deliver a $2.7 billion hit.
 
Citigroup
 
New Rating: Baa2 (2 notches)
 Previous Rating: A3
 Moody’s guidance: Up to a two-notch downgrade
 What the bank said: Citi estimated that a hypothetical two-notch downgrade could deliver a $2.1 billion hit.
 

Goldman Sachs
 
New Rating: A3 (2 notches)
 Previous Rating: A1
 Moody’s guidance: Up to a two-notch downgrade
 What the bank said: Goldman Sachs said its costs could hit $2.2 billion for a two-notch reduction
 
Morgan Stanley
 
New Rating: Baa1 (2 notches)
 Previous Rating: A2
 Moody’s guidance: Up to a three-notch downgrade
 What the bank said: Morgan Stanley said it could pay as much as $9.6 billion for a three-notch downgrade by multiple rating agencies.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 21, 2012, 03:12:46 PM
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thursday, June 21, 2012 -- 5:47 PM EDT
-----

Moody’s Cuts Credit Ratings of 15 Big Banks

Moody’s Investors Service has lowered the ratings of some of the world’s largest banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

The ratings agency said late Thursday that the banks were downgraded because their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 26, 2012, 04:35:58 AM
7 Reasons Americans Are So Complacent About Our Country's Impending Bankruptcy
 Townhall.com ^ | June 26, 2012 | John Hawkins




America is on track to go bankrupt. Just like Greece. The signs are all around us. We've lost our AAA credit rating. Trillion dollar deficits are the new normal. The Fed is buying 61% of our own debt. Barack Obama's 10 year budget will leave Americans with “more debt than has been accumulated by all previous Presidents in American history combined.” Nobody on the Left or Right seems to believe we'll ever pay off all of the money we owe. Life as we know it is very close to ending and yet Americans seem to be infected with a tragic stoicism. Like turkeys being led to the slaughter, most Americans seem content to put their necks down on the butcher's block and wait for the ax to fall. There are reasons for this puzzling inactivity in the face of an avertable catastrophe.

1) They're being misled by people with bad motives: What do you think would happen to Paul Krugman if he were to tell everyone that he is still a liberal, but the Tea Party and Paul Ryan are right about the deficit and Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are wrong? His column at the New York Times would be gone within six months. Do you think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would continue leading their caucuses after 2012 if they insist on serious deficit reduction? Not a chance. What about a Democrat running in a liberal district who talks like Jim DeMint on deficits in a primary up against another Democrat who wants more spending? Who do you think would win? The big spender, right? Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this country whose personal welfare depends on encouraging as much government spending as possible and even if the country goes bust in the process, they're hoping to have enough money in the bank to be able to move somewhere else by then anyway.

2) They think it's far off in the future: Most people think bankruptcy is a problem we'll be leaving to our kids after most of the people reading this column are dead and gone. That's not so at all. If you were a betting man, 5-15 years would be the likely timeframe on a default with it practically guaranteed to happen within 25 years without major changes -- although that may be far too optimistic. America is already stretched to the breaking point and who knows what sort of unexpected event could push us over the edge in the next few years? Maybe the crack-up of the EU, a European bank collapse, an organized effort to keep other nations from buying our debt, another, even more devastating 9/11 style attack, a dramatic surge in oil prices caused by an Israeli/Iranian war, etc., etc. Just as the mortgage crisis caught us flat footed and caused much more damage than we expected, a new crisis that occurs while America's economy is still puttering along as it has been during the Obama years could lead to a much deeper economic spiral than we anticipate.

3) Crisis fatigue is rampant: This is the most important election ever! Tune in at 6:00 P.M. to find out which ordinary product you use will kill you! George Bush is Hitler! Republicans want you to die! Racism today is as bad as the sixties! If you oppose gay marriage, you want to drag homosexuals to death behind your truck! If you disagree with Obama, you're a racist! Your freedom is at stake! Global warming is going to kill us all! Modern Americans are deluged with phony crises and ginned-up outrages all day long. That's why it's not a surprise when a real crisis as serious as anything we've ever faced in our nation's history comes along, many people have trouble distinguishing it from the fake dangers they hear about on a daily basis.

4) It's too confusing to comprehend: Most Americans don't even remotely understand the scope of the problem. They think we can raise taxes on the rich, cut a few bucks off foreign aid, and everything will take care of itself. When you start talking about unfunded liabilities, GDP, and trillions in debt to people who don't know much about economics and don't follow politics very closely -- which probably describes more than half of the American electorate -- you might as well be explaining the ins-and-outs of heart surgery. In other words, they may get it in the most general sense, but they don't really understand it, and they probably aren't going to opt for it unless they become convinced they're going to die otherwise.

5) It's painful to stop and easy to continue: It doesn't matter how reasonable the spending reductions you're suggesting are, if you want to cut ANYTHING in D.C., it will set off squawks of protest from the vultures who are having meat snatched out of their greedy mouths. However, if you really want to make people angry, start hacking money out of the three biggest expenditures in the budget: defense spending, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP. We MIGHT be able to get by without cutting defense significantly since it's a relatively stable expenditure, but unless significant changes are made to both Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP, both of which are rapidly increasing in cost, this country is going bankrupt. That's reality. Of course, it's also reality that making changes to both of those programs is unpopular, easy to demagogue, and scares most politicians more than a special prosecutor talking to their favorite hooker.

6) We still seem to be a rich country: America is a like a guy who lives in a five million dollar mansion with a dozen servants, drives a Ferrari, and hands out hundred dollar tips to waitresses and bellhops. The only problem is the mansion and the Ferrari aren't paid for, he's borrowing the money for the servants and the tips, and he has no hope of ever paying off the debt he's accruing while he lives a lifestyle he can't afford. Superficially, he looks to be very rich, but when the bill comes due, life is going to change for him in a hurry.

America is that guy and the bill is going to come due.

7) They don't see how it will affect them: Most Americans don't have the slightest clue how a default would change their lives for the worse. They don't understand that it would lead to another Depression, their life savings could become worthless almost overnight, their taxes would skyrocket, their standard of living would drastically decrease, Medicare and Social Security checks could stop, and we could have widespread disorder. In Greece, some government workers haven't been paid in months, government road projects are being abandoned, healthy businesses can't get credit, and medicine is in short supply. Unless something changes, Americans won't have to imagine what that will be like because we'll be living it soon enough.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 26, 2012, 08:24:09 AM
Only 1-in-10 Finds Work, Middle-Aged Workers Hit Hardest
 Townhall.com ^ | June 26, 2012 | Bob Beauprez

Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 11:04:00 AM by Kaslin

At the White House on June 8, 2012 Barack Obama uttered six words that will forever haunt and define him; "the private sector is doing fine."   His absurd statement came on the heels of a horrific May jobs report,  an increase in the unemployment rate to 8.2%, retail sales declined for the second straight month, consumer confidence dropped for the third consecutive month, the number of job openings available dropped by 8%, etc., etc., etc.



Fine?  How bad would it have to be for him to admit things were at least a little tough for the folks who live outside the DC Beltway?



The evidence that Obama is out of touch is overwhelming, and in the middle of a re-election campaign that is almost totally about the economy, it is hard for him to make a convincing argument that "I feel your pain" if he doesn't even believe any pain exists.



Here's some more economic evidence to ponder.  There are 12.7 million Americans currently unemployed, and another 10 million are under employed or have left the workforce in frustration.  Of the unemployed still looking for work, 5.4 million, or 42.8%, have been out of work for six months or longer; the definition of long-term unemployed.   "While the share of long-term unemployment is down a bit from its peak last year, it's still at record-high levels," reported CNN Money.  The average length of time it takes to get a job is also at record levels hovering "around 40 weeks for the past year." 



The data also reveals more of the agony of Obama's non-recovering recovery.  "In the first few weeks after losing their jobs, about 3 in 10 people are able to find work.  But after about a year of being out of work, the chances of landing a job fall to just 1 in 10 per month," according to the CNN Money report.



Further, middle-aged workers, typically in the "prime years for earning and building wealth," are experiencing "a rate of long-term unemployment that is unprecedented in modern U.S. history," according to newly published analysis by the Wall Street Journal:




"Much of the attention during the prolonged U.S. employment crisis has been on high rates of joblessness among young people. Less noticed, but no less significant to many economists, has been the plight of the middle-aged. More than 3.5 million Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 were unemployed as of May, 39% of them for a year or more—a rate of long-term unemployment that is unprecedented in modern U.S. history, and far higher than among younger workers…"



"As of May, the unemployment rate for people ages 45 to 64 was 6%, some 10 points lower than for people under 25. But the lower rate disguises the fact that when middle-aged people lose their jobs, it's much harder for them to find a new one. Those between 45 and 64 take almost a year on average to find a job, more than two months longer than workers between 25 and 44." Read more here.



The WSJ also tells the unusually grim struggle for middle-aged workers with the following graphic that provides comparative data to previous recessions since the end of World War II. link here
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 02, 2012, 08:38:34 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/8733461-workers-federal-disability-exceed-population-new-york-city



Disaster. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 03, 2012, 03:30:14 AM
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Wages drop, only 5th time in 33 years
Washington Examiner ^ | July 2, 2012 | Paul Bedard
Posted on July 3, 2012 6:06:28 AM EDT by gusopol3

Unemployment ebbs and flows, but one measure of the nation's economic health, average weekly wages, rarely dips.

Until now. In the latest demonstration of the struggling economy that threatens President Obama's reelection, average weekly wages fell in 2011, one of only five declines since the category was created in 1978 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In a just-released review of employment in the nation's largest 322 counties, BLS found that weekly wages dropped over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from a high of $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010.

That means the $50,000-a-year mark, busted in the fourth quarter of 2010, has dropped back to an average yearly salary of $49,660. And the wage depression was widespread: 282 major counties suffered wage declines; just 36 saw increases.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 03, 2012, 07:55:42 AM
8,733,461: Workers on Federal 'Disability' Exceed Population of New York City
 CNS News.com ^ | July 2, 2012 | Terence P. Jeffrey




A record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. That was up from 8,707,185 in May.

There has been a dramatic shrinkage in the United States over the past 20 years in the number of workers actually employed and earning paychecks per worker who is not employed and is taking federal disability insurance payments.

n June 1992, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 118,419,000 people employed in the United States, and, according to the Social Security Administration, there were 3,334,333 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled about 1 person taking disability payments for each 35.5 people actually working.

When President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, there were 142,187,000 people employed and 7,442,377 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled about 1 person taking disability payments for each 19.1 people actually working.

n May of this year, there were 142,287,000 people employed, and 8,707,185 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled 1 worker taking disability payments for each 16.3 people working.

The federal disability payments made to the record 8,733,461 workers in June averaged $1,111.42.

To be eligible for federal disability insurance payments, a person must have worked long enough to have qualified for the benefits and must also meet the Social Security Administration’s definition of “disabled.”


(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on July 03, 2012, 10:49:52 AM
This election will be about the economy.

The economy isn't getting better but it sure is getting worse.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2012, 07:54:37 AM

Economy


Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery


By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 09:45 AM ET





More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.
 
The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.
 
The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama's economic recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.
 
In other words, the number of new disability enrollees has climbed 19% faster than the number of new jobs created during the sluggish recovery.
 
And the disability ranks will continue to swell. In just the last month, almost 275,000 put in applications for disability benefits. Experts say that more people try to get on disability when jobs are scarce, and changes to eligibility rules enacted back in 1984 have made it far easier to qualify.
 
In addition, while job growth has been very weak during the recovery, the total number of people who've dropped out of the labor force entirely has exploded, climbing 7.3 million since June 2009, and IBD analysis of BLS data show. Some of them aged into retirement, but most either signed up for disability, stayed in school, moved back in with parents, or just quit looking for a job.
 
As a result, the "labor force participation rate" — the number of people who have jobs or actively looking for one compared with the entire working-age population — is now 63.8%, down from 65.7% in June 2009. This participation rate is lower than it's been in 30 years. In previous recoveries, the labor participation rate has almost always risen, not fallen.
 
Other indicators from the BLS report showing that the three-year-old economic recovery isn't producing jobs in adequate numbers:
 
The unemployment level has been above 8% for 41 consecutive months. To put that in perspective, in the previous 60 years, the unemployment rate topped 8% in a total of only 39 months.
 
The number of people with jobs is still nearly 5 million below its pre-recession peak.
 
The number of long-term unemployed — those out of work 27 weeks or more — is still 5.4 million — almost one million higher than when the recovery began three years ago, and almost twice the level it ever reached prior to Obama's recovery.
 
The median length of unemployment is 19.8 weeks. Throughout Obama's recovery, it has averaged 20.6 weeks. Prior to Obama, that number had had never exceeded 10.5 weeks.
 
The poor recovery has also driven people to sign up for food stamps in record numbers. Between June 2009 and April 2012, food stamp enrollment climbed 11.3 million — a 32% increase — according to the Department of Agriculture.
 
In addition, the soft jobs market has driven median household incomes down more after the recession ended than during the recession itself, according the Sentier Research, which tracks monthly household income.
 
After adjusting for inflation, median annual household income dropped 5.3% between June 2009 and May 2012. In contrast, median incomes dropped 2.6% during the 18-month recession, Sentier found.
 
"The recession was bad enough," said Sentier's Gordon Green, "but what's extraordinary is the even larger decline during this so-called economic recovery."
 
It shows, Green said, "how much ground we have to make up just to get back to where we were."
 
Related Story
 
10 reasons why jobs market even worse than weak June employment report



________________________ ________________________ _____


Disgusting! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2012, 12:21:49 PM
780,000 More Women Unemployed Today Than When Obama Took Office
 CNS News ^ | July 6, 2012 | John W Chapman


Posted on Friday, July 06, 2012


(CNSNews.com) – The number of women unemployed in June was 5,785,000, an increase of 780,000 from when Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009 – at that time, the number of unemployed women in the United States was 5,005,000.

The number of unemployed is for women ages 16 and older in the civilian work force and is seasonally adjusted, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS data also show that the unemployment rate for women in June was 8.0 percent, up from 7.9 percent in May. That’s also up from 7.0 percent in January 2009 when Obama became president.

The overall unemployment rate (men and women) is 8.2 percent. For women, the unemployment rate has gone up fairly consistently since January 2009, with a few ups and downs, but reaching as high as 9.0 percent in November 2010 and staying in the mid-8 percent range for most of 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The unemployment rate for women in January of this year was 8.3 percent, or 5,997,000 unemployed, an increase of 992,000 since the president was inaugurated.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2012, 02:10:07 PM
If You Thought 'Tent City' Was Bad Before, You Should See It Now
Daniel Goodman and Robert Johnson|22 minutes ago|8|



When we went to Tent City last year, there were several dozen people there living much like they are today, but with a few differences.
 
In September, there was a sense of optimism, perhaps even of hope. The camp's founder Reverend Steve Brigham had an old school bus he'd been living in for years and he was working with a lawyer to battle the town into allowing the camp to remain permanently. People had little, but there was a solid sense of community — that has changed.
 
The camp won its legal battle in January and was allowed to stay on the public land, but it's now under increased police attention. There's an increase in residents that refuse to follow the rules and Brigham has lost the ability to evict them.
 
In fact, when he recently tried to have one person not following community rules evicted, the individual filed a complaint against Brigham and he was arrested. Twice. Once the following day at 11:30 p.m. as he slept.
 
His bus was impounded, and when he recently called the police for help against an individual when we were there, the authorities were openly hostile towards him (and us). They were much nicer to the person he was calling about.
 
He lives in a tent, and the camp he built around him is dividing.
 
Donations continue to flood in, but residents say they feel a shift. They don't know what's happening, but are prepared for the worst as aggressive residents try and take control.
 
The video below was shot throughout the day on Father's Day last month and offers an insight into life on the edge in a community with little assistance for people losing everything.
 



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/video-new-jerseys-tent-city-is-falling-apart-2012-7#ixzz1zsYsZ1ZO


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 06, 2012, 02:12:09 PM
Best Buy to Layoff 2,400 Employees
 CNBC ^ | 7-6-12 | Reuters


Posted on Friday, July 06, 2012 4:43:13

Best Buy plans to lay off 1,800 store employees and 600 Geek Squad workers, according to a source at the company. The 2,400 cuts represent 1.4 percent of the company's 167,000 workforce and come on top of jobs associated with store closings the company announced previously.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on July 06, 2012, 03:41:16 PM
best buy is a crappy model.

they're selling CDs... yeah, hello, itunes.
selling DVDs huh?  hello, red box.
they're selling computers - yeah, way cheaper online or anywhere else (even walmart beats them by a ton).

They have 15 employees milling around nonstop that never really help anyone.  They sell washers?  who buys a washer there?

They sell a lot of things that people buy when economy is great, but now?  no.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2012, 03:09:21 AM
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-mancession-16-signs-that-this-economic-decline-is-sucking-the-life-out-of-the-american-male


Yeah, let's give this communist ghetto pofs a second term.   Brilliant idea.   ::).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on July 09, 2012, 03:31:46 AM
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-mancession-16-signs-that-this-economic-decline-is-sucking-the-life-out-of-the-american-male


Yeah, let's give this communist ghetto pofs a second term.   Brilliant idea.   ::).

You want Obama to fix the economy yet you claim you are pro-free market. You are confused. You think its the government role to create jobs?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2012, 08:11:59 PM
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — More than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance in mid-2010, according to a new report.

And when Social Security, Medicare and unemployment benefits are included, nearly half of the nation lived in a household that received a government check, according to the analysis of third-quarter 2010 Census data done by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a libertarian-leaning think tank. That’s more than 148 million Americans.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/07/news/economy";
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on July 09, 2012, 08:29:51 PM
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — More than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance in mid-2010, according to a new report.

And when Social Security, Medicare and unemployment benefits are included, nearly half of the nation lived in a household that received a government check, according to the analysis of third-quarter 2010 Census data done by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a libertarian-leaning think tank. That’s more than 148 million Americans.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/07/news/economy";


wait a MFing minute, hoss.

I'll give you every point EXCEPT social security.  That money BELONGS to the people who paid it.   The average american pays almost 400k into social security.  When I reach retirment age, some bitch ass 38 year old congressman is going to tell me that my 48 years straight of working --- I don't deserve my money back?  Suddenly that's an ENTITLEMENT?


Shit, i'm all for cutting 90% of welfare and ending all unemployment after 2 weeks.  Beyond that - go fuck yourself if i work 50 years and don't get my money back.  Fuck all that.  SS is not an entitlement.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2012, 08:39:21 PM
wait a MFing minute, hoss.

I'll give you every point EXCEPT social security.  That money BELONGS to the people who paid it.   The average american pays almost 400k into social security.  When I reach retirment age, some bitch ass 38 year old congressman is going to tell me that my 48 years straight of working --- I don't deserve my money back?  Suddenly that's an ENTITLEMENT?


Shit, i'm all for cutting 90% of welfare and ending all unemployment after 2 weeks.  Beyond that - go fuck yourself if i work 50 years and don't get my money back.  Fuck all that.  SS is not an entitlement.


We are broke.  Sorry.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on July 09, 2012, 08:41:13 PM

We are broke.  Sorry.

Killing bin laden wasn't free.   Shoudl we have cancelled that mission because we had to borrow $ from china to do it?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 10, 2012, 06:13:41 AM
YEESH: Small Business Optimism Tanks
Joe Weisenthal|Jul. 10, 2012, 7:31 AM|679|5



 


Ugly number from the NFIB: The latest Small Business Optimism survey collapsed from 94.4 last month to 91.4 this month.
 
That's well below the 93.3 that was expected.
 
From the announcement:
 
The Index of Small Business Optimism declined 3 points in June, falling to 91.4. The decline is significant, relinquished the gains achieved earlier this year and is a clear indication of slow growth. Only one of the 10 Index components improved, expected credit conditions. Nearly one-quarter of owners cite weak sales as their most important business problem (23%), followed by taxes (21%) and unreasonable regulations and red tape (19%).


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-nfib-small-business-optimism-2012-7#ixzz20E0Uh9MP
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 10, 2012, 06:16:53 PM
Companies Are Laying People Off At The Highest Rate In Two Years
AP    | Jul. 10, 2012, 7:11 PM | 735 | 5
i
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised more jobs in May than April, a hopeful sign after three months of weak hiring.

Job openings rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.6 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That's up from 3.4 million in April. It's also the second-highest level in nearly four years, just behind March's 3.7 million.
A rise in openings could mean hiring will pick up in the coming months. It typically takes one to three months to fill a job.

The report "suggests business attitudes toward hiring are not in complete free-fall," Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, wrote in a note to clients.
Even with the increase, the competition for jobs remains fierce. There were 12.7 million unemployed people in May, or an average of 3.5 unemployed for each open position. That's down from a ratio of 3.7 in April. In a healthy job market, the ratio is usually around 2 to 1.
And more openings have yet to translate into greater hiring.
For the April-June quarter, the economy added an average of only 75,000 net jobs a month, according to the government June employment report released last Friday. That's roughly a third of the average monthly jobs added in the January-March quarter.
Businesses and governments have been slow to fill jobs in the past year.
Since May 2011, openings have increased by more than 18 percent. But gross hiring has risen only about 4 percent.
Openings are more than 50 percent higher than they were in June 2009, when the recession ended. But they are still below pre-recession levels of about 5 million per month.
The government's monthly employment report measures net hiring.
Tuesday's report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, measures gross hiring. That rose in May to 4.36 million, the second-highest level in two years.
But when layoffs, quits and other separations are subtracted, the net gain is close to the 77,000 reported Friday for May.
Layoffs increased in May to the highest level since July 2010.

A weaker job market has also led to smaller pay increases. Wages for those who have jobs are barely keeping up with inflation. Without more jobs and higher pay, consumers won't have the income needed to fuel more spending and economic growth.

The slow pace of hiring also suggests businesses aren't confident enough in the economy to add permanent employees. Nearly a third of the jobs added last month were temporary hires. That is usually seen as a good sign, because it indicates employers need more workers and will soon hire permanently. But many economists now say it suggests that companies are simply reluctant to add workers for the long term.
Overall, the economy isn't growing fast enough to generate more jobs. The economy expanded at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, down from a 3 percent pace in the final three months of last year. Growth likely didn't pick up much in the April-June quarter, economists say.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on July 11, 2012, 02:53:06 AM
Killing bin laden wasn't free.   Shoudl we have cancelled that mission because we had to borrow $ from china to do it?

333... say we are broke yet he wants to keep and give tax breaks for millionaires(as if they need them ::))


He claims Obama is a failure. Apparently the criteria for failure in 333... mind is killing our enemies, not being hit by terrorist attack, not crashing the economy etc.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2012, 05:25:18 AM
The New Recession Is Here And It Can't Be Stopped
Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis|38 minutes ago|3|


Mike "Mish" Shedlock Mish is an investment advisor at Sitka Pacific Capital. He writes the widely read Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.


There is a big difference between making a claim the economy is in recession from a claim the economy is headed for one.
 
Case for a Global Recession
 
I think the entire global economy is in recession and said so on July 6, 2012 in Plunging New Orders Suggest Global Recession Has Arrived

 However, we need to define the term "recession"
 
Contrary to popular myth, recession does not mean two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. Rather, two consecutive quarters of economic contraction is a sufficient, but not necessary condition.
 
In the US, the NBER is the official designator of recession start and end points. Many recessions have started with GDP still growing.
 
The "Conditions for Global Recession" are even looser. "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers a global recession as a period where gross domestic product (GDP) growth is at 3% or less. In addition to that, the IMF looks at declines in real per-capita world GDP along with several global macroeconomic factors before confirming a global recession."
 
Given current conditions are what one would expect from outright stagnation (if not worse), I am confident a global recession has begun.
 
What About a US Recession?
 
On June 21, I gave 12 Reasons US Recession Has Arrived (Or Will Shortly).

Tipping the Balance to Now (Not Shortly)
 The Third Consecutive Weak Payroll Report
 The pending Global Collapse In Auto Sales
 Plunge in China Import Growth (For discussion see China Import Growth Plunges, Trade Surplus Hits 3-Year High; Will US Response Be Protectionism? Is China Headed For a Deflationary Shock?)
 
That is enough for me. And I am not the only one to feel that way.
 
ECRI's Achuthan: "I Think We're in a Recession Already"

Link if video does not play: ECRI's Achuthan Says U.S. Economy Is in Recession

Partial Transcript of Video
 
Achuthan on whether he can reaffirm his recession call from last year:
 
“Yeah…I think a lot of people forget what our call was. What we said back in December was that the most likely start date for the recession would be in Q1 and if not then, by the middle of 2012. I'm here to reaffirm that. I think we're in a recession. I think we’re in a recession already. As I said back there, it is very rare that you know you're going into recession when you’re going into recession. It often takes some big hit on top of the head. In the last recession, it took Lehman to wake people up and the recession before, it took 9/11.”
 
Those are exactly the kinds of things that irritate me about the ECRI. The fact of the matter is Achuthan was calling for a recession in September, not December, and not June.
 
For details, please see my September 30, 2011 post ECRI Calls Recession Based on "Contagion in Forward Indicators"; Just How Timely is the Call?
 
Tom Keen: "Single Sentence, why recession now"
 ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan: "Contagion in Forward-Looking Indicators"

That link clearly shows I thought a recession was imminent as well. Those are the facts. It is silly to try and hide them.
 
Yet, in December (after economic data firmed), Achuthan moved the date forward to June, wanting another 6 months to be proven correct.
 
My question in September "Just How Timely is the Call?" was a good one. The ECRI has been both very early and very late. Far from the perfect track record they claim.
 
That my friends is the nature of making predictions. No one is perfect, not me, not Achuthan, not anyone, and it is very foolish to pretend otherwise.
 
Actually, I have no problem at all with Achuthan moving the date forward. Conditions change. My problem, is revisionist history that makes it appear as if a recession call in September was a recession call for June (made in December).
 
All this nonsense goes away the moment Achuthan admits the ECRI does not have a perfect track record.

That said, I think Achuthan is now correct. However, I thought so in September. So be it. I was wrong. The solution when you were wrong is easy, simply say you were wrong.

The Other Extreme "Recession is Not Imminent"
 
Please consider the other extreme, Recession is Not Imminent by Dwaine van Vuuren.
 
Among the bearish voices I most respect is John Hussman, whose work I read regularly. He is thorough and quantitatively rigorous. Whenever I am convinced there will be no recession, I temper my enthusiasm by re-reading his articles to make sure I maintain a balanced view. One day he will be right and I will be wrong, but at least I won't be blindsided.
 
But the data don't show catastrophe. Looking at the Leading SuperIndex, we are a bit worse off than last summer and the summer before that. We just put in a leading SuperIndex peak on April 13 (10 days after the SP-500 peak) that is lower than the prior two peaks. This slowdown, if not checked in time, may well be the one that pushes us into recession. But even that worst-case scenario is still three to four months away, according to the SuperIndex recession-path projections in our regular weekly report.
 
Emphasis in italics added.
 
I disagree. The global data is an outright catastrophe. Moreover, the jobs reports in the US and the US ISM manufacturing numbers are  a catastrophe as well.
 
I am amused by van Vuuren's statement "at least I won't be blindsided". I suggest he already is.
 
"We Have Reached the Point that Delineates an Expansion from a New Recession"
 
John Hussman asks What if the Fed Throws a QE3 and Nobody Comes?
 
With regard to the economy, I noted two weeks ago that the leading evidence pointed to a further weakening in employment, with an abrupt dropoff in industrial production and new orders.
 
Mike Shedlock reviews the litany of awful figures we’ve seen since then, focusing on the new orders component of global purchasing managers indices: U.S. manufacturing new orders and export orders plunging from expansion to contraction, Eurozone new export orders plunging (only orders from Greece fell at a faster rate than those of Germany), and an accelerating decline in new orders in both China and Japan.
 
Recall that the NBER often looks for “a well-defined peak or trough in real sales or industrial production” to help determine the specific peak or trough date of an expansion or recession. From that standpoint, the sharp and abrupt decline we’re seeing in new orders is a short-leading precursor of output. As the chart below of global output suggests, I continue to believe that we have reached the point that delineates an expansion from a new recession.
 
On the employment front, Friday’s disappointing report of 80,000 jobs created in June may be looked on longingly within a few months, as we continue to expect the employment figures to turn negative shortly. That said, it remains important to focus on the joint action of numerous data points, rather than choosing a single figure as an acid test. I noted last week in Enter, the Blindside Recession, GDP and employment figures are subject to substantial revision.
 
Lakshman Achuthan at ECRI has observed the first real-time negative GDP print is often seen two quarters after a recession starts. Earlier data is often subsequently revised negative. As for the June employment figures, the internals provided by the household survey were more dismal than the headline number. The net source of job growth was the 16-19 year-old cohort (even after seasonal adjustment that corrects for normal summer hiring). Employment among workers over 20 years of age actually fell, with a 136,000 plunge in the 25-54 year-old cohort offset by gains in the number of workers over the age of 55. Among those counted as employed, 277,000 workers shifted to the classification “Part-time for economic reasons: slack work or business conditions.”
 
Permabears?
 
Hussman has been labeled a "permabear". So have I. So has Dave Rosenberg. So have many others. It only seems that way. The reality is Hussman, I, and Rosenberg were bullish at the March 2009 bottom.
 
However, the market shot up so far, so fast, that valuations became quickly stretched.
 
I cannot speak for the others, but I surely underestimated the effect of global coordinated liquidity move by central bankers virtually everywhere (US, EU, UK, China, Australia, Canada, etc.).

 The result was we had a 10-year stock market rally in three years. Those patting themselves on the back for their "no recession" call were correct only because of  a massive coordinated liquidity pump by central bankers worldwide.
 
Unless the "no recession" callers specifically counted on that, then they were lucky with their forecast.

What about now?
 
What if the Fed Throws a QE3 and Nobody Comes?
 What if stock market valuations reach typical bear market valuations?
 What if a recession is really at hand?
 
I do not believe the Fed is in control. Such ideas are a myth.
 
If the Fed could prevent recession we would never have them. Yet we do, don't we?
 
The fact of the matter is Fed tail-chasing policies combined with fractional reserve lending and moral-hazard bailouts have amplified the crest and trough  of every boom and bust.

 Deep Problems
 
Hussman comments ...
 
Our economic problems run far deeper than what can be healed by more reckless bubble-blowing by the Federal Reserve. At the center of global economic turmoil is a mountain of bad debt that was extended on easy terms by weakly regulated lenders with a government safety net. Global leaders have done all they can to protect the lenders at the expense of the public – to make good on the bond contracts of mismanaged financial institutions by breaking the social contracts with their own citizens. The limit of this unprincipled madness is being reached.
 
The way out is to restructure bad debt instead of rescuing it. Particularly in Europe, this will require numerous financial institutions to go into receivership, where stock will be wiped out, unsecured bonds will experience losses, senior bondholders will get a haircut on the value of their obligations, and loan balances will be written down. Bank depositors, meanwhile, will not lose a dime, except in countries where the sovereign is also at risk of default. Even there, depositors will probably not lose any more than they would if they held sovereign debt directly. In the U.S., the pressing need continues to be mortgage restructuring, and an emerging recession is likely to bring that issue back to the forefront, as roughly one-third of U.S. mortgages exceed the value of the home itself
 
Recognizing the Limits of Madness
 
I agree. The key statement is "The limit of this unprincipled madness is being reached."
 
The problem is not only recognizing the limits of "unprincipled madness" but also recognizing the market's willingness to play along. It always lasts longer than one thinks possible.
 
At the end of the line, every possible person is sucked into belief current conditions can go on forever. We saw that in the 2000 dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, the commercial real estate bubble that followed the housing bubble, and we see it now in the "Fed is omnipotent belief bubble".

The only reason we have escaped recession so far is the amazing effort central bankers and global governments have put forth to avoid what needs to be done. Congratulations to those who recognized this condition in advance.
 
However, no credit can be given to those with the misguided belief such policies and efforts will last perpetually. The end of the line always comes.
 
No Decoupling

There was no decoupling in 2008 and there will be no reverse decoupling now. For further discussion please see Will the US Economy Continue to Decouple From the Rest of the World?
 
Recession Has Begun
 
In this case, the data speaks for itself. We are at the end of the line. The recession is not coming, it is not down the road, it is not likely, it is not at even at-hand.
 
Rather, the recession has begun. Fiscal stimulus from Congress is not coming and no amount of QE is going to stop it.
 
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
 http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Read more: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/07/case-for-us-recession-and-global.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#ixzz20JeDfHWB
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 11, 2012, 06:22:02 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 12, 2012, 11:46:34 AM

"The Use Of Temps Is Outpacing Outright New Hirings By A 10-To-1 Ratio"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/11/2012 19:03 -0400

David Rosenberg

New Normal



For many months, if not years, we have been beating the drum on what we believe is the most hushed, but significant story in the metamorphosis of the US labor pool under the New Normal, one which has nothing to with quantity considerations, which can easily be fudged using seasonal and birth death adjustments, and other statistical "smoothing" but with quality of jobs: namely America's transformation to a part-time worker society. Today, one of the very few economists we respect, David Rosenberg, pick up on this theme when he says in his daily letter that "the use of temps is outpacing outright new hirings by a 10-to-1 ratio." And unlike in the old normal, or even as recently as 2011, temp hires are no longer a full-time gateway position: "Moreover, according to a Manpower survey, 30% of temporary staffing this year has led to permanent jobs, down from 45% in 2011.... In today's world, the reliance on temp agencies is akin to "just in time" employment strategies." Everyone's skillset is now a la carte in the form of self-employed mini S-Corps, for reason that Charles Hugh Smith explained perfectly well in "Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can't Hire You." Sadly, that statistic summarizes about everything there is to know about the three years of "recovery" since the recession "ended" some time in 2009.

From Gluskin Sheff

More on that Payroll Report

The more we sift through it, the more we didn't like it. Even with the bump in June hours worked and average weekly earnings, the reality is that the Q2 results for both slowed markedly. The economy has hit stall speed yet again — the third time in the past three years.

On top of that, some other details in the data were disturbing. The ranks of the unemployed rose 29k on top of a 220k surge in May. Those who were unemployed and just completed temporary work soared 218k after a 137k increase in May to stand at the highest level since November 2010 (right when QE2 began!). The total pool of available labour jumped 258k to 19.3 million which means that there is now but one job opening for every six people out there who are either actively or passively looking for work. No wonder wage pressures are fading fast.

There are some pundits who believe that the +25k pickup in temp agency employment is a good sign since in the past this sector acted as a leading indicator for job creation... if only we can bring back those old days. In today's world, the reliance on temp agencies is akin to "just in time" employment strategies — the use of temps is outpacing outright new hirings by a 10-to-1 ratio. The reality is that few businesses want to commit and this shows through in the Household Survey as well with part-time employment in an uptrend and full-time in a downtrend. Moreover, according to a Manpower survey, 30% of temporary staffing this year has led to permanent jobs, down from 45% in 2011.

As this all relates to the upcoming U.S. election, there are some more interesting tidbits to chew on. Looking at the social groupings in the data, we see that since President °barna moved into the White House in January 2009, the unemployment rate for African Americans has climbed to 14.4% from 12.7%, the unemployment rate for Hispanics has risen to 11% from 10%, the unemployment rate for women has risen to 8% from 7%, and the unemployment rate for youth (20 to 24 years old) has jumped from 12.4% to 13.7%. By and large, these were the segments of the popu}ation that helped President Obama win in that historic election in November 2008. The Reaganesque' question that must be posed is: Are these folks better off than they were four years ago?

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 13, 2012, 06:13:41 AM
Small-business confidence drops to lowest level in eight months
 Hotair ^ | 07/11/2012 | Ed Morrissey


Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Yesterday, Barack Obama responded to criticism of his plan to hike taxes on those earning as little as $250,000 a year --- a class which includes a large number of small-business owners --- by claiming that those entrepreneurs have no greater friend than the current President. He pointed to a number of tax breaks and credits he championed for small businesses, and dismissed the effects of hiking their taxes now:


Now, we can already anticipate — we know what those who are opposed to letting the high-end tax cuts expire will say. They’ll say that we can’t tax “job creators.” And they'll try to explain how this would be bad for small businesses.

Let me tell you, the folks who create most new jobs in America are America’s small business owners. And I've cut taxes for small business owners 18 times since I've been in office. (Applause.) I’ve also asked Congress repeatedly to pass new tax cuts for entrepreneurs who hired new workers and raised their workers’ wages.

But here's the thing that you have to remember. The proposal I make today would extend these tax cuts for 97 percent of all small business owners in America. In other words, 97 percent of small businesses fall under the $250,000 threshold. (Applause.) So this isn’t about taxing job creators, this is about helping job creators.

Apparently, job creators aren't buying that argument. The latest report from the National Federation of Independent Business shows a drop in optimism to the lowest level in eight months among small-business owners, and the inclination to hire falling even further:


The National Federation of Independent Business’s Small Business Optimism Index fell to 91.4 in June, down 3 points from May, according to data released Tuesday. Economists had predicted a milder fall to 93.

A sub-index that tracks expectations about economic and business conditions over the next six months sank eight percentage points to -10%, after rising three points to -2% in May. (Overall optimism slipped in May, but only slightly.) Another sub-index that tracks plans to hire dropped three percentage points to 3% in June after rising one percentage point in May.

Small businesses said “weak sales” were their most pressing problem and that they weren’t adding a lot of jobs and not planning to in coming months. “After a somewhat promising start, owner optimism has reversed trend solidly,” the NFIB’s chief economist William Dunkelberg said. “The June results were an economic downer.”

The NFIB notes that confidence dropped in nine out of ten categories — with credit being the only upside:


There was no good news in the June survey. The Small Business Optimism Index posted a decline of 3 points, falling to 91.4. This is a clear indication of slow growth. Only one of the ten Index components improved, expected credit conditions. Labor market indicators, spending plans for capital equipment and inventories took a drubbing, accounting for about 40% of the decline. Neither the Supreme Court’s decision on healthcare nor the highway spending bill effects are included in the June data….

The 10 Index questions lost a total of 30 percentage point in net favorable responses. The impact of the SCOTUS decision on health care will show up in the July survey as it occurred late in the month, ditto for the transportation bill which didn’t make much of a news splash. The health care decision was probably not what most owners expected, so “disappointment” over that will be reflected in the July survey responses. With over 20 new taxes ($800 billion) and most of the regulations yet to be written by HHS, the implications for employee costs remain unclear.

Pile onto that a President looking for a tax hike down to the $250K level, and it’s no wonder small businesses are feeling a lot more pessimistic. Given that even Obama acknowledges that the engine of job creation is small business, one might think that a President who needs to start seeing better jobs reports ASAP would try to reduce the fiscal and regulatory burdens that these entrepreneurs face rather than escalate them. Unfortunately, Obama seems more inclined to play class-warfare games than to get job creation back on track — and these small business owners know it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 13, 2012, 06:33:18 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-down-americas-social-security-time-bomb-2012-7





recovery my ass
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 13, 2012, 06:49:44 AM
Jim Powell, Contributor

 I cover economic and political history.

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 Op/Ed

 7/10/2012 @ 4:22PM |2,605 views



http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimpowell/2012/07/10/why-long-term-unemployment-has-doubled-under-president-obama



Why Long-Term Unemployment Has Doubled Under President Obama




"The media’s fixation on the headline unemployment rate has obscured the soaring number of long-term jobless." (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The media has focused on prolonged unemployment over 8 percent, while generally downplaying a shocker: the soaring number of people unemployed for more than 6 months.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back in January 2009 when Barack Obama was sworn in, there were 2.6 million people unemployed for more than 6 months.  By June 2012, the ranks of the long-term jobless soared more than 100 percent to 5.3 million.

President Obama has promoted long-term unemployment by adopting policies that make it harder and more expensive for employers to hire people.  He has relentlessly pushed for higher taxes, higher energy costs, compulsory unionism and, of course, Obamacare.  One doesn’t need a Harvard degree to figure out that when government makes hiring more difficult and expensive, there’s likely to be less of it.

Obama’s policy of extending and re-extending unemployment benefits is another culprit.  Many academic studies show how unemployment benefits undermine the urgency of finding a job.  People can afford to be more picky, and as a result they’re out of work longer.  But the longer they’re out of work, the more out of touch they’re likely to be and the harder to find a another job.

From an employer’s point of view, it’s always difficult to determine whether a job seeker will be able to do what he or she is supposed to.  Calling references often doesn’t reveal much, since an employer might be sued for making candid comments about a former employee’s performance.  An employer might be willing to confirm only that a particular individual was an employee at the firm.  Moreover, many washouts have had glowing resumes.  It’s no wonder employers seem to feel more comfortable making an offer to somebody who has a job rather than somebody who lost a job.

As extended unemployment benefits finally expired, large numbers of out-of-work people have applied for Social Security disability benefits.

Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration acknowledged that “when people become unemployed, they seek a way to continue having income.  So, we had an increase in the number of applications and the number of people receiving benefits.”

The Social Security Administration reported that in May 2012, the latest period for which statistics are available, more than 10 million people were receiving disability benefits at an annual rate of about $130 billion.  These people, incidentally, aren’t counted among the unemployed – another way the unemployment rate under-states the severity of our current crisis.

Reportedly many of the applications for disability benefits have been based on claimed mental illness.  It’s difficult to independently verify such claims.  Even when a claim is about a physical condition, there is no medical test for pain – doctors must rely on what patients report.  During the last calendar year, there were 2.9 million applications, and about 35 percent were awarded benefits.

To the extent that disability benefits create incentives to exaggerate real or imagined problems like mental illness, they’re surely making people even less employable than they were before.

In addition, by signing up for extended unemployment benefits and disability benefits, large numbers of people have created a forbidding “hole” in their resume.  Many employers might wonder whether an applicant with such a hole was in prison during the unexplained time.  If an applicant doesn’t volunteer a convincing explanation, an employer might be reluctant to ask, since the result could be an anti-discrimination lawsuit.

No surprise, then, that disability benefits are a factor reducing participation in the labor market.  MIT economist David H. Autor pointed out that “the program provides strong incentives to applicants and beneficiaries to remain out of the labor force permanently.”

The surge of disability claims has caused financial problems for the government, too.  According to Autor, “the program’s expenditures on cash transfers and medical benefits – exceeding $1,500 per U.S. household – are extremely high and growing unsustainably.”

The 2012 annual report of Social Security trustees acknowledged as much: “The Disability Insurance (DI) program satisfies neither the long-range test nor the short-range test [of solvency]. The Trustees project trust fund exhaustion in 2016, two years earlier than projected last year.”

The issue isn’t whether some people need a helping hand.  The issue is how government programs create perverse incentives that multiply rather than solving problems.

Jim Powell, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of FDR’s Folly, Bully Boy, Wilson’s War, Greatest Emancipations, Gnomes of Tokyo, The Triumph of Liberty and other books.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 13, 2012, 06:27:51 PM
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Consumers gloomier on jobs, finances
Yahoo Finance ^ | July 13,2012 | Leah Schnurr and Jason Lange
Posted on July 13, 2012 9:22:52 PM EDT by Hojczyk

Consumer sentiment cooled again in early July to its lowest level in seven months as Americans took a dim view of their finances and job prospects, a survey released on Friday showed.

Separately, producer prices rose only slightly last month as energy costs dropped, suggesting inflation pressures remain muted and leaving the door open for more efforts to stimulate the economy by the Federal Reserve.

Consumer sentiment eroded for the second month in a row after a streak of gains that started in September and Americans' attitudes about their financial situations for the coming year reached an all-time low.

Analysts said that while the drop in the main index was disappointing, attitudes were still not as dire as last summer when fears of an imminent recession were high.

At the same time, however, "The lack of a rebound, despite some help from lower gasoline prices and a modest bounce in equities in the past month, raises the specter of growth remaining stuck at a low level for a while," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment fell to 72.0 from 73.2 in June, frustrating economists' expectations for a slight gain to 73.4.

It was the lowest level since December 2011.

Only 19 percent of consumers expected to be financially better off in the coming year, the lowest proportion ever recorded by the survey. Americans were also gloomy about their longer-term prospects, with 39 percent anticipating their situation would be better in five years.

"You can't get overly concerned at the moment, but it's just an indication that the average household is pretty queasy about the current state of play and the U.S. economy," said Cary Leahey, managing director and economist at Decision Economics.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 15, 2012, 05:18:44 AM
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com


hey let's all worry about Bain capital from 12 years ago!!!!! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 15, 2012, 08:17:02 AM
In the dumps with the American Dream

We used to be ambitious and enthusiastic; now the new normal is malaise. Shouldn’t we strive for more?

By Tom Keane
   
July 15, 2012




In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter told the nation he had detected a malaise in America, “a crisis of confidence ... that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.” That malaise arguably lost him reelection, with candidate Ronald Reagan forcefully rejecting the notion that America’s best days were behind it. Reagan’s optimism bested Carter’s pessimism.

Might the same storyline play out again this year?
 
It’s not President Barack Obama claiming malaise. Politicians have learned well the lesson from Carter’s loss: Voters will blame leaders, not themselves, for such talk. Nevertheless, as suggested by a fascinating recent poll from Anderson Robbins Research, the Great Recession of 2008 has exacted a terrible cost on the country, one measured by Americans’ feelings of confidence and hope. Anderson Robbins calls it the “New Normal”: a dramatic resetting of our sense of what, exactly, is the American Dream.

The national survey, conducted this spring and commissioned by local communications firm Solomon & McCown, asked what respondents thought were the most important elements of the American Dream. Where once economic success and upward mobility would have ranked high, they ranked last in the poll. Respondents said they increasingly valued things such as good marriages (83 percent) and “a long and healthy retirement” (77 percent).


 
In other words, we just want to be happy.
 
And what’s wrong with that, you may ask? Nothing, really. It feels very European, a kind of inward-turning mindset where people get out of the rat race and focus on being content. But, to be blunt, America historically never was about being happy. For us, it’s been “the pursuit of happiness,” a phrase that is all about striving, not attaining. The American Dream required ambition and taking risks; it was about fame, fortune, and making things better for the next generation. No more, it seems. We’re all a bit frightened and ready to hunker down.

One can easily understand why. The 2008 recession was unlike any since the Great Depression. Vast amounts of wealth were lost, including homes and retirement accounts. And despite Herculean federal spending — and predictions of a much quicker turnaround — the recession’s effects have lingered. Unemployment and underemployment remain high; many people have simply given up, dropping out of the workforce altogether. Fifty-five percent of Americans feel personally scarred by the recession: 41 percent in Anderson Robbins’s survey say they “still have a ways to go,” while 14 percent say they may never recover. Indeed, the pollsters found that in general Americans now feel more “thrifty,” “determined,” and “worried.” Perhaps not surprisingly, we also feel a lot less “hopeful,” “charitable,” and “lucky.” Most profoundly, fully 59 percent believe that the next generation of Americans will have even fewer opportunities for achieving the American Dream.
 
The New Normal sounds like malaise to me.
 
One sees, perhaps, an opportunity for Mitt Romney. Pulling a page from the 1980 election, Romney might well seize upon Americans’ new-found gloom and blame it on the incumbent. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” was Reagan’s famous question, and one suspects that the answer to that question today would also be negative. If Romney could convey an attitude as buoyantly upbeat as Reagan’s, he might well capture the votes of those distressed at this new version of the American Dream.

On the other hand, where in 1980 the impression of America’s place in the world was defined by the ignominy of the Iranian hostage crisis, Obama can point to dramatic successes such as the killing of Osama bin Laden. Moreover, much of the power of the American Dream resonates not for those who already have done well, but for those at society’s margins. That includes immigrants, gays, minorities, and even women — and Obama seems rhetorically far more in their corner than does Romney (and especially the version of Romney one saw during the primaries).
 
Of course, all of this assumes that Americans really don’t want the “New Normal.” I hope they don’t. Europe is a pleasant but dull place. I’d rather the excitement, spirit and — yes — frustration of the old American Dream than a timid world where we’re all just grateful to get by.

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/07/14/america-new-normal-really-just-malaise/airGznEk32xnlST6BbgizI/story.html



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 05:18:11 AM
Economists less optimistic as early 2012 gains wither
 Fox News ^ | 7/16/2012 | ap




Economists say the sales and profit gains of early this year are disappearing, and they are increasingly pessimistic about short-term growth.

They also are gloomy because of the potential impact in the U.S. from Europe's financial crisis, the possible expiration of the Bush tax cuts in December, and the prospect of major cuts in federal spending.

A survey by the National Association for Business Economics released Monday also found less evidence of hiring, confirming the trend in recent monthly jobs reports from the government.

In the quarterly survey of 67 economists who work for companies or industry trade groups, 22 percent reported rising employment in July, down from about 30 percent in the last three surveys and 42 percent a year ago. On the positive side, only 9 percent said employment was falling. The rest said it was unchanged.


(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 05:57:53 AM
OOF: JUNE RETAIL SALES FALL UGLY 0.5%
Joe Weisenthal|26 minutes ago|528|4
 
 


Ugly!
 
Retail sales fell 0.5% in June.
 
That's well below expectations of a gain of 0.2%.
 
It's also wel worse than a decline of 0.2% seen last month.
 
Excluding autos, the decline was 0.4%.
 
And excluding autos and gas the decline was 0.2%.
 
Click here to see the report.
 
This chart from the report shows how ugly the month was across every main category.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-retail-sales-2012-7#ixzz20n1w5HzO




________________________ _____________


Hey - let's all worry about romney from 12 years ago! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 06:35:57 AM
Only 23% Of US Companies Plan To Hire In The Next 6 Months
 


Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis|13 minutes ago|3|

 



Mike "Mish" Shedlock Mish is an investment advisor at Sitka Pacific Capital. He writes the widely read Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.



Only 23% of US Companies Plan to Hire in Next 6 Months; "Lights Out" Moment Coming Up
 ECB Advocates Forcing Senior Bondholders to Take Losses on Spanish Debt; What's It Mean?
 Loan Moratorium in Italy for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses; GDP Expected to Contract 2 Percent
According to the latest survey from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) hiring over the next six months looks grim.

A NABE Poll Shows Fewer U.S. Companies Planning to Hire

Only 23 percent of the firms polled in June plan to add to staff in the next six months, the National Association for Business Economics said on Monday.
 
NABE's prior survey, conducted in late March and early April, had shown 39 percent of companies planning to add workers.
 
A July 6 Labor Department report, showed companies asked employees to work longer hours last month, even though they slowed the pace of hiring.
 
Among companies that produce goods rather than provide services, the impact was even greater, with nearly four in five reporting a Europe-driven decline in revenues.
 
Three months earlier, only about a quarter of total firms polled thought sales had fallen
 
Lights Out Moment Coming Up
 
This report is consistent with my report US Manufacturing ISM Contracts for First Time in Three Years; New Orders and Prices Plunge; Perfect Miss: 0 of 70 Economists Polled By Bloomberg Expected Contraction
 
Hiring plans are also consistent with the Case for US and Global Recession Right Here, Right Now.
 
All of a sudden, consumers and businesses alike are going to have a "lights out" moment where orders dry up, hiring dries up, and unemployment heads North.
 
If the NABE poll is correct (and it is certainly consistent with other data), that time has arrived.
 
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
 http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Read more: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/07/only-23-of-us-companies-plan-to-hire-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#ixzz20nBhCwLZ
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 07:54:03 AM
CHART OF THE DAY: Retail Sales Growth Is Freefalling, And Goldman Has Slashed Its Q2 GDP Number
Joe Weisenthal|39 minutes ago|0|



June retail sales came out this morning, and contrary to expectations of a 0.2% rise, they actually fell 0.5%.
 
This caused Goldman to cut its Q2 GDP tracking estimate from 1.3% to 1.1%.
 
This chart shows year over year growth in retail sales, and as you can see... it's divebombing.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-june-retail-sales-2012-7#ixzz20nVM9GTE

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 11:42:15 AM
All Of The Big Wall Street Banks Are Lowering Their Economic Forecasts Today
Joe Weisenthal|6 minutes ago|79|
 



Sandra Mu/Getty Images
 
That dismal June retail sales report is causing a mass GDP-forecast-slashing parade on Wall Street.
 
Here's Goldman's Jan Hatzius...
 
Retail sales declined by 0.5% (month-over-month) in June, while the consensus had looked for a 0.2% gain. Key details of the report were also weaker: non-auto retail sales declined by 0.4%, and growth in April was revised down. Similarly, “core”/control retail sales (ex-autos, gasoline and building materials) was weak, declining 0.1% in June. The weakness reflected lower sales across a variety of categories, including general merchandise stores, electronics, furniture, sporting goods stores, and health and personal care retailers. Merely food and beverages, clothing, and non-store retailers posted gains on the month. The report was a negative for our tracking estimate of Q2 GDP growth, which we reduced by two tenths to 1.1%.
 
And here's Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna...
 
June retail sales were much softer than expected, which obviously has further negative implications for Q2 economic output. Headline retail sales fell -0.5% as motor vehicle sales were down -0.6%. Excluding autos, sales were down -0.4%, as there was broad-based weakness across the various subcomponents: furniture (-0.8%), electronics (-0.8%), building materials (-1.6%), health/personal care (-0.7%), sporting goods (-1.6%), general merchandise (-0.2%) and restaurant (-0.2%) all fell; gasoline spending was down (-1.8%), but this was not a surprise given the weakness in retail gas prices which over time is a positive for households. Retail control, which is the direct input used by the Commerce Department in estimating real GDP—it is defined as retail sales less autos, building materials and gasoline—fell -0.1%. This was after a flat reading in May and a -0.1% decline in April. Note that March retail control was up 0.3%. With respect to revisions, May was basically unrevised, but April was revised down: headline and ex auto sales were lowered -0.3% in April to -0.5% and -0.6%, respectively. The net effect of weaker than expected retail sales, inclusive of revisions, is less Q2 consumption which we are tracking at +1.3%. This is down from our previous estimate of +1.8% and causes us to lower our forecast of Q2 real GDP by another 0.4% to +1.0%.
 
Here's Nomura:
 
According to the Census Bureau, retail sales declined for a third straight month in June, declining by 0.5% following an unrevised decline of 0.2% in May and a downwardly revised decline of 0.5% in April. The weaker-than-expected June data in addition to downward revisions have lowered our Q2 GDP tracking model to 1.2% from 1.3% previously.
 
Via Reuters, here's HSBC:
 
Consumer spending slowed abruptly in Q2. Consensus estimates of GDP growth in Q2 are likely to be lowered to 1.5% or less, down from growth of +1.9% in Q1. Pressure on the Fed to provide additional monetary accommodation will increase.
 
And via Jim Pethokoukis...


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-lowers-its-gdp-forecast-2012-7#ixzz20oQqpcx5
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 02:10:30 PM
Daffy's closing - 1,300 jobs lost - 51 years in business
 Crains ^ | 7/16/2012 | Adrianne Pasquerelli

Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012



Daffy's Inc., a staple of the New York shopping scene for 51 years, is closing its doors. The Secaucus, N.J.-based discount retailer, which had been rumored to be in financial turmoil, said Monday that all its stores will be shuttering over the next few months, as part of a company liquidation.

In a statement, Daffy's said it "deeply regrets that this action was necessary due to the impact on its business of the uncertain economy and weak consumer spending and a lack of viable financial and business alternatives."

The discounter employs 1,300 people and operates a total of 19 locations, all of them in the New York metro area, with the exception of one in Philadelphia. Eight of them, including a 17,000-square-foot Times Square flagship that opened only last year, are in Manhattan.


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





________________________ ___________________



PRIVATE SECTOR DOING FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 07:46:41 PM
Skip to comments.

US recession fears as retail sales fall
telegraph ^ | 10:25PM BST 16 Jul 2012 | Richard Blackden
Posted on July 16, 2012 10:23:47 PM EDT by InvisibleChurch

The 0.5pc drop last month was marked by waning demand for goods ranging from furniture to electronics as Americans retrenched in the face of weak wage growth, a slowing jobs market and persistent fears over Europe’s debt crisis.

For the second quarter as a whole, retail sales fell at an annual pace of 0.8pc compared with an increase of 6.7pc in the first three months of the year when the country’s jobs market showed signs of improvement. With the consumer again cutting back, the report raised fears among some economists that the US could slide back into recession.

“The report offers no quarter for those looking for good news for the US consumer,” said David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered. Nine of the 13 categories covered by today’s report from the Commerce Department showed declines, with essential categories such as food among the handful to buck the drop.

Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 0.2pc.

The weakness of the report will bring into even sharper focus tomorrow’s appearance by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke before Congress....

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 16, 2012, 08:18:01 PM
Skip to comments.

Property tax first-quarter revenue down, seen sliding more
Reuters ^ | 7/16/2012
Posted on July 16, 2012 8:53:49 PM EDT by markomalley

Local property tax revenue fell 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012 versus a year ago and likely will keep sliding in the coming quarters, a report said on Monday.

Local property tax revenue, often the most important source of income for local governments, had firmed during the previous two quarters, the Albany, N.Y.-based Rockefeller Institute said. It noted that it can take at least three years to factor in a downturn in housing prices.

The fall in property tax revenue is much sharper with inflation taken into account. It was down 2.8 percent in the first quarter of this year versus a year ago, the sixth straight quarterly decline, the report said.

Any more declines in this vital source of revenue will hit localities especially hard, the report said, as property taxes accounted for about 74 percent of their revenue in 2009.

The costs of a wide range of programs, from education to retiree benefits, are rising just as the federal government is considering deep cuts in domestic programs.

"The housing bust that helped trigger the Great Recession was deeper and broader than any housing decline since the Great Depression," the report said.

Prices of single-family homes peaked in the first quarter of 2007, on a nominal basis, and then dropped 16.7 percent through the first quarter of 2012, the report said, citing a Federal Housing Finance Agency index.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 03:36:01 AM
Free Republic
Browse · Search   Pings · Mail   News/Activism
Topics · Post Article
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Canadians Richer Than Americans For First Time In History
dailymail.co.uk ^
Posted on July 17, 2012 1:47:06 AM EDT by tsowellfan

Americans may enjoy teasing and taunting their neighbours to the north but now the jokes on them.

For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American.

The net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202 compared to the average American household’s $319,970 worth, according to data published in Canada's Globe and Mail last month...

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 04:51:11 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48193471


What happened to the "Summer of Recovery"?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: garebear on July 17, 2012, 05:06:12 AM
.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 05:08:54 AM
.

True - he is great at destroying everything he goes near.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 11:49:05 AM

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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 11:54:53 AM

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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 12:12:24 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/bernanke-predicts-slow-progress-on-unemployment.html


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 03:38:08 PM
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.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2012, 08:27:12 PM
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. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2012, 04:17:44 AM
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.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on July 18, 2012, 09:33:29 AM
33,

Killing bin laden wasn't free.  Should we have skipped that mission?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2012, 10:39:08 AM
33,

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

Solyndra cost 500 million - should we have skipped that? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 18, 2012, 12:10:21 PM
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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2012, 09:58:01 AM
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on July 19, 2012, 09:59:00 AM
Will you still be posting this stuff if Romney becomes president?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2012, 09:59:10 AM
..

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
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2012, 10:00:06 AM
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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2012, 10:01:06 AM
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2012, 10:07:13 AM

 
 
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
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2012, 03:45:50 AM
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? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2012, 04:58:58 AM
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/usa-newyorkcity-unemployment-idUSL2E8IJH3U20120719


Ue% going up.   


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2012, 05:02:59 AM
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


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2012, 10:33:22 AM
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.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 20, 2012, 05:25:32 PM
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120719/OPINION13/207190323/Ryan-Streeter-real-job-growth-problem


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: CAPTAIN INSANO on July 20, 2012, 08:38:28 PM
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
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2012, 03:10:47 PM
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
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2012, 06:43:06 PM
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 ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: blacken700 on July 21, 2012, 06:48:37 PM
are you saying your as unpatriotic as this guy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2012, 06:53:09 PM
are you saying your as unpatriotic as this guy

im saying do the math   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2012, 11:53:35 AM
US Poverty On Track To Reach Highest Level Since The 1960s
 


AP|Jul. 22, 2012, 9:22 AM|1,284|32

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.
 
Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.
 
The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest since 1965.
 
Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.
 
"I grew up going to Hawaii every summer. Now I'm here, applying for assistance because it's hard to make ends meet. It's very hard to adjust," said Laura Fritz, 27, of Wheat Ridge, Colo., describing her slide from rich to poor as she filled out aid forms at a county center. Since 2000, large swaths of Jefferson County just outside Denver have seen poverty nearly double.
 
Fritz says she grew up wealthy in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch, but fortunes turned after her parents lost a significant amount of money in the housing bust. Stuck in a half-million dollar house, her parents began living off food stamps and Fritz's college money evaporated. She tried joining the Army but was injured during basic training.
 
Now she's living on disability, with an infant daughter and a boyfriend, Garrett Goudeseune, 25, who can't find work as a landscaper. They are struggling to pay their $650 rent on his unemployment checks and don't know how they would get by without the extra help as they hope for the job market to improve.
 
In an election year dominated by discussion of the middle class, Fritz's case highlights a dim reality for the growing group in poverty. Millions could fall through the cracks as government aid from unemployment insurance, Medicaid, welfare and food stamps diminishes.
 
"The issues aren't just with public benefits. We have some deep problems in the economy," said Peter Edelman, director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy.
 
He pointed to the recent recession but also longer-term changes in the economy such as globalization, automation, outsourcing, immigration, and less unionization that have pushed median household income lower. Even after strong economic growth in the 1990s, poverty never fell below a 1973 low of 11.1 percent. That low point came after President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, launched in 1964, created Medicaid, Medicare and other social welfare programs.
 
"I'm reluctant to say that we've gone back to where we were in the 1960s. The programs we enacted make a big difference. The problem is that the tidal wave of low-wage jobs is dragging us down and the wage problem is not going to go away anytime soon," Edelman said.
 
Stacey Mazer of the National Association of State Budget Officers said states will be watching for poverty increases when figures are released in September as they make decisions about the Medicaid expansion. Most states generally assume poverty levels will hold mostly steady and they will hesitate if the findings show otherwise. "It's a constant tension in the budget," she said.
 
The predictions for 2011 are based on separate AP interviews, supplemented with research on suburban poverty from Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution and an analysis of federal spending by the Congressional Research Service and Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute.
 
The analysts' estimates suggest that some 47 million people in the U.S., or 1 in 6, were poor last year. An increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 15.2 percent would tie the 1983 rate, the highest since 1965. The highest level on record was 22.4 percent in 1959, when the government began calculating poverty figures.
 
Poverty is closely tied to joblessness. While the unemployment rate improved from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 8.9 percent in 2011, the employment-population ratio remained largely unchanged, meaning many discouraged workers simply stopped looking for work. Food stamp rolls, another indicator of poverty, also grew.
 
Demographers also say:
 
—Poverty will remain above the pre-recession level of 12.5 percent for many more years. Several predicted that peak poverty levels — 15 percent to 16 percent — will last at least until 2014, due to expiring unemployment benefits, a jobless rate persistently above 6 percent and weak wage growth.
 
—Suburban poverty, already at a record level of 11.8 percent, will increase again in 2011.
 
—Part-time or underemployed workers, who saw a record 15 percent poverty in 2010, will rise to a new high.
 
—Poverty among people 65 and older will remain at historically low levels, buoyed by Social Security cash payments.
 
—Child poverty will increase from its 22 percent level in 2010.
 
Analysts also believe that the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the poverty level, will remain near its peak level of 6.7 percent.
 
"I've always been the guy who could find a job. Now I'm not," said Dale Szymanski, 56, a Teamsters Union forklift operator and convention hand who lives outside Las Vegas in Clark County. In a state where unemployment ranks highest in the nation, the Las Vegas suburbs have seen a particularly rapid increase in poverty from 9.7 percent in 2007 to 14.7 percent.
 
Szymanski, who moved from Wisconsin in 2000, said he used to make a decent living of more than $40,000 a year but now doesn't work enough hours to qualify for union health care. He changed apartments several months ago and sold his aging 2001 Chrysler Sebring in April to pay expenses.
 
"You keep thinking it's going to turn around. But I'm stuck," he said.
 
The 2010 poverty level was $22,314 for a family of four, and $11,139 for an individual, based on an official government calculation that includes only cash income, before tax deductions. It excludes capital gains or accumulated wealth, such as home ownership, as well as noncash aid such as food stamps and tax credits, which were expanded substantially under President Barack Obama's stimulus package.
 
An additional 9 million people in 2010 would have been counted above the poverty line if food stamps and tax credits were taken into account.
 
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, believes the social safety net has worked and it's now time to cut back. He worries that advocates may use a rising poverty rate to justify additional spending on the poor, when in fact, he says, many live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.
 
A new census measure accounts for noncash aid, but that supplemental poverty figure isn't expected to be released until after the November election. Since that measure is relatively new, the official rate remains the best gauge of year-to-year changes in poverty dating back to 1959.
 
Few people advocate cuts in anti-poverty programs. Roughly 79 percent of Americans think the gap between rich and poor has grown in the past two decades, according to a Public Religion Research Institute/RNS Religion News survey from November 2011. The same poll found that about 67 percent oppose "cutting federal funding for social programs that help the poor" to help reduce the budget deficit.
 
Outside of Medicaid, federal spending on major low-income assistance programs such as food stamps, disability aid and tax credits have been mostly flat at roughly 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product from 1975 to the 1990s. Spending spiked higher to 2.3 percent of GDP after Obama's stimulus program in 2009 temporarily expanded unemployment insurance and tax credits for the poor.
 
The U.S. safety net may soon offer little comfort to people such as Jose Gorrin, 52, who lives in the western Miami suburb of Hialeah Gardens. Arriving from Cuba in 1980, he was able to earn a decent living as a plumber for years, providing for his children and ex-wife. But things turned sour in 2007 and in the past two years he has barely worked, surviving on the occasional odd job.
 
His unemployment has run out, and he's too young to draw Social Security.
 
Holding a paper bag of still-warm bread he'd just bought for lunch, Gorrin said he hasn't decided whom he'll vote for in November, expressing little confidence the presidential candidates can solve the nation's economic problems. "They all promise to help when they're candidates," Gorrin said, adding, "I hope things turn around. I already left Cuba. I don't know where else I can go."
 



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-poverty-on-track-to-reach-highest-level-since-the-1960s-2012-7#ixzz21NYJ1t6y

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2012, 12:19:53 PM
 :)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2012, 12:56:23 PM
The Global Economy Is In Its Worst Shape Since 2009
 


AP|Jul. 22, 2012, 9:27 AM|5,894|28

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global economy is in the worst shape since the dark days of 2009.
 
Six of the 17 countries that use the euro currency are in recession. The U.S. economy is struggling again. And the economic superstars of the developing world — China, India and Brazil — are in no position to come to the rescue. They're slowing, too.
 
The lengthening shadow over the world's economy illustrates one of the consequences of globalization: There's nowhere to hide.
 
Economies around the world have never been so tightly linked — which means that as one region weakens, others do, too. That's why Europe's slowdown is hurting factories in China. And why those Chinese factories are buying less iron ore from Brazil.
 
As a result of this global economic slowdown, the International Monetary Fund has reduced its forecast for world growth this year to 3.5 percent, the slowest since a 0.6 percent drop in 2009. Some economists predict the global economy will grow a full percentage point less.
 
For now, few foresee another global recession. Central banks in China, Britain, Brazil, South Korea and Europe have cut interest rates in the past month to try to jolt growth. European leaders have begun to focus more on promoting growth, not just shrinking debt and cutting budgets.
 
The Chinese government, in particular, is expected to do what it takes to protect its economy from deteriorating too quickly. And despite their slowdowns, China and India are still growing at rates America and Europe can only imagine.
 
But many economists say European policymakers aren't moving fast enough to strengthen European banks and ease borrowing costs for Italy and Spain. They fear the global impact if Europe's economy deteriorates further.
 
Stock prices in the United States and elsewhere are fluctuating almost daily depending on the outlook for a resolution of Europe's debt crisis.
 
Around the world, sales at companies ranging from automakers to technology companies are falling. Advanced Micro Devices, a California-based maker of computer chips used in everything from slot machines to smart cameras, says revenue likely dropped 11 percent in the second quarter because of weaker-than-expected sales in China and Europe.
 
At Jagemann Stamping Co. in Manitowoc, Wis., sales to Europe have dropped more than 10 percent from a year ago. The company makes metal parts for auto companies and other customers. It's still enjoying strong sales in the United States, so it hasn't had to cut workers because of falling business in Germany and the Czech Republic.
 
"What it does is slow our new hiring," says company president Ralph Hardt.
 
One growing concern about the global economy is there's little margin for error: Unemployment is already at recession levels in Europe and the United States.
 
The United States, by far the world's biggest economy, has long pulled the global economy out of slumps. Now it needs help. Three years after the Great Recession officially ended, the American economy can't maintain momentum. For the third straight year, growth has stalled at mid-year after getting off to a promising start.
 
Unemployment stood at 8.2 percent in June — the 41st straight month it's been above 8 percent.
 
Americans spent less at retail businesses for a third straight month in June, the longest losing streak since the recession. Economists are downgrading their estimates of economic growth in the April-June quarter. When the government releases its first estimate on Friday, many think it won't even match the first quarter's sluggish 1.9 percent annual pace.
 
The global slowdown is squeezing U.S. exports, which have accounted for an unusually large 43 percent share of U.S. growth since the recession officially ended in June 2009.
 
Consumer confidence has fallen four straight months in the face of scant hiring and weak economic growth. U.S. companies are nervous about the threat of tax increases and spending cuts that are scheduled to kick in at year's end unless Congress breaks a deadlock. The IMF has warned of a spillover to the rest of the world if the U.S. economy falls off the so-called fiscal cliff.
 
Europe's obstacles are even more severe. It's faced with crushing government debts, struggling banks and scant economic growth. Unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro is 11 percent, the highest since the euro was adopted in 1999.
 
Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain are in recessions. Germany and France are faring better, but both are likely to grow more slowly this year than America.
 
French retail giant Carrefour SA — the Wal-Mart of Europe — says its sales fell in the second quarter amid a slowdown in its core markets in Europe.
 
Italy's Fiat lost nearly $260 million in Europe the first three months of the year. French carmaker PSA Peugeot-Citroen plans to slash 8,000 jobs in France and close a major factory. Europe's banks are stuck with bad real estate loans and shaky European government bonds.
 
The European Central Bank has made massive amounts of money available to Europe's banks at cheap rates to try to revive lending. But borrowing by many businesses and consumers remains weak because they are uncertain about future income.
 
Many fear that Greece and perhaps other countries will default on their debts and have to abandon the euro currency, which could ignite financial chaos across Europe.
 
A summit of European leaders last month produced some agreements that helped calm markets for a few days. But optimism faded as investors recognized that governments are still saddled with big debts and banks with bad loans. And that Europe itself still faces the threat that growth will stall and the euro currency alliance will collapse.
 
The European Commission predicts the 17-country eurozone economy will shrink 0.3 percent this year. Many economists fear it could be worse. Capital Economics says a recent drop in eurozone business confidence is consistent with a 1 percent decline in economic output.
 
In the latest wallop to the global economy, China said last week that its economic growth fell to a three-year low. The world's second-largest economy grew 7.6 percent in the April-June quarter compared with the same quarter last year. That was the slowest growth since early 2009.
 
Countries like China need fast growth to serve growing populations and millions of people leaving farms to seek work in cities.
 
Chinese growth has decelerated for eight straight quarters. That's the longest slowdown in records dating to 1992, according to Yu Bin, a government researcher.
 
The slowdown is partly deliberate. In 2010 and 2011, Chinese officials raised interest rates and took other steps to tame inflation and cool an overheated real estate market.
 
"Mission accomplished," says Cameron Peacock, a market analyst at Australia's IG Markets. "China now has the room to re-stimulate its economy."
 
But China is also feeling Europe's economic squeeze. Chinese exports to Italy dropped 24 percent in June from a year earlier. Exports to France fell 5 percent, those to Germany nearly 4 percent. Europe buys about 17 percent of China's exports.
 
The impact of weak European demand for Chinese-made furniture, shoes, toys and other goods has fallen hardest on export-oriented manufacturers along China's southeastern coast. Some companies have closed. Others are cutting staff.
 
China is the biggest trading partner of Brazil, which has the world's eighth-biggest economy. Brazil is likely to grow only 1.8 percent in 2012, according to Sao Paulo Federation of Industries. China's slowdown has reduced demand for Brazilian soy and iron ore. Brazilian manufacturers, such as aircraft maker Embraer, are hurting as Europe reduces its demand for manufactured goods.
 
A relatively strong currency isn't helping. It makes Brazilian products more expensive to foreign buyers.
 
Brazil also has a U.S.-style problem with consumer debt: Since 2003, about 40 million Brazilians have entered the middle class and brought a strong appetite for consumption. Brazilian leaders credited those consumers with invigorating the economy in recent years and helping protect it from external shocks.
 
But most of the buying has been on credit. And those bills are adding up. In a report last week, London-based Capital Economics estimated that debt payments now eat up 20 percent of household income in Brazil.
 
"The current pace of credit growth in Brazil remains unsustainable — and the longer it continues, the bigger the risk of a messy ending further down the line," Capital Economics warned.
 
Similarly, the outlook has dimmed for India, the world's fourth-biggest economy. Its growth slowed to a 5.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2012, the slowest rate in nine years.
 
Over the past two decades, India has emerged as a powerhouse in services — writing software, running call centers, making movies, drafting engineering plans.
 
In a report last month, Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics, said India's troubles are mostly self-inflicted.
 
"Weak governance, although not new, is the most plausible explanation for the slowdown," he wrote.
 
The government has reneged on promises to make it easier for foreigners to invest in India. It has taxed Indian firms that acquire companies overseas. Indian factories have cut production. And the pay of many Indians has been diminished by inflation, which has averaged more than 9 percent a year for the past two years.
 
The slowdown in the developing world could make it harder for the economies of Europe and the United States to climb out of their ruts. And the weaker the rich countries get, the harder it will be for developing economies to regain their old fast pace.
 
"In today's interconnected world, we can no longer afford to look only at what goes on within our national borders," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said earlier this month. "This crisis does not recognize borders. This crisis is knocking at all our doors."
 
___
 
Associated Press Staff Writers Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro, David McHugh in Frankfurt and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-global-economy-is-closer-than-ever-to-a-new-recession-2012-7#ixzz21Nofh1MH
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 23, 2012, 05:03:39 AM
Earnings Show Recession May Be 'Fast Approaching'
Published: Sunday, 22 Jul 2012 | 1:05 PM ET Text Size By: Jeff Cox
CNBC.com Senior Writer



While this quarter's earnings reports have crossed a substantially lowered profit bar, future expectations through the year indicate a recession could be on the way.

 
Estimates for the third and fourth quarters have been dropped to levels not seen since the days of the 2008 financial crisis, below even the muted 2 percent expected level of inflation.

That's an ominous recession sign for an economy that has barely managed to attain positive growth this year even with the strong level of earnings beats, according to an analysis by Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx in New York.

"Revenue estimates for the back half of 2012 have been slowly working their way lower this year," Colas said. "This trend, however, has accelerated to the downside over the past 30 days and we are fast approaching levels where these estimates are unambiguously pointing to the risk of a U.S./global recession later into 2012 and 2013."

For the current quarter, about 69 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 [.SPX  1362.66  ---  UNCH  (0)   ] have beaten analyst profit estimates. Only 42 percent, though, have beaten on top-line revenue estimates, indicating that growth is weakening.

That's evidenced by a rash of downward forward revisions from analysts.

In the broader S&P 1500, analysts have cut outlooks for 792 companies and raised for just 323, with the decreases especially prevalent in technology, which saw half its components down, the highest level since February 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

In Colas' analysis, though, he limited his look to the companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average [.DJIA  12822.57  ---  UNCH  (0)   ].



Analysts now expect revenue to grow at just 1 percent to 1.5 percent pace in the third quarter. The forecast for the fourth quarter is 3.9 percent, though Colas says "I doubt any analyst could defend this point of view unless they expect a rapidly weakening dollar...or a truly epic round of liquidity-pumping operations from the world's central banks."

Colas is not alone in his expectations for recession.

Laksman Achuthan, at the Economic Cycle Research Institute, made headlines late last year when he said he expected recession to hit the U.S. in the first quarter, which, according to the most current data, didn't happen.

But he recently said in media appearances that he is sticking to the call, saying the country already could be in recession or is progressing toward one later this year.

"There have been a lot of economists and analysts who have had their blinders on for quite some time," said Brian LaRose, an analyst at United-ICAP in Jersey City, N.J. "We're not bullish on the recovery here in the U.S. We think that there are far greater problems ahead that have yet to be addressed."

Colas also is not alone in his surprise that stock prices have continued to trend higher despite the bleak economic prospects.

The only reason he, and other strategists, have devised for the climb in equities has been hope for more Federal Reserve intervention. The Fed has carried out two asset buying programs called quantitative easing, as well as a third program that entailed buying and selling debt in equal amounts known as Operation Twist, which it voted to extend last month.

"When corporations feel the pinch from a slower economy, they lay off workers," Colas said. "When they law off workers the Fed executes on its dual mandate and increases liquidity. And when the Fed increases liquidity, stocks go up."



LaRose, though, thinks investors "want a QE3 so badly, they refuse to accept the fact that there will be no QE3."

The rise in stock prices that has accompanied those easing hopes in fact, may be what actually thwarts another round. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke favors the stock market as a gauge of economic health and the vehicle for a wealth effect that boosts sentiment.

"If the economy was plummeting into a recession then it would be obvious that monetary policy needed to be eased," said Paul Dales, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "But, even allowing for the deterioration in the incoming data, the economy is still growing modestly, stock markets have not tanked and the euro-zone crisis is still rumbling along without ever really developing into a full-scale meltdown."

Should the economic data continue to deteriorate and earnings through the rest of 2012 come in as low as Colas expects, the case will become clearer for a a recession and, perhaps, more Fed intervention.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been below consensus economic forecasts, looking for just 1.1 percent growth this quarter, and said Friday that if anything it could be too optimistic.

"The European crisis shows no sign of fading and, in the usual lagged fashion, should have increasing rather than decreasing collateral impacts on growth outside Europe," Ethan S. Harris, BofA's North American economist, said in a note.

"Last but not least, the risks of the fiscal cliff have just started to work their way into corporate psychology," he added. "We are frankly a bit puzzled by the persistent optimism in consensus and official forecasts."

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 23, 2012, 06:17:15 AM
European Banks Are Fleeing The United States In Droves
Max Nisen|22 minutes ago|505|


jordanfischer via flickr


 
Since the financial crisis, European bank assets in the United States have fallen an incredible $540 billion dollars from $1.51 trillion to $973 billion.
 
The FT reports that a combination of write downs, sales of loans and businesses, bank failures, and higher capital ratio requirements have pushed U.S. assets held by Eurozone banks to their lowest levels since 2005.
 
The drop is most pronounced in countries that have suffered severe banking crises. Ireland's banks, for example, have seen their U.S. assets decline from 130 billion in 2008 to just $3.6 billion as of March.
 
Benefiting from this outflow are U.S. institutions like Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Capital One which have bought loans and assets from struggling Eurozone banks.   
 
Read the full report at the Financial Times >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ft-european-banks-are-fleeing-the-united-states-in-droves-2012-7#ixzz21S2X9BoP

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 23, 2012, 11:46:50 AM
8,753,935: Workers on Disability Set Another Record in July; Exceed Population of 39 States

By Terence P. Jeffrey

July 23, 2012

Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey's posts



 
(CNSNews.com) - The number of workers taking federal disability insurance payments hit yet another record in July, increasing to 8,753,935 during the month from the previous record of 8,733,461 set in June, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.
 
The 8,753,935 workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July exceeded the population of 39 of the 50 states. Only 11 states—California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey—had more people in them than the number of workers on the federal disability insurance rolls in July.
 
Virginia, the twelfth most-populous state, had 8,096,604 people in 2011, according to the latest Census Bureau estimate. That would make Virginia’s population about 657,331 less than the number of workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July.
 
Congress enacted legislation in 1956 to add federal disability insurance to the Social Security system. Over the decades, the number of Americans actually working has dramatically declined relative to the number claiming federal disability insurance payments.
 
By July 1967, there 74,520,000 Americans actually working and 1,145,663 workers taking disability payments. That made a ratio of 65 actual workers for each worker collecting disability. In July 1987, there were 112,634,000 people actually working and 2,759,852 people collecting disability—a ratio of about 41 actual workers to each worker collecting disability.
 
When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, there were 142,187,000 people actually working  and 7,442,377 workers collecting disability—a ratio of about 19 to 1.
 
In June, there were 142,415,000 people actually working and 8,733,461 workers claiming disability—a ratio of about 16 to 1.
 
In July, in addition to the 8,753,935 workers who received federal disability insurance payments, there were also 165,564 spouses of disabled workers and 1,850,653 children of disabled workers who received payments. That brought the total number of disability beneficiaries to 10,770,152.
 
Federal disability insurance is funded by a 1.8 percent payroll tax that is split between employers and workers. Self-employed people pay the entire 1.8 percent.
 
The Social Security System’s Disability Insurance Trust Fund has run deficits in each of the last three fiscal years, meaning the government has needed to borrow money to pay disability benefits to the workers claiming them. In fiscal 2009, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund ran a deficit of $8.5 billion. In fiscal 2010, it ran a deficit of $20.8 billion. And in fiscal 2011, it ran a deficit of $25.3 billion.
 
To be eligible for federal disability insurance payments, a person must have worked long enough to have qualified for the benefits and must also meet the Social Security Administration’s definition of “disabled.”
 
“We consider you disabled under Social Security rules if: You cannot do work that you did before; we decide that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death,” says the Social Security Administration.
 
Whether someone has worked long enough to qualify for federal disability insurance payments depends on their age and the number of “credits” they have earned from the Social Security system.
 
“Social Security work credits are based on your total yearly wages or self-employment income,” the Social Security Administration explains. “You can earn up to four credits each year. The amount needed for a credit changes from year to year. In 2012, for example, you earn one credit for each $1,130 of wages or self-employment income. When you've earned $4,520, you've earned your four credits for the year.”
 
According to the Social Security Administration’s formula, someone under 24 years of age would qualify for disability payments if he or she had earned at least 6 credits—or about $6,780—over the three years before they became disabled.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2012, 04:19:56 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-russell-bear-market-15-years-2027-2012-7


Obama depression. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2012, 08:51:03 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gross-richmond-fed-response-2012-7


Hey - let's worry about Romneys' horse! 

Fucking obama trolls are going to be the death of this country. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2012, 08:56:36 AM
HUGE MISS: Richmond Fed Plummets To -17
 
Eric Platt|Jul. 24, 2012, 9:59 AM|1,374|4

Mike Brown/Getty Images
 
UPDATE:





Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic declined at a sharper than anticipated rate, new data out of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond shows.
 
The headline manufacturing index fell to -17 from -3 a month earlier. Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast an improvement to -1.
 
A reading below zero indicates contraction.
 
Both new orders and shipments fell deep into negative territory this July, hitting -25 and -23, respectively.
 
Employment and wages were the only sub-indices to remain in positive territory. Nonetheless, the number of employees index fell to 1.
 
"Looking ahead, manufacturer's optimism regarding future business prospects dropped considerably in July," the Fed said in a statement. "An increasing number of firms anticipated slower growth across the board with the exception of capital expenditures, which grew at a pace slightly above June's rate."
 
Below, key output from the report.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/richmond-fed-manufacturing-july-2012-7#ixzz21YX3DK1u






Obama depression 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2012, 07:06:38 AM
NEW HOME SALES COLLAPSE 8.4%
Eric Platt|6 minutes ago|464|1

Casey Serin/Flickr




UPDATE:

New home sales declined 8.4 percent sequentially in June, missing expectations and falling to the lowest level since January.
 
Click here for updates >
 
Sales fell to an annual rate of 350,000, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
 
Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.7 percent increase, to 372,000 units.
 
ORIGINAL:
 
Minutes away from the key data point of the day: New Home Sales.
 
Economists polled by Bloomberg forecast sales advanced 0.7 percent in June to an annual pace of 372,000.
 
If that holds, it would be the highest sales pace in more than two years.
 
However, it would mark a substantially slower growth rate then recorded in May, when sales jumped 7.6 percent to 369,000.
 
The announcement is scheduled at 10:00 a.m.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-home-sales-june-2012-7#ixzz21dw9W8AP
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 25, 2012, 01:17:13 PM
"I'll tell you my general view on this," Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner said about the economy in his testimony to Congress. "The economy is not growing fast enough. Unemployment is very high. There's a huge amount of damage left in the housing market. Americans are living with the scars of this crisis."
 
"The institutions with authority should be doing everything they can to try to make economic growth stronger," Geithner said. "That is an obligation we all share. Congress under the Constitution has the authority for the most powerful tools we have available to help economic growth. We'd like Congress to use those tools now in this context. And again we will keep supporting anything practical, sensible, that will make growth stronger, help get more people back to work, help make credit more available to more people not just to buy a home or to refinance a mortgage, but to make sure businesses can expand to meet growing demand for their products."


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/07/25/geithner_economy_is_not_growing_fast_enough_unemployment_is_very_high.html

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2012, 06:55:15 AM
U.S. Economy Slowed to a Tepid 1.5% Rate of Growth
 
By SHAILA DEWAN
 
Published: July 27, 2012






The United States economy grew by a tepid 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, losing the momentum it had appeared to be gaining earlier this year, the government reported Friday.


Heng: Editorial Cartoon (July 27, 2012)



Growth was held back as consumers curbed purchases and business investment slowed in the face of a global slowdown and a stronger dollar. Analysts had expected a 1.4 percent rate.

The sluggishness of the recovery makes the United States more vulnerable to trouble in Europe and increases the likelihood of more stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which has lowered its forecasts in recent weeks. It also illustrates the election-season challenge to President Obama, who must sell his economic record to voters as the recovery slows.

In part, the economy subsided after an unseasonable spurt during the warm winter, and in part it followed the pattern of the past couple of years — one of hopes raised, then dashed by wary business owners and households trying to reduce their debt.

In the first quarter, the economy grew 2 percent, according to the revised figures released Friday by the Commerce Department. Its previous estimate was 1.9 percent.

“You can’t blame all of it on Europe — we have our own problems yet,” said Joshua Shapiro, the chief United States economist at MFR Inc., a financial consulting firm. “When you have a credit bubble or asset bubble that’s popped, the recovery process from that is just really long and really painful.”

The Commerce Department also released updated estimates of economic activity for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Those figures showed that the recession was less deep than it seemed in the most recent reports — though more pronounced than in initial readings — and, as a consequence, that the pace of recovery also appears somewhat slower.

The new estimates show that economic activity fell by 3.1 percent in 2009 and then rose by 2.4 percent in 2010. The government previously reported that activity fell by 3.5 percent in 2009 before rising 3 percent in 2010. The estimated pace of growth in 2011, 1.8 percent, remained basically unchanged. It was previously reported as 1.7 percent.

 The revisions, part of an annual process, reflect the imprecise nature of the agency’s work. Its initial estimates are derived from a mix of comprehensive data, samples and educated guesswork, and refined over time. In this case, officials said they had significantly underestimated spending by state and local governments in 2009, and overestimated corporate profits and purchases in 2010.

 The adjustments were largely offsetting. The agency now estimates average annual growth of 0.3 percent over the three-year period, rather than 0.4 percent.

 But the new numbers may modify public perception of two key economic trends. It appears that corporations rebounded more slowly from the recession than previously believed.

And the more complete data used in the new estimates show state and local governments increased spending in 2009 before cutting back in the next two years. Officials said they did not have enough information to explain the previously unreported increase, except to say the money was not spent on personnel or on infrastructure projects, the two categories that might have benefited most directly from the federal government’s stimulus programs.

 


Binyamin Appelbaum contributed reporting from Washington.
 

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 27, 2012



An earlier version of this article, as well as an accompanying summary and an e-mail alert, misstated the second-quarter trend in exports. They grew at a faster rate than in the first quarter; they did not flatten.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on July 27, 2012, 07:10:30 AM
Romney was right. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2012, 10:13:05 AM
46.5 Million Americans, Record 22.3 Million US Households, On Foodstamps; 8,753,935 On Disability
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/27/2012 11:26 -0400



BLSBureau of Labor Statistics


America's transition into a welfare state continues, as May saw a new all time high number of American households, 22.3 million to be exact, enter technical poverty and collect foodstamps. At the individual level, 46.5 million Americans lived off foodstamps, a 222,157 increase in the month, or nearly three times the number of people who found jobs in June according to the BLS. Next month this too will be a record, as it is currently just 17,367 before the previous all time high set in December of 2011. The good news, and we use the term loosely, is that the average benefit per household rose from all time lows of $275.82 to $276.76. Surely, the bottom is in and just like housing, there is on blue skies ahead.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/465-million-americans-record-223-million-us-households-foodstamps



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2012, 12:15:28 PM
http://www.nationaljournal.com/economy/the-slow-agony-of-the-obama-recovery-20120727


Worst so called recovery since the depression
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2012, 05:45:38 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/after-224-years-in-business-americas-oldest-store-is-saying-goodbye-2012-7


Another victim of the Obama economy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2012, 12:01:58 PM
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-07-24/economy/32816129_1_output-index-paul-dales-readings


Manufacturing is in a near depression as well.  4 more years!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2012, 12:23:39 PM
OMB report says recession will cost decade of high unemployment rates
Politico ^
Posted on July 29, 2012 12:46:13 PM EDT by Sub-Driver

OMB report says recession will cost decade of high unemployment rates

By REID J. EPSTEIN | 7/28/12 3:51 PM EDT

The numbers that have the White House projecting an unemployment rate dipping below 8 percent before November still show the economy struggling to recover until well after the next presidential election, with rates not expected to stabilize to pre-recession levels until after the second term President Obama is hoping to win.

Republicans quickly leapt on Friday's Office of Management and Budget report that prediction slower-than-expected economic growth this year and next, with the unemployment rate dropping to 7.9 percent by the fourth quarter. Mitt Romney’s spokeswoman called it the latest evidence of Obama's failure on the economy, but the full study paints a stark long-term picture as well.

The OMB, in its Mid-Session Review to Congress released Friday, projects unemployment will drop gradually, to 7.7 percent in 2013, 7.3 percent in 2014, 6.7 percent in 2015, 6.2 percent in 2016, 5.7 percent in 2017 and remaining at 5.4 percent from 2018 to 2022. The national unemployment rate was last at 5.4 percent in May 2008, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The projections are based, the report said, on accelerated economic growth as the country comes out of its recession.

“Unemployment is projected to decline slowly this year and next, because of the moderate pace of expected real GDP growth and because, as labor market conditions improve, workers rejoin the labor force, adding upward pressure on unemployment,” the report said. “With accelerated growth, the unemployment rate is projected to fall more rapidly, eventually stabilizing at 5.4 percent.”

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2012, 08:33:42 AM
GIGANTIC MISS: DALLAS FED REPORT PLUNGES TO -13.2
Joe Weisenthal|Jul. 30, 2012, 10:31 AM|1,141|4




 
Oof, mega-whiff.

According to Bloomberg, the main Dallas Fed index report fell to -13.2 from 5.8.
 
This is one of several regional Fed indices that offer a gauge on the manufacturing sector in said region.
 
They're crucial measures of the economy, and good previews foer both the ISM and the employment index.
 
The market hasn't reacted much, but clearly this is not good news.
 
Below the line is the full announcement.
 
-------------------
 
Texas factory activity continued to increase in July, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell from 15.5 to 12, suggesting slightly slower output growth.
 
Other measures of current manufacturing activity also indicated slower growth in July. The new orders index was positive for the second month in a row, although it moved down from 7.9 to 1.4. Similarly, the shipments index posted its second consecutive positive reading but edged down from 9.6 to 7.4. The capacity utilization index came in at 8.7 after rising to 13.3 last month.
 
Perceptions of broader economic conditions were mixed in July. The general business activity plummeted to -13.2 after climbing into positive territory in June. Nearly 30 percent of manufacturers noted a worsening in the level of business activity in July, pushing the index to its lowest reading in 10 months. The company outlook index remained positive for the third month in a row but fell from 5.5 to 1.6.
 
Labor market indicators reflected stronger labor demand. Employment growth continued in July, although the index edged down from 13.7 to 11.8. Twenty-one percent of firms reported hiring new workers, while 10 percent reported layoffs. The hours worked index was 4.1, up slightly from its June reading.
 
Price pressures were largely unchanged in July, although compensation costs rose at a faster pace. The raw materials price index held steady at 3, suggesting only slight increases in input costs this summer after strong upward pressure earlier in the year. Selling prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in July; the finished goods price index was -5.5, virtually unchanged from last month’s reading. The wages and benefits index rose nearly 10 points to 22.9, largely due to a marked rise in the share of firms noting increased compensation costs. Looking ahead, 36 percent of respondents anticipate further increases in raw materials prices over the next six months, while 25 percent expect higher finished goods prices.
 
Expectations regarding future business conditions were less optimistic in July. The index of future general business activity slipped from 1.3 to -7.3, registering its first negative reading in 10 months. The index of future company outlook remained positive but fell from its June level, coming in at 5.3. Indexes for future manufacturing activity also decreased, although all remained in strong positive territory.
 
The Dallas Fed conducts the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey monthly to obtain a timely assessment of the state’s factory activity. Data were collected July 17–25, and 89 Texas manufacturers responded to the survey. Firms are asked whether output, employment, orders, prices and other indicators increased, decreased or remained unchanged over the previous month.
 
Survey responses are used to calculate an index for each indicator. Each index is calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease from the percentage reporting an increase. When the share of firms reporting an increase exceeds the share reporting a decrease, the index will be greater than zero, suggesting the indicator has increased over the prior month. If the share of firms reporting a decrease exceeds the share reporting an increase, the index will be below zero, suggesting the indicator has decreased over the prior month. An index will be zero when the number of firms reporting an increase is equal to the number of firms reporting a decrease.
 
More to come...


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/july-dallas-fed-2012-7#ixzz227WgIWXn

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2012, 12:48:57 PM
Mort Zuckerman: Under Obama, the New American Dream Is a Job

In the past, when retail sales were down three consecutive months, it was a signal of an oncoming recession


 By Mortimer B. Zuckerman
July 30, 2012



There's not much to cheer in our scrappy election campaign. We hear that more than 4.4 million private sector jobs have been added in 28 straight months of job growth, and that the president is taking "aggressive steps to put Americans back to work." The happy talk invites a slogan from the 1984 election: "Where's the beef?"

The assessment that the U.S. economy is "stuck in the mud," just given to lawmakers by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, underscores yet again that there has been no recovery since the theoretical ending of the recession in June 2009. For the 80 percent of Americans who were born after World War II, this is their Depression.
 
The most dismaying signal of a weakening economy came from the American consumer, as retail sales fell a stunning 0.5 percent in June, far below the expectation for a 0.2 percent increase. An astounding 70 percent of retailers missed their sales targets in June, reflecting the most difficult month since November 2009. The retail weakness was broad-based, and indicators were down dramatically from the first quarter, as June represented the third month in a row that retail sales have weakened. In the past when retail sales were down three consecutive months, it was a signal of an oncoming recession. The result is that the underlying trend in GDP growth is barely above 1 percent.
 
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
 
What we have been living through is a breakdown of the great American jobs machine. Jobs have long been the best social program, the best economic program, and the best family program in America. No longer. The jobs are not there. Unemployment today is the worst since the Great Depression.
 
The unemployment statistics may be mind-numbing in the effort to portray the complexities of the national picture beyond the simple—and misleading—routine headline figures. It is very important, however, that we should understand just where we are and what the figures tell us about where we are heading. The headline unemployment number focused on by the media is 8.2 percent, but that's not the real number. If you add to the headline number the "discouraged workers" not currently looking for a job, and others "marginally attached" to the labor force, the unemployment rate would be almost 10 percent. And if you add involuntary part-time workers to the headline number, the real unemployment rate would be 14.9 percent. Fifty percent of the jobs created since the recession have been part time, which generally means that these workers receive no benefits and that their pay is inadequate to enter the middle class.
 
All the net jobs created during the Obama administration have been part-time jobs. An estimated 35 million Americans are trapped in jobs they would have left in better times. Fewer Americans are working today than in the year 2000, despite the fact that our population has grown by 31 million and our labor force by 11.4 million since then.
 
[Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insider's guide to politics and policy]
 
The Obama campaign emphasizes that "for years before the economic crisis," middle-class security had been slipping away because of stagnant wages and soaring healthcare costs. It's true that even before the start of the Iraq war in 2003 we had problems (education and fiscal control), but the record of the last four years is worrying. The unemployment rate under President Obama has averaged over 9 percent. Under George W. Bush, his predecessor, the jobless rate averaged 5.3 percent and was at 6.8 percent in the month his party lost the 2008 election. Job seekers are only one third as likely to find a job as before Obama was elected. A record number have been out of work for over six months. Hiring plans have sunk to the lowest reading since the third quarter of 2009, and only 26 percent of American companies plan to boost their compensation, the lowest since the depth of the last recession, as reported by David Rosenberg, chief economist of Gluskin Sheff.
 
Today a record number of households have at least one member looking for a job. The average private sector workweek is 34.5 hours. If not for the relatively short workweek, the jobless rate would be even higher. Another pattern that has emerged is that companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave, and this doesn't count toward the unemployment rates.
 
Many blue-collar workers and many in the middle class feel they are falling further and further behind, no matter how hard they work. Millions of families are one layoff or one medical emergency away from going into bankruptcy. It is no wonder that the great American dream is no longer a house in the suburbs. It is now a secure job and any job will do.
 
[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should There Be More Quantitative Easing?]
 
Another depressant has been the drop of some 40 percent in the net worth of the average American family over the last five years. These are Depression-like statistics. The baby boomers who are now entering their 60s are at the epicenter of the tragic collapse of their net worth. They have scaled down their expectations and their expenditures, particularly as they worry about their departure from the workforce.
 
It takes time for a slump in household net worth to fully register, but it inevitably results in a drawn-out but profound effect on consumer spending patterns, as frugality becomes the new and lasting behavior. One reaction is to get out of debt as fast as possible, and indeed the ratio of household debt to after-tax income has dropped from 130 percent at its peak in the third quarter of 2007 to approximately 114 percent today.
 
Americans feel deflated by the numbers and the bleak small business sentiment. According to a Gallup survey last fall, 81 percent of Americans said they were dissatisfied with the way the nation was being governed, and 65 percent of people in a Rasmussen poll this month said they believe the country is on the wrong track.
 
The future of the unemployed is dubious, for when economic activity picks up, employers will undoubtedly first choose to increase hours for existing workers. Many unemployed workers looking for jobs once the recovery really begins will discover that jobs as good as the ones they lost are almost impossible to find.
 
[See Mort Zuckerman's 5 Ways to Create More Jobs.]
 
On top of that, the business community has been alienated since the Obama administration abandoned early efforts to build confidence and rally the national will. It engaged, instead, in demeaning the private sector. America typically boos the losers, but this has become an administration that boos the winners.
 
Key question: How will we find a way to have at least 500,000 more hires per month than we are now seeing? We have recovered less than 20 percent of the jobs lost in the recession, compared to previous recoveries in which over 100 percent of the jobs lost were recouped. This recession has shown employers that they can make do with fewer workers. Over 20 percent of companies say that employment in their firms will never return to pre-recession levels. Just as serious is that most of the newly available jobs don't match the pay, the hours, or the benefits of the millions of positions that vanished during the recession.
 
Millions of Americans are facing a lost decade, living from paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay their bills, having to borrow money. They face a frightening future with deepening anxiety.
 
Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus has raised the question: Can the president persuade voters to let him keep his job when so many of them have lost theirs? The buck stops with the president, and the latest opinion poll by CBS and the New York Times suggests he is paying a price for our disappointing recovery.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 31, 2012, 05:11:28 AM
Deutsche Bank To Lay Off 1900, As Meredith Whitney Predicts 50,000 Total Wall Street Layoffs
 


Linette Lopez|7 minutes ago|58|
 

Bloomberg TV screenshot
 
Deutsche Bank is laying off 1900 people. 1500 of them are in the investment bank.
 
Here's the press release.
 
This news comes as Meredith Whitney's been chatting with Tom Keene on Bloomberg TV this morning, and just as she started explaining why she thought Wall Street's big banks would initiate massive layoffs (50,000, actually).
 
Deutsche Bank's stock is shooting up, according to Bloomberg.
 
That makes sense according to Whitney's thesis as she explained it to Maria Bartiromo last week— the market will reward banks that shrink their staff and their business.
 
Here's the press release from Deutsche Bank:
 
Deutsche Bank (XETRA: DBKGn.DE / NYSE: DB) today provided an update on its strategy review which was initiated on 1 June 2012. The Bank will communicate further results of its strategy review as planned in September.
 
Cultural change
 
Deutsche Bank is committed to being at the forefront of cultural change in the banking industry. As part of a range of measures to bring about a cultural change, the Bank is reviewing its compensation practices, in order to address both the absolute level of compensation and the relative balance between rewards for shareholders and those for employees. In addition, the Bank is reviewing its codes of personal conduct to ensure that they are in line with its long tradition of doing business to the highest standards.
 
Operational efficiency
 
The Management Board has identified cost savings of approximately EUR 3 billion compared to the noninterest expenses run-rate for the first half of 2012. These cost reduction measures will include changes to the business and revenue model as well as the implementation of a reengineering program aimed at achieving world-class operating performance with flexibility, quality and robust controls. The savings are net of investments to support business growth, and there will be substantial cost to achieve these savings.
 
As an immediate action to adjust the platform to the current environment, Deutsche Bank will reduce headcount predominantly outside of Germany by approximately 1,900 positions, including 1,500 positions in Corporate Banking & Securities and related infrastructure areas. These measures are expected to contribute savings of approximately EUR 350 million of the overall EUR 3 billion target on a run-rate basis. Measures also include the completion of the already announced activities related to the integration of Postbank, which will contribute savings of approximately EUR 500 million of the overall EUR 3 billion target.
 
Capital
 
The Bank has always maintained, and currently maintains, capital ratios which are comfortably above all regulatory thresholds and plans to continue to do so. In response to second-quarter business conditions, the Bank has identified EUR 29 billion of additional risk-weighted asset reductions and capital building measures, beyond those previously communicated. Some of these measures have already been implemented. Therefore, the Bank continues to expect that at the beginning of 2013, its Core Tier 1 ratio including “phase-in” will be approximately 9%, equivalent to 7.2% on a fully-loaded basis.
 
By the end of the first quarter of 2013, the Bank’s ambition is to achieve a Basel 3 Core Tier 1 ratio of approximately 10% on a phase-in basis, equivalent to at least 8% on a fully-loaded basis, by means of a wide range of measures to further reduce risk and to build capital organically. The Bank further aims to continue to grow this ratio through the rest of 2013 and beyond. The Bank aims to apply all capital levers at its disposal before considering raising equity from investors.
 
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they include statements about our beliefs and expectations and the assumptions underlying them. These statements are based on plans, estimates and projections as they are currently available to the management of Deutsche Bank. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any of them in light of new information or future events.
 
By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could therefore cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Such factors include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in the United States and elsewhere from which we derive a substantial portion of our revenues and in which we hold a substantial portion of our assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, potential defaults of borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of our strategic initiatives, the reliability of our risk management policies, procedures and methods, and other risks referenced in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors are described in detail in our SEC Form 20-F of 20 March 2012 under the heading “Risk Factors.” Copies of this document are readily available upon request or can be downloaded www.db.com/ir.
 
This release also contains non-IFRS financial measures. For a reconciliation to directly comparable figures reported under IFRS, please refer to the 2Q2012 Financial Data Supplement, which is available at www.db.com/ir.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-layoffs-2012-7#ixzz22CYGzD7A

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 31, 2012, 05:25:22 AM
HUGE Plunge In NAPM Milwaukee Manufacturing Index
Eric Platt|11 minutes ago|2|

 



Stu Forster/Getty Images
 
Manufacturing in the Great Lakes region collapsed in July, new data out of the National Association of Purchasing Management-Milwaukee shows.
 
The headline business activity index dived to 46.7 from 60.2 a month earlier.
 
There was no consensus for the July report.
 
Click here for updates >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/napm-milwaukee-july-2012-7#ixzz22Cbqq5s8

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2012, 08:51:22 AM
WHIFF: JULY ISM FALLS BELOW 50, SIGNALING MANUFACTURING CONTRACTION
 


Joe Weisenthal|Aug. 1, 2012, 9:47 AM|595|2
 

 
Not a good number.
 
49.8 is below 50, meaning contraction. And that's for the second strait month.
 
Analysts had actually expected a gain to 50.2.
 
Major bummer for a crucial number.
 
Stocks are still higher.
 
------------
 
 
 
 
 
The final big datapoint of the day is the July ISM report, a measure of US manufacturing that represents the end of global PMI day.
 
Generally PMIs have been coming in very bad, but analysts actually expect a rise from 49.7 to 50.2 for the month.
 
Earlier, the Markit US PMI (which should yield a similar number) came in at 51.4.
 
Remember, anything above 50 is expansion.
 
We'll have the number here LIVE at 10:00 AM ET.
 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/july-ism-2012-8#ixzz22JHuaVRT
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on August 01, 2012, 09:05:34 AM
WHIFF: JULY ISM FALLS BELOW 50, SIGNALING MANUFACTURING CONTRACTION
 


Joe Weisenthal|Aug. 1, 2012, 9:47 AM|595|2
 

 
Not a good number.
 
49.8 is below 50, meaning contraction. And that's for the second strait month.
 
Analysts had actually expected a gain to 50.2.
 
Major bummer for a crucial number.
 
Stocks are still higher.
 
------------
 
 
 
 
 
The final big datapoint of the day is the July ISM report, a measure of US manufacturing that represents the end of global PMI day.
 
Generally PMIs have been coming in very bad, but analysts actually expect a rise from 49.7 to 50.2 for the month.
 
Earlier, the Markit US PMI (which should yield a similar number) came in at 51.4.
 
Remember, anything above 50 is expansion.
 
We'll have the number here LIVE at 10:00 AM ET.
 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/july-ism-2012-8#ixzz22JHuaVRT

Would have been lower if not for the gains in "Inventory Stocking", why businesses are stocking up for demand that isn't there, I'll never know.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 01, 2012, 11:00:27 AM

ADP jobs report shows slowing in July; Manufacturing “unexpectedly contracts” in July
 Hotair ^ | 08/01/2012 | Ed Morrissey


Posted on Wednesday, August 01, 2012


Time to start breaking out the predictive indicators for Friday's jobs report on employment in June! First up, as always, comes from private-sector payroll giant ADP, which uses its own customer base to estimate job growth in non-government positions. Today's report predicts an increase of 163,000 private-sector jobs in July:


Employment in the U.S. nonfarm private business sector increased by 163,000 from June to July, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated gain from May to June was revised down slightly, from the initial estimate of 176,000 to 172,000.

Employment in the private, service-providing sector expanded 148,000 in July after rising a revised 151,000 in June. The private, goods-producing sector added 15,000 jobs in July. Manufacturing employment rose 6,000 this month, following a revised increase of 9,000 in June. Employment on large payrolls—those with 500 or more workers—increased 23,000 and employment on medium payrolls—those with 50 to 499 workers—rose 67,000 in July.

Employment on small payrolls—those with up to 49 workers—rose 73,000 that same period. Of the 67,000 jobs created on medium-sized payrolls, 4,000 jobs were created by the goodsproducing sector and 63,000 jobs were created by the service-providing sector.

That sounds like good news on the surface, but this series almost always overstates the BLS figures — usually by a considerable margin. For instance, the 176K predicted by ADP for June turned into just 80K for the official BLS numbers. May’s ADP increase of 129K ended up as 69K from the BLS. Using ADP to figure out actual numbers for the BLS is a bit of a fool’s errand.

However, the ADP series usually tracks well as a trend indicator. The trend downward signals that July’s numbers aren’t going to be much better than June’s, and might be slightly worse. Unfortunately, a combined article at CNBC from AP and Reuters stories treats the ADP report as a numeric indicator rather than a trend indicator, at least in its lead:


A private survey shows U.S. businesses kept hiring at a modest pace in July, suggesting the job market could be improving after three sluggish months.

Payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added 163,000 jobs last month. That’s slightly below a revised total of 172,000 jobs it reported for June.

The report only covers hiring in the private sector and excludes government job growth. The Labor Department will offer a more complete picture of July hiring on Friday.

The ADP survey offered some hope that hiring is picking up. But it has often deviated sharply from the government report. In June, the Labor Department said employers added just 80,000 jobs, less than half the figure reported by ADP.

CNBC reports that analysts expect a modest improvement from June to 100,000 jobs added in Friday’s report. Based on the track record of ADP and the trend from May to June and June to July, I’d guess that 75K is a better estimate of job growth. Neither would be enough to actually add jobs in relation to population growth, which requires between 125K-150K jobs added each month.

Update: This is one reason I’d stick to the cautious side on job-growth predictions — manufacturing contracted for a second straight month in July, according to the ISM:

Manufacturing in the U.S. unexpectedly contracted for a second month in July, indicating a mainstay of the economy was struggling to improve.


The Institute for Supply Management‘s factory index was little changed at 49.8 last month from 49.7 in June. Fifty marks the dividing line between expansion and contraction. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a reading of 50.2, according to the median estimate.

Cutbacks in household purchases, unemployment exceeding 8 percent, Europe’s debt crisis and slower global growth threaten to further restrain an industry that’s been a source of strength for the economy. Factories may also temper production as companies curb spending out of concern that lawmakers will fail to prevent automatic government spending cuts and higher taxes from going into effect next year.

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 84 economists ranged from 48.5 to 52 for the Tempe, Arizona-based ISM’s factory report.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 07:48:30 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/02/gm-profits-slip-european-struggles


GM - FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 07:54:25 AM
Gallup: Unemployment went up in July
 Hotair ^ | 08/02/2012 | Ed Morrissey


Posted on Thursday, August 02, 2012 10:14:09 AM


Two more indicators previewing tomorrow's July jobs report are in today, and neither look particularly good. First, weekly jobless claims went back up again after a sharp drop the week before --- which was amended upward in today's report, too:


In the week ending July 28 the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 365,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 357,000. The 4-week moving average was 365,500, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 368,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending July 21, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 21 was 3,272,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,291,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,298,500, a decrease of 11,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,310,000.

The 357K figure from last week was originally reported at 353K, which had been a years-long low. The new level of 365K will almost certainly get revised upward next week, and it’s close to the 370K-380K range we’ve seen since the spring and summer of 2011. While the volatility has increased this summer, in part because of the auto industry, the overall results look like a continuation of the status quo.

That’s still better news than Gallup’s, whose surveys predict a rise in unemployment:


U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, was 8.2% in July, up slightly from 8.0% in June, but better than the 8.8% from a year ago. Gallup’s seasonally adjusted number for July is 8.0%, an increase from 7.8% in June. …

Unemployment had previously dropped to 7.9% in mid-July, the lowest it has been since Gallup began tracking employment daily in 2010. However, the improvement was short-lived, and unemployment increased during the second half of the month.

Underemployment, however, did decline — for the third straight month in July, to 17.1%, the lowest since Gallup started collecting employment data. Gallup’s U.S. underemployment measure combines the unemployed with those working part time but looking for full-time work. Gallup does not apply a seasonal adjustment to underemployment.

Gallup also indirectly predicts that more people have left the workforce. Their percentage of people in the workforce working full time rose to 66.6%, Gallup’s highest level since the pollster began tracking this in January 2011. However, the number of people employed full time remained the same, which means that the rise in this measure can only be due to a shrinking workforce. If Gallup has this right, the jobless rate won’t rise tomorrow, but we may see more decline in the civilian population participation rate, which hit a 30-year low in May (63.6%) and is close to that now (63.8%).

Planned layoffs declined slightly in July, CNBC reports, but they’re still slightly higher than in 2011:


The number of planned layoffs at U.S. companies dropped for the second month in a row in July, even as job cuts in the financial sector persisted, a separate report showed.

Employers announced 36,855 planned job cuts last month, down 1.9 percent from 37,551 in June, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Job cuts were also well off levels of July last year when 66,414 layoffs were announced. For 2012 so far, employers have announced 319,946 cuts, up 2.5 percent from the 312,220 reductions in the first seven months of 2011.

We have all the data we’ll get ahead of tomorrow’s jobs report, combining this with yesterday’s ADP report. The jobless rate will be difficult to predict, so let’s stick with predictions of jobs added in July. The Reuters consensus is that we’ll see 100,000 jobs added, but I’m sticking with my prediction of 75,000.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on August 02, 2012, 07:55:24 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/02/gm-profits-slip-european-struggles


GM - FAIL

sounds like someons is rooting against america.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 07:57:16 AM
sounds like someons is rooting against america.

LOL. 

Only obamabots cheer failure.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on August 02, 2012, 10:59:10 AM
LOL. 

Only obamabots cheer failure.   

sorry, i thought your ass was celebrating when Chicago lost the Olympics bid.  I apologize for my assumption.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 11:03:12 AM
sorry, i thought your ass was celebrating when Chicago lost the Olympics bid.  I apologize for my assumption.

I was.  Chicago getting the olympics would have been a disaster/   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 06:58:58 PM


Irish Times ^ | August 3, 2012 | Financial Times Limited
Posted on August 2, 2012 9:55:23 PM EDT by Son House

Demand for US factory goods fell unexpectedly in June, reflecting a drop in corporate investment and the biggest decreases in non-durable goods orders for over three years.

Factory orders fell 0.5 per cent, compared with analysts’ expectations of a 0.7 per cent rise, US commerce department figures showed yesterday. June’s fall followed a downwardly revised 0.5 per cent increase in May, after sharp declines the two previous months.

Economists fear a slowdown in momentum, given that manufacturing had been regarded as the mainstay of a US economic recovery. The sector accounts for about 12 per cent of the economy.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2012, 07:55:37 PM
While the national unemployment rate paints a grim picture, a look at individual states and their so-called real jobless rates becomes even more troubling.


Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The government's most widely publicized unemployment rate measures only those who are out of a job and currently looking for work. It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time.

For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work.

The numbers in some cases are startling.

Consider: Nevada's U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.


Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.

Only three states — Nebraska (9.1 percent), South Dakota (8.6 percent) and North Dakota (6.1 percent) — have U-6 rates under 10 percent, according to research from RBC Capital Markets.

Election battleground states paint a picture not much more flattering. Florida's U-6 number is an ugly 17 percent, though Pennsylvania and Ohio are both around 14 percent, below the national U-6 average.

The numbers come as the government prepares to release its latest reading, the July nonfarm payrolls number, on Friday. Economists expect the report show about 100,000 jobs created for the month and the traditional "U-3" rate to hold steady at 8.2 percent.




"The lack of improvement in state U-6 rates continues to be troubling," Chris Mauro, head of US Municipals Strategy at RBC, said in a research note. "While down from recent peaks, state U-6 levels remain dramatically higher than they were in 2007 and 2008."

Mauro used the numbers to demonstrate that investing in municipal bonds remains a challenge because high real unemployment rates will be a drain on local finances.

"We remain concerned about the corrosive influence that these stubbornly high U-6 rates may have on both consumer sentiment and state and local tax revenues," he said. "At current levels, these U-6 rates will continue to be a drag on credit quality."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 05:34:34 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/july-non-farm-payrolls-slam-expectations-163000k-unemployment-rate-8rises-3


LOL.

June revised down 6000 jobs.

Lower labor force particpartion rate by 150k

8.3% UE



CHEERS!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 05:45:12 AM
July Non Farm Payrolls Slam Expectations At 163,000K, Unemployment Rate 8.Rises To 3%
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/03/2012 08:31 -0400


Bureau of Labor StatisticsNon Farm PayrollsUnemployment


Expectations were +100,000, NFP prints at 163,000K. Goodbye QE in 2012.

From the report:


Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 163,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in professional and business services, food services and drinking places, and manufacturing.

 

Household Survey Data

 

Both the number of unemployed persons (12.8 million) and the unemployment rate (8.3 percent) were essentially unchanged in July. Both measures have shown little movement thus far in 2012. (See table A-1.)

 

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for Hispanics (10.3 percent) edged down in July, while the rates for adult men (7.7 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), teenagers (23.8 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and blacks (14.1 percent)  showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.2 percent in July (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

 

In July, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.2 million. These individuals accounted for 40.7 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)

 

Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.7 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.4 percent, changed little in July. (See table A-1.)

Participation rate drops to 63.7%, 3 month low and back to secular low levels:
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on August 03, 2012, 05:47:58 AM
No new QE or stimulus.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 05:52:43 AM
No new QE or stimulus.

How long before Andre puts up a "Obama kicking my ass thread?"   ;D


________________________ ________________________ _______________

Unemployment Workers Now Facing Unemployment Themselves
Posted: 08/03/2012 8:35 am Updated: 08/03/2012 8:40 am

Via HP



Lynn Tipton, front, president of a local union and a worker at the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, addresses a crowd during an event held to protest layoffs at the department on July 25 in Cranston, R.I. (AP Photo/David Klepper)


Jim Gibbons of Green Oak Township, Mich., hopes he has a job next month. He works for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency, which just pink-slipped 177 temporary workers and plans to dismiss as many as 225 more.

"We were told about 12 noon this last Monday by our department manager and it just hit every one of us like a ton of bricks," he said. The next day at the office, he said, "It was like we were in a funeral home. Solemn, quiet, very little banter."

Gibbons, 61, said he only landed the job two years ago after a six-month unemployment spell. He assumes that his lack of seniority at the unemployment office means he'll be canned. A former auto mechanic and a member of the UAW Local 6000, Gibbons had hoped to retire from Ford, but he'd do any type of work rather than be unemployed.

"A job is better than no job," Gibbons said.

The layoffs at Michigan's workforce agency come not because the economy's bad, but because it's supposedly getting better: The state's unemployment rate has fallen to 8.6 percent, down from 10.6 percent just one year ago. The agency says fewer Michiganders are filing for unemployment, so it needs fewer workers to process the claims.

"In June 2009, the number of claims peaked at 537,000," department spokeswoman Chawn Greene-Farmer said in an email. "As of July 30, 2012, the UIA provided unemployment services to 187,000 claimants."

At the same time, Gibbons is caught up in a familiar recessionary tale of government layoffs. As the private sector has added jobs since the recession technically ended halfway through 2009, state and local governments have bogged down the recovery by continuing to shed workers in an effort to close budget deficits. The public sector is down by more than half a million workers since 2009, and government jobs declined by 9,000 from June to July.

Another reason for fewer unemployment claims is that the federal government is providing fewer weeks of benefits than it used to. Republicans and Democrats struck a deal earlier this year to gradually wind down federal programs that, combined with state benefits, previously gave jobless workers up to 99 weeks of aid. And lawmakers in several state legislatures -- including Michigan's -- have pared back the 26 weeks of state-funded benefits traditionally available.

Fewer than 6 million workers received state or federal unemployment insurance last week, according to the Labor Department, down from 7 million this time last year.

Michigan's not the only state where unemployment workers are following teachers, firefighters and police officers out the door. In California, a declining caseload led the state's Employment Development Department to reduce its unemployment insurance staff from 2,577 in January 2011 to 2,178 last June (though the agency said 100 workers were redirected to jobs in other EDD branches, and that the others "left through attrition -- retirements, leaving for other jobs").

"Fewer people applying for benefits, more people exhausting all their benefits -- both contributed to the decline in workload," department spokesman Patrick Joyce said in an email.

And Rhode Island's Department of Labor and Training laid off 65 people last week because it used up a funding boost from the 2009 stimulus bill.

"The vast majority of those positions were originally funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment dollars. Those dollars went away," department spokeswoman Laura Hart said. "We were able to keep those positions for an additional year through smart fiscal management, but we would need an additional $4.6 million in federal dollars to keep those people in their existing jobs for another 12 months."

For two years, Jonathan Jacobs of Providence handled unemployment insurance claims at the agency.

"Now we're on the unemployment insurance line. It is an ironic situation," Jacobs, 34, said in an interview. "I am still applying for jobs anywhere and everywhere, because I do have a wife and 6-month-old daughter, so I need to be thinking about things like health care."

Jacobs said the agency's service will suffer as a result of the layoffs. At 10.9 percent, Rhode Island's unemployment rate is the second-highest in the nation, behind only Nevada.

"In an ideal situation, we would have enough workers to maintain the level of customer service we previously showed before the layoffs," he said. "Unfortunately, that's not the case. We know that there will be an impact. We know that our call wait times are going to go up when you're trying to call our call center."

While Jacobs looks for full-time work, he said he hopes to work part-time with his union, SEIU Local 401, to elect local leaders who are concerned about the jobless.

"Unemployed individuals in the state of Rhode Island have been reduced to just percentages and average wait times, when they're actually people," he said. "I'd like to work towards helping that mindset change."

Jim Gibbons, the former auto mechanic worried he'll be let go by Michigan's workforce agency, said he expects to start really sweating later this month. If he loses his job, though, he said he'll find a new way to make a living.

"I was truly a fish out of water when I first became part of the agency but you learn to adapt, kind of like Sonny Bono," Gibbons said. "Who would have guessed he and Cher were singing all these hit tunes, and before he died he became a United States congressman? Sometimes we have to reinvent ourselves."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on August 03, 2012, 06:08:11 AM
Do the jobs "Created" actually exist or not?


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs[/b]]http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs (http://[b)

"Happy by the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US "added" 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an "adjusted" rise? Simple: the BLS "added" 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there's more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs "added", 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging. Doesn't matter - the flashing red headline is good enough for the algos...."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 06:11:36 AM
Do the jobs "Created" actually exist or not?


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs[/b]]http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs (http://[b)

"Happy by the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US "added" 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an "adjusted" rise? Simple: the BLS "added" 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there's more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs "added", 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging. Doesn't matter - the flashing red headline is good enough for the algos...."


How many in the lamestream media will report this in their broadcasts tonight? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 06:14:10 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/seasonal-and-birth-death-adjustments-add-429000-statistical-jobs


Unreal how phoney these reports are. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 06:21:53 AM
Mixed messages in July jobs reports has fodder for Obama and Romney campaigns

The U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 163K jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent
Comments (7)
By Kristen A. Lee / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, August 3, 2012, 7:13 AM
 
.
..

With just three months left before Election Day, President Obama got some badly-needed good news on the jobs front Friday, as a Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 163,000 jobs in July.
 
The unemployment rate, however, ticked up to 8.3 percent, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the GOP seized upon to argue that the Obama administration is still not creating jobs quickly enough.
 
The mixed messages suggest the latest jobs data will not change the rhetoric coming from either campaign.
 
Romney called the report a "hammer blow to struggling middle-class families" in a statement shortly after the July numbers were released.
 
"President Obama doesn’t have a plan and believes that the private sector is ‘doing fine.’ Obviously, that is not the case," he said. "We’ve now gone 42 consecutive months with the unemployment rate above eight percent."
 
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, also used the report to claim that "Obama’s economic plan did not work."
 
Investors, however, appeared pleased with the news. With July's hiring at its strongest since February, futures tracking the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Dow Jones industrial average gained about one percent. The stock market is coming off four days of losses.
 
The job gains were broad-based, the Associated Press reported. Manufacturing added 25,000 jobs, the most since March. Restaurants and bars added 29,000. Retailers hired 7,000 more workers. Education and health services gained 38,000. Governments cut 9,000 positions.
 
 
 
Average hourly wages also increased by 2 cents. Over the past year wages have increased 1.7 percent — matching the rate of inflation.
 
Both candidates are expected to comment on the latest jobs report shortly before noon Eastern Time.
 
Obama will likely tout the jobs growth at 11:45a.m., when he is scheduled to urge Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle class families.
 
Romney, meanwhile, is holding a campaign event at a truck equipment company in North Las Vegas, Nevada, where he is likely to cite the higher unemployment rate to say too many Americans are still suffering.
 
With News Wire Services
.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/weak-hiring-expected-fourth-straight-month-article-1.1128191#ixzz22UNYHcRS
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 06:24:13 AM
 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on August 03, 2012, 07:01:20 AM
Mixed messages in July jobs reports has fodder for Obama and Romney campaigns

The U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 163K jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent
Comments (7)
By Kristen A. Lee / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Friday, August 3, 2012, 7:13 AM
 
.
..

With just three months left before Election Day, President Obama got some badly-needed good news on the jobs front Friday, as a Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 163,000 jobs in July.
 
The unemployment rate, however, ticked up to 8.3 percent, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the GOP seized upon to argue that the Obama administration is still not creating jobs quickly enough.
 
The mixed messages suggest the latest jobs data will not change the rhetoric coming from either campaign.
 
Romney called the report a "hammer blow to struggling middle-class families" in a statement shortly after the July numbers were released.
 
"President Obama doesn’t have a plan and believes that the private sector is ‘doing fine.’ Obviously, that is not the case," he said. "We’ve now gone 42 consecutive months with the unemployment rate above eight percent."
 
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, also used the report to claim that "Obama’s economic plan did not work."
 
Investors, however, appeared pleased with the news. With July's hiring at its strongest since February, futures tracking the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Dow Jones industrial average gained about one percent. The stock market is coming off four days of losses.
 
The job gains were broad-based, the Associated Press reported. Manufacturing added 25,000 jobs, the most since March. Restaurants and bars added 29,000. Retailers hired 7,000 more workers. Education and health services gained 38,000. Governments cut 9,000 positions.
 
 
 
Average hourly wages also increased by 2 cents. Over the past year wages have increased 1.7 percent — matching the rate of inflation.
 
Both candidates are expected to comment on the latest jobs report shortly before noon Eastern Time.
 
Obama will likely tout the jobs growth at 11:45a.m., when he is scheduled to urge Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle class families.
 
Romney, meanwhile, is holding a campaign event at a truck equipment company in North Las Vegas, Nevada, where he is likely to cite the higher unemployment rate to say too many Americans are still suffering.
 
With News Wire Services
.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/weak-hiring-expected-fourth-straight-month-article-1.1128191#ixzz22UNYHcRS


There is no fodder for Obama in any of these reports.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 07:27:18 AM
195,000 Fewer Americans Had Jobs in July; 150,000 Dropped Out of Labor Force

By Terence P. Jeffrey

August 3, 2012

Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey's posts


 

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and President Barack Obama (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 
(CNSNews.com) - There were 195,000 fewer people employed in the United States in July than in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as the national unemployment rate ticked up from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.
 
Meanwhile, 150,000 people simply dropped out of the labor force during the month and did not seek to find a job.
 
In June, according to BLS, there had been 142,415,000 people employed in the United States. In July, that dropped to 142,220,000--a decline of 195,000.
 
Similarly, in June, there were 155,163,000 people in the civilian labor force in the United States. To be counted in the civilian labor force, person must be 16 years old or older, not be in the military, prison or a mental institution, and either have a job or have actively looked for a job in the past four weeks.
 
In July, the number of people in the civilian labor force was 155,013,000--a decline of 150,000 from June.
 
The number of people who were unemployed--meaning they were 16 or older, not in the military, a prison or a mental institution, and had actively looked for a job in the last four weeks-jumped by 45,000 during the month, climbing from 12,749,000 in June to 12,794,000 in July.
 
During July, the number of people who simply left the labor force (150,000) exceeded the number of newly unemployed (45,000) by more than two to one (105,000).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 08:39:28 AM
* The unemployment rate, which is derived from a separate survey of households, rose to 8.3 percent. That will give Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ammunition for his charge that President Barack Obama has not done enough to help the economy since the 2007-2009 recession. It also raises pressure on Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy. The household employment survey ran in the opposite direction as the establishment survey of employers. The household survey showed the number of people with jobs fell by 195,000. In another worrisome sign, the household survey showed the size of the workforce decreased by 150,000. To be in the workforce, a worker must be either employed or seeking work. The participation rate, a measure of the amount of people employed compared to the size of the workforce, fell to 63.7 percent from 63.8 percent.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 09:49:22 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on August 03, 2012, 09:58:25 AM
Hey 333 - how is your personal misery index

you're broke and living in a ghetto surrounded by scary thugs

you're obviously personally tormented by every move that Obama makes and have somehow convinced yourself that he is a communist and trying to collapse the nation

do you have to drink yourself to a blackout in order to sleep at night?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 03, 2012, 10:09:22 AM
Hey 333 - how is your personal misery index

you're broke and living in a ghetto surrounded by scary thugs

you're obviously personally tormented by every move that Obama makes and have somehow convinced yourself that he is a communist and trying to collapse the nation

do you have to drink yourself to a blackout in order to sleep at night?



LOL.  Typical.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on August 03, 2012, 10:12:13 AM
LOL.  Typical.   

so the answer is yes?

maybe Romney can make the scary thugs go away
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 06, 2012, 02:22:53 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-trucking-lead-indicator-us-economy-recession-2012-8


Hope and Change 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 06, 2012, 08:32:11 PM
We Have A Phony Recovery That Has Sown The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction
TBI ^ | 8-6-2012 | Peter Schiff
Posted on August 6, 2012 10:40:23 PM EDT by blam

We Have A Phony Recovery That Has Sown The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction

Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital
Aug. 6, 2012, 9:41 PM

The past week provided clear lessons not just in how central bankers have a limited ability to positively influence the economy but also how they are limited in their capacity to deliver the shortsighted policy actions that investors currently crave. The developments should provide new reasons for investors and economy watchers to abandon their faith in central bankers as super heroes capable of saving the economy.

The employment report released on Friday confirmed that the U.S. economy is stagnating at best and actively deteriorating at worst. While the numbers of jobs created in July was actually better than many economists expected, it was still far below the levels that would indicate a growing economy. But more important than the official unemployment rate (which ticked up to 8.3%) or the number of jobs created, is the number of people who have left the workforce out of frustration or despair.
This number continues to head higher. The labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of healthy working age Americans who actually have jobs, is at one of the lowest points since women first started working en masse in the 1970’s. It’s also instructive to add back into the unemployment rate those who want full time jobs but who have had to settle for part time work. This figure, reported under the “U6” category, currently stands at 15.0%. This is just a 12% decline from the 17.1% high seen December 2009. In contrast the “official” (U3) unemployment figure has declined 17% from its peak.

In explaining these bad results, most economists simply look at the stimulating effects of monetary and fiscal policy...

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 07, 2012, 05:31:05 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-teen-summer-jobs-program-falls-short-2012-8


Just wow - check out those graphs. 

4 more years of this shit?   


Are you fucking kidding me? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 07, 2012, 07:07:01 AM
Business Fears The Obama Cliff, Not the Fiscal Cliff
Posted 08/06/2012 06:58 PM ET

Via IBD





Economy: The New York Times says businesses are cutting back because of the "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that'll kick in should Congress remain gridlocked. But what worries businesses more is the Obama Cliff.
 
As the election gets closer, more and more news outlets are picking up on the theme that a political impasse in Washington is the biggest risk to the economy because it will result in huge tax hikes and spending cuts next year.
 
As the Times put it, a "rising number of manufacturers are canceling new investments and putting off new hires because they fear paralysis in Washington."
 
There's no doubt that inaction means trouble. Unless Congress does something, all the Bush tax cuts will expire, boosting taxes by $221 billion next year alone. And, as we've pointed out, the scheduled automatic defense cuts threaten our national security capabilities, to say nothing of DOD contractor jobs.
 
But the gridlock theme also just happens to suit Obama's political interest, letting him blame Republicans for any bad economic news before the election.
 
So let's be clear about who's really to blame for this predicament.
 
Republicans simply want to extend all Bush tax cuts for a year, a position shared by several Democrats, including Bill Clinton before Obama forced him to repent. Obama himself once said that the worst time to raise taxes is in a bad economy.
 
Yet Obama has now expressly promised to let taxes go up on everyone if he can't get them raised on the "rich." And Democrats show an increased willingness to hold a gun to the economy's head if they can't force Republicans to play their class warfare games.
 

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast

Nevertheless, the real problem businesses face isn't gridlock in Washington — lawmakers are sure to strike a deal before years' end.
 
The real problem they face is the cliff of a potential Obama reelection.
 
Even if they won't admit it to the New York Times, businesses know that a second Obama term will mean:
 
Higher taxes. Obama wants to jack up income tax rates not only on the "rich," but also raise the top capital gains rate to 24.7% and the top dividend tax to 44.7%. When this fails to produce any revenue, he'll certainly be back for more.
 
More debt. The budget Obama put forward this year proposed adding $3.5 trillion to the projected deficits over the next decade. Businesses are right to wonder why he'd be any more willing to cut federal red ink in a second term.
 
More regulations. Obama has already imposed $46 billion in new annual regulatory costs. And he clearly wants more. The National Federation of Independent Business calculates that 4,000 federal rules are in the wings that will saddle businesses with $500 billion in compliance costs.
 
ObamaCare. A second Obama term would also kill any chance of getting rid of ObamaCare and its massively expensive mandates, taxes and regulations.
 
With Obama continuing to do well in the polls, it's no wonder businesses are hunkering down today.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 07, 2012, 11:48:25 AM
Wait, the U.S. economy actually lost 1.2 million jobs in July?
Posted by Brad Plumer on August 5, 2012 at 10:18 am






The U.S. economy lost 1.2 million jobs between June and July. But that’s not how it got reported. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its jobs figures for July, it said the economy gained 163,000 jobs. So what gives?
 

(Paul J. Richards AFP/Getty)
 
BLS isn’t hiding anything. The discrepancy just has to do with what’s known as “seasonal adjustments.” The U.S. economy follows certain predictable patterns in hiring and layoffs every year. School districts always let workers go for the summer and hire in the fall. Retailers always staff up for the Christmas holidays and lay people off afterwards. Students always flood the labor market in June.
 
So if we want to know how well the economy is doing, we want to know how many jobs were added after taking these predictable fluctuations into account. Some seasonal adjustments are necessary before the data can tell us anything useful.
 
And this is exactly what BLS does in its monthly jobs reports. As Jacob Goldstein of Planet Money points out, the U.S. economy had 1.2 million fewer jobs (pdf) in July than it did in June. But, according to the bureau, the economy still had 163,000 more jobs than one would’ve expected, given seasonal trends. That’s a sign of a steadily recovering labor market. So BLS reported it as a 163,000 gain in jobs.
 
In theory, that makes sense. But some economists and analysts now wonder if the BLS seasonal adjustments are somehow off a bit. If the financial crisis and recession mucked with the seasonal ebb and flow of the economy, then the adjustments that BLS makes for its monthly reports might be a bit skewed. Some jobs reports might look much better than they actually are. And others might look worse.
 
There’s some reason to suspect this is happening. For the past few years, as the chart below from Kevin Drum shows, the BLS jobs reports have followed an odd pattern each and every year (the chart shows new jobs gained in excess of 90,000, in order to take into account population growth):
 


The summer jobs reports are typically lousy while the fall and winter jobs reports are often much, much stronger. Maybe that’s because the U.S. economy is following a roller-coaster pattern–healthy in winter, sick in the summer. Or maybe, as Floyd Norris suggests here, the economy is actually making slow, steady progress and the seasonal adjustments are just making things appear topsy-turvy.
 
Over the longer term, these fluctuations shouldn’t matter much. Inaccurate seasonal adjustments might make some jobs reports look unduly pessimistic and others unduly optimistic. But they can’t mask the overall health of the economy for too long. Eventually, the jobs reports balance out.
 
So look at the long-term trends. For the past one-and-a-half years, the U.S. economy has added about 152,000 jobs per month on average. It’s a modest, but certainly not terrific jobs recovery: According to the Hamilton Project’s jobs calculator, the U.S. economy won’t get back to full employment until 2025 at this pace. Still, it’s probably more accurate to watch that long-run average than to fixate on any one monthly jobs report.
 
Update: Bill McBride of Calculated Risk has some more commentary and charts on this topic.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 08, 2012, 07:56:31 AM
Using the White House’s Own Benchmark, I Give Obamanomics an F
 Townhall.com ^ | August 8, 2012 | Daniel J. Mitchell

Posted on Wednesday, August 08, 2012 9:11:31 AM by Kaslin

I almost feel sorry for the ideologues and partisan hacks who feel obliged to defends Obama’s miserable economic performance.

Keynesian spending policies and class-warfare tax policies have produced dismal economic performance, with unemployment stuck above 8 percent – even though the White House promised the joblessness rate by this point would be about 5.5 percent if we squandered $800 billion-plus on the so-called stimulus.

Yet Keith Boykin gamely tries to put perfume on this hog in our debate on CNBC.

Notice that I began this post by saying I “almost feel sorry” for the spin-meisters who defend Obamanomics. But “almost” is the key word in that sentence. I reserve my genuine sympathy for the millions of people who can’t find jobs because of the President’s destructive policies.

Dan Mitchell Debating Obamanomics on CNBC

Let me add a few comments.

Boykin tries to disavow the Romer-Bernstein report and pretend that the President didn’t highlight and promote its claims when pushing for the faux stimulus. That’s a remarkable bit of revisionist history and I think I was effective at tying that rotting fish around his neck.

Keith also highlights the relatively good performance of the Clinton years. As I’ve done before, I announce that we’d be much better off with the Clinton tax rates – but only if we also get rid of all the reckless spending and regulation of the Bush and Obama years. I thinks that’s an effective point to make, but I confess I don’t have any feedback one way or the other to indicate that it’s a persuasive argument.

The most revealing point of the interview is when the host incredulously remarked to Keith that “you think we should have bigger government.”

But if anybody thinks that it’s a good idea to increase the burden of government spending, then they need to explain why America will be better off if we make our country more like Greece and France.

Last week, I shared some numbers from the left-wing OECD which showed that living standards are much higher in the United States than they are in Europe’s welfare states. That is what this fight is all about.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 08, 2012, 08:51:02 AM
GARY SHILLING: The US Consumer Is Walking Us Right Into A Recession
Sam Ro|30 minutes ago|410|4





Yesterday's disappointing consumer credit report was unwelcome news for those hoping that the consumer would drive the U.S. recovery.
 
Economist Gary Shiling continues to argue that we are still in the beginning of a painful decade-long period of deleveraging.
 
"The U.S. economy is in or close to a consumer-led recession," Shilling told Business Insider today.
 
"Retail sales fell in April, May and June - and 27 out of 29 times sales fell for three consecutive months since data started in 1947, the economy was in or within three months of a recession. The weakness in consumer borrowing reflects the consumer retrenchment after their mini spending spree last year."


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gary-shilling-us-consumer-recession-2012-8#ixzz22yDsYdtN
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 08, 2012, 12:13:49 PM

Over 100 Million Now Receiving Federal Welfare


2:40 PM, Aug 8, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER




Single PagePrintLarger TextSmaller TextAlerts

   

 























































A new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details a startling statistic: "Over 100 Million People in U.S. Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare."
 


"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare.
 
Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."
 
The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law. CBO estimates that the premium subsidies, scheduled to begin in 2014, will cover at least 25 million individuals by the end of the decade.)"
 
This is not just Americans, however. "These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well," according to the committee.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 09, 2012, 07:15:54 AM
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WHOLESALE_INVENTORIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-09-10-05-53



RECESSION
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on August 09, 2012, 07:31:48 AM
Another 120k dropped off the extended claims list as well.

Continuing claims up 57k.

Yuck.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 10, 2012, 02:38:11 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/heartaches-by-the-number-just-14-think-todays-children-will-be-better-off-than-their-parents-2012-8

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 10, 2012, 07:06:48 AM
Exclusive: U.S. banks told to make plans for preventing collapse

U.S. Morning Call: Exclusive-Big banks got tall order

7:49am EDT
 
By Rick Rothacker

Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:41am EDT

 
(Reuters) - U.S. regulators directed five of the country's biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.
 
The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the "living wills" the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.

Officials like Lehman Brothers former Chief Executive Dick Fuld have been criticized for having been too hesitant to take bold steps to solve their banks' problems during the financial crisis.

According to documents obtained by Reuters, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency first directed five banks - which also include Citigroup Inc,, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co - to come up with these "recovery plans" in May 2010.

They told banks to consider drastic efforts to prevent failure in times of distress, including selling off businesses, finding other funding sources if regular borrowing markets shut them out, and reducing risk. The plans must be feasible to execute within three to six months, and banks were to "make no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector," according to the documents.

Spokespeople for the five banks declined to comment. The Federal Reserve also declined to comment.

Recovery plans differ from living wills, also known as "resolution plans," which are required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Living wills aim to end bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks by showing how they would liquidate themselves without imperiling the financial system.

"Recovery plans are about protecting the crown jewels," said Paul Cantwell, a managing director at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal. "It's about, 'How do I sell off non-core assets?' The priority is to the shareholders. A resolution plan is about protecting the system, taxpayers and creditors."

The recovery plans are being used as part of regulators' ongoing supervisory process. In Britain, recovery and resolution plans have both been part of the living will requirements for large banks.

Mike Brosnan, senior deputy comptroller for large banks at the OCC, said the regulator continuously evaluates contingency planning at the banks and savings associations it supervises.

"Recovery plans required of the largest banks are helpful in ensuring banks and regulators are prepared to manage periods of severe financial distress or instability affecting the banking sector," he said.

This summer, nine global banks submitted living wills to the Fed and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and regulators released the public portion of the documents.

The recovery plans requested in 2010, meanwhile, have received little publicity. The names of the banks required to submit them have not been previously disclosed, and Reuters obtained them only through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Fed supplied Reuters with the letters requesting plans from banks, but not the banks' actual plans because they were deemed confidential supervisory information. The regulator said it was withholding 5,100 pages of information.

MOVING FURTHER FROM DISASTER

Five years after the financial crisis, concerns remain about whether blow-ups at big banks could lead to another round of taxpayer bailouts. Trading losses have cost JPMorgan nearly $6 billion so far, and scandals such as the alleged rigging of an international interest rate benchmark have only highlighted the risks lurking inside big banks.

These disasters have damaged banks' reputations, but not their balance sheets. Most are still profitable, and in recent years the five banks have improved their capital bases and liquidity. They also have been subjected to annual Federal Reserve stress tests that measure whether the banks have sufficient capital to weather severe economic scenarios.

Bank of America and Citigroup, in a sense, have already been executing the kind of moves called for in the recovery plans. Both have been selling off non-core operations and assets to streamline their sprawling businesses, after receiving multiple bailouts during the financial crisis.

Bank of America in June 2011 told Fed officials that it could shed branches in some parts of the country if it needed to raise capital in an emergency, a person familiar with the matter said in January. The proposal was part of a series of options provided to the Fed, including issuing a tracking stock for Bank of America's Merrill Lynch operations.

But just because the bank proposed selling branches does not mean it's a desirable move or highly probable, the person said. In the past year, Bank of America has shown progress in building capital without such actions. Its Tier 1 common capital ratio increased to 11.24 percent of risk-weighted assets as of June 30 from 8.23 percent a year earlier.

Tier 1 refers to a bank's core capital and has been the main focus of regulators in assessing a bank's capital adequacy.

MENTIONED IN PASSING

The banks' chief risk officers, and in the case of Citigroup, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, received letters in May 2010 instructing them on what to include in the recovery plans. The requests stemmed from January 2010 crisis management meetings held by regulators. The letters sent to the five banks were nearly identical.

Each plan was to address severe financial stress at the firm, as well as "general financial instability." The plans should be capable of being executed ideally within three months, but no longer than six months, the documents said.

The plans should "make appropriate assumptions as to the valuations of assets and off-balance sheet positions," the documents said.

Recovery plans have been mentioned in public before, but only in passing. In testimony to Congress in July 2010, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said the "largest internationally active U.S. banking organizations" were working on recovery plans. The initiative stemmed from work led by the Financial Stability Board, a body that coordinates the work of international financial regulators, he said.

In a presentation in March, JPMorgan Chase said it had a recovery plan in place and said it was ordered by regulators. The presentation was organized by Harvard Law School and was closed to the media at the time, but is available online. (here)

(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Additional reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2012, 05:34:18 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/empire-fed-august-2012-8


Terrible number. 


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2012, 10:30:49 AM
Economic recovery is weakest since World War II
By By PAUL WISEMAN | Associated Press – 50 mins ago.. .




WASHINGTON (AP) — The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression.

Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years. An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest.

The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended.

Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. Only once has job growth been slower.

More than in any other post-World War II recovery, people who have jobs are hurting: Their paychecks have fallen behind inflation.

Many economists say the agonizing recovery from the Great Recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, is the predictable consequence of a housing bust and a grave financial crisis.

Credit, the fuel that powers economies, evaporated after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. And a 30 percent drop in housing prices erased trillions in home equity and brought construction to a near-standstill.

So any recovery was destined to be a slog.

"A housing collapse is very different from a stock market bubble and crash," says Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It affects so many people. It only corrects very slowly."

The U.S. economy has other problems, too. Europe's troubles have undermined consumer and business confidence on both sides of the Atlantic. And the deeply divided U.S. political system has delivered growth-chilling uncertainty.

The AP compared nine economic recoveries since the end of World War II that lasted at least three years. A 10th recovery that ran from 1945 to 1948 was not included because the statistics from that period aren't comprehensive, although the available data show that hiring was robust. There were two short-lived recoveries — 24 months and 12 months — after the recessions of 1957-58 and 1980.

Here is a closer look at how the comeback from the Great Recession stacks up with the others:

—FEEBLE GROWTH

America's gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — grew 6.8 percent from the April-June quarter of 2009 through the same quarter this year, the slowest in the first three years of a postwar recovery. GDP grew an average of 15.5 percent in the first three years of the eight other comebacks analyzed.

The engines that usually drive recoveries aren't firing this time.

Investment in housing, which grew an average of nearly 34 percent this far into previous postwar recoveries, is up just 8 percent since the April-June quarter of 2009.

That's because the overbuilding of the mid-2000s left a glut of houses. Prices fell and remain depressed. The housing market has yet to return to anything close to full health even as mortgage rates have plunged to record lows.

Government spending and investment at the federal, state and local levels was 4.5 percent lower in the second quarter than three years earlier.

Three years into previous postwar recoveries, government spending had risen an average 12.5 percent. In the first three years after the 1981-82 recession, during President Ronald Reagan's first term, the economy got a jolt from a 15 percent increase in government spending and investment.

This time, state and local governments have been slashing spending — and jobs. And since passing President Barack Obama's $862 billion stimulus package in 2009, a divided Congress has been reluctant to try to help the economy with federal spending programs. Trying to contain the $11.1 trillion federal debt has been a higher priority.

Since June 2009, governments at all levels have slashed 642,000 jobs, the only time government employment has fallen in the three years after a recession. This long after the 1973-74 recession, by contrast, governments had added more than 1 million jobs.

—EXHAUSTED CONSUMERS

Consumer spending has grown just 6.5 percent since the recession ended, feeblest in a postwar recovery. In the first three years of previous recoveries, spending rose an average of nearly 14 percent.

It's no mystery why consumers are being frugal. Many have lost access to credit, which fueled their spending in the 2000s. Home equity has evaporated and credit cards have been canceled. Falling home prices have slashed home equity 49 percent, from $13.2 trillion in 2005 to $6.7 trillion early this year.

Others are spending less because they're paying down debt or saving more. Household debt peaked at 126 percent of after-tax income in mid-2007 and has fallen to 107 percent, according to Haver Analytics. The savings rate has risen from 1.1 percent of after-tax income in 2005 to 4.4 percent in June. Consumers have cut credit card debt by 14 percent — to $865 billion — since it peaked at over $1 trillion in December 2007.

"We were in a period in which we borrowed too much," says Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. "We are now deleveraging. That's a process that slows us down."

—THE JOBS HOLE

The economy shed a staggering 8.8 million jobs during and shortly after the recession. Since employment hit bottom, the economy has created just over 4 million jobs. So the new hiring has replaced 46 percent of the lost jobs, by far the worst performance since World War II. In the previous eight recoveries, the economy had regained more than 350 percent of the jobs lost, on average.

During the 1981-82 recession, the U.S. lost 2.8 million jobs. In the three years and one month after that recession ended, the economy added 9.8 million — replacing the 2.8 million and adding 7 million more.

Never before have so many Americans been unemployed for so long three years into a recovery. Nearly 5.2 million have been out of work for six months or more. The long-term unemployed account for 41 percent of the jobless; the highest mark in the other recoveries was 22 percent.

Gregory Mann, 58, lost his job as a real estate appraiser three years ago. "Basically, I am looking for anything," he says. He has applied to McDonald's, Target and Nordstrom's.

"Nothing, not even a rejection letter," he says.

His wife, a registered nurse, has lost two jobs in the interim — and just received an offer to work reviewing medical records near Atlanta.

"We are broke and nearly homeless," he says. "If this job for my wife hadn't come through, we would be out on the street come Sept. 1 or would have had to move in with relatives."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has called long-term unemployment a "national crisis." The longer people remain unemployed, the harder it is to find work, Bernanke has said. Skills erode, and people lose contact with former colleagues who could help with the job search.

—SHRINKING PAYCHECKS

Usually, workers' pay rises as the economy picks up momentum after a recession. Not this time. Employers don't have to be generous in a weak job market because most workers don't have anywhere to go.

As a result, pay raises haven't kept up with even modest levels of inflation. Earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers — a category that covers about 80 percent of the private, nonfarm workforce — have risen just over 6.2 percent since June 2009. Consumer prices have risen nearly 7.2 percent. Adjusted for inflation, wages have fallen 0.8 percent. In the previous five recoveries —the records go back only to 1964 — real wages had gone up an average 1.5 percent at this point.

Falling wages haven't hurt everyone. Lower labor costs helped push corporate profits to a record 10.6 percent of U.S. GDP in the first three months of 2012, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. And those surging profits helped lift the Dow Jones industrials 54 percent from the end of June 2009 to the end of last month. Only after the recessions of 1948-49 and 1953-54 did stocks rise more.

Stock investments may be coming back, but savings are still getting squeezed by the rock-bottom interest rates the Fed has engineered to boost the economy. The money Americans earn from interest payments fell from nearly $1.4 trillion in 2008 to barely $1 trillion last year — a drop of more than $370 billion, or 27 percent. That amounts to shrinking income for many retirees.

Washington isn't doing much to help the economy. An impasse between Obama and congressional Republicans brought the U.S. to the brink of default on the federal debt last year —a confrontation that rattled financial markets and sapped consumer and business confidence.

Given the political divide, businesses and consumers don't know what's going to happen to taxes, government spending or regulation. Sharp tax increases and spending cuts are scheduled to kick in at year's end unless Congress and the White House reach a budget deal.

In the meantime, it's difficult for consumers to summon the confidence to spend and businesses the confidence to hire and expand. Never in the postwar period has there been so much uncertainty about what policymakers will do, says Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business: "No one is sure what will actually happen."

As weak as this recovery is, it's nothing like what the U.S. went through in the 1930s. The period known as the Great Depression actually included two severe recessions separated by a recovery that lasted from March 1933 until May 1937.

It's tough to compare the current recovery with the 1933-37 version. Economic figures comparable to today's go back only to the late 1940s. But calculations by economist Robert Coen, professor emeritus at Northwestern University, suggest that things were far bleaker during the recovery three-quarters of a century ago: Coen found that unemployment remained well above 10 percent — and usually above 15 percent — throughout the 1930s.

Only the approach and outbreak of World War II — the ultimate government stimulus program — restored the economy and the job market to full health.













4 more years!!!!!!   4 more years!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2012, 02:26:52 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/us-economic-recovery-weak_n_1783065.html#comments


Brokeback libs in panic and meltdown.   

 :D  :D  :D  :D  :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 15, 2012, 07:00:02 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/rosenberg-inventory-sales-ratio-recession-2012-8



Private sector doing fine.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 16, 2012, 09:01:29 PM
Old Obama acquaintance voices South Side’s disillusionment with his former ally
Washington Post ^ | August 16, 2012 | Michael Leahy
Posted on August 16, 2012 11:53:48 PM EDT by Second Amendment First

CHICAGO — He still walks the same streets here as his old acquaintance Barack Obama once did. That is about all they have in common anymore. At 50, Chicago activist Mark Allen lives with his parents, barely able to pay his bills. The head of a small, community-assistance organization called Black Wall Street Chicago, Allen regards his personal survival alone as a small victory, grateful he can pay the rent on his modest office space, aware he is doing better than many on this city’s restive South Side.

“Things haven’t gone the way we’d hoped after Barack got elected,” he says. Surveys place unemployment rates above 25 percent here, and indications are that South Side residents such as Allen aren’t nearly as passionate about the 2012 election as they were during Obama’s trailblazing 2008 campaign.

Historically, community organizers such as Allen have wielded outsize influence in the black-majority neighborhoods of the South Side, with none better known than Obama, who directed a group called the Developing Communities Project for three years during the 1980s. But old bonds between the two have frayed. Allen, who as a member of another group worked on community issues with Obama during their organizing days, has grown frustrated with his former ally in the Oval Office.

Obama’s much ballyhooed 2009 stimulus package has failed to touch ordinary South Side residents, says Allen, who has reached out to Obama administration officials, including fellow Chicagoan and prominent White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, to express his dismay. He wants red tape cut, and he wants to see more business loans for the area and more jobs for local residents on construction and infrastructure projects.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 17, 2012, 11:53:55 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/17/unemployment-rates-rose-44-us-states-july/print



Wow - terrible news.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 17, 2012, 12:54:55 PM
Recovery Summer 3: July Unemployment Up In 44 States
 Investor's Business Daily ^ | 08/17/2012 | John Merline


Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 3:45:59 PM by IBD editorial writer

In another sign of the ongoing jobs recession, fully 44 states saw their unemployment rates climb in July, according to state-level data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As a result, more than three years after the economic recovery officially started under President Obama, 10 states still have jobless rates of 9% or higher.

Nevada's jobless rate, for example, climbed to 12%, New Jersey's rose to 9.8% and North Carolina's edged up to 9.6%.

The states with the highest rates — Nevada, Rhode Island (10.8%), California (10.7%), New Jersey and North Carolina all voted for Obama in 2008.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2012, 05:29:15 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-electricity-consumption-economy-2012-8


Yeah real recovery right there! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2012, 06:25:24 AM
Recovery Summer 3: July Unemployment Up In 44 States
 
By JOHN MERLINE




, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY


 Posted 08/17/2012 03:27 PM ET
 



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Via IBD

_____________


In another sign of the ongoing jobs recession, fully 44 states saw their unemployment rates climb in July, according to state-level data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
As a result, more than three years after the economic recovery officially started under President Obama, 10 states still have jobless rates of 9% or higher.
 
Nevada's jobless rate, for example, climbed to 12%, New Jersey's rose to 9.8% and North Carolina's edged up to 9.6%.
 

 View Enlarged Image

The states with the highest rates — Nevada, Rhode Island (10.8%), California (10.7%), New Jersey and North Carolina all voted for Obama in 2008.
 
The four states with the lowest jobless rates are solidly GOP: North Dakota (3%), Nebraska (4%), South Dakota (4%) and Oklahoma (5%). Heavily Democratic Vermont also had 5%.
 
Big cities continue to suffer exceedingly high unemployment, with rates of 11.2% in the Los Angeles area, 10% in New York City and 9.5% in Miami.
 
Even in the Detroit metro area, which Obama repeatedly touts as a success story after the bailouts of GM (GM) and Chrysler, the jobless rate has climbed in each of the past three months and is now 10.2%. Overall, Michigan's jobless rate hit 9% in July.
 
Obama said in a January speech in Michigan that "We placed our bets on the American auto industry, and today, the American auto industry is back. Jobs are coming back."
 
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.3% in July, according to BLS data released Aug. 3.
 
Early in his administration, Obama's economic team had forecast that the jobless rate would never hit 8% with the $831 billion stimulus — which Obama signed into law in February 2009. It's been above 8% for 42 straight months.
 
In addition, 19 states lost a combined total of 91,000 jobs in July, according to the BLS data. Since Obama took office, just 16 states have seen a net gain in jobs.
 
These dismal numbers continue a trend of lackluster job growth since Obama took office. Even now, more than three years after the last recession officially ended, the economy is still nearly 4.8 million jobs below the pre-recession peak.
 
Since the recovery began in June 2009, the economy has never managed to create more than 275,000 jobs in any given month. After the U.S. stopped shedding jobs, the average monthly gain has been just 122,000, which is below what many economists say is needed to keep pace with population growth.
 
By contrast, in the first three years of the early '80s Reagan recovery, the economy created an average of 273,000 jobs a month.
 
While 2.7 million jobs have been created since the recession, the number of people who are no longer in the labor force — either they quit looking, have put off looking for a job, or retired — has swelled by an astonishing 7.5 million.
 
The White House now doesn't expect unemployment to dip below 7% until 2015. The year before the recession started, the jobless rate was below 5%.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2012, 06:39:59 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/reno-resident-i-feel-like-it-is-ground-zero-for-collpase-2012-8



Harry Reid anybody? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 18, 2012, 07:49:21 AM
Gallup:August Unemployment Not Looking Good
 Gallup.com ^ | August 17, 2012 | Staff


Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2012 9:55:54 AM


New Gallup unemployment data suggest an increase in the government's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August when it is reported on Friday, Sept. 7. During recent months, Gallup's measurements have been more optimistic than those of the BLS. Barring a sharp reversal in this relationship, the government's unadjusted unemployment rate might be expected to stay the same or increase in August.

Gallup's Daily tracking of the unemployment situation is based on interviews with more than 30,000 adults over the 30 days ending Aug. 15, and shows essentially no change in the unadjusted unemployment rate at 8.3% compared to 8.2% in July. In turn, this suggests that the government's unadjusted unemployment rate could increase to 8.7% in July from 8.6% in June. The government's measurement of the unadjusted unemployment rate has been known to differ with Gallup's findings, but a drop of 0.3% in July is necessary to bring the government's unadjusted rate down to Gallup levels.

More interestingly, there were no BLS seasonal adjustments in August 2011. If this remains the same in 2012, the Gallup seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August would be 8.3% while that of the BLS would be 8.7%, assuming a similar increase to that shown in the Gallup data. Further, Gallup's data show the labor force participation rate to be increasing in August. In turn, that could have an additional negative impact on the unemployment rate for August if the government's data show a similar pattern.


(Excerpt) Read more at behavioraleconomy.gallup .com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 19, 2012, 06:03:58 AM
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Atlas shrugged? Manufacturing seems worn out
Market Watch ^ | Aug 19, 2012 | Greg Robb
Posted on August 19, 2012 9:02:03 AM EDT by KeyLargo

Economic Preview

Aug. 19, 2012, 12:02 a.m. EDT

Atlas shrugged? Manufacturing seems worn out

By Greg Robb, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There are signs that the manufacturing sector, which has led the economic recovery, is about to take a breather.

“It seems like the [factory] sector is stuck in neutral,” said Guy Berger, an economist at RBS in New York.

Several factors appear to be at work, economists said. Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation’s facility in Coshocton, Ohio.

Weakness in the global economy is cutting back exports. And factory owners are uncertain about how the outcome of the November election and what it means for taxes and government largesse.

“Japan is going nowhere, Europe is in recession, and we’ve got our own problems,” such as stalemate over tax policy and government spending, said Josh Shapiro, chief U.S. economist with MFR Inc.

Shapiro is concerned that there are no obvious heirs-apparent waiting in the wings to pick up the slack and propel the economy forward.

Housing seems to finally in recovery mode but it seems doubtful it can pick up the load.

Without an obvious source of strength, Shapiro sees a 50% chance of a recession in the next 12 months.

“I think things are more dangerous than a lot of other economists think,” Shapiro said.

Another economist forecasting a high probability of a recession in the next year is Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, the trade group for the factory sector.

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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 20, 2012, 05:00:29 AM
The ‘new normal’ excuse
By JAMES PETHOKOUKIS


, August 19, 2012

Posted: 10:33 PM, August 19, 2012


Even a talker as talented as President Obama can’t do the impossible: Persuade Americans that the three-year-old economic “recovery” is anything other than pathetic.

Growth is sinking back toward the recession red zone and unemployment’s firmly stuck at over 8 percent for 42 straight months.

It’s no wonder a new Gallup poll finds 75 percent of us “dissatisfied” with the direction of the country. Or that a CNN survey finds that twice as many Americans (39 percent) think the economy is still mired in recession than think it recovering (19 percent).

So Obama isn’t even trying to make the “Morning in America” case for his re-election. He now concedes that “the economy isn’t where it needs to be” and that “we have a lot more work to do.” But he’s quick to add that the Not-So-Great Recovery isn’t his fault, saying: “Throughout history, it has typically taken countries up to 10 years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude.”

Obama, you see, is a believer in the “New Normal,” a phrase popularized on Wall Street, where gloomy economists cite the slow growth, high unemployment and high debt that supposedly afflict countries after severe banking crises.

But the president’s a recent convert to this religion of low expectations. He certainly didn’t buy it when he took office. Back then, he predicted aquick and powerful economic rebound — if only lawmakers implemented his policies, such as the $800 billion stimulus. Which Congress, then with strong Democratic majorities, quickly did.

In 2009, for instance, the White House said the economy would be growing at a brisk 4.3 percent annual clip this year, with unemployment down to 5.6 percent. Indeed, Obama’s top economists predicted we’d be smack in the middle of a fat streak of high-growth years: 4.3 percent in 2011, followed by 4.3 percent growth in 2012 and 2013, too. And 2014? 4 percent growth.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton would have nothing on Obama, these predictions suggested. Back then, Team Obama scoffed at the dismal New Normal faith.

Yet we’re still waiting on the boom that they promised. Now they’re evangelizing for “the New Normal” — and hoping enough voters buy the excuse.

But was America somehow predestined for a Long Recession? No, says a new study from the Cleveland Fed; it concludes that “in general, recessions associated with financial crises are generally followed by rapid recoveries.” One notable outlier: the Obama recovery.

Ah, but America suffered both a banking crisis and a housing crisis. The study speculates that this might explain today’s tepid growth, but fails to arrive at a conclusion.

And new research from the San Francisco Fed strongly suggests the housing collapse isn’t to blame for the weak recovery. If housing were the villain, it points out, the states that didn’t suffer such big home-price declines would be doing a lot better than those that did. And they’re not.

So what’s the problem with the Obama recovery?Why is it the weakest since the Great Depression?

Maybe it’s the Obama policies, like a stunning disregard for the trillion-dollar deficits that are likely already a dead weight on growth. Or maybe it’s the Obama guarantee of more tax hikes and regulation that makes US business too worried to hire and invest.

But it’s not too late to start shrinking unproductive government, cut debt and reduce penalties on work and investment — just like in those recoveries that we used to know.

James Pethokoukis is editor of The American Enterprise Institute’s Enterprise blog.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_new_normal_excuse_OoACKZwqqL43PlyHXAaaVJ#ixzz245RijcAa

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 22, 2012, 06:49:24 AM
Risk of US double-dip recession rises: S&P
 Yahoo! ^ | 18 hours ago | AFP


Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 8:05:42 AM


The odds the United States will slip back into recession next year have risen, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said, citing risks from the European debt crisis and budget tightening at year-end.

The US ratings firm raised the chance of the US falling into recession to 25 percent, up from a 20 percent chance estimated in February, as the world's largest economy struggles to recover from a severe 2008-2009 slump.

It also pointed to the looming possibility of the government being forced by existing law to severely cut spending and increase taxes on January 1, the so-called fiscal cliff that would crunch the economy.

"Economic activity has downshifted sharply from earlier this year," S&P said in a report on North American credit conditions amid global uncertainty, dated August 20.

"At the same time, possible contagion from the European debt crisis, the potential so-called 'fiscal cliff', and the risk of a hard landing for China's economy have added greater uncertainty to US economic prospects," it said.


(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 22, 2012, 09:51:06 AM






CBO warns of deep recession if Congress fails to avert 'fiscal cliff'

 By Erik Wasson - 08/22/12 10:00 AM ET






The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday warned the economy will enter a recession next year if the country goes over the so-called fiscal cliff.

 In its most dire warning yet about the fiscal cliff, the CBO said the economy would contract by 0.5 percent in calendar year 2013 if the George W. Bush-era tax rates expire and automatic spending cuts are implemented.
 

Unemployment also would rise from 8.2 percent in 2012 to 9.1 percent next year, the office estimates.
 
“The stakes of fiscal policy are very high right now,” CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said. He urged Congress to act in September to avoid the fiscal cliff.

“The sooner that that uncertainty is resolved, the stronger the economy would be in the second half of this year,” he said. “Economic growth right now is being held back by the anticipation of this fiscal tightening.”

CBO does not make recommendations to Congress but last year laid out the economic and budget effects of a range of choices for Congress, Elmendorf said.

He added that under current law, there will be 2 million fewer jobs if the fiscal cliff is allowed to take place, and said most of the contraction is due to the tax increases.

The contraction would be very severe in the first half of 2013. CBO sees the economy contracting by 2.9 percent in the first half — deeper than the 1.3 percent negative growth it had seen previously from the fiscal cliff.

To put the figures in context, the economy was contracting at a quarterly rate of about 3.5 percent at the depth of the recession in the early 1990s. The CBO said a recession caused by the fiscal cliff would likely resemble that downturn more than the more recent recession caused by the financial crisis, when the economy contracted at an 8.9 percent rate in the final quarter of 2008.

The gloomy picture of rising debt and weak economic growth marks CBO’s final major report before the November election. The report is a sharp contrast with the 1.1 percent in growth the CBO projected in January for 2013 and 0.5 percent growth it projected in May.

 CBO says the fiscal cliff will be worse than it had previously projected and that the “underlying strength” of the economy is weaker.
 
It said the effects of the fiscal cliff are worse in part because Congress extended a payroll tax holiday in February that is also set to expire in January.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday put the onus on Democrats to act on the fiscal cliff. He noted that the House has passed bills replacing the automatic cuts with tailored cuts to mandatory spending such as on food stamps, and extending the Bush-era tax rates.

“Instead of threatening to drive us off the fiscal cliff and tank our economy in their quest for higher taxes, I would urge President Obama and congressional Democrats to work with us to stop the coming tax hike that threatens our economy and replace the looming defense cuts with common sense reforms,” Boehner said.

Congressional gridlock means the risk of Congress doing nothing to prevent the tax hikes and spending cuts is real.

 Democrats last month threatened to let the nation go over the fiscal cliff unless Republicans agree to a “balanced” deficit package that includes some tax increases. The GOP has so far doubled down on its insistence that a deficit solution include only cuts to non-defense social spending.

CBO projects a deficit of $1.1 trillion this year, the fourth year of budget shortfalls over $1 trillion. This is a slight decrease from the $1.2 trillion that CBO projected in March.

The report notes that debt held by the public will reach 73 percent of the economy this year, “the highest level since 1950 and about twice the 36 percent of GDP that it measured at the end of 2007.”

The CBO report puts the focus back on President Obama’s economic policies and the fiscal issues that the Republican presidential ticket of Mitt Romney and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) considers its strength. The presidential debate this week has been dominated by a controversy surrounding abortion rights and the remarks of GOP Missouri senatorial candidate Rep. Todd Akin.

As usual, the CBO presents two sets of 10-year economic and deficit projections. One is based on current law and the other is based on what Congress has typically done in the past.

Under the current-law baseline, the deficit next year would shrink to $641 billion.

This assumes that a series of policies known as the fiscal cliff take place. They include automatic spending cuts triggered by the August 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling; expiration of the Bush-era tax rates; a sharp cut in Medicare doctor payments; and the failure to index the Alternative Minimum Tax for inflation, which would raise taxes for many households.

The $641 billion budget deficit estimate is larger than the $585 billion deficit CBO had projected in January.

Under these CBO assumptions, the government would add $2.3 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years.

Under a current policy baseline in which Congress avoids the spending cuts, passes a “doc fix” and extends the Bush-era rates, the deficit would again top $1 trillion in 2013.
 
But economic growth would be better. CBO estimates under this baseline that GOP growth would be about 1.7 percent, with unemployment dipping slightly, to 8 percent.

In this scenario, over 10 years nearly $10 trillion would be added in deficits and the debt held by the public would reach 90 percent of GDP — the threshold some scholars consider to be the hallmark of a Greece-style debt crisis.
 
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said he was continuing work on a "grand bargain" deficit-reduction plan that would avoid the fiscal cliff.

“This year’s deficit is a stark reminder of the Great Recession’s lasting impact on the nation’s balance sheet," he said in a statement. "We know from experience that a recovery from a financial crisis is shallower and takes longer than a recovery from a typical recession.”

House GOP Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said the CBO report is a reminder of the stakes of the election.

“During an historic employment crisis that will be remedied only by stronger economic growth and more jobs, today’s report is further proof that President Obama has put America on a path of slower growth and fewer jobs," Hensarling said in a statement. “CBO’s report reiterates the sad fact that President Obama’s higher taxes, runaway spending, and debt are endangering our nation’s economy, our national security, and our children’s hope for a better future.”

House Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) blamed Republicans in Congress for holding up economic growth.

“President Obama has a plan to create jobs, stabilize debt, protect Medicare and Social Security, and replace the damaging, indiscriminate cuts from the sequester with a targeted, balanced approach to deficit reduction," Van Hollen said.

"The President’s plan would also extend tax relief for 98 percent of Americans,” he said. “Yet Republicans in Congress refuse to enact the President’s plan, choosing instead to protect special interests and tax breaks for the wealthiest in our country.”

—This story was updated at 11:58 a.m.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 23, 2012, 06:36:45 AM
U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise To 372,000
RTT News ^ | 23 Aug 12 | Rtt Staff Writer


Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2012 9:06:15 AM
]

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly showed a modest increase in the week ended August 18th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report showed that initial jobless claims edged up to 372,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 368,000. The modest increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to slip to 365,000 from the 366,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Additionally, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 368,000 from the previous week's revised average of 364,250.

by RTT Staff Writer
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Kazan on August 23, 2012, 06:38:00 AM
You would think, since this happens damn near every month, it wouldn't be unexpected anymore
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 23, 2012, 08:16:30 AM


Trading caps and gowns for mops

Real-time advice: College grads are working in jobs unrelated to their studies

By Quentin Fottrell




After four years of college, many graduates are ending up in jobs that only require the ability to operate a cash register with a smile.

After commencement, a growing number young people say they have no choice but to take low-skilled jobs, according to a survey released this week. And while 63% of “Generation Y” workers — those age 18 to 29 — have a bachelor’s degree, the majority of the jobs taken by graduates don’t require one, according to an online survey of 500,000 young workers carried out between July 2011 and July 2012 by PayScale.com, a company that collects data on salaries.

Another survey by Rutgers University came to the same conclusion: Half of graduates in the past five years say their jobs didn’t require a four-year degree and only 20% said their first job was on their career path. “Our society’s most talented people are unable to find a job that gives them a decent income,” says Cliff Zukin, a professor of political science and public policy at Rutgers.

The jobs that once went to recent college graduates are now more often going to older Americans. Over the past year, workers over 55 accounted for 58% of employment growth, says Dean Baker, a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. Why? Employers think older workers are a safer bet and more likely to stay, he says. Unemployment hovered at 6.2% in July for workers over 55, according to the Labor Department, but was more than double that rate — 12.7% — for those ages 18 to 29.

As a result, college graduates are finding themselves locked into lower-paid jobs. “The shaky economy has forced many of them into a world of underemployment,” says Katie Bardaro, lead economist for PayScale. The starting salary for a graduate is $27,000, 10% less than five years ago, the Rutger’s study found. “Unlike those who graduated five years ago,” Zukin says, “the long-term expectations of this generation are not being met.”

Graduates must either face years of underemployment or go back to graduate school, experts say.

“This generation of young Americans are trapped,” says Paul T. Conway, president of Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit think tank based in Arlington, Va.

Dave Marshall, 23, earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Florida in Gainesville last year, works in private security and is a reservist in the U.S. Army’s National Guard. “My education is almost irrelevant in the private security field,” he says, “but it’s a job.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 23, 2012, 03:40:07 PM
U.S. Incomes Fell More in Recovery, Sentier Says

 By Jeff Kearns - Aug 23, 2012 4:21 PM ET

.

..
American incomes declined more in the three-year expansion that started in June 2009 than during the longest recession since the Great Depression, according an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Sentier Research LLC.

Median household income fell 4.8 percent on an inflation- adjusted basis since the recession ended in June 2009, more than the 2.6 percent drop during the 18-month contraction, the research firm’s Gordon Green and John Coder wrote in a report today. Household income is 7.2 percent below the December 2007 level, the former Census Bureau economic statisticians wrote.

“Almost every group is worse off than it was three years ago, and some groups had very large declines in income,” Green, who previously directed work on the Census Bureau’s income and poverty statistics program, said in a phone interview today. “We’re in an unprecedented period of economic stagnation.”

While gains in hourly earnings and average hours worked per week may have had “a minor mitigating effect” on income declines, they couldn’t offset a jobless rate that hasn’t fallen below 8 percent since February 2009 and a record duration of unemployment, according to the Annapolis, Maryland-based firm.

The average duration of unemployment increased to a record 41 weeks in November and remains at 39 weeks, Labor Department data show. Almost 5.2 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months.

Earnings Drop

Real median annual household income fell to $53,508 from $54,916 during the 18-month recession from December 2007 to June 2009, according to the firm’s study of income data for the 36- month period ended in June 2012. Incomes kept falling during the 36-month period since then, dropping to $50,964 in June 2012.

Men living alone experienced the worst drop in income, losing 9.4 percent, while married couples fared best with a 3.6 percent decline, the report shows. Incomes are before tax and adjusted for changes in consumer prices and expressed in constant June 2012 dollars.

“Median annual household income declined significantly for both family and non-family households,” Green and Coder wrote. “Real median annual household income declined more significantly for younger households.”

Incomes for all age groups below 65 years fell, while older Americans saw increases. Incomes for those 55 to 64 fell the most, losing 9.7 percent, followed by the 8.9 percent decline for 25- to 34-year-olds. The two gains were among those 65 to 75, whose incomes rose 6.5 percent, and those 75 and up who experienced an increase of 2.8 percent.

By education, Americans with some college lost the most, with incomes falling 9.3 percent, followed by an 8.6 percent slump for those with associate degrees, the report said. Those without high school degrees lost the least, falling 5.3 percent.

Green is a former chief of the governments division at the Census Bureau, the report said. Coder was chief of the Income Statistics Branch at the bureau, where he oversaw collection and processing of income data and developed new survey methods.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 23, 2012, 07:06:00 PM
Big Income Losses for Those Near Retirement
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
7:24 p.m. | Updated with additional details.



CATHERINE RAMPELL
Dollars to doughnuts.
Americans nearing retirement age have suffered disproportionately after the financial crisis: along with the declining value of their homes, which were intended to cushion their final years, their incomes have fallen sharply.

The typical household income for people age 55 to 64 years old is almost 10 percent less in today’s dollars than it was when the recovery officially began three years ago, according to a new report from Sentier Research, a data analysis company that specializes in demographic and income data.

Across the country, in almost every demographic, Americans earn less today than they did in June 2009, when the recovery technically started. As of June, the median household income for all Americans was $50,964, or 4.8 percent lower than its level three years earlier, when the inflation-adjusted median income was $53,508.

The decline looks even worse when comparing today’s incomes to those when the recession began in December 2007. Then, the median household income was $54,916, meaning that incomes have fallen 7.2 percent since the economy last peaked.


Sources: Sentier Research estimated annual household income derived from the monthly Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
Income drops vary significantly by age, though. Households led by people between the ages of 55 and 64 have taken the biggest hit; their household incomes have fallen to $55,748 from $61,716 over the last three years, a decline of 9.7 percent.

Sustained unemployment among older workers may be at least partly to blame for this decline. Unemployment rates for that age group are relatively low, but once older workers lose their jobs, they have an unusually hard time finding re-employment. And even when they do find new work, they usually take a pay cut.

“I was laid off in ’08, and I never really managed to get back into the job market,” said Jan Thomas, 62, who lives in Sarasota, Fla. She decided to apply for Social Security early, even though that means her benefits are lower than they would be if she had waited until 66. “I’ve pretty much gone through my savings at this point. You know, taking money out of one account, then the other. Then it all just kind of went poof.”


Sources: Sentier Research estimated annual household income derived from the monthly Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
Younger Americans have also felt income declines in the three years since the recovery began. The inflation-adjusted median household income for those 25 to 34 fell 8.9 percent, while that for people under age 25 fell 6.1 percent.

Incomes for the oldest Americans, on the other hand, have risen steadily since the recovery began. Among those 65 to 74, the inflation-adjusted median household income rose 6.5 percent (to $42,113 from $39,548), and among those age 75 and older, the increase was 2.8 percent (to $26,991 from $26,244).

It’s not clear why incomes rose for older people when as they fell for everyone else.

This may be because older Americans are working longer, taking in more income at more advanced ages. Perhaps they are working longer partly to compensate for the decline in the value of their homes. Rising employment rates among older people predate the housing bust, however.


Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The share of people over 65 who have jobs has been rising since the early 1990s; in 2011, 16.7 of people over 65 worked, compared with 11.1 percent two decades earlier.

The chart below — which is based on a different Census Bureau survey that goes through 2010 only, unfortunately — shows that almost all age groups have actually seen their income rise over most of the last 50 years, although incomes for non-seniors have been much more volatile. (Remember, though, that during recessions older people have at least some steady income from Social Security.)


Source: United States Bureau of the Census March Current Population Survey annual supplement.
Income losses since the recovery began also varied depending on educational attainment, Sentier Research found.

People with the least education and people with the most education had smaller income losses, supporting the idea that the job market in the United States is “hollowing out,” as the M.I.T. economist David Autor has proposed, meaning that high-skilled and low-skilled jobs are growing while midskilled jobs are thinning out.

The median household income of high school dropouts has fallen 5.3 percent (to $24,495 from $25,860), while that for college graduates has fallen 5.9 percent (to $83,378 from $88,570).


Sources: Sentier Research estimated annual household income derived from the monthly Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
Meanwhile, incomes for those with a midlevel education — a high school diploma, some college but no degree, or an associate’s degree — slid much further.

As you can see in the chart above, the biggest percentage decline was for people who took some college courses but never got a degree. Their median income has fallen 9.3 percent over the course of the recovery so far, to $46,200 from $50,948. That must especially sting, given that these income losses are probably accompanied by student loan debt.

Black Americans appear to have suffered the most, according to the Sentier report.


Sources: Sentier Research estimated annual household income derived from the monthly Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
The real median annual household income for blacks fell 11.1 percent from June 2009 to June 2012, landing at $32,498 from $36,567. That compares with 5.2 percent for whites, 3.6 percent for other race combinations (including Asians) and 4.1 percent for Hispanics — all of whom started with higher incomes than blacks.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 24, 2012, 05:21:06 AM
[ Invalid YouTube link ]
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 25, 2012, 03:58:32 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/employment-trends-college-graduates-boomers-2012-8


What a disaster. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 26, 2012, 07:17:40 AM
Laid-Off US Workers Are Taking Huge Pay Cuts At Their New Jobs
AP    | Aug. 26, 2012, 8:45 AM | 655 | 5

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John Moore/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economic recovery hasn't felt much like one even for people who managed to find new jobs after being laid off. Most of them have had to settle for less pay.
Only 56 percent of Americans laid off from January 2009 through December 2011 had found jobs by the start of this year, the Labor Department said Friday. More than half of them took jobs with lower pay. One-third took pay cuts of 20 percent or more.
The figures would be even lower if people who could find only part-time jobs were included in the total.
The report provides an illustration of the job market's persistent weakness well after the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. It also documents that while the economy has added nearly 3 million jobs since the recovery began, many pay less than those that were lost.
And it points to the challenge for President Barack Obama, who's seeking re-election with unemployment at 8.3 percent. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment above 8 percent. It was 7.8 percent when Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Laid-off workers always have a harder time finding new jobs than do people who quit. But since the government began tracking such data in 1984, people who lost jobs in a recovery haven't had it as hard as they did in the one that began three years ago.
And the pay cuts in their new jobs usually aren't so deep.
For example, in 2003-2005, a period that included a slow recovery, nearly 70 percent of those who were laid off found jobs. More than half who found full-time work in that time did so at equal or higher pay.
The government compiles data on laid-off workers every two years. The report covers only people who had worked at least three years in the same job before being laid off. In doing so, it focuses on those who had stable careers before they lost work.
They are people like Andrew McMenemy, who used to make $80,000 a year as a computer systems administrator at a software firm. He was among the 80 percent of the firm laid off in March 2010.
Now, he makes $9.15 an hour, providing tech support for Apple. The job offers no benefits. He works from home in East Stroudsburg, Pa., where he lives with his father.
"I'm going to be 53; I have to live at home with my father," McMenemy said. "I made more when I worked in high school."
About 6.1 million people with at least three years on the job were laid off in the three years ending in 2011, the government's report said. That's down from 6.9 million in the previous report, which covered the 2007-2009 period. But it's still the second-highest total since 1984.
Though the proportion of laid-off workers finding jobs has improved since the 2007-2009 period, "by no means are they back to a normal level for a recovery," said Henry Farber, an economics professor at Princeton University.
Compared with most other recoveries, "this is really bad," said Dean Baker, an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, a liberal think tank.
Baker noted that only 15 percent of those laid off in 2009 through 2011 have found new jobs with equal or higher pay. That compares with 25 percent in the three years before the recession.
"You were much more likely to be re-employed in 2007 at the same or higher wage than now," he said.
An Associated Press analysis this month documented that by just about every measure, this economic recovery is the feeblest since the Great Depression. The weakness goes well beyond high unemployment. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. And even for people who have jobs, paychecks have fallen behind inflation.
The Labor Department report Friday showed that men were more likely than women to regain jobs after a layoff. Male-dominated fields, such as manufacturing and mining, have experienced some of the strongest job gains. By contrast, hiring has been below average in some occupations with mostly female workers, such as office and administrative support.

That would come as no surprise to Kim Pinto, who lost her job in November 2009 as an executive assistant and office manager at a commercial interior design firm. Pinto, 50, who lives in Plymouth, Mass., was unemployed for nearly two years before landing a job as a sales person at a furniture store in July 2011.
Her new job pays roughly half the $52,000 she earned at her former job. The new one offers health insurance. But she can't afford the premium.

Pinto considered the sales job a "life raft" until she could find something better. She's still looking, and the competition is fierce. She applied for an administrative position at a local police station. There were 186 applicants, she was told.

"I've always worked a full-time job with benefits," Pinto said. "It's almost like that's a thing of the past. It really erodes your self-esteem."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 26, 2012, 07:44:26 AM
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/forsaken-and-forgotten


Private sector doing fine.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 26, 2012, 07:46:39 AM
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The Day Of Economic Reckoning Is Near
TMO ^ | 8-26-2012 | Doug Casy- TGR
Posted on August 26, 2012 10:45:37 AM EDT by blam

The Day Of Economic Reckoning Is Near

Economics / Great Depression II
Aug 25, 2012 - 01:23 PM
By: The Gold Report

It is a deal with the devil: Governments churn out more and more cash for the promise of continued prosperity. But the day of reckoning is near, according to Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research and an expert on crisis investing. As the epic battle between inflation and deflation continues on, Casey discusses his predictions for the new world market in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report.

The Gold Report: There will be a Casey Research Summit on "Navigating the Politicized Economy" in Carlsbad, Calif., in September. The thesis behind the summit is that governments have made a Faustian bargain, a pact with the devil, that saves the empire with overspending, but drives it to the brink of collapse by creating fiat currencies. Doug, where in that story is the economy currently?

Doug Casey: It's extremely late in the day. Since World War II, and especially since 1971 when the link between the dollar and gold was broken, governments around the world have accepted the Keynesian theory of economics, which boils down to a belief that printing money can stimulate the economy and create prosperity. The result has been to create huge amounts of individual and government debt. It's become insupportable. All it has done is purchase a few extra years of artificial prosperity, and we're heading deeper into a very real depression as a result.

Let me define the word depression. It's a period of time when most peoples' standard of living declines significantly. It can also be defined as a time when distortions and misallocations of capital—things usually caused by government intervention—are liquidated.

We have been consuming more than we have been producing and living above our means. This has been made possible by 1) borrowing against projected future revenues and 2) using the savings of other people. The whole thing is going to fall apart. A new monetary system of some type is going to have to necessarily rise from the ashes. That's a major theme in the conference that's coming up.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 27, 2012, 12:00:31 PM
REPORT: Almost Every Household Is Worse Off Now Than It Was Three Years Ago
Jill Krasny|35 minutes ago|6|1




As the economy sputters along, consumers are feeling the squeeze in their annual paychecks.
 
That's according to Sentier Research, whose latest report found household incomes have been declining ever since the recovery began in June 2009.
 
The numbers are striking: Yearly household income dwindled by 4.8 percent between June 2009 and 2012 from $53,508 to $50,964, although several types of households fared much worse than that.
 
"Based on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was three years ago, with the exception of households with householders 65-years-old and over," said researcher Gordon Green.
 
We took a closer look at the report to see who's falling behind:
 
Non-family households: This group saw its real median annual income decline by 7.5 percent, from $33,002 to $30,512. Family households declined a little less than that by 4.7 percent.
 
Single households: Men living alone saw their real median income drop by 9.4 percent, while women's dropped by 4.5 percent.
 
Black households: Compared to white and Hispanic households, Black householders' income declined the most by 11.1 percent, from $35,567 to $32,498.
 
Householders without a college degree: People with some education but no degree saw their real median annual income slide by 9.3 percent, from $50,948 to $46,200. Associates degree holders saw theirs taper off by 8.6 percent, from $60,602 to $55,374.
 
Self-employed households: This group's annual income fell 9.4 percent, from $73,695 to $66,752. Private sector workers fared only a little bit better, with a decline of 4.5 percent.
 
Households in the West: In contrast to households in the Midwest region which barely saw a decline, households in the West felt their yearly incomes decrease by 8.5 percent, from $59,065 to $54,071.
 
Households with householders between 55 and 66: Compared to millennials who saw their real median household income drop 8.9 percent, boomers' declined by 9.7 percent, from $61,716 to $55,748.
 
In a surprising twist, householders between 65 and 74-years-old got a boost in their income by 6.5 percent.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/report-almost-every-group-is-worse-off-now-than-it-was-three-years-ago-2012-8#ixzz24m5cIcbj
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 27, 2012, 02:41:38 PM
 :)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 28, 2012, 06:25:56 PM
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U.S. On The Highway To Hell
TMO ^ | 8-28-2012 | Chris Kitze
Posted on August 28, 2012 6:04:26 PM EDT by blam

U.S. On The Highway To Hell

Politics / US Politics
Aug 28, 2012 - 02:19 AM
By: Chris Kitze

(Monty Perlerin / EconomicNoise.com)

The Role of The Government in The Economic Crisis

At this point, everything the government is doing – and not just the US government but governments everywhere − is not only the wrong thing but exactly the opposite of the right thing. They’re passing more laws, raising taxes, creating more currency and incurring more debt. They should be doing the opposite. We’re currently still in the eye of the storm. Their actions guarantee that when we go back into the hurricane − the trailing edge of the hurricane − it’s going to be much worse and will last much longer than what we saw in 2007 to 2009. Doug Casey

How nice it would be to argue that Mr. Casey is wrong. No matter how much I wish he were, that is unlikely. We are in for very tough times ahead.

Recently I wrote about the insolvency of the federal government and its upcoming default. Mathematically, it is impossible for government to meet its obligations. There simply is not enough income or wealth for it to confiscate. It cannot satisfy the spending path it is on and the promises made.

Cutting spending is a political non-starter. As Mr. Casey argues it is politically impossible:

… just as in Greece, or most of the EU for that matter, most US government spending is on entitlements and welfare programs of various types − mainly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, so-called Income Security and pensions. Those things are politically and legally impossible to cut; in fact, they’ll grow. Most of the rest of spending is on so-called “defense,” which alone is 25 percent of the budget. As much as Americans love their military, that’s not going to be cut; in fact, the Republicans, idiotically and unbelievably, want to increase it. The other functions of government − the police, justice and regulatory agencies − are really just a tiny portion of government spending.

Impossible might be a bit strong. There will be talk of cutting spending, but it will be token in nature. No politician can afford to truly cut spending. Even Paul Ryan’s “draconian” budget had debt growing over the next ten years.

The Ebbing Away of Freedom



The Constitution, the document upon which this country was founded and upon which it rose to greatness, is for practical purposes nothing more than a historical artifact. It is now a quaint part of our history. Unfortunately, it provides little constraint on government these days. To the extent that it has remaining significance, it is usually considered an unnecessary barrier, impeding government from what it wants/needs to do, at least in the eyes of the ruling class. The Constitution is mostly ignored with claims that it is no longer relevant to our “complex” world. As Casey put it:

Any part of the Constitution that deals with maintaining liberty for the individual against the state − which is to say the important parts of the document, the parts that made it unique − are now meaningless. In fact, anyone who quotes the Constitution now runs the risk of being jailed, in the interest of “national security,” as a subversive, a dangerous anti-government radical or perhaps sent to an institution for psychiatric procedures.

What has not changed over time is human nature. The Founders and the document they presented recognized man’s insatiable desire for power and willingness to abuse it. George Kennan described it thusly:

The fact of the matter is that there is a little bit of the totalitarian buried somewhere, way down deep, in each and every one of us. It is only the cheerful light of confidence and security which keeps this evil genius down. . . . If confidence and security were to disappear, don’t think that he would not be waiting to take their place.

The State Unchained



John Adams

Addressing this problem and preventing it from corrupting the political class was the primary focus of the Constitution. Now the Constitution is considered outdated because it does not allow for an all-powerful State. Arbitrary power is what John Adams feared:

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole society.

The deterioration in our governmental educational system has dumbed-down the electorate. Most have little sense of history or understand the issues of the day. The capacity of the average voter appears to be limited to voicing opinions on who will win American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.

Government has created dependency as a means to increase power and attract votes. There is little hope that the US can return to its Constitutional moorings through the normal political process. The number of dependents almost outnumbers the producers, ensuring that they vote for whomever promises them the greater gifts. Furthermore, dependents now believe they are entitled to live off government largess.

The reality is that no one lives off government. Government lives off the productive class and re-distributes a portion of what is confiscated to dependents in exchange for their votes. ”Vote for me and this is what I will give you” has become the slogan of both parties, although the Democrats have used it more effectively.

No Political Solution Possible

There is no political solution possible to the spending problem because any attempt to cut programs is equivalent to committing political suicide. The current spending path, nevertheless is unsustainable. So, how does it end? It ends as most failed countries end, in a dictatorship accompanied by martial law. The government will eventually run out of money. Markets will do the job politicians are unwilling to do. They will cut off government funding via a bond market rebellion and an economic collapse.

At this point chaos and civil unrest likely break out and a dictator arises to “rescue” the people from their difficult situation. The political class will be only too happy to accommodate, although there will be contention over which party and who ascends to the role of supreme leader.

Regarding the coming election, it does not matter much in the larger scheme of things. If Romney defeats Obama, there will not be much change. Perhaps the rate of decline slows temporarily, but not enough to avoid the ultimate outcome. Sadly, our political system has not offered the possibility of change for years. Just review the last five or so presidential elections. Does anyone believe that either party put up a truly qualified candidate?

Mr. Casey bluntly describes the situation:

… if you vote the bums out you are just going to get a new set of bums. What kind of people do you think want to be politicians? Primarily sociopaths. The elections are a ridiculous charade performed every four years. People imagine that if you vote for Tweedledum, that he will somehow be an improvement over Tweedledee. There is vanishing little difference between the left wing of the Republicrat Party and the right wing of the Demopublican Party; they’re really the same thing. They are both philosophical statists and collectivists.

Even if, by some miracle, a non-sociopath were elected and set about to change the course of the country, he would be removed from office either by voters or Congress. Neither will allow the drastic change necessary to alter the bankruptcy of government or the collapse of the economy. Politicians are like whores, willing to perform whatever trick the voter wants. Few politicians have either courage or integrity. Even for those who do, they will be overruled by their brethren.

So how does this end? Benjamin Franklin foresaw what would happen long, long ago:

… I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

I suspect the run of the US exceeded Mr. Franklin’s expectations. Once we dropped the notion of a Republic and began to act as a democracy, we were lost. John Adams commented on this outcome:

Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

What Happens

Something, either a major war or a collapse of the economy, will occur that triggers chaos. The former likely ensures the latter, and the latter is likely the catalyst for dictatorship. When sovereign bankruptcy occurs, people will riot when they don’t receive their government checks. Stores will be looted and lives will be lost. It is this environment which will enable, in Hayek’s terms, the worst to reach the top.

Martial law and the suspension of whatever remains of Constitutional law, the Rule of Law and normal liberties will be ordered to “save” the country. The economy will cease to function. The military will be deployed to keep law and order and, likely, to deliver food and other necessities. At a minimum the military will be called out to protect whatever remains of our economic delivery system.

A sovereign bankruptcy means that there is no more money to pay out by government. Initially, the political class will try to keep things going by printing money. If so, matters will be made worse. The Depression will be preceded or accompanied by hyperinflation which will destroy the wealth and savings of the middle class, rather like Weimar Germany.

Presumably, these conditions may jolt enough people to their senses. But by this time, it will be too late because elections will have been suspended as a result of the “national emergency.”

That is the path we are on. The outcome of this next election may alter marginally the rate at which we decline, but not the ultimate destination. Sadly, I see nothing that will change our outcome.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 28, 2012, 07:45:11 PM
Lexmark to Shut Down Inkjet Unit, Slash 1,700 Jobs
foxnews ^
Posted on August 28, 2012 8:02:53 PM EDT by traumer

Attempting to improve profitability and further shift toward laser printers, Lexmark (LXK: 21.62, +2.61, +13.73%) disclosed plans on Tuesday to exit its inkjet printer business and slash 1,700 jobs.

Shares of the printing and document company dipped about 2% after the announcement, which included plans to buy back additional shares.

As part of its effort to exit the inkjet business, Lexmark said it plans to close a manufacturing facility in Cebu, Philippines by the end of 2015. The restructuring efforts are expected to result in the elimination of about 1,700 jobs around the world, including 1,100 manufacturing positions . The job cuts represent about 13% of the company’s global workforce. “Today's announcement represents difficult decisions, which are necessary to drive improved profitability and significant savings," CEO Paul Rooke said in a statement. "Our investments are focused on higher value imaging and software solutions, and we believe the synergies between imaging and the emerging software elements of our business will continue to drive growth across the organization.”

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



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 29, 2012, 03:53:56 AM
Young Women Face Tougher Summer Job Market (but some of these idiots will still vote for Obama)
wall street journal ^ | 8/21/2012 | By Neil Shah
Posted on August 29, 2012 6:11:48 AM EDT by tobyhill

It’s getting harder for young women to find summer jobs.

The unemployment rate for women aged 16 to 24 rose this summer from 13.8% in April to 16.2% in July—the peak month for summer jobs—as high-school kids and college graduates sought work at restaurants and retailers or entered the job market for the first time in a weak economy, according to data released by the Labor Department Tuesday. By contrast, the unemployment rate for young men only nudged higher, from 17% to 17.9%.

The number of young men actively participating in America’s labor force by working or seeking work increased 16% between April and July compared with 12% for women. That suggests it wasn’t simply a huge glut of additional women in the workforce that pushed female unemployment higher.

The new data provide the latest evidence of how bad the economic rebound has been for women compared with men. Adult men suffered more intensely than women during the recession as industries like manufacturing and construction cratered, yet they’ve also been quicker to find work during the recovery.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 30, 2012, 07:56:47 PM
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/half-of-americans-die-with-almost-no-money-2012-08-29

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2012, 12:40:24 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html?_r=2



LOL - i wonder if obama is going to talk about thisa in his bullshit speech in front of his slaves next week. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 03, 2012, 06:32:52 AM
Household income is below recession levels, report says (Obama's Fault!)
WASHINGTON POST ^ | 8/23/2012 | Michael A. Fletcher
Posted on September 3, 2012 8:53:10 AM EDT by tobyhill

Household income is down sharply since the recession ended three years ago, according to a report released Thursday, providing another sign of the stubborn weakness of the economic recovery.

From June 2009 to June 2012, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 4.8 percent, to $50,964, according to a report by Sentier Research, a firm headed by two former Census Bureau officials.

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





4 more years! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 04, 2012, 07:54:11 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/august-ism-2012-9


Orders falling, costs spiking. 

DEPRESSION AND INFLATION ANYONE?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 04, 2012, 09:24:08 AM

84 Statistics That Prove That The Decline Of The Middle Class Is Real And That It Is Getting Worse
 The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 08/23/2012 | Michael Snyder

Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2012 11:42:06 AM by SeekAndFind



The middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. The rest of the globe looked at us in envy and wondered what we were doing right. But now everything seems to be going wrong for the middle class. Millions of our jobs have been shipped out of the country and competition for the remaining jobs is keeping wages at depressed levels. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up and up and middle class budgets are being stretched and strained like never before. Millions more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty every single year, and government dependence is at an all-time high. Finding a solution to the decline of the middle class is absolutely central to fixing the economic problems in this country. Without a large, thriving middle class this would not be America. The truth is that people from all over the world want to come here because they want to work hard, buy a house, raise a family and provide a better future for their children. This has traditionally been "the land of opportunity", but now the middle class is rapidly declining and none of our politicians seem to have any solutions. With each passing day, the American Dream is slipping through the fingers of millions of hard working American families. We owe it to them to get this thing fixed.

The following are 84 statistics that prove that the decline of the middle class is real and that it is getting worse....

1. 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.

2. The Pew Research Center has also found that 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today compared with 10 years ago.

3. 62 percent of middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.

4. The average net worth of a middle class family in America was $129,582 in 2001. By 2010 that figure had dropped to $93,150.

5. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of all families in the United States declined "from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010".

6. Back in 1970, middle income Americans brought home 62 percent of all income in the United States. In 2010, middle income Americans only brought home 45 percent of all income.

7. After you adjust for inflation, median family income in the United States has fallen by about 6 percent since the year 2000.

8. Real median household income has decreased by more than 4000 dollars since Barack Obama entered the White House.

9. Amazingly, more than half of all Americans are now at least partially financially dependent on the government.

10. In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

11. If you can believe it, one recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies.

12. The United States was once ranked #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today we have slipped to #12.

13. The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today. Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class.

14. Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less. By 2010, that figure had risen to 32.5 percent.

15. 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 adjust for inflation.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. The average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011, and electricity bills in the U.S. have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

20. Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States.

21. 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%.

22. 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.

23. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.

24. Total consumer debt in the United States has risen by 1700 percent since 1971.

25. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark.

26. One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

27. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

28. According to a report released in 2010, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care.

29. 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.

30. According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.

31. The wealthiest 20 percent of all Americans now control 84 percent of all the wealth in America.

32. Right now, over 50 percent of all stocks and bonds are owned by just 1 percent of the U.S. population.

33. Back in the 1970s, the top 1 percent of all income earners brought in about 8 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 21 percent of all income.

34. 40 years ago, the top 1/10,000th of all U.S. households brought in about 1 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 5 percent of all income.

35. Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

36. The wealthiest 400 families in the United States have about as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of all Americans do combined.

37. 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.

38. At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

39. The following is how income gains in the United States were distributed during 2010....

-37 percent of all income gains went to the top 0.01 percent of all income earners

-56 percent of all income gains went to the rest of the top 1 percent

-7 percent of all income gains went to the bottom 99 percent

40. The U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession.

41. The percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010.

42. Overall, the number of "new entrepreneurs and business owners" dropped by a staggering 53 percent between 1977 and 2010.

43. 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.

44. The average pay for self-employed Americans fell by $3,721 between 2006 and 2010.

45. In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people. Only about 140 million of them are working.

46. Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

47. 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.

48. Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

49. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

50. According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years. During 2010 it got even worse. That year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.

51. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

52. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.

53. If you can believe it, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.

54. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

55. At this point, only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are considered to be good jobs.

56. Right now, approximately 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

57. 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.

58. In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor".

59. In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

60. It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.

61. It is also being projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.

62. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

63. It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits).

64. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

65. According to one recent poll, 18.2 percent of all Americans have not been able to buy enough food to eat at some point during this past year.

66. Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.

67. In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

68. At this point, approximately 22 percent of all American children are living in poverty.

69. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

70. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

71. Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.

72. There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

73. Approximately one-fourth of all American children are enrolled in the food stamp program.

74. It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

75. Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.

76. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the federal government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

77. Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.

78. Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now.

79. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

80. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

81. Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

82. According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.

83. If you can believe it, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government at this point.

84. In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time.

In compiling the information above, I relied heavily on research that I had previously done for The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream Blog.

So what do all of you think about the decline of the middle class?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 04, 2012, 11:18:13 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-04/food-stamp-use-climbed-to-record-46-7-million-in-june-u-s-says.html



4 MORE YEARS 4 MORE YEARS!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Kazan on September 04, 2012, 11:21:24 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-04/food-stamp-use-climbed-to-record-46-7-million-in-june-u-s-says.html



4 MORE YEARS 4 MORE YEARS!!!!

This is good news, just ask Nancy Pelosi.............
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 04, 2012, 11:39:06 AM
[ Invalid YouTube link ]
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 05, 2012, 02:41:27 AM
84 Statistics That Prove That The Decline Of The Middle Class Is Real And That It Is Getting Worse
 The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 08/23/2012 | Michael Snyder

Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2012 11:42:06 AM by SeekAndFind



The middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. The rest of the globe looked at us in envy and wondered what we were doing right. But now everything seems to be going wrong for the middle class. Millions of our jobs have been shipped out of the country and competition for the remaining jobs is keeping wages at depressed levels. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up and up and middle class budgets are being stretched and strained like never before. Millions more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty every single year, and government dependence is at an all-time high. Finding a solution to the decline of the middle class is absolutely central to fixing the economic problems in this country. Without a large, thriving middle class this would not be America. The truth is that people from all over the world want to come here because they want to work hard, buy a house, raise a family and provide a better future for their children. This has traditionally been "the land of opportunity", but now the middle class is rapidly declining and none of our politicians seem to have any solutions. With each passing day, the American Dream is slipping through the fingers of millions of hard working American families. We owe it to them to get this thing fixed.

The following are 84 statistics that prove that the decline of the middle class is real and that it is getting worse....

1. 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.

2. The Pew Research Center has also found that 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today compared with 10 years ago.

3. 62 percent of middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.

4. The average net worth of a middle class family in America was $129,582 in 2001. By 2010 that figure had dropped to $93,150.

5. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of all families in the United States declined "from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010".

6. Back in 1970, middle income Americans brought home 62 percent of all income in the United States. In 2010, middle income Americans only brought home 45 percent of all income.

7. After you adjust for inflation, median family income in the United States has fallen by about 6 percent since the year 2000.

8. Real median household income has decreased by more than 4000 dollars since Barack Obama entered the White House.

9. Amazingly, more than half of all Americans are now at least partially financially dependent on the government.

10. In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

11. If you can believe it, one recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies.

12. The United States was once ranked #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today we have slipped to #12.

13. The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today. Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class.

14. Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less. By 2010, that figure had risen to 32.5 percent.

15. 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 adjust for inflation.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. The average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011, and electricity bills in the U.S. have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

20. Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States.

21. 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%.

22. 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.

23. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.

24. Total consumer debt in the United States has risen by 1700 percent since 1971.

25. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark.

26. One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

27. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

28. According to a report released in 2010, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care.

29. 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.

30. According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.

31. The wealthiest 20 percent of all Americans now control 84 percent of all the wealth in America.

32. Right now, over 50 percent of all stocks and bonds are owned by just 1 percent of the U.S. population.

33. Back in the 1970s, the top 1 percent of all income earners brought in about 8 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 21 percent of all income.

34. 40 years ago, the top 1/10,000th of all U.S. households brought in about 1 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 5 percent of all income.

35. Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

36. The wealthiest 400 families in the United States have about as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of all Americans do combined.

37. 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.

38. At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

39. The following is how income gains in the United States were distributed during 2010....

-37 percent of all income gains went to the top 0.01 percent of all income earners

-56 percent of all income gains went to the rest of the top 1 percent

-7 percent of all income gains went to the bottom 99 percent

40. The U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession.

41. The percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010.

42. Overall, the number of "new entrepreneurs and business owners" dropped by a staggering 53 percent between 1977 and 2010.

43. 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.

44. The average pay for self-employed Americans fell by $3,721 between 2006 and 2010.

45. In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people. Only about 140 million of them are working.

46. Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

47. 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.

48. Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

49. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

50. According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years. During 2010 it got even worse. That year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.

51. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

52. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.

53. If you can believe it, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.

54. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

55. At this point, only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are considered to be good jobs.

56. Right now, approximately 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

57. 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.

58. In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor".

59. In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

60. It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years.

61. It is also being projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65.

62. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

63. It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits).

64. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

65. According to one recent poll, 18.2 percent of all Americans have not been able to buy enough food to eat at some point during this past year.

66. Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate.

67. In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

68. At this point, approximately 22 percent of all American children are living in poverty.

69. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

70. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

71. Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.

72. There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

73. Approximately one-fourth of all American children are enrolled in the food stamp program.

74. It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

75. Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million.

76. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the federal government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

77. Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.

78. Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now.

79. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

80. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

81. Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

82. According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.

83. If you can believe it, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government at this point.

84. In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time.

In compiling the information above, I relied heavily on research that I had previously done for The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream Blog.

So what do all of you think about the decline of the middle class?



Yes and the rich are getting richer its capitalism, you know the very thing you believe in and support? Your really are a hypocrite
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on September 05, 2012, 08:21:38 AM
Manufacturing sector continued its contraction...biggest drop in 3 years.

Not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 08:26:34 AM
US Slips Down the Ranks of Global Competitiveness
Published: Wednesday, 5 Sep 2012 | 4:06 AM ET Text Size By: Ansuya Harjani
Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia

 



The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday.

 
Photo: Jumper | Photodisc | Getty Images
New York City, financial capital of the United States
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

The world's largest economy, which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot - marking its fourth year of decline.

A lack of macroeconomic stability, the business community’s continued mistrust of the government and concerns over its fiscal health were some of the reasons for the downgrade, according to the annual survey.

"A number of weaknesses are chipping away at its competitiveness...the U.S. fiscal imbalances and continued political deadlock over resolving these challenges," said Jennifer Blanke, Economist at the Geneva-based WEF.

Political deadlock over reducing the unsustainable federal government budget deficit – projected to hit $1.1 trillion this year – prompted Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA last August.



A mix of U.S. tax hikes and spending cuts – referred to as the "fiscal cliff" - are set to come into force in January unless lawmakers reach a compromise for avoiding them.

The survey, which has been conducted annually for over three decades, ranks the competitiveness of 144 countries based on 12 key indicators including infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, labor market efficiency and innovation. 

“If you look at competitiveness, what we are talking about is productivity. It’s countries that are productive that can support the sorts of rising living standards and high wages that everyone is looking for,” Blanke told CNBC.

Despite declining in the overall ranking, the forum highlighted that the U.S. remains one of the world’s top innovators – supported by an “excellent” university system - and continues to offer vast opportunities because of the sheer size of its domestic economy.

Switzerland and Singapore retained their positions as the most competitive economies, coming in 1st and 2nd, respectively.


  The Global Competitiveness Index 2012–2013 
Country  2012-2013 2011-2012 
Switzerland 1 1
Singapore 2 2
Finland 3 4
Sweden 4 3
Netherlands  5 7
Germany 6 6
United States 7 5
United Kingdom  8 10
Hong Kong  9 11
Japan  10 9
Source: World Economic Forum


Switzerland’s top spot was achieved as a result of its strong performance across the board, according to WEF, with notable labor market efficiency, sophistication of its business sector and its innovative capacity. The country has among the highest rates of patents per capita globally.

“Switzerland’s productivity is further enhanced by a business sector that offers excellent on-the-job-training opportunities and labor markets that balance employee protection with the interests of employers,” the report said.

China Tops the BRICs

Among the large emerging economies, China was ranked highest at 26, thanks to favorable macroeconomic conditions. This was significantly higher than Brazil, India and Russia which came in at 53, 56 and 66, respectively.

China runs a moderate budget deficit, boasts a low government debt-to-GDP ratio of 26 percent and its gross savings rate remains above 50 percent of GDP, the forum said. In addition, the rating of its sovereign debt (AA-) is significantly better than that of the other BRICs and of many advanced economies.

However, the world’s second largest economy has slipped two notches from last year’s ranking, owing to a deterioration in the development of its financial markets and technological readiness.

“Insufficient domestic and foreign competition is of particular concern, as the various barriers to entry appear to be more prevalent and more important than in previous years,” WEF report said.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 09:04:31 AM
Outlook gloomy for August jobs report
 CNNMoney ^ | 9/5/20122 | Annalyn Censky


Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2012 11:13:23 AM


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The stakes are high and the forecast is gloomy, ahead of the August jobs report scheduled to be released Friday by the Labor Department.

A month ago, that report showed businesses added 163,000 jobs in July. Job gains at that level were the strongest in five months, but still were not robust enough to keep up with population growth. The unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3%. Are you better off? Are you better off?

Unfortunately, August doesn't look like it fared much better.

Employers probably added about 120,000 jobs, keeping the unemployment rate at its current level, according to economists surveyed by CNNMoney.

The August jobs report is a critical one, given the Federal Reserve meets less than a week later.

Meanwhile, job growth around 120,000 is also unlikely to give President Obama a boost before the election. There are only three more monthly jobs reports scheduled before the election, and while Obama is close to breaking even on jobs, it's highly unlikely the unemployment rate will fall below 8% by then.

"The soft economic environment that we're having, is not going to be good for any incumbent," said Sam Bullard, Wells Fargo senior economist. "It's a tough sell for anyone in office."


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 11:23:44 AM
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/09/05/philadelphia-food-organization-says-hunger-is-hitting-more-middle-class-families


What happened to the recovery? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 12:02:42 PM
CNN Fact Check: About those 4.5 million jobs ...

By the CNN Wire Staff
 
updated 1:12 PM EDT, Wed September 5, 2012

 


CNN Reality Check: 4.5 million jobs created?
 
 
(CNN) -- Anyone watching the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night heard the number 4.5 million several times.
 
"Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs," San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the party's keynote speaker, said.
 
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama's chief of staff, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who followed Obama's November rival Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts, both cited the same number.
 
Sights and sounds from the DNC
 
It's a big-sounding number, given the still-sputtering job market. So we're giving it a close eyeballing.
 
The facts:
 
The number Castro cites is an accurate description of the growth of private-sector jobs since January 2010, when the long, steep slide in employment finally hit bottom. But while a total of 4.5 million jobs sounds great, it's not the whole picture.
 
Non-farm private payrolls hit a post-recession low of 106.8 million that month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure currently stands at 111.3 million as of July.
 
While that is indeed a gain of 4.5 million, it's only a net gain of 300,000 over the course of the Obama administration to date. The private jobs figure stood at 111 million in January 2009, the month Obama took office.
 
And total nonfarm payrolls, including government workers, are down from 133.6 million workers at the beginning of 2009 to 133.2 million in July 2012. There's been a net loss of nearly 1 million public-sector jobs since Obama took office, despite a surge in temporary hiring for the 2010 census.
 
Meanwhile, the jobs that have come back aren't the same ones that were lost.
 
Are you better off?
 
According to a study released last week by the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project, low-wage fields such as retail sales and food service are adding jobs nearly three times as fast as higher-paid occupations.
 
Conclusion:
 
The figure of 4.5 million jobs is accurate if you look at the most favorable period and category for the administration. But overall, there are still fewer people working now than when Obama took office at the height of the recession.
 
Full coverage of the Democratic National Convention
 
First lady seeks to reignite flame for the president

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/politics/fact-check-obama-jobs/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 12:43:35 PM
UH-OH: Orders Of Heavy Duty Trucks Have Collapsed
businessinsider. ^ | Aug. 6, 2012 | Matthew Boesler


Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2012 1:13:03

UH-OH: Orders Of Heavy Duty Trucks Have Collapsed

Matthew Boesler|Aug. 6, 2012, 5:18 PM|9,386|15

Almost everything everyone owns in America has spent at least some time in a truck. As such, the health of the trucking industry is a pretty reliable indicator of the health of the economy.

In July, NAFTA Class 8 truck (basically heavy duty trucks) orders collapsed – 12,900 new orders were booked for trucks, short of the consensus of analysts, who were expecting 16,000-17,000.

And it's not just seasonality that played a role. Nigel Coe, an equity analyst covering multi-industry stocks for Morgan Stanley, alerted clients in a recent note that "the large 23% drop to 12,900 was far greater than the 11% median decline observed for the June/July period since 1996, and that, to make matters worse, the disappointing July print "came on the back of a larger than normal seasonal step-down in June, when Class 8 orders fell 7% M/M to 16,690 – worse than the typical 3% M/M decline."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-trucking-lead-indicator-us-economy-recession-2012-8?op=1#ixzz25cEublTm


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2012, 02:40:35 PM
Obama's Accelerating Downward Spiral For America



(Image credit: Getty Images North America via @daylife)
 
New income data from the Census Bureau reveal what a great job Barack Obama has done for the middle class as President.  During his entire tenure in the oval office, median household income has declined by 7.3%.

In January, 2009, the month he entered office, median household income was $54,983.  By June, 2012, it had spiraled down to $50,964.  That’s a loss of $4,019 per family, the equivalent of losing a little less than one month’s income a year, every year.  And on our current course that is only going to get worse not better.

Obama never tires of telling us that the economy was in one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression when he entered office, as if he was the only President to have suffered a recession early in his term. But nobody expected that he would use the vast powers of the most powerful office in the world to make it worse.  But that is what he has done.

Even if you start from when the recession ended in June, 2009, the decline since then has been greater than it was during the recession.  Three years into the Obama recovery, median family income had declined nearly 5% by June, 2012 as compared to June, 2009.  That is nearly twice the decline of 2.6% that occurred during the recession from December, 2007 until June, 2009.  As the Wall Street Journal summarized in its August 25-26 weekend edition, “For household income, in other words, the Obama recovery has been worse than the Bush recession.”

The Journal elaborated, “The President portrays the financial decline of American families on his watch as part of a decades-long trend.  He’s wrong.  Real income for middle income households rose by roughly 30% from 1983 to 2005, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”  And MSNBC hosts, listen up, you might learn something.  The Journal further explains, “The political left likes to blame the ebbing of union power.  But non-government unionization fell dramatically in the 1980s and 90s, and incomes rose.”

True, income growth lagged from where it should have been during the Bush years.  But that only reflected the abandonment of half of Reagan’s economic program during those years.  While Bush’s tax rate reductions did promote growth, Bush and the Republican Congress lost control of federal spending during the 2000s.  Federal spending as a percent of GDP increased by one-seventh during the Bush years, almost exactly reversing the gains that had been won under Speaker Gingrich’s Republican Congress in the 1990s.  (Clinton played a good rhetorical game appearing to fight the spending reductions, but deserves great credit for substantively giving into them in the end.)

But more important by far was that the Bush Fed abandoned the Reagan/Clinton strong dollar monetary policy for a cheap dollar, Keynesian style monetary policy, falling for the dopey Keynesian line that a cheap currency promotes exports.  The Bush Treasury Secretaries cheered this debasement of the Fed’s monetary policy, reflecting the dark cloud of reemerging Keynesian influence on national economic policy.

What is overlooked is that a declining dollar may reduce the prices of American exports, but it makes the entire nation poorer in the process, reducing the international purchasing power of every dollar every American worker earns, and reducing the international value of every asset owned by every American investor, business entrepreneur, and property owner.

The problem is that Obama has only greatly accelerated everything Bush did wrong, and reversed everything Bush did right.  So Obama’s spending has skyrocketed the federal budget by nearly one-fourth as a percent of GDP in just one term.  Moreover, the Obama Fed has abandoned any semblance of control over monetary policy, buying most of the soaring federal debt issued to finance Obama’s record smashing federal deficits with newly printed money (actually created by computer record, a sort of cyberprinting).  Of course, the whole point of Obama’s tax policy has been to more than reverse the Bush tax rate cuts, which is now already slated under current law to go into effect on January 1.

That is why it will all only get worse in a second Obama term, as the economy slides back into a double-dip recession in 2013 unless these Obama policies are swiftly reversed.  I first began ringing alarm bells about that a year ago with the publication of my Encounter Books Broadside No. 25, Obama and the Crash of 2013.  But now even the Washington establishment CBO is pealing the air raid siren as well.

 Renewed, double-dip recession would mean unemployment rocketing back into double digits once again, the deficit exploding to over $2 trillion, the highest in world history by far, real wages and incomes declining even more, and poverty soaring further.

Obama has failed the poor as well as the middle class.  Last year, the Census Bureau reported more Americans in poverty than ever before in the more than 50 years that Census has been tracking poverty.  Now The Huffington Post reports that the poverty rate is on track to rise to the highest level since 1965, before the War on Poverty began.  A July 22 story by Hope Yen reports that when the new poverty rates are released in September, “even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965.”  But a consensus survey of experts across the political spectrum indicates the poverty rate could soar from the current 15.1% to as high as 15.7%.  “Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor,” Hope Yen reports.

This is consistent with the effect of Obamanomics on incomes.  “The group that has suffered the most during the Obama Presidency has been black Americans, whose real incomes have fallen by more than 11%.,” the Journal also observed in its August 25-26 weekend edition.

There is no secret or magic as to how to turn around these declining incomes.  Increased investment in business expansion and start ups increases demand for labor, which drives up wages.  That investment buys new tools and capital equipment for workers, making them more productive, which provides the cash flow to increase wages.

Increasing investment results from reducing the tax rates on investment, which enables investors to keep a higher percentage of what they produce, increasing incentives for investment.  It also comes from maintaining a stable or rising dollar, which assures investors they will not lose some of their investment returns to a declining dollar or rising inflation, or the boom and bust cycles that dollar manipulation and inflation create.

As the Journal further explained,


“A key driver of higher wages in the 1980s and 1990s was a surge of capital investment in computers, plant and equipment, which made American workers more productive. When Mr. Obama pledges to raise taxes on investment income (capital gains, dividends and small business profits), he is making it costlier to innovate and modernize.  That plays out over time into slower gains in productivity and wages.”
 
A renewed economic boom in jobs and incomes is long overdue, straining within the bonds of Obamanomics to break out.  Before this last recession, going back to the Great Depression 75 years ago, recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously at 16 months.  But here we are 56 months after the recession started in December, 2007, with no real recovery yet in sight.

Yes, the recession technically ended more than 3 years ago.  But the point is that what we are suffering today is the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression.  And no Obama apologists cannot say that the recovery is so bad because the recession was so bad, because the American historical record is the worse the recession the stronger the recovery, as the American economy has always before snapped back to its world leading economic growth trend line.  That even happened after the Great Depression (once Roosevelt was gone).  Check out for yourself the historical record of American recessions and recoveries at www.nber.org.

Based on this historical record, America should be enjoying its third year of a raging recovery economic boom right now.  And it will, after Obama is gone, and his policies are reversed.

The above market process of increased investment, increased demand for labor, increased productivity, and increased wages and incomes is the way that it has worked to increase the wages and incomes of American workers for 300 years.  And it is the only way that works.  Rising wages, incomes, prosperity, and living standards do not result from increased government spending, increased deficits and government debt, increased Fed money creation, greater income and wealth redistribution, or any other fever swamp of Obamanomics.

If this generation of Americans does not get it, they will not enjoy the world leading living standards, and American Dream, of prior generations of Americans.  Moreover, they will not deserve it.  There is no law of the universe that says America must be the richest, most prosperous nation in the history of the world.  If the American people do not choose the wisest leaders following traditional American, free market, economic policies, but instead choose the hope and change of the economic policies of Argentina and Venezuela, then they will get, and deserve, the prosperity and living standards of Argentina or Venezuela.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 This article is available online at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/09/02/obamas-accelerating-downward-spiral-for-america/
 


 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2012, 02:03:41 AM
Help not wanted: U.S. online job ads see biggest two-month decline since recession
Reuters ^
Posted on September 6, 2012 1:38:58 AM EDT by Arthurio

U.S.job seekers saw online job ads dwindle this summer, according to a survey from The Conference Board. Advertised vacancies fell 108,700 in August to 4,684,800, the industry group said.

Jonathan Basile at Credit Suisse noted that the combined drop of 262,000 jobs for July and August was the biggest two-month decline since the last recession.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2012, 02:35:19 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/food-stamps-record-high-june-2012_n_1857224.html


Hope and change.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 07, 2012, 06:23:46 AM
 >:(



OBAMANOMICS - FAIL 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 07, 2012, 06:35:40 AM
Record 88,921,000 Americans ‘Not in Labor Force’—119,000 Fewer Employed in August Than July

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/record-88921000-americans-not-labor-force-119000-fewer-employed-august-july


What a fucking disaster. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 07, 2012, 06:45:52 AM
Chart Of The Day: 25,792,000 Unemployed And Underemployed
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/07/2012 09:28 -0400

Recession



Sadly for the US labor force, today's number of reported unemployed people according to the Household Survey, which came at 12,544,000, or a drop from 12,794,000 (even as the number of employed declined as well from 142.2MM to 142.1MM), tells only half the story. As the following chart of the day, a bigger problem comes from the fact that in August another 8 million Americans were working part time, double what it was at the start of the Depression. Additionally, 5.2 million, also double the number 4 years ago, are marginally attached to the labor force. Combined, this adds up to 25.8 million, which is the real number of interest, even ignoring the nearly 400,000 who mysteriously dropped out of the labor force. As Bloomberg concludes, "It is likely firms have altered their hiring behavior following the recession, which has resulted in a low-wage bias that favors part-time and temporary workers." Sadly, this means that the change in the labor market is now secular, and the Fed will have to reassess everything it knows, just as it had to reevaluate its flawed understanding of Stock vs Flow, and why more and more are now calling for endless QE.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2012, 05:22:47 AM
The Obama Index: The Newest Index to Measure Our Despair
Townhall.com ^ | September 8, 2012 | John Ransom
Posted on September 8, 2012 6:26:24 AM EDT by Kaslin

To give you an idea how bad the jobs report released on Friday is, consider this fact: The employment situation in the country is so bad that economists can’t accurately measure it with the existing tools they use to measure jobs. In other words, we have entered a period in our country not contemplated by economists. They simply don’t have the tools to measure what’s actually occurring in the jobs market.

Modern economists never imagined a scenario in which a country with as much wealth, power and innovation as United States could stretch out a jobs recession as long as the country has under Obama.

Economists please meet Barack Hussein Obama, record-setter. More debt, more spending, more regulation than ever before- and fewer jobs.

We have a record amount of money in the system doing a record amount of nothing right now. And still the government policy wonks keep thinking that by injecting more money into a system already over-burdened by its money supply we will eventually get different results.

Only Obama could preside over an economy with so much money that has produced so little return as our economy has since January 2009.

Never in the annals of human history have so many dollars done so little for so many.

1 percent unemployment number is meaningless. It actually doesn’t exist. It’s like measuring an 8 foot board with a 12 inch ruler. Shortening the ruler doesn’t make the board smaller.

The rate at which Americans are participating in the jobs market is now 63.5 percent. More than one-third of Americans qualified to work have despaired of ever finding a job under Obama. That’s the highest number of Americans who have sat on the sidelines rather than look for work since 1981. For over a year the workforce participation rates have plunged, coinciding with expiring unemployment benefits.

And the problem is not that there is a lack of money in the system to sustain the economy. But there is a notable lack of demand. Demand comes from confidence that consumers and business feel about the health of the economy. Unlike politicians, those of us in the real world can’t spend what we don’t have. We have to manage our lives using the cash that we actually have at hand.

The problem here is not that businesses and banks don’t have money. Currently the money supply (MZM) stands at a record $11 trillion. Yet the velocity at which the money has moved through the system has plunged under Obama. Money is sitting in accounts, not contributing to GDP growth, but rather just chasing the price of hard assets up because people who make decisions fear that the worst in the economy is yet to come.

Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, TARP, public pensions, John Corzine, Solydnra and the UAW have done a fantastic job of muddying the waters for corporate America as well as small business owners and the self-employed.

These hostile acts taken by or on behalf of Big Government have our economy idling in place.

Economic conditions are so bad that the standard tools used by economists to explain current conditions can’t measure the depth of the peoples’- or the economy’s- depression. Jimmy Carter had the Misery Index. People, meet the President of the United States: Barack Hussien Obama.

The Obama Index is the new index for measuring our despair.

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 08, 2012, 05:36:13 AM
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By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN

Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work.

The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.

Related Video

 
Assistant editorial page editor James Freeman on the August jobs report and how it gels with President Obama's speech last night. Credit: Associated Press

How many people are out of work but not counted as unemployed because they hadn't sought work in the past four weeks? Eight million. This is the sort of distressing number that turns up when you look beyond the headline number.

Here's another one: 96,000—that's how many new jobs were added last month, well short of the anemic 125,000 predicted by analysts, and dramatically less than the (still paltry) 139,000 the economy had been averaging in 2012.

The alarming numbers proliferate the deeper you look: 40.7% of the people counted as unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or more—that's 5.2 million "long-term" unemployed. Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population since then has grown by 31 million.

We are still almost five million payrolls shy of where we were at the end of 2007, when the recession began. Think about that when you hear the Obama administration's talk of an economic recovery.

The key indicator of our employment health, in all the statistics, is what the government calls U-6. This is the number who have applied for work in the past six months and includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for those individuals whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week.

Enlarge Image

Bloomberg
A recruiter, left, talks to a job seeker during a career fair in Houston in August.

They are working part-time only because they've been unable to find full-time work. This involuntary army of what's called "underutilized labor" has been hovering for months at about 15% of the workforce. Include the eight million who have simply given up looking, and the real unemployment rate is closer to 19%.

In short, the president's ill-designed stimulus program was a failure. For all our other national concerns, and the red herrings that typically swim in electoral waters, American voters refuse to be distracted from the No. 1 issue: the economy. And even many of those who have jobs are hurting, because annual wage increases have dropped to an average of 1.6%, the lowest in the past 30 years. Adjusting for inflation, wages are contracting.

The best single indicator of how confident workers are about their jobs is reflected in how they cling to them. The so-called quit rate has sagged to the lowest in years.

Older Americans can't afford to quit. Ironically, since the recession began, employment in the age group of 55 and older is up 3.9 million, even as total employment is down by five million. These citizens hope to retire with dignity, but they feel the need to bolster savings as a salve for the stomach-churning decline in their net worth, 75% of which has come from the fall in the value of their home equity.

The baby-boomer population postponing its exit from the workforce in a recession creates a huge bottleneck that blocks youth employment. Displaced young workers now face double-digit unemployment and more life at home with their parents.

Many young couples decide that they can't afford to start a family, and as a consequence the birthrate has just hit a 25-year low of 1.87%. Nor are young workers' prospects very good. Layoff announcements have risen from year-ago levels and hiring plans have dropped sharply. People are not going to swallow talk of recovery until hiring is occurring at a pace to bring at least 300,000 more hires per month than the economy has been averaging for the past two years.

Furthermore, the jobs that are available are mostly not good ones. More than 40% of the new private-sector jobs are in low-paying categories such as health care, leisure activities, bars and restaurants.

We are experiencing, in effect, a modern-day depression. Consider two indicators: First, food stamps: More than 45 million Americans are in the program! An almost incredible record. It's 15% of the population compared with the 7.9% participation from 1970-2000. Food-stamp enrollment has been rising at a rate of 400,000 per month over the past four years.

Second, Social Security disability—another record. More than 11 million Americans are collecting federal disability checks. Half of these beneficiaries have signed on since President Obama took office more than three years ago.

These dependent millions are the invisible counterparts of the soup kitchens and bread lines of the 1930s, invisible because they get their checks in the mail. But it doesn't take away from the fact that millions of people who had good private-sector jobs now have to rely on welfare for life support.

This shameful situation, intolerable for a nation as wealthy as the United States, is not going to go away on Nov. 7. No matter who wins, the next president will betray the country if he doesn't swiftly fashion policies to address the specific needs of the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed.

Five actions are critical:

1. Find the money to spur an expansion of public and private training programs with proven track records.

2. Increase access to financing for small businesses and thus expand entrepreneurial opportunities.

3. Lower government hurdles to the formation of new businesses.

4. Explore special subsidies for private employers who hire the long-term unemployed.

5. Get serious about the long decay in public works and infrastructure, which poses a dramatic national threat. Infrastructure projects should be tolled so that the users ultimately pay for them.

It's zero hour. Policy makers need to understand that the most important family program, the most important social program and the most important economic program in America all go by the same name: jobs.

Mr. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.

A version of this article appeared September 8, 2012, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Those Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2012, 06:02:42 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/work-force-participation-crisis-2012-9


Hope and change scumbags. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2012, 06:30:55 AM
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/07/worse-off-in-2011/?iid=HP_LN

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2012, 08:09:59 AM
Real Unemployment at 19%
 Copyright © 2012 Breitbart ^ | 8 Sep 2012 | by Wynton Hall


Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2012 11:00:48 AM by


1. When you include the underutilized labor figure with the eight million Americans who have lost hope altogether and stopped looking for a job, real unemployment now stands at just under 19 percent.

2. If the labor force were the same as when President Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate reported on Friday would be 11.2 percent.

3. A record 88,921,000 Americans are no longer in the labor force. To be included in that figure, an individual must be over 16 years of age, a civilian, not in a mental hospital or nursing home, and have stopped hunting for a job for at least four weeks.

4. The average American lost 40 percent of their wealth from 2007 to 2010.

5. Every fifth man in America is out of work.

6. One out of two Americans are now low-income or below the poverty line.

7. Over the past four years, 400,000 food stamp recipients a month have been added to the welfare dole.

8. In 2006-2007, 90 percent of college graduates landed jobs. Under Obama, just 56 percent find work after college.

9. A gallon of gasoline cost $1.84 when Obama entered office. Today, a gallon of gas costs $3.77.

10. Every fourth home mortgage in America is underwater.

11. Under Obama, healthcare costs have skyrocketed 18.9 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2012, 07:34:42 PM
http://www.classesandcareers.com/advisor/42-statistics-for-college-students



Wow.    Terrible.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2012, 08:08:23 PM
Mortimer Zuckerman: Those Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look
Wall Street Journal, ^ | September 7, 2012 | Zuckerman
Posted on September 9, 2012 1:20:33 AM EDT by george76

Still above 8%—and closer to 19% in a truer accounting...

Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work.

The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.

How many people are out of work but not counted as unemployed because they hadn't sought work in the past four weeks? Eight million. This is the sort of distressing number that turns up when you look beyond the headline number.

...

The key indicator of our employment health, in all the statistics, is what the government calls U-6. This is the number who have applied for work in the past six months and includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for those individuals whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week.

They are working part-time only because they've been unable to find full-time work. This involuntary army of what's called "underutilized labor" has been hovering for months at about 15% of the workforce. Include the eight million who have simply given up looking, and the real unemployment rate is closer to 19%.

In short, the president's ill-designed stimulus program was a failure

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 10, 2012, 01:25:23 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/number-children-city-homeless-shelters-hits-19-000-teen-francheska-luciano-living-shelter-a-living-hell-article-1.1155123#ixzz26417ByVS

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 10, 2012, 02:00:13 PM
I call bullshit... Everyone wants to talk about Unemployment, but the reality is that it's bullshit on all accounts... Sure, it's above 8% based upon not using people that have rolled off of benefits, but what bout the clowns who refuse to even take a job.




Stossel even went to YOUR city and looked within 15 city blocks around YOUR city and found over 50 jobs and went to the unemployment line and everyone there REFUSED them.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 10, 2012, 02:19:02 PM
What is your point?


Go down any main street and look around.   Nothing is any better whatsoever. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 10, 2012, 03:10:53 PM
HP adds to layoff tally, now plans 29,000 job cuts
 http://money.msn.com ^ | 09/10/2012 | n/a

Posted on Monday, September 10, 2012 4:40:48 PM by massmike

Hewlett Packard now plans to layoff 29,000 employees, increasing the total number of job cuts by 2,000 over the next two years as it tries to kickstart growth.

HP, which will cut jobs through a combination of involuntary cuts and early retirement offers, expects to take charges of about $3.3 billion through the end of HP's 2014 fiscal year for the workforce reductions, it said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

HP will likely have cut 11,500 jobs by end of fiscal 2012, the company has said.


(Excerpt) Read more at money.msn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2012, 05:44:08 AM
Welch Allyn job cuts are related to new tax mandated by health care law

Published: Monday, September 10, 2012, 4:47 PM     Updated: Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 6:30 AM

 By Charley Hannagan, The Post-Standard

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/welch_allyn_cutting_275_worldw.html


 

View full sizeStephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardWelch Allyn's Skaneateles Falls headquarters is seen Monday, the day the company announced a major restructuring of the global provider of medical diagnostic products. The company expects to reduce an estimated 10 percent of its current workforce over the next three years, including 45 jobs in Skaneateles.

Skaneatles Falls, NY -- Welch Allyn told employees at companywide meetings this morning that it plans to cut 275 jobs, or about 10 percent of its worldwide workforce.

About 45 workers were told today that they will lose their jobs at the company's headquarters in Skaneateles Falls.

The cuts are part of the medical device maker's plans to reshape its business in the wake of turmoil in the U.S. market and expand into emerging global markets, Chief Executive Steve Meyer said this afternoon.

The changes are needed "to really get Welch Allyn able to compete on a global scale," he said. Welch Allyn is a privately held company that does not release its sales and earnings to the public.

In a press release, Meyer said "we firmly believe this restructuring program is the right thing to do for the long-term success of the business, however, we also fully recognize the hardship it will cause some of our colleagues in the short term."

Welch Allyn employs 2,750 world wide including 1,300 at its Skaneateles headquarters.
The job cuts will take place over three years as the company realigns its manufacturing facilities, he said. Jobs will be eliminated across the organization, but none will come from the factory floor in Skaneateles, he said.

Those who choose to leave will receive a "generous" severance package, health care and outplacement assistance, Meyer said. Those workers who are laid off will also receive a severance package, outplacement assistance, and up to $4,000 for retraining at an accredited institution, he said.

Meyer said he did not know if the number of job cuts in Skaneateles would grow above 45.

View full sizeStephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardWelch Allyn President and CEO Steve Meyer speaks about a major restructuring of the global provider of medical diagnostic products at the company's headquarters in Skaneateles Falls on Monday. Meyer said the actions were taken to proactively prepare the company to address the Affordable Care Act's mandated U.S. Medical Device Tax, which is scheduled to begin in 2013.

The majority of the job losses will come from Beaverton, Oregon, where Welch Allyn plans to close a factory. About 160 workers will lose their jobs when the factory that makes wireless portable patient monitors closes, Meyer said.

Production of those products will move to Skaneateles, he said. At the same time, the company will move its remaining thermometer probe cover, lamp and some of its blood pressure cuff production to its factory in Tijuana, Mexico, Meyer said. That factory opened about seven years ago, he said.

Skaneateles factory workers will be retrained to make the new products, he said.

The Oregon employees will be given an opportunity to transfer to Skaneatles, Meyer said. The company plans to keep the Beaverton offices open as one of three new product development and technology centers. The others will be in Skaneatles and Singapore. The company will also create a global finance shared service center in Tijuana, Mexico.

The company's headquarters will continue its evolution into a high technology center, captitalizing on demand for its digitally-enabled patient vital signs monitoring systems and diagnostic cardiology products, in addition to its traditional core products, Meyer said in the news release.

The changes will help Welch Allyn better position itself to extend further into the emerging markets of Brazil, China, India and Russia, he said.

The company said it take 90 days to review its European operations to determine the best way to operate in that market and will reorganize its Latin American operations to be more competitive in the region.

 

Welch Allyn President and CEO Steve Meyer discusses the impact of the medical device tax that is part of President Obama's health care law.

The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Obama health care package is creating turmoil in the domestic market, Meyer said. Hospitals and doctor offices aren't investing in new equipment until they see how the health care issues will play out, Meyer said.

Welch Allyn and other medical device makers face a new federal tax hike come January when a new 2.3 percent tax on sales of medical devices called for under the Affordable Care Act takes effect, he said.

For example, a company that has $100 million in sales would pay $2.3 million in tax, Meyer explained. If that same company earns $10 million in profit that tax now represents a 23 percent dip in the bottom line, he said.

"Our plan is well thought out and tied to the rapidly changing healthcare market, and in keeping with our history of making sure we treat our employees fairly and with the highest levels of respect," Meyer said. "We are confident we will emerge from this restructuring stronger than ever."

» Read our earlier story
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2012, 08:48:03 AM
September 10, 2012

The Truth About the Unemployment Rate in 2 Graphs

Brenton Stransky

 



See also: Un-Spinning Jobs Numbers
 
On the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases their important "Jobs Report" that details the previous month's employment statistics.  Among the menagerie of data points, the most important figure to the average American is the un-employment rate, and according to Friday's report of the August numbers, that rate fell from 8.3 to 8.1%.
 
Unfortunately, the 8.1% jobless rate is misleading and is a significant tail wind for the Obama campaign. When clarified, however, the un-employment rate is actually closer to 11.6%!
 
To the un-assuming observer, the month over month decline in the un-employment rate may seem to indicate that the economy is improving and even that the President's economic policy might be the proximate cause.  To the more astute observer, the report showed the slowing of job creation to less than 100K; less than needed to compensate for population growth and less than the 2011 average of 153K jobs. 
 
This distinction in the un-employment rate might be the most important figure in determining the winner of the 2012 Presidential race.  Despite the political noise that enshrouds a presidential election, this election - like others - will come down to one important matter: the economy.
 
James Carville, President Clinton's campaign advisor famously said "the economy, stupid" and set it as the primary campaign point of Clinton's 1994 Presidential race.  Clinton deftly pivoted, targeted the faltering economy, and defeated the sitting president.  Romney should take note.
 
"The economy," in turn, can be discussed with one statistic; the unemployment rate.  Harry Truman famously said "It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own."  The 1952 race was about the economy, the 1994 race was about the economy, it's still about the economy and it will always be about the economy.
 
For at least the last 70 years, no president has been re-elected when the unemployment rate was over 7.2%.
 
With the entire election -- perhaps -- contingent upon on this one, important data point, it is important to investigate the figure further.  From 2002, the un-employment rate fell steadily to a cyclical low of 4.4% but -- as a result of the 2008 Financial/Housing Crisis -- rose to 10% by the end of President Obama's  first year in office; second only to the 1983, post war high of 10.8%.
 

The President and his campaign have identified the threat to their re-election hopes posed by the high un-employment figure and are quick to point out that despite the current rate of 8.1%, the un-employment rate has steadily fallen.
 
Here's what they're not telling you: since the start of the financial crisis, the labor participation rate -- defined by the BLS as the percentage of the workforce (anyone 16 and older who was working or looking for work) that is employed (full-time or part-time) -- has fallen precipitously.  In other words, many workers have simply stopped looking for work.
 
 

According to the St. Louis Federal Reserve office, there are about 240 million Americans of working age.  When the President took office in 2009, the Labor Participation rate was 65.8% but has fallen to 63.5% --the lowest in 30 years -- as of Friday's BLS report.  This means that since the President has taken office, 5.5 million Americans have stopped looking for work and are not included in the un-employment rate!
 
According BLS's August data, of the approximate 240 million Americans of Working Age, 155 Million are participating in the work force and 12.5 Million are un-employed.  This produces a un-employment rate of 8.1% (12.5M un-employed / 155 employed).  But, when we add back the 5.5 million Americans who have given up looking for work during the Obama Presidency, we can calculate a more accurate un-employment figure of 11.6% (17M/155M).  When the 8M "involuntary part-time employees" - those who want to work full time but can't find full-time jobs -- are added to those un-employed and to those who have stopped looking for work we come up with the "under-employed rate;" currently 16.8%!
 
Friday's BLS report may seem to suggest that the un-employment rate is falling at an acceptable pace and the President and his campaign will likely point out that 8.1% is a lot better than 10.0%.  We political observers should recognize this tactic as putting lipstick on a pig.
 
How can the ranks of the un-employed continue to rise while the un-employment rate drops?  Political fixing may be at work.  After all, it was reported this week that the President's former senior advisor and current re-election senior strategist, David Axelrod, threatened the Gallop organization earlier this year for an unfavorable poll that showed Mitt Romney with a 48-43 lead over President Obama for the 2012 presidential election.  If the White House will lean on private organizations for their data, we can assume they also lean on inter-governmental agencies such as the BLS.
 
If the President can convince the country that the un-employment rate is improving at an acceptable pace he will win the election.  If R2 are able to convince voters that the un-employment situation is much worse than 8.1%, than they will win because, after all, it's the economy stupid.


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/the_truth_about_the_unemployment_rate_in_2_graphs.html#ixzz26B0HbucJ

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2012, 08:55:47 AM
AA (American Airlines) to shutter Fort Worth Maintenance Facility (1,090 jobs)
 cbslocal.com ^ | September 10, 2012 | Unattributed


Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 11:55:45 AM by


Excerpted Website:

Snip: The airline plans to eliminate 993 out of 5,150 maintenance jobs in Tulsa. In 2010, the airline closed a Kansas City, Mo., maintenance facility that it acquired in the 2001 purchase of bankrupt TWA.

 Separately, the union for American Airlines flight attendants said 901 of its members have signed up to get payments of $40,000 apiece for quitting their jobs at the financially troubled company so far.


(Excerpt) Read more at dfw.cbslocal.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2012, 09:33:05 AM
Federal regulations increased 7.4% during Obama’s first three years
 Hot Air ^ | 09-11-2012 | Ed Morrissey


Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 12:28:49 PM


Want an insight on why we’re experiencing the worst recovery since the Great Depression? The US Chamber of Commerce points out that the Code of Federal Regulations has grown at a pace outstripping economic growth — and especially job creation — during the Barack Obama administration, expanding by 7.4%, with a good part of that growth in the first year:  

Over the past three years, the bound edition of the Code of Federal Regulations has increased by 11,327 pages – a 7.4 percent increase from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011. In 2009, the increase in the number of pages was the most over the last decade – 3.4 percent or 5,359 pages.

Over the past decade, the federal government has issued almost 38,000 new final rules, according to the draft of the 2011 annual report to Congress on federal regulations by the Office of Management and Budget. That brought the total at the end of 2011 to 169,301 pages.

That is more than double the number of pages needed to publish the regulations back in 1975 when the bound edition consisted of 71,244 pages.

The figures were released on Monday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., when the business federation held its annual Labor Day briefing on the state of the economy, obstacles to job creation and the burden of regulations on the labor market.

To put this in perspective, the growth rate in the first George W. Bush term — when he enjoyed one-party control of Washington for a couple of years as well — was 4.4%. That was bad enough; by 2008, the annual compliance cost to the economy was $1.7 trillion, according to a 2010 Small Business Administration study. If compliance costs increase at the same ratio as regulations, the Obama administration added nearly $126 billion in compliance costs in three years.

But that ratio may not tell us the whole story. Regulations still remain to be written for Obama’s two biggest legislative “achievements” — ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank. The passage of both bills created massive ambiguity on compliance costs, because both bills deferred a huge amount of regulatory production to bureaucrats within the executive branch. Much of that regulation remains to be written, no doubt delayed beyond the election so as to prevent discussion of the far-reaching implications of the power Congress handed to HHS and other agencies.

When those regimes get fully fleshed out, expect the increase rate of regulation to skyrocket — and investment to decline.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 12, 2012, 03:56:51 AM
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/11/obama-on-track-to-have-worst-job-record-since-worl/?page=all



Wow.    What a friggin disaster. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 12, 2012, 04:07:37 AM
Does this look like an economy that’s moving forward? 9 reasons why it really doesn’t
The American Enterprise Institute ^ | September 11, 2012 | James Pethokoukis
Posted on September 12, 2012 1:26:07 AM EDT by 2ndDivisionVet

I would like to believe the U.S. economy is firmly back on track and headed toward renewed prosperity. A slow track, to be sure, but at least things are moving forward. That would be something, at least.

Except the data show a recovery in reverse, headed the wrong way.

1. More jobs were created per month last year than this year (and pitifully few in both years). Since the start of the year, job growth has averaged 139,000 per month vs. an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011. At this year’s pace, it will take 11 years to bring the unemployment rate back down to 5%.

2. Back in 2009, the incoming Obama administration predicted sub-6% unemployment in 2012 if Congress passed the $800 billion stimulus plan. Instead, we’ve had 43 straight months of 8%-plus unemployment. And that high level of sustained joblessness is likely contributing to a deterioration in the U.S. labor force and higher structural unemployment.

3. The labor force participation rate is lower today than at the start of the year, and lower than at the start of 2011. Yes, the economy has created private-sector jobs every month for the past 30 months, since February 2010. But during that span, labor force participation has continued to drop. If the participation rate were the same today as it was in February 2010, when the job market supposedly bottomed, the unemployment rate would be 10.1%.

4. The unemployment-population ratio, which looks at what portion of the working-age population has a job, is also lower today than it was at the start of the year and seems dead in the water:

(GRAPH AT LINK)

As JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli argues:

The more comprehensive employment-to-population ratio ticked down to 58.3%; this measure is a mere 0.1% above its cycle trough, indicating that once one takes account of population growth there has been essentially no progress in repairing the labor market after the recent downturn.

5. Average hourly earnings were unchanged in the August jobs report, and are up just 1.7% over the past year. Not only does that match the slowest pace on record, but one you account for inflation, wages are flat to down.

(GRAPH AT LINK)

6. Last year, the economy, adjusted for inflation, grew by 1.8%. Right now, it’s on track to do about the same this year. Another year of sub-normal growth, below 3%, means the output gap between where GDP is and where it should be (if the economy were growing merely at trend) continues to grow. If GDP growth in 2011 and 2012 were 3% and not a bit less than 2%, the economy would be $350 billion bigger in 2013 than where it is headed to be.

(GRAPH AT LINK)

7. The American economy is less competitive than it was last year or the year before, according to the latest competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum: ”The United States continues the decline that began a few years ago, falling 2 more positions to take 7th place this year.”

The United States now ranks 7th in the WEF rankings out of 144 nations vs. 5th in 2011, 4th in 2010, and number 1 in 2008. Two growing problems: a) wasteful and ineffective government and b) crony capitalism.

8. The day of fiscal reckoning grows ever nearer as the national debt grows, and Washington fails to constrain out-of-control entitlement spending. Indeed, some economists think the debt is already slowing growth.

(GRAPH AT LINK)

9. Growth is so slow right now that if anything goes wrong, we are likely to slip back into recession and problems 1-8 above get even worse.

(GRAPH AT LINK)

America is not stuck in a sluggish or disappointing economic recovery. It’s in the middle of an economic emergency with more trouble on the way. And it’s time for Washington to start acting like it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 12, 2012, 05:17:49 AM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briandomitrovic/2012/09/11/obama-has-had-plenty-of-time-but-gave-us-0-3-growth-instead


Damn that is terrible.   

WORST ON RECORD
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 12, 2012, 09:12:47 AM
11 Heartbreaking Facts About Poverty In America
Eric Platt|21 minutes ago|1,097|2
Spencer Platt/Getty Images



 
People line-up to receive food at a distribution point that was handed out by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry in Deposit, New York.
 
Nearly one-in-six Americans remain below the poverty line as the country grapples with low growth and moderate jobs growth, new data from the Census Bureau shows.
 
To qualify for poverty a family of four must earn less than $22,811
 
In its report released today, the Census Bureau painted a detailed picture of the difficulty many Americans are facing, including declining household earnings.
 
Below, 11 sad statistics from the report.
 46.2 million Americans are under the poverty line — that's 15.7 percent of the country
 1-in-15 American households earned less than $11,406, the second highest percentage since 1967
 Median household incomes fell 1.5 percent to $50,100
 48.6 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2011 (down from 2010)
 9.4 percent of children did not have health insurance
 The bottom 10 percent of earners made the same amount of money in 2011 as they did in 1994
 Women continued to earn 77 percent of what men earned
 27.6 percent of Black Americans were in poverty
 25.3 percent of Hispanic Americans were in poverty
 9.8 percent of White Americans were in poverty
 More than one-fifth of those under 18 were in poverty
 
The Census' report included charts that illustrate how key trends have evolved over time.
 
Click here to see the charts >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/poverty-in-america-2012-9?op=1#ixzz26GxeRCPy

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 13, 2012, 01:49:28 AM
I thought poor people were lazy and had it coming ???
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:16:01 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/more-americans-opting-out-of-banking-system/2012/09/12/6380b986-fcf1-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html


Black market rapidly expanding 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:18:53 AM

Homelessness and panhandling in New York City
 

Posted: Sep 12, 2012 7:51 PM EDTUpdated: Sep 13, 2012 7:41 AM EDT

By KERRY DREW, Fox 5 News Reporter
MYFOXNY.COM -


New York City has a rising homeless population; it is up nearly 18 percent since 2011. Panhandlers now line city streets, including in Union Square.
 
"I was married, had a wife, house, car, the whole nine yards, middle class," Paul Santo said, "and lost everything."
 
Santo said he now lives just off 14th Street. Every day he puts up a sign asking for cash.
 
"I've got appointments to try and better my life," he said. "Just getting on a train is $2.25."
 
Amy Moreno, a panhandler, said: "I ask for donations. I want to rent a room to get off the street before winter."
 
Moreno said she sleeps in Union Square twice a week. The other nights, she stays with friends. She makes bracelets for those who give her donations.
 
"It goes towards the beads, it goes towards my daily food intake," she said.
 
Patrick Markee, of the Coalition for the Homeless, said: "A lot of times those folks are a couple of paychecks away from becoming homeless. You might see people panhandling who are still in a precarious housing situation, they might just need those few extra dollars to get by."
 
Markee said the city is in its worst homeless crisis since the Great Depression. He said every night an estimated 45,000 people sleep in shelters across the city, and more sleep on the streets.
 
Then there are the panhandlers -- some of whom are homeless, some just looking for extra cash. 

"In my neighborhood, the East Village, I see a lot more people sleeping on the streets," Markee said. "I see a lot more people with cardboard signs asking for money. The street homelessness feels more visible."
 
The New York City legal department said peaceful panhandling has been legal since 1996; it is considered a First-Amendment right.
 
According to an NYPD spokesperson, beggars can only be arrested if they become aggressive or block traffic.
 
"Where I am now, a closed business, they're not going to bother me," Santo said. For now, he plans to keep panhandling.
 
"I'm on the street, but I'm on the list for housing right now," he said. "So hopefully that will go through."


Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19529462/homelessness-and-panhandling-in-new-york-city#ixzz26LrL0Hg3

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:28:56 AM
Rich-Poor Gap Widens to Most Since 1967 as Income Falls

By Catherine Dodge and Mike Dorning - Sep 12, 2012 3:33 PM ET

 

A teenager who collects bottles and cans and lives in a city shelter walks near Times Square in New York City.
 
A census report showing median household income fell last year puts a new focus on the biggest issue of the U.S. presidential election. And it’s likely to be deployed by both candidates to reinforce their campaign themes.


People attend a food distribution by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry in Oswego, New York. The U.S. Census Bureau released figures today that showed the proportion of people living in poverty was 15 percent in 2011. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images


The U.S. Census Bureau figures released yesterday underscored the struggles of American families in a sputtering economic recovery. The report also showed the income gap between rich and poor people grew to the widest in more than 40 years in 2011 as the poverty rate remained at almost a two-decade high.

“Weirdly, I think you’re going to see both sides take these numbers and suggest it’s evidence why ‘I should be elected,’” said Steve Jarding, a lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a former Democratic political consultant.

Median household income dropped 1.5 percent last year while the proportion of Americans living in poverty was 15 percent, little changed from 2010. The 46.2 million people living in poverty remained at the highest level in the 53 years since the Census Bureau has been collecting that statistic.

The economic plight of Americans is at the center of November’s presidential election. Republican challenger Mitt Romney argues that people are worse off because of President Barack Obama’s economic policies. Obama counters that Romney would push plans benefiting the wealthiest at the expense of the middle class and those striving to escape poverty.

‘More Evidence’

“Romney is going to say, ‘This is more evidence Obama failed,’” Jarding said. “Obama is saying, ‘It’s guys like Romney who gave us these income drops and this poverty level.’”

Romney has stressed tax cuts for wealthy “job creators” as a way of boosting economic growth, while Obama has focused on maintaining government support for education, health care and other programs financed by tax increases on higher-income earners.

The president got some good news from the census report, which said the number of Americans who lack health insurance declined to 15.7 percent from 16.3 percent. Many people under the age of 26 took advantage of a provision in Obama’s 2010 health-care overhaul that allowed them to be covered under their parents’ plans.

About 540,000 more young people were insured in 2011, the bureau said. Nationwide, about 48.6 million people were uninsured last year, compared with 49.9 million a year earlier.

Sharpened Attacks

During the Democratic National convention earlier this month, the Obama campaign sharpened its criticism of Republican economic policies under former President George W. Bush as undermining the middle class and accused congressional Republicans of obstructing progress.

Those attacks are resonating with many voters. Americans blame Bush and Congress more than Obama for the decline in middle-class living standards over the past decade, according to a July 16-26 Pew Research Center poll. Among respondents who described themselves as middle class, 62 percent placed “a lot” of responsibility on Congress and 44 percent faulted Bush, compared with 34 percent who said Obama is culpable.

Within hours of the census data release, a posting on the White House’s official blog written by Obama spokeswoman Amy Brundage cited the figures as reason that Republicans in Congress “should act this month” to pass an Obama-backed jobs package they have opposed for a year.

‘Pro-Growth Agenda’

The Romney camp used the release to criticize the president. “Nearly one in six Americans are living in poverty, including a record number of women, and the middle class is struggling amid falling incomes, rising prices, and persistently high unemployment,” Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “Mitt Romney’s pro-growth agenda will revive our economy.”

Dan Schnur, a campaign adviser to Republican John McCain’s 2000 bid for the White House, said the impact on the election campaign is diminished, both because public perceptions of the economy are so well-entrenched and Obama’s campaign themes stress the contrast between the two parties’ economic principles over progress on the economy.

“If Obama had given a convention speech that tried to tell the country how well the economy was doing, a report like this one would have undercut that message very severely,” said Schnur, now director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “But numbers like this underscore what voters already know.”

Wealthiest Gain

The census data show the wealthiest Americans secured most of the benefits from the economic recovery that began in June 2009.

“The gains from economic growth in 2011 were quite unevenly shared as household income fell in the middle and rose at the top,” Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters.

Average incomes fell for the bottom 80 percent of earners and rose for the top 20 percent, highlighting the need for “those at the top to share” as the nation looks to reduce its budget deficit, Greenstein said.

The top 1 percent of households experienced about a 6 percent increase in income, said David Johnson, chief of the social, economic and housing division at the Census Bureau.

While the ranks of Americans in poverty were little changed in 2011, median household income last year was $50,054, down from an inflation-adjusted $50,831 in 2010. In 2011, median household income, adjusted for inflation, was 8.1 percent less than in 2007, the year before the recession began, and 8.9 percent below its peak in 1999.

Not Enough

The weighted-average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2011 was about $23,000, according to the census.

“Even though the recovery has been slow, the economy has been expanding,” said Melissa Boteach, who coordinates an effort to cut U.S. poverty in half in 10 years at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based research group with ties to the Obama administration. “The gains from the economic growth have not reached working families struggling at the bottom.”

U.S. unemployment, which hovered at or above 9 percent for most of 2011, has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest stretch in monthly records going back to 1948. The increase in hardship comes as state and federal governments are cutting spending to close budget deficits.

Modest Expansion

The income figures declined as the U.S. economy expanded 1.8 percent in 2011, down from 2.4 percent in 2010. Growth has averaged a 1.9 percent annual rate through the first six months of this year.

The Census Bureau also reported that a measure of the gap between rich and poor households rose. A figure of zero means all income is evenly distributed while a 1 represents complete concentration. The measurement, known as the Gini index, rose to .463 from .456. The figure has risen steadily from its 1968 low of .351.

The persistent poverty rates pose a threat to the nation’s long-term economic competitiveness as more and more children are growing up in poor households, Boteach said. Down the road, that leads to higher health-care costs, lower educational levels and reduced worker productivity.

“We’re really shooting ourselves in the foot if we don’t tackle early childhood poverty,” she said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Catherine Dodge in New York at cdodge1@bloomberg.net Frank Bass in New York at Fbass1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark McQuillan at mmcquillan@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:33:02 AM
US median income lowest since 1995
 
By James Politi in Washington




The median income of American households dropped to its lowest level since 1995 last year, extending its decline during President Barack Obama’s tenure and highlighting the depth of the damage to the middle class inflicted by the recession and weak recovery.
 
According to annual data from the Census Bureau, median income adjusted for inflation – a closely watched measure of the financial health of average Americans – fell to $50,054 in 2011, or 1.5 per cent below its 2010 level and 4.1 per cent below its score when Mr Obama took office in 2009.

 
Although real median income had already started to slide beginning in 2008, before Mr Obama entered the White House, the fact that he was not able to reverse that downward trend could expose him to criticism from Mitt Romney, his rival, that his policies have not aided the middle class. In addition to the drop in overall median income, the data also showed a rise in income inequality last year.
 
The release of the dire median figures also offers the latest reminder of the sluggishness of the recovery, marked by high unemployment and weak job creation, which is prompting Federal Reserve officials to consider a new round of monetary easing as early as Thursday.
 
But while the data on income will have been discouraging for Mr Obama, other elements of the report were more upbeat. For instance, the poverty rate dropped slightly, from 15.1 per cent to 15 per cent, as fewer middle-class Americans struggled so much that they had slid under the poverty threshold of about $23,000 in annual income for a family of four.
 
Also, the Census Bureau said that the number of people without health insurance cover declined from 50m in 2010 to 48.6m in 2011, along with the percentage of people lacking coverage, which fell from 16.3 per cent in 2010 to 15.7 per cent in 2011.

This will allow Mr Obama to show that his 2010 health reform is already starting to have an effect on the number of uninsured, even though many of the provisions have not kicked in yet. For instance, young Americans under the age of 26 are now allowed to be covered under their parents’ plans, reducing the number of youth without medical insurance.



The fresh data on income, poverty and health insurance coverage was delivered as the race for the White House enters its final stretch. With little less than eight weeks to go before voters head to the polls in early November and the sluggish economy at the top of the agenda in many swing states, both Mr Obama and Mr Romney have attempted to demonstrate that they would be best candidate to deliver relief to middle-class Americans.
 
Mr Obama is championing higher taxes on the wealthy in order to protect government spending on programmes that aid the middle class as the best recipe for the country. But the census data could dent a small burst of rising confidence in the economy that has showed up in polls by Gallup and Reuters/Ipsos since last week’s Democratic convention.
 
Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council at the White House, said the data reinforced the need to move forward with Mr Obama’s policies, some of which have been blocked by congressional Republicans. “While we have made progress digging our way out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, too many families are still struggling and Congress must act on the policies President Obama has put forward to strengthen the middle class and those trying to get into it,” Mr Sperling wrote in a blog post.
 
Mr Romney, a former private equity executive, has promised to use his business expertise to create a better environment for hiring and investment that he claims would directly benefit middle-class Americans.
 
“Today’s report confirms that the American dream remains out of reach for too many Americans,” said Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman. “While this may be the best President Obama can do, it’s not the best America can do”.
 
The annual census data can often become a critical reference in US political campaigns. Mr Obama and Democrats in Congress effectively used the stagnation of median household income during the administration of George W. Bush to target Republican economic policies during the congressional election of 2006 and the presidential election of 2008.

Real median household income reached its peak at $54,932 in 1999, 8.9 per cent above its current level, under President Bill Clinton and has not been below $50,000 since 1995. Under President George W. Bush, it fell to $52,778 by 2004 before recovering to reach $54,489 in 2007 and then sliding again in 2008.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 13, 2012, 05:33:36 AM
You do know a Romney presidency will further widen the gap between rich and poor right?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:44:38 AM
BIG MISS: Initial Jobless Claims Jump 15K To 382K
Eric Platt|13 minutes ago|810|5


UPDATE:
 
Initial jobless claims jumped unexpectedly in the first week of September, new data out of the Department of Labor shows.
 
Click here for updates >
 
382,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits during the week ending September 8, up some 15,000 from a week earlier.
 
However, continuing claims showed some improvement during the period, with 3.283 million people remaining on benefit. That's down from 3.332 million a week before.
 
A figure that popped out at us: the non-seasonally adjusted number of first time unemployment followers dropped to 297,402 during the week.
 
Below, a look at initial claims over the past few years.
 





Eric Platt/Business Insider, Data: Department of Labor
 






Eric Platt/Business Insider, Data: Department of Labor
 

ORIGINAL:
 
Minutes away from the key economic announcement of the morning: Initial Jobless Claims.
 
Economists forecast first time claims increased from a week earlier, hitting 370,000 in the week ending September 8.
 
Continuing claims are expected to decline marginally to 3.318 million from 3.322 million.
 
The Department of Labor will release figures at 8:30 a.m.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/initial-jobless-claims-sept-8-2012-9#ixzz26LxjC1aq

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 05:47:10 AM
Survey: One-Third Of Americans In ‘Lower Classes’ Since Obama Took Office

By Benjamin Fearnow

September 12, 2012 5:00 PM





An increase of people identifying as “lower class” has happened since Obama took office in 2008. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


Follow WNEW's Election Watch 2012 Coverage Here

»More Political News
 

WASHINGTON (CBS WASHINGTON) – In the course of Obama’s presidency, people saying they are in the “lower classes” have risen from one-quarter to one-third of the adult population.
 
According to the Pew Research Center, Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower-class has risen from 25 percent to 32 percent in the past four years, in the national survey of 2,508 adults.
 
Not only has the lower class grown, but its demographic profile also has shifted. People younger than 30 are disproportionately swelling the ranks of the self-defined lower classes. The shares of Hispanics and whites who place themselves in the lower class also are growing.
 
Among blacks, the story is different.
 
The share of blacks in the lower class has not changed in four years, one of the few demographic groups in which the proportion in the lower classes did not grow. As a consequence, a virtually identical share of blacks (33%) and whites (31%) now say they are in the lower class.

 

When it comes to political affiliation, more Democrats than Republicans place themselves in the lower classes, but those of the GOP saw a sharper rise over the past four years. Some 23 percent now call themselves lower class, up from 13 percent in 2008. Among Democrats, 33 percent now call themselves lower class, compared with 29 percent in 2008.
 
The survey finds that hard times have been particularly hard on the lower class.
 
Eight-in-ten adults (84%) in the lower classes say they had to cut back spending in the past year because money was tight, compared with 62 percent who say they are middle class and 41 percent who say they are in the upper classes. Those in the lower classes also say they are less happy and less healthy, and the stress they report experiencing is more than other adults.
 
To measure social class, the Pew Research surveys in 2012 and 2008 asked respondents this question: “If you were asked to use one of these commonly used names for the social classes, which would you say you belong in: the upper class, upper-middle class, middle class, lower-middle class or lower class?”
 
Few respondents in either survey placed themselves in the “lower class” or “upper class” categories. So for this report “lower class” constitutes those who placed themselves in the lower or lower-middle class. Those who identified themselves as upper or upper-middle class are combined to form the “upper class” group.
 
Looking ahead, a bleak future is predicted by many.
 
Many in the lower class see their prospects dimming. About three-quarters (77%) say it’s harder now to get ahead than it was 10 years ago. Only half (51%) say that hard work brings success, a view expressed by overwhelming majorities of those in the middle (67%) and upper classes (71%).
 
According to Pew, while the expectation that each new generation will surpass their parents is a central tenet of the American Dream, those lower classes are significantly more likely than middle or upper-class adults to believe their children will have a worse standard of living than they do.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 13, 2012, 06:04:17 AM
You do know a Romney presidency will further widen the gap between rich and poor right?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: flipper5470 on September 13, 2012, 06:08:22 AM
Explain how that gap will widen?

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 13, 2012, 06:15:34 AM
Explain how that gap will widen?



Tax cuts for the uber-rich paid for by the middle class
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: flipper5470 on September 13, 2012, 06:23:41 AM
Which tax cuts and what increases are you referring to?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on September 13, 2012, 06:32:36 AM
Tax cuts for the uber-rich paid for by the middle class

What tax cuts for the wealthy?

Under Romney's plan the rich will pay no more and no less than they do now. Everyone's rates will be cut but the tax expenditures will also be cut, i.e. shelters, credits, write offs etc.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 13, 2012, 07:20:22 AM
What tax cuts for the wealthy?

Under Romney's plan the rich will pay no more and no less than they do now. Everyone's rates will be cut but the tax expenditures will also be cut, i.e. shelters, credits, write offs etc.

Under Romney's plan the rich will pay no more

Everyone's rates will be cut

This is a contradiction.

the tax expenditures will also be cut, i.e. shelters, credits, write offs etc.
= You really believe this? This would mean Romney own tax burden would increase. I highly doubt that
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: flipper5470 on September 13, 2012, 10:36:14 AM
So you don't know what you're talking about then....
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on September 13, 2012, 11:04:32 AM
Under Romney's plan the rich will pay no more

Everyone's rates will be cut

This is a contradiction.

the tax expenditures will also be cut, i.e. shelters, credits, write offs etc.
= You really believe this? This would mean Romney own tax burden would increase. I highly doubt that


Yes I do. It's in the plan, this sort of thing has been happening since the 1950's. The rates were skyhigh for upper incomes but the amount of shelters, hideaways, write downs, etc etc etc were gigantic. Also, because of that super high tax rate....tax fraud and other illegal tax evasion activities were considered a normal practice.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2012, 12:55:03 PM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



More Bad News For The Middle Class
 Timothy Noah
September 12, 2012 | 4:30 pm
 .




I’ve been dishing a lot of bad news about the middle class lately, and now I’m afraid I have more. The Census department confirmed today that median household income continued to drop in 2011, the second year of the economic “recovery.” It dropped by about 4 percent, which is pretty close to the estimate produced in late August by two former Census statisticians at Sentier Research (4.8 percent). Unlike Sentier, the Census didn’t conclude that median income fell more during the recovery than during the recession; it found that median income fell by about the same amount in both periods. But that’s hardly cheering. The Census calculation of how much median income has dropped since 2007 (8.1 percent) is a bit higher than Sentier’s (7.4 percent). The time frames for the two studies were slightly different, so there may be no discrepancy at all. The point is: Yes, economically you are worse off today than you were four years ago, assuming you’re a typical American household. (But you should still vote for Obama, even though Obama didn’t do a very good job last week telling you why.)
 
Income inequality is getting worse. We already knew that the rich resumed increasing its share of the nation’s collective income in 2010, when a remarkable 93 percent of the recovery ended up in the pockets of the one percent. “I would strongly suspect,” Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said today in a conference call, “that that kind of trend, at least directionally, ... continued in 2011,” given the new Census data and the run-up in the stock market. What‘s new in 2011 is that a commonly-used statistical measure for income inequality—one that doesn’t do a particularly good job of measuring the one percent’s rapidly-growing share of the nation’s income, but measures very precisely the broader-brush income gulf between middle-class and upper-middle class workers--that this measure, the Gini index, saw its first statistically significant one-year rise since 1993. When we look at growing income share for the one percent we’re looking at the pigs-feeding-in-the-trough condition of the economic elite. When we look at the Gini we’re looking at the declining condition of the middle class. The higher it goes, the worse off the middle class is.
 
The Gini index has been mostly rising over the past decade, but it never before rose enough to attract much attention. In 2011, though, it rose s full1.6 percent. Overall, the Gini is up 5.2 percent since 1993. Most of that growth took place during the aughts. During the Clinton years the Gini index was relatively stable, and during the Reagan years it went up a lot. Under George W. Bush and now Barack Obama, it’s once again going up a lot.
 
There’s been a lot of argument about how much the middle class has declined, and what the causes are. But everybody agrees that it’s declined. I think (and argue in my book, The Great Divergence) that there are a lot of causes, foremost among them a rising educational premium (first for college graduates, now for holders of advanced degrees) and the precipitous decline of labor unions. If we don’t increase high school graduation rates, and make higher education more affordable, and make pre-school universal, and increase union membership, then middle-class decline will continue. Inequality between the middle class and the upper middle class is mostly a separate phenomenon from inequality between the one percent and everyone else, but they are connected in one key respect: As corporations have become more attentive to stockholders and less attentive to workers (because very few workers in the private sector are still unionized), resources have been shifting from labor to capital. You don’t believe me? Ask J.P. Morgan. For a more detailed examination, see the Economic Policy Institute’s new edition of The State of Working America (pp. 99-106). The authors attribute fully one-third of the one percent’s doubling of U.S. income share since 1979 to the shift from capital to labor. That’s money that used to go to working people.
 
We also need to increase opportunities for upward mobility. The U.S. is still pretty good at moving people up from the middle class to the upper-middle class (at least if you’re white), but it’s dismally bad at replenishing the ranks of the middle class from the poor--so bad, in fact, that on international measures of intergenerational mobility, the U.S. lags most of western Europe. A thriving middle class is a necessary precondition for a free representative government. As the late Harvard sociologist Barrington Moore famously observed, “No bourgeois, no democracy.” Maybe the U.S. can become the exception to that rule, but I wouldn’t count on it.
 .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source URL: http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/107174/more-bad-news-the-middle-class
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 14, 2012, 01:47:06 AM
Yes I do. It's in the plan, this sort of thing has been happening since the 1950's. The rates were skyhigh for upper incomes but the amount of shelters, hideaways, write downs, etc etc etc were gigantic. Also, because of that super high tax rate....tax fraud and other illegal tax evasion activities were considered a normal practice.

And what would Romneys agenda be to close these loop-holes?

He has been using them his entire life
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 14, 2012, 05:09:22 AM
http://reason.com/archives/2012/09/12/worse-than-the-recession


LMFAO -


Obama's "recovery" is worse than Bush's "recession" 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 14, 2012, 05:27:33 AM
http://reason.com/archives/2012/09/12/worse-than-the-recession


LMFAO -


Obama's "recovery" is worse than Bush's "recession" 


A lawyer who doesnt fact check his sources and believes everything he reads is true.

Yeah right ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: blacken700 on September 14, 2012, 05:31:53 AM
333386 is a lawyer,i'm a astronaut,what are you
 :D :D :D :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 14, 2012, 05:33:24 AM
333386 is a lawyer,i'm a astronaut,what are you
 :D :D :D :D

Well if 333... is a lawyer i must be a suprme court judge ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on September 14, 2012, 05:40:13 AM
And what would Romneys agenda be to close these loop-holes?

He has been using them his entire life

I don't know his "agenda" concerning closing the loopholes.

I'm just judging facts based on the plan.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 14, 2012, 05:43:55 AM
I don't know his "agenda" concerning closing the loopholes.

I'm just judging facts based on the plan.

I took a look at his page but no specifics make it hard to believe anything.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 14, 2012, 10:16:11 AM
BIG MISS: Industrial Production Falls 1.2% In August
 Business Insider ^ | 9-14-12 | Eric Platt

Posted on Friday, September 14, 2012 12:54:02 PM


Industrial production contracted at a greater than anticipated rate in August as Hurricane Isaac shut down mining and utility companies across the Gulf of Mexico, new data from the Federal Reserve shows.

Headline industrial production fell 1.2 percent in August, reversing the revised 0.5 percent gain in July. Economists were looking for no change in production.

The country's central bank attributed three tenths of a point of the fall to Hurricane Isaac, as oil rigs in the region closed before the storm entered the region.

"Precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in advance of the hurricane contributed to a drop of 1.8 percent in the output of mines for August," the Fed said in its statement. "The output of utilities declined 3.6 percent."

Capacity utilization also fell during the period off a full percentage point to 78.2 percent.

Among durable goods production, the auto sector took the greatest hit — with manufacturing in the industry falling 4.7 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 14, 2012, 10:19:42 AM
Gasoline Prices More than Double Under Obama: $1.84 to $3.85

By Matt Cover

September 14, 2012



In this Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 photo gasoline prices are displayed at a Mobil station in Needham, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
 
(CNSNews.com) – Average retail gasoline prices have more than doubled under President Obama, according to government statistics, rising from $1.84 per gallon to $3.85 per gallon.
 
The average gasoline price is calculated by the Energy Information Agency, and shows that over the past 43 months of President Obama’s term retail gasoline prices have more than doubled, rising from an average of $1.84 per gallon to $3.85 per gallon.
 
Rising gasoline prices were particularly prevalent in August, which saw a 9.0 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for gasoline, a rise that almost entirely accounts for the general increase in prices seen by families across the country over the past month.
 
In other words, the recent spike in prices for all goods – tracked by the government’s Consumer Price Index – can be almost entirely accounted for by the rise in gasoline prices. Prices in the economy rose by 0.6 percent overall in August.
 
“The seasonally adjusted increase in the all items index was the largest since June 2009. About 80 percent of the increase was accounted for by the gasoline index, which rose 9.0 percent and was the major factor in the energy index rising sharply in August after declining in each of the four previous months,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a press release announcing the new CPI figures for August.
 
Over the past twelve months, general prices have risen 1.7 percent, BLS reported.
 
CPI is a measure of the average change in prices for goods and services in the economy seen by consumers – making it the leading indicator of the inflation experienced directly by consumers throughout the country.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 17, 2012, 03:49:41 AM
The Magnitude of the Mess We're In
The next Treasury secretary will confront problems so daunting that even Alexander Hamilton would have trouble preserving the full faith and credit of the United States.
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By George P. Shultz, Michael J. Boskin, John F. Cogan, Allan H. Meltzer and John B. Taylor

Sometimes a few facts tell important stories. The American economy now is full of facts that tell stories that you really don't want, but need, to hear.

Where are we now?

Did you know that annual spending by the federal government now exceeds the 2007 level by about $1 trillion? With a slow economy, revenues are little changed. The result is an unprecedented string of federal budget deficits, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and another $1.2 trillion on the way this year. The four-year increase in borrowing amounts to $55,000 per U.S. household.

The amount of debt is one thing. The burden of interest payments is another. The Treasury now has a preponderance of its debt issued in very short-term durations, to take advantage of low short-term interest rates. It must frequently refinance this debt which, when added to the current deficit, means Treasury must raise $4 trillion this year alone. So the debt burden will explode when interest rates go up.

The government has to get the money to finance its spending by taxing or borrowing. While it might be tempting to conclude that we can just tax upper-income people, did you know that the U.S. income tax system is already very progressive? The top 1% pay 37% of all income taxes and 50% pay none.

Did you know that, during the last fiscal year, around three-quarters of the deficit was financed by the Federal Reserve? Foreign governments accounted for most of the rest, as American citizens' and institutions' purchases and sales netted to about zero. The Fed now owns one in six dollars of the national debt, the largest percentage of GDP in history, larger than even at the end of World War II.

The Fed has effectively replaced the entire interbank money market and large segments of other markets with itself. It determines the interest rate by declaring what it will pay on reserve balances at the Fed without regard for the supply and demand of money. By replacing large decentralized markets with centralized control by a few government officials, the Fed is distorting incentives and interfering with price discovery with unintended economic consequences.

Did you know that the Federal Reserve is now giving money to banks, effectively circumventing the appropriations process? To pay for quantitative easing—the purchase of government debt, mortgage-backed securities, etc.—the Fed credits banks with electronic deposits that are reserve balances at the Federal Reserve. These reserve balances have exploded to $1.5 trillion from $8 billion in September 2008.

The Fed now pays 0.25% interest on reserves it holds. So the Fed is paying the banks almost $4 billion a year. If interest rates rise to 2%, and the Federal Reserve raises the rate it pays on reserves correspondingly, the payment rises to $30 billion a year. Would Congress appropriate that kind of money to give—not lend—to banks?

The Fed's policy of keeping interest rates so low for so long means that the real rate (after accounting for inflation) is negative, thereby cutting significantly the real income of those who have saved for retirement over their lifetime.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also being financed by the Federal Reserve rather than by appropriations, severing the checks and balances needed for good government. And the Fed's Operation Twist, buying long-term and selling short-term debt, is substituting for the Treasury's traditional debt management.

This large expansion of reserves creates two-sided risks. If it is not unwound, the reserves could pour into the economy, causing inflation. In that event, the Fed will have effectively turned the government debt and mortgage-backed securities it purchased into money that will have an explosive impact. If reserves are unwound too quickly, banks may find it hard to adjust and pull back on loans. Unwinding would be hard to manage now, but will become ever harder the more the balance sheet rises.

The issue is not merely how much we spend, but how wisely, how effectively. Did you know that the federal government had 46 separate job-training programs? Yet a 47th for green jobs was added, and the success rate was so poor that the Department of Labor inspector general said it should be shut down. We need to get much better results from current programs, serving a more carefully targeted set of people with more effective programs that increase their opportunities.

Did you know that funding for federal regulatory agencies and their employment levels are at all-time highs? In 2010, the number of Federal Register pages devoted to proposed new rules broke its previous all-time record for the second consecutive year. It's up by 25% compared to 2008. These regulations alone will impose large costs and create heightened uncertainty for business and especially small business.

This is all bad enough, but where we are headed is even worse.

President Obama's budget will raise the federal debt-to-GDP ratio to 80.4% in two years, about double its level at the end of 2008, and a larger percentage point increase than Greece from the end of 2008 to the beginning of this year.

Under the president's budget, for example, the debt expands rapidly to $18.8 trillion from $10.8 trillion in 10 years. The interest costs alone will reach $743 billion a year, more than we are currently spending on Social Security, Medicare or national defense, even under the benign assumption of no inflationary increase or adverse bond-market reaction. For every one percentage point increase in interest rates above this projection, interest costs rise by more than $100 billion, more than current spending on veterans' health and the National Institutes of Health combined.

Worse, the unfunded long-run liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid add tens of trillions of dollars to the debt, mostly due to rising real benefits per beneficiary. Before long, all the government will be able to do is finance the debt and pay pension and medical benefits. This spending will crowd out all other necessary government functions.

What does this spending and debt mean in the long run if it is not controlled? One result will be ever-higher income and payroll taxes on all taxpayers that will reach over 80% at the top and 70% for many middle-income working couples.

Did you know that the federal government used the bankruptcy of two auto companies to transfer money that belonged to debt holders such as pension funds and paid it to friendly labor unions? This greatly increased uncertainty about creditor rights under bankruptcy law.

The Fed is adding to the uncertainty of current policy. Quantitative easing as a policy tool is very hard to manage. Traders speculate whether and when the Fed will intervene next. The Fed can intervene without limit in any credit market—not only mortgage-backed securities but also securities backed by automobile loans or student loans. This raises questions about why an independent agency of government should have this power.

When businesses and households confront large-scale uncertainty, they tend to wait for more clarity to emerge before making major commitments to spend, invest and hire. Right now, they confront a mountain of regulatory uncertainty and a fiscal cliff that, if unattended, means a sharp increase in taxes and a sharp decline in spending bound to have adverse effect on the economy. Are you surprised that so much cash is waiting on the sidelines?

What's at stake?

We cannot count on problems elsewhere in the world to make Treasury securities a safe haven forever. We risk eventually losing the privilege and great benefit of lower interest rates from the dollar's role as the global reserve currency. In short, we risk passing an economic, fiscal and financial point of no return.

Suppose you were offered the job of Treasury secretary a few months from now. Would you accept? You would confront problems that are so daunting even Alexander Hamilton would have trouble preserving the full faith and credit of the United States. Our first Treasury secretary famously argued that one of a nation's greatest assets is its ability to issue debt, especially in a crisis. We needed to honor our Revolutionary War debt, he said, because the debt "foreign and domestic, was the price of liberty."

History has reconfirmed Hamilton's wisdom. As historian John Steele Gordon has written, our nation's ability to issue debt helped preserve the Union in the 1860s and defeat totalitarian governments in the 1940s. Today, government officials are issuing debt to finance pet projects and payoffs to interest groups, not some vital, let alone existential, national purpose.

The problems are close to being unmanageable now. If we stay on the current path, they will wind up being completely unmanageable, culminating in an unwelcome explosion and crisis.

The fixes are blindingly obvious. Economic theory, empirical studies and historical experience teach that the solutions are the lowest possible tax rates on the broadest base, sufficient to fund the necessary functions of government on balance over the business cycle; sound monetary policy; trade liberalization; spending control and entitlement reform; and regulatory, litigation and education reform. The need is clear. Why wait for disaster? The future is now.

The authors are senior fellows at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. They have served in various federal government policy positions in the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 17, 2012, 05:05:06 AM
Easy question, easier answer
America not better off under Obama

By Jennifer C. Braceras  |   Monday, September 17, 2012  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Op-Ed



“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
 
That’s the question the Romney campaign wants voters to answer.
 
For the 23 million Americans who are unemployed, underemployed or have dropped out of the work force altogether, the answer, of course, is “no.”
 
Indeed, with stagnant or falling incomes, lower home values and the rising cost of basic necessities, even folks fortunate enough to have jobs tend to answer the question in the negative.
 
Obama supporters understand this. They know that if this election is a referendum on whether we are today better off, the president will lose.
 
So for months, they ignored the question. Instead, Obama supporters attacked Bain Capital, mocked Ann Romney’s dressage hobby and accused Mitt Romney of being a felon.
 
When these divisive and deceptive tactics failed, they shifted strategy and rewrote the question:
 
“Are you better off today than if Barack Obama had not become president?”
 
Unlike Romney’s question, the answer to which is largely objective and quantifiable, Obama’s question is hypothetical, allowing voters the flexibility to fantasize success where there is only failure.
 
To support this fantasy, the campaign relies on two critical distortions: the claim that Obama “created” 4.5 million jobs and the claim that he “saved” the auto industry.
 
Although it’s true that we have created some new jobs, the 4.5 million figure fails to account for the millions of jobs lost during Obama’s presidency or for the significant increase in the working-age population since January 2009. Bottom line: There are fewer people working now than when Obama took office.
 
As for the auto industry, Obama didn’t “save” it. He merely paid off Big Labor in the form of taxpayer-funded guarantees that union contracts would not be renegotiated.
 
Even with this bailout, Chrysler ultimately collapsed and was bought by the Italian automaker FIAT. GM now lags behind its competitors; the company’s stock continues to fall and many analysts predict General Motors will soon return to bankruptcy. Bottom line: The notion that the American car industry only exists today because of government money is downright absurd.
 
To be sure, Obama defenders are correct when they say this recession was caused by decades of misguided policies. But the relevant question for voters is not whether Obama created the current crisis (he didn’t) but whether he is capable of getting us out (he’s not).
 
In other words: “Will you be better off after four more years of Obama?”
 
For Americans who work (or seek work) in the private sector, the answer is “highly unlikely.”
 
You see, Obama believes that we can and should spend our way out of the recession. His public comments (“the private sector is doing fine;” “you didn’t build that”) reveal hostility toward business and a wrongly held belief that government — not private capital – is the engine of economic expansion.
 
And so he promises higher taxes (in the name of “fairness”), more government spending and more regulation – all the while failing to see that such policies hamper job creation and economic growth.
 
Moreover, by promising to enlarge (rather than reform) the social safety net, Obama essentially guarantees that he will increase the national debt and entrench the culture of dependency — thereby limiting the economic and social mobility of working Americans.
 
In rewriting the question “Are Americans better off today than they were four years ago,” Obama concedes that they are not.
 
Americans understand that the president did not create the current economic mess. But his argument for more time fails because in the long term his policies will make our economic situation much, much worse.
 
Jennifer C. Braceras is a lawyer and political commentator.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1061160875


 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 17, 2012, 10:10:55 AM
Petroleum Numbers Hint at Recession
 Townhall.com ^ | September 17, 2012 | Mike Shedlock


Posted on Monday, September 17, 2012 11:24:53


In response to Petroleum And Gasoline Usage Charts for June, July, August; Unemployment vs. Gasoline Usage Analysis, a post based on weekly petroleum stats from reader Tim Wallace, I received a very nice email including a superb set of charts from James Beck, Lead Analyst, Weekly Petroleum Supply Team for the Energy Information Administration.

James gave me permission to use his name and his charts as long as I mentioned that his email reflects his personal opinions, not necessarily that of the EIA.

It is a pleasure to get an email from a government worker who takes his job seriously, is exceptionally knowledgeable on his subject, and is willing to be quoted by name.

James writes ...


Hello, Mike and Tim,

Thank you again for using the data from the Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) in your analyses of the demand of petroleum and gasoline. As the Lead Analyst for the WPSR at the Energy Information Administration, I always appreciate when others use our data in providing analysis!

I have updated my charts that I sent to you a few months ago. I have included Total Petroleum "Product Supplied" (a proxy for demand), Gasoline Product Supplied, Total Distillate (Diesel and Heating Oil) Product Supplied, and Kerosene Jet Fuel Product Supplied charts for you to review. These charts (with all of their data included) are based on the EIA's Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) data. The reason to look at the monthly numbers is that they are more reliable than the weekly as the survey is of the entire industry and there is a great deal of extra time used to verify the data. Many people believe that the monthly numbers are a revision of the weekly numbers. This is not true. These are separate surveys. Where the monthly surveys the entire industry and collects much more detailed information, the weekly information is based on a sample of the industry drawn from the monthly reporters, collects less information, and is focused on timeliness versus completeness. The weekly numbers are estimates of the most recent week's data based on the sample and are a snapshot in time. The weekly is a very good indicator of the data, but the monthly is the touchstone (at least until the Petroleum Supply Annual (PSA) is released--which is, in fact, a revision of the monthly data). Also, the monthly numbers from 2011 have been revised (as have some of the numbers in 2012) with the release of the PSA late last month. You can see the revisions in the "Data 1" tab of the attached spreadsheets.

In each of these workbooks, I have also shown a comparison of the weekly data versus the monthly data. This shows that the weekly does do a reasonably good job of capturing trends; however, sometimes these are exaggerated in the weekly data. Although the monthly is lagged by two months, it is the better measure of the full picture.

The following commentary is from me as a private citizen, not as a spokesperson of the Energy Information Administration or the Department of Energy:

The data support your general point that total petroleum product demand is at 1997/98 levels. The running three-month average that I am using (Apr/May/Jun--the last three months available) show that total demand has bounced above the lowest point for the same three-month period in 2009, but remains significantly below 2010 and 2011 levels--remaining very near 1997/98 levels.  This 15 years of demand destruction cannot be explained fully by increased efficiency or increased use of biofuels and renewables (these have, at most, a marginal effect). This is truly an indication of the real and continuing trouble in our economy, high unemployment and underemployment, loss of manufacturing, and reduction of shipping. Total product supplied for April - June has averaged 18.652 million barrels per day, 0.5% above the same period in 2009, and is the second-lowest level for the three-month period since 1997 (which was at 18.487 million barrels per day).

Demand for gasoline continues to be below 2002 levels and the lowest level for April - June since 2001 (earlier this year the PSM numbers had shown a slight increase over last year; however, with the revisions to the 2011 numbers in the PSA slightly upward, this trend was shown to be incorrect). Gasoline demand had rebounded somewhat in 2010 (rising near 2004 levels after the recession in 2008), but has fallen below the recessionary levels of 2008/09 in the last two years. At 9.035 million barrels per day, gasoline demand is down 0.4% from last year, but down 4.8% from the April - June peak in 2007 of 9.491 million barrels per day.

Distillate demand, on the other hand, continues to show weakness. For the period of April - June, it is down nearly 4.5% from last year. At 3.729 million barrels per day, it is at its lowest level since 2002. The concern I have is the year-over-year decline this year. Since diesel demand is a very good proxy for the health of the economy (all shipping uses diesel--trucking, rail, barge, etc.), this weakening from last year continues to be source of concern for the economy.

Demand for jet fuel has also fallen dramatically from 2007/08 (it had also fallen dramatically after the 9/11 attacks, never fully recovering to the levels seen from 1999 - 2001). At 1.437 million barrels per day during the period from April - June, KJet demand continues to be at levels we have not seen since 1994/95. The 2012 level is the second lowest for this three-month period since 1995. Although KJet demand is up 1.2% from the 2009 low for the period, it is down 2.4% from last year.

These numbers do not tell me that we are in a recovery. Despite increases in distillate and KJet demand in 2010 and 2011, and in gasoline in 2009 and 2010, these were well short of recovering from the decline in 2008/09. The decline year-over-year in these three core transportation indicators suggest a slowing in the economy if not a recession.

I hope you can make use of the charts. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you,
James Beck
Lead Analyst, Weekly Petroleum Supply Team
Energy Information Administration
Office of Petroleum and Biofuels Statisticsclick on any of the following charts to see a sharper image

Gasoline Monthly April-May-June



Petroleum Monthly April-May-June



Diesel Monthly April-May-June



KJet Monthly April-May-June



Thanks James!

In the above charts, please compare the red dots to the preceding red dots to remove seasonal fluctuations. 

Those charts confirm exactly what Tim Wallace and I have stated. Moreover, I specifically point out the opinion of James Beck "The decline year-over-year in these three core transportation indicators suggest a slowing in the economy if not a recession."

For more on the likelihood of a recession please see ...


•ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan Says US in Recession Now; That Makes Three of Us
•12 Reasons US Recession Has Arrived (Or Will Shortly)
•Case for US and Global Recession Right Here, Right Now; Recognizing the Limits of Madness; Permabears?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 17, 2012, 01:18:46 PM
We’re going backward
About Ralph R. Reiland


Published: Sunday, September 16, 2012, 8:51 p.m.
Updated 19 hours ago


 
They say the economy is moving in the right direction, that we should stay the course, that it takes time to pull out of the recession that began in late 2007.
 
In fact, things are getting worse.
 
The economy was creating 153,000 new jobs per month last year. That dropped during the first seven months of this year to an average of 139,000 per month. In August, we were down to 96,000.
 
It takes more than 100,000 new jobs per month just to stay even with the number of people entering the labor force. It would take double that number over a decade to bring today’s jobless rate down to the unemployment levels of 2007.
 
Factory payrolls were cut by 15,000 workers in August, the biggest decline in two years and a strong reversal of the 23,000 gain in factory payrolls in July.
 
The dip in the official unemployment rate from 8.3 percent in July to 8.1 percent in August was due to 368,000 people dropping out of the labor force.
 
The labor-participation rate, the share of the working-age population in the labor force (as either employed or looking for work), dropped to 63.5 percent in August, the lowest labor-participation rate in more than three decades.
 
The decline in the labor-participation rate is due in large part to the extended duration of unemployment in the current economy. “The average length out of the job market continues to be a stunning 39 weeks,” reported The Wall Street Journal (“The Jobs Deficit,” Sept. 10, 2012), “compared to an average duration of between 15 and 20 weeks from 1984-2008.”
 
Today’s unemployment rate would be 10.1 percent if the labor-participation rate was the same as it was in February 2010, when the job market allegedly bottomed.
 
And that’s not counting the officially estimated 8 million people who were classified as “involuntary part-time workers” by the Labor Department in August — workers with “hours cut” and people working part-time and “unable” to find full-time work.
 
Economic growth, too, is still moving in the wrong direction. After expanding at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, economic growth slowed to 2.1 percent during the first three months of 2012 and slowed again to 1.7 percent from April through June of this year.
 
It takes double the 1.7-percent growth rate to bring down the unemployment rate.
 
Measured against previous recessions and recoveries, federal reports show we’re doing about half as well as average. “The Joint Economic Committee reports that private payrolls have climbed only 4.3 percent in the last 30 months compared to a rate of 8.3 percent over a comparable time period for the other nine recoveries since World War II,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
 
Over the past year, the average annual wage increase of 1.7 percent was the lowest in three decades.
 
Gasoline prices hit $3.80 per gallon on Labor Day, the highest price ever recorded during a Labor Day weekend — and double the $1.79 price on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009.
 
Retail food prices rose 3.7 percent last year. This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting a 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent increase in beef prices.
 
The impact? Income data from the Census Bureau show that the median household income, adjusted for inflation, dropped by $4,019 from January 2009 to June 2012.
 
Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University and a local restaurateur. E-mail him at: rrreiland@aol.com


Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/2596285-74/percent-rate-labor-unemployment-august-average-17-double-economic-growth#ixzz26lCFzFQO


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 19, 2012, 03:20:47 AM
Household Income Today Is Lower Than It Was During The Recession
Business Insider ^ | 9/18/2012 | Rob Wile
Posted on September 19, 2012 6:01:03 AM EDT by tobyhill

A new Pew poll spearheaded by economist Rakesh Kochhar shows the median American income is now lower than it was during the recession.

In 2009, the year the Great Recession ended, the median income of U.S. households had been $52,195 (in 2011 dollars). Thus, in the two years since the end of the recession, median household income has fallen by 4.1%.

The decrease in household income from 2009 to 2011 almost exactly equaled the decrease in income in the two years of the recession.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 19, 2012, 05:26:54 AM
CRS report: number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled after Obama suspended work requirement

September 19, 2012 | 7:13 am

Philip Klein

Senior Editorial Writer
The Washington Examiner
E@philipaklein
 

 

Obama administration officials have insisted that their decision to grant states waivers to redefine work requirements for welfare recipients would not “gut” the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. But a new report from the Congressional Research Service obtained by the Washington Examiner suggests that the administration’s suspension of a separate welfare work requirement has already helped explode the number of able-bodied Americans on food stamps.

In addition to the broader work requirement that has become a contentious issue in the presidential race, the 1996 welfare reform law included a separate rule encouraging able-bodied adults without dependents to work by limiting the amount of time they could receive food stamps. President Obama suspended that rule when he signed his economic stimulus legislation into law, and the number of these adults on food stamps doubled, from 1.9 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2010, according to the CRS report, issued in the form of a memo to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
 
“This report once again confirms that President Obama has severely gutted the welfare work requirements that Americans have overwhelmingly supported since President Clinton signed them into law,” Cantor said in an emailed statement. “It’s time to reinstate these common-sense measures, and focus on creating job growth for those in need.”
 
Under the rule adopted in 1996, food stamps for able-bodied adults without dependents were limited to three months in a 36-month period unless the participant in the program “works at least 20 hours a week; participates in an employment and training program for at least 20 hours per week; or participates in a (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) ‘workfare’ program for at least 20 hours per week.”
 
Obama’s economic stimulus legislation suspended the rule for all states starting April 2009. Delaware continued to enforce the rule anyway, along with New York City and parts of Colorado, South Dakota, and Texas. This suspension expired at the end of the 2010 fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2010) and Congress rebuffed Obama’s requests to extend it in his fiscal years 2011 and 2012 budgets. However, Obama used his regulatory authority to effectively extend the waivers to nearly all states over the past two years. (The law grants the executive the authority to do this in states where the unemployment rate is above 10 percent or there’s a “lack of sufficient jobs.”)
 
Though the weakening of the economy would have led to an increase in food stamp usage with or without a waiver, the doubling of the use of food stamps by the able-bodied population without dependents exceeded the 43 percent increase in food stamp usage among the broader population over the same 2008 to 2010 time frame. This gives more weight to the idea that the waiver fueled the food stamp growth among the population it affected, beyond where it would have been even in a weak economy.
 
The CRS report does not have data for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years.
 
Read the full report here.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 19, 2012, 06:08:20 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-warns-11000-of-layoff-2012-9

Economy doing fine. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 20, 2012, 08:16:46 AM
Bank of America to Cut 16,000 Jobs by Year-End: Report
Published: Thursday, 20 Sep 2012 | 3:30 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 




Bank of America is planning to cut 16,000 jobs by year end as it speeds up a company-wide cost-cutting initiative amid declining revenues, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

 
Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The job cuts would put the second-largest U.S. bank a year ahead of schedule in eliminating 30,000 jobs under a program called Project New BAC. The job cuts could shrink the bank's workforce below that of rivals JPMorgan Chase [JPM  40.86    -0.48  (-1.16%)   ] and Wells Fargo [WFC  35.035    -0.215  (-0.61%)   ].

The reductions were outlined in a document given to top management, the Journal reported. Since taking the helm in 2010, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan has been working to streamline and reduce risk at a company that has lagged rivals in recovering from the financial crisis, largely due to mortgage-related losses.

Bank of America [BAC  9.155    -0.135  (-1.45%)   ] spokesman Larry Di Rita declined to comment. The bank had 275,460 employees at the end of the second quarter.

Under Project New BAC, Bank of America has said it planned to eliminate $5 billion in annual expenses and 30,000 jobs by the end of 2013, largely through cuts in consumer and technology areas. A second phase is expected to eliminate $3 billion in annual expenses by mid-2015 by making undisclosed cuts in capital markets, commercial banking, and wealth management areas.

In the second quarter, cost savings from the first phase were running at an annual pace of $970 million, behind a goal of $1 billion, the Journal said, citing the document.

Bank of America is one of many financial companies slashing thousands of jobs amid new regulations and a tepid economy that are crimping revenue.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 20, 2012, 09:23:35 AM
Mort Zuckerman: Welcome to the Modern-Day Depression

We need to recover from the Obama economic recovery


 By Mortimer B. Zuckerman
September 19, 2012




How do you recover from a recovery? Just how bust the nation's "recovery" has been is painfully documented in the latest news, just two months before the election. The Census Bureau validated what middle-class Americans know all too well from their week to week, month to month struggle to make ends meet. The typical family is back to where it was in 1995. The analysis of annual data collected by the bureau indicates that median income in 2011 had fallen to $50,054, the fourth straight year of decline in well-being, and that's adjusted for inflation. In political terms, the Obama administration can truthfully say that the erosion had begun before the president took office, while Mitt Romney can point out that the administration spent four years of fumbling and quite failed to stop the rot.

At the same time we were clobbered by the Census numbers, the latest unemployment report landed with a dull thud: The advance figure for unemployment claims for the week ending September 8 was 382,000, up from the previous week's revised figure of 367,000. The four-week moving average was 375,000, up 3,250 from the prior week's average of 371,750.
 
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
 
These are marginal negative movements, but they underline that the recovery touted by the administration has been the weakest in modern history. Nobody is entitled to blow a trumpet because the unemployment rate for August can be headlined at 8.1 percent, down two digits from July's 8.3 percent. That's a drop brought about not by more jobs but because 360,000 people left the workforce. It muffles the fact that 5 million people have now been out of work for 27 weeks or more. That's roughly 40 percent of the unemployed. Another 2.6 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, and over eight million people have given up looking for a job, so they are not counted because they had not searched for work in the prior month.
 
Are they lazy good-for-nothings? Maybe a handful, but most are decent Americans eager to work. The average period of unemployment is close to 40 weeks. Imagine the sense of futility that must overcome people who month after month fill in forms, go for interviews if they're lucky, and end up as they started—with nothing to show because there are approximately 4.5 unemployed workers for every job. Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population has grown by 30 million people since then. Think about that.
 
A reality check is offered by the unemployment numbers the government calls U-6. It measures people who have applied for a job in the last six months and also includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for people whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week or who are working part-time because they have been unable to find a full-time job. That number is almost 15 percent. Include the eight million people who have simply given up looking for a job and the real unemployment rate is closer to 18 or 19 percent. These are the brutal facts behind the Census report on median income. It is no surprise when annual wage increases have dropped to an average of 1.6 percent, the lowest in the past 30 years.
 
[Check U.S. News Weekly, now available on iPad.]
 
There are other distressing aspects in the numbers. For example, older people are not leaving the workforce at the same rate as in the past. Instead, they are seeking to bolster their savings as an antidote to the stomach-churning decline in their net worth, 75 percent of which has come from the decline in the value of their home equity. They hope to retire with dignity but now are willing to do that at an even later date. Ironically, since the recession began, employment in the age group of 55 and older is up 3.9 million, even as total employment is down by five million.
 
The so-called quit rate has sagged to the lowest rate in years. Quite simply, the baby boomer population is delaying its exit from the workforce and thus creating a huge bottleneck in terms of youth unemployment. Prospects for older people out of work, however, have sharply deteriorated, especially for those who have been unemployed for any length of time. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute wrote recently in the New York Times that a worker between the ages of 50 and 61 who has been unemployed for over a year has only a nine percent chance of finding a job in the next three months. A worker who is 62 or older and similarly unemployed has about a six percent chance.
 
This trend has displaced young workers, who now face double-digit unemployment and more life at home with their parents. Many young couples realize they can't afford to start a family, and the result is that the birth rate has just hit a 25-year low of 1.87 births per woman. And job prospects for young workers aren't very good. Layoff announcements have risen from a year ago and hiring plans have dropped dramatically.
 
[See a slide show of Mort Zuckerman's 5 Ways to Create More Jobs.]
 
Workers won't feel the labor market is recovering until hiring is occurring at a recovery level pace of at least 300,000 more hires per month than we are seeing now. And when it comes, there will be a cloud to that silver lining. The job openings are mostly low-wage jobs that haven't been exposed to global competition. More than 40 percent of new private sector jobs are in low-paying categories such as leisure and hospitality, bars, and restaurants.
 
This is, in effect, the modern-day Depression. Take two issues, Social Security disability and food stamps. Roughly 15 percent of the population, a record, representing over 46 million Americans, are in the food stamp program, compared to the 7.9 percent participation from 1970 to 2000. And about 400,000 people have been signing up each month over the past four years. In addition, a record 11 million-plus Americans are now collecting federal disability checks. Half of them have come on board since President Barack Obama took office. This is another sign of the Depression-like times that we are in. It is not as visible today as it was back then because there are no bread or soup lines. That is simply because checks have replaced those lines. But it doesn't take away from the fact that millions of people who had good private sector jobs are now dependent on the government for life support.
 
[See an opinion slide show of 10 wasteful stimulus projects.]
 
Which candidate has the better answer? Romney has declared, without much detail, that he will create 12 million jobs in his first term. It sounds great, but it is actually no more than what Moody's Analytics predicts are already likely (and its forecast includes extending the Bush tax cuts for those earning less than $250,000, not quite the same as what Romney is planning). Meanwhile, it is clear that the ill-designed stimulus has not worked. True, things would likely have been worse. But the president left too many decisions to a pork barrel Congress: Less than 10 percent of the stimulus funds were pegged for infrastructure of lasting value.
 
The White House website proclaims that "from day one President Obama has focused on efforts that can help small businesses grow and expand." That is a tall one. The president pivoted late to jobs, having expended much energy and political capital on his healthcare reform bill. When he did unveil the $447 billion American Jobs Act before a joint session of Congress last year, it was without any attempt to garner Republican support. While it included many good things, it also included tax increases and regulations the president knew were anathema to the opposition, leading the Fiscal Times to call the bill "a scam," designed for the election to complete the portrait of an obstructionist Republican Party.
 
[See a collection of political cartoons on healthcare.]
 
It's right and understandable that the outrages in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen have commanded attention and may yet command more. But at base the economy is the fundamental challenge that will determine America's strength as well as its resolve.
 
The economy is slowing to a growth rate that will be close to zero in the second half of this year, according to a recent AEI report, which also notes that 2012 is the third year of stalled recoveries. No incumbent president has ever won re-election with unemployment rates as high as they are likely to be in November. A job is the most important family program, the most important social program, and the most important economic program in America. The unemployment and income statistics are intolerable for a compassionate and wealthy nation.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 20, 2012, 07:32:09 PM
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/14/median-income-in-ohio-hits-27-year-low.html


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 21, 2012, 07:59:10 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/more-americans-added-food-stamps-find-jobs_652837.html


What a disaster. 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 23, 2012, 10:41:17 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207089/56-million-suicide-prevention-programme-launched-study-reveals-Americans-lives-die-car-crashes.html


Hopefully when obama loses that number will spike w his asshole supporters offing themselves 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 24, 2012, 04:01:07 AM
In a waning presidential first term nothing compares to the importance of securing another one. In Barack Obama’s case, there is an added spur to his drive for re-election. The president believes the American economy will spring back to life over the next four years and cannot abide the thought of Mitt Romney reaping the credit.
Mr Obama’s impulse is more than understandable. However unearned, an economic revival that coincided with a Romney first term would easily be marketed as a “Romney boom”. But even if – as many expect – Mr Obama wins on 6 November, he should be wary of the growing belief in America’s impending manufacturing renaissance.
More

ON THIS STORY
Furniture maker helps cushion offshore drift
Surcharge for US mortgages proposed
US jobless claims edge down to 382,000
US existing home sales at two-year high
Global Insight Fed drama set for epilogue
ON THIS TOPIC
Obama rejects Romney foreign policy barbs
Romney tries to end taxing attacks
Romney struggles to regain momentum
Romney releases tax return details
EDWARD LUCE
The GOP shows no sign of braking before the cliff
America’s season of hollow boastfulness
Back to the Future for Obama in Charlotte
Ed Luce Romney the pragmatist
Too much of it is based on hope. America’s pallid – and again waning – economic recovery is already into its fourth year. The typical length of the business cycle is about seven years. It requires optimism at this stage to believe the patient is about to arise and go for a jog.
Here is the case for America’s coming manufacturing boom. First, the US is in the early stages of an energy windfall that will transform its attractiveness as a location to do business. In addition to the unfolding energy supply shock, which will lower the cost of electricity and the feed-in stock for many kinds of production, the cost of American labour looks increasingly attractive next to wage inflation in China and other emerging market economies.
According to the Boston Consulting Group the US could create between 2m and 5m new direct and indirect manufacturing jobs between now and 2020. That would make up for about one-third of what it has lost in the past decade.
On top of that, the US housing market has finally bottomed out and is likely once again to become a net plus to US growth. Finally, as Roger Altman recently argued in the FT, Washington could surprise us all by skirting the cliff and striking a fiscal deal that would rekindle America’s animal spirits.
Much of this is indisputable; the US is well on the way to a new era of energy abundance. Estimates of its impact range from mildly positive to something far bigger. Much of it is also probable: it would take a huge shock to push the US housing market back into free fall.
Some of it is less so: it would be a surprise if Congress struck an intelligent fiscal bargain in the coming months. Should the Republican “fever break” – as some Democrats describe the anticipated Republican change of heart – it would certainly qualify as a positive shock to the economy. Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, the two biggest credit rating agencies, cite political risk as America’s chief vulnerability.
Yet it is hard to get excited about a revival based on so many ifs and buts. Even if the rosiest forecasts prove correct, they are based on sobering assumptions. First, the boom would be based on the continued decline in US unit labour costs. By 2016, according to Boston Consulting Group, the gap with China would have narrowed to just seven cents an hour. These would be neither the high-tech jobs of the future nor the golden middle class jobs of the past.
Rising US labour productivity growth will play its part. So too will declining US wages. Hourly pay for new “two-tier” hires in US auto assembly plants and elsewhere is roughly half that of the original tier (and with a fraction of the benefits). None of this would alter the calculus for the higher-tech manufacturers, such as semiconductors and robotics. At a typical Intel plant, whether in China or America, labour costs amount to just a tenth of total overheads. Tax rates, market access and the cost of land are far more important factors.
Second, the hollowing out of America’s middle class – still politely described as median income stagnation rather than “decline” – is accelerating rather than slowing. According to the US Census last week, the US median household is 4.8 per cent poorer now than at the start of the recovery in 2009. Median incomes have now fallen to the pre-internet level of 1993. All of the gains of the Clinton years have been lost. The decline in the past three years follows a 3.2 per cent drop during the recession, which itself followed a shrinkage during the 2000-2007 cycle. Far from a new dawn of broad-based growth, America’s middle class decline is getting worse.
Recent days will chiefly be remembered for Mr Romney’s decision to stand by his disparaging comments about the 47 per cent of Americans who pay no federal income tax. They will also be remembered for the release of his full 2011 tax return, which showed that the former Bain Capital executive pays a lower overall rate than the poorest fifth of Americans. In an era of increasing economic insecurity, Mr Romney has made a hash of his campaign.

Were he a better politician, Mr Romney would have seized on a report earlier this month that showed a sharp fall in US competitiveness. In 2007, the US was ranked first by the World Economic Forum, which published the report. By 2011 it had fallen to fifth. This year it dropped to seventh. The chief culprits are bad governance, macroeconomic instability and declining infrastructure. Here, too, the American trend points the wrong way.

Should he still pull off a victory, Mr Romney’s tax plans would skew the fiscal system even further towards the wealthiest. If, as Mr Romney says, Mr Obama is a “redistributionist”, then he is clearly not a very effective one.

Whoever wins the 2012 election, America can certainly rely on a coming energy boom – in fact it is already well under way. Most of the rest looks like either hype or hope.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on September 24, 2012, 04:31:27 AM
"Should he still pull off a victory, Mr Romney’s tax plans would skew the fiscal system even further towards the wealthiest. If, as Mr Romney says, Mr Obama is a “redistributionist”, then he is clearly not a very effective one."

This is funny, you dont even read what you copy-paste.



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 24, 2012, 06:48:16 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/august-chicago-fed-national-activity-index-2012


Nice - Manufacturing retreating again.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 24, 2012, 11:02:23 AM
http://www2.tbo.com/news/politics/2012/sep/20/5/woman-signals-obama-for-help-with-sign-on-roof-ar-507737


Real recovery right there. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 24, 2012, 01:45:59 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-an-even-scarier-jobs-chart-2012-9


FORWARD! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2012, 08:08:26 AM
Household Incomes Fall In Aug., Off 8.2% Under Obama
By JOHN MERLINE

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

 Posted 09/25/2012 03:55 PM ET
 


In another sign that the economic recovery under President Obama is not producing gains for average Americans, median household incomes fell 1.1% in August to $50,678, according to a report released Tuesday by Sentier Research.
 
Since the economic recovery started in June 2009, household incomes are down 5.7%, the Sentier data show, and they are down more than 8% since Obama took office.
 
"Even though we are technically in an economic recovery, real median annual household income is having a difficult time maintaining its present level, much less recovering," said Sentier co-founder and former Census Bureau official Gordon Green.
 
Earlier this month, the Census Bureau released its annual report showing that the number of people in poverty was nearly 3 million higher in 2011 than in 2009, an increase of 6%.
 
That report also found that average incomes for middle- and lower-income households fell in 2011 after adjusting for inflation. They rose only for the wealthiest 20% of households.
 
Middle-Class Squeeze
 
The average inflation-adjusted income for households in the middle 20% is now lower than it's been since 1995, the census report found.
 
Meanwhile, another report released Tuesday finds that per-capita health costs jumped 4.6% last year, marking a turnaround from previous years, which had seen annual cost increases moderating. The Health Care Cost Institute report found that rising prices are a "major driver" of the cost increases.
 
And a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this month found that the number of uninsured climbed 1 million in the first three months of 2012 compared with last year.
 
Food-Stamp Nation
 
Other bad signs: The number of people on food stamps is up more than 220,000 in the first half of this year and up almost 12 million — or 34% — from June 2009 to June 2012.
 
The number of people in the labor force has fallen more than half a million in the past two months, with the participation rate down to 63.5%, a rate not seen in the past 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
Almost 83,000 signed up for federal disability benefits in September, and more than 736,000 have joined in the first nine months of this year, according to the Social Security Administration. That's a higher enrollment rate than the first nine months of the Obama presidency.
 
Analysts say the higher disability enrollment rates are in part a reflection of workers' inability to find jobs.
 
On the other hand, the Consumer Confidence Index climbed in September to 70.3, a nine-point increase from August, according to the Conference Board.
 
Related Story
 


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2012, 10:48:08 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49180320


Federal Reserve mentizing the entire deficit.

SICK!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2012, 11:54:14 AM
CEOs now see gloomy third quarter, drop growth expectations
By Tim Devaney
 
The Washington Times
 
Wednesday, September 26, 2012



 
Citing uncertainty over the impending “fiscal cliff” and lower demand overseas, an association of CEOs from top companies on Wednesday dropped its growth expectations for the third quarter to the lowest level since the middle of the Great Recession.
 
The Business Roundtable lowered projections for sales, capital spending and hiring in its latest CEO Economic Outlook Survey to the lowest level since 2009.
 
The fiscal cliff — an end-of-the-year deadline for a long-term budget deal between Republican and Democratic lawmakers — has businesses putting off hiring and spending decisions, because they don’t know what to expect in the coming months and years, said Jim McNerney, the CEO of Boeing who also heads the Business Roundtable.
 
“This complete Mexican standoff that we have now is not getting us anywhere,” he told reporters.
 
Business Roundtable President John Engler called it a “fiscal Everest.”
 
“This is something that urgently needs to be addressed,” Mr. Engler said. “This is the same problem the NFL is having. The players aren’t quite clear how to play the game, because the refereeing is so bad.”
 
Mr. Engler urged lawmakers to take action now to avoid the automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to kick if if no deal is made.
 
“We can lead, but you can’t lead by not making decisions,” he said.
 
Only 58 percent of the CEOs who responded expect sales to increase, down from 75 percent last quarter, while the number of CEOs who expect a decline in sales nearly tripled to 15 percent, due in large part to weaker demand in Europe and China.
 
Companies are also slowing capital spending and hiring because of uncertainties in the U.S. tax and regulatory environments. Only 30 percent expect to increase spending, down from 43 percent last quarter, while 19 percent plan to cut back on spending, up from 12 percent.
 
Meanwhile, only 29 percent expect to boost hiring, down from 36 percent, while 34 percent expect to make layoffs or other declines in employment, up from 20 percent.


Read more: CEOs now see gloomy third quarter, drop growth expectations - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/26/ceos-now-see-gloomy-third-quarter-drop-growth-expe/#ixzz27bTZiseQ
 Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2012, 12:27:37 PM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 06:01:27 AM
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY_GDP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-27-08-36-59


GDP DISASTER! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 06:06:37 AM
Durable Goods Orders Sink Even as Jobless Claims Fall
Published: Thursday, 27 Sep 2012 | 8:40 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters   Twitter 
 
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New durable goods orders in August fell by the most since the recession and a separate reading on the broader U.S. economy came in much weaker than expected. But weekly jobless claims sank to a two-month low, in a hopeful sign for the labor market.

 
Ros Roberts | Getty Images
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in August fell by the most in 3 1/2 years, pointing to a sharp slowdown in factory activity even as a gauge of planned business spending rebounded.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday durable goods orders dived 13.2 percent, the largest drop since January 2009, when the economy was in the throes of a recession. Orders for July were revised down to show a 3.3 percent increase instead of the previously reported 4.1 percent gain.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders for durable goods — items from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last at least three years — to fall 5 percent.

Last month, the drop in orders reflected weak aircraft and automobiles demand. Boeing [BA  70.25    0.87  (+1.25%)   ] received only one aircraft order in August, down from 260 in July, according to information posted on the plane maker's website.

Transportation equipment tumbled 34.9 percent after racing ahead 13.1 percent in July. Excluding transportation, orders fell 1.6 percent after dropping 1.3 percent the prior month. Economists had expected this category to rise 0.3 percent after a previously reported 0.6 percent fall.


RELATED LINKS
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Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rose 1.1 percent, halting two straight months of hefty declines. That was above economists' expectations for 0.5 percent gain.

But shipments of these goods, which are used to calculate equipment and software spending in the gross domestic product report, fell 0.9 percent after declining 1.1 percent in July. The weakness suggested third-quarter economic growth would probably not improve much from the April-June's 1.3 percent annual pace.

Manufacturing, which has been the main driver of the recovery from the 2007-09 recession, has been hit by turbulence from sluggish domestic and global demand.

Fears that the U.S. Congress could fail to avert a "fiscal cliff" — the $500 billion or so in expiring tax cuts and government spending reductions set to take hold in 2013 — have also left businesses with little incentive to boost production.

Second-Quarter GDP Cut to 1.3%

Economic growth was much weaker than previously estimated in the second quarter as a drought cut into inventories, setting the platform for an even more sluggish performance in the current quarter against the backdrop of slowing factory activity.

Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.3 percent annual rate, the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2011 and down from last month's 1.7 percent estimate, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Thursday.

Output was also revised down to reflect weaker rates of consumer and business spending than previously estimated. Outlays on residential construction export growth were also not as robust as had been previously estimated.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected second-quarter GDP growth would be unrevised at a 1.7 percent pace. The economy grew at a 2 percent pace in the January-March period.

The worst drought in half a century, which gripped large parts of the country in the summer, saw farm inventories dropping $5.3 billion in the second quarter after slipping $1 billion in the first three months of the year.

Data in hand for the third-quarter suggest little improvement in the growth pace, even as the housing market digs out of a six-year slump. Manufacturing, the pillar of the recovery from the 2007-09 recession is cooling, hurt by fears of tighter U.S. fiscal policy in January and slower global demand.

The GDP report also showed that after-tax corporate profits unexpectedly rose at a 2.2 percent rate instead of the previously reported 1.1 percent increase. After-tax profits fell 8.6 percent in the first quarter.

Weekly Jobless Claims at Two-Month Low

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level in two months.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 359,000, the lowest level since July, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to show 3,000 more applications than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 378,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 4,500 to 374,000, breaking five straight weeks of increases.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the report and no states had been estimated.

The labor market has been mired in weakness as worries about higher taxes and deep government spending cuts in January, the ongoing debt problems in Europe and slowing global growth lead employers to be cautious about ramping up hiring.

Sluggish job gains and stubbornly high unemployment spurred the Federal Reserve this month into launching a third round of bond purchases to drive down already low interest rates.

The U.S. central bank vowed to buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities each month until it sees a sustained upturn in the labor market.

The unemployment rate has been stuck above 8 percent for more than three years, the first time this has happened since the Great Depression, a hurdle for President Barack Obama's quest for a second term in office.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 4,000 to 3.27 million in the week ended September 15.

The so-called continuing data covered the week for the household survey from which the unemployment rate is derived.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 10:42:23 AM

(Reuters) - New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods in August fell by the most in 3-1/2 years, pointing to a sharp slowdown in factory activity even as a gauge of planned business spending rebounded.
 
The Commerce Department said on Thursday durable goods orders dived 13.2 percent, the largest drop since January 2009, when the economy was in the throes of a recession. Orders for July were revised down to show a 3.3 percent increase instead of the previously reported 4.1 percent gain.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders for durable goods -- items from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last at least three years -- to fall 5 percent.

Last month, the drop in orders reflected weak aircraft and automobiles demand. Boeing received only one aircraft order in August, down from 260 in July, according to information posted on the plane maker's website.

Transportation equipment tumbled 34.9 percent after racing ahead 13.1 percent in July. Excluding transportation, orders fell 1.6 percent after dropping 1.3 percent the prior month. Economists had expected this category to rise 0.3 percent after a previously reported 0.6 percent fall.

Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rose 1.1 percent, halting two straight months of hefty declines. That was above economists' expectations for 0.5 percent gain.

But shipments of these goods, which are used to calculate equipment and software spending in the gross domestic product report, fell 0.9 percent after declining 1.1 percent in July. The weakness suggested third-quarter economic growth would probably not improve much from the April-June's 1.3 percent annual pace.

Manufacturing, which has been the main driver of the recovery from the 2007-09 recession, has been hit by turbulence from sluggish domestic and global demand.

Fears that the U.S. Congress could fail to avert a "fiscal cliff" -- the $500 billion or so in expiring tax cuts and government spending reductions set to take hold in 2013 -- have also left businesses with little incentive to boost production.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 11:36:06 AM
So we got back what was lost in the first year, yet MILLIONS who are now in the work force have not found any jobs at all, and the 15 million prior also to that first year did not find jobs, and that is progress? 



LMFAO!!!!! 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 11:41:15 AM
Home
Here Is The White House Spin On Today's Disappointing Economic Data
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/27/2012 12:57 -0400




A massive 13% collapse in durable goods, the biggest since January 2009; a $20 billion miss to annualized Q2 GDP estimates, and well below the lowest estimate, 60+ weeks of constant upward BLS revisions to initial claims "data" and not to mention assorted atrocious economic (note: not to be confused with market - the two are now completely unlinked) data from around the globe. And what does the White House say: the data shows that the "US is making progress." We sure wouldn't want to know what it would look like if after 3 episodes of easing, trillions injected into the economy via the Fed, and of course $6 trillion in extra debt the US was not making progress. Oh and yes, everything else is Bush's fault.

Full statement from the White House's Alan Krueger:

Today's Economic Data


More than the usual amount of economic statistics were released this morning. As a whole, today’s economic news shows that while we are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we are making progress. We lost more than 8 million jobs and GDP contracted by almost 5 percent as a result of the Great Recession. We have more work to do, but incorporating today’s preliminary benchmark revision to the employment figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics with their earlier data indicates that the economy has added nearly 5.1 million private sector jobs, on net, over the past 30 months. BLS announced that total employment likely grew by 386,000 more jobs than previously announced during the 12 months from March 2011 to March 2012, and by 453,000 more private sector jobs in that same time period. In the past decade, the absolute difference between the preliminary and final benchmark revision has averaged 37,000 jobs.

We also saw revised data released today showing that real GDP grew in the second quarter of 2012 by 1.3 percent at an annual rate. Real GDP growth in the second quarter was revised down due, in part, to a downward revision to agriculture inventories as a result of the devastating drought our nation faced this summer. The Obama Administration continues to take all available steps to mitigate the impacts of the drought, and has called on Congress to pass a farm bill that would spur growth and provide rural Americans with the certainty they deserve. We also learned today that the advance report of durable goods orders declined in August, largely as a result of a decline in orders for transportation equipment. Excluding the volatile transportation category, durable goods orders fell by 1.6 percent.

Today’s news shows that we must do more to strengthen our economy and promote job creation. Over a year ago, President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act – a plan that independent economists have said would create up to 2 million jobs. The President will continue to push policies that will continue this progress we have made, including incentives to strengthen the American manufacturing industry, investments in our nation’s infrastructure, and the extension of the tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses.

While we are still rebuilding our economy and working to recover from the worst crisis since the Great Depression, we are making progress and the last thing we should do is return to the economic policies that failed us in the past. The revisions announced in today’s reports are a reminder that economic data are subject to large revisions. As a whole the pattern of revisions suggest that the recession that began at the end of 2007 was deeper than initially reported, and the jobs recovery over the last 2.5 years has been a bit stronger than initially reported, although much work remains to be done to return to full employment.

Average:


Via ZeroHedge









More lies from obama
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 11:45:39 AM

Final Q2 GDP Disaster: 1.25% Growth Comes Below Lowest Estimate
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/27/2012 08:45 -0400


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-27/final-q2-gdp-disaster-125-growth-comes-below-lowest-estimate



So much for the US recovery (we will never tire of saying that). After the first Q2 GDP revision bubbled up from 1.5% to 1.7%, the sellside brigade was confident that the rate of growth would continue and final Q2 GDP would be in line. Instead, we got an absolute shock of a print, with the final Q2 GDP print coming in at a ridiculously low 1.25% (rounded up to 1.3%), below the lowest Wall Street estimate of 1.4%, and the lowest number since the revised 0.1% reported in January 2011. Here is the final GDP trendline: Q4 2011: 4.1%; Q1 2012: 2.0%; Q2 2012: 1.25%. Luckily, at least "housing has bottomed." The reason for the major contraction in the final print: a downward revision to all favorable components except Government which detracted the least from growth in years at just -0.14%. Of note - Personal Consumption was 1.06%, down from the 1.20% per the second revision. If nothing, we now know just what data Bernanke was looking at on an advance basis to come up with QEternity, and we also know the reason for the media and administration's all in gamble to reflate housing yet again. If the housing market does not go up courtesy of infinite cheap leverage, it could be curtains for the Bernanke reflation experiment.



Luckily, the centrally-planned policy vehicle once upon a time known as "the market" refuses to react to this horrendous, if only for the meaningless economy, news.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: garebear on September 27, 2012, 06:24:55 PM
A Huge 386,000 Jobs

As if to pile on to what may be the worst two week period a presidential campaign has ever suffered, Governor Mitt Romney has now lost one of the campaign’s key narratives.

Romney can no longer claim that President Obama’s first term in office has resulted in a loss of jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is out with its annual update to benchmark unemployment numbers (for the more cynical among you, the BLS does this every fall so this is not a number being ‘timed’ for the election), and the numbers reveal that 386,000 more non-farm jobs were actually created between March, 2011 and April 2012 than what had been originally reported.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/09/27/bureau-of-labor-statistics-revises-job-growth-upward-by-a-huge-386000-jobs/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 27, 2012, 06:40:11 PM
A Huge 386,000 Jobs

As if to pile on to what may be the worst two week period a presidential campaign has ever suffered, Governor Mitt Romney has now lost one of the campaign’s key narratives.

Romney can no longer claim that President Obama’s first term in office has resulted in a loss of jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is out with its annual update to benchmark unemployment numbers (for the more cynical among you, the BLS does this every fall so this is not a number being ‘timed’ for the election), and the numbers reveal that 386,000 more non-farm jobs were actually created between March, 2011 and April 2012 than what had been originally reported.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/09/27/bureau-of-labor-statistics-revises-job-growth-upward-by-a-huge-386000-jobs/


LOL!!!!!  In a nation of 300,000,000 you think that is good?  LMFAO!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 05:39:58 AM
Obama’s ‘Recovery’ is Worse Than Recession
 Red State ^ | 9/27/2012 | Daniel Horowicz

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2012 8:18:43 AM by IbJensen

Here we go again. GDP growth for Q2 of this year has been revised down to 1.3% from 1.7%. Our GDP now stands at $15.585 trillion, while our debt (including intragovernmental liabilities that must be dealt with) is $16.022 trillion. Durable goods orders have dropped 13.2% in August, the largest dip since January 2009. Orders for July were revised down.

Folks, this is not endemic of a recession. It’s worse than that. This is a sickly recovery.

The problem here is not the recession that Obama complains he inherited. We are no longer losing jobs and GDP is no longer contracting. The problem is the recovery. In fact, we began recovering jobs and GDP during the spring of 2009. So yes, the business cycle tends to endure, irrespective of who is in the White House. There was a very deep recession at the end of Bush’s term, and that recession ended in 2009. The same way Obama cannot be blamed for the initial recession in 2008, he cannot take credit for the immediate end of the recession so early in his term.

What is unprecedented and what is Obama’s fault is the ensuing lack of recovery. We have never had a recession in which we did not emerge from it in a stronger position. This recession is analogous to a 1,000-foot ditch. We stopped falling deeper into the hole in June 2009. However, instead of digging out of the hole, we are permanently coasting near the bottom of that trench. Hence, the protracted stagnation is much worse than the abrupt recession. It is this stagnation that Obama owns as a result of his intervention into every sector of the economy. The over 80 million hours of Obamacare rules and regulations that businesses must comply with is just one example of why the economy will never recover.

Take a look at this GDP chart posted by James Pethokoukis at AEI:

,p>

As you can see, the hemorrhaging stopped shortly after Obama took office. What has ensued is an unprecedented period of lethargic growth. We’ve never seen such weak growth in all the fundamentals of the economy this late after the recession ended. During the first two quarters of 1984, the economy grew by 8% and 7.1% respectively.

Romney must not let Obama get away with blaming the current economic malaise on the previous administration. Back in 2009, Obama bragged about the end of the recession. If the recession ended in 2009, the unprecedented lack of recovery that we are now incurring is due to his overly regulated crony capitalist economy. It’s the recovery stupid.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 06:01:42 AM
Hundreds of Layoffs at Mohegan Sun Casino
 NBC Connecticut ^

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2012 7:23:59 AM by matt04

The signs of the struggling economy are again showing at Mohegan Sun Casino. Thursday night the Mayor of Montville confirmed that casino is laying off hundreds of workers, effective immediately.

Mayor Ronald McDaniel said that he's saddened by the news and that it will be difficult for those workers who got pink slips to find new jobs.

The New London Day reports that 282 employees were laid off immediately and that another 46 would be let go by the end of October.

The newspaper also reports that CEO Jeffrey Hartmann left the casino Wednesday.


(Excerpt) Read more at nbcconnecticut.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 08:03:37 AM
The Chicago PMI Report Was One Of The Nastiest Pieces Of Economic Data We've Seen In A Long Time
 


Joe Weisenthal|11 minutes ago|172|
 

We already reported that today's Chicago PMI data was week, but we wanted to circle back to it and spotlight some of the datapoints from it.
 
First of all: What is the Chicago PMI? It's a survey of Purchasing Managers at corporations, who are asked their take on the economy: How orders are doing, what they're doing with employment, what they're seeing with commodity costs, and so forth.
 
You can see by these tables (which you can download here) how much of a dropoff there was in activity in various categories.
 
Note in particular the collapse in New Orders and Employment and the jump-up in production costs (prices paid).
 

So that report, sadly, screams stagflation.
 
Also fascinating are the anecdotal comments about the economy.
 
Survey respondents had a lot to say about uncertainty and rising commodity costs.
 It seems that companies are starting to move forward again. Projects that have been on hold are again being discussed.
 Packaging prices are steady with some pressure or suggestions of increase without real merit. Chemical prices are increasing due to oil and corn in the case of ethanol.
 Copper moved higher quickly.
 Market place still seems unsettled. One automotive customer's projections for huge growth this year fizzled out during the 3rd quarter, yet another automotive customer's demands have shown healthy increases.
 Suppliers seem to be slower than ever with their orders, there seems to be no knowledge or creativity anymore if it isn't on the computer they can't do it.
 2012 drought, election year, recent change in Gulf weather all play into short term and long term prices of materials.
 Overall uncertainty with respect to government policies continues to make us hesitant to make significant investments in new areas.
 Uncertainty about taxes, regulations, and public policy going into 2013 is causing spending decisions to be deferred or constrained until the picture is clearer.
 Another month of lower order intake.
 
Again, this is just one report.
 
There have been other reports lately (Dallas Fed, Philly Fed, etc.) that show the opposite, that manufacturing is firming.
 
But the bottom line is that there's a maelstrom of 2013 uncertainty, higher commodity costs, and weak export orders that are slamming the economy. Hopefully the Chicago PMI report from today was just a blip.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chicago-pmi-weak-2012-9#ixzz27mEPHo6e

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 08:05:19 AM
Serious question.

Is it possible that some of these layoffs or what have you are not factors of the economy?

Perhaps these CEOs or what have you just ran their companies into the ground?

Is that not possible?



Possible - but not likely.   The economy is a DISASTER overall. 

Just because frauds and thugs like the asshole in the WH and his lapdog media and gullible drones say otherwise does not make it true. 


1.3 % GDP!   That is a recession bro.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 08:14:54 AM
Americans’ Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ‘Recovery’


8:02 AM, Sep 27, 2012 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON



Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford.  New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.”  Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession.  Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.

Yet it gets worse.  Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more during the “recovery” than they did during the recession.  In fact, they’ve dropped more than twice as much as they did during the recession.  From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent.  From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent.  This begs the question:  What kind of “recovery” compares unfavorably with the recession from which it’s ostensibly recovering?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 01:21:15 PM
Campbell Soup Shutting Down Sacramento Plant; 700 Jobs Being Cut

September 27, 2012 12:11 PM




SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The Campbell Soup plant in Sacramento is closing as of July 2013 as the company says it is taking steps to “improve supply chain productivity,” according to a company release.
 
Employees were told of the closure during a 6 a.m. meeting Thursday at the plant.
 
“We employ about 700 people at the Sacramento plant and unfortunately those jobs will be eliminated,” said Campbell Soup Company spokesperson Anthony Sanzio. “This is a tough day for the company, for the employees. No one likes to do this.”
 
The company says the Sacramento plant, built in 1947, is the oldest in its network and has the highest production costs on a per-case basis.
 
Many of the employees at the plant have worked there their entire lives, and several told CBS13 they had no idea what they’d do next.

“This is devastating, really devastating,” worker Valerie Starr said. “A lot of us have been working here for years and we’re at that age where it’s hard to find other jobs.”
 
Campbell’s Spokesman Explains Decision To Close
 




Most of Sacramento’s production of soup, sauces and beverages will be shifted to Campbell’s three remaining thermal plants in North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
 
The company is also closing a spice plant in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
 
“We recognize this is difficult news for employees in Sacramento and South Plainfield. Campbell is committed to helping them work through this transition,” said Mark Alexander, president, Campbell North America. “We expect the steps we’re announcing today to improve our competitiveness and performance by increasing our asset utilization, lowering our total delivered costs and enhancing the flexibility of our manufacturing network. These actions also will eliminate the capital investments needed to maintain the Sacramento plant.”
 
The Sacramento plant is stopping production at the plant through this weekend. When it restarts, it will then begin to phase down production until it is officially closed down in July 2013.
 
Campbell does have several other facilities in California that will remain open. There are about 450 full-time and seasonal employees at its tomato processing plants in Dixon and Stockton. They also own Bolthouse Farms in Bakersfield.
 
RELATED: Comcast To Close 3 Northern California Call Centers; Shifting 1,000 Jobs Out-of-State
 
The announcement comes just two days after Comcast announced it will close all three of its call centers in Northern California, including one is Sacramento, because of the high cost of doing business in the Golden State.
 
“For over 65 years, the Campbell’s plant has been a major employer in our region,” Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) said in a statement after Campbell’s announcement. “It is unfortunate that Campbell’s has chosen to close their oldest plant and in the process lay-off 700 employees. As the economy slowly improves, closures like Campbell’s and Comcast here in our own backyard, reminds us all that unemployment is still at over 10 percent and we have a long way to go until a full economic recovery.”
 
According to Comcast, 1,000 Comcast employees, including 300 in Sacramento, will see their jobs shifted to the other centers.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 28, 2012, 01:35:02 PM
Fed's Fisher says U.S. "drowning in unemployment"
 Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | September 28, 2012 | Chris Baltimore


Posted on Friday, September 28, 2012 4:29:00 PM by John W

RICHARDSON, Texas (Reuters) - The United States is "drowning in unemployment," its economy is running at stall speed and inflation is "not a problem," but easier monetary policy is not the answer, one of the Federal Reserve's most hawkish policymakers said on Friday.

"We've had a recovery that is quite disappointing," Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told a group at the University of Texas at Dallas.

But without more certainty on tax policy and regulation, he said, "all the monetary accommodation in the world" will not get businesses hiring again.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 30, 2012, 04:24:20 PM
The Unemployment Rate Probably Climbed In September
 


Alex Kowalski, Bloomberg|Sep. 30, 2012, 6:13 AM|1,458|18
 



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Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The jobless rate probably rose in September as employers kept a lid on hiring, showing why Federal Reserve policy makers have zeroed in on shoring up the U.S. labor market, economists said before a report this week.
 
The rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in August, according to the median forecast of 62 economists surveyed by Bloomberg before Oct. 5 figures from the Labor Department. Payrolls increased by 115,000 in September, less than the 139,000 average over the first eight months of the year, the report may also show.
 
Persistent joblessness may curb wage gains and limit consumer spending, representing another impediment to an economy facing a slowdown in manufacturing as global demand cools and businesses curtail investments. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues at the central bank pledged this month to keep pumping money into financial markets until employment picks up.
 
“We’re looking for pretty sluggish payroll growth,” said Peter D’Antonio, an economist at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. “This will be more of the same, what Bernanke called ‘worrisome.’ It may reflect weakness coming from abroad, weakness in manufacturing, and the gains aren’t being helped by risks from fiscal policy.”
 
September’s projected payroll increase would follow a 96,000 gain the prior month.
 
This week’s release marks the next-to-last employment report before the November elections, in which economic issues play a central role.
 
 
 
Obama Leads
 
 
 
In the latest Bloomberg National Poll, President Barack Obama leads Republican challenger Mitt Romney among likely voters, 49 percent to 43 percent, even as 60 percent of Americans say the nation is on the wrong track as the president completes his first term. The telephone survey of 1,007 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, was conducted Sept. 21-24.
 
Only one president, Ronald Reagan, has been re-elected since World War II with a jobless rate above 6 percent. On Election Day 1984, the rate was at 7.2 percent, having dropped almost three percentage points in the previous 18 months.
 
Unemployment has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest stretch in monthly records dating to back 1948. So far, the economy has recovered about 4.1 million of the 8.8 million jobs lost in the wake of the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009.
 
To boost growth and stimulate more hiring, the Fed this month said it would hold its target interest rate near zero until at least mid-2015 as it began a third round of stimulus, buying $40 billion in mortgage bonds a month. The S&P 500 rose to 1,465.77 the next day, the highest close since December 2007.
 
 
 
Stocks Slump
 
 
 
The S&P 500 Index last week had its biggest weekly slump since June amid disappointing economic data, including a plunge in orders for durable goods and stalled consumer spending.
 
“We’re looking for ongoing, sustained improvement in the labor market,” Chairman Bernanke said in a Sept. 13 press conference following the announcement. “What we’ve seen in the last six months isn’t it.”
 
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans has called for accommodation as long as unemployment exceeds 7 percent and the inflation outlook remains below 3 percent. On Sept. 20, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said the central bank should hold rates near zero until joblessness drops below 5.5 percent and inflation doesn’t exceed 2.25 percent.
 
 
 
Recovery Pillar
 
 
 
Manufacturing, a pillar of the early stages of the recovery, is now waning. The Institute for Supply Management Inc.’s factory index for September was little changed at 49.8 compared with 49.6 the prior month, according to the Bloomberg survey median before the group’s Oct. 1 release. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. It would mark the fourth consecutive month without growth.
 
Manufacturing employment will probably suffer in turn. Siemens AG said it will cut 615 jobs at U.S. factories that produce windmills after a “significant drop in new orders,” according to a message to employees obtained by Bloomberg.
 
The Tempe, Arizona-based ISM’s services index, which covers almost 90 percent of the economy and is due on Oct. 3, fell to 53.4 this month from 53.7 in August, according to the survey median.
 
--With assistance from Chris Middleton in Washington. Editors: Carlos Torres, Vince Golle
 
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Kowalski in Washington at akowalski13@bloomberg.net
 
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz in Washington at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
 



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jobless-rate-probably-climbed-in-september-us-economy-preview-2012-9#ixzz27zxgQcVK

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 01, 2012, 04:13:13 AM
JOHN HUSSMAN: We Are Already In Recession, And The Economists Just Don't Know It Yet
Joe Weisenthal|Oct. 1, 2012, 5:00 AM|770|7
 


In his latest weekly letter, investor John Hussman reiterates his belief that we are already in recession.
 
In regard to a U.S. recession, keep in mind that the consensus of economic forecasters – not to mention central bankers - has never recognized the start of a recession in real-time, largely because their assessments typically revolve around a “stream of anecdotes” approach that treats each new economic report with equal weight, without distinguishing leading/lagging and upstream/downstream structure. For example, we’ve noted that real consumption growth and real income lead new factory orders, which lead employment. Yet observers have already largely dismissed the soft data on income, consumption and factory orders thanks to last week’s single outlier on new weekly unemployment claims. As for the payroll report this Friday, we fully expect that September payroll growth will ultimately be reported as a significant loss in jobs. The main wrinkle, as I’ve noted frequently, is that the “real-time” employment figures in the early months of a recession are often hundreds of thousands of jobs off from where they are ultimately revised (see the economic notes in Late Stage, High Risk). So while Friday’s employment report seems likely to be disappointing, the data tends to be heavily revised, and even the seasonal adjustments amount to hundreds of thousands of jobs, so our expectations for a negative figure may or may not be realized in the initial report.
 
Last week, the second quarter GDP growth figure was revised down to 1.3%, from the previous estimate of 1.7%. Durable goods orders plunged at a 13.2% rate in August, largely on reduced transportation orders, but even ex-transportation, new orders dropped at the sharpest rate since 2009. It is also notable that Gross Domestic Income – the theoretically equal “income” companion of gross domestic “production” – grew at an annual rate of just 0.1% in the second quarter. The difference between GDI and GDP is nothing but a statistical discrepancy, so the two series track each other very closely over time despite short-term disparities. Because GDI has often led GDP at recessionary turns, Alan Greenspan was well-known for paying close attention to GDI – though not closely enough to recognize that the economy was already in recession when he was interviewed by Business Week in mid-2008, fully two-quarters after that recession had actually begun.
 
The chart below presents the 6-quarter growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) and real gross domestic income (GDI) since 1950. A good look at this chart provides some insight into why recession concerns have had a “Chicken Little” quality in recent quarters. Note that by the time the 6-quarter growth in income and production has slowed below 2.3% in the past, the economy was always either approaching or already in recession. It’s also worth observing the weakness in GDI growth approaching the 1990-91 and 2008-2009 recessions.
 


In the present instance, the 6-quarter average of real GDI and GDP growth has been below 2.3% for nearly a year, with no apparent recession, and in fact has bounced around that threshold since 2010. The monetary interventions of the past few years have helped to kick the recessionary can down the road in short-lived fits and starts. Still, they certainly have not been effective in producing sustained recovery (nor should they be expected to – being largely a manipulation of financial markets with no reliable transmission mechanism to the real economy).
 
The key question is whether the absence of an obvious recession should be taken as an indication that the deterioration in income and output growth can be ignored – in effect, whether we should assume that this time is different. From our standpoint, the evidence from a wide variety of economic series, including but not limited to broad measures like GDI and GDP, continues to indicate that the U.S. economy most likely entered a recession in the middle of this year.
 
Read the whole Hussman letter here >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-hussman-we-are-already-in-recession-2012-10#ixzz282pdKCLa

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 01, 2012, 06:35:01 AM
Obama’s Fourth Recovery Summer Ends
 Red State ^ | 9/30/2012 | Staff


Posted on Monday, October 01, 2012 8:22:53


So, are you better off today than you were in 2009?

One of the stunning things about the utterly supine press in the United States is that we have lived through the worst four years of economic mismanagement in this nation’s history. Not even Gerald Ford wearing his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button and Jimmy Carter declared energy independence as the Moral Equivalence Of War (a contender for the unfortunate acronym award: MEOW) can compete with the utter fecklessness of this administration.

By any conceivable measure, we are much worse off today than we were four years ago. In the best areas of the economy we are stagnant.

Unemployment has only been kept down below 9% by the clever tactic of reducing labor force participation. For men, the labor force participation rate is the lowest on record.

Household income is in a nosedive, dropping an unprecedented 8.2% since Obama began his one-man campaign to turn us into a Third World ineptocracy.

Nearly 47 million Americans rely on food stamps. This reflects an increase of about 12 million people over the highest level under President Bush.

There is no sign that economic activity is coming back. Manufacturing orders fell by 13.2% in August. The GDP annual growth rate was scaled back from a previously anemic 1.7% to an absolutely ossified 1.3%. This growth rate will not keep pace with new entrants to the workforce combined with the rate of inflation. Essentially our economy has stalled and may be contracting in real terms.

While the Obama Cargo Cult is out touting more college loans to train people for careers that do not exist, and will not exist under a Democrat administration, students with college loans have been defaulting at a glorious rate. 9.1% of all student loans were in default according to most recent data. Of course, the upside — I suppose — to that is that virtually all student debt is now owed to the government so this just means more debt for our posterity to deal with.

In a just world, Barack Obama would have fallen to a primary challenger. But he’s been carried on by a press that only grudgingly covers bad economic news and refuses to attach to either Obama or his administration any responsibility for anything.

But it won’t.

Economic growth grew at an incredibly sluggish 1.3 percent in the second quarter, revised down from 1.7 percent. According to business writer Jim Pethokoukis, this is “dangerously slow.” However, NBC skipped the bad news for Barack Obama entirely. ABC allowed it a mere 21 seconds. CBS was the only network to allow the story a full report.

Although Nightly News correspondent Chuck Todd couldn’t find time to mention the scant amount of growth, he did hype the fact that the President is trying “a new line.” Todd then played a clip of the President calling “for a new economic patriotism.” The journalist helpfully parroted that the President’s “idea of economic patriotism includes tax hikes on the wealthy and more government spending on infrastructure.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 01, 2012, 06:00:25 PM
http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2012/10/hundreds_line_up_for_184_gas_a.html


People are really hurting.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on October 02, 2012, 01:29:31 AM
http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2012/10/hundreds_line_up_for_184_gas_a.html


People are really hurting.

And the Ryan plan is gonna make it better on them?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2012, 06:47:24 AM
Baby bust continues: US births down for 4th year

Oct 3, 12:13 AM (ET)

By MIKE STOBBE
 
(AP) HOLD FOR RELEASE AT 12:01 A.M.; Chart shows the decline in the number of U.S. births
Full Image
 

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.

But there may be a silver lining: The decline in 2011 was just 1 percent - not as sharp a fall-off as the 2 to 3 percent drop seen in other recent years.

"It may be that the effect of the recession is slowly coming to an end," said Carl Haub, a senior demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

Most striking in the new report were steep declines in Hispanic birth rates and a new low in teen births. Hispanics have been disproportionately affected by the flagging economy, experts say, and teen birth rates have been falling for 20 years.

 
(AP) In this Nov. 11, 2011, file photo, a mother holds her newborn baby at Christus Spohn...
Full Image
 
 
Falling births is a relatively new phenomenon in this country. Births had been on the rise since the late 1990s and hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007.

But fewer than 4 million births were counted last year - the lowest number since 1998.

Among the people who study this sort of thing, the flagging economy has been seen as the primary explanation. The theory is that many women or couples who are out of work, underemployed or have other money problems feel they can't afford to start a family or add to it.

The economy officially was in a recession from December 2007 until June 2009. But well into 2011, polls show most Americans remained gloomy, citing anemic hiring, a depressed housing market and other factors.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a first glimpse at 2011 birth certificate data from state health departments. More analysis comes later but officials don't expect the numbers to change much.

Early data for 2012 is not yet available, and it's too soon to guess whether the birth decline will change, said the CDC's Stephanie Ventura, one of the study's authors.

Highlights of the report include:

_The birth rate for single women fell for the third straight year, dropping by 3 percent from 2010 to 2011. The birth rate for married women, however, rose 1 percent. In most cases, married women are older and more financially secure.

_The birth rate for Hispanic women dropped a whopping 6 percent. But it declined only 2 percent for black women, stayed the same for whites and actually rose a bit for Asian-American and Pacific Islanders.

_Birth rates fell again for women in their early 20s, down 5 percent from 2010 - the lowest mark for women in that age group since 1940, when comprehensive national birth records were first compiled. For women in their late 20s, birth rates fell 1 percent.

_But birth rates held steady for women in their early 30s, and rose for moms ages 35 and older. Experts say that's not surprising: Older women generally have better jobs or financial security, and are more sensitive to the ticking away of their biological clocks.

_Birth rates for teen moms have been falling since 1991 and hit another historic low. The number of teen births last year - about 330,000 - was the fewest in one year since 1946. The teen birth rate fell 8 percent, and at 31 per 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19 was the lowest recorded in more than seven decades.

"The continued decline in the teen birth rates is astounding," said John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health.

Did the economy have anything to do with a drop in teen births?

Yes, indirectly, Santelli said. Teenagers watch the struggles and decisions that older sisters and older girlfriends are making, and what they see influences their thinking about sex and birth control, he said.

"Teens tend to emulate young adults," Santelli said. "They are less influenced directly by the economy than by people."

Studies show that since 2007, larger percentages of sexually active teenage girls are using the pill and other effective birth control. Studies also show a small decline in the proportion of girls ages 15 through 17 who say they've had sex, Santelli noted.

The new birth report also noted a fourth straight decline in a calculation of how many children women have over their lifetimes, based on the birth rates of a given year.

A rate of a little more than 2 children per woman means each couple is helping keep the population stable. The U.S. rate last year was slightly below 1.9.

Countries with rates close to 1 - such as Japan and Italy - face future labor shortages and eroding tax bases as they fail to reproduce enough to take care of their aging elders.

Officials here aren't as worried.

The U.S. replacement rate is still close to 2. And it has dropped in the past and then bounced back up again, said Ventura, an official at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

"And we haven't seen any studies that show couples want to have fewer children or no children," she added.

One more report highlight: The U.S. C-section rate may have finally peaked at just under 33 percent, the same level as last year.

Cesarean deliveries are sometimes medically necessary. But health officials have worried that many C-sections are done out of convenience or unwarranted caution, and in the 1980s set a goal of keeping the national rate at 15 percent.

The C-section rate had been rising steadily since 1996, until it dropped slightly in 2010.

"It does suggest the upward trend may be halted," said Joyce Martin, a CDC epidemiologist who co-authored the new report. But CDC officials want a few more years of data before declaring victory, she added.

---

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs

 


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2012, 11:23:18 AM
That's a GOOD thing.

We want them to be down... We have too many damn people and you're talking about unemployment all the time... Birth rate certainly will affect unemployment in 16 years.

Hell yes.

Who is going to pay for the bills? 

Decreasing population while obligations and liabilities rise - disaster.   

hhhhmmmmm
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2012, 11:28:32 AM
More people off of welfare and unemployment - GREAT. People can all have jobs. The work force is only what jobs are needed to get a job done... Nothing more and nothing less.

So this is a net WIN... See if 100 people don't have jobs and 900 do... then you have 100 people on unemployment... if you have 1 person who doesn't and 900 who do, then you have 1 person on unemploymeny right?

So the money that the 900 people pay in taxes or whatever can go towards the debt INSTEAD of paying for another 99 people to sit on their ass.



False False False  False


The people not having jkids are the responsible people who no longer can afford it.   The lazy pieces of shit like the obamaphone lady are still breeding like rabbits. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2012, 11:38:03 AM
That is not necessarily the case, but ok... Your mind is certainly one way on the matter.

Its the truth.   We are turning into Europe as a result of the same shit policies being pushed here that have destroyed them. 

Those you want having kids are not, and those you dont are staying home and breeding like pigs and rats. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2012, 12:09:39 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/roubini-says-break-up-the-banks-2012-10

Roubini - we are worse off than ever w the banking system. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 04, 2012, 08:01:32 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/america-is-not-the-entrepreneurial-capital-2012-10



4 more years.    Are you fucking crazy? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 05, 2012, 09:53:29 AM
Today's 'Good' Jobs Report Was Actually Terrible
James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute|Oct. 5, 2012, 10:44 AM|3,252|24
 
 

Is this the Obama October Surprise?
 
Only in an era of depressingly diminished expectations could the September jobs report be called a good one. It really isn’t. Not at all.
 
1. Yes, the U-3 unemployment rate fell to 7.8%, the first time it has been below 8% since January 2009. But that’s only due to a flood of 582,000 part-time jobs. As the Labor Department noted:
 

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose from 8.0 million in August to 8.6 million in September. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
 
2. And take-home pay? Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by just 1.8 percent. When you take inflation into account, wages are flat to down.
 
3. The broader U-6 rate — which takes into account part-time workers who want full-time work and lots of discouraged workers who’ve given up looking — stayed unchanged at 14.7%. That’s a better gauge of the true unemployment rate and state of the American labor market.
 


4. The shrunken workforce remains shrunken. If the labor force participation rate was the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.7%. If the participation rate had just stayed steady since the start of the year, the unemployment rate would be 8.4% vs. 8.3%. Where’s the progress? Here is RDQ Economics:
 
Such a rapid decline in the unemployment rate would be consistent with 4%–5% real economic growth historically but much of the decline is accounted for by people dropping out of the labor force (over the last year the employment-population ratio has risen to only 58.7% from 58.4%).  We believe part of the drop in the unemployment rate over the last two months is a statistical quirk (the household data show an increase in employment of 873,000 in September, which is completely implausible and likely a result of sampling volatility).  Moreover, declining labor force participation over the last year (resulting in 1.1 million people disappearing from the labor force) accounts for much of the rest of the decline.
 
5. As the chart below shows — a chart originally produced by Team Obama — even the artificially depressed 7.8% unemployment rate is way above the 5.6% unemployment rate the White House predicted for September 2012 if Congress passed the $800 billion stimulus package back in 2009.
 





James Pethokoukis
 

6. The 114,000 jobs created would have been a good number … but for 1962, not 2012. The U.S. economy needs 2-3 times that number every month to close the jobs gap (which is the number of jobs that the U.S. economy needs to create in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while also absorbing the people who enter the labor force each month.) At 114,000 jobs a month, the jobs gap would not close until after 2025, according to the Hamilton Project.
 
7.  We are still on pace to create fewer jobs this year than last year. In 2012, employment growth has averaged 146,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.
 
8. White House economist Alan Krueger says the jobs numbers are ”further evidence” the economy is healing. But he’s wrong.
 
The employment-population ratio, which merely shows how many folks have jobs as a share of the civilian population, was 58.7%. Now that’s up from last month. But it is still far below where it was in June 2009, 59.4%,when the recession officially ended. And it’s even further below the 63% level before the downturn


Read more: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/the-sickly-stagnant-september-jobs-report/#ixzz28RbiGFh8

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: garebear on October 06, 2012, 08:16:44 AM
.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: garebear on October 06, 2012, 08:18:11 AM
.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 08, 2012, 03:55:18 AM
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US Foodstamp Usage Rises To New Record High
ZeroHedge ^ | 10/5/2012 | Tyler Durden
Posted on October 5, 2012 7:28:45 PM EDT by mojito

...[T]here was one other, far more important data point released by the government's Department of Agriculture, sufficiently late after the market close to impact no risk assets. That data point of course was foodstamps (or the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP), and we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that foodstamp usage for both persons and households, has jumped to a new all time record.

At 46,681,833 million the persons hooked on SNAP, the July number crossed the previous record posted a short month before, as the foodstamp curve continues 'plumbing' newer and greater heights each month.

More disturbing is that in the same month, the number of US households reliant on foodstamps rose by a whopping 99,493 to 22,541,744.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 08, 2012, 05:17:35 AM
.

Fake Jobs Numbers Would Look Better Than This
 RCM ^ | 10/08/2012 | Louis Woodhill

Posted on Monday, October 08, 2012 7:53:56 AM by SeekAndFind

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8% in September, some observers wondered if the numbers had been "cooked" for political purposes. They can relax. Fake jobs numbers wouldn't look as bad as these.

Two numbers in the BLS report attracted concern: the reported 873,000 increase in total employment, and the 0.3 percentage point reduction in the unemployment rate. These figures suggest a rapidly improving labor market, which would be very convenient for President Obama right now. However, as soon as one delves deeper into the BLS numbers, the reality of continued economic stagnation becomes clear.

As the White House has said repeatedly (and correctly), it isn't good to read too much into any one month's employment numbers. So, let's look at the third quarter of 2012 as a whole.

During the third quarter, total employment (Household Survey) increased by 559,000, or 1.57%. This was up considerably from the gain of 381,000 jobs in the previous quarter.

However, a minimum requirement to consider that a person has a "decent job" is that they have a full-time job if they want one. Accordingly, we can subtract the number of people involuntarily working part time for economic reasons from total employment to get the number of decent jobs.

As it happens, the number of people forced to work part time jobs when they wanted full time jobs increased by 403,000 during the third quarter of 2012, which means that the number of decent jobs increased by only 156,000.

Given that the working age population increased by 617,000 during the third quarter, this means that, on the margin, only 25% of new working age Americans were able to find a decent job during the quarter. And, there were actually 1000 fewer decent jobs


(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 08, 2012, 10:02:32 AM
There Hasn't Been A Jobs Market Recovery Since The End Of The Great Recession
James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute|34 minutes ago|0|


Economist Michael Darda of MKM Partners:
 
The U.S. lost 8.87 million private sector jobs during the Great Recession; since job growth resumed in March 2010, 4.73 million private sector jobs have been created, just more than half of the job losses suffered.
 
However, the level of private sector jobs remains 12.6 million below the pre-crisis trend. …. In other words, a trend growth recovery has succeeded in stabilizing broad measures of labor market health, but catch-up growth is required for meaningful improvement.
 
We are only getting trend jobs growth, just enough to deal with population growth –but not enough to close the jobs gap, as defined by Darda.
 
We won’t fill the jobs gap unless we get much faster growth than the 1.5%-2% GDP rate we are growing at right now.


Read more: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/the-one-chart-that-shows-theres-been-no-jobs-market-recovery-since-the-end-of-the-great-recession/#ixzz28jBt6Ne6
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 11, 2012, 04:34:36 AM
Fedex to cut thousands from workforce
 France24.com ^ | Oct. 10th 2012


Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2012 7:26:03 AM


AFP - Fedex, the global delivery company, said Wednesday it was planning to cut "several thousand" people from its workforce via a voluntary departure program beginning early next year.



Company chairman Fred Smith said at an investment conference in Memphis, Tennessee, that the cuts would come in the company's Fedex Express global express delivery service, and in the US unit, Fedex Services.


(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 13, 2012, 08:07:01 PM
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml


Recession coming 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 13, 2012, 08:15:06 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ceo-wynn-i-m-afraid-president


every client of mine says the same thing 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on October 15, 2012, 03:02:34 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ceo-wynn-i-m-afraid-president


every client of mine says the same thing 

You dont have clients you fuck only fellow unemployed sad old men
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: garebear on October 15, 2012, 03:07:53 AM
Ha ha.

Clients!

No one believes you. Stop already.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2012, 03:47:13 AM
Ha ha.

Clients!

No one believes you. Stop already.

STFU pedo.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2012, 02:55:31 PM
For Every Person Added to Labor Force, 10 Added to Those Not in Labor Force
1:09 PM, Oct 15, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER






A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee details the fact that, since January 2009, for every person added to the labor force, 10 have been added to those not in the labor force. Here's a chart showing the dwindling labor force:
 


"For Every 1 Person Added To Labor Force Since January 2009," the chart reads, "10 People Added To Those Not In Labor Force."
 
That is, in nearly the four years, since President Obama took office in January 2009, only 827,000 people have been added to the labor force, while during that same time period, 8,208,000 have been added to those not in the labor force.
 
The chart relies on data available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
"The numbers represented in the chart are a measure of growth from January 2009 through September 2012," the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee explains. "The data is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, a sample of 60,000 households conducted by personal and telephone interviews. Basic labor force data are gathered monthly. The labor force consists of all people aged 16 and over either employed or actively seeking work. It does not include discouraged workers, people who have retired, or those on welfare or disability who are no longer looking for work. The 'not in the labor force' group is defined as the total civilian non-institutional population minus the labor force."


Since January 2009, the labor force has grown by 0.54 percent, or 827,000 people (from 154,236,000 to 155,063,000). Those not in the labor force grew by 10.2 percent during the same period (8,208,000 people), from 80,502,000 to 88,710,000. In other words, for every one person added to the labor force of the United States since January 2009, the size of the U.S. population not in the labor force grew by 10 people.
 
And the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee concludes, "These figures reveal several troubling trends: That the jobs market is not keeping pace with U.S. population growth; that not enough younger Americans are joining the labor force to account for retirement among an ageing population; and that a large number of workers have become so discouraged that they simply stopped looking for work and left the labor force entirely. These factors pose serious fiscal challenges for the United States. A historically low labor force participation rate—together with an ageing population and a record number of people drawing federal welfare benefits—puts severe strain on the federal budget in both the near and long term."
 
UPDATE: Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, comments: “The essential point of this chart is not simply how many people are employed or unemployed, but to illustrate that more and more people are simply not part of the U.S. labor force. This confirms that we are on the wrong track. It is unsustainable to have such a large and growing number of people who are not part of the productive economy. This is not a political argument, but a description of the underlying instability in our economy that has so many Americans worried about the future. The question is what can we do to reverse these trends and start moving in the right direction.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 16, 2012, 06:43:59 PM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/record-high-enrollment-food-stamps-46681833-million_654653.html


Record high food stamp usage.   

Hope and Change!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on October 17, 2012, 01:20:27 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/record-high-enrollment-food-stamps-46681833-million_654653.html


Record high food stamp usage.   

Hope and Change!!!!

So? Poor welfare leeches like you need to eat as well
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 18, 2012, 07:55:20 AM
PIMCO: 'THE US WILL GET DOWNGRADED'
Rob Wile|Oct. 18, 2012, 8:58 AM|1,068|9



 

PIMCO has seen enough of the federal government's "fiscal theatre" and now says the U.S.'s credit rating will inevitably be slashed, Bloomberg's Tracy Withers reports.
 
“The U.S. will get downgraded, it’s a question of when,” Withers quotes Scott Mather, Pimco’s head of global portfolio management, as saying. “It depends on what the end of the year looks like, but it could be fairly soon after that.”
 
If President Obama is reelected, Mather said, it's likely resolution of the country's deficit “doesn’t happen in a nice way, and we have disruption in the marketplace,” he said.
 
Any agreement will likely lower economic growth by about 1.5 percentage points next year, Mather said.
 
But they may roil markets by discussing scenarios that would lead to a 4.5 percentage-point fiscal drag, he said.
 
Click here for Withers' full report on Bloomberg.com >

 
SEE MORE — Companies that will get hit hardest by the fiscal cliff


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pimco-the-us-will-get-downgraded-2012-10#ixzz29f94ekEj

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 18, 2012, 10:10:45 AM
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/18/violent-crime-jumps-18-percent-in-2011-first-rise-in-nearly-20-years/#ixzz29eYuO9Mi


Hope and Change! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 25, 2012, 04:01:45 PM
8,803,335: Another New Record for Disability—Up 975 Per Day Under Obama

By Terence P. Jeffrey

October 25, 2012

Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey's posts



   



U.S. Treasury Department (AP Photo)

 
(CNSNews.com) - The number of American workers collecting federal disability insurance benefits hit yet another record high in October, according to the Social Security Administration.
 
This month 8,803,335 disabled workers are collecting benefits, up from the previous record of 8,786,049 set in September.
 
In February 2009, the first full month after President Barack Obama took office, there were 7,469,240 workers collecting federal disability insurance. Thus, so far in Obama’s term, the number of workers collecting disability has increased by 1,334,095. That works out to a net increase of about 29,646 per month (1,334,095 divided by 45 months), or an average increase of about 975 per day (1,334,095 divided by 1,369 days).
 
During George Bush’s eight years as president, the number of workers collecting federal disability insurance increased by 2,375,258, rising from 5,067,119 in February 2001 to 7,442,377 in January 2009. That equaled an average net increase of about 24,742 per month and 813 per day. In Bush’s second term alone, the number of workers on disability increased by 1,198,575, equaling an average monthly increase of about 24,970 and an average daily increase of about 820.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 25, 2012, 07:55:50 PM
Jeep, an Obama favorite, looks to shift production to China
Washington Examiner ^ | Oct 25, 2012 | Paul Bedard

Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:51:50 PM by

In another potential blow for the president's Ohio reelection campaign, Jeep, the rugged brand President Obama once said symbolized American freedom, is considering giving up on the United States and shifting production to China.

Such a move would crash the economy in towns like Toledo, Ohio, where Jeeps are made and supplied, and rob the community of the economic security they thought Obama's auto bailout assured them.

Fiat SpA (F), majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC, plans to return Jeep output to China and may eventually make all of its models in that country, according to the head of both automakers’ operations in the region.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 30, 2012, 08:43:36 AM
Obama's Reelection Will Ensure Complete U.S. Economic Collapse
 Townhall.com ^ | October 30, 2012 | Rachel Alexander

Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2012 11:36:16 AM by Kaslin

 This coming presidential election will determine whether the U.S. ends up in another Great Depression or pulls out of the economic slump. There are numerous signs indicating that the country is headed for economic Armageddon under Obama. Some analysts are predicting the crash could come as soon as next year. Obama is following the failed policies of President Herbert Hoover which led to the Great Depression.

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh says the U.S. is on an unsustainable course; there isn't enough money from taxes to pay everyone lifetime healthcare, lifetime pensions, and hefty incomes. The federal government now spends 50 percent more than it takes in. Social Security and Medicare are on the brink of insolvency and are little more than government Ponzi schemes. Soon there will be more people on welfare than not. Borrowing and printing more money will no longer save the country from defaulting, because our debt will soon be so high other countries will not want our dollars.

Earlier this year, three financial analysts predicted financial meltdown will take place in less than a year. Author Robert Prechter, who wrote the book Conquer the Crash, sees economic parallels to the Great Depression and predicts the illusion of a recovery will fail like it did in the 1930s. Art Laffer, the economist who invented the Laffer Curve, predicted a crash in 2011 if the Bush tax cuts were not extended. Since Obama backed down and extended the tax cuts through 2013, the crash has been delayed.

Economist John Williams predicts that a hyperinflationary Great Depression will take place by 2014. Investment banker Martin Hutchinson believes that the next stock market crash will be worse than Black Monday, the 1987 crash which dropped lower than the 1929 crash. The 1987 crash did not trigger a depression because there wasn't an accompanying collapse of the banking system. Hutchinson warns, “We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world and Wall Street has been transformed into a giant casino that is based on a massive web of debt, risk and leverage.“

The U.S. is arguably in a depression, but the government won't admit it because it makes the government look bad. Thanks to welfare programs, it doesn't seem as bad as the Great Depression. 25 percent of adults may be out of work, but they have welfare instead of Hoovervilles. Instead of starving Americans standing in food lines, we see Americans obese from living on food stamps. An economic depression occurs when there is greater than 10 percent contraction in economic activity over a period of 12 months or more. By contrast, recessions usually last 10 months. The longest recession in history until now lasted 16 months. This recession began in December 2007 and supposedly ended in June 2009, but the recovery is the weakest in history after a recession. If this is only a recession, it is an extremely severe one.



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.

Like Obama, President Herbert Hoover used a heavy-handed government interventionist approach to deal with the bad economy. Hoover was criticized by his successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for “reckless and extravagant spending” and “thinking we ought to control everything in Washington.” Hoover raised taxes and slapped a tariff on imports. The top rate on personal income taxes rose from 25 percent to 63 percent. Taxes were increased on businesses and tobacco, and new taxes were added to telegraph and telephone use and checks.

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 and reduced dependency on foreign oil. Americans are already taxed to the hilt, and their taxes will go up even higher with Obamacare, the biggest tax increase in history. Buried under taxes and regulations, businesses are unable to create new jobs. Businesses are fleeing the country or outsourcing labor, due to the burdensome regulations and demands unions have placed on them. Because of the unions inflating the cost of production, it has been easy for China to shut out our overpriced products. China manipulates its currency, undervaluing the yuan in order to boost exports and limit imports. China's trade surplus helped bring about the recession. When the crash comes, China may demand that the U.S. pay its debt, even if the U.S. does not have the money to pay it.



The Great Depression was triggered by the Federal Reserve's manipulation of money, the stock market crash and failure of financial institutions. The Federal Reserve manipulates interest rates by pumping new dollar bills into the economy through the banks. This lowers the interest rates, which prompts more risky investments. The Federal Reserve caused the last recession in this way, yet it continues to pump paper money into the economy, a manipulation known as “quantitative easing.” All of this Federal Reserve activity only postpones the inevitable crash, ensuring that it will be a big crash.

How will the financial meltdown happen? Limbaugh predicts California will file bankruptcy under Obama, then other states will follow suit. There will be a stock market crash and Americans will lose their savings. Banks will fail as people rush to take their money out, and those who don't get their money out early on will find their accounts frozen. There isn't enough money to bail out all the banks if they all fail. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in 1934 to avoid a repeat of banks failing during the Great Depression, but there is no longer enough real money left for massive bailouts. America's level of debt and deficit spending will cause other countries to lose confidence in the dollar, and they will start withdrawing their investments.



There will be rioting and major civil unrest. The violent Occupy Wall Street protesters are an indication that it is already starting. Economist John Williams predicts, “Trouble could range from turmoil in the food distribution chain and electronic cash and credit systems unable to handle rapidly changing circumstances, to political instability.” The government will finally be forced to choose what will no longer be funded.

Because of the global economy, the effects will be felt worldwide. Most European countries are already in a depression. Europe is headed for collapse. Countries like Spain, Greece and Italy have overvalued euros, making their economies uncompetitive. People are fleeing Spain, where unemployment is at 25 percent. They are pulling their money out of the banks and moving to England and other countries to find jobs. Seven percent of Spain's GDP was withdrawn from Spanish banks during July. Not only Spain is affected, banks are starting to collapse around the world, freezing customers' bank accounts. These things will happen in the U.S. too if our economy collapses.

What has brought the U.S. to the brink of economic collapse? Greed. As a result of the Federal Reserve flooding the market with paper money, interest rates artificially decreased, so people made investments and bought homes they couldn't afford, putting themselves way into debt. The banks continue to make reckless investments, despite the heavy regulations Obama has forced on the industry. When the Ponzi scheme fell apart, the government bailed out a few select banks and arbitrarily pumped billions of dollars into the economy, but it has only put a temporary band-aid on the problem.



If Obama wins reelection, Americans should pull their money out of the banks and stock market and put it into gold and other precious metals, where it will be much safer during a crash. Obama has indicated he will continue the failed policies of Herbert Hoover and FDR. Obama said he wants a “New New Deal,” referring to FDR's socialist programs. Under Hoover and FDR, those big government programs slowed the recovery and prolonged double-digit unemployment after the Great Depression.

Fortunately, it looks like Mitt Romney is going to win the presidential election. If anyone can reverse the runaway government spending, it will be Mitt Romney with his successful business and investment background in the private sector. President Ronald Reagan faced a worse economy than Obama did when he entered office, but by cutting taxes and streamlining regulations, annual economic growth rates increased up to 8 percent, quadruple Obama’s record now. America needs a transformation from a high-consuming, debt-ridden economy, to a manufacturing and exporting nation once again. Obama tells Americans the government will provide all kinds of things for them, even though it has been made painfully clear the government cannot afford to. Romney will tell Americans the truth, that greed is what got us into this situation. If Americans focus instead on taking pride in a day's work, the entire economy will turn around.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 31, 2012, 10:00:50 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/adp-revisions-2012-10


Jobs numbers being revised DOWN 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 01, 2012, 07:43:21 AM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204789304578088931525397120.html?mod=WSJ__MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth


Business owners closing down and getting out due to obama. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 12, 2012, 08:23:49 PM
Hostess closing Seattle bakery; 110 workers affected
 King5 ^


Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 11:00:31 PM by

Hostess Brands Inc. is permanently closing three bakeries following a nationwide strike by its bakers union.

The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread said Monday that the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products, and it is closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The facilities employ 627 workers.

Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 to protest cuts to wages and benefits under a new contract offer, which the union rejected in September. Union officials say the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year.

Hostess has argued that workers must make concessions as it tries to improve its financial position.


(Excerpt) Read more at king5.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Shockwave on November 12, 2012, 08:24:11 PM
Hostess closing Seattle bakery; 110 workers affected
 King5 ^


Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 11:00:31 PM by

Hostess Brands Inc. is permanently closing three bakeries following a nationwide strike by its bakers union.

The maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread said Monday that the strike has prevented it from producing and delivering products, and it is closing bakeries in Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The facilities employ 627 workers.

Thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 to protest cuts to wages and benefits under a new contract offer, which the union rejected in September. Union officials say the company stopped contributing to workers' pensions last year.

Hostess has argued that workers must make concessions as it tries to improve its financial position.


(Excerpt) Read more at king5.com ...

He returns.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 12, 2012, 08:40:57 PM
Welcome back ASSHOLE!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 12, 2012, 08:48:44 PM
Hipsters on food stamps (Meet the 0bama Voters)
 Salon ^ | 3/15/2010 | Jennifer Bleyer

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 3:47:47 PM by mojito

In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore — equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird — Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric....

“I have $80 bucks left!” Magida said. “I’m so happy!”

“I have $12,” Mak said with a frown.

The two friends weren’t tabulating the cash in their wallets but what remained of the monthly allotment on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards, the official new term for...food stamps.

Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding...to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she’s used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house...and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away....

Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month.

“I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing,” he said, fondly remembering a recent meal he’d prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. “I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it’s great that you can get anything.”


(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 12, 2012, 08:51:36 PM
Hipsters on food stamps (Meet the 0bama Voters)
 Salon ^ | 3/15/2010 | Jennifer Bleyer

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 3:47:47 PM by mojito

In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore — equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird — Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric....

“I have $80 bucks left!” Magida said. “I’m so happy!”

“I have $12,” Mak said with a frown.

The two friends weren’t tabulating the cash in their wallets but what remained of the monthly allotment on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards, the official new term for...food stamps.

Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding...to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she’s used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house...and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away....

Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month.

“I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing,” he said, fondly remembering a recent meal he’d prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. “I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it’s great that you can get anything.”


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


Did you suckle a lot of cock during your time away?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: tbombz on November 12, 2012, 11:33:31 PM

Picking on foodstamps is pretty lame. Its a government expenditure that results in more economic activity than it costs and its the our only welfare program that is based completely on preventing the starvation and death of the poor.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 13, 2012, 01:11:00 AM
Picking on foodstamps is pretty lame. Its a government expenditure that results in more economic activity than it costs and its the our only welfare program that is based completely on preventing the starvation and death of the poor.

When your right, your right.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on November 13, 2012, 03:19:55 AM
Hipsters on food stamps (Meet the 0bama Voters)
 Salon ^ | 3/15/2010 | Jennifer Bleyer

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 3:47:47 PM by mojito

In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore — equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird — Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric....

“I have $80 bucks left!” Magida said. “I’m so happy!”

“I have $12,” Mak said with a frown.

The two friends weren’t tabulating the cash in their wallets but what remained of the monthly allotment on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards, the official new term for...food stamps.

Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding...to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she’s used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house...and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away....

Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month.

“I’m sort of a foodie, and I’m not going to do the ‘living off ramen’ thing,” he said, fondly remembering a recent meal he’d prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. “I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it’s great that you can get anything.”


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


So he got 200$ for food for a month.

You have a problem with someone getting 200$ ???

How fucking low is your budget 33... ?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on November 13, 2012, 03:22:52 AM
Picking on foodstamps is pretty lame. Its a government expenditure that results in more economic activity than it costs and its the our only welfare program that is based completely on preventing the starvation and death of the poor.

Agree.

And how low a salary does our "lawyer" work for that he complains that people get 200$ for food ???

And how about the believers here are you really complaining over 200 bucks? WTF
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 03:51:11 AM
Comcast's NBCUniversal unit lays off 500 employees: source (Get rid of them all!)
reuters ^ | 11/12/2012 | staff
Posted on November 13, 2012 6:17:57 AM EST by tobyhill

Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal entertainment unit is laying off about 500 employees at cable channels, Jay Leno's late-night TV show and the Universal Pictures movie studio, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

The cuts add up to about 1.5 percent of the company's workforce of 30,000 employees, the source said.

A large portion of the layoffs occurred at the G4 cable channel, a network about video games and the gaming culture, the source said. Two of the network's shows were recently canceled.

Other layoffs occurred about two months ago at "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," which cut about two dozen crew members.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 03:52:35 AM
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Time running out for J.C. Penny
Financial Post ^ | 11/12/2012 | Jonathan Ratner
Posted on November 13, 2012 6:34:59 AM EST by tobyhill

J.C. Penny Co. was hit with a downgrade at Credit Suisse as the retailer’s sales continue to slow.

Analyst Michael Exstein lowered his rating to underperform from neutral and cut his target price to US$15 from US$25 after the company reported its fifth straight quarterly loss on Friday.

Mr. Exstein noted that J.C. Penny’s cash position continues to dwindle and it is expected to generate only a minimal amount of EBITDA in 2012 and 2013. The company has already sold US$525-million in non-core assets this year.

“Time is no longer on J.C. Penny’s side, and going into the fourth quarter and beyond, we are concerned that J.C. Penny’s technological overhaul of both its back and front end systems could serve to create an even more challenging internal environment than is the case today,” the analyst told clients.

(Excerpt) Read more at business.financialpost.c om ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 03:54:43 AM
Kroger to Slash Hourly Workers to Avoid Obamacare Penalties
Flopping Aces ^ | 11/4/2012 | Doug Ross
Posted on November 12, 2012 3:05:46 PM EST by tobyhill

Operative Faith reveals that Kroger will soon join the ranks of Durden Restaurants and slash the hours of its non-exempt (hourly) workers to avoid millions in Obamacare penalties.

To give you a sense of Kroger’s size and importance, its sales last year were $90 billion and it employs nearly 350,000 people. Most of its jobs are hourly and the vast majority of workers are neither millionaires or billionaires.

Faith is a mid-level manager at Kroger and reports the dire news:

Last week we found out that, beginning in January, any employee who is not full-time at that point,will be limited to 28 hours per week and all new hires will be subject to the same policy.

Currently, part-time employees can work as many hours as needed.

Many Kroger employees, I believe, will be shocked to find out about this new policy.

(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 12:35:41 PM
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com


Damn! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 12:37:50 PM
IBD/TIPP Poll: U.S. Consumer Confidence Nosedives
 TIPP Online ^ | 11-13-12

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 2:55:56 PM


The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index declined by 5.4 points, or 10%, in November, posting 48.6 vs. 54 in October. The index is 0.4 points above its 12-month average of 48.2, 4.2 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 1.3 points below its all-time average of 49.9.

Note: Index readings above 50 indicate optimism; below 50 indicate pessimism.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has a good track record of foreshadowing the confidence indicators put out later each month by the University of Michigan and The Conference Board. IBD/TIPP conducted the national poll of 606 adults from November 8 to November 11. The margin of error is +/-4.0 percentage points.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has three key components. This month, two of the three components declined.

• The Six-Month Economic Outlook, a measure of how consumers feel about the economy’s prospects in the next six months, dropped 12.3 points, or 20.8%, to 46.8. The sub-index was 32.1 when the economy entered the last recession in December 2007.

• The Personal Financial Outlook, a measure of how Americans feel about their own finances in the next six months, declined 5.0 points, or 8.3%, to 55.5.

• Confidence in Federal Economic Policies, a proprietary IBD/TIPP measure of views on how government economic policies are working rose 1.1 points, or 2.6%, to reach 43.5.

"Last month economic optimism surged, mainly driven by Republican hopes of taking the White House. But optimism among Republicans fell sharply in November after Romney’s loss. Also, recent stock market losses, gas prices and high unemployment are hurting confidence,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner.


(Excerpt) Read more at tipponline.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Option D on November 13, 2012, 12:38:52 PM
IBD/TIPP Poll: U.S. Consumer Confidence Nosedives
 TIPP Online ^ | 11-13-12

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 2:55:56 PM


The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index declined by 5.4 points, or 10%, in November, posting 48.6 vs. 54 in October. The index is 0.4 points above its 12-month average of 48.2, 4.2 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 1.3 points below its all-time average of 49.9.

Note: Index readings above 50 indicate optimism; below 50 indicate pessimism.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has a good track record of foreshadowing the confidence indicators put out later each month by the University of Michigan and The Conference Board. IBD/TIPP conducted the national poll of 606 adults from November 8 to November 11. The margin of error is +/-4.0 percentage points.

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has three key components. This month, two of the three components declined.

• The Six-Month Economic Outlook, a measure of how consumers feel about the economy’s prospects in the next six months, dropped 12.3 points, or 20.8%, to 46.8. The sub-index was 32.1 when the economy entered the last recession in December 2007.

• The Personal Financial Outlook, a measure of how Americans feel about their own finances in the next six months, declined 5.0 points, or 8.3%, to 55.5.

• Confidence in Federal Economic Policies, a proprietary IBD/TIPP measure of views on how government economic policies are working rose 1.1 points, or 2.6%, to reach 43.5.

"Last month economic optimism surged, mainly driven by Republican hopes of taking the White House. But optimism among Republicans fell sharply in November after Romney’s loss. Also, recent stock market losses, gas prices and high unemployment are hurting confidence,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner.


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


LANDSLIDE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 13, 2012, 07:15:26 PM
Skip to comments.
45,000 laid off since the election
 Various, mostly Daily Job Cuts ^ | 11/13/12 | nully

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 10:04:30 PM by null and void

Since the election:

 (Updated 11/13/12 at 7:00M PST)

Layoff numbers





 Organization

# Laid off

Running total

Sector

Notes



AMD

400

400

Electronics





American Coal

54

454

Energy





Ameridose

790

1244

Health





Art Gallery of Windsor

12

1256

Art Gallery

Canada



Associated Milk Producers Inc

130

1386

Agriculture





ATI

172

1558

Education





Atlantic Club

80

1638

Gaming





Atlantic Lotto Corp

16

1654

Gaming





Bartikowsky Jewelers

25

1679

Retail

Business closure



Bayou Cane

7

1686

Government

Firefighters



Brake Parts LLC

75

1761

Automotive





Bristol-Myers Squibb

479

2240

Health





Career Education Corp

900

3140

Education





Caterpillar

100

3240

Construction Eq





Center for Hospice and Palliative Care

40

3280

Health





Cigna

1300

4580

Health





Citigroup

100

4680

Banking





Commerzbank AG

6000

10680

Finacial Services

Cuts in Germany



Community Newspaper Holdings Inc

21

10701

Media





Corning

100

10801

Manufacturing





Covidien

595

11396

Health





Crouse Hospital Syracuse

70

11466

Health





CVPH

17

11483

Health





Dana Holding Corp

7

11490

Automotive





dapd

100

11590

Media

Cuts in Gemany



DuPont

64

11654

Defense

Kevlar/Nomex plant. Planning 1500 layoffs 2013.



Energizer

1500

13154

Energy





Ericsson

1550

14704

Consumer Electronics

Cuts in Sweden



Exide

150

14854

Energy





Gameforge Berlin

20

14874

Online Games

Cuts in Germany



Glens Falls Hospital

29

14903

Health





Groupon

600

15503

Consumer





Hamilton FD

17

15520

Government

Firefighters



Hawker Beechcraft

410

15930

Aerospace





Hill-Rom

200

16130

Med Eq/Dev Mfg





Hostess Brands

627

16757

Food





Husqvarna

600

17357

Tools

Cuts in Sweden



Iberia

7000

24357

Airline

Cuts in Spain



ING

2350

26707

Finacial Services





Iron Range

4

26711

Non-profit

Battered women



Kinetic Concepts

427

27138

Health





Lightyear Network Solutions

14

27152

Software/internet





Lower Bucks Hospital

30

27182

Health





Lulu

9

27191

Publishing

More to come



Majestic Star Cassino

80

27271

Entertainment





Medtronic

500

27771

Med Eq/Dev Mfg





Mills Manufacturing

68

27839

Defense





Mississippi County AR

12

27851

Government





Momentive Performance Materials

150

28001

Chemicals





Monitor Group

235

28236

Consultancy





Murray Energy Corporation

48

28284

Energy





NBCUniversal

500

28784

Media





New Energy

40

28824

Energy





OCE

135

28959

Office equip





Penn Refrigeration

40

28999

Commercial Service





PerkinElmer

66

29065







Pratt & Whitney Rockedyne

100

29165

Aerospace





Providence Journal

23

29188

Media





Research in Motion

200

29388

Consumer Electronics





SAS

6000

35388

Airline

Cuts in Scandinavian countries



Smith & Nephew

104

35492

Med Eq/Dev Mfg





Southeastern Container

15

35507

Consumer





SRA International

222

35729

IT Federal contractor





St Jude Medical

300

36029

Health





Stryker

96

36125

Med Eq/Dev Mfg





Sun Media - newspaper div

500

36625

Media





TE Connectivity

620

37245

Electronics





Teco Coal Corporation

90

37335

Energy





The Commercial Appeal

11

37346

Media





TMX Group, Ltd.

100

37446

Finacial Services

Cuts in Canada



TooeleCounty, UT

22

37468

Government





TurboCare

88

37556

Energy





U.S. Cellular

980

38536

Electronics





Umatilla Chemical Depot

34

38570

Defense





UtahAmerican Energy

102

38672

Energy





Vestas

3000

41672

Energy





Welch Allyn

275

41947

Med Eq Mfg





West Ridge Mine

102

42049

Energy





Westinghouse

17

42066

Hi Tech Services





Westinghouse Anniston

50

42116

Defense





Wingspan Portfolio Advisors

459

42575

Finacial Services





Wright-Patterson

115

42690

Defense





Xerox

2500

45190

Office equip





Yakima Regional Medical Center

10

45200

Health






































































































Layoffs without exact number specified





 Organization

% Laid off

# Affected

Sector

Notes



Boeing Defense, Space & Security

30



Defense

Executive Staff



Dana





Automotive

"A large number"



EMD Millipore

2



Biotech





Plexus Corp





Manufacturing





Saugerties, NY





Government





SCA





Paper products





Slidell, LA





Government

"Will try to spread equally"



Standard Bank Group

10



Banking

London



United Blood Services

10



Health

All staff



Wilkes-Barre, PA





Government

Firefighters



Atlantic City casinos





Gaming










































Worker Reduction In Scheduled Time (to below ObamaCare threshold)





 Organization

% WRIST

# Affected

Sector

Notes



Darden Restaurants





Food service





JANCOA Janitorial Services





Janitorial Service





Kroger





Grocery





Applebee's





Food service





Papa John's





Food service
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 14, 2012, 06:32:18 AM
Big Miss In Retail Sales Paints Grim Picture For Holiday Shopping
zero hedge ^


Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 9:24:34 AM


Here we go with the "but, but, Sandy" excuses. The just announced October retail sales tumbled, with their worst miss of expectations since May 2010, and the first sequential decline since June: printing at -0.3% for both the headline and the 'ex autos and gas', on expectations of a -0.2% and +0.4% rise. Ignoring for a second that the Commerce Department said that Hurricane Sandy had both positive (remember those massive lines in various stores ahead of Sandy) and negative impacts on retail sales, it would be truly inconceivable for the sellside Wall Street consensus of diploma'ed PhDs, which knew about Sandy's impact on retail sales well in advance, and thus could adjust its numbers, to actually, you know, adjust its numbers. Either way there is no way to spin the longer term major store sales trend (last chart), which shows that the US consumer, out of money, out of credit, and out of savings is entering the holiday season with little to zero disposable spending power.


(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 14, 2012, 11:52:07 AM
Millions More Americans In Poverty Than Previously Estimated: Census Bureau
By HOPE YEN 11/14/12 12:33 PM ET EST


www.huffingtonpost.com




WASHINGTON -- A different way of calculating America's poor by taking into account medical costs and work-related expenses finds a higher total than the government's official count.

This measure is aimed at providing a fuller picture of poverty. It found there are 49.7 million poor people in the country – or 16.1 percent of the population. That compares with the 46.2 million, or 15 percent, as reported in September in the Census Bureau's official count.

According to the newly developed measure, those more likely to live in poverty are people 65 or older, urbanites and Hispanics – the result of medical expenses and higher living costs in cities.

California had the highest share of poor people, followed by Arizona and Florida. In the official tally, it's Mississippi, New Mexico and Arizona.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 03:48:22 AM
Obama Donor's Corporation Lays Off Employees Due to ObamaCare
Breitbart's Big Government ^ | November 13, 2012 | Dr. Susan Berry
Posted on November 15, 2012 1:37:56 AM EST by 2ndDivisionVet

Stryker Corporation has announced that it will close its facility in Orchard Park, New York, eliminating 96 jobs next month. It will also counter the medical device tax in Obamacare by eliminating 5% of their global workforce, an estimated 1,170 positions.

Jon Stryker is heir to the Stryker Corporation, one of the largest medical device and equipment manufacturers in the world. Stryker’s grandfather was the surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed. The company now sells $8.3 billion worth of hospital beds, artificial joints, medical cameras, and medical software every year.

Stryker, a member of the Forbes 400 list, was one of the top five donors to the Obama campaign. Having donated $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC, Stryker also gave $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the Democrat Party.

Prior to the 2012 election, Stryker contributed millions to help Democrat candidates in his home state of Michigan. He also gave nearly $250 million to groups supporting gay rights, transgenderism, and the conservation of apes. In January, his Arcus Foundation donated $23 million to Kalamazoo College for an endowment to fund a center for social justice leadership.

Stryker's corporation is part of an industry that has been a big loser at the hands of Obamacare. Having refused to get on board with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee when the law was being crafted in 2009, the medical device industry was punished with an excise tax of 2.3% of their revenues, regardless of whether they make a profit...

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 05:44:22 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/initial-jobless-claims-november-15-2012-2012-11


lol!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 08:19:14 AM
From your link.

"Economists aren't too worried about this number.  They're blaming the jump on Hurricane Sandy."




Its always an excuse of some sort from these clowns. 

We are heading right don the fng toilet.  Obama and Big Ben printed just enough to get him through the election and now we are going to feel the pain.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 08:34:39 AM
"The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits rose to 2.6 percent in the week ended Nov. 3 from 2.5 percent. Thirty-four states and territories reported an increase in claims, while 19 reported a decrease. "


Weak before also revised up 5k. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 08:45:23 AM
The Election Is Over And Philly Fed Plunges
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/15/2012 - 10:13 Market Conditions Philly Fed Reality

Let's see if Bush Sandy can be blamed for not only the Empire Fed, whose employment and expectations components plunged, for the Initial Claims, which soared and missed expectations by the second most in the past 13 years, but also for the Philly Fed, which just plunged from 5.7 to -10.7, far below consensus of 2.0, the 6th miss of the last 8 (except for last month of course), and returning to solidly negative territory after last month's "miraculous" pre-election surge. And while virtually all subcomponents plunged, the one that stood out to the upside was Prices Paid, as the margin collapse is set to ravage all companies not only in the greater Philadelphia region but everywhere else soon as reality, deferred for the duration of the Obama reelection campaign, slams everyone in the stomach.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: magikusar on November 15, 2012, 09:13:40 AM
why do mcdonalds and other wankers get to opt out?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 09:36:33 AM
GameStop Is Planning To Close 200 Stores
 


Ashley Lutz|20 minutes ago|87|

 


Gamestop plans to close 200 stores, the company announced on its Q3 earnings call with analysts.



 
The videogame retailer reported today that sales fell 8.3 percent. CEO J. Paul Raines blamed the drop on “the longevity of the current console cycle and the difficult comparison of major new software titles released during the third quarter of 2012."
 
While 200 stores is substantial, GameStop still has a huge footprint, with more than 6,000 locations.
 
It's not the only retailer struggling with the downturn in the video game industry.
 
Toys 'R' Us CEO Jerry Storch told us last month that sales are down because video games are flopping, down 30 percent in the past year.
 
"There just hasn't been much excitement in that category and it drags the rest of sales down," Storch said. "It's not that the internet is taking away our business, which is a popular story."
 
DON'T MISS: 18 Facts About Walmart That Will Blow Your Mind >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-close-stores-2012-11#ixzz2CJVZBY7X
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on November 15, 2012, 09:54:37 AM
GameStop Is Planning To Close 200 Stores


See, I see this store as something along the lines of Blockbuster... an outdated model that is better served using internet, and given the advent of Redbox, you can rent games and try first - thus limiting the number of re-sells.

Plus, their overhead is so high that they only give $9 per game for a $60 game.  Better to re-sell online.

I guess if we're going to blame every business that is outsmarted by the marketplace for 8 years on obama, that's cool then.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 10:03:22 AM
Hostess to liquidate if bakers' strike continues through Thursday
 cnn money ^ | 11/14/2012 | By James O'Toole

Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 7:45:23 PM by tobyhill

Hostess Brands said Wednesday that it will go into liquidation unless bakers striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court return to work by the end of the day Thursday.

"We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement.

The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The bakers' union represents around 5,000.

The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but has called the concessions demanded in the new contract "outrageous."

"Our members are on strike because they have had enough," bakers' union president Frank Hurt said in a statement Tuesday. "They are not willing to take draconian wage and benefit cuts on top of the significant concessions they made in 2004 and give up their pension so that the Wall Street vulture capitalists in control of this company can walk away with millions of dollars."


(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 10:09:27 AM
TI Cuts 1,700 Jobs, Exits Mobile Chip Market
 Information Week ^


Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:10:49

By Paul McDougall InformationWeek

November 15, 2012 11:37 AM

Texas Instruments said it will lay off about 1,700 workers, or about 5% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring that will see it exit the market for mobile chips that power smartphones and tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The company said it would instead focus its OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) business on embedded systems that power business tools and other products that don't evolve as rapidly as mobile gadgets.


(Excerpt) Read more at informationweek.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 10:20:11 AM
U.S. Postal Service on a ‘Tightrope’ Lost $15.9 Billion

By Angela Greiling Keane - Nov 15, 2012 10:50 AM ET.



U.S. Postal Service Faces Default Without Action

The U.S. Postal Service said its net loss last year widened to $15.9 billion, more than the $15 billion it had projected, as mail volume continued to drop, falling 5 percent.


Mail sits at the U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center in Merrifield, Virginia. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
.
Without action by Congress, the service will run out of cash on Oct. 15, 2013, after it makes a required workers compensation payment to the U.S. Labor Department and before revenue typically jumps with holiday-season mailing, Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett said today.

The service, whose fiscal year ends Sept. 30, lost $5.1 billion a year earlier. It announced the 2012 net loss at a meeting at its Washington headquarters.

“We are walking a financial tightrope,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said at the meeting. “Will we ever stop delivering the mail? It will never happen. We are simply too important to the economy and the flow of commerce.”

The Postal Service uses about $250 million a day to operate and will have less than four days of cash on hand by the end of the fiscal year, Corbett said.

The service is asking Congress to enact legislation before it adjourns this year that would allow the Postal Service to spread future retirees’ health-benefit payments over more years, stop Saturday mail delivery, and more easily close post offices and processing plants.

Over Edge

“The Postal Service is facing a fiscal cliff of its own and any unanticipated drop in mail volumes could send the agency over the edge,” said Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, whose members include Bank of America Corp. and EBay Inc. (EBAY) “If Congress fails to act, there could be postal slowdowns or shutdowns that would have catastrophic consequences for the 8 million private sector workers whose jobs depend on the mail.”

Without legislative change, the service expects its losses to continue in 2013, with a forecast loss of $7.6 billion for the year that started Oct. 1, Corbett said.

“There is no margin of error,” given the low level of cash, he said.

The service is trying to cut costs by giving retirement- eligible workers a financial incentive to retire. Those employees have a Dec. 3 deadline to accept the offer, with $200 million budgeted for the incentive costs in fiscal 2013.

Health Benefits

Next year’s loss forecast includes a $5.6 billion payment due to the U.S. Treasury for future retiree health benefits, Corbett told reporters after the meeting. The 2012 loss includes the $5.6 billion payment to the fund that the service defaulted on Sept. 30, and the previous year’s $5.5 billion obligation that was due Aug. 1 and also not paid. Because that year’s payment was deferred, the 2011 loss doesn’t include any pre- funding amount.

Mail volume for the year fell to 159.9 billion pieces, led by an 8 percent decrease in single-piece first-class items, the most profitable kind of mail that includes letters, cards and bill payments.

Operating revenue fell less than 1 percent to $65.2 billion for the year as the service cut work hours while delivering less mail.

The service’s outlook worsened this week, when the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said the service’s projected surplus in a government-worker retirement account has fallen to $2.6 billion, less than one-quarter of the previous year’s estimate, due to lower interest rates. It found another retirement account now has a $17.8 billion shortfall instead of a previously estimated surplus. The service has proposed tapping the surpluses to help cover its losses.

“Relying on a temporary, projected surplus to keep USPS solvent is a risk no matter which set of assumptions OPM is directed to use,” said Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for House Government and Reform Committee Chairman Darrel Issa, a California Republican who is a sponsor of a postal overhaul measure pending in the House. “It is no substitute for the actual cost-cutting USPS needs to do to find real savings.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 10:33:39 AM
I don't think the post office is Obamas issue.

They live on stamps and other shit. Not taxes anyway. Never have.

If people send email and message on Facebook there will be less packages and letters.

The economy is bad and less people are sendin packages, parcel, etc.   They also have a terrible benes cost problem.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 11:13:25 AM
Minnesota employers cut 8,100 jobs in October
 Star Tribune ^ | 11-15


Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012


Minnesota employers cut 8,100 jobs statewide in October, by far the worst monthly job report of the year.

A massive positive revision to the September numbers helped offset the loss, but the state’s employment and economic development agency, DEED, reported major losses in administrative support and lower-paid business services jobs, which shed 4,800 jobs. State government lost 1,900 jobs, mostly in education, and durable goods manufacturing lost 800 jobs.

“Employment data for October does certainly reinforce the concerns we’ve expressed here, that the recovery, while it does continue, is a fragile one,” said Steve Hine, DEED’s labor market economist. “We’ll be paying a great deal of attention to Congress as they grapple with the so-called fiscal cliff.”

Hine said the weakness in business-to-business service jobs is a bad sign for the economy, even though many of the positions are on the low end of the pay spectrum and a large portion of them are temporary positions.

“You could see it as a leading indicator,” he said.


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


________________________ ________________________ _______________


HOPE AND FUCKING CHANGE!!!!!


I warned everyone time and time and time and time again.  Double Dip baby. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 11:33:35 AM
Census: U.S. Poverty Rate Spikes, Nearly 50 Million Americans Affected
 CBS DC ^ | November 15, 2012

Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2012 2:27:26 PM by george76

Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive.

New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million.


(Excerpt) Read more at washington.cbslocal.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 12:00:38 PM
President Obama Is Why Investors Aren’t Buying Stocks: Schoenberger
By Jeff Macke | Breakout – 2 hours 53 minutes ago.. .


 
"President Obama; that's why people aren't buying stocks," says Todd Schoenberger, managing principal at The BlackBay Group.
 
Schoenberger is aping conventional wisdom. With stocks down 5% since the votes were tallied it's hard to argue that something in the results spooked investors. The question is what it was, since most of the results were exactly as expected. Schoenberger suggests it's a matter of there being no meaningful changes in the roster at any political level.
 
"Bottom line is that you have a Congress right now that can't seem to work with the President of the United States." he says in the attached clip. With the President back in office that gridlock unleashes an assortment of woes scaring off traders enough to cause the market to rollover without anyone buying the dip.
 
Related: Post-Election Sell Off: It's All About Obama Says Peter Schiff
 
Whatever the merits of the arguments Schoenberger rattles off four specific reasons why traders aren't buying stocks. The claims are his own but there's nothing in his list you won't hear on any trading floor over the last week:
 
1. Companies aren't going to hire with the increased expenses associated with Obamacare
 
2. People aren't going to have money for discretionary spending when taxes going up for the 1%
 
3. Small business owners won't expand
 
4. Higher tax rates for individuals making over $250,000 a year will result in a general lack of ambition.
 
"There's no reason right now to work hard and actually do something with your life, to actually become a huge success," Schoenberger wails, "because, if you are, you're the villain and villains are meant for Batman and Spiderman movies, not for America right now."
 
Apparently we all have some time to kill. Spend some of yours by letting us know whether or not you're buying the dip and what the government has to do with it. Comment below or visit us on Facebook!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 12:01:59 PM
Post-Election Sell Off: It’s All About Obama Says Peter Schiff
By Matt Nesto | Breakout – Wed, Nov 7, 2012 2:33 PM EST..
.




 
Talk about a short celebration. Just eight hours after President Obama walked onto a Chicago stage to give his victory speech to an adoring crowd, his re-election party would come to a crashing close. As the opening bell rang on Wall Street, investors, who only days ago sought certainty, had suddenly become skeptics. The thought of four more years was suddenly not so appealing, as stocks posted their biggest one-day drop in a year.
 
When asked if the country was on track to be better off four years from now, Peter Schiff, author of The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy, answers an unequivocal "no."
 
"If Obama thinks that Bush dealt him a weak hand, wait til we see how much weaker the hand is going to be that Obama deals his successor," Schiff says in the attached video. "We're going to be in much worse shape.''
 
How so? Well, in many ways if you follow the thinking of this well known, articulate and published uber-Bear. By Schiff's calculations, "the stock market is correct in going down" today since he says higher taxes on companies (at the corporate and/or individual level) makes those companies less valuable. So lower stocks is one area he predicts.
 
Being deeper in debt is another. In fact, he says we'll be at $20 trillion in a couple of years, and going higher from there. And this will bring upon the country's next looming crisis.
 
"I think what's going to happen in Obama's second term is going to be a currency crisis; a sovereign debt crisis. It's going to be the same thing that is happening in Europe or Greece," he says, "but it's going to be a lot worse."
 
Also, this noted gold bug is forecasting higher unemployment, higher food and energy prices, as well as sharply higher interest rates. He brushes aside the fact that a current flight to quality is benefiting both Treasuries and the dollar right now.
 
"A few years ago, people wanted to buy Greek bonds too. People want to do a lot of foolish things," Schiff fires back. "There's a lot of fools out there but eventually reality is going to set in and we're going to have a monetary crisis. We're going to have a bond crisis. And we're heading right for it."
 
This is what Schiff call the real fiscal cliff. If he's right, you've been warned. If he's wrong, it's a buying opportunity. Give us your thoughts and feedback down below.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 12:04:15 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/bernanke-housing-market-speech-atlanta-2012-11



LMFAO!!!!!   Now Big Ben expresses "concern"   - LOL!!!!!

PUMP AND DUMP SCAM W OBAMA AND BERNAKE 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 12:07:20 PM
The Post office was losing revenue every year.

First Class mail volume (which is protected by legal monopoly) peaked in 2001 and has declined 29% from 1998 to 2008, due to the increasing use of email and the World Wide Web for correspondence and business transactions.

That's all Obama?

No - but the horrible economy that did not, is not, and will not recover so long as he is there is making things a lot worse. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 12:27:27 PM
The FHA is Blowing Up: Bad News for the Housing Market
 libertyblitzkrieg.com ^ | 11/15/2012 | Michael Krieger



A very important article came out from the Wall Street Journal yesterday titled “FHA Nears Need for Taxpayer Funds,” and it outlines the serious financial problems facing the Federal Housing Administration. For those that are unaware or need a refresher, the FHA has been the key element to the phony “housing recovery” the government has been trying to create. In the wake of the collapse of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blew up and what was left to pick up the pieces was the FHA. No private player would issue loans with down payments of 3%, but this was no problem for the FHA!

Interestingly enough, a lot of the subprime borrowers that blew up the housing market the last time became the primary customers of the FHA. Let’s see, 3% down and subprime borrowers…what could possibly go wrong?! From the WSJ:



The Federal Housing Administration is expected to report this week it could exhaust its reserves because of rising mortgage delinquencies, according to people familiar with the agency’s finances, a development that could result in the agency needing to draw on taxpayer funding for the first time in its 78-year history.
 Together with Fannie and Freddie, federal agencies are backing nearly nine in 10 new mortgages.

The FHA accounted for one third of loans used to purchase homes last year among owner occupants.

Though the agency guarantees fewer mortgages than either Fannie or Freddie, it now has more seriously delinquent loans than either of the mortgage-finance giants. Overall, the FHA insured nearly 739,000 loans that were 90 days or more past due or in foreclosure at the end of September, an increase of more than 100,000 loans from a year ago. That represents about 9.6% of its $1.08 trillion in mortgages guaranteed.

 This is a big deal. The FHA is already in trouble despite a miraculous “housing recovery” and we haven’t even hit a severe cyclical economic slowdown yet, which is almost certain to occur in 2013. What shambles do you think the housing market will be in once that happens and the last backstop to housing is broke? You can kiss this “housing recovery” goodbye. I think home prices nationally could fall 25%+ from here. For more detailed thoughts on housing read my piece from April titled Thought of the Day – House Flipping in Colorado.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on November 15, 2012, 02:58:26 PM
No - but the horrible economy that did not, is not, and will not recover so long as he is there is making things a lot worse. 

There is no alternative Romneys tax cuts and military spending makes Obama better for the economy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 06:25:13 PM
Posted on November 15, 2012 6:47:54 PM EST by Obadiah

The Federal Reserve is asking 30 big banks to make sure their capital can withstand a deep recession in which the unemployment rate rises to 12%.

The Fed, which first required big banks to conduct “stress tests” in 2009, laid out three scenarios lenders have to test against. The goal is to ensure that the firms have enough capital to continue operations during stressful economic times.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 15, 2012, 06:26:07 PM
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Fisker's Big Fundraiser is Going Out of Business
National Legal & Policy Center ^ | November 15, 2012 | Paul Chesser
Posted on November 15, 2012 6:07:22 PM EST by jazusamo



The venture finance operation that raised money for crony capitalist investorsKleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, and their green tech firms like electric car companyFisker Automotive ($193 million paid in stimulus loan guarantees) and fuel cell manufacturerBloom Energy, is shutting down, according to a Fortune report.

Advanced Equities, Inc. had recently been reprimanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission and by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for misleading investors and for breach of contract with its brokers. Fortune cited sources that said AEI brokers were told last week that Monday would be their last day. Crain’s Chicago Business confirmed that AEI was shutting down its broker-dealer business following its regulatory troubles, which “made it difficult to run the business.”

The co-founders of the Chicago-based firm, Dwight Badger and Keith Daubenspeck, received a sharp reprimand and severe fines from the SEC in September for delivering allegedly false information to potential funders in attempts to gain private equity investment. In two separate offerings in 2009 and 2010, Badger (who left the firm in June) was accused of boasting to investors that the financial condition and business orders for an Advanced Equities’ client – revealed by Crain’s to be Bloom Energy – far exceeded reality.

And in June this year Advanced Equities was ordered by a FINRA arbitration panel to pay $4.5 million to one of its former brokers, John Galinsky, over breach of contract claims. Bloom Energy was one of the companies that Galinsky raised capital for, without receiving commission, according to FINRA. After the ruling was announced, Advanced Equities reached an agreement with Badger for him to leave the firm.

“The panel finds that Respondents (including Badger and Daubenspeck) exhibited a reckless disregard for the warrant rights of the broker and breached their fiduciary duties to the broker,” the FINRA dispute resolution said.

AEI, according to GreentechMedia.com , has been sometimes referred to as a “bucket shop,” which is not complimentary. The co-founders were also accused in a 2008 Forbes Magazine article of “foisting junky startups on investors.”

“The problem with this picture is that in vaulting (Advanced Equities) to its high perch in the VC world, Daubenspeck and Badger have left a wake of aggrieved customers, furious former employees, lawsuits and more than their share of busted startups,” Forbes reported. “At least 18 former clients have filed arbitration complaints accusing the firm of wrongdoing. Separately, six brokers have alleged that AE stiffed them for millions of dollars.”

In February an investor sued Fisker and Advanced Equities for their alleged failure to perform fiduciary duties and for fraud . Daniel Wray alleged that after he bought $210,000 of preferred stock between 2009 and 2011, Fisker and Advanced Equities demanded more than $83,000 “due to Fisker’s urgent need for equity capital,” or else he would lose privileges that came with his purchase of earlier stock, which would be diluted.

“The lawsuit says Fisker and…Advanced Equities Inc., knew their promises to him were false all along,” reported the Orange County Register. “The suit seeks restitution, compensatory and punitive damages from Fisker and Advanced Equities.”

Why Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins would have anything to do with Badger and Daubenspeck as it sought to raise money for pet projects like Fisker and Bloom Energy is unknown. Kleiner’s best-known partner is former Vice President Al Gore, who is also a supporter of Fisker and purchased one of its first Karma models. In news reports Fisker has boasted raising more than $1 billion in private funds, and Bloom has been closely allied with Kleiner Perkins with hundreds of millions of dollars raised.

Another linchpin between Kleiner, Bloom and Fisker is John Doerr, who serves on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness . Doerr and his Kleiner Perkins colleagues have donated well over $2.6 million to candidates and political action committees, favoring Democrats over Republicans by a very wide margin, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Doerr also hosted a dinner for President Obama at his estate in February 2011 with several other high-tech executives, according to ABC News.

Somehow amidst these dubious actors and Obama cronies the analysts at the Department of Energy found Fisker worthy of a $529-million stimulus loan guarantee. Ever since the car company has experienced an almost comical (it would be hilarious, if taxpayer money wasn’t at stake) series of blunders, including: tworecalls;layoffs; vehiclefires; an unfulfilled promise to manufacture cars at a former General Motors plant in Delaware; state taxpayers paying the utility bills for that empty plant; and the aforementioned investor lawsuit and investigation of Advanced Equities, Fisker’s primary fundraiser. The crowning blow wasConsumer Reports’ determination in September that the Fisker Karma is the worst luxury sedan on the U.S. market.

And now Fortune has also reported that subpoenas of Advanced Equities may exist with regard to its fundraising efforts for “another well-known clean tech company.” Considering that pretty much every other company Badger and Daubenspeck helped is “unknown,” those troubles could involve Fisker.

Obviously the who, how and why of stimulus loan applicants’ private fundraising practices were not part of the due diligence review process by DOE. Advanced Equities is now shutting down, and DOE cut off Fisker’s loan after paying out $193 million due to its shortcomings, yetPresident Obama has promised more government money for renewable schemes in his second term.

Watch for more cronies and those from the bottom of the “bucket shops” to capitalize.

Paul Chesser is an associate fellow for the National Legal and Policy Center and publishes CarolinaPlottHound.com , an aggregator of North Carolina news.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 16, 2012, 02:13:28 AM
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CCAC cutting hours to avoid health-care mandate
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 11/15/12
Posted on November 16, 2012 12:08:45 AM EST by knak

Community College of Allegheny County will trim hours for about 400 of its part-time workers to avoid having to provide them with health insurance coverage, the school's president, Alex Johnson, said Thursday. Mr. Johnson told members of Allegheny County Council that complying with the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare, would have cost CCAC $6 million annually for part-timers who have been working at least 30 hours per week. Affected employees include both adjunct faculty and maintenance workers. CCAC has an annual operating budget of about $110 million and is facing reductions in county support for 2013 that could be as large as $2.3 million. Mr. Johnson advised council of the plan to cut part-timers' hours as part of CCAC efforts to keep its costs under control.

(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 16, 2012, 05:40:18 AM
The Demise Of The Twinkie: Hostess Files Motion To Liquidate
 Wall Street Journal ^

Posted on Friday, November 16, 2012 8:13:37 AM


The Demise Of The Twinkie: Hostess Files Motion To Liquidate

By Tom Gara

And that’s that: Hostess Brands, maker of Twinkies, Wonder Bread and more, announced this morning it has filed a motion with bankruptcy court to start liquidating the company immediately. A huge number of jobs are soon to be lost.

“Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce,” said CEO Gregory F. Rayburn in the statement, “and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

In a letter posted on a new site set up to communicate with employees and suppliers through the liquidation process, Mr. Rayburn pinned the blame on its striking union:

Despite everyone’s considerable efforts to move Hostess out of its restructuring, when we began implementing the Company’s last, best and final offer, the Bakers Union chose to stage a crippling strike. This affected Hostess’ ability to continue to make products and service its customers’ needs and pushed Hostess into a Wind Down scenario. As a result, we are forced to proceed with an orderly wind down and sale of our operations and assets. We deeply regret taking this action. But we simply cannot continue to operate without the ability to produce or deliver our products.

There’s no way to soften the fact that this will hurt every Hostess Brands employee. All Hostess Brands employees will eventually lose their jobs – some sooner than others. Unfortunately, because we are in bankruptcy, there are severe limits on the assistance the Company can offer you at this time.


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 16, 2012, 02:09:52 PM
Medical giant Stryker cuts 1,170 jobs, citing ObamaCare
 Fox ^

Posted on Friday, November 16, 2012 5:08:04 PM by Arthurio

Medical supply giant Stryker is the latest company to announce job cuts in anticipation of coming costs associated with ObamaCare, even though the man who inherited a fortune from the company's founder is a fan.

The company will cut 1,170 jobs, or five percent of its worldwide workforce, despite the fact that the founder's grandson was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Medical tech scion Jon Stryker, whose net worth is currently estimated at $1.2 billion, contributed $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC and has given $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party. Stryker does not run the company.

A "medical device excise tax" included in the mandate imposes a 2.3 percent levy on medical device manufacturers and suppliers, which critics say will raise prices on everything from pacemakers to prosthetics to stents. Companies will be required to pay the tax regardless if they have a profit or loss for the year. The tax is estimated to cost the medical device industry $20 billion.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/16/medical-supply-giant-stryker-corp-makes-pre-emptive-strike-against-pending/#ixzz2CQSVGzqf


(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 16, 2012, 02:15:33 PM
400K In Calif. Face ‘Sudden Stop’ In Jobless Benefits
 CBSLA.com) ^ | November 16, 2012 10:26 AM


Posted on Friday, November 16, 2012 4:45:40 PM by


LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The unemployment rate in California inched down slightly in October as the state Employment Development Department issued a dire warning that federal help for the long-term unemployed may soon run out.

The unemployment rate dipped to 10.1 percent in October – down from 10.2 percent a month earlier – after 45,800 jobs added to payrolls, according to the EDD’s Loree Levy.

“It certainly looks like the job creation engine is picking up some speed as we go toward the end of the year, so it’s good news,” Levy said.

Levy added the number of jobs created far outstripped the traditional rate of population growth – about 20,000 – during the same period.

Retail posted some of the biggest gains, with another 20,500 jobs added slightly ahead of the start of the busy Christmas shopping season.

“Normally we would expect a pretty strong gain in November,” Levy said. “To give you an idea, last October for instance, we saw a 2,000-job gain in retail trade, so [it was] certainly much stronger this year.”

But the otherwise positive data was overshadowed by a looming Congressional deadline at the end of the year, when the federal extension of unemployment benefits expires.

“That means no matter what kind of balance anyone has left on any kind of federal extension claim, no further payments can be made after the week ending December 29,” she said.

Levy estimated the deadline could mean a “very sudden stop” to benefits for as many as 400,000 unemployed statewide.





HOPE AND CHANGE
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Option D on November 16, 2012, 04:25:30 PM
400K In Calif. Face ‘Sudden Stop’ In Jobless Benefits
 CBSLA.com) ^ | November 16, 2012 10:26 AM


Posted on Friday, November 16, 2012 4:45:40 PM by


LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The unemployment rate in California inched down slightly in October as the state Employment Development Department issued a dire warning that federal help for the long-term unemployed may soon run out.

The unemployment rate dipped to 10.1 percent in October – down from 10.2 percent a month earlier – after 45,800 jobs added to payrolls, according to the EDD’s Loree Levy.

“It certainly looks like the job creation engine is picking up some speed as we go toward the end of the year, so it’s good news,” Levy said.

Levy added the number of jobs created far outstripped the traditional rate of population growth – about 20,000 – during the same period.

Retail posted some of the biggest gains, with another 20,500 jobs added slightly ahead of the start of the busy Christmas shopping season.

“Normally we would expect a pretty strong gain in November,” Levy said. “To give you an idea, last October for instance, we saw a 2,000-job gain in retail trade, so [it was] certainly much stronger this year.”

But the otherwise positive data was overshadowed by a looming Congressional deadline at the end of the year, when the federal extension of unemployment benefits expires.

“That means no matter what kind of balance anyone has left on any kind of federal extension claim, no further payments can be made after the week ending December 29,” she said.

Levy estimated the deadline could mean a “very sudden stop” to benefits for as many as 400,000 unemployed statewide.





HOPE AND CHANGE
LANDSLIDE COMING!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 16, 2012, 07:48:16 PM
November 15, 2012
A Country Unhinged
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner

In the last week, it is almost as if the entire American moral landscape has been turned upside down in eerie fashion — in matters that vastly transcend fornication and adultery. The Petraeus-gate matter is the stuff of tabloids now; but soon the real issues relating to when and what Eric Holder knew, and by extension the president, and how exactly Benghazi (the crime of indifference to the besieged, the cover-up of the truth, the actual mission of our consulate and annex) fits into this labyrinth of deceit, both petty and fundamental, may overshadow the present sensationalism.

Nothing seems real anymore, not pre-election federal data on jobs or food stamps or the release of such “facts”; not foreign-policy information like an Iranian attack on a drone; not the supposedly competent federal relief in response to Hurricane Sandy. Even Saddam Hussein’s plebiscites could not achieve margins like the 19,605 to 0 we saw in 59 Philadelphia precincts. Does anyone care?

Susan Rice, who flat out deceived five times in a single day on national TV, is supposedly seriously being considered as Secretary of State when Ms. Clinton leaves — the latter now plans to be “busy” when hearings on Libya resume. (If a John Bolton cannot be confirmed as a UN ambassador, how could Rice avoid a filibuster?) How can anyone now read Broadwell’s book and assume the research and analysis are disinterested? How did a single Jill Kelley warrant hundreds of hours of chat time from our highest generals, engaged in a life and death struggle in the war against terror and Afghanistan? Who was not consulted, not advised, not ordered — in order to free up time for Kelley and Broadwell? How could Broadwell, without a journalistic or history pedigree of achievement, warrant such intimate briefings, so much so that she can pontificate on a CIA annex in Benghazi and purportedly have access to classified documents? If she can, who cannot? Why in God’s name does Angelina Jolie get photographed on the seventh-floor office of the CIA? Why even have security clearances when you can learn classified details about our military and intelligence on Facebook or YouTube? How can all this suddenly explode on the scene, just 72 hours after a national election, in a supposedly transparent country with a free, watch-dog media? Have we become a Russia, Venezuela, Cuba? Is there one honest person in Washington left?

When this is all over we are going to see several resignations, even more discredit to what is left of what is now largely a state-run media, and a vivid human face to all the declinist statistical talk of America in material and moral crisis. The state is set for reform like we have never seen it, from those who are not invested in Big Washington, Big Military, Big Intelligence, Big Banks, Big Wall Street, big anything that seems to have developed a toxic careerism in the revolving-door, New York-Washington corridor.

Tragedy or Tragicomedy?

One symptom of this entire tragedy (or is it dark comedy now?) is the shocking degree of casual sorta/kinda rules and protocols — strange (or rather predictable) in this era of vast bureaucratic rules. How exactly did national-security and military affairs come to resemble Keeping Up with the Kardashians?

How can some individual just call up an FBI friend (?) and thereby instigate an FBI investigation? And how did that lead to an FBI agent photographing himself bare-chested and apparently infatuated with a married mother of three? How can a PhD candidate, without any journalistic or historical credentials, become the public face of a four-star general and be privy to information to the point of hitting the lecture circuit to pontificate about a CIA annex in Benghazi? How did an early-middle-aged married mother of two suddenly morph into a court biographer who lectured on everything from military practice to leadership to national-security challenges? How can a Florida socialite by any stretch of the imagination merit a vast email correspondence with the nation’s highest ranking warriors entrusted to conduct our most critical struggles? What in the world is an “honorary consul general” and who extends such Alice Through the Looking Glass titles? Why do generals seek to go back stage to meet a Denzel Washington or have Angelina Jolie pop up for a photo-op?

I think it is impossible that an attorney general who knew of the investigation and many of the details for months did not tell his president and close friend — but then on the other hand, given all of above, who knows?

©2012 Victor Davis Hanson
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 17, 2012, 04:43:01 AM
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EPA rejects governors' requests to waive ethanol mandate
Houston Chronicle ^ | November 16, 2012 | Jennifer Dlouhy
Posted on November 17, 2012 1:57:31 AM EST by neverdem

The Obama administration on Friday rebuffed requests by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the leaders of several other states to waive a federal renewable fuel mandate that requires ethanol to be blended into the nation's gasoline supply.

In rejecting the waiver requests, the Environmental Protection Agency effectively disagreed with the states' concerns that the mandate was spiking corn demand and prices following a drought that devastated crops in the Midwest. The EPA concluded the Renewable Fuel Standard would not cause "severe economic harm" to states and regions.

"We recognize that this year's drought has created hardship in some sectors of the economy, particularly for livestock producers," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "But our extensive analysis makes clear that congressional requirements for a waiver have not been met and that waiving the RFS will have little, if any, impact."

This is the second time Perry has lost his bid for a renewable fuel standard exemption...

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

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 19, 2012, 01:29:09 PM
GE Healthcare Laying Off 10 Percent of Workforce
 Health Tech Zone ^ | November 19, 2012 | Tracey E. Schelmetic

Posted on Monday, November 19, 2012 3:01:10 PM by 2ndDivisionVet

Bad news for GE Healthcare workers in Vermont. The company, which specializes in information technology for the healthcare industry, announced last Thursday that it plans to lay off about 10 percent of its workforce in the state. The company promised, however, to try to find “alternate roles” for those who lose their jobs.

“While GE Healthcare regrets the loss of any jobs, the business needs to make tough decisions in the current economic climate,” company spokesman Benjamin Fox told the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.

It’s unclear at this time how much of GE Healthcare’s workforce these cuts represent, though the Burlington Free Press reported that in January, GE Healthcare employed about 527 people.

The company’s South Burlington, Vermont facility was founded as the medical software producer IDX Systems. GE Healthcare bought IDX in 2005 for $1.2 billion.

Vermont Deputy Commerce Secretary Patricia Moulton Powden called the job losses at GE Healthcare “tragic,” but noted that there are other high-tech companies in the area looking for talented employees.

“The only silver lining is we have a lot of employers looking for this kind of talent,” said Moulton Powden.

Earlier this month, the healthcare giant posted profits of $620 million on sales of $4.31 billion during the three months ended September 30, for a bottom-line gain of two percent but a top-line dip of 0.6 percent, compared with the same period last year. Layoffs have been common as of late across the entire medical devices industry.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 20, 2012, 05:39:46 PM
Sorry to see you did not commit suicide after the election.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 23, 2012, 12:41:13 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/economists-on-obamas-failure-to-address-mortgage-debt-2012-11

Wow - year and a half ago they told him in the oval office he screwed up 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 25, 2012, 06:40:22 PM
Stock Market Last Push Higher Before the Big Collapse?
 TMO ^ | 11-25-2012 | Graham Summers

Posted on Sunday, November 25, 2012 5:50:26 PM by blam

Stock Market Last Push Higher Before the Big Collapse?

 Stock-Markets / Financial Crash
Nov 25, 2012 - 01:59 PM
 By: Graham Summers



With most of Wall Street on vacation, those few traders manning their desks are taking advantage of the low volume to push the market sharply higher. This, combined with a large move up by the Euro has pulled the entire risk trade up forcing the US Dollar lower.

This move was to be expected on some levels. Since 2002, there has been a rally from just before Thanksgiving until the second week of December. This year is shaping up to replay this move. Stocks and other risk assets were certainly oversold from the preceding week and needed a breather.

However, from a larger perspective there is no shortage of truly horrible developments in the world. EU budget talks failed to accomplish anything. This comes on the heels of failed Greece debt talks from last week (there is another meeting next week on this).

Meanwhile, France has lost its AAA credit rating, Spain’s bad bank plan has been dropped due to lack of interest. And then there is Cyprus Portugal and soon to be Italy’s issues to deal with.

At the end of the day, the whole issue in the EU boils down to whether or not Germany will foot the bill for everything. The fact of the matter is that it won’t. If Germany were to agree to fund things as they are (assuming nothing worsens in the EU), it would amount of over 30% of its GDP.

Never in history has one country issued a transfer of that amount to another. The single largest transfer in history (on a GDP basis) was the German Marshall Plan, which represented only slightly over 6% of US GDP.

So forget about Germany writing the check. There will be political machinations and games played to maintain the house of cards that is the EU… but when push comes to shove, Germany will leave before it foots the bill for everything.

And then of course there is the fiscal cliff in the US: the single largest tax hike increase in US history (on a % of GDP basis). Ignore the media’s spin on this, no one has a clue how to fix the problem, largely because math is not partisan and we’ve been living beyond our means for far too long to fix this with one deal.

The reality is that what we are witness today is the collapse of the welfare states of the developed world. The real solutions (defaults both sovereign and on social spending plans) are completely unsavory from a political perspective, so politicians will do all they can to avoid what actually needs to happen.

In simple terms, the great debt implosion has begun. It will likely take several years to complete, but what’s coming will make the 2008 debacle will seem like a picnic.

This is why I’ve been warning that 2008 was just the warm-up. What is coming will be far far worse.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 26, 2012, 02:10:08 PM
Propark America to lay off 186 employees in New Haven
 The New Haven Register ^ | November 26, 2012 | Luther Turmelle

Posted on Monday, November 26, 2012 3:11:22 PM by 2ndDivisionVet

Propark America, which operates 31 parking garages and lots around New Haven, is laying off 186 employees in January.

The Hartford-based company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice Nov. 20 with the Connecticut Department of Labor. The notice indicates that the layoffs are scheduled to begin on Jan. 20 and does not indicate whether all of the employees are being laid off at once.

The WARN Act is a federal law requiring employers of 100 or more full-time workers to give 60 days advance notice of a plant closing or mass layoff...


(Excerpt) Read more at nhregister.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 27, 2012, 07:58:33 AM
Median Net Worth In 2010 At Lowest Level Since 1969: Report


The Huffington Post  |  By Harry Bradford Posted: 11/26/2012 5:47 pm EST Updated: 11/26/2012 5:47 pm EST




Stunning new research from a New York University economics professor reveals just how wide the chasm between the rich and everyone else has grown over the past few decades.

In 2010 median net worth in the U.S. hit its lowest point since 1969 at $57,000, according to a recent study by NYU Professor Edward Wolff, who studied Americans' net worth from 1983 - 2010.

During the same period, income inequality skyrocketed in the U.S., Wolff found, largely thanks to the housing bust, which took a significant bite out of middle-class Americans' assets. Wolff found that while middle income earners lost 18 percent of their net worth, those in the top 1 percent increased their wealth by 71 percent over the same time period, according to Wolff's report.

The findings bring into sharper relief existing evidence that average Americans are getting squeezed ever tighter, while the country's wealthiest watch their fortunes explode. In 2010, the annual median wage fell to $26,364, its lowest level since 1999, according to a separate study. The decline in wages may have, in part, contributed to growing wealth inequality, resulting in a member of the 1 percent's worth equaling 288 times that of the median U.S. household, the Economic Policy Institute found in a report released in September.

The Great Recession is responsible for much of that disparity with the wealth of the median family declining a record 38.8 percent between 2007 and 2010. Those between the ages of 35 and 44 were hit particularly hard. Partly as a result, half of American households now possess just 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

(Hat tip: ThinkProgress)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2012, 11:29:26 AM
Stocks dead, bonds deader till 2022: Pimco
 MarketWatch ^ | Nov 27, 2012 | Paul B. Farrell

Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 2:00:14 PM by ExxonPatrolUs

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Big money managers are warning investors. They’re now citing the Bible: “Seven lean years.” No recovery till 2016. That was Jeremy Grantham back a few years ago. His GMO firm manages $104 billion.

Now Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian, the co-CEOs at the $2 trillion Pimco money managers, are citing the same biblical warning to jar investors awake and prepare for the coming lean years of slow, low growth and austerity. Except in Pimco’s new warning, the future just got much, much darker for investors — no recovery until 2022.

Earlier in the summer — back when most investors were totally distracted by campaign drama and betting heavily on a new president, anticipating a post-election bull market — many were expecting Corporate America would unleash trillions in hoarded reserves, stimulate a recovery and new bull. Back then, Reuters, Forbes, CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and rest of the obsessed media simply yawned at Gross and El-Erian’s warning that equities hit a “dead end in terms of significant appreciation.”

“Dead end?” No recovery till after the 2020 elections? Yes, one angry headline even said Gross was “faithless” with stocks. Why? Conventional wisdom tells us markets run in cycles. So investors believe it’s now time for a new bull. Gross and El-Erian disagree.

Warren Buffett and Jack Bogle first mentioned a “new normal” with slow, low growth back in 2002. It fell on deaf ears. Since the 2008 meltdown the same warnings are coming from gurus like Grantham, Gross, El-Erian and others. Ignore their warnings at your peril.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 28, 2012, 07:42:08 PM
Coming soon......  Tax cuts for 98% of this country.  Choke on that one, Bitch!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 28, 2012, 08:59:20 PM
Anthem Blue Cross seeks to raise individual policyholders' rates
 L.A. Times ^ | 11/28/12 | Chad Terhune

Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 8:30:38 PM

California´s largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, is seeking to raise rates an average of 18% for more than 630,000 individual policyholders, drawing scrutiny from regulators and the ire of consumers already struggling with soaring premiums. Some Anthem customers may see rates rise as much as 25% in February under the company´s proposal at a time when medical inflation is running at historic lows nationwide. The increases are among several others proposed by California insurers, including Aetna Inc. and Health Net Inc. California insurance regulators will take the next month to review whether these rate increases are warranted,


(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 29, 2012, 05:58:09 AM
4-Week-Average Jobless Claims At 13-Month High As Sandy Effects Gone
Zero Hedge ^

Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:01:19 AM


While any and every bad data point recently has been summarily dismissed by the 'transitory' effects of Hurricane Sandy, it appears in the deepest darkest reality that there is more of a structural trend to this shift than simply a 'blip'. Claims missed expectations and prior data was revised higher leaving the four-week-average at its highest since October 2011 jumping back over 400k.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 29, 2012, 09:17:03 AM
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Unexpectedly Falls To A New Low
Sam Ro|Nov. 29, 2012, 11:00 AM|147|1




The Kansas City Fed's manufacturing activity index is out, and it's a big miss.

The headline number unexpectedly fell to -6 from -4 in October. Economists were expecting an improvement to -1.
 
From the Kansas City Fed's report:
 
Tenth District manufacturing activity eased further in November, while producers' expectations were unchanged from last month at modestly positive levels. Several contacts noted uncertainties about the upcoming fiscal cliff, and a few producers cited delayed deliveries and reduced orders from the East Coast as a result of the Hurricane Sandy. Price indexes moderated slightly.
 
The month-over-month composite index was -6 in November, down from -4 in October and 2 in September (Tables 1 & 2, Chart). The composite index is an average of the production, new orders, employment, supplier delivery time, and raw materials inventory indexes. This marked the first time the composite index has been negative for two straight months since mid-2009. Manufacturing slowed at durable goods- producing plants, while nondurable factories reported a slight uptick in activity, particularly for food and plastics products. Other month-over- month indexes were mixed in November. The production index was unchanged at -6, while the new orders and order backlog indexes declined for the third straight month to their lowest levels in three years. In contrast, the employment index increased from -6 to 0, and the shipments and new orders for exports indexes were less negative. The raw materials inventory index decreased further from 2 to -7, while the finished goods inventory index rose from 3 to 9.
 
Most year-over-year factory indexes decreased slightly from last month but remained positive. The composite year-over-year index eased from 11 to 9, and the production, shipments, new orders, and order backlog indexes also fell. On the other hand, the employment index rose from 12 to 22, and the capital expenditures index edged slightly higher. Both inventory indexes increased somewhat.
 
Most future factory indexes were unchanged in November, and remained modestly positive. The future composite index was stable at 3, and the future production, shipments, and new orders indexes also recorded little or no change. On the other hand, the employment index dropped somewhat, the future capital expenditures index fell after increasing last month, and the future new orders for exports index eased slightly. The future raw materials inventory index rose from -5 to 2, and the future finished goods inventory index also increased.
 
Price indexes moderated, after minimal change last month. The month-over-month finished goods price index eased from 8 to 3, and the raw materials price index also decreased modestly. The year-over-year raw materials index inched lower, and the finished goods index also edged down. The future raw materials price index dropped from 53 to 41, and the future finished goods price index decreased, indicating fewer firms plan to pass recent cost increases through to customers.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/november-kansas-city-fed-manufacturing-2012-11#ixzz2DdIbtCMY

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on November 29, 2012, 10:36:11 AM
Drop in capital goods orders is a bad sign as well.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: magikusar on November 29, 2012, 10:38:41 AM
My words to Obama: Any idiot can spend 15Trillion, the trick is to get something for the money, not more welfare mouthes.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 30, 2012, 05:39:06 AM
U.S. Birth Rate Hits Record Low

Decline Greatest Among Immigrants. Recession a Likely Factor, Report Says

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By Stephanie Czekalinski


 Updated: November 29, 2012 | 4:05 p.m.
November 29, 2012 | 2:09 p.m.


AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

The U.S. birth rate plummeted in 2011 to the lowest level since the beginning of the Great Depression, led by a drop among immigrants.



The U.S. birth rate dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the Great Depression, led by a drop among immigrants, according to a report data released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

In 2011, the overall birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, the lowest since at least 1920, Pew reported, citing numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics. The birth rate reached 122.7 in 1957, the peak of the Baby Boom. After the mid-1970s, the birth rate stabilized at about 65 to 70 births per 1,000 women annually, until the beginning of the Great Recession.
 
Since 2007, both the U.S. birth rate (the number of live births per 1,000 women ages 15-44) and the number of births have dropped significantly, according to the report.

Overall, the birth rate declined 8 percent from 2007 to 2010.  Among U.S.-born women, the birth rate dropped 6 percent. The decline among foreign-born women was 14 percent. Among Mexican women, the birth rate fell even more, to 23 percent.
 
(RELATED: State Education Data Reveal Large Racial Achievement Gaps)

 Despite the recent decline, foreign-born moms continue to give birth to a disproportionate share of the country’s babies, the report said. In 2010, immigrants represented about 13 percent of the U.S. population while foreign-born mothers accounted for 23 percent of all births.
 
After 2007, the number of U.S. births, which had been rising since 2002, fell abruptly, according to the report. This decrease was also led by immigrant women. Overall the number of births between 2007 and 2010 dropped 7 percent, pulled down by a 13-percent drop in births to immigrants. By comparison, births to U.S.-born women dropped only 5 percent.

The Pew researchers attributed that drop to a change in behavior (the falling birth rates) rather than a change in the number of women (those born in the U.S. or immigrants) of childbearing age.

An earlier Pew report attributed the recent fertility decline to “economic distress.” The study showed that states with the largest economic declines between 2007 and 2008 were most likely to experience relatively large fertility declines the following year.
 
Hispanic women - both those born in and those born outside the U.S. - experienced larger birth-rate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups. They also experienced greater percentage declines in household wealth than white, black, or Asian households between 2005 and 2009, according to the report. Latinos also experienced a greater rise in poverty and unemployment than non-Latinos after the Great Recession began.
 
The recent decline in births to foreign-born moms reversed a trend in which immigrant women accounted for a rising share of the country’s births, according to the report. In 2007, immigrant mothers accounted for a quarter of all U.S. births, compared to 16 percent in 1990. By 2010, foreign-born moms accounted for 23 percent of all births.
 
Despite the drop-off among the foreign-born, Pew population projections indicate that immigrants who arrived since 2005 and their descendants will account for 82 percent of U.S. population growth by 2050. Even taking the recent decline in immigration into account, new immigrants and their descendants are still expected to lead most of the nation’s population increase by mid-century, according to the report.

Other findings:

 The majority of births (66 percent) to U.S.-born women were to white mothers. That share has dropped since 1990 when it was 72 percent. The majority of births to foreign-born mothers were to Hispanic moms.

 Teen mothers make up a greater share of births among U.S.-born women (11 percent in 2010) than foreign-born mothers (5 percent).
 Mothers ages 35 and older make up a higher share of births to immigrants (21 percent in 2010) than to moms born in the U.S. (13 percent). Mothers born outside the country accounted for more than a third of births to women ages 35 and older that year.
 
Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM & PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 03, 2012, 07:53:03 AM
ISM MANUFACTURING PLUNGES TO 49.5
Matthew Boesler|45 minutes ago|1,229|3
 
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images


November ISM Manufacturing is out.

The index reading came in at 49.5, well below estimates of 51.4 and last month's reading of 51.7.
 
Click here for updates >
 
The number indicates that American manufacturing has passed from expansion mode into a contraction phase, which seems to conflict with an earlier report from Markit that indicated a pickup in manufacturing activity.
 
The collapse in the index was led by Customers' Inventories (down 6.5 percent), Inventories (down 5.0 percent), New Orders (down 3.9 percent), and Employment (down 3.7 percent).
 
The Production sub-component was perhaps the lone bright spot, rising 1.3 percent to a reading of 53.7 from 52.4 last month.
 
The Prices Paid index also fell below expectation of 53.3 to 52.5, from 55.0 last month.
 
Below is a complete breakdown of the sub-components of the index:
 





ISM
 

Below are quotations from respondents to the ISM survey on business conditions:
 "Conditions still appear to be positive for continued growth in sales." (Machinery)
 "Business is steady, but not much more than that. We are in a lull." (Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products)
 "The principle business conditions that will affect the company over the next three or four quarters will be the U.S. federal government tax and budgetary policies; the impact of those policies is not yet clear." (Petroleum & Coal Products)
 "Differences between first half of year and remaining half are very dramatic, growing to a peak in the middle of the year with a gradual decline since." (Plastics & Rubber Products)
 "Seeing a slowdown in request for quote activity." (Computer & Electronic Products)
 "The fiscal cliff is the big worry right now. We will not look toward any type of expansion until this is addressed; if the program that is put in place is more taxes and big spending cuts — which will push us toward recession — forget it." (Fabricated Metal Products)
 "Seeing a slowdown in demand across markets." (Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components)
 "Economy is very sluggish. Production is down and orders have slowed considerably from Q1." (Transportation Equipment)
 "East Coast storms delayed some shipments." (Primary Metals)
 "Global economic uncertainty still seems to be sticking around which is not necessarily making things worse, but it is also not making things better from a demand standpoint." (Chemical Products)
 
Here is a link to the full report >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/november-ism-manufacturing-2012-12#ixzz2E0LsJF1x

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 03, 2012, 03:37:59 PM
Collecting Disability Becomes A Career Choice For Men (welcome to the Obama economy!)
 Investors Business Daily ^ | December 3 2012 | By Michael Barone


Posted on Monday, December 03, 2012 5:54:35 PM


"It is exceptionally difficult — for all practical purposes, impossible," writes Eberstadt, "for a medical professional to disprove a patient's claim that he or she is suffering from sad feelings or back pain."

In other words, many people are gaming or defrauding the system. This includes not only disability recipients but health care professionals, lawyers and others who run ads promising to get you disability benefits.

Between 1996 and 2011, the private sector generated 8.8 million new jobs, and 4.1 million people entered the disability rolls.

In 1960, some 455,000 workers were receiving disability payments. In 2011, the number was 8,600,000. In 1960, the percentage of the economically active 18-to-64 population receiving disability benefits was 0.65%. In 2010, it was 5.6%.

Some four decades ago, when I was a law clerk to a federal judge, I had occasion to read briefs in cases appealing denial of disability benefits. The Social Security Administration then seemed pretty strict in denying benefits in dubious cases. The courts were not much more openhanded.

Things have changed. Americans have grown healthier, and significantly lower numbers die before 65 than was the case a half-century ago. Nevertheless, the disability rolls have ballooned.

One reason is that the government seems to have gotten more openhanded with those claiming vague ailments. Eberstadt points out that in 1960, only one-fifth of disability benefits went to those with "mood disorders" and "musculoskeletal" problems. In 2011, nearly half of those on disability voiced such complaints.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 04, 2012, 05:45:16 AM
Kids Count Youth And Work Report: Number Of Young Adults Out Of School, Work Hits Half-Century High

The Huffington Post  |  By Emmeline Zhao Posted: 12/03/2012 4:33 pm EST Updated: 12/04/2012 6:19 am EST




Nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in school nor working, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report warns of a future of chronic unemployment due to a continuing failure to educate and train America's youth in needed skills.

The most recent "Kids Count" report, one of the most widely cited surveys of how youth fare in the United States, found that young people aged 16 to 24 are facing serious barriers to successful careers as youth unemployment has reached its highest level since World War II. Only about half of young people in that age group held jobs in 2011, according to the report, titled "Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity."

The employment rate for teens between the ages of 16 and 19 has fallen 42 percent over the last decade: 2.2 million teens and 4.3 million young adults aged 20 to 24 are neither working nor in school. Of those without school or work, 21 percent -- or 1.4 million -- are young parents.

North Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota had the highest rates of employment among 20- to 24-year-olds. Laura Speer, one report's authors, told Minnesota Public Radio that early employment is key to future success.

"The thing that you got and I got from our very first job is mostly about how to work," Speer said. "How to be on a team, how to have a boss, how to show up on time. And those -- what are termed as 'soft skills' -- are things that are really critically important going forward."

Young adults are facing more competition from older workers for increasingly scarce entry-level jobs. Many lack the skill set required for available jobs. Still others face obstacles beyond their control, such as low-performing schools, a lack of working-adult role models and impoverished upbringings.

The report shows that lack of education, opportunity and connection to school or work has long-term implications for both the affected youth and society as a whole.The 1.4 million young adults who are not in school, are unemployed and have children can "perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of poverty" as they continue to fail to find work, the report states. (An earlier "Kids Count" report, released this summer and based on U.S. Census data, already showed that the portion of children living in poverty increased by nearly a third between 2000 and 2010.)




Described as disconnected youth, those who lack both jobs and a high school education are less likely to achieve financial independence and stability, and they can become a cost to taxpayers.

Of the 3.8 million students that start high school this year, a quarter won't receive a diploma, according to NPR. Those who don't finish school will earn $200,000 less than those who do over their lifetime, and $1 million less than a college graduate.

High school dropouts are not eligible for 90 percent of the jobs in the U.S. economy, according to Education Database, and a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds in the U.S., contributing to a rising unemployment rate. Dropouts cost taxpayers between $320 billion and $350 billion a year in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs, among others.

The "Kids Count" report stresses a need to offer multiple, flexible pathways to success for disconnected youth, and to find ways to reengage high school dropouts. Among the report's recommendations:

•National policymakers developing a youth employment strategy "that mobilizes public and private institutions together to tackle this issue."
 •Greater coordination among financial supporters for youth assistance programs.
 •Replication of successful efforts such as the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe in Battle Creek.
 •Employers stepping up to offer "career pathways and jobs for young people."

The report is published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one of the largest private charitable organizations in the U.S. devoted to improving the lives of children.

“All young people need opportunities to gain work experience and build the skills that are essential to being successful as an adult,” Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a statement Monday. “Ensuring youth are prepared for the high-skilled jobs available in today’s economy must be a national priority, for the sake of their future roles as citizens and parents, the future of our workforce and the strength of our nation as a whole.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 04, 2012, 05:52:42 AM
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rep3/welfare-cliff.html


Great article.  Enjoy 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on December 05, 2012, 05:47:05 AM
Another poor jobs report.

I guess you can toss this one in with all of the other poor jobs reports....too many to count at this point.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 05, 2012, 06:54:57 AM
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Citi Firing 11,000
Zero Hedge ^
Posted on December 5, 2012 9:38:28 AM EST by Perdogg

Big news ahead of this Friday's NFP report:

•CITI TO CUT OVER 11,000 JOBS, TAKE PRETAX CHARGE $1B IN 4Q "Sandy's fault?" or better yet, "Vikram's fault." Or maybe the economy is collapsing despite all the propaganda one is spoonfed. Considering the recent termination of over 50,000 by UBS we think we know the answer. And while C stock may jump on the news, the end result is that New York and the US have both just lost 11,000 less key taxpayers most of whom are almost certainly in the $250,000+ bucket. That said we can't wait for the BLS to take this data as somehow beneficial for the unemployment rate.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 05, 2012, 07:14:01 AM
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Private Sector Adds Fewer Jobs Than Expected
FoxBusiness.com ^ | 12/5/2012 | Reuters
Posted on December 5, 2012 9:31:53 AM EST by mykroar

U.S. private-sector employers added 118,000 jobs in November shy of economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 125,000 jobs.

October's private payrolls were revised slightly down to an increase of 157,000 f rom the previously reported 158,000.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 06, 2012, 07:28:39 AM


U.S. Unadjusted Unemployment Shoots Back Up

Unemployment situation best for college grads, whites, men, and older workers

by Jenny Marlar


www.gallup.com


 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, was 7.8% for the month of November, up significantly from 7.0% for October. Gallup's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 8.3%, nearly a one-point increase over October's rate.
 


These results are based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews, conducted by landline and cell phone, with approximately 30,000 Americans throughout the month -- 67.2% of whom are active in the workforce. Gallup calculates a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate by applying the adjustment factor the government used for the same month in the previous year. Last year, the government adjusted the November rate upward by 0.5 percentage points.
 
It is unclear what caused the increase in the unemployment rate in November, although some experts speculate that it was caused by jobs lost as a result of superstorm Sandy. It is also possible that lackluster holiday hiring is to blame.
 
Although the increase in the unadjusted rate in November is a sharp contrast to the 0.9-point decline seen in October, November's 7.8% rate is still tied for the second-best unadjusted unemployment monthly reading of 2012. However, on an adjusted basis, November's rate is the highest reading in six months. Looking at year-to-year comparisons, seasonally adjusted unemployment is down from 8.9% in November 2011.
 
Underemployment, as measured without seasonal adjustment, was 17.2% in November, a 1.3-point increase since the end of October. The uptick in November also puts an end to the six-month trend of improvements or no change. Still, underemployment has improved 0.9 points since November 2011.
 
Gallup's U.S. underemployment measure combines the percentage who are unemployed with the percentage of those working part time but looking for full-time work. Gallup does not apply a seasonal adjustment to underemployment.
 


The increase in underemployment is the result of an increase in the number of people unemployed as well as the number of people working part time but wanting full time work, which rose to 9.4% in November from 8.9% in October. The number of workers wanting full-time positions generally increases during the holiday season as more people take on part-time seasonal work. Compared with this time last year, the percentage of workers desiring additional work is down a modest three-tenths of a point.
 


Unemployment Lowest for College Grads, Whites, Men, and Older Workers
 
Unemployment rates continue to be lowest for college grads (4.0%), Americans aged 50 to 65 (5.5%), whites (6.5%), and men (6.6%). At the other end of the spectrum, unemployment remains higher than 10% for blacks (12.4%), 18- to 29-year-olds (12.0%), people with a high school education or less (11.4%), and Hispanics (10.6%).
 
Regionally, Americans living in the South face the highest unemployment rates, while Midwesterners have the lowest levels of unemployment. The Labor Department recently reported that superstorm Sandy produced a large uptick in the number of underemployment claims being filed in the East, especially from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Gallup's data found that unemployment rose 1.2 points in the East between October and November. However, Gallup's U.S. unemployment rate rose by the same amount in the Midwest and went up a similar 0.8 points in the South -- indicating that Sandy isn't entirely to blame. Unemployment declined 0.2 points in the West.
 


Implications
 
Gallup's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate -- the closest comparison it has to the official numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -- increased in November, suggesting that the BLS will report another increase when it releases its numbers Friday. It is possible that some of the November increase in unemployment is the result of scaled-back holiday hiring, in which case the BLS may apply a smaller adjustment factor than it has in the past.
 
Although the employment situation has improved over the past year for Americans as a whole, it is apparent that more must be done to improve job opportunities for many specific groups, especially young Americans and blacks, who continue to experience the highest unemployment levels.
 
The increase in unemployment in November is a change from the positive momentum seen in recent months. However, it is also possible that October's dramatic improvement was temporary, and November's reading is a continuation of the earlier trend. The trend in future months will be an important indicator of the true momentum of the job climate.
 






Gallup.com reports results from these indexes in daily, weekly, and monthly averages and in Gallup.com stories. Complete trend data are always available to view and export in the following charts:
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 06, 2012, 08:43:43 AM
ROSENBERG: One Of The Most Reliable Economic Indicators Peaked In July (Eating Out)
 TBI ^ | 12-5-2012 | Sam Ro

Posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2012 12:48:16 PM by blam

ROSENBERG: One Of The Most Reliable Economic Indicators Peaked In July



Sam Ro
December 5, 2012

When the official headline economic indicators don't work, savvy investors turn to the unconventional economic indicators.

In his latest Breakfast With Dave note, David Rosenberg visits a signal being sent by the restaurant sector:

EATING OUT IS OUT

 Our hedge fund desk has always told me that among the most reliable cyclical indicators for the American consumers is the restaurant sector. Traffic is slowing down precipitously and the companies are issuing negative guidance.

I took a look at the monthly details from the latest PCE data and saw that in nominal dollars, consumer spending on eating out sagged 0.4% in October and has contracted now in three of the past four months. The YoY trend peaked at +5.7% in July and has since slowed to +4.4% which is the softest pace in eight months (the three-month trend which a year ago was running at 7.5% at an annual rate is now close to stall-speed of 2%).
 As a sign that families are becoming more cautious in their spending and eating habits, grocery shopping is up in two of the past three months and at double the trend (at4%) of the restaurant industry.

ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan has argued that the economy went into recession in mid-2012. This evidence seems to support that thesis.


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 06, 2012, 12:27:18 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/matt-kings-most-depressing-slide-ever-2012-12


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 08:21:23 AM
http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/12/08/columbus-apartment-application-crowd-loses-control.html


Obama voters.   F em.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on December 09, 2012, 08:23:18 AM
http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/12/08/columbus-apartment-application-crowd-loses-control.html


Obama voters.   F em.

Yes 53% of the country should go fuck themselves ::)


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 08:31:35 AM
Yes 53% of the country should go fuck themselves ::)




These welfare thugs should.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: whork on December 09, 2012, 08:56:41 AM
These welfare thugs should.

The welfare recievers vote republican

http://thecentristword.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/welfare-teenage-pregnancy-and-obesity-reach-epidemic-levels-in-red-states-is-this-the-gop-blueprint-for-america/


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 10:07:35 AM
Ky. plastics manufacturing plant slated to close (392 jobs lost)
 WTVQ-TV / The Associated Press ^ | December 8, 2012

Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2012 12:23:46 PM by 2ndDivisionVet

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls plans to close a central Kentucky plastics manufacturing plant early next year, potentially putting nearly 400 employees out of work.

The Courier-Journal (http://cjky.it/U3qICs) reports that a mass layoff notice filed with the Kentucky Office of Employment & Training on Friday says up to 392 workers could be cut in February when the facility in Louisville closes. The plant produces injection-molded interior components for vehicles...


(Excerpt) Read more at wtvq.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 10:24:13 AM
Is America Headed Into An Intentional Recession?
 Townhall.com ^ | December 9, 2012 | Austin Hill

Posted on Sunday, December 09, 2012 10:21:28 AM by Kaslin

“Mah fellow Americans, inflayshun is ow-uh friend…”



If you can pronounce the phonetic wording above – and if it sounds vaguely familiar – then for better or worse you probably grew up watching “Saturday Night Live” like I did. The line comes from a late 1970’s skit wherein funny guy Dan Aykroyd was impersonating President Jimmy Carter.



During his one term as President, Carter addressed the nation numerous times to try and quell people’s fears about inflation, the economic malady that defined the era. During those years, Carter announced several anti-inflation policy measures. He urged Americans to “tighten their belts” and consume less, in an effort to decrease the demand for goods and services and, therefore, to get prices to decline (consumption, by the way, was actually quite stagnant even as prices rose – hence the problem of “stagflation”). And as he got closer to his re-election date he looked increasingly anxious, as though he was trying to convince Americans that he was doing as well as any President could.



In the midst of this, “Saturday Night Live” delivered the definitive presidential satire. With his impeccable imitation of the President’s “southern gentlemen” accent, Aykroyd – as President Carter – addressed the nation one fine Saturday night and told Americans that “our economy is screwed, blued, and tattooed,” but noted that we could stop fighting the battle against inflation- because “inflation is our friend.”



Aykroyd was hilarious because his character’s statements were absurd - no adult in their right mind and certainly no U.S. President would “embrace inflation” or regard it as a “friend.” President Carter was desperately trying to assure us that he was ending inflation, and Aykroyd’s routine illustrated just how desperately the President was trying to remain in our good favor.



But that was in the 1970’s. Today, just three weeks away from 2013, there is reason to believe that our President and his Administration – and perhaps his party, as a whole – is “embracing” recession, as though it is an appropriate means to a necessary end.



Ron Scherer, Staff Writer at the Christian Science Monitor, was one of the first to catch-on. He noted in a November 30th news story that in the midst of the “fiscal cliff” tax rate negotiations, President Obama had begun to speak on the campaign trail about another $255 billion stimulus package. Scherer surmised that the President was proposing more stimulus spending as a means of “offsetting” the impact of his own proposed tax hikes.



But what, precisely, would need to be “offset,” if President Obama’s agenda prevails? He just completed a successful re-election campaign claiming that raising taxes on “rich people” would be good for the economy, yet it now appears that he wants more stimulus spending as a means of saving our economy from his own economic policies. This would seem to be, at the very least, a tacit admission from the President that raising taxes on individual people – even those awful “rich people” among us – does, indeed cause a slowdown in economic activity, and may very well bring about a recession.



Shortly after the President began his new stimulus push, former Democratic National Committee Chairman (and former presidential candidate) Howard Dean made some extraordinary remarks of his own about the economy. In an interview at MSNBC, Dean stated that he wants the across-the-board income tax increases entailed in the “fiscal cliff” scenario, and welcomed the resulting outcome. “Will it cause a problem?” he asked rhetorically. “Yes. There will be a short recession, and it will be painful.” Yet despite the “painful recession” that will ensue, Dean expressed exuberance for the higher tax rates and the cuts in military spending that will result as well.



In a recession, individuals and families often lose. They often lose jobs, careers, and homes, and sometimes families are torn apart. Governments that truly prioritize the wellbeing of the citizenry, usually try to avoid recessions - for these, and other reasons.



But when governmental leaders prioritize their own power and agenda over and above the wellbeing of the citizens they serve, a “painful recession” is an acceptable means to an end. You and I may lose our home or job in an upcoming Obama recession, but that is of little concern. The President and his party have made it clear that their goal is to control more private wealth, spend that wealth as they see fit, and make the citizenry more dependent on government services.



When I was a kid, it was laughable to think that even the inept President Jimmy Carter was regarding inflation as “our friend.” Today, all Americans should be sobered by the reality that our President may be quite intentionally sending us in to recession, as an acceptable means of accomplishing his objectives.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 06:30:22 PM
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/09/food-stamp-use-reaches-another-high-in-september-47-7-million-participants


Hope and change
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 09, 2012, 08:21:19 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/12/09/NYT-Conservatives-May-Have-A-Point-About-Welfare-Dependency


O-ghetto loves this
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 05:38:48 AM
A Lost Generation?
By Robert Samuelson - December 10, 2012

 


WASHINGTON -- This is not a good time to be starting out in life. Jobs are scarce, and those that exist often pay unexpectedly low wages. Beginning a family -- always stressful and uncertain -- is increasingly a stretch. The weak economy begets weak family formation. We instinctively know this; several new studies now deepen our understanding.
 
When the labor market operates smoothly, it creates an economic escalator. Just out of high school or college, young workers typically switch jobs frequently until they find something that fits their talent and temperament. Job changes often mean higher pay; people move to advance themselves. The more they succeed, the more confident they feel in marrying and having children.

The most startling evidence of the broken escalator is the collapse in marriages and births. Marriage has been declining for years. Now, in a new study, the Pew Research Center finds that in 2011 the U.S. birth rate (births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) fell to its lowest level since at least 1920, the earliest year of reliable statistics. From 2007 to 2011, the U.S. birth rate dropped almost 9 percent. The total fertility rate -- the estimated number of children born to adult women in their lifetime -- has fallen four straight years to 1.9 (the replacement rate is 2.1).
 
States with large economic setbacks suffered steeper birth rate drops, Pew says. Interestingly, births to immigrants fell more sharply than for native-born Americans. In 2010 -- the latest detailed data -- they dropped 13 percent from 2007 compared with a 5 percent decline for native-born women. Hispanics, both foreign and U.S.-born, had big birth-rate declines, reflecting (Pew said) exceptionally high unemployment and wealth losses from the recession.
 
The bleak labor market has hurt all age groups, but none more than the young. Consider the 23.4 million Americans who, on average, were considered "underemployed" over the past year. This group consists of 12.7 million officially unemployed; 8.2 million working part time but wanting full-time jobs; and 2.5 million desiring work but so discouraged they'd stopped looking. Of all these workers, 41 percent (9.5 million) were 30 or under, far in excess of their labor force share of 27 percent, reports Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that provided these numbers.
 
Fully one-fifth of younger workers belong to the "underemployed." As Shierholz notes, the young always have higher unemployment rates. It's just worse now. "Young workers are relatively new to the labor market -- often looking for their first or second job -- and so may be passed over in hiring due to lack of experience," she says. "If employed, their lack of seniority makes them candidates for being laid off."
 
But it's more than the lack of jobs -- or full-time jobs -- that hurts the young. Wages have also sagged because too many applicants are chasing too few openings.
 
Traditionally, U.S. labor markets have featured enormous turnover: Workers voluntarily leave jobs or are fired. Job changes vastly exceed net job creation, as hires often fill slots that someone else just left. On the whole, this has been a good thing, argues a new study. Workers can often find a better-paying job. But this "churning," as the study calls it, is abating. Because employers are creating fewer net new jobs, workers won't give up the ones they've got. As the labor market freezes up, the young lose bargaining power.
 
"Because job change accounts for a substantial portion of earnings growth, especially for younger workers, this decrease in churning reflects a decrease in workers' opportunities for [higher wages]," write the study's authors, economists John Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland and Henry Hyatt, Erika McEntarfer and Liliana Sousa of the Census Bureau.
 
The glut of job seekers depresses wages in a second way, argues the study. New firms -- which create a disproportionate share of new jobs -- don't have to pay as much to hire. In 2001, workers at firms 10 years old or less earned 85 percent as much as workers at older firms. By 2011, they were paid only 70 percent as much. And these newer firms matter. From 1998 to 2011, they created 40 percent of net new jobs despite representing only 25 percent of total employment.
 
It's usually a mistake to generalize about entire generations. The bad luck and bad timing of today's 20-somethings may pass. Birth rates could bounce back. "In the past, women who have postponed births make up for it later," says Pew's D'Vera Cohn. The economic recovery may strengthen; the retirement of baby boomers will create new job openings; and surveys indicate the young remain optimistic despite setbacks.
 
So the economic escalator may again accelerate. Still, the question nags: Could this become a lost generation?



Copyright 2012, Washington Post Writers Group
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 05:39:51 AM
 :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 05:56:16 AM

December 10, 2012
Under Obama, Economic Stagnation Is the New Normal
By Louis Woodhill



Friday's "Employment Situation" report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that 5.4 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force since Barack Obama took office. The labor force declined by 350,000 in November, despite an increase of 191,000 in our working age population.
 
The unprecedented decline of labor force participation under President Obama is not news. However, it also appears that millions of brain cells have dropped out of the mental labor force of America's economic analysts. How else can we account for headlines like these?
 
"Jobs report: A pleasant surprise" (Jared Bernstein)


 


"The employment emergency is over" (Felix Salmon)
 
"Fiscal cliff? What fiscal cliff? No evidence in jobs numbers" (Stephen Gandel)
 
In case anyone didn't notice, the BLS jobs report was terrible. Unemployment didn't go down in November (from 7.9% to 7.7%) as the BLS reported, it actually went up. The true unemployment rate, calculated at the labor force participation rate that existed when Bush 43 left office (65.8%), increased from 10.7% to 10.8%. This put the true unemployment rate 1.3 percentage points higher than when Obama's so-called "economic recovery" began, almost 3.5 years ago.
 
As of November 2012, total employment was still 3.2 million below its peak, which occurred five years earlier. This is particularly ghastly, because America's working age population has increased by 11.2 million since then. Less than 1% of incremental working-age Americans have managed to get jobs since Obama took office.
 
But wait. There's more.
 
America moved another 246,000 jobs further away from full employment during November. We had fewer full-time jobs last month than we did in January 2005, which was almost eight years ago.
 
Assuming that November's CPI comes in as expected (2.0% annual inflation rate), the real wages of ordinary ("production and non-supervisory") workers were 1.9% lower in November 2012 than they were in November 2010. They were also 9.0% lower than they were in November 1964, for that matter.
 
Question: How can anyone look at something as dismal as Friday's BLS report and see anything but economic stagnation? Answer: Under Obama, economic stagnation has become the new normal.
 
Just as fish don't know that they are wet, many economic analysts seem to have lost sight of what an economic recovery is supposed to look like. Hint: It's supposed to look like the Reagan recovery from the severe 1981-1982 recession.
 
November 2012 marked 60 months since total employment peaked (in November 2007). At this point in the Reagan recovery (April 1986), total employment was 7.8% above the previous peak. If the Obama recovery had been as strong as Reagan's, there would be 14.8 million more Americans working right now.
 
During Reagan's first term, the employment ratio, which is total employment divided by the working age population, rose by 0.9 percentage points. With one month to go in Obama's first term, the employment ratio has declined by an unprecedented 2.3 percentage points during his time in office. During the recent campaign, Obama sought to be identified with Bill Clinton, but during Clinton's first term, the employment ratio went up by 2.0 percentage points.
 
Reagan produced his recovery via a combination of a strong dollar, tax cuts, and regulatory relief. Obama has continued Bush 43's weak dollar policy, but has added the Obamacare tax increases and a blizzard of new regulations. And, he has vowed to fight for even more tax increases.
 
Not surprisingly, opposite causes produce opposite effects. From an employment point of view, there has been no economic recovery at all.
 
On November 6, Obama won a second chance to turn the economy around, by defeating clueless conservative Mitt Romney. So, what is Obama's plan? His plan is more of the same. More of Ben Bernanke's "quantitative easing", more tax increases, and even more regulations. Oh, and don't forget the $50 billion in additional "stimulus" spending Obama wants.

Part of Obama's new normal involves ignoring the staggering difference between the president's promises and the actual results delivered.
 
Obama's $842 billion in stimulus spending was supposed to get the unemployment rate down to 5.2% by now. The actual unemployment rate in November (calculated at the labor force participation rate assumed for the stimulus plan) was 10.8%. This is not only more than twice as high as the level promised, it is higher than the 10.4% rate (calculated on the same basis) that existed when Obama signed the stimulus bill into law.
 
So, is there any hope for the working class, and for jobless Americans that want to join the working class? As things stand right now, no, there isn't. Here's why.
 
Right now, America is about 14.7 million jobs short of full employment. To create one average job, someone has to invest about $200,000 in nonresidential assets. Therefore, to create the additional jobs we need, someone would have to invest an additional $3.0 trillion or so in the U.S. economy.
 
If an additional $3.0 trillion had been invested by the private sector during Obama's recovery, 3Q2012 GDP would have been $1.5 trillion, or 9.5%, higher than it actually was. Real GDP growth during those 13 calendar quarters would have averaged 5.11%, rather than the 2.21% actually achieved. By way of comparison, real GDP growth averaged 5.67% during the first 13 quarters of the Reagan recovery.
 
Coming out of a severe recession, a sustained period of fast economic growth has been normal for America,. However, under Obama, slow growth and high joblessness has become the new normal.
 
OK, so, who happens to have $3.0 trillion lying around, plus the knowledge and skills required to invest it wisely to create sustainable jobs? The poor? The middle class? The government?
 
No, the investment required to transform America's stagnant jobs picture can only come from the people that actually have the money, as well as the demonstrated ability to manage capital investment. In other words, it would have to come from the hated and reviled "one percent".
 
Obviously, "the rich" are already investing all that they are willing to invest under the current structure of incentives. Obama's plan is to do everything he can to make investment even less attractive for "the one percent" than it is now. This is why economic stagnation has become the new normal.
 
A good measure of the driving force for "the rich" to invest in job-creating nonresidential assets is the Real Dow, which is the Dow Jones Industrial Average divided by the price of gold.
 
A rising Dow reflects a flow of capital into productive assets. A rising gold price indicates that capital is moving into inflation hedges. The Real Dow, which is the ratio of the two, reveals the balance between the competing investment options available to "the rich".
 
The jobs picture will not improve until and unless the Real Dow begins a sustained rise. Unfortunately, the Real Dow ended November at 7.61. This is down by 16.6% since Obama's so-called "economic recovery" began, lower by 23.6% than when Bush 43 left office, and down by a staggering 80.6% since we last enjoyed full employment (in April 2000, under Bill Clinton).
 
So, if you are waiting for an improvement in the employment picture, watch the Real Dow, but don't hold your breath.
 
There will have to be big changes in policy before the jobs situation will improve significantly. Essentially, Obamunism would have to be supplanted by Reaganomics. America would have to move to a strong, stable dollar, lower taxes (especially on savings and investment), and cost-effective regulations.
 
As things stand, the American people can look forward to more years of economic stagnation, as well more years of pretending that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Don't worry if your kids graduate from college, only to move back home and play video games in the basement. It's just the new normal.
 




Louis Woodhill (louis@woodhill.com), an engineer and software entrepreneur, is a Forbes contributor.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 06:06:05 AM
Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
 zero hedge ^

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2012 6:57:01 AM by Perdogg

And we thought last month's delayed foodstamp data was bad. The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. The monthly increase was the highest since May 2011, and with August's 421K new impoverished America, over 1 million Americans made the EBT card their new best friend. It is unclear just which atmospheric phenomenon will get the blame for this unprecedented surge in poverty, which comes at a time when the pre-election economic data euphoria was adamant that the US economy was on an escape velocity to utopia. Instead what we do know is that in August and September, over three times as many foodstamp recipients were add to the economy as jobs (324,000). We also know that with the imminent impact of Sandy, which will send foodstamp recipients soaring, it is now looking quite possible that the US may end 2012 with just over a mindboggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person, instead of working. Welcome to the recovery indeed.


(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 07:30:21 AM
Gallup Reports Upper-Income Spending Worst November Ever
 Townhall.com ^ | December 10, 2012 | Mike Shedlock

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2012 10:25:08 AM by

With the generally upbeat spending reports on black Friday and cyber-Monday, Gallup paints a different point of view in its most recent poll that shows U.S. Consumer Spending Holds Steady, Consistent With 2011

Americans' self-reported daily spending averaged $73 in November, essentially on par with September and October. It is also similar to the $71 Americans spent last November and slightly higher compared with November 2010 and 2009 -- but still much lower than in November 2008.

November 2012 vs. November Prior Years



U.S. Upper-Income Spending Sees Worst November on Record

Upper-income Americans' (defined as those making at least $90,000 per year) self-reported daily spending was lower this November -- an average of $113 -- than in any November dating back to 2008. Upper-income spending has been trending downward since September, although the decline has not been large enough to drag down the overall spending figures.



Lower-income Americans' spending in November -- an average of $61 -- is on par with the $60 they spent last November. Lower-income spending is generally quite stable from month to month and has been holding steady since March.

Bottom Line

Although November marks the beginning of the holiday season -- generally a time for spending and splurging -- Americans did not spend any more than usual this November, and upper-income Americans appear to be spending less than usual. Americans' self-reported spending in November is on par with November 2011, matching Gallup's finding that Americans predict they will spend about as much on holiday gifts this year as they did last year.Note that both charts paint a different picture of holiday spending in the recovery. Spending levels did not recover to pre-recession levels, at least as reported in Gallup surveys.What consumers actually spend vs. what they report to Gallup might not be the same thing.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 09:17:24 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/homeless-rate-in-the-us-remains-steady_n_2269092.html#comments


O-THUG economy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 09:21:28 AM
The Employment Rate Has Been Under 59 Percent For 39 Months In A Row
Unemployment Is Not Going Down
 
Michael Snyder
 Economic Collapse
 December 10, 2012



 
The mainstream media is heralding the decline of the official unemployment rate to 7.7 percent as evidence that the U.S. economy is improving.  But it is a giant lie.  The truth is that unemployment in America is not actually going down.  The percentage of working age Americans with a job actually dropped slightly in November.  During the last recession, the percentage of working age Americans with a job fell from about 63 percent to under 59 percent and it has stayed there for 39 months in a row.  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 percentof all working age Americans were employed.  It is more then 3 years later, and we are in the exact same place!  So how in the world are they able to pretend that the “unemployment rate” is going down steadily?  Well, they get there by pretending that hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers “leave the labor force” each month.  According to the government, another 350,000 Americans left the labor force during November, and when you keep pretending that huge chunks of workers “disappear” each month it is easy to get the “unemployment rate” to go down.  But any idiot can see that there is something really funny about these numbers.  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.  At this point the official unemployment rate is so manipulated that it is of very little value at all.
 
But the mainstream media is just eating up this “good news”.  They are very excited that the “unemployment rate” has fallen from its peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009 to 7.7 percent now…
 


But if unemployment was actually going down, we should be seeing the percentage of Americans with a job go up.
 
Unfortunately, that is NOT happening.
 
As I mentioned above, the “employment rate” fell below 59 percent during the last economic crisis and it has stayed there for 39 consecutive months…
 


So all of that stuff about the employment situation getting better is just a load of nonsense.  The percentage of Americans with a job has stayed very, very steady since the end of 2009.  It is almost as if someone has hit a “pause button” and won’t let unemployment get better or get worse.
 
This is the first time since the end of World War II that we have not seen the employment-population ratio bounce back in a significant way after a recession has ended.
 
To me, that is a very bad sign.
 
I also find it very interesting that the government revised the “job gains” for September and October downward in this recent report…
 

The government revised down job gains for September and October by a total 49,000. September’s additions were revised from 148,000 to 132,000 and October’s, from 171,000 to 138,000.
 
So it turns out that the glowing employment reports from those months that helped get Obama re-elected were really not that great after all.
 
The truth is that it takes somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with the growth of the population.  So at best we are treading water.
 
And who is “creating” those new jobs?
 
According to an analysis performed by CNSNews.com, 73 percent of the jobs “created” over the past 5 months have been “created” by government.
 
But government does not create real wealth.
 
Real wealth is only created by the private sector.
 
It would be very nice if I could report a major employment turnaround, but it simply is not happening.
 
Instead, we continue to see an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty.
 
If things are getting better, then why are organizations like the Salvation Army seeing record numbers of families coming to them for help this holiday season?
 
For much more on the continued growth of poverty in the United States, just see this article.
 
Sadly, an increasing number of Americans find themselves forced to turn to the government for assistance, and the cost of caring for all of them has become extremely expensive…
 

According to the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee, welfare spending per day per household in poverty is $168, which is higher than the $137 median income per day. When broken down per hour, welfare spending per hour per household in poverty is $30.60, which is higher than the $25.03 median income per hour.
 
But if you think that things are bad now, you should brace yourself, because things are going to get even worse.
 
For example, how much worse will things get if a fiscal cliff deal is not reached and millions more Americans find themselves in desperate need of help?  According to ABC News, more than 3 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits by the beginning of April if Congress does not do something…
 

Millions of unemployed Americans have another reason to worry about “fiscal cliff” budget talks that seek to avoid looming tax increases and dire spending cuts come January.
 
About 2.1 million people will stop receiving jobless benefits immediately if Congress doesn’t reauthorize federal unemployment insurance programs by year’s end. Another 1 million will lose benefits over the first three months of 2013.
 
2013 is already shaping up to be a very tough year.
 
But the mainstream media is not really talking about how the middle class is systematically being destroyed or about how our once great manufacturing cities are being turned into desolate wastelands.
 
They just want us all to be happy, but the cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy no longer produces enough jobs for everybody and it never will again.
 
Both of our major political parties have fully embraced the emerging one world economic system which puts average American workers into direct competition for jobs with workers in third world countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.
 
Millions of good paying American jobs have been shipped to countries where workers work very long hours in absolutely horrific conditions for as little as 45 dollars a month.
 
Are you willing to work for 45 dollars a month?
 
Meanwhile, Americans that still do have jobs are piling up more debt than ever before.  It appears that most people have not learned any lessons from the last major economic crisis.  It has just been reported that consumer borrowing in the United States has hit a new record high…
 

Americans swiped their credit cards more often in October and borrowed more to attend school and buy cars. The increases drove U.S. consumer debt to an all-time high.
 
The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumers increased their borrowing by $14.2 billion in October from September. Total borrowing rose to a record $2.75 trillion.
 
Isn’t that lovely?
 
And of course the biggest offender of all is our federal government.  They just keep borrowing money as if there was no tomorrow.
 A d v e r t i s e m e n t

 


During the first two months of fiscal year 2013, the U.S. government has run a deficit of $292 billion dollars ($57 billion worse than last year) and during that time it has borrowed an average of $4.8 billion dollars a day.
 
30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about 1.1 trillion dollars.
 
Now it is more than 16.3 trillion dollars.
 
To get an idea how much money 16 trillion dollars is, just watch this 2 minute video.
 
How could we be so stupid?
 
Yes, much of America is still experiencing “prosperity” right now.  But it is a prosperity that has been fueled by the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen.
 
When that debt bubble bursts the pain is going to be unbelievable.
 
If you actually believe that America is going to prosper in the years to come, you are just fooling yourself.
 
Our economy is declining and has been declining for quite some time.  If you doubt this, just read this: “34 Signs That America Is In Decline“.
 
So that is the bad news.
 
But the good news is that even though the entire nation is not going to prosper, there will be those that will have prepared and that will have gotten themselves into position to take advantage of what is coming.  During the coming crisis a massive amount of money and wealth will change hands.  Instead of living in fear and cowering under a blanket, now is the time to figure out how you and your family can thrive during the hard times that are on the horizon.
 
During the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009, there were some people that actually did amazingly well.  So don’t lose hope just because the U.S. economy is headed for disaster.
 
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken.  But if you understand what is happening and you prepare for it, the times that are coming can actually be a great adventure and a great blessing for you and your family.
 
But if you just stick your head in the sand and have blind faith in the system and pretend that everything is going to be okay somehow, then you will be blindsided by the coming crisis and you will only have yourself to blame.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2012, 11:59:36 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/paul-krugman-american-eco_n_2270362.html#comments


Ha ha ha ah ha ha ha

Krugfag = fail
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 11, 2012, 06:02:54 AM
Small Business Optimism Collapses After 'Something Bad Happened In November'
Joe Weisenthal|Dec. 11, 2012, 7:36 AM|945|6

 


The NFIB is out with its latest survey of small business optimism, and the numbers are very bad. In fact, the firm's chief economy specifically said "Something bad happened in November" and that it wasn't just hurricane Sandy.
 
Here's the number.
 
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dropped 5.6 points in November, bottoming out at 87.5. The two major events in November were the national elections and Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of the East Coast. To disentangle these, the results for the states impacted by Sandy were excluded from the computation for comparison. When separating the hurricane-impacted states from the remainder, the data makes clear that the election was the primary cause of the decline in owner optimism.
 
“Something bad happened in November—and based on the NFIB survey data, it wasn’t merely Hurricane Sandy. The storm had a significant impact on the economy, no doubt, but it is very clear that a stunning number of owners who expect worse business conditions in six months had far more to do with the decline in small-business confidence. Nearly half of owners are now certain that things will be worse next year than they are now. Washington does not have the needs of small business in mind. Between the looming ‘fiscal cliff,’ the promise of higher healthcare costs and the endless onslaught of new regulations, owners have found themselves in a state of pessimism. We are forced to ask: is this the new normal?” -- NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nfib-small-business-optimism-plunges-in-november-2012-12#ixzz2Ekg1ZUc2




________________________ ___________


LMFAO! ! ! !  !

GUESS WHAT THAT EVENT WAS? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 11, 2012, 08:46:34 AM
Exports drop in October by biggest margin in almost four years
 Hotair ^

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 11:31:09 AM by


“The private sector is doing fine,” Barack Obama assured us in June, but we haven’t seen much evidence for that argument. Today’s report from Commerce on the trade deficit certainly doesn’t provide any reassurance for that claim. In fact, exports dropped in October by the biggest margin since Obama took office, and the trade gap with China widened to a new record:
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2012, 07:36:53 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve projects the unemployment rate will stay elevated until late 2015, suggesting it will keep short-term interest rates low for the next three years.
 
The latest economic forecasts released Wednesday after the Fed's final meeting of the year were little changed from September. But they coincided with a new communication strategy announced by the Fed that links future interest rate hikes with unemployment below 6.5 percent.
 
The unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in November.
 
The central bank said that it expects economic growth to improve next year but that it will be no stronger than 3 percent. Growth could increase to 3.5 percent in 2014 and 3.7 percent in 2015.
 
Unemployment will fall no lower than 7.4 percent next year and 6.8 percent by the end of 2014, the Fed projects. The earliest the Fed sees unemployment dropping below 6.5 percent is the end of 2015.
 
The Fed said it plans to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation is expected to stay below 2.5 percent.
 
The latest forecast projects inflation will stay at or below 2 percent for the next three years. That gives the Fed more leeway to pursue aggressive stimulus measures.
 
In an effort to drive the unemployment rate lower, the Fed said after its meeting that it will spend a total of $85 billion a month to sustain an aggressive drive to keep long-term interest rates low. The goal is to encourage more borrowing and spending, which drives economic growth.
 
The Fed said it will continue buying bonds until the job market shows substantial improvement.
 
The projections made no mention of the "fiscal cliff," the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that are set to kick next month and threaten to push the economy back into a recession. But the modest growth and gradually lower unemployment next year suggest the Fed is assuming President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers will reach a budget deal before then to avoid the cliff.
 
Bernanke has warned that the Fed does not have the tools to offset the damage to the economy if it goes over the cliff.
 
At the same time, Bernanke has said that if an agreement can be reached that addresses the nation's long-term budget challenges without slowing the recovery in the short term, next year could be "a very good one for the American economy."
 
Fear of higher taxes has yet to slow hiring. Employers added 146,000 jobs last month, the government said last week. That's about the same as the average monthly gain of 150,000 in the past year.
 
The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent last month from 7.9 percent in October. But the decline was mostly because more people without jobs gave up looking for work. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching.
 
The economy grew at solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, more than double the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter. But many analysts believe worries about the fiscal cliff are contributing to slower growth in the current October-December quarter below 2 percent.
 
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on December 12, 2012, 07:51:56 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve projects the unemployment rate will stay elevated until late 2015, suggesting it will keep short-term interest rates low for the next three years.
 
The latest economic forecasts released Wednesday after the Fed's final meeting of the year were little changed from September. But they coincided with a new communication strategy announced by the Fed that links future interest rate hikes with unemployment below 6.5 percent.
 
The unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in November.
 
The central bank said that it expects economic growth to improve next year but that it will be no stronger than 3 percent. Growth could increase to 3.5 percent in 2014 and 3.7 percent in 2015.
 
Unemployment will fall no lower than 7.4 percent next year and 6.8 percent by the end of 2014, the Fed projects. The earliest the Fed sees unemployment dropping below 6.5 percent is the end of 2015.
 
The Fed said it plans to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation is expected to stay below 2.5 percent.
 
The latest forecast projects inflation will stay at or below 2 percent for the next three years. That gives the Fed more leeway to pursue aggressive stimulus measures.
 
In an effort to drive the unemployment rate lower, the Fed said after its meeting that it will spend a total of $85 billion a month to sustain an aggressive drive to keep long-term interest rates low. The goal is to encourage more borrowing and spending, which drives economic growth.
 
The Fed said it will continue buying bonds until the job market shows substantial improvement.
 
The projections made no mention of the "fiscal cliff," the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that are set to kick next month and threaten to push the economy back into a recession. But the modest growth and gradually lower unemployment next year suggest the Fed is assuming President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers will reach a budget deal before then to avoid the cliff.
 
Bernanke has warned that the Fed does not have the tools to offset the damage to the economy if it goes over the cliff.
 
At the same time, Bernanke has said that if an agreement can be reached that addresses the nation's long-term budget challenges without slowing the recovery in the short term, next year could be "a very good one for the American economy."
 
Fear of higher taxes has yet to slow hiring. Employers added 146,000 jobs last month, the government said last week. That's about the same as the average monthly gain of 150,000 in the past year.
 
The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent last month from 7.9 percent in October. But the decline was mostly because more people without jobs gave up looking for work. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching.
 
The economy grew at solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, more than double the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter. But many analysts believe worries about the fiscal cliff are contributing to slower growth in the current October-December quarter below 2 percent.
 
© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.


It's like the Federal Reserve's propaganda department simply took the same "Reason for Q.E." press release from the last several failed attempts, changed the date, maybe some statistics and crapped it out.

Hilarious.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 12, 2012, 08:41:55 PM
Avon Announces 1,500 Layoffs
 The Motley Fool ^ | December 12, 2012 | Rich Smith

Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 11:19:52 PM by 2ndDivisionVet

Avon Products on Tuesday announced plans to lay off 1,500 workers globally. That's about 3.7 percent of its work force.

The layoffs, which Avon described as part of a previously announced initiative to cut $400 million in annual costs by the end of 2015, are expected to initially cost the company money. In conjunction with moves to exit the South Korea and Vietnam markets, Avon says it will be taking $50 million to $60 million in pre-tax charges in Q4 2012, followed by an additional $30 million in charges as the changes progress.

However, Avon believes it will see immediate cost savings of approximately $80 million annually as a result of changes made through year's end. This suggests that charges taken in late 2012 will be recouped over the course of 2013...


(Excerpt) Read more at fool.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 13, 2012, 02:20:32 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-true-reason-many-americans-are-broke-2012-12


Great job by the Fed here. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on December 13, 2012, 07:25:31 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-true-reason-many-americans-are-broke-2012-12


Great job by the Fed here. 

Silly boy, there is no such thing as inflation right now!

Everything is OK. The recovery is right on schedule and gaining steam...that's why the Fed has just Ok'd another round of Q.E.

Everything is going according to plan!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 14, 2012, 07:19:07 AM
Need a Job? You May Have to Wait Until 2015 or Later, Says the Fed
 Townhall.com ^ | December 14, 2012 | Donald Lambro

Posted on Friday, December 14, 2012 10:09:52 AM by Kaslin

WASHINGTON - Everything you ever wanted to know about the Obama economy is in a single sentence about the Federal Reserve Board's latest attempts this week to deal with unacceptably high unemployment.

"Fed officials projected that the jobless rate, now at 7.7 percent, would not reach 6.5 percent until near the end of 2015 at the earliest," The Washington Post reported in its lead front page story Thursday morning.

If there's anyone out there -- besides Barack Obama's top advisers and diehard allies in Congress -- who think his economic policies, or lack thereof, will restore a weak economy to its full vigor in his second term, they've got a long wait.

Year after year over the course of Obama's impotent fiscal policies, the Fed has thrown everything it had at the economy, pumping trillions of dollars in printed money into U.S. Treasury bond purchases while reducing its interest rates to near zero -- without much to show for it.

Now, with the "fiscal cliff" looming more menacingly than ever before, and the economic and jobs data weakening month by month, the Fed is doubling down on monetary measures to breath some life back into the economy in the absence of any serious fiscal plan by the administration.

Yet with each long-term prognosis report, the Fed's target dates for a hope-for recovery recede deeper into the future.

What Fed officials are telling us now is that they do not expect to see a light at the end of this long jobless tunnel until nearly the end of Obama's second term. And possibly not until a new president takes his place.

Let's fact it, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has very few monetary weapons left to turn this economy around and he's said many times that the only real solution lies in fundamentally changing fiscal policy.

That means reducing the massive amounts of capital that the government sucks out of the economy each year, and enacting economic growth incentives on the tax side of the equation.

But Obama opposes any serious policy changes in that direction. Indeed, he wants to do just the opposite. Extract trillions more from a weak economy through higher taxes so he can spend more on waste-ridden programs like his multi-billion dollar clean energy investments. Recently, a battery manufacturer was added to his bankruptcy list of failures, this one costing taxpayers $133 million.

Even though Bernanke's plaintive pleas for changes in fiscal policies have fallen on deaf ears at the White House, he tried again at a news conference Wednesday when he announced the Fed's stepped up goals for the economy.

"If the economy actually went off the fiscal cliff... that would have very significant adverse effects on the economy and on the unemployment rate," he said. "We would try to do what we could... but I just want to again be clear that we cannot offset the full impact of the fiscal cliff. It's just too big."

"The most helpful thing that Congress and [the] administration can do at this point... is to find a solution and avoid derailing the recovery," he said.

It should be clear that nothing the Fed said it would do is going to change the profound economic challenges we face now or ever. The financial markets' reaction to the Fed's actions was a great yawn and stock markets ended the day essentially flat.

Meantime, Obama continues to live in his own dream world, a hermetically sealed universe in which he insists the economy is doing fine. Speaking to a crowd of several hundred union workers in Detroit Monday, he said, "We're moving in the right direction. We're going forward. So what we need to do is simple -- we need to keep going forward."

This from a president who said earlier this year that "the private sector is doing just fine." But, at best, the economy is barely moving. It's creeping along at an average annual growth rate of 1.7 percent -- well below the growth rate needed to bring unemployment down to normal levels.

Worse, the economy as a whole is not going forward. It's in reverse. Economists say its growth rate has slowed in this quarter to no more than 1.5 percent, perilously close to the tipping point into another recession.

Obama also told those UAW workers that "American manufacturing is growing at the fastest pace since the 1990s," and that factories have created nearly 500,000 jobs since 2010.

The painful reality is that manufacturing still has 2 million fewer jobs than existed before the recession. Last month's jobs report showed that the number of manufacturing and construction jobs remained unchanged.

Economists on both sides of the political aisle say this is the weakest recovery since the Great Depression and the unspoken reality is that Obama has not offered any new comprehensive plan to get the economy moving since his failed $800 billion spending stimulus program in 2009.

He has proposed tinier versions of the same plan, but they have been rejected by Congress and there has been no substantive White House proposal since then.

So the economy is limping along on automatic pilot as it cruises along the edge of the dreaded fiscal cliff, while the president lives in a fantasy world in which our factories are "humming again," as his campaign's TV ads said, jobs are being created at an imagined pace, and a fictionalized economy is improving.

But there's a mountain of growing evidence that things are not okay. Pessimism is growing, businesses large and small are pulling back, and consumers are spending less than expected.

The National Federation of Independent Business index of small business optimism has sunk to one of its lowest levels in a quarter of a century. The percentage of NFIB's small business owners who think the Obama economy will improve fell by 37 points.

The University of Michigan's closely-watched consumer confidence preliminary index for December fell sharply to 74.5 from 82.7. And national retail sales were up by only 0.3 percent last month, half of what forecasters predicted.

Meantime, the president is still peddling higher taxes as the only cure for what ails us -- the economic equivalent of the 18th Century practice of bleeding the patient. And we know how that turned out.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on December 14, 2012, 03:43:12 PM
Stupid is flowing like a river.....
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 17, 2012, 03:09:39 PM
Congrats, Barry. US falls out of top 10 most prosperous nations
 American Thinker ^ | 12/17/2012 | Rick Moran

Posted on Monday, December 17, 2012 4:59:59 PM by SeekAndFind



You know that period between sleep and wakefulness where you're not quite sure you're still dreaming? I read this blog item at Powerline and had the exact same reaction:

 


Via InstaPundit, we learn that for the first time, the United States does not rank as one of the world's ten most prosperous nations, as rated by London's Legatum Institute. The authors of the report found that the U.S.'s slippage is being driven by "a decline in the number of US citizens who believe that hard work will get them ahead." Well, they're right: in Barack Obama's America, hard work doesn't cause you to get ahead; being politically connected does. We are all paying the price for the corruption of the Age of Obama.

Consistent with this finding is the fact that for the first time in history, the average Canadian is wealthier than the average American. Canada has a conservative government, and they have passed us like we are standing still. Which we are, at best.

All of which raises the question: do Barack Obama and his minions want America to be one of the world's ten most prosperous countries? If you believe, as I do, that actions speak louder than words, the answer is No.



(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 17, 2012, 07:27:26 PM
Hill Poll: Gloomy voters say US on wrong track, kids will be poorer
 The Hill ^ | December 17, 2012 | Sheldon Alberts

Posted on Monday, December 17, 2012 8:14:48 PM by CutePuppy

A mood of economic gloom hangs over the nation as President Obama and Republican leaders scramble to strike a deficit deal that avoids automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, according to a new poll for The Hill.

The poll, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, found nearly 6-in-10 people (59 percent) feel the country is on the wrong track. It also showed people are deeply pessimistic about their chances for future prosperity, with 54 percent saying they believe their children will be worse off as adults than their parents.

The poll results cast a shadow over talks in Washington aimed at averting the “fiscal cliff” of $500 billion in tax hikes and $109 billion in automatic spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1.

Barely a month after Obama won a second term, and even as the nation continues to make modest job gains, fewer than 1-in-3 (31 percent) say the country is on the right track.

Only 34 percent of people feel they will be better off at the end of Obama’s second term than they are right now. And just 16 percent believe a better economic future awaits their children when they grow up.

The dour sentiment is particularly striking among Republicans, who were crestfallen over GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s defeat on Nov. 6.

Among voters who identified themselves as Republicans, 87 percent said the country is on the wrong track and a mere 8 percent said it is on the right track.

Seven-in-10 Republicans believe they will be worse off at the end of Obama’s presidency, and 80 percent said their children’s future is bleaker than their own.

Only 4 percent of Republicans think their children will be better off.

By contrast, Democrats are in a somewhat sunnier — though not overwhelmingly upbeat — post-election mood. Fifty-four percent of Democrats said they think the country is on the right track compared to 31 percent who said it is on the wrong track.

Six-in-10 Democrats, meanwhile, believe they’ll be better off in four years.

But even Democrats are worried about the country’s long-term future. Only 30 percent said their children face a brighter future and 30 percent said they will be worse off.

African Americans — who have endured high unemployment rates throughout the economic recession and recovery — are more upbeat about the country’s future than white Americans, the poll found.

While just 30 percent of whites said the country is on the right track, 44 percent of black voters believe the nation is headed in the right direction.

Similarly, 64 percent of blacks believe their families will be better off in four years compared to just 30 percent of whites. Over the long term, 56 percent of African Americans say their children face a brighter future, compared to 10 percent of whites.

The poll was taken Dec. 13 among 1,000 likely voters and is considered accurate within 3 percentage points.

The poll’s sample was 32 percent Republican, 38 percent Democrat and 30 percent who identified as neither.

Voters are evenly divided in their views on the country’s overall ideological leaning, the poll found.

Twenty-six percent of people said they believe the United States is a predominantly left-of-center nation, while 30 percent feel it is a right-of-center country. Another 25 percent felt the U.S. is neither right nor left.

Among Democrats, only 17 percent said they believe the U.S. is a left-of-center country, compared to 29 percent of Republicans who felt that way.

A near-equal number of Democrats and Republicans (31 percent and 30 percent, respectively) said the U.S. is predominantly a right-of-center country.

The Hill’s poll found a strikingly large number of voters, 59 percent, believe the U.S. is less admired around the globe than it was four years ago when Obama took office. Just 37 percent said the country is much more, or somewhat more, admired than it was four years ago.

When Obama took office, he pledged to try and restore the nation’s international standing, which he felt had been damaged during George W. Bush’s presidency.

Republicans strongly feel the opposite has occurred, with 87 percent saying the country is somewhat or much less admired than it was four years ago. Only 10 percent of Republicans say the country's image has improved.

Sixty-five percent of Democrats say the country is more admired now than when Bush left office, while 32 percent say it is less admired.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 18, 2012, 07:43:10 PM
The Number of People on SS/SSI increased 700 Percent.
 usdebtclock.org ^ | 12/18/2012 | typical_whitey

Posted on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 7:53:31 PM by Typical_Whitey

www.usdebtclock.org is a source of economic data for the U.S. This data is collected from the various government departments. The website has a tool that you can use to view historic trends from the year 2000 to present and also out to 2016.

Taking a look at the number of people on Social Security and SSI, which is found on the far right column of the webpage, and using the time tool, we can see that between 2000 and 2004 there was an increase of roughly 2.4 Million people, and from 2004 – 2008 approximately 2.8 Million were added to SS/SSI. Over the last 4 years of the Obama Presidency from 2008 thru present we find that the number added has risen to an astonishing 17.4 Million people that accounts for a historic 700 percent increase in the number of approved applicants on SS/SSI and the number is continuing to rise even with the so called recovery.

According to the Social Security Administration website: The SSI program provides a basic national monthly income guarantee, called the federal benefit rate (FBR), to children and adults with disabilities as well as to persons aged 65 or older.

Effective January 2012, the maximum Federal SSI payment for an eligible individual is $698 per month and for an eligible couple $1,048 per month. However, some states supplement the federal SSI payment. SSI benefit amounts and state supplemental payment amounts vary based upon your income, living arrangements and other factors.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 18, 2012, 07:45:22 PM
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com


Geeeeeezzzzzz
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 20, 2012, 05:32:51 AM
USAWatchdog.com ^ | 19 December, 2012 | Greg Hunter
Posted on December 19, 2012, 4:58:51 PM EST by Errant

Economist John Williams thinks the economy is in worse shape than most people think. In 2013, Williams predicts, “As this goes forward, you’re going to see we’re going to be in a new recession.” The Federal Reserve announced last week it is now printing a total of $85 billion every month to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy. Williams says, “That’s nonsense. . . . There’s nothing they can do to stimulate the economy.” Williams has long contended the Fed is really just using the weak economy to continue to prop up the banking system. Williams says, “If the Fed wasn’t doing what it’s doing . . . I’d presume you’d be on the road to a banking system collapse. The banking system is still in trouble.” Williams warns the “open-ended” printing of $85 billion a month “. . . will be part of what will eventually become hyperinflation.” And if there is no deal on the so-called “fiscal cliff,” then Williams expects “heavy selling pressure on the U.S. dollar.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with John Williams of Shadowstats.com.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 20, 2012, 12:44:29 PM
Latin Chamber Hands Out Bags Of Holiday Cheer

December 19, 2012 12:44 PM


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A pile of some of the food bags given away by CAMACOL for Christmas. (Source: CBS4)



Reporting Natalia Zea



 
LITTLE HAVANA (CBSMiami) – Some people were in line for hours or even days, but no matter how long they waited, as long as they had a voucher, they received bags of holiday cheer Wednesday from the Latin American Chamber of Commerce.
 
Wednesday was the Chambers’ annual holiday food basket giveaway in Little Havana. Just like previous years, hundreds of people camped out outside the CAMACOL building, located at 1401 West Flagler Street, in order to be some of the first to receive the free food.
 
Zoraida Pacheco said she and her husband were laid off this year and are scraping by doing odd jobs. For the first time ever, she came to wait in line for a holiday meal for her five kids.
 


“Once you’ve been up there and you have everything for yourself, then comes a point that you’re down here,” Pacheco said, “that you have to depend on other people, so other people can help you. This helps a great deal.”
 
The Latin Chamber of Commerce and various local businesses gave away $150 dollars worth of food and drinks to every person with a voucher.  Three thousand vouchers were handed out several weeks ago.

 

The meals included pork, yucca, milk, soda,  bread, and a gift bag with a number of smaller food items. CAMACOL started this tradition of handing out Christmas dinner for families 27 years ago. It’ll provide families the food they need to prepare a traditional Noche Buena dinner.
 
Rosemary Garcia waited in line in her wheelchair. She smiled as she received her food basket.
 
“Thanks for having nice people coming out to help the people that don’t have,” she said.
 
Governor Rick Scott and his wife Ann, along with former Governor Jeb Bush were on hand Wednesday to help hand out food to residents.
 
“This is what America, this is what Florida’s about. We take care of each other, we care about each other.  We want to make sure everyone is taken care of,” said Scott.
 
Zoraida said the waiting paid off, “We got everything. We got the Christmas dinner.”
 
She and many others walked away grateful that their families won’t go without during the holiday season.
 
CAMACOL promises to hand out another 3000 baskets next year.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on December 20, 2012, 05:30:38 PM
What's the most dicks you've sucked in a single day?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2012, 07:57:06 AM
Government Dependents Outnumber Those With Private Sector Jobs In 11 U.S. States
TEC ^ | 12-27-2012 | Michael Snyder
Posted on December 27, 2012, 10:31:25 AM EST by blam

Government Dependents Outnumber Those With Private Sector Jobs In 11 U.S. States

By Michael Snyder
December 26th, 2012

America is rapidly becoming a nation of takers. An increasing number of Americans expect the government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave, and they expect the government to dig into the pockets of others in order to pay for it all. This philosophy can be very seductive, but what happens when the number of takers eventually outnumbers the number of producers? In 11 different U.S. states, the number of government dependents exceeds the number of private sector workers. This list of states includes some of the biggest states in the country: California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Maine, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, New Mexico and Hawaii.
It is interesting to note that seven of those states were won by Barack Obama on election night. In California, there are 139 "takers" for every 100 private sector workers. That is crazy! The American people have become absolutely addicted to government money, and it gets worse with each passing year. If you can believe it, entitlements accounted for 62 percent of all federal spending in fiscal year 2012. It would be one thing if we could afford all of this spending, but unfortunately we simply cannot. We are drowning in debt, and we are stealing more than a hundred million more dollars from future generations with each passing hour. No bank robber in history can match that kind of theft.

Yes, we will always need a safety net. There are many people out there that simply cannot take care of themselves. We certainly don't want to see anyone sleeping in the streets or starving to death.

But if the number of people jumping on to the safety net continues to grow at the current pace, the net will break and it will not be available for any of us.

For example, the number of Americans on food stamps grew from about 17 million in 2000 to more than 47 million today. It nearly tripled in just 12 years.

What will happen if it nearly triples again over the next 12 years?

The federal government even has a website (benefits.gov) that guides people through the process of figuring out what welfare programs they can take advantage of.

Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different "means-tested welfare programs" and more than 100 million Americans are already enrolled in at least one of those programs.

Yes, I realize that figure is very hard to believe. I had a hard time believing it when I first came across it.

And it is even more shocking when you realize that the figure of 100 million Americans does not even include those who only receive Social Security or Medicare.

Today, there are 56.76 million Americans on Social Security.

To support all of those Americans on Social Security, there are only about 94.75 million full-time private sector workers.

So there are just 1.67 full-time private sector workers to support each American that is on Social Security.

Medicare is also growing like crazy. As I wrote about the other day, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.

How much farther can we push things before the entire system collapses?

In order to support this exploding entitlement system, we need a lot more Americans to be working good paying jobs.

Unfortunately, millions of good paying jobs continue to be shipped overseas and they aren't coming back.

We are even losing good jobs to our own prisoners. The United States has the largest prison population in the world by far, and the exploitation of that low wage labor pool has become a boom industry in America. Even Microsoft and Boeing are using prison labor now. Just check out this video.

Meanwhile, there are millions upon millions of law-abiding Americans that cannot find jobs and that cannot take care of their families.

So poverty and dependence on the government are absolutely exploding. We have a system that is so messed up that it is hard to even put it into words. The middle class is being viciously shredded, and most Americans just continue to applaud the politicians from both parties that are doing this to us.

Our economy is being gutted at the same time that the welfare state is experiencing unprecedented growth. Instead of giving us real answers, our "leaders" just continue to borrow, spend and print more money. We are about to hit the debt limit again, and the Obama administration is saying that we should just do away with the debt limit permanently.

Most of our politicians don't seem to understand that they are systematically destroying our economy and the bright futures that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

But there are some politicians out there that get it. Unfortunately, many of them live in other countries. For example, Canadian MP Pierre Poilievre seems to have a firm grasp on what debt is doing to the United States. The following are some excerpts from one of his speeches...

"By 2020, the US Government will be spending more annually on debt interest than the total combined military budgets of China, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, and Israel."

"Through government spending the indulgence of one is the burden of another; through government borrowing, the excess of one generation becomes the yoke of the next; through international bailouts, one nation's extravagance becomes another nation's debt"

"Everyone takes, nobody makes, work doesn't pay, indulgence doesn't cost, money is free, and money is worthless."

You can see his entire speech right here.

And if we continue down this path it is most definitely true that our money will eventually become worthless at some point. Just today I was down at the grocery store, and a can of chili that I was able to get on sale for 75 cents a couple of years ago now has a "sale price" of $1.69. If the Federal Reserve keeps recklessly printing dollars, eventually we will be fortunate to get a can of chili for 10 bucks. Things cost too much already, and the Fed seems absolutely determined to cut the legs out from under the U.S. dollar.

Unfortunately, printing money is the only way that we are going to be able to service the gigantic amounts of debt that we are accumulating.

According to Chris Cox and Bill Archer, two men who served on Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, there is no way in the world that we could raise taxes high enough to pay for all of the obligations that we are currently taking on. They say that even if we taxed all corporations and all individuals at a 100% tax rate on all income over $66,193, "it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities."

Are you starting to get an idea of how much trouble we are in?

We don't have enough money to pay for all of this.

We are broke.

Our current economy is a debt-induced illusion, and we will soon be waking up to a tremendous amount of pain.

Are you ready?

TOPICS: News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: collapse; dependents; economy; government; Click to Add Keyword
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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 27, 2012, 09:38:42 AM
US: Consumer Confidence scares at 65.1 in November
 fxstreet.com ^ | December 27, 2012 | fxstreet.com

Posted on Thursday, December 27, 2012 10:18:37 AM by John W

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - A fall of 6.4 points in November was registered by the Consumer Confidence indicator released by the Conference Board. Data fell from 75.1 (revised from 73.7) to 65.1, coming much lower than the expected 70.3.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2013, 08:17:33 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/unemployment-rises-women-african-americans-december

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 04, 2013, 09:26:22 AM
Lincolnton Furniture Company, praised for bringing jobs back to US, closes

By Cameron Steele
 
The Charlotte Observer
 

Lincolnton Furniture Company closed abruptly Thursday just one year after it was hailed by President Barack Obama as an example of the recovering U.S. economy.

Furniture-making operations stopped indefinitely and only a few people will remain employed moving forward, company financial officer Ben Causey said.

“I don’t know where it’s going to go exactly; we’re still evaluating our situation,” Causey said. “We just didn’t have any choice at this point.”

The company was not receiving the orders it needed to sustain its operations, Causey said.

“We needed more orders is really what it boiled down to,” he said. “We thought they would materialize.”

Owner Bruce Cochrane, a fifth generation furniture-manufacturer, formed the company in 2011 with a $5 million investment and the hope he could make a profit off people who wanted to buy furniture made in America.

It was a move that caught the attention of North Carolina officials and those in the White House. Last year, Cochrane sat with the first lady during Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address. He also joined the president and other business leaders in a discussion about how to create more jobs at home.

Attempts late Thursday to reach Cochrane were unsuccessful. Causey said company officials were thankful for the support they received from the community over the past year-and-a-half.

Jerry Cochrane, Bruce Cochrane’s uncle and former Lincoln County Commissioner, learned about the company’s closing Thursday.

“I was surprised that they stopped the operation this quickly,” he said. “But starting a furniture business now is very difficult in this country.”

Last week, the Gaston Gazette recognized Bruce Cochrane as one of its “persons of the year” in 2012 for starting the furniture-manufacturing in his hometown.

“Everybody was rooting for us and wanted us to succeed,” Causey said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/04/3167317/lincolnton-furniture-company-praised.html#storylink=cpy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 05, 2013, 05:29:42 AM
North Portland Sealy mattress factory layoffs to begin in March
The Oregonian ^ | 1/4/12 | By Elliot Njus
Posted on January 5, 2013 12:48:58 AM EST by Be Careful

Sealy Inc., which in November announced plans to permanently close its North Portland mattress factory, will begin laying off workers there in March.

The North Carolina company said then it planned to move work from the factory at 13635 N. Lombard St. to Lacey, Wash., to cut costs.

In a notice to the state Friday, Sealy said 106 workers will be laid off starting March 4. In November, the company said the factory employed 128.

(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 08, 2013, 10:57:23 AM
ROSENBERG: 6 Key Economic Indicators Show That The US Isn't In Great Shape
 


Mamta Badkar|58 minutes ago|297|
 



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By the end of 2012, once it was clear that the fiscal cliff would be avoided, the consensus was that the U.S. economy wrapped up the year in "some sort of accelerating trend", according to Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg.
 
But Rosenberg says there are telling signs everywhere that this isn't actually the case.
 
"Mortgage applications have fallen off a cliff of their own of late... What I am asking is that calendar quirks aside why on earth would railway car loadings, coal production, auto assemblies, raw steel output and port activity be contracting on a year-over-year basis if the economy is humming along as the consensus would have you believe?"
 
Here are the charts


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/rosenberg-6-charts-us-economy-2013-1#ixzz2HPb6bwxY
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 09, 2013, 07:30:37 AM
Charlie Gasparino Says There's Going To Be A Blood Bath At Morgan Stanley On Monday
Linette Lopez|36 minutes ago|1,906|5
 


Charlie Gasparino reports that Morgan Stanley is in for some deep cuts on Monday.
 
Bloomberg is also reporting 1600 job cuts next week as well.
 
Morgan Stanley's CEO James Gorman has always made it clear that Wall Street had to downsize and that he wasn't afraid to have his own employees feel the pain.
 
That goes for compensation (down 9% since last year) and layoffs. The truly ugly year was 2011, when the firm was running layoff scenarios in the several thousands. At the beginning of last year, Gasparino (again) was reporting that by June 5,000 more people would be gone.
 
The news from Gasparino's Twitter feed:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gasparino-warns-of-morgan-stanley-cuts-2013-1#ixzz2HUbePg4v

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 09, 2013, 10:35:49 AM
Morgan Stanley Plans To Lay Off 1,600 Employees
 Value Walk ^ | January 9, 2013 | Marie Cabural

Posted on Wednesday, January 09, 2013 1:20:14 PM by 2ndDivisionVet

Morgan Stanley will cut its workforce by 1,600 in the coming weeks. The job cuts will affect all levels of employees in its investment banking and trading unit in both its United States and international divisions, according to a source.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), one of the leading banks in the United States plans to cut the number of its employees within its investment banking and trading division by 6 percent or 1,600 in the next few weeks, according to report from Bloomberg, citing an unidentified source familiar with the issue.

According to the source, 50 percent of the workforce reduction will come from the United States and 50 percent will come from the company’s international offices. The job cuts will affect all levels of employees.

The person who revealed the information requested his name not to be identified because the Morgan Stanley’s decision regarding the layoffs was not yet announced to the public.

The source said, the company is planning on sending notices to all the employees affected by the job cuts today and over the coming weeks...


(Excerpt) Read more at valuewalk.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 09, 2013, 07:01:49 PM
http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/09/new-data-show-1-in-4-children-on-food-stamps-in-fy-2011


Hope and change.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2013, 02:12:54 PM
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/10/investing/american-express-jobs/index.html?cnn=yes

5400 more jobs down the toilet 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on January 10, 2013, 02:16:30 PM
The Philly Fed report from a week or so ago, the one that "Surprised" to the upside was revised downward to a contraction.

And the weekly U.E. claims were up for the 4th week in a row.

Not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2013, 02:20:07 PM
The Philly Fed report from a week or so ago, the one that "Surprised" to the upside was revised downward to a contraction.

And the weekly U.E. claims were up for the 4th week in a row.

Not good.

Still W's fault. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 11, 2013, 05:39:38 AM
Time Inc. Will Lay Off 700 After 5% Advertising Decline
Jill Goldsmith, Variety|23 minutes ago|3|


Time Magazine

Time Warner's Time Inc. will lay off up to 700 staffers out of just under 8,000 total as the publisher's new chief struggles to transform famous titles and massive market share into a digital profit center.
 
The staff cuts will come sometime in the first quarter, said a person familiar with the company's plans, and will be across the board -- not just focused on editorial, where staffing has already been hard hit.
 
A Time Warner spokesman declined comment.
 
Time Inc. revenue fell 6% for the nine months ended in September to $2.5 billion. Profit dropped 14% to $220 million. During that period, it dominated 21.5% of overall domestic magazine advertising.
 
Time's stable of 21 U.S. magazines and 25 websites includes Time, In Style, Fortune, People, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated and Real Simple. It has over 100 titles worldwide.
 
For the third quarter, subscription revenue dipped 6% and advertising revenue eased 5%, echoing trends across the traditional publishing world as consumers digest information in new ways. Digital advertising and expanding readership on tablets and other mobile devices hasn't made up for losses elsewhere.
 
Given the new face of publishing, Time Warner settled in late 2011 on Laura Lang, CEO of digital marketing agency Digitas, to run the business. She started just over a year ago.
 
Time Warner will report fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Feb. 6.
 
Click here for more television news on Variety.com.
 



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/time-inc-will-lay-off-700-after-5-advertising-decline-2013-1#ixzz2HfqkdSq0
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2013, 04:51:39 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-11/us-airways-spurs-job-rush-as-16-500-vie-for-450-vacancies.html


16,500 apply for 450 sitty jobs. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2013, 06:35:24 PM
Riot Breaks Out At Housing Assistance Event In Metro Detroit
 CBS Detroit ^ | Jan 12, 2013

Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2013 7:03:25 PM by Iron Munro

An event designed to help assist Michigan families with housing expenses turned into a chaotic scene after there was a mad rush to collect Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers.

The incident happened Saturday morning at the Wayne County Family Health Services Center on Eureka Road, between Beech Daly and Inkster roads in Taylor — where thousands of people were waiting to get housing vouchers, many who had been waiting outside in the cold since the night before.

Reports say the amount of people who showed up looking for assistance heavily outweighed the number of vouchers to be distributed. As the night was fading away and the sun started to shine, the crowd continued to grow as more and more people arrived. According to reports, only 1,000 vouchers were available for distribution. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people were in attendance.

When it came time for the vouchers to be distributed, police said there was a mad rush for the door, with people jockeying for position to be the first inside the building. Officers tried to control the crowd, but couldn’t. Fearing the situation was more than they could handle, event organizers shut the entire thing down and turned off the lights inside the building. Witnesses say that’s when things really got ugly.

Star Lee, of Romulus, described the scene as complete chaos.

“People just don’t have order to themselves, you know what I mean? People were fighting and throwing chairs, and that’s just not necessary. We were asked to just come and line up and, you know, make things simple. They shut it down before it even got started and it’s just sad because some people really needed this help, this assistance,” she said.

Candice Wacasey, of Taylor, said she was frightened. Garbage litters the ground at a human services building in Taylor where thousands of people rioted when a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher distribution event was cancelled. (WWJ Photo/Beth Fisher)

Garbage litters the ground at a human services building in Taylor where thousands of people rioted when a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher distribution event was cancelled. (WWJ Photo/Beth Fisher)

“When the lights went out, it went horrible. People started trampling over people, there was a disabled lady that was in a wheelchair and they was trying to knock her over to get in front of her. I mean, just crazy,” she said.

Lenny Syer, of Melvindale, said some people lost all inhibitions, even muscling small children out-of-the-way.

“There was people who was physically putting their hands on people’s childs (sic) and moving them. It was unbelievable,” he said.

Additional help was called in from Michigan State Police, who helped Taylor police control the melee and disperse the crowd. Four people were arrested, but police say no one was injured.

Police say the event will be rescheduled, although specific details still need to be worked out.

“Due to the high demand of the Section 8 vouchers, we will meet with HUD Representatives to discuss the series of events, re-evaluate the distribution method and implement a process that ensures a greater level of efficiency and safety,” Mary Radamacher, Director of the Taylor Housing Commission, said in a statement.

Some of those in attendance Saturday said they hope organizers will be extra cautious and bring in additional security to insure things go differently next time.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the government on behalf of the participating family, which then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program.

The maximum housing assistance is generally the lesser of the payment standard minus 30 percent of the family’s monthly adjusted income, or the gross rent for the unit minus 30 percent of monthly adjusted income, according to HUD.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2013, 06:11:20 AM
The number of Americans receiving money directly from the federal government has grown from 94 million in the year 2000 to over 128 million today. A shocking new research paper by Patrick Tyrrell and William W. Beach contains that statistic and a whole bunch of other very revealing numbers. According to their research, the federal government hands out money to 41.3 percent of the entire population of the United States each month. Overall, more than 70 percent of all federal spending goes to what they call "dependence-creating programs". It is the most massive wealth redistribution scheme in the history of the world, and it continues to grow at a very rapid pace with each passing month. But can we really afford this? Of course we never want to see a single person go without food to eat or a roof to sleep under, but can the federal government really afford to support 128 million Americans every month? If millions more Americans keep jumping on to the "safety net" each year, how long will it be before it breaks and it is not there for anyone? The federal government is already drowning in debt. This year the U.S. national debt will easily blow past the 17 trillion dollar mark and we are rapidly heading toward financial oblivion. We are stealing more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day with no end in sight. If we don't get our finances in order as a nation, what will the end result be?

According to Tyrrell and Beach, federal spending on entitlement programs has been rising more than 6 times as fast as population growth has in recent years...

Between 1988 and 2011, spending on dependence-creating federal government programs has increased 180 percent versus “only” a 62 percent increase in the number of people who are enrolled in federal government programs, and a 27 percent increase in the population. Not only are more people enrolled in government programs than ever before, but more US taxpayer dollars are being spent on each recipient every year.

But even though the numbers that Tyrrell and Beach present in their paper are incredibly shocking, the truth is that they have probably underestimated the true scope of government dependence in America today. Just consider the following numbers...

Food Stamps

Back in the year 2000, there were about 17 million Americans on food stamps. That number has exploded to more than 47 million today.

Medicaid

If you can believe it, today more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

Social Security

Right now, there are more than 53 million Americans on Social Security, and that number is projected to absolutely explode as huge waves of Baby Boomers retire in the coming years.

Medicare

As I wrote about in a previous article, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.

And those are only four examples of government programs that have seen their numbers explode in recent years. There are so many more that could be mentioned. Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different "means-tested welfare programs", and almost all of them are experiencing explosive growth.

So is the "128 million" figure that Tyrrell and Beach have come up with actually too low? I believe that it is. But in any event, nobody can deny that the "welfare state" in the U.S. has absolutely mushroomed in size since the turn of the century.

According to one recent poll, 55 percent of all Americans say that they have received money from a safety net program run by the federal government at some point in their lives. We are a nation that has become very comfortable leaning on Uncle Sam for help.

And poor people from all around the globe see how good things are here and they are eager to get a seat at the table. In a previous article, I talked about a federal government website ("WelcomeToUSA.gov") that actually teaches new immigrants how to apply for welfare once they are able to get into the United States.

Will we all eventually becoming dependent on the government? If that happens will we still be free men and women?

Once someone is dependent on the government, they become forced to do what the government tells them to do in order to survive. If we all eventually become dependent on the federal government, how much power will that give them over us?

That is something to think about.

Another thing to ponder is how the U.S. middle class is rapidly disappearing.

There will always be poor people, and we should always take care of them, but what we should be truly alarmed about is how the middle class in America has been dramatically shrinking in recent years.

One of the biggest reasons why so many Americans are applying for government assistance these days is because there simply aren't enough jobs for everyone. Politicians from both political parties have fully embraced the one world "free trade" economic agenda of the global elite, and as a result millions of our jobs are being shipped out of the country. Big corporations can either choose to pay U.S. workers a living wage with benefits, or they can choose to set up shop on the other side of the globe where it is legal to pay workers slave labor wages with no benefits. Plus there are much fewer taxes and regulations to deal with typically on the other side of the globe.

As long as this nation pursues this "one world economic agenda", there will never be enough jobs in the United States ever again. Chronic unemployment will become the new normal. Our formerly great manufacturing cities will continue to degenerate into gang-infested war zones.

Apologists for the current system continue to insist that the answer is "more education", but the truth is that government dependence is even exploding among those with advanced degrees. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article on The Chronicle Of Higher Education...

People who don't finish college are more likely to receive food stamps than are those who go to graduate school. The rolls of people on public assistance are dominated by people with less education. Nevertheless, the percentage of graduate-degree holders who receive food stamps or some other aid more than doubled between 2007 and 2010.

During that three-year period, the number of people with master's degrees who received food stamps and other aid climbed from 101,682 to 293,029, and the number of people with Ph.D.'s who received assistance rose from 9,776 to 33,655, according to tabulations of microdata done by Austin Nichols, a senior researcher with the Urban Institute. He drew on figures from the 2008 and 2011 Current Population Surveys done by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

After reading that, does anyone still believe that "more education" is the answer to our problems?

What we need is more jobs, and lots of them. Unfortunately, our politicians continue to pursue policies that absolutely kill American jobs.

So the number of Americans that are forced to turn to the government for assistance will continue to grow, as will our national debt.

Sadly, most Americans still don't realize what is happening. Most of them are still listening to those in the mainstream media that are insisting that everything is going to be just fine.

For example, the most famous economic journalist in the country, Paul Krugman of the New York Times, recently wrote that the deficit crisis has been "solved"...

True, there are projected problems further down the road, mainly because of the continuing effects of an aging population. But it still comes as something of a shock to realize that at this point reasonable projections do not, repeat do not, show anything resembling the runaway deficit crisis that is a staple of almost everything you hear, including supposedly objective news reporting.

So you heard it here first: while you weren’t looking, and the deficit scolds were doing their scolding, the deficit problem (such as it was) was being mostly solved.

Oh really?

I don't know how in the world Paul Krugman can get paid to write such nonsense, but the truth is that our government debt problems are only just beginning.

In a previous article, I explained that the unfunded liabilities of the federal government are growing so rapidly that we could not cover them even if we raised the highest tax rate to 100%...

According to Chris Cox and Bill Archer, two men who served on Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, there is no way in the world that we could raise taxes high enough to pay for all of the obligations that we are currently taking on. They say that even if we taxed all corporations and all individuals at a 100% tax rate on all income over $66,193, "it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities."

Yes, Paul Krugman, we do have a spending problem. Even if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the federal government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days. We simply cannot go on spending money like this.

If anyone out there believes Paul Krugman and is convinced that the federal government is no longer facing a massive debt problem, please read this article: "55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances That Every American Voter Should Know".

But if we can't afford to do all of this spending, then why are we doing it?

Well, it is because there are a whole lot of people out there that are really hurting. Poverty in the U.S. is absolutely exploding, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor has grown to unprecedented heights.

According to a recent article posted on Economy In Crisis, the bottom 60 percent of all Americans only own 2.3 percent of all the financial wealth in the nation combined.

That is astounding.

If you live in a wealthy area of the country, you may look around and things may look really good to you. But in many other areas of the country things are worse than they have ever been in the post-World War II era. 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.

Can you imagine that? We have over a million kids that are attending our public schools that do not have a home to go back to at night.

Our economy desperately needs more jobs, but we just continue to lose more of them. On Thursday, it was announced that American Express is eliminating 5,400 more jobs. More announcements like this come out just about every day now. 65 percent of all Americans expect 2013 to be a year of "economic difficulty", and there aren't a whole lot of reasons to be optimistic about things at this point.

When you lose your job, it can feel like your entire life is falling apart. The competition for jobs is absolutely fierce, and a lot of workers have fallen through the cracks. In this rough economic environment, there are millions of Americans that have never been able to put the pieces of their lives back together. A recent CNN article profiled a 42-year-old woman up in Oregon named Lynette who has had her life totally turned upside down by unemployment...

I'm a single mom with a son in high school.

Three years ago, I was laid off from a job working at a propane company. I had just gotten back on my feet after battling breast cancer, then cervical cancer, but the economy tanked, and I was the first to go.

I am now 42, and the cancer is gone. But it appears my employability is also gone.

She used to work in a position that helped others find government assistance, but now she is the one who has been forced to seek it...

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I worked for the state of Oregon and was the number one service manager for the Department of Human Services. My job was to help low income families find work and get food stamps and insurance. Now, I cannot even get a job at McDonalds, and I'm the one living on social assistance.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 14, 2013, 06:07:54 AM
http://www.koat.com/news/Thousands-apply-for-200-Target-jobs/-/9154100/18109042/-/r6xuwm/-/index.html?absolute=true


HOPE & CHANGE!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 18, 2013, 07:48:56 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-17/us-mint-out-silver-coins-suspends-sales


LOL!!!

Sign of real confidence in the dollar right there! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 20, 2013, 02:45:40 PM
First Term: Americans “Not in Labor Force” Increased 8,332,000
Cybercast News Service ^ | January 20, 2013 | Terence P. Jeffrey
Posted on January 20, 2013, 4:24:50 PM EST by Olog-hai

The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama’s first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the number of retired workers collecting Social Security increased by only 4,234,480.

The increase in Americans opting out of the labor force during Obama’s first term resulted in a decrease in the labor force participation rate from 65.7 percent in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated, to 63.6 percent in December 2012, the latest month reported. Before Obama took office, the labor force participation rate had not been as low as 63.6 percent since 1981, the year President Ronald Reagan took over from President Jimmy Carter. …

When Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, there were 80,507,000 American civilians age 16 or older who did not have a job or seek one. In December 2012, there were 88,839,000—thus, the increase of 8,332,000. … In the comparable period of George W. Bush’s second term, the number of Americans choosing not to participate in the labor force went from 76,808,000 in January 2005 to 80,380,000 in December 2012—an increase of 3,572,000. …

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 22, 2013, 08:25:20 AM
Blockbuster Is Closing 300 Stores And Laying Off 3,000 Workers
 


Kim Bhasin|39 minutes ago|112|1
 



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See Also
 




How Home Depot Uses Your Credit Card Number To Send You Emails
 



Macy's Shoe Salesman Says E-Commerce Is Taking Thousands Off Of His Paycheck
 



The 3 Big Things Retailers Want From Washington This Year
 
Blockbuster has announced that it's closing around 300 stores in the U.S. over the next few weeks.
 
That's around 35 percent of its total brick-and-mortar presence of 850 stores.
 
Around 3,000 employees will be laid off as a result of the closings, according to a spokesperson from parent company Dish Network.
 
"We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store level profitability and — as we have in the past — close unprofitable stores," the spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times.
 
Dish acquired Blockbuster back in a 2011 bankruptcy sale. At that point, the chain operated around 1,700 stores.
 
The company had planned to leverage Blockbuster's brand name to push its streaming service to compete with Netflix and Redbox.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/blockbuster-closures-layoffs-2013-1#ixzz2IiqGSAdc

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on January 23, 2013, 12:58:54 PM
Truly you can't possibly believe that the blockbuster closing is a sign of the economy?

It's just a sign of the digital times.

Yep. They were one step behind in pushing out a digital distribution service. Never had themselves a mediabox for home use and such, it's a shame.

As a kid I used to love going to the Blockbuster and just walking around looking for movies (always the 3 movies for X amount of dollars) and then the wonderment of marching through the Nintendo rentals praying the game I wanted was actually there and if it was you hoped that it didn't suck. My dad had some patience to just sit in the car and wait.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 24, 2013, 08:34:53 AM
It's Official: Worst. Recovery. EVER
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/24/2013 09:22 -0500


Ben BernankeGross Domestic ProductMichael CembalestrecoveryRussell 2000St Louis Fed


If there was any debate whether the Fed's policies have helped the economy or just the market (and specifically the Bernanke-targeted Russell 2000), the following two charts will end any and all debate. As the following chart from the St Louis Fed shows, as of the just completed quarter, US GDP "growth" since the "recovery" is now the worst in US history, having just dipped below the heretofore lowest on record.



A slightly prettier version of the same chart created by JPM's Michael Cembalest, is presented below:



 

But fear not: it is only the worst recovery ever for anyone unlucky enough to still rely on such Old Normal concepts as the "economy" to feed, clothe and provide shelter for themselves.

For those lucky 1% of the US population whose entire wealth is in financial assets (and who once again managed to avoid a tax hike on carried interest or any actual financial assets), times have almost never been so good.



Well, it's not the biggest surge in the market since the economic trough in history, but it is close. Which as Bernanke admitted some time ago (when discussing the level of the Russell 2000), is the only thing that actually matters to the Fed.

Yet oddly enough, the trickle down from the trillions in excess wealth created for those who hold financial assets, as a result of daily POMOs pumping some $85 billion, and soon more, into the stock market each month, has yet to materialize.

Oh well: just keep on doing more of what you are doing Uncle Ben, and if possible destroy the US economy even more than you already have - at this point, at least on a relative basis, you can't destroy it more.

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on January 24, 2013, 10:11:13 AM
I do agree that the recovery could not possibly be slower... This is definitely something to note.

Will it eventually collapse or is it a sign that the recovery will last and be stable is the long term question. I do not have an answer at all.


It isn't a recovery at all for "us" but it sure is one hell of a recovery for "them."

i.e., "The Elite"
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 27, 2013, 06:52:39 AM
37 Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy
TEC ^ | 01/25/2013 | Michael Snyder
Posted on January 27, 2013 9:12:43 AM EST by SeekAndFind

The mainstream media covered the inauguration of Barack Obama with breathless anticipation on Monday, but should we really be celebrating another four years of Obama? The truth is that the first four years of Obama were an absolute train wreck for the U.S. economy. Over the past four years, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has fallen, median household income has declined by more than $4000, poverty in the U.S. has absolutely exploded and our national debt has ballooned to ridiculous proportions. Of course all of the blame for the nightmarish performance of the economy should not go to Obama alone. Certainly much of what we are experiencing today is the direct result of decades of very foolish decisions by Congress and previous presidential administrations. And of course the Federal Reserve has more influence over the economy than anyone else does. But Barack Obama steadfastly refuses to criticize anything that the Federal Reserve has done and he even nominated Ben Bernanke for another term as Fed Chairman despite his horrific track record of failure, so at a minimum Barack Obama must be considered to be complicit in the Fed's very foolish policies. Despite what the Obama administration tells us, the U.S. economy has been in decline for a very long time, and that decline has accelerated in many ways over the past four years. Just consider the statistics that I have compiled below. The following are 37 statistics which show how four years of Obama have wrecked the U.S. economy...

1. During Obama's first term, the number of Americans on food stamps increased by an average of about 11,000 per day.

2. At the beginning of the Obama era, 32 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, more than 47 million Americans are 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. The number of Americans receiving money directly from the federal government each month has grown from 94 million in the year 2000 to more than 128 million today.

5. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either "poor" or "low income" at this point.

6. The unemployment rate in the United States is exactly where it was (7.8 percent) when Barack Obama first entered the White House in January 2009.

7. When Barack Obama first entered the White House, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.6 percent of all working age Americans have a job.

8. During the first four years of Obama, the number of Americans "not in the labor force" soared by an astounding 8,332,000. That far exceeds any previous four year total.

9. During Obama's first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance rose by more than 18 percent.

10. The Obama years have been absolutely devastating for small businesses in America. According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how 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

11. Median household income in America has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by over $4000 during that time span.

12. The economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for the hordes of young people now entering the workforce. Approximately 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed in 2011.

13. According to a report from the National Employment Law Project, 58 percent of the jobs that have been created since the end of the recession have been low paying jobs.

14. Back in 2007, about 28 percent of all working families were considered to be among "the working poor". Today, that number is up to 32 percent even though our politicians tell us that the economy is supposedly recovering.

15. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all of the jobs in the United States are "good jobs" at this point.

16. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

17. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the United States is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

18. The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

19. According to the World Bank, U.S. GDP accounted for 31.8 percent of all global economic activity in 2001. That number declined steadily over the course of the next decade and was only at 21.6 percent in 2011.

20. The United States actually has plenty of oil and we should not have to import oil from the Middle East. We need to drill for more oil, but Obama has been very hesitant to do that. Under Bill Clinton, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 58 percent. Under George W. Bush, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 116 percent. Under Barack Obama, the number of drilling permits approved actually decreased by 36 percent.

21. When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.84. Today, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.26.

22. Under Barack Obama, the United States has lost more than 300,000 education jobs.

23. 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.

24. Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 now have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

25. More than three times as many new homes were sold in the United States in 2005 as were sold in 2012.

26. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

27. Health insurance costs have risen by 29 percent since Barack Obama became president.

28. Today, 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time.

29. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

30. The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percent since Barack Obama became president.

31. The Obama administration has been spending money on some of the most insane things imaginable. For example, in 2011 the Obama administration spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.

32. U.S. taxpayers spend more than 20 times as much on the Obamas as British taxpayers spend on the royal family.

33. The U.S. government has run a budget deficit of well over a trillion dollars every single year under Barack Obama.

34. When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent. Today, it is up to 103 percent.

35. During Obama's first term, the federal government accumulated more debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

36. As I wrote about yesterday, when you break it down the amount of new debt accumulated by the U.S. government during Obama's first term comes to approximately $50,521 for every single household in the United States. Are you ready to contribute your share?

37. If you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 184,000 years to pay it off.

But despite all of these numbers, the mainstream media and the left just continue to shower Barack Obama with worship and praise. Newsweek recently heralded Obama's second term as "The Second Coming", and at Obama's pre-inauguration church service Reverand Ronald Braxton openly compared Obama to Moses...

At Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Braxton reportedly crafted his speech around Obama’s personal political slogan: “Forward!”

Obama, said Braxton, was just like Moses facing the Red Sea: “forward is the only option … The people couldn’t turn around. The only thing that they could do was to go forward.” Obama, said Braxton, would have to overcome all obstacles – like opposition from Republicans, presumably, or the bounds of the Constitution. Braxton continued, “Mr. President, stand on the rock,” citing to Moses standing on Mount Horeb as his people camped outside the land of Israel.

But it wasn’t enough to compare Obama with the founder of Judaism and the prophet of the Bible. Braxton added that Obama’s opponents were like the Biblical enemies of Moses, and that Obama would have to enter the battle because “sometimes enemies insist on doing it the hard way.”
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Cold on January 27, 2013, 07:46:17 PM
I don't give a fuck.

I sleep all day, wake up go lift weight, go home shower and go to the bar and kick it with the honeys. Obama gives me free money to buy protein and that's all I care about.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on January 27, 2013, 08:24:38 PM
I don't give a fuck.

I sleep all day, wake up go lift weight, go home shower and go to the bar and kick it with the honeys. Obama gives me free money to buy protein and that's all I care about.

stupid fuck
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 29, 2013, 03:36:05 PM
Why Employment in the U.S. Isn't Coming Back
 Of Two Minds ^ | 01/29/2013 | Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 4:01:10 PM by SeekAndFind





If we understand the simple dynamics of value creation, total compensation costs and the cost-basis of doing business (general overhead), then we understand why employment isn't coming back in the U.S.



 It is impossible to understand job creation without understanding value creation and labor/overhead costs. People hire other people when their labor creates more value than it costs to hire them.


 When labor costs are high, the value created must also be high; it makes no sense to hire someone if doing so generates a loss.


 When labor is cheap, the bar of value creation is lowered, and so the risk of hiring a worker is also lower: they don't have to add much value to be worth their wage.


 This is why you see many low-value jobs in developing-world countries. There are night watchmen on duty in virtually every parking lot and building in urban Thailand, for example; these workers are providing a fundamental value, "eyes on the street," but it is a low-value proposition: no special skill is required other than being a light sleeper. The cost of their labor is equivalently low, but in a low-cost basis economy such as Thailand's, a very low wage is still a living wage.



 In a self-employment example, many vendors in urban Thailand set up their informal food stall (a cart or a tent) for a few hours a day. Their net income is low, because what they provide--readymade food and snacks--is available in abundance, i.e. there are many competitors.

 Nonetheless, because the cost basis of life is relatively low, modest earnings from a low cost, low-profit enterprise make the enterprise worthwhile.



Compare that with the typical government job in the U.S. or Europe. It is difficult to measure the true cost of government pension costs, as local governments do their best to mask their pension costs and inflate their pension funds' projected returns. But a back-of-the-envelope calculation yields about a 100% direct labor overhead cost for the typical government job with full healthcare, pension and vacation benefits. So an employee earning $50,000 a year costs $100,000 in total compensation expenses.



 Many local government employees on the left and right coasts earn close to $100,000, so their total compensation costs are roughly $200,000 per worker.



 How much value must be created by each employee to justify that compensation? Government needn't bother itself with that calculation, as the compensation is not set by market forces and the revenue stream can be increased via higher taxes, junk fees, tuition, licences, permits, etc.

 As the legacy costs of healthcare and pensions for retirees become due, local government operating budgets are being gutted to pay these ballooning legacy costs.



As a result, it is now impossible for many local municipalities to fill potholes: it makes no sense to have $100,000/year employees performing low-value work like filling potholes. Put another way, there is a labor shortage in high-overhead government bureaucracies because after paying for legacy pension costs, there is no money left to hire more people at $100,000 a year in total compensation to fill potholes, a job that might be worth $35,000 in total compensation.



The value created by government employees filling potholes is completely out of alignment with the cost of their wages/benefits. If employees cost $100,000 (recall that their annual earnings may be $50,000--we must always use total compensation, not wages as reflected on pay stubs), then in effect all work that generates less than $100,000 in value can no longer be done.



This is why cities and infrastructure are falling apart. Once you raise the cost of compensation far above the value being created by the labor, then most lower-value but nonetheless essential work (e.g. filling potholes) becomes unaffordable to accomplish.



We can understand this dynamic very clearly in a private-sector example. Let's say a high-tech start-up pays its programmers $90,000 a year, with minimal benefits. The total compensation costs of each programmer are thus around $125,000 annually.



 Now let's say that the owners are very egalitarian and they pay everyone they hire $90,000 a year ($125,000 in total compensation costs) regardless of their skills or how much value their labor creates. Does it make sense to pay someone $125,000 a year to empty the trash cans in the office? No, it does not. So the trash doesn't get emptied. Does it make sense to have a $125K/year worker being a go-fer, typing correspondence and making copies? No, it does not.



 Those menial tasks are pushed down to the programmers and managers, who must do those tasks themselves on a need-only basis.



 The new hire is expected to create $200,000 of value annually (the minimum output of value needed to keep the company afloat) or they must be let go, or the firm will lose so much money it goes belly-up.



Now let's say that the local minimum wage law sets the minimum total compensation costs of any employee at $40,000 annually. For example, $25,000 in wages and $15,000 in direct labor overhead (healthcare, disability, workers comp, vacation, 401K pension contributions, etc.)



 What is the value created by an administrative assistant who makes copies and empties the trash cans? Let's say the value added is $20,000 a year. At $40,000 per year minimum cost, it makes no sense to hire a "low-cost" worker because the value created by that worker is not even close to their total compensation costs.



As a result, the job of administrative assistant is not just unfilled--it vanishes. It makes no sense to hire workers when the value they create is less than their compensation costs.

 How do we measure value created? The most accurate way is to let the market discover the value of the work performed by raising the price of our goods and services to reflect the value added.



 Does our product or service become more valuable if the trash in our office is emptied? No; so the trash is not emptied, as the labor cost only raises the cost-basis and lowers gross profit, thus increasing the risk of insolvency.



 The same can be said of all sorts of overhead: from healthcare costs that rise far faster than the company's revenues, expansive offices, higher junk fees and taxes, higher energy costs, and so on.



In a global economy, the value added by labor is measured on a global scale. As the overhead costs of healthcare, energy, office rent, local government junk fees, etc. keep rising, each worker in the company must produce more value just for the firm to generate enough gross margins to pay overhead costs and stay solvent.



 If overhead costs--the cost-basis of doing business in the U.S.--keep rising faster than gross profits (out of which overhead is paid), then the owners have little choice: they can either close the business before they are personally bankrupted, cut everyone's pay or lay off some employees and somehow raise the productivity of the remaining workers to maintain enough value creation to survive.



This is the U.S. economy in a nutshell. If we understand the simple dynamics of value creation, total compensation costs and the cost-basis of doing business (general overhead), then we understand why employment isn't coming back in the U.S.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 29, 2013, 03:54:09 PM
Layoffs at Kapolei Golf Club - Whatever will King Obama do?
 khon ^ | 1/28/2013

Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 6:54:21 PM by FreeAtlanta

The Kapolei Golf Club laid off 14 out of 110 employed at the course recently. The employees were from various departments.

"After careful consideration and full review of operations, we had to make the difficult decision of reducing our staff at Kapolei Golf Club," said Micah Kane, chief operating officer of Pacific Links Hawaii, in a statement. "This shift enables Pacific Links Hawai'i to operate at optimal efficiency and better provide the high quality of service that our customers have come to expect and solidify the future of our remaining employees. We do not anticipate any further staff cuts."

Other courses owned by Pacific Links Hawai'i are not affected.

Pacific Links Hawaii also owns and operates Royal Hawaiian, Makaha Golf Club (East), Makaha Valley Country Club (West), and Olomana.







LOL!!!!!  This is where Obama golfs!!    LMFAO 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 06:23:13 AM
Anyone say double dip? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 06:25:18 AM
Skip to comments.

GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter (unexpected alert)
CNBC ^
Posted on January 30, 2013, 8:46:18 AM EST by Perdogg

The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.

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

TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 06:36:11 AM
GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter


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The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus.


The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.

 The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That's a sharp slowdown from the 3.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter.

 The surprise contraction could raise fears about the economy's ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January and looming spending cuts.

 Still, the weakness may be because of one-time factors. Government spending cuts and slower inventory growth subtracted a total of 2.6 percentage points from growth.

 And those volatile categories offset faster growth in consumer spending, business investment and housing -- the economy's core drivers of growth.

 Another positive aspect of the report: For all of 2012, the economy expanded 2.2 percent, better than 2011's growth of 1.8 percent.

 The economy may stay weak at the start of the year because Americans are coming to grips with an increase in Social Security taxes that has left them with less take-home pay.

 Subpar growth has held back hiring. The economy has created about 150,000 jobs a month, on average, for the past two years. That's barely enough to reduce the unemployment rate, which has been 7.8 percent for the past two months.

 Economists forecast that unemployment stayed at the still-high rate again this month. The government releases the January jobs report Friday.

 The slower growth in stockpiles comes after a big jump in the third quarter. Companies frequently cut back on inventories if they anticipate a slowdown in sales. Slower inventory growth means factories likely produced less.

 Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar, Inc. said this week that it reduced its inventories by $2 billion in the fourth quarter as global sales declined from a year earlier.

 The biggest question going forward is how consumers react to the expiration of a Social Security tax cut. Congress and the White House allowed the temporary tax cut to expire in January, but reached a deal to keep income taxes from rising on most Americans.

 The tax increase will lower take home pay this year by about 2 percent. That means a household earning $50,000 a year will have about $1,000 less to spend. A household with two high-paid workers will have up to $4,500 less.

 Already, a key measure of consumer confidence plummeted this month after Americans noticed the reduction in their paychecks, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Economists expected the first reading on gross domestic product to show growth of 1 percent, down from the third quarter's reading of 3.1 percent.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 06:53:34 AM
Via Breitbart

________________________ _________


Yesterday, Breitbart News reported that consumer confidence had dropped to its lowest level in almost two years. Much of the media spun the number as the result of a payroll tax increase that hit millions who were repeatedly told by Obama that only the rich would see their taxes increase. Surprise! But the spin didn't explain why consumer confidence had steadily dropped during the months prior. Well, now we know: The American economy has taken a nosedive.

For the first time in over three years, the U.S. Gross Domestic Product shrank. Between October and December of 2012, the GDP had a negative growth of 0.1. And let's remember that this is the same quarter where we saw the media go into hyper-drive to spin Obama's anemic job and GDP growth into a repeat of the Roaring Twenties.

The problem with the American economy is that Obama and his media can't fool it. Happy talk and spin and distractions about contraception don’t create jobs or growth. You might be able to fool legions of people into voting a certain way, but you can't fool them into spending and hiring and investing.

Apparently, though, the media and Obama have managed to fool themselves. Even the Wall Street Journal calls today's news "unexpected." And anyone who watched Obama's Inauguration speech knows that his failed economy and the millions suffering in it are either not on his radar or of no concern whatsoever. Obama spoke of many things, but not the economy. He's in a war to win the culture, not to win anyone a job to lift them out of poverty.
 
The media is just as bad. The biggest story in our country today should be the increase in poverty and an unemployment crisis so dire our labor force has shrunk to thirty-year lows. But neither will speak of it. We do, however, know all about some idiot and his phony girlfriend. We know all about a "heckle'' that didn’t happen. One wonders which is the bread and which is the circus.

The pickle both Obama and the media have put themselves in, though, is this: If either makes the economy a priority, that's an admission Obama's economy is in trouble. And so we find ourselves in a situation we've seen in other countries where the state and media have aligned -- a situation where we're told a bad economy is a good economy, and the victims of this propaganda are those suffering in a bad economy no one wants to admit exists.

Already the media's spinning this GDP report in a way that says our economy tanked because the government didn’t spend enough. That's right, annual trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, but the media push to protect the State from blame and to use this terrible news as a way to further grow the State, is already on.

NBC's Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd, just assured America this was a one-time economic anomaly and that prosperity is right around the corner. If a job had been created every time a member of Obama's media said this, we'd have full employment today.

We live in interesting and dangerous times.

 
 
Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 07:26:17 AM
[ Invalid YouTube link ]

LIESman is a worthless obama HACK
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 07:51:51 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-30/chart-quarter-312-billion-debt-adds-negative-5-billion-gdp


TOTAL FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 08:46:37 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dems-tout-claim-best-looking-contraction-us-gdp-youll-ever-see_698863.html


And the excuses are starting! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2013, 11:13:15 AM
But-but-but "Time Magazine" assured me Obama's economic policies had made it all better:
 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/01/30/Time-Anounces-500-Layoffs?utm_source=bigtweeting&utm_medium=twitter


The Wall Street Journal said that around 500 people will be cut from the world's largest magazine company -- home to Time, Sports Illustrated and People, among others -- though other outlets said the numbers could reach as high as 700. That means that the roughly 8,000-strong workforce would be cut by between 6 and 8 percent.
 
Time Inc. is reportedly seeking around $100 million in savings from the cuts. Ad sales and publishing and subscription revenues have all declined. New CEO Laura Lang has been tasked with righting the ship.
 
So the same publication that sold its soul in 2008 to present Obama as the only hope for our economy, begins 2013 with a round of massive layoffs.
 
So the same publication that assured us Obama trickle-down government policies were the magic beans that would grow us into the lush life, begins 2013 with a round of massive layoffs.

So the same publication that assured us all throughout the 2012 election that our economy was humming and there was no need to find new management, begins 2013 with a round of massive layoffs.

Yeah, that's a shame.

And I'm sure I speak for the millions of chronically unemployed when I say, "Welcome to the economy you dropped on the rest of us."
 
 
 
Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 03:49:07 AM
Global medical company lays off 100 in US, blames ObamaCare
fox news ^ | 2/1/2013 | fox news
Posted on February 1, 2013 6:25:27 AM EST by tobyhill

A global medical technology company has laid off nearly 100 employees at its offices in Tennessee and Massachusetts and is blaming the layoffs on the medical device tax tied to ObamaCare.

London-based Smith & Nephew said Thursday it laid off fewer than 100 employees between the two offices, which operate as the company's advanced surgical devices unit, according to The Commercial Appeal.

The company specializes in developing orthopedic reconstruction products, has nearly 11,000 employees and operates in over 90 countries, according to its website. The Affordable Care Act includes a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, which is expected to raise nearly $30 billion over the next decade. The tax is applied to gross sales revenues.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 06:10:59 AM
8.5 Million Americans Left Labor Force In Obama's First Term
 





By Noel Sheppard | February 01, 2013 | 08:51
 
 29 32Reddit0 3

A  A

 



The Bureau of  Labor Statistics released jobs numbers for January Friday showing that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 157,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent.
 
Lost in these headline numbers was another rise in the number of people not in the labor force.
 
This number now stands at a staggering 89 million, up from 80.5 million when President Obama took office.
 
This means that there are currently 8.5 million more Americans not in the labor force than just four years ago.
 
Forget all the other numbers.
 
This continued explosion of people not in the labor force should be tremendously concerning as it represents an obstacle for the government to ever balance the budget without drastically raising taxes on those still working.


Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/02/01/85-million-americans-left-labor-force-obamas-first-term#ixzz2JeljTeRC
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 06:14:51 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/january-jobs-report-unemployment-rate_n_2597751.html


UE heading up!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 06:49:43 AM


January 31, 2013

More U.S. Small Businesses Cutting Workers Than Hiring

But hiring intentions for the next 12 months are more positive now than in November

by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist
 

PRINCETON, NJ -- More U.S. small-business owners say they let employees go than hired them on average over the past 12 months, for a net hiring index of -10 in January, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. This is similar to the -12 recorded in November, the -9 of a year ago, and the -12 of January 2011, but up from the low of -27 in January 2010.
 


These results are from the quarterly Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business survey, conducted Jan. 7-11, 2013, with a random sample of 601 small-business owners.
 
Small-business owners' self-reported net hiring suggests less overall hiring activity and essentially no improvement in small business job growth over the past two years. Owners reported less hiring as well as less firing in January. The 12% of small-business owners who reported increasing their company's hiring over the past 12 months is down from 14% in November. However, the 22% reporting a decrease in the number of job positions over the past year is also down, from 26% in November.
 


Owners Are Not Hiring For More Than the Usual Reasons
 
When owners who are not looking for new employees were asked to evaluate eight potential reasons they are not doing so, overall business conditions headed the list as usual, including not needing new employees at this time (with 81% indicating this as a reason), worries that revenues or sales won't justify adding more employees (74%), and worries about the current status of the U.S. economy (66%).
 
However, 61% of owners pointed to worries about the potential cost of healthcare, 56% to worries about new government regulations, and 55% to worries about cash flow or the ability to make payroll. Thirty-two percent point to it being hard to find qualified employees.
 
At the bottom of the list, but still at a surprisingly high level, 30% of owners say they are not hiring because they are worried they may no longer be in business in 12 months. This is up from 24% who had the same worry in January 2012.
 


Owners' Hiring Intentions Turned Positive in January
 
Looking forward, U.S. small businesses now expect to add more net new jobs than they plan to eliminate over the next 12 months, with owners' net hiring intentions at +5 in January. This is up from -4 in November, but still below the +10 of July and the +14 of a year ago.
 


Net hiring intentions are calculated by subtracting the percentage of owners expecting a decrease in jobs from the percentage expecting an increase. Currently, 12% of owners say they expect the number of jobs or positions at their companies to decrease over the next 12 months, down sharply from the 21% who held such expectations last November. At the same time, 17% expect to increase the number of jobs at their companies, the same as in November but down from 20% in July and still at the lowest level measured since October 2011.
 


Implications
 
The lack of improvement in small-business-owner self-reported net hiring over the past 12 months is consistent with January's lack of year-over-year improvement in Gallup's P2P (Payroll to Population) employment rate. Small businesses continue to hire fewer employees than they are letting go, while overall full-time U.S. employment is, at best, keeping up with the growth of the U.S. population. The lack of improvement in small-business hiring is also consistent with the estimated -0.1% annualized growth rate for fourth quarter GDP.
 
On the other hand, small-business owners' net hiring intentions turned positive in January, consistent with the improvement in the quarterly Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. While owners suggest little improvement has taken place in the net hiring in the past, their hopes for future hiring have improved compared with where they were immediately after last year's November elections.

 
Finally, the fact that so many owners say worries about such things as potential healthcare costs and potential new government regulations are holding back hiring is troublesome for the job market outlook. Still, probably the most worrisome response is that 30% of small business owners fear they may not be in business 12 months from now. This a bad sign not only for small-business hiring and capital investment, but also for the overall U.S. economy in 2013.
 
About the Wells-Fargo Small Business Index
 
Since August 2003, the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index has surveyed small-business owners on current and future perceptions of their business financial situations. Visit the Wells Fargo Business Insight Resource Center to access the full survey report and listen to Wells Fargo's quarterly Small Business Index podcast.
 
Survey Methods
Results for the total dataset are based on telephone interviews with 601 small-business owners, conducted Jan. 7-11, 2013. For results based on the total sample of small-business owners, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
 
Sampling is done on a random-digit-dial basis using Dun & Bradstreet sampling of small businesses having $20 million or less of sales or revenues. The data are weighted to be representative of U.S. small businesses within this size range nationwide.
 
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
 
For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 06:59:00 AM
US Becomes Japan: Unemployment Rises to 7.9%, U6 Unemployment Stays at 14.4%
 Confounded Interest ^ | 02/02/2013 | Anthony B. Sanders

Posted on Friday, February 01, 2013 10:04:28 AM by whitedog57

The employment numbers are out today. The headline numbers are not good news for housing: U3 unemployment ROSE to 7.9% and U6 unemployment and partial employment remained the same at 14.4%.

The good news? Labor force participation didn’t get any worse! It remained the same at 63.6%.

The bad news? We are now like Japan in terms of labor force participation after we leveled off under President Clinton and began declining.

The civilian employment to population ratio also remained the same as a measly 58.6%.

But also like Japan, our employment to population ratio is generally declining. Like the movie “There’s Something About Mary,” there is something about Clinton since our employment to population ratio leveled off and began to decline in Clinton’s second term as President.

At least nonfarm payrolls printed at 157,000. That is DOWN from the revised figure of 196,000 in December. Do I detect a trend?

In January, job gains occurred in retail trade, construction, health care, and wholesale trade, while employment edged down in transportation and warehousing. (See table B-1.)

Employment in retail trade rose by 33,000 in January, compared with an average monthly gain of 20,000 in 2012. Within the industry, job growth continued in January in motor vehicle and parts dealers (+7,000), electronics and appliance stores (+5,000), and clothing stores (+10,000).

In January, employment in construction increased by 28,000. Nearly all of the job growth occurred in specialty trade contractors (+26,000), with the gain about equally split between residential and nonresidential specialty trade contractors. Since reaching a low in January 2011, construction employment has grown by 296,000, with one-third of the gain occurring in the last 4 months. However, the January 2013 level of construction employment remained about 2 million below its previous peak level in April 2006.

Coupled with the Q4 GDP print of -0.1%, this is indeed a cold economic winter. And not good news for the housing market.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 01, 2013, 08:06:31 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-01/how-todays-strong-jobs-report-led-115000-job-losses


LOL 

Move along sheep
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 02, 2013, 10:22:33 PM
Study: 22 Military Veterans Commit Suicide Every Day

February 1, 2013 2:39 PM


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WASHINGTON (CBSDC) - The results of a new study indicate that suicide rates among veterans in the United States are increasing.
 
An estimated 22 military veterans take their lives every day in America, according to the study helmed by Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist and researcher who works with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
 
“While the percentage of all suicides reported as Veterans has decreased, the number of suicides has increased,” the conclusion of the study stated.
 
Specific trends were observed during the course of the study regarding the age and gender of veterans who most frequently committed suicide.
 
“A majority of Veteran suicides are among those age 50 years and older. Male Veterans who die by suicide are older than non-Veteran males who die by suicide,” the study’s findings stated. “The age distribution of Veteran and non-Veteran women who have died from suicide is similar.”
 
The study was conducted over the course of two years, and is, according to Bossarte, indicative mainly of veteran suicides playing a part in what is a national problem.

 

“There is a perception that we have a veterans’ suicide epidemic on our hands. I don’t think that is true,” he was quoted as saying by the paper. “The rate is going up in the country, and veterans are a part of it.”
 
Still, the Washington Post is reporting that the rate of veteran suicides discovered by Bossarte is approximately 20 percent higher than 2007 figures offered by the VA.
 
Representatives of the VA said the study is a part of their continued efforts to prevent veteran suicides.
 
“The mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation is the highest priority for VA, and even one suicide is one too many,” he said in a statement to the Post.
 
Bossarte and others are hopeful that the findings of the study will assist in creating better prevention programming.
 
“Although this was not a research-based analysis and there are significant limitations in the data that are available … this first attempt at a comprehensive review of Veteran suicide does provide us with valuable information for future directions in care and program development,” the study stated.
 
Others, however, feel the effort put forth by the VA is too insignificant in comparison to the larger issue at hand.
 
“If the VA wants to get its arms around this problem, why does it have such a small number of people working on it?” retired Col. and former Army psychiatrist Elspeth Cameron Ritchie rhetorically asked the Post. “This is a start, but it is a faint start. It is not enough.”
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 03, 2013, 01:48:48 PM
Crain's Chicago Business / The Associated Press ^ | February 1, 2013
Posted on February 3, 2013, 4:43:02 PM EST by 2ndDivisionVet

Viking Range Corp.'s new owner is laying off one-fifth of the company's workers.

Middleby Corp., based near Chicago, said it laid off about 140 of Viking's 700 employees Thursday.

--snip--

Viking cooking schools in Ridgeland, Miss., and Memphis, Tenn., will close...

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobusiness.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 04, 2013, 12:31:26 PM
Nearly Half Of American Families Live On The Edge Of Financial Ruin
 


Mandi Woodruff|Feb. 4, 2013, 1:19 PM|2,083|12
 


 In the past few years, Americans have learned a thing or two about how quickly disaster can strike.
 
And with each Hurricane Sandy, housing crisis, and stock market crash that rocks our world, we're faced with the realization that many of us simply aren't prepared for the worst.
 
A sobering new report by the  Corporation for Enterprise Development shows nearly half of U.S. households (132.1 million people) don't have enough savings to weather emergencies, or finance long-term needs like college tuition, health care and housing.
 
According to the Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, these people wouldn't last three months if their income was suddenly depleted. More than 30 percent don't even have a savings account, and another 8 percent don't bank at all.
 
We're not just talking about people who living people the poverty line, either. Plenty of the middle class have joined the ranks of the "working poor," struggling right alongside families scraping by on food stamps and other forms of public assistance.
 
More than one-quarter of households earning $55,465-$90,000 annually have less than three months of savings.
 
And another quarter of households are considered net worth asset poor, "meaning that the few assets they have, such as a savings account or durable assets like a home, business or car, are overwhelmed by their debts," the study says.
 
Stuck on the wheel
 
One of the prolonging reasons consumers have consistently struggled to make ends meet has more to do with larger economic issues than whether or not they can balance a checkbook.
 
Per the report, household median net worth declined by over $27,000 from its peak in 2006 to $68,948 in 2010, and at the same time, the cost of basic necessities like housing, food, and education have soared.
 
It's a dichotomy that is hammered home in a new book by finance expert Helaine Olen. In "Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry," Olen knocks down much of the commonly-spread advice that is sold by the personal finance industry –– most notably the idea that if you're not making ends meet in America, you're doing something wrong.
 
"The problem [is] fixed cost, the things that are difficult to "cut back" on. Housing, health care, and education cost the average family 75 percent of their discretionary income in the 2000s. The comparable figure in 1973: 50 percent," Olen writes.
 
"And even as the cost of buying a house plunged in many areas of the country in the latter half of the 2000s (causing, needless to say, its own set of problems) the price of other necessary expenditures kept rising."
 
And, as the new report shows, wherever consumers can't cope with costs, they continue to rely on plastic. The average borrower carries more than $10,700 in credit card debt, one in five households still rely on high-risk financial services that target low-income and under-banked consumers.
 
And given the fact the same report by CFED last year found nearly identical trends among consumers, we're no closer to finding a solution than ever.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-live-on-the-edge-of-financial-ruin-cfed-report-2013-2#ixzz2Jxr2QHZs

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 06, 2013, 06:10:41 AM
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/02/06/the-coming-obamacare-recession


Damn - some real bad stuff in THUGCARE even i did not know about
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 06, 2013, 12:11:15 PM
Millennial Unemployment In January 2013 Rose Much Faster Than National Rate


The Huffington Post  |  By Tyler Kingkade Posted: 02/06/2013 1:45 pm EST






The unemployment rate for millennials (Americans aged 18 to 29) increased to 13.1 percent last month, according to the January jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Overall unemployment rose slightly to 7.9 percent nationwide, but the increase was much sharper for millennials, up from 11.5 percent the month before and 10.9 percent in November 2012. As calculated by Generation Opportunity, a conservative-leaning millennial advocacy group, January saw the highest millennial unemployment rate since at least June 2012, when it was 12.8 percent.

Even the college graduates and millennials who are able to find jobs aren't entirely out of the woods. A 2009 Yale University study showed students who graduate into a recession can expect to earn a 10 percent lower wage after a decade of work than they otherwise would have earned in a strong economy.

According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, inflation-adjusted wages for young high school graduates declined by 11.1 percent between 2000 and 2011, and the real wages of young college graduates declined by 5.4 percent. EPI also saw evidence among millennials of a hesitation to seek new employment opportunities, with 30 percent fewer voluntary quits each month.

While a nearly 2 percent jump in the unemployment rare may seem huge, there are a number of caveats to consider when reviewing employment data for millennials. Young workers have historically had a harder time finding full employment, simply because they have less experience and are new to the labor force. Throughout the Reagan presidency, the unemployment rate for young workers (25 and under) struggled to get below 12 percent. It didn't drop for that age group to significantly below 10 percent until the end of the Clinton presidency.

Reports that assert about half of all current college graduates are underemployed are alarming, but the record low share of joblessness or underemployment among these workers was 41 percent, in 2000, according to the Associated Press.

It also pays for younger Americans to stay in school: An analysis of U.S. Census data by the Pew Economic Mobility Project released in January conceded wages are down and student debt is up, but concluded that fewer recent graduates fell out of work entirely, sheltered by their college degrees.

According to a study by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, the unemployment rate of recent college graduates was 6.8 percent 2012 -- well below the national rate, as well as the rate for all millennials.






They voted for O-SHIT    - f em. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 06, 2013, 01:29:20 PM
DreamWorks Animation Bracing For Up To 500 Layoffs Following Poor Box-Office Performance
 


Kirsten Acuna|Feb. 6, 2013, 2:50 PM|1,230|2








YouTube
 
A shift in DreamWorks Animation's planned film schedule may be due to the weak early performance of "Rise of the Guardians."
Rumors are circulating that there's about to be layoffs at DreamWorks Animation.
 
Cuts are expected to come to the studio's production, technology, and overhead departments, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
 
Deadline is now reporting that the company may cut up to 500 employees in the coming months.
 
Word of a potential staff reduction comes after the announcement this morning that the studio plans to cut its 2013 film lineup down from three to two films.

"Mr. Peabody & Sherman" which was originally scheduled for release November 1 of this year has been pushed back until next March leaving films "The Croods" with a March release and "Turbo" to debut in July.
 
In addition, the Kate Hudson and Bill Hader 2014 animated flick "Me & My Shadow"  has been shelved indefinitely.
 
The move of "Peabody" from November to March leaves a clear pathway for Disney's November release, "Frozen."
 
CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg released a brief statement on the move: 
 
"We believe the best strategy for DreamWorks Animation in the long run is to ensure that every one of our films has an optimal release date with the biggest opportunity to succeed at the box office," said Katzenberg, "The move of Mr. Peabody & Sherman means that we will now release two films in 2013, and we are adjusting our operating infrastructure costs accordingly."
 
The changed film schedule follows the underwhelming performance of "Rise of the Guardians" last fall. Though the film eventually earned $300 million worldwide (thanks to a $200 million cushion from the foreign box office), its opening weekend was $23.8 million. For comparison, a DreamWorks film hasn't had that low of an opening since its 2006 film "Flushed Away" which earned $18.8 million in 2006.
 
The film's weak opening caused DreamWork's stock to sink nearly five percent following final weekend box-office estimates.
 
A DreamWorks spokesperson declined further comment.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dreamworks-animation-layoffs-2013-2#ixzz2K9mPC46X

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 07, 2013, 08:40:30 AM
 :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 07, 2013, 02:41:02 PM
Harvard: Just 6 in 10 Millennials have jobs, half are part-time
 Washington Examiner ^ | 2-7-2013 | Paul Bedard

Posted on Thursday, February 07, 2013 5:19:52 PM by Sir Napsalot

A comprehensive new Harvard University report on Americans under 30, the so-called Millennials, shows that the economy is having a crushing impact, with just 62 percent working, and of those, half are toiling at part-time jobs.

The report, released by Harvard's Institute of Politics, paints a depressing economic portrait of young Americans, many of whom are stuck with huge college tuition bills and little chance of finding a high-paying job......

Contrary to common media wisdom, most younger Americans did not vote in the last election. Of the 46 million Millennials, just half voted. "Although turnout was higher than it was in 1996 and 2000, it was right back to where it has been consistently from 1976-1992," said The report compiled by the National Conference on Citizenship, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University's Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Harvard University's Institute of Politics, and Mobilize.org.

Another blow to conventional wisdom: Younger Americans interact less than their baby boomer parents, apparently choosing Facebook over facetime. "Conventional group membership, attendance at meetings, working with neighbors, trusting other people, reading the news, union membership and religious participation are all down for young people since the 1970s," said The report provided to Secrets.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 08, 2013, 05:56:41 AM
The Sad Reality Of The 'Economic Recovery' For American Workers
 


Wolf Richter, Testosterone Pit|Feb. 8, 2013, 6:06 AM|1,877|13
 
 
Despite optimism-mongering in the media and in certain quarters of Washington and elsewhere, we’ve had indication after indication in the economic data that whatever lousy progress has been made in nudging up GDP, American workers have not benefitted from it.
 
But now we know from the horse’s mouth, so to speak: they’re mired in a tough new reality that is in many ways getting worse.
 
“Deeply pessimistic” is the term used in the sobering survey, “Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era.” A confirmation of bits and pieces of economic data that has been trickling in over the years on this topic.
 
Just yesterday, for example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wages adjusted for inflation had continued their morose decline: in 2012, by 0.4% after having already declined 0.5% in 2011.
 
It doesn’t seem much. With nominal wages rising, workers might temporarily be fooled into thinking that they’re moving ahead. But enough of those declines, and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money.
 
They compound the lingering impact of the financial crisis. “Five years of economic misery have profoundly diminished Americans’ confidence in the economy and their outlook for the next generation,” conclude the authors of the survey.
 
And yet, since 2007, Congress borrowed $8 trillion, nearly doubling the US gross national debt to $16.48 trillion, and the Fed printed another $2.1 trillion, all under the unholy pretext of wanting to stimulate the economy [read.... Corporations Are Begging: We Need More Inflation!].
 
The survey draws a dire picture of the employment situation: 23% of the respondents had been laid off during the past four years. Of them, 10% spent more than two years looking for a job before they found one, and 22% still haven’t found one. While the economy has created jobs over the last few years, it has done so at a rate that barely kept up with the growth of the labor force.
 
If that: in the 2013 survey, 58% of the respondents had a job, down from the 2010 survey, when 60% had a job. The lower income categories were hardest hit. Only 38% of those normally earning under $30,000 had jobs, while 71% of those over $60,000 had jobs.
 
Where has all the money gone that the government borrowed and spent, and that the Fed printed? To China, Brazil, Mexico, into commodities, wars, farmland, into every conceivable financial asset, creating bubbles here and there, including the most gigantic credit bubble ever. Some people around the world have become immensely rich. And others, who’d already been immensely rich but had gotten a haircut during the financial crisis, were bailed out. Good for them. But it just hasn’t created a lot of jobs in the US.
 
That’s the good news. The bad news: a stunning 54% of those who’d been laid off and were lucky enough to find a job, now make less money than before. Less money in nominal terms, not even adjusted for inflation. A third of them got whacked by a pay cut of 11% to 30%. Another third reported that their pay had been slashed by over 30%. Ouch!
 
This new reality—finally finding a job but at much lower pay, or hanging on to a job but with a cut in pay—has sucked optimism out of the system. “Not only does the public not see signs of economic recovery now, they don’t see it in the near future either,” finds the report. And 32% of the people expect it to get even worse. A worrisome deterioration from 2010, when only 27% expected it to get worse.
 
Full recovery anytime soon? Only 12% expect it in the “near future”; 25% expect it to take 6-10 years, and 29% think that the economy will “never” fully recover. Mainstream-media optimism hasn’t quite sunk in yet, apparently.
 
They put their pessimistic finger where it hurts: GDP doesn’t measure anything but spending as a whole and is useless for individuals. Per-capita GDP, while still inadequate, would be a better measure. Alas, it’s well below the pre-recession peak, and thus silenced to death.
 
So, 60% of the people believe that there is a “new normal,” a tough new reality where workers have to take jobs below their skill level, at lower pay, and with less job security—because they’re lucky to even find a job.
 
To survive in this new normal, workers raided their savings. Even after all these years since the recession officially ended, 38% have “a lot less” money in savings than they had before, 18% have “a little less.” But the piggy bank is hard to refill as workers earn less, while prices continue to rise—thanks to the “bold” and “courageous” actions by the Fed.
 
“The Great Recession’s scope and impact was so widespread and corrosive that it will likely affect individuals, families, and the nation for many years to come,” the report concludes. On the other hand, after a drunken deficit-spending frenzy by Congress that left behind a mountain of new debt, and after a delirious money-printing orgy by the Fed that left behind a debased dollar, our hapless American workers are now also saddled with banks that are too big to fail, and it turns out, “too big to jail.”
 
With the average cost of attending college in America at $120,000, a family of four should expect their children’s college to cost more than a home. Yet, the perceived value of education provided justification for students to borrow $42 billion from the US this year. And many of them will end up as student-loan debt slaves. Read....  College Graduates Are The New Debt Slaves.


Read more: http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/2/7/the-new-reality-of-economic-recovery-for-american-workers.html#ixzz2KJdl77Ka
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 08, 2013, 05:49:07 PM
Only 31% of Americans Under 30 Have a Full-Time Job
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On February 8, 2013 @ 6:47 pm In The Point | 5 Comments


Remember, it’s not a depression or even a recession. It’s a recovery. Just close your eyes and repeat it to yourself as many times as it takes. Don’t pay attention to anyone who disagrees. Just say it to yourself, “Recovery, recovery, recovery” and like a wish, it will come true.

At least that’s the editorial philosophy of the New York Times. Meanwhile in the real world, the next generation doesn’t have a foothold or even a handhold in the economy.

59 percent of those aged 18-29, have gone to college. but only 62.9% are currently working, of which 31.2% work on a part-time basis

59.2 percent are white; 19.9 percent are Hispanic; 13.5 percent are black; 5.1 percent are Asian; .7 percent are Native American; and 1.5 percent are multiracial or “other.” 27.3 percent have immigrant backgrounds.

Less than 20 percent aged 18-24 percent are married. Of those 25-29, slightly more than 40 percent are married, but that is down 80 percent from 1960.

These numbers paint a picture of a dysfunctional society as well as a dysfunctional economy. The Baby Boomers failed Generation X and Generation X failed the Millennials and the Millenials show every sign of carrying on the tradition.

Generation X in politics has shown itself to be even worse than the Boomers, stuck on its own cleverness with no substance, agile at marketing themselves, but incapable of distinguishing their fantasies from real solutions. The Millenials are likely to be an even worse of Generation X, just as Generation X was a worse version of the Baby Boomers.

Cultural decay has led to economic decay and the United States looks a lot like a failed state, spending fortunes on massive government projects while its youth have no jobs and no hope for the future and their only career direction is party membership.

Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/only-31-of-americans-under-30-have-a-full-time-job/

Click here to print.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 10, 2013, 03:08:35 PM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/02/07/the-worst-five-years-since-the-great-depression/2



Obama = FAIL.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 10, 2013, 07:47:54 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-10/putin-turns-black-gold-into-bullion-as-russia-out-buys-world.html


 :P
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 11, 2013, 08:24:12 AM
The Economic Downturn Has Ruined Pennsylvania High School Football
 


Tony Manfred|44 minutes ago|88|
 

AP Images
The quality of football in Pennsylvania has plummeted and the economy is to blame, according to an article by Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 
Pennsylvania — specifically the coal towns in the central and western parts of the state — once had a reputation as one of the best football states in the country.
 
Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Rich Gannon all went to high school there.
 
But in 2013 the state reproduced just four of the country's top 100 recruits according to Scout.com, and eight of the top 300 recruits in the country according to ESPN.
 
Fitzpatrick says that decline is rooted in economics.
 
From The Inquirer:
 
"With a shrinking job base, the hardest-hit school districts have been cutting athletic budgets and in some instances forcing athletes to pay to play. And many Pennsylvania parents are finding it tough to provide the kind of financial support — for youth leagues, travel, and equipment — athletic prodigies require in 2013."
 
Fitzpatrick mentions other reasons too, all relating to economics:
 It's expensive to play football relative to sports like basketball.
 Multiple high schools are combining, resulting in less opportunity for players.
 Entrenched poverty results in less parental oversight.
 
The relationship between sports success and economic success is debatable. In their book Soccernomics, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski argue that the three key indicators for soccer success are GDP, population base, and experience.
 
If you apply this formula to football, Pennsylvania has all sorts of experience, but its losing steam in the other two indicators.
 
The obvious counterargument to this is that other recruiting hot beads — like South Florida — have bad economies and aren't experiencing the same decline in quality players.
 
But something is going on in Pennsylvania high school football, and it mirrors the broader downturn of the region on the whole.
 
Read Fitzpatrick's entire article here >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-for-decline-in-pennsylvania-high-school-football-2013-2#ixzz2KbmO4W3R

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 12, 2013, 05:49:48 AM
Households On Foodstamps Rise To New Record
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/11/2013 08:06 -0500





While hardly presented by the mainstream media with the same panache dedicated to the monthly ARIMA-X-12 seasonally-adjusted, climate-affected, goal-seek devised non-farm payroll data, the three month delayed Foodstamp number is according to many a far greater attestation to the "effectiveness" of the Obama administration to turn the economy around. And far greater it is: since his inauguration, the US has generated just 841,000 jobs through November 2012, a number is more than dwarfed by the 17.3 million new foodstamps and disability recipients added to the rolls in the past 4 years. And since the start of the depression in December 2007, America has seen those on foodstamps and disability increase by 21.8 million, while losing 3.6 million jobs. End result: total number of foodstamp recipients as of November: 47.7 million, an increase of 141,000 from the prior month, and reversing the brief downturn in October, while total US households on foodstamps just hit an all time record of 23,017,768, an increase of 73,952 from the prior month. The cost to the government to keep these 23 million households content and not rising up? $281.21 per month per household.

Total Americans on foodstamps:



Total households on foodstamps and average benefit per household:



Monthly change in Foodstamp and Disability recipients vs jobs since December 2007:



Cumulative change in jobs vs Foodstamps and Disability Recipients:



Source: SNAP
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 12, 2013, 09:43:10 AM
Food Stamp Rolls in America Now Surpass the Population of Spain


 
February 11, 2013



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(AP Image)
 
(CNSNews.com) – Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.
 
“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.
 
Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.
 
When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps.  As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent.
 According to the 2011 census, Spain had a population of 46,815,916.
Furthermore, between January 2009 and November 2012 the food stamp program added approximately an average 11,269 recipients per day.
 
President Obama will deliver his fourth State of the Union address Tuesday evening.  Obama is expected to focus on jobs and the economy.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 13, 2013, 07:47:55 AM
Retail sales growth slows as higher taxes kick in


 




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By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:10am EST
 
(Reuters) - Retail sales barely rose in January as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending, suggesting the economy got little help from the consumer at the start of the year.
 
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after an unrevised 0.5 percent rise in December.

The modest gain, which was in line with economist's expectations, suggested that households were responding to the expiration of a two percent payroll tax cut on January 1. Taxes also went up for wealthy Americans.

So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, ticked up 0.1 percent after gaining 0.7 percent in December.

"It adds to expectations that growth is likely to be lackluster in the opening quarter of the year, due mainly to the expiration of that payroll tax cut," said Joe Manimbo, a senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy and grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. With households facing smaller paychecks and gasoline prices marching higher, the pace of growth in spending is expected to slow this quarter.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data. Stock futures pointed to modest gains at the open, while Treasury debt prices were slightly lower.

Gasoline prices have increased 30 cents so far this year. A separate report from the Labor Department showed higher oil prices pushed up the cost of imported goods last month.

Import prices rose 0.6 percent in January after falling 0.5 percent the prior month.

Still, the increase is insufficient to ignite inflation pressures and the Federal Reserve is expected to remain on its ultra easy monetary policy as it continues to nurse the economy back to health.

Retail sales were mixed last month, with receipts at auto dealers slipping 0.1 percent after rising 1.2 percent in December. Excluding autos, retail sales increased 0.2 percent last month after advancing 0.3 percent in December.

Sales at building materials and garden equipment suppliers rose 0.3 percent, reflecting gains in homebuilding as the housing market recovery shifts into higher gear. Receipts at clothing stores fell 0.3 percent.

Sales at restaurants and bars were flat, while receipts at sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores rose 0.6 percent. Sales of electronics and appliances gained 0.2 percent, while receipts at furniture stores fell 0.2 percent.

(Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 14, 2013, 11:14:22 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/rays-hell-burger-closed_n_2681115.html


LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Ha ha ha ah

It's a sad day for D.C.-area burger lovers.

Ray's Hell-Burger and its sister restaurant, Ray's Hell-Burger Too, are closing their doors forever, Washingtonian reported Wednesday.

The cult-followed burger joints, helmed by acclaimed chef Michael Landrum, announced their temporary closure due to a "landlord-tenant dispute" in January. At the time, Landrum described the episode as a "very minor blip."

But the real estate company responsible for the properties, located in Rosslyn's Colonial Village Shopping Center, confirmed that the two shuttered units are indeed now available for lease.

Ray's Hell-Burger rose to international prominence after President Barack Obama dined there twice; first with Vice President Joe Biden in 2009 and again with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev a year later. The simple menu, focused around one key item, is renowned for its unique twists on the classic American sandwich (foie gras burger, anyone?).

Patrons need not look too far for their fix, however. A third outpost, Ray's to the Third, remains open across the street.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 14, 2013, 05:48:01 PM
If business was remotely good they would find another location no? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 15, 2013, 12:21:30 PM
 ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 15, 2013, 06:36:06 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-15/wal-mart-executives-sweat-slow-february-start-in-e-mails.html


Tax hikes setting in.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 16, 2013, 01:33:46 PM
http://www.texasobserver.org/snap-judgments-college-graduates-dependent-on-food-stamps-are-on-the-rise/



Fail.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 20, 2013, 02:16:30 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation/2013/02/19/2013-gasoline-prices-could-flirt-with-all-time-highs/1930681


Hope and Change fools 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 22, 2013, 10:43:52 AM

20 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Heading For Big Trouble In The Months Ahead

 By Michael, on February 20th, 2013

 

 

Is the U.S. economy about to experience a major downturn?  Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of signs that economic activity in the United States is really slowing down right now.  Freight volumes and freight expenditures are way down, consumer confidence has declined sharply, major retail chains all over America are closing hundreds of stores, and the "sequester" threatens to give the American people their first significant opportunity to experience what "austerity" tastes like.  Gas prices are going up rapidly, corporate insiders are dumping massive amounts of stock and there are high profile corporate bankruptcies in the news almost every single day now.  In many ways, what we are going through right now feels very similar to 2008 before the crash happened.  Back then the warning signs of economic trouble were very obvious, but our politicians and the mainstream media insisted that everything was just fine, and the stock market was very much detached from reality.  When the stock market did finally catch up with reality, it happened very, very rapidly.  Sadly, most people do not appear to have learned any lessons from the crisis of 2008.  Americans continue to rack up staggering amounts of debt, and Wall Street is more reckless than ever.  As a society, we seem to have concluded that 2008 was just a temporary malfunction rather than an indication that our entire system was fundamentally flawed.  In the end, we will pay a great price for our overconfidence and our recklessness.
 
So what will the rest of 2013 bring?
 
Hopefully the economy will remain stable for as long as possible, but right now things do not look particularly promising.
 
The following are 20 signs that the U.S. economy is heading for big trouble in the months ahead...
 
#1 Freight shipment volumes have hit their lowest level in two years, and freight expenditures have gone negative for the first time since the last recession.
 
#2 The average price of a gallon of gasoline has risen by more than 50 cents over the past two months.  This is making things tougher on our economy, because nearly every form of economic activity involves moving people or goods around.
 
#3 Reader's Digest, once one of the most popular magazines in the world, has filed for bankruptcy.
 
#4 Atlantic City's newest casino, Revel, has just filed for bankruptcy.  It had been hoped that Revel would help lead a turnaround for Atlantic City.
 
#5 A state-appointed review board has determined that there is "no satisfactory plan" to solve Detroit's financial emergency, and many believe that bankruptcy is imminent.  If Detroit does declare bankruptcy, it will be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
 
#6 David Gallagher, the CEO of Town Sports International, recently said that his company is struggling right now because consumers simply do not have as much disposable income anymore...
 

"As we moved into January membership trends were tracking to expectations in the first half of the month, but fell off track and did not meet our expectations in the second half of the month. We believe the driver of this was the rapid decline in consumer sentiment that has been reported and is connected to the reduction in net pay consumers earn given the changes in tax rates that went into effect in January."
 
#7 According to the Conference Board, consumer confidence in the U.S. has hit its lowest level in more than a year.
 
#8 Sales of the Apple iPhone have been slower than projected, and as a result Chinese manufacturing giant FoxConn has instituted a hiring freeze.  The following is from a CNET report that was posted on Wednesday...
 

The Financial Times noted that it was the first time since a 2009 downturn that the company opted to halt hiring in all of its facilities across the country. The publication talked to multiple recruiters.
 
The actions taken by Foxconn fuel the concern over the perceived weakened demand for the iPhone 5 and slumping sentiment around Apple in general, with production activity a leading indicator of interest in the product.
 
#9 In 2012, global cell phone sales posted their first decline since the end of the last recession.
 
#10 We appear to be in the midst of a "retail apocalypse".  It is being projected that Sears, J.C. Penney, Best Buy and RadioShack will also close hundreds of stores by the end of 2013.
 
#11 An internal memo authored by a Wal-Mart executive that was recently leaked to the press said that February sales were a "total disaster" and that the beginning of February was the "worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company."
 
#12 If Congress does not do anything and "sequestration" goes into effect on March 1st, the Pentagon says that approximately 800,000 civilian employees will be facing mandatory furloughs.
 
#13 Barack Obama is admitting that the "sequester" could have a crippling impact on the U.S. economy.  The following is from a recent CNBC article...
 

Obama cautioned that if the $85 billion in immediate cuts -- known as the sequester -- occur, the full range of government would feel the effects. Among those he listed: furloughed FBI agents, reductions in spending for communities to pay police and fire personnel and teachers, and decreased ability to respond to threats around the world.
 
He said the consequences would be felt across the economy.
 
"People will lose their jobs," he said. "The unemployment rate might tick up again."
 
#14 If the "sequester" is allowed to go into effect, the CBO is projecting that it will cause U.S. GDP growth to go down by at least 0.6 percent and that it will "reduce job growth by 750,000 jobs".
 
#15 According to a recent Gallup survey, 65 percent of all Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of "economic difficulty", and 50 percent of all Americans believe that the "best days" of America are now in the past.
 
#16 U.S. GDP actually contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012.  This was the first GDP contraction that the official numbers have shown in more than three years.
 
#17 For the entire year of 2012, U.S. GDP growth was only about 1.5 percent.  According to Art Cashin, every time GDP growth has fallen this low for an entire year, the U.S. economy has always ended up going into a recession.
 
#18 The global economy overall is really starting to slow down...
 

The world's richest countries saw their economies contract for the first time in almost four years during the final three months of 2012, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.
 
The Paris-based thinktank said gross domestic product across its 34 member states fell by 0.2% – breaking a period of rising activity stretching back to a 2.3% slump in output in the first quarter of 2009.
 
All the major economies of the OECD – the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the UK – have already reported falls in output at the end of 2012, with the thinktank noting that the steepest declines had been seen in the European Union, where GDP fell by 0.5%. Canada is the only member of the G7 currently on course to register an increase in national output.
 
#19 Corporate insiders are dumping enormous amounts of stock right now.  Do they know something that we don't?
 
#20 Even some of the biggest names on Wall Street are warning that we are heading for an economic collapse.  For example, Seth Klarman, one of the most respected investors on Wall Street, said in his year-end letter that the collapse of the U.S. financial system could happen at any time...
 

"Investing today may well be harder than it has been at any time in our three decades of existence," writes Seth Klarman in his year-end letter. The Fed's "relentless interventions and manipulations" have left few purchase targets for Baupost, he laments. "(The) underpinnings of our economy and financial system are so precarious that the un-abating risks of collapse dwarf all other factors."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 25, 2013, 06:56:16 PM
REPORT: There's A Fresh Round Of Layoffs Coming To Goldman Sachs
 


Linette Lopez|Feb. 25, 2013, 1:01 PM|5,728|10
 



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This just in from Reuters, Goldman Sachs is about to begin a fresh round of job cuts. They could begin as early as next week and will hit the equities business harder than fixed income.
 
Goldman usually cuts the fat from its firm around this time of year, but that number is usually at around 5%.
 
According to Reuters, this year's cuts are supposed to be bigger.
 
Perhaps Wall Street should have seen this coming. Back in January Goldman COO Gary Cohn told Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker:
 
I've never had a day at Goldman Sachs where i thought the firm was perfectly sized. At the bottom of the market you feel too big, at the top you feel way to small, and in the middle you're trying to gauge not only what's happening today but also what's happening tomorrow. Based on where we are today we feel like we're in a pretty go position, but I can change my opinion on that tomorrow.
 
2013 has already been pretty ugly for Wall Street. Morgan Stanley already cut 1,600 workers and cut compensation by about 9% since last year. JP Morgan, UBS and Barclays have already gotten hit as well.
 
After this next round it will be time to do another street-wide body count to see how much closer we are to the dire prediction of 50,000 layoffs Meredith Whitney made back in July.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/layoffs-coming-at-goldman-sachs-2013-2#ixzz2LyCyYXDF
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 25, 2013, 07:30:10 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/obama-donors_n_2760343.html


Obama as corrupt as anyone.   Hope and Change
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 26, 2013, 08:18:32 AM
JPMorgan Chase Job Cuts: Bank Announces Plans To Slash Up To 4,000 Jobs


Reuters  |  Posted: 02/26/2013 8:57 am EST  |  Updated: 02/26/2013 8:57 am EST



NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to cut about 3,000 to 4,000 jobs in its consumer bank in 2013, representing about 1.5 percent of the company's overall workforce, it said in a presentation On Tuesday.

The cuts will come mainly through attrition, spokeswoman Kristin Lemkau said. JPMorgan Chase had 258,965 employees globally at the end of 2012.

The bank said in its presentation that it is aiming to cut overall expenses by $1 billion in 2013.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 26, 2013, 09:48:21 AM
I thought we were against the banks?

I am as far as bailouts go and would never do business w JPM, but its not goof that 4000 workers losing tyheir job as the economy is still a disaster, despite what Obama and his slaves in the media proclaim
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on February 26, 2013, 09:00:28 PM
Please don't feed the troll.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 26, 2013, 09:29:33 PM
Please don't feed the troll.



J.P. Morgan Pulls Belt Tight- Biggest U.S. Bank by Assets Plans to Cut 17,000 Jobs as Trend
wsj ^ | 2/26/13 | DAN FITZPATRICK
Posted on February 27, 2013 12:01:14 AM EST by Nachum

J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -0.21% & Co. stepped up the pace of bank cost cutting, setting plans to eliminate 17,000 jobs by the end of next year and reduce expenses by at least $1 billion annually.

The move announced Tuesday by the New York company, the nation's most profitable bank in 2012 and the biggest U.S. lender by assets, will reduce its staff by 6.5% in one of the most aggressive reductions to date amid widespread financial-industry cutbacks.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 28, 2013, 09:11:00 AM
..

New Cars Increasingly Out of Reach for Many Americans
By Paul A. Eisenstein, NBC News | CNBC – Wed, Feb 27, 2013 9:59 AM EST.. .
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Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover? You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city actually can afford the typical new vehicle.
 
The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales.
 
According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, only in Washington could the typical household swing the payments, the median income there running $86,680 a year. At the other extreme, Tampa, Fla., was at the bottom of the 25 large cities included in the study, with a median household income of $43,832.
 
The study looked at a variety of household expenses, such as food and housing, and when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle, it considered more than just the basic purchase price, down payment and monthly note, factoring in such essentials as taxes and insurance.
 
( More From CNBC: 10 Super-Hot Cars That You Will Never Drive )

Bottom line? A buyer in the capital can purchase a car with a sticker price of $31,940, slightly more than the new vehicle average for the 2013 model year and about what it would cost for a mid-range Ford Fusion sedan or a stripped-down BMW X1 crossover. The buyer in Tampa? They'll just barely cover the cost of a basic Kia Rio, with $14,516 to spend.
 
"If you live in New York City or San Francisco, you're probably going to have to pay a lot for housing, but you don't have to pay a lot for a car," said Mike Sante, the managing editor of Interest.com, a financial decision-making website.
 
Affordability has been a matter of growing concern for the auto industry in recent years as prices have continued to move upward. Even the most basic of today's cars are generally loaded with features that were once found on high-line models a few decades back - if they were available at all - such as air conditioning, power windows, airbags and electronic stability control, as well as digital infotainment systems. They also have to meet ever tougher federal safety, emissions and mileage standards that have added thousands to the typical price tag.
 
( More From CNBC: Must-Have Super Car: $1.6 Million and Not Yet Legal )
 
"The average compact car of today has the features of a midsize model somebody might be trading in - but it may be just as expensive," said David Sargent, director of automotive operations for J.D. Power and Associates.
 
That is one reason why many buyers have been downsizing in recent years, said Bill Fay, general manager of Toyota, though he added that "there is still a lot of affordability in the marketplace."
 
Perhaps, but industry planners have come to recognize that they are targeting a much smaller segment of the American public than in decades past. That's one reason why most manufacturers are offering more downsized models.
 
They also are working with their dealers to offer certified pre-owned programs where buyers can stretch their budget by purchasing a two- or three-year-old vehicle that has gone through an extensive inspection and, if necessary, repairs and replacements. Such vehicles may cost slightly more than a conventional used model but usually include a like-new warranty.
 
( More From CNBC: The Detroit Auto Show's Hottest Cars )
 
While the typical new vehicle will likely nudge up this year, Interest.com editor Sante stressed that car costs are one of the most controllable parts of a household's budget. "You're better off driving something more affordable and saving or investing the difference."
 
If the typical new car costs $30,550, with an average monthly payment of $550, the five cities most able to meet - or come close - are:
 
1) Washington
 
Average Household Income: $86,680
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $31,940
 
Maximum monthly payment: $628
 
2) San Francisco
 
Average Household Income: $71,975
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $26,786
 
Maximum monthly payment: $537
 
3) Boston
 
Average Household Income: $69.455
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $26,025
 
Maximum monthly payment: $507
 
4) Baltimore
 
Average Household Income: $65,463
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $24,079
 
Maximum monthly payment: $468
 
5) Minneapolis
 
Average Household Income: $63,352
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $24,042
 
Maximum monthly payment: $470
 

At the other end of the scale, those five cities least able to handle a car payment are:
 
21) Phoenix
 
Average Household Income: $50,058
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,243

Maximum monthly payment: $348
 
22) San Antonio
 
Average Household Income: $48,699
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,137
 
Maximum monthly payment: $334
 
23) Detroit
 
Average Household Income: $48,968
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $17,093
 
Maximum monthly payment: $332
 
24) Miami
 
Average Household Income: $45,407
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $15,188
 
Maximum monthly payment: $295
 
25) Tampa
 
Average Household Income: $43,832
 
Affordable Purchase Price: $14,516

Maximum monthly payment: $282
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2013, 06:19:24 AM
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Incomes Drop Most in 20 years
San Diego Source ^ | 03/01/2013 | Michelle Jamrisko
Posted on March 1, 2013, 9:12:48 AM EST by safetysign

Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January even as incomes dropped by the most in 20 years, showing households were weathering the payroll-tax increase by socking away less money in the bank.

Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent gain the prior month, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 76 economists called for a 0.2 percent advance. Incomes slumped 3.6 percent, sending the saving rate down to the lowest level since November 2007.

Employment gains, the rebound in housing and growing demand for autos will probably keep supporting consumer spending in the first quarter as the world’s largest economy picks up from an end-of-year slowdown. Even so, rising gasoline prices and the need to rebuild nest eggs may make it difficult for households to match last quarter’s performance.

“It’s going to be touch and go for the consumer for the next few months,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who correctly projected the 3.6 percent drop in income. “The consumer is going to be able to support the recovery, but they’re not going to be able to take it” to a higher level, he said.

Stocks Drop Stock-index futures held earlier losses after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing this month dropped 0.4 percent to 1,506.7 at 9:03 a.m. in New York.

Projections for spending ranged from a drop of 0.2 percent to a 0.4 percent gain.

The Bloomberg survey median called for incomes to fall 2.4 percent.

The slump in incomes in January was the biggest since January 1993 and followed a 2.6 percent jump in December. Some companies paid dividends and employee bonuses earlier than usual before tax rates went up this year, removing a gain usually seen in January. The Commerce Department estimated the January level of wages was reduced by about $15 billion and December was boosted by about $30 billion, reflecting the timing of the bonuses.

The saving rate dropped to 2.4 percent from 6.4 percent. Disposable income, or the money left over after taxes, dropped 4 percent after adjusting for inflation, the biggest plunge since monthly records began in 1959.

Consumer Spending Adjusting consumer spending for inflation, which renders the figures used to calculate gross domestic product, purchases rose 0.1 percent in January for a second month, today’s report showed.

Consumer purchases grew at a 2.1 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter, up from 1.6 percent in the previous three months, as Americans bought more durable goods including automobiles.

The economy grew at a 0.1 percent rate from October through December, less than forecast, as companies reined in gains in inventories and national defense outlays dropped 22 percent, the biggest since 1972, Commerce Department data showed yesterday.

Today’s report showed a price gauge tied to consumer spending, which are the figures tracked by Federal Reserve policy makers, was little changed in January from the prior month. Over the past 12 months prices rose 1.2, the smallest year-to-year gain since October 2009. The rate compares with the central bank’s goal of 2 percent.

Excluding food and energy costs, prices climbed 1.3 percent in January from the same month in 2012, the smallest year-to- year gain since April 2011.

Less Inflation Little inflation, combined with sluggish growth, mean Federal Reserve policy makers are likely to continue unprecedented monetary easing measures.

“Available information suggests that economic growth has picked up again this year,” Bernanke said earlier this week in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington.

Still, Bernanke cited an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the spending cuts known as sequestration will cause a 0.6 percentage-point reduction in growth this year.

“Given the still-moderate underlying pace of economic growth, this additional near-term burden on the recovery is significant,” he said.

The expiration of the payroll tax cut in January, coupled with climbing gasoline prices, are trimming discretionary income and may damp household purchases in the first quarter.

Payroll Tax Congress and President Barack Obama allowed the payroll tax to return to its 2010 level of 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent at the start of the year, which means an American who earns $50,000 is taking home about $83 less a month.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at the pump rose to $3.78 on Feb. 27, little changed from the previous day’s rate that was the highest in more than four months, according to AAA, the biggest U.S. motoring group.

On a brighter note, sentiment is rebound as employment grows. The Conference Board’s sentiment index jumped in February from a revised 58.4 in January, data from the New York-based private research group showed this week. The measure’s 11.2- point jump was the biggest since November 2011, offsetting much of the almost 15-point slide over the previous three months.

Interest Rates Interest rates hovering near record lows and growing availability of credit are buoying the auto industry, including Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based AutoNation Inc. (AN), the biggest dealership group in the U.S. Attractive financing may push sales comfortably above 15 million this year, the highest since 2007.

“We have the best financing available for our customers ever,” Mike Jackson, chief executive officer of AutoNation, told a J.D. Power & Associates conference this month in Orlando, Florida.

Cars and light trucks sold at a 15.2 million annual rate in January after 15.3 million in December, according to data from Ward’s Automotive Group. Including November’s 15.5 million rate, auto sales over the past three months have been the strongest in five years. February data is scheduled for release today.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 01, 2013, 06:50:16 AM
http://mobile.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2013/02/28/mort-zuckerman-the-jobs-picture-is-far-worse-than-it-looks

Hope and Change.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on March 01, 2013, 01:53:02 PM
Credit use is up, savings rate is tanking and incomes are down.

People are running out of cash and having to pile on debt to make ends meet.

Add in the 2% Payroll tax hike, rising gas prices and inflation and you get yourself a pretty bad picture for the bottom 90%.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on March 01, 2013, 07:22:41 PM
Credit use is up, savings rate is tanking and incomes are down.

People are running out of cash and having to pile on debt to make ends meet.

Add in the 2% Payroll tax hike, rising gas prices and inflation and you get yourself a pretty bad picture for the bottom 90%.

Why don't you be honest and thank him for the 2% payroll tax cut you received from President Obama rather than piss and moan about it expiring.  We as a nation are undertaxed and during the 1st 4 years of the Obama Administration we paid historically LOW taxes.  Fact, not fiction dilweed.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on March 01, 2013, 07:30:51 PM
Why don't you be honest and thank him for the 2% payroll tax cut you received from President Obama rather than piss and moan about it expiring.  We as a nation are undertaxed and during the 1st 4 years of the Obama Administration we paid historically LOW taxes. Fact, not fiction dilweed.


Speaking of fiction.....

And saying we are "undertaxed" is laughable. Add up Federal/State/Local taxes and the total taxation is around 60% or so of your income.

Peddle your "thoughts" somewhere else.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on March 01, 2013, 10:03:31 PM

Speaking of fiction.....

And saying we are "undertaxed" is laughable. Add up Federal/State/Local taxes and the total taxation is around 60% or so of your income.

Peddle your "thoughts" somewhere else.

Peddle my skincycle.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on March 02, 2013, 06:57:15 AM
Peddle my skincycle.

(http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/1357165/confused-o.gif)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2013, 07:26:56 AM
Economic Optimism Plunges To 15-Month Low; 59% Say U.S. In Recession


By ED CARSON, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 09:58 AM ET





With tax hikes and rising gasoline prices sapping consumers' pocketbooks and politicians preaching sequester gloom and doom, the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index plunged 5.1 points in March to 42.2, the lowest since December 2011.
 
The federal economic policies confidence gauge fell 11% to 35.5, also a 15-month low. The six-month outlook index cratered 18% to 38.8, the worst since October 2011. The personal financial outlook reading lost 4.4% to 52.2, though that's still above the neutral 50 level separating optimism and pessimism.
 
January personal income tumbled 3.6%, the worst monthly drop in 20 years, in the wake of fiscal cliff tax hikes on payrolls and high earners. Gasoline prices climbed day after day. Stock prices have wobbled as Italy's inconclusive election revived concerns about the eurozone and global economy. Meanwhile, President Obama has been campaigning across the country, warning that automatic spending cuts will have a disastrous impact on government services and the economy. The sequestration just took effect this month.
 
Small wonder the overall index's 10.8% decline was the worst since August 2011. That's when Standard & Poor's downgraded U.S. sovereign debt during the debt ceiling fight. To end the standoff, the White House proposed the sequester, which Obama now derides as "dumb" cuts.
 
Obama's popularity hasn't been affected by the deteriorating economic optimism.
 
The IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index rose 1.5 points in March to 51.6, a four-month high.
 
Democrats, however, showed a sharp drop in their economic optimism. Their index reading fell 9.4 points to 58.6, the lowest since the end of 2011. But the decline was deep and widespread, with independents, women and investors the most pessimistic since late 2011.
 
"Americans across the board think that the economic outlook is grim," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner. "The big slide in our economic outlook subindex perhaps signals a turning point and an impending entry into a recession. This month nearly 60% believe that the economy is in a recession."
 
Fifty-nine percent of Americans responding say the U.S. is in a recession vs. 35% who say it isn't. That includes 61% of independents. But those readings haven't changed much in recent months.
 
Consumers haven't necessarily let their fears override their spending habits. Real consumer spending rose just 0.1% in January, with outlays on big-ticket durable goods lower. Yet other reports show housing continuing to improve, with General Motors (GM), Toyota (TM) and others reporting solid auto sales in March. Manufacturing activity has picked up the pace while business investment showed some signs of life.
 
Major retailers will report March sales figures on Thursday. On Friday, the Labor Department will release its monthly employment report.
 
IBD/TIPP conducted the national poll of 847 adults from February 25 to March 4. The margin of error is +/-3.4 percentage points.
 
As for Washington, Obama wants higher taxes as part of any sequester offset. But Republicans say they won't support another round of tax hikes so soon. They also point out, despite qualms about defense cutbacks, the spending cuts are equal to just one-quarter of 1% of the U.S. economy.
 
The sequester squabble may get folded into bigger budget battles on the horizon. Congress must approve a new continuing resolution to fund the government. Soon after that, the debt ceiling must be raised yet again. Political uncertainty will continue for the foreseeable future, with short-term, last-minute budget fudges likelier than a sweeping, long-term "grand bargain."
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Option D on March 05, 2013, 08:31:18 AM
Dow Jones Average Tops Record High
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By ABC News
Mar 5, 2013 9:33am
The Dow Jones industrial average surged to a record high this morning at the opening bell, surpassing a key level in its recovery from the 2008 financial meltdown.

The Dow rose 92 points to 14,221 at 9:49 a.m., topping the previous record high of 14,164 achieved on Oct. 9, 2007.

An index of 30 of the largest US companies, the Dow is a widely-watched indicator of the stock market. It has more than doubled from its low reached in 2009 after the government bailed out the major banks, which were crushed under the weight of bad mortgages fueled by easy-lending policies.

Stocks have been in a five-year bull market, helped by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates near zero to assist in the recovery of the housing market.

The Dow is up 7.8 percent for the year, one of its best starts ever. The Standard & Poor’s index rose 11 points to 1,536. It’s also within striking distance of its own record of 1,565. The Nasdaq was up 30 points at 3,212. Asian markets rose as China pledged to stick to ambitious growth targets for its economy, the world’s second largest. European stocks also jumped because of retail sales in the region rose sharply.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2013, 08:32:47 AM
Fed Induced pumping by juicing the markets w 40 billion a month in injections. 



Dow Jones Average Tops Record High
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By ABC News
Mar 5, 2013 9:33am
The Dow Jones industrial average surged to a record high this morning at the opening bell, surpassing a key level in its recovery from the 2008 financial meltdown.

The Dow rose 92 points to 14,221 at 9:49 a.m., topping the previous record high of 14,164 achieved on Oct. 9, 2007.

An index of 30 of the largest US companies, the Dow is a widely-watched indicator of the stock market. It has more than doubled from its low reached in 2009 after the government bailed out the major banks, which were crushed under the weight of bad mortgages fueled by easy-lending policies.

Stocks have been in a five-year bull market, helped by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates near zero to assist in the recovery of the housing market.

The Dow is up 7.8 percent for the year, one of its best starts ever. The Standard & Poor’s index rose 11 points to 1,536. It’s also within striking distance of its own record of 1,565. The Nasdaq was up 30 points at 3,212. Asian markets rose as China pledged to stick to ambitious growth targets for its economy, the world’s second largest. European stocks also jumped because of retail sales in the region rose sharply.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 05, 2013, 01:39:09 PM
New York City Leads Jump in Homeless .
Article Video Comments (138) more in New York | Find New $LINKTEXTFIND$ ».
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By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL


An average of more than 50,000 people slept each night in New York City's homeless shelters for the first time in January, a record that underscores an unsettling national trend: a rising number of families without permanent housing.

 
New York City's homeless population reached a record 50,000 reported individuals in January, and is indicative of a troubling national trend. Michael Howard Saul explains. Photo: Getty Images.
.Families have become a larger share of the nation's homeless population, growing 1.4% from 2011 to 2012, after their numbers fell as the economy emerged from recession.

In Boston, authorities said there were 1,166 homeless families in December 2012, up 7.8% from the previous year. In Washington, D.C., homeless families grew 18% from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Close.From the Archives
Mayor Draws Fire With Remark on Homelessness
City to Expand Shelters Amid Jump in Homeless
City's Homeless Count Tops 40,000 11/9/2011
.The numbers in New York, however, are starker, according to a report to be published Tuesday by the Coalition for the Homeless, a New York advocacy group, citing New York City government figures.

More than 21,000 children—an unprecedented 1% of the city's youth—slept each night in a city shelter in January, an increase of 22% in the past year, the report said, while homeless families now spend more than a year in a shelter, on average, for the first time since 1987. In January, an average of 11,984 homeless families slept in shelters each night, a rise of 18% from a year earlier.

"New York is facing a homeless crisis worse than any time since the Great Depression," said Mary Brosnahan, president of the Coalition for the Homeless.

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Peter Foley for The Wall Street Journal
 
Yolanda Walker, a 42-year-old mother of four, is living with her family at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, N.Y.
.State and local governments nationwide have struggled to accommodate a homeless population that has changed, including large numbers of families with young children. Homeless advocates said the Obama administration has focused on more visible problems, such as those sleeping on the streets, taking resources away from families. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials, who oversee federal homelessness programs, didn't respond to requests for comment.

New York City has seen one of the steepest increases in homeless families in the past decade, advocates said, growing 73% since 2002. The surge was accelerated by the financial crisis and mortgage meltdown, which put many lower-middle class families out of their homes, economists have said. And even though New York City has regained all the jobs it lost in the recession, economists have said they are lower-paying ones.

The steep rise has reignited questions about whether New York's economic turnaround of the past two decades has helped the city's poorest residents. Aides to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent whose three terms have seen big increases in homelessness, partially blamed the surge on the economy.

"The economy is nowhere near where it was," said Seth Diamond, commissioner of the city's Department of Homeless Services. He pointed to the end of a state-funded program that subsidized rent for people leaving shelters, which ended in spring 2011; homeless families have gone up 35% since, according to shelter records.

However, Mr. Diamond said fewer homeless families are applying to enter the shelter system now than they were two years ago. He said the city was working to find employment for the homeless, "a long-term solution."

Advocates say the city's problems predate the end of the rent-subsidy program. Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst at the New York coalition, said Mr. Bloomberg's administration in 2005 ended a policy that had been working since the 1990s, in which the city allocated a share of federal public-housing apartments and federal housing vouchers to homeless families.

Among New York City's homeless families are Yolanda Walker, 42 years old, and her four children, including a disabled daughter. They have lived in a two-bedroom unit in a Brooklyn shelter since she lost an apartment that was government-subsidized up until last year. "I couldn't hardly afford it back then," Ms. Walker said. "I'm trying to get out. But I've got a family to feed."

—Josh Dawsey contributed to this article.
Write to Michael Howard Saul at michael.saul@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared March 5, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New York City Leads Jump in Homeless.

Copyright 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 11, 2013, 06:52:28 AM
46,609,072 People on Food Stamps in 2012; Record 47,791,996 in December

Nearly a quarter of the people living in Washington, D.C. are on the program.

9:13 AM, Mar 11, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER



On Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the program every month of last year. 47,791,996 people were on the program in the month of December 2012.

The federal government also says that in a given month in 2012, the number of households on food stamps was 22,329,713.
 
The state with the highest average number of participants per month in 2012 was Texas, with an astonishing 4,038,440 folks drawing from the program. The second highest is California, with 3,964,221, and then Florida, at 3,353,064.
 
Washington, D.C., with an estimated population of 617,996, had an average of 141,147 participants. Meaning, roughly 23 percent of folks living in D.C. are on food stamps, according to the numbers provided by the federal government. The participation rate in Texas, which has an estimated population of 26,059,203, 15.5 percent.
 
The state with the lowest number of participants in the program was Wyoming, with 34,347 out an estimated population of 576,412.
 
Over the weekend, Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that the Obama administration is encouraging growth in the food stamps program as a way to stimulate the economy.



"Amazingly, the federal government says that the more people we have on food stamps, the more it grows the economy. The Department of Agriculture proudly declares: ‘Each $5 in new [food stamp] benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community.’ Our government is running food stamp promotions at foreign embassies. One worker was given an award for overcoming ‘mountain pride’ and getting more people to sign up. Where I grew up in Alabama, all honest work, even the hardest, was honored. And pride, self-respect, and a desire to be independent was valued, not a thing to be overcome," said Sessions, who delivered the weekly Republican address.
 
Sessions also pointed out that cities like Baltimore, which he said have have been "governed by liberal policies for decades," see particularly high numbers of participation in the program.
 
"Despite this fountain of federal funds, 1 in 3 children still live in poverty in our nation’s capital. Two in three children live in single parent homes. In nearby Baltimore--another city governed by liberal policies for decades--1 in 3 residents are on food stamps and in 1 in 3 youth live in poverty. Americans are committed to helping our sisters and brothers who are struggling, but we are seeing the damaging human consequences of our broken welfare state," said Sessions.
 
"We spend a trillion dollars each year on federal poverty programs. That’s more than the budget for Social Security or Defense. But poverty seems only to increase. Something is wrong. Compassion demands that we change."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 14, 2013, 08:06:32 PM
Free Republic
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U.S. Birth Rates Remain Depressed
The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 14, 2013 | David Wessel
Posted on March 14, 2013 10:27:47 PM EDT by MinorityRepublican

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the latest Census Bureau data suggest that the recession-related decline in migration is being reversed, but demographer Kenneth Johnson of the University of New Hampshire says that bad economic times still seem to be depressing the birth rate.

Last year, he calculated, 1,135 U.S. counties — 36% of all counties — recorded more deaths than births. There haven’t been so many counties with what demographics call “natural decrease” in all of U.S. history, he says. Last year for the first time in U.S history, deaths exceeded births in two entire states. More people died (12,857) than were born (12,754) in Maine, while West Virginia has had more deaths than births for a number of years.

“Once natural decrease begins in a county,” Mr. Johnson says, “it is likely to recur.”

“With few young adults and a growing older population, the future viability of many natural-decrease areas is not encouraging,” he said. “Economic development, an influx of minorities, high levels of civic engagement and community cohesion have broken the downward spiral of natural decrease in some areas, but many remain at risk. “

Natural decrease is more prevalent because residents of the U.S. are having fewer babies. There were 3,954,000 births last year compared to a record 4,316,000 in 2006-2007, a decline of 8.3% in just five years.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 15, 2013, 07:34:43 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/younger-generations-are-worse-off-today-urban-institute-study-2013-3

 ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 17, 2013, 06:14:06 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/food-stamps-put-rhode-island-town-on-monthly-boom-and-bust-cycle/2013/03/16/08ace07c-8ce1-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html



WOW.    Hope n Change.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2013, 03:00:01 PM
Boeing to lay off 800 workers in Everett
 King 5 News, king5.com ^ | March 22, 2013 | King 5 News

Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 5:38:05 PM by luckymom

A Boeing spokesperson confirmed on Friday that the company will lay off 800 workers, as well as reduce its overall workforce by 2,000 or more in 2013.

According to a company spokesperson, the layoffs will be primarily of workers in the 787 and 747 post-assembly facilities, all machinists, in Everett. The additional 2,000 to 2,300 positions will be elimated through attrition and transfers.

No employees have been notified of layoffs yet.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2013, 09:12:50 PM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100582664

Poverty spreading

Obamanomics = FAIL 

Communism = FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 22, 2013, 09:17:10 PM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/9947825/China-to-overtake-America-by-2016.html

 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on March 23, 2013, 06:57:13 AM
Is this the same chinese economy with Malls as big as towns that have ZERO visitors?

I would have to believe that with 3 times the number of people as the US, their economy should be pretty big. It sucks if it's larger than the US, but I highly doubt it will be.

I blame NAFTA and all of that free trade bullshit.


Smoke and mirrors over there, my friend.

Cities with no inhabitants, malls with no traffic, roads with no cars.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on March 23, 2013, 02:28:33 PM
My 1Q2013 is the best since 2005
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: tonymctones on March 23, 2013, 10:55:43 PM
My 1Q2013 is the best since 2005
congrats, doesnt mean shit in terms of everyone else but congrats anyways...::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on March 24, 2013, 12:03:20 AM
congrats, doesnt mean shit in terms of everyone else but congrats anyways...::)

I've got news for you

there are plenty of people doing very well, growing their business, starting new businesses etc..

Perpetual Losers spend their time complaining about how bad things are and never make any effort to change their lives (I'm sure you know a few people like that)

Even moderately successful people don't waste their time with such nonsense and instead focus on creating opportunities or going out and finding business, etc..
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: George Whorewell on March 24, 2013, 12:11:08 AM
I've got news for you

there are plenty of people doing very well, growing their business, starting new businesses etc..

Perpetual Losers spend their time complaining about how bad things are and never make any effort to change their lives (I'm sure you know a few people like that)

Even moderately successful people don't waste their time with such nonsense and instead focus on creating opportunities or going out and finding business, etc..

Hmmm-- do perpetual losers include the base of the democratic party?

In a pathetic attempt to sound witty and intelligent, you just inadvertently sunk your entire political ideology in one foul swoop.

Are you prepared to travel to the inner city and tell all of those poor, helpless, hardworking minority groups stuck in generation after generation of poverty and government dependency that they are as you put it, "losers"?

You sound like a 47%er.

It seems that you succeeded in contradicting yourself and being a racist at the same time. Will you also be changing your voter registration card from D to R?

We still don't support gay marriage, so you might want to start a third party-- the "Hates poor people but supports gay marriage" platform. You and Bill Mahr should start a support group.  ::)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on March 24, 2013, 12:26:03 AM
Hmmm-- do perpetual losers include the base of the democratic party?

In a pathetic attempt to sound witty and intelligent, you just inadvertently sunk your entire political ideology in one foul swoop.

Are you prepared to travel to the inner city and tell all of those poor, helpless, hardworking minority groups stuck in generation after generation of poverty and government dependency that they are as you put it, "losers"?

You sound like a 47%er.

It seems that you succeeded in contradicting yourself and being a racist at the same time. Will you also be changing your voter registration card from D to R?

We still don't support gay marriage, so you might want to start a third party-- the "Hates poor people but supports gay marriage" platform. You and Bill Mahr should start a support group.  ::)



yeah, are those inner city guys the people posting on this thread ?

nope, it's a bunch of guys who could get up off their ass and do something but instead they want to make excuses for their own failures

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: George Whorewell on March 24, 2013, 12:33:14 AM
yeah, are those inner city guys the people posting on this thread ?

nope, it's a bunch of guys who could get up off their ass and do something but instead they want to make excuses for their own failures



The self ownage in this thread is astounding. Someone should keep track of this for later use.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on March 24, 2013, 12:35:59 AM
The self ownage in this thread is astounding. Someone should keep track of this for later use.

Why don't you do it Georgie

you seem to have time on your hands
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 25, 2013, 12:58:15 PM

March 22, 2013
Johnstown plant plans to close

Tom Lavis tlavis@tribdem.com


JOHNSTOWN — Union employees of Johnstown Specialty Castings, located at 545 Central Ave., were told Thursday that the Moxham plant will be closing by the end of summer.

 The closing of the plant will lead to the loss of more than 100 employees, including some management personnel.

 The majority of the workers, who are members of United Steelworkers, Local Union 2632, Unit 16, were told that the reasons for closing were loss of orders, inadequate capacity and foreign imports.

 The plant is owned by WHEMCO, a worldwide supplier of heavy industrial components for the metals, power generation and shipbuilding industries.

 The Johnstown plant is a supplier of cast rolls and sleeves, slag pots and custom castings for a variety of heavy industrial applications.

 Charles Novelli, president and CEO of WHEMCO, based in the Pittsburgh area, refrained from discussing the closing except to say that the company has met with the union to discuss consolidation of its facilities. He refused to give any details.

 Wayne Donato, representative for USW District 10, said he couldn’t be certain of the exact closing date.

“We need to negotiate a shutdown agreement and discuss if transfers to other WHEMCO facilties are possible,” Donato said.

 The company issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) on Jan. 23, saying that 36 workers in the melt shop and foundry would be terminated two weeks ago.

 Donato said no WARN notice has been filed to the

 39 melt shop and foundry employees.

 WARN provides protection to employees, their families and communities by requiring employers to give affected employees and other state and local representatives notice

 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff.

 Employees were told that the company did not have a good year in 2012 and is in the midst of evaluating its facilities.

“It has been determined that the work done in Johnstown could be done more efficiently in the company’s Midland (Beaver County) plant,” Donato said. “It has a much larger capacity and the products can be made more efficiently with less energy costs.”

Several employees contacted by The Tribune-Democrat declined to comment on the closing.

 Donato said Johnstown’s order book is “not what it once was a few years back.”

 “Many companies have gone to foreign suppliers,” Donato said. “We were told the plant has become economically unfeasible to operate.”

Production is continuing until details are worked out for a timetable to shutter the plant.

 Donato estimates that a handful of employees will be needed to prepare the plant for closing.

“They will need a skeleton crew to clean up and complete work that needs processed for previous orders,” Donato said.

“The closing had nothing to do with labor costs.”

WHEMCO is honoring the existing bargaining agreement, but said any concessions by the union would not prevent the closing.

“We were willing to work with the company to talk about considerations in order to keep the plant operating,” Donato said.

 He said no determination has been made on whether the employees would be eligible for Trade Agreements Act (TAA) benefits.

 WHEMCO and the Harvard Investment Group of Florida purchased the former Johnstown Corp. in September 2005.
 
Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat print edition.

Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat e-edition.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2013, 05:41:37 AM
Mortimer Zuckerman: The Great Recession Has Been Followed by the Grand Illusion
Don't be fooled by the latest jobs numbers. The unemployment situation in the U.S. is still dire..
Article Comments (209) more in Opinion | Find New $LINKTEXTFIND$ ».
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By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN
The Great Recession is an apt name for America's current stagnation, but the present phase might also be called the Grand Illusion—because the happy talk and statistics that go with it, especially regarding jobs, give a rosier picture than the facts justify.

The country isn't really advancing. By comparison with earlier recessions, it is going backward. Despite the most stimulative fiscal policy in American history and a trillion-dollar expansion to the money supply, the economy over the last three years has been declining. After 2.4% annual growth rates in gross domestic product in 2010 and 2011, the economy slowed to 1.5% growth in 2012. Cumulative growth for the past 12 quarters was just 6.3%, the slowest of all 11 recessions since World War II.

And last year's anemic growth looks likely to continue. Sequestration will take $600 billion of government expenditures out of the economy over the next 10 years, including $85 billion this year alone. The 2% increase in payroll taxes will hit about 160 million workers and drain $110 billion from their disposable incomes. The Obama health-care tax will be a drag of more than $30 billion. The recent 50-cent surge in gasoline prices represents another $65 billion drag on consumer cash flow.

February's headline unemployment rate was portrayed as 7.7%, down from 7.9% in January. The dip was accompanied by huzzahs in the news media claiming the improvement to be "outstanding" and "amazing." But if you account for the people who are excluded from that number—such as "discouraged workers" no longer looking for a job, involuntary part-time workers and others who are "marginally attached" to the labor force—then the real unemployment rate is somewhere between 14% and 15%.

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Other numbers reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics have deteriorated. The 236,000 net new jobs added to the economy in February is misleading—the gross number of new jobs included 340,000 in the part-time, low wage category. Many of the so-called net new jobs are second or third jobs going to people who are already working, rather than going to those who are unemployed.

The number of Americans unemployed for six months or longer went up by 89,000 in February to a total of 4.8 million. The average duration of unemployment rose to 36.9 weeks, up from 35.3 weeks in January. The labor-force participation rate, which measures the percentage of working-age people in the workforce, also dropped to 63.5%, the lowest in 30 years. The average workweek is a low 34.5 hours thanks to employers shortening workers' hours or asking employees to take unpaid leave.

Since World War II, it has typically taken 24 months to reach a new peak in employment after the onset of a recession. Yet the country is more than 60 months away from its previous high in 2007, and the economy is still down 3.2 million jobs from that year.

Just to absorb the workforce's new entrants, the U.S. economy needs to add 1.8 million to three million new jobs every year. At the current rate, it will be seven years before the jobs lost in the Great Recession are restored. Employers will need to make at least 300,000 hires every month to recover the ground that has been lost.

The job-training programs announced by the Obama administration in his State of the Union address are sensible, but they won't soon bridge the gap for workers with skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Nor is there yet any reform of the patent system, which imposes long delays on innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs seeking approvals. It often takes two years to obtain the environmental health and safety permits to build a modern electronic plant, a lifetime in the tech world.

When employers can't expand or develop new lines because of the shortage of certain skills, the employment opportunities for the less skilled are also restricted. To help with this shortage, the administration's proposals for job-training programs do deserve support. The stress should be on vocational training, postsecondary education and every program that will broaden access to computer science and strengthen science, technology, engineering and math in high schools and at the university level.

But the payoffs from these programs are in the future, and it is vital today to increase the number of annual visas and grants of permanent residency status for foreigners skilled in science and technology. The current situation is preposterous: The brightest and best brains from all over the globe are attracted to American universities, but once they get their degrees America sends them packing. Keeping these foreigners out means they will compete against us in the industries that are growing here and around the world.

What the administration gives us is politics. What the country needs are constructive strategies free of ideology. But the risks of future economic shocks will multiply so long as we remain locked in a rancorous political culture with a leadership more inclined to public relations than hardheaded pragmatic recognition of what must be done to restore America's vitality.

Mr. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.

A version of this article appeared March 26, 2013, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Great Recession Has Been Followed by the Grand Illusion.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2013, 06:08:21 AM
Student loan write-offs hit $3 billion in first two months of year



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Elvina NawagunaReuters
6:13 p.m. CDT, March 25, 2013



 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013, up more than 36 percent from the year-ago period, as many graduates remain jobless, underemployed or cash-strapped in a slow U.S. economic recovery, an Equifax study showed.

 The credit reporting agency also said Monday that student lending has grown from last year because more people are going back to school and the cost of higher education has risen.






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 "Continued weakness in labor markets is limiting work options once people graduate or quit their programs, leading to a steady rise in delinquencies and loan write-offs," Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in a statement.

 Equifax analyzes data from more than 500 million consumers to track financial trends.

 U.S. student loan debt reform has become a more pressing issue since the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported in March 2012 that the total surpassed $1 trillion by the end of 2011 and as interest rates on subsidized Stafford loan rates are set to double in July.

 The cost of earning a 4-year undergraduate degree has gone up by 5.2 percent per year in the last decade, according to the CFPB, forcing more students to take out loans. While other forms of debt went down, student loan debt continued to rise through the economic crisis.

 Delinquencies have spiked in the last eight years, with about 17 percent of the nearly 40 million student loan borrowers at least 90 days past due on their repayments, a February report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed.

 The CFPB, a federal consumer agency, is concerned that high student loan debt could affect the rest of the economy because it affects borrowers' credit and could limit their ability to make important purchases such as a home or car.

 The CFPB is taking several steps to help reduce the student debt burden on borrowers, including finding ways to offer more flexible repayment options from private lenders and trying to exert more supervisory authority over non-bank student loan servicing companies.

 Groups such as the New America Foundation, a nonprofit public policy institute, have said the current student loan repayment system is too complicated for borrowers, and that an income-based repayment system could simplify the process. Some students, they say, simply don't know how to enroll in the different repayment options or put repayment off to take care of more urgent bills such as credit cards and rent.

 (Reporting by Elvina Nawaguna; Editing by Richard Chang)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2013, 11:46:05 AM
HUGE MISS IN CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
 


Matthew Boesler|Mar. 26, 2013, 10:00 AM|3,302|12
 



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The Conference Board's March consumer confidence survey is out.

The headline index plummeted to 59.7 from a downwardly-revised 68.0 last month.
 
Economists were expecting a smaller drop to 67.5 (from a reading of 69.6 last month before the revision to 68.0).
 
Via CNBC's Steve Leisman, Pantheon Macroeconomic Advisors Chief Economist Ian Shepherdson called the number "horrible":
 
Below is the full text from the Conference Board press release:
 
NEW YORK, March 26, 2013…The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had improved in February, declined in March. The Index now stands at 59.7 (1985=100), down from 68.0 in February. The Present Situation Index decreased to 57.9 from 61.4. The Expectations Index declined to 60.9 from 72.4 last month.
 
The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey®, based on a probability-design random sample, is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was March 14.
 
Says Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board: “Consumer Confidence fell sharply in March, following February’s uptick. This month’s retreat was driven primarily by a sharp decline in expectations, although consumers were also more pessimistic in their assessment of current conditions. The loss of confidence, particularly expectations, mirrors the losses experienced this past December and January. The recent sequester has created uncertainty regarding the economic outlook and as a result, consumers are less confident.” 
 
Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions declined in March. Those saying business conditions are “good” decreased to 16.0 percent from 17.6 percent, while those stating business conditions are “bad” increased to 29.3 percent from 28.2 percent. Consumers’ assessment of the labor market was mixed. Those claiming jobs are “plentiful” decreased to 9.4 percent from 10.1 percent, but those claiming jobs are “hard to get” edged down to 36.2 percent from 36.9 percent.
 
Consumers are once again pessimistic about the short-term outlook. Those expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months decreased to 14.4 percent from 18.0 percent, while those anticipating business conditions to worsen increased to 18.3 percent from 16.6 percent.
 
Consumers’ outlook for the labor market was also less favorable. Those expecting more jobs in the months ahead declined to 12.3 percent from 16.1 percent, while those expecting fewer jobs increased to 26.6 percent from 22.1 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase fell to 13.7 percent from 15.8 percent, while those expecting a decrease edged down to 18.0 percent from 19.3 percent.
 
Click here for the full release >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/conference-board-consumer-confidence-march-2013-3#ixzz2Ofmn7TdV
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 26, 2013, 12:39:51 PM
CBO: America Will Never See Full Employment Under Obama



 March 26, 2013



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President Barack Obama (AP Photo)

 
(CNSNews.com) - The Congressional Budget Office is now projecting that the U.S. economy will never achieve full employment during the eight years Barack Obama serves as president.
 
That would make Obama the only American president during the post-World War II era who never presided over a year in which the U.S. economy offered full employment to the American people.
 
The CBO defines “full employment” to be when the national unemployment rate is at or below what it calls the “natural unemployment rate.”
 
The natural unemployment rate, according to CBO, is the “rate of unemployment arising from all sources except fluctuations in aggregate demand. Those sources include frictional unemployment, which is associated with normal turnover of jobs, and structural unemployment, which includes unemployment caused by mismatches between the skills of available workers and the skills necessary to fill vacant positions and unemployment caused when wages exceed their market-clearing levels because of institutional factors, such as legal minimum wages, the presence of unions, social conventions, or wage-setting practices by employers that are intended to increase workers’ morale and effort.”
 
In a blog entry published last week, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said “we think it will take four more years to get back close to full employment.”
 
In fact, baseline data CBO released last month indicate that the “natural unemployment rate” will be 5.5 percent through the rest of Obama’s presidency and that actual unemployment will never drop below 6.0 percent in any quarter between now and the end of 2016.
 
According to CBO, unemployment will remain above 7.0 percent through the third quarter of 2015. It will then drop to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, and gradually decline to 6.0 percent by the fourth quarter of 2016.
 
In the first quarter of 2017, when the next president is being sworn into office, the unemployment rate will drop to 5.8 percent, CBO projects. That would still be above the natural unemployment rate of 5.5 percent.
 
Finally, in the first quarter of 2018, according to CBO’s projections, unemployment will drop to 5.5 percent. At that point, a year after Obama has left office, the U.S. economy will finally achieve full employment for the first time since 2007.
 
Thus, according to CBO's projections, America will never see full employment under Obama even though the CBO has increased what it considers to be the natural unemployment rate during Obama’s tenure. From the first quarter of 1999 through the first quarter of 2008, CBO calculated that the natural unemployment rate was 5.0 percent. Thus, for the economy to achieve full employment during that nine-year span, actual unemployment had to fall to 5.0 percent or lower.
 
Despite this higher standard, the economy did achieve full employment on a number of occasions from 1999 through 2008. This included, on average, the entire years of 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007.
 
During the tenures of each American president from Harry Truman through George W. Bush--according to the average annual unemployment rates published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the natural unemployment rate calculated by CBO--there was at least one year in which the U.S. economy achieved full employment.
 
To see a complete list of the average actual annual unemployment rates compared to the natural unemployment rate for the years from 1988 onward click here.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 28, 2013, 07:14:45 AM
Mar 28, 9:06 AM EDT

 
US economy expands at 0.4 percent rate

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy grew at a slightly faster but still anemic rate at the end of last year. However, there is hope that growth accelerated in early 2013 despite higher taxes and cuts in government spending.
 
The economy grew at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the October-December quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was slightly better than the previous estimate of 0.1 percent growth. The revision reflected stronger business investment and export sales.
 
Analysts think the economy is growing at a rate of around 2.5 percent in the current January-March quarter, which ends this week.
 
Steady hiring has kept consumers spending this year. And a rebound in company stockpiling, further gains in housing and more business spending also likely drove faster growth in the first quarter.
 
The 0.4 percent growth rate for the gross domestic product, the economy's total output of goods and services, was the weakest quarterly performance in almost two years and followed a much faster 3.1 percent increase in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was hurt by the sharpest fall in defense spending in 40 years.
 
For all of 2012, the economy grew 2.2 percent after a 1.8 percent increase in 2011 and a 2.4 percent advance in 2010. Since the recession ended in mid-2009, the economy has been expanding at sub-par rates as a string of problems from higher gas prices to Europe's debt crisis have acted as a drag on the U.S. economy.
 
Growth appears to be strengthening this year even after taxes increased on Jan. 1 and automatic government spending cuts totaling $85 billion started to take effect on March 1. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the combination of tax increases and spending cuts could trim economic growth this year by about 1.5 percentage points. The CBO is predicting just 1.5 percent growth for 2013.
 
But so far, the economy is showing signs of holding its own against the fiscal drag.
 
Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month since November. That helped lower the unemployment rate in February to 7.7 percent, a four-year low.
 
Economists expect similar job gains in March, in part because a measure of unemployment benefit applications fell this month to a five-year low.
 
Sales of previously occupied homes rose in February to the highest level in nearly three years, while builders broke ground on more houses and apartments. Annual home prices jumped in January by the most since June 2006, according to a closely watched measure.
 
Stock prices have surged. On Wednesday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was within two points of its all-time high.
 
All of that is making consumers feel wealthier, which could lead to more spending. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity.
 
The Federal Reserve still thinks the economy needs aggressive measures to bolster growth. Last week it stood by its plan to keep a key short-term interest rate near zero until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent. The Fed also left unchanged its plan to keep buying $85 billion in bonds until it sees a substantial improvement in the job market.
 
The slowdown in business inventories trimmed 1.5 percentage point from growth in the fourth quarter and the reductions in defense spending cut another 1.3 percentage point from growth.
 
Consumer spending was growing at a 1.8 percent rate in the fourth quarter, slightly better than the 1.6 percent increase in the third quarter but down from last month's estimate that consumer spending was growing by 2.1 percent.
 
That revision was offset by upward revisions in business investment spending on structures and equipment and by stronger sales of U.S. exports.
 
The government first estimated two months ago that the economy had contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, a decline that was erased by the revisions.
 
The government will release its first look at first quarter growth on April 26.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 28, 2013, 07:28:45 AM
Dozens Camp Out At Granite Bay Chick-fil-A For Free Food

March 27, 2013 2:53 PM




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GRANITE BAY (CBS13) – Dozens waiting in line for a chance to get free food at Chick-fil-A, but the first customer won’t even be served until tomorrow.
 
It’s got that Black Friday feel out here with tents and coolers and chairs for people all waiting for a tasty treat. More than 100 people set up camp at the new Granite Bay Chick-fil-A.
 
“it’s crazy,” said Natalie Woodmass, a Chick-fil-A customer.
 
People starting lining up in the dark.
 
“It’s fun, it’s free food for a year,” said Darek Daszynsky.
 
The first 100 people in line got the food, and for some, this isn’t they’re first rodeo at a Chick-fil-A grand opening.



“I went to Utah twice, I’ve been to L.A., I’ve been to Fresno, Bakersfield, so I’ve gone all over – Fairfield,” said Diane Terry, a Chick-fil-A customer.
 
This restaurant on the corner of Douglas and Sierra College Boulevards in Granite Bay means jobs.
 
“We have employed over 50 employees at this location, and we’re so excited to be able to do that,” said Hollee Swain, Chick-fil-A event planner.
 
And so are the people waiting in line.
 
“There needs to be more new jobs,” said Woodmass. “It brings more business and more employment opportunities.”

So far this year, five Chick-fil-A restaurants have opened up in California, bringing nearly 400 jobs to the state.
 
“It’s better than being at home and being lazy, I can tell you that much,” said Daszynsky. “It’s good to be out with the community.”

The official grand opening takes place on Thursday. All of the 100 vouchers have already been given out.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 29, 2013, 07:43:15 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jobs-act-falls-short-of-grand-promises/2013/03/28/5a660a14-8675-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html


Total FAIL.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 30, 2013, 05:58:50 AM
5 Groups Of Obama Voters That Are Being Crushed By Democrats
Townhall.com ^ | March 30, 2013 | John Hawkins
Posted on March 30, 2013 8:54:24 AM EDT by Kaslin

Hollywood, the mainstream media and the public school system are all almost entirely controlled by people and groups friendly to the Democrat Party. Yet and still, even with that almost overwhelming advantage, Democrats can't do any better than a rough parity with the Republicans. If the tables were turned and the GOP controlled what you see on TV, in the news and what your kids are taught at school the same way the Democrats do, the Republican Party would win every presidential election and would permanently maintain unassailable majorities in Congress.

So, why aren't the Democrats running away with every election? Because selling Democrat policies is like Coca-Cola's marketing team trying to sell the public on rat spit in a bottle. Since they can't sell their product, they spend all their time convincing the public that the little Republican girls down the street selling lemonade probably spit in it when their mothers aren't looking. Sadly, this tactic works pretty well and a lot of Democrats end up voting for people who are ruining their lives.

1) Black Americans: Over the last few decades, no group has been more fiercely loyal to the Democrats than black Americans. Typically, the Democrats capture 90% of the black vote nationwide. However, it's worth asking what black Americans actually get out of that deal. Sure, if you're Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or Touré, it's a pretty good gig, but how does the average black American benefit from voting for the Democrats? Affirmative Action? That program helps very few people and it also leads to many black Americans getting into a college that they wouldn't normally qualify for with their academic record. Some people might call that a plus, but as a practical matter, it causes an inordinate number of the brightest, most promising young black Americans to flunk out of college when they could have graduated had they gone to less challenging schools.

In return for that dubious bit of "help," the Democrats fight voucher programs that could get black students out of failing schools, laugh at black Americans who are Christian, pro-life and believe in God's definition of marriage and they do nothing of consequence to tackle the crime and drug problems that makes life so unbearable for many black Americans. The worst places in our country for black Americans to live are inevitably run by Democrats who've long since given up on improving the lives of their constituents.

Economically, black Americans are still suffering under the Democrats as well. The numbers are so bad that they're almost hard to believe. "In 2009, the average net worth for white households was $113,149 and $5,700 for black households” while the unemployment rate for black Americans is double the rate for whites. Black Americans deserve a lot better than that from the people who serve them in government.

2) Single Women: Did you know that Mitt Romney actually won married women 53-47 over Obama? However, Obama won single women in a landslide and that's not unusual. Single women tend to go heavily for the Democrats. The sad thing about that is Democrats pull it off by baiting a trap. They promise free birth control and abortion. They offer up welfare, food stamps and other programs that are designed to shoulder the financial load that a husband would in normal circumstances. Then they proceed to denigrate, demean and slime any conservative woman who opposes those things in the most vicious, nasty and grotesque manner possible.

Why?

Because a single woman struggling to survive is likely to take any help she can get from the Democrats and will return the favor by voting for them. On the other hand, a woman who's successful, financially secure and married is much more likely to vote Republican. This is true across every race, religion and demographic group. This is why, for example, Democrats have engineered a system where in many cases, "the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income and benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.” They don't WANT single women to be independent and financially secure because that would make them more likely to vote Republican.

No woman grows up wanting to stay permanently poor, single and dependent on the government for her survival, but for the Democrats to succeed, they need as many women as possible stuck in exactly that position.

3) Unions: Even though the union membership is a little more split, the union bosses have thrown their lot in with the Democrat Party. This has paid some dividends for them because undeniably, the Democrats are bending over backwards to appease the unions. However, there is a heavy price to be paid for being totally tied to one political party.

For one thing, union membership is death spiraling into oblivion. At one point, 34% of Americans were in a union, but now that number is down to "11.9 percent, the lowest rate in more than 70 years."

Furthermore, because of the staggering cost of some of the pension deals that unions have previously negotiated for their members, there are cities and states facing a choice between honoring their previous agreements with unions or going bankrupt. What that means is that like it or not, union members are about to start taking haircuts all across the country.

Since unions have allied themselves entirely with the Democrats, Republicans have every incentive to hurt the unions when they can, thwart any rule changes that would allow unions to grow and to try to cut as deeply as possible from the unions in any sort of bankruptcy deals. Sure, siding with the Democrats might maximize any gains that unions have already made, but it also almost guarantees their coming descent into oblivion.

4) Young Americans: One of the best things about being young is that feeling of invulnerability that comes with it. You hear about all the terrible things that happen to other people, but you'll be the one that gets by with it, right?

Unfortunately, it's not working out like that for a lot of young Americans who made the mistake of trusting Barack Obama. It's bad enough that they have a jobless rate under Obama that's nearly double the national average, but he's running up the national credit card with an unsustainable level of debt that younger Americans are going to be asked to pay off.

If you're under 25, by the time you hit your prime earning years, you're likely to face bleak long term economic prospects because of our massive debt load along with the crushing taxes that will be required to pay for it. Worse yet, the entitlement programs so many Americans rely on are now in terrible danger because of the reckless spending the Democrats are insisting on. As Ann Coulter has frequently noted,

“I don’t know why Republicans keep saying we have to cut spending to save these entitlements for our grandchildren. We have to cut spending to save these entitlement programs for 45 year-olds. On our current spending rate, 45 year-olds will not receive any Medicare.”

Does that sound appealing? Struggling under a high tax burden to pay off debts that you didn't run up with much less of a safety net than the last few generations of Americans? That's what young Americans are heading towards and the saddest thing is, they're voting for it. It's not even a case where young Americans are going to be partying and then paying the price later. It's even worse because the Democrats are partying with their money and plan to stick them with the bill.

5) Hispanic Americans Although there are a few exceptions, Hispanic Americans have voted for the Democrats by a roughly 3-to-1 margin over the past few decades. What have Hispanic Americans gotten in return for that? Democrats block school choice initiatives that would allow Hispanic Americans to send their kids to better schools. They also create massive amounts of red tape that make it much harder for Hispanic small business owners to become successful. In fact, if you're a Hispanic American who wants a piece of the American Dream, you'd be hard pressed to come up with anything that the Democrats do for you other than their one supposed "trump card" -- they're in favor of illegal immigration.

The great irony of illegal immigration is that Hispanic Americans are economically hurt by illegal immigration much more than the average American because they're more likely to be going head-to-head in the same professions with people who often don't pay taxes, don't pay for health care and don't pay for car insurance. There are undoubtedly millions of Hispanic Americans who've followed every rule and done everything right who don't have jobs today because of illegal aliens. There are also millions of other Hispanic Americans who are taking home $3 or $4 less per hour than they otherwise would without illegal aliens driving down the cost of labor.

Furthermore, for all the complaints about illegal immigration, the dirty little secret is that some sort of compromise that allows illegal aliens to stay in the country as guest workers, but not citizens, would probably be very passable in Congress. The real reason that isn't happening is because it would allow Hispanic Americans to see how badly they're being hurt by people who aren't in the country legally. When you want to work, but can't feed your family because you don't have a job and you see a "guest worker" from a foreign country holding a position you desperately need, your attitude starts to change in a hurry. The Democrats understand that and secretly like the idea that illegal aliens make it harder on Hispanic Americans. After all, the more successful you become, the less you want the Democrats to do anything other than get out of your way.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 01, 2013, 02:03:12 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/college-graduates-minimum-wage-jobs_n_2989540.html


LOL.   Liberal obama dones blaming anyone but dear leader and co.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2013, 04:08:31 AM
The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid 1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor…

…The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government’s so-called War on Poverty.

As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty.

The bureau said 20 percent of the country’s children are poor.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2013, 05:28:55 AM
..

Help shrinks as poverty spikes in the US

US poverty spikes but help from Washington shrinks as government struggles with debt
By Steven r. Hurst, Associated Press | Associated Press – Tue, Apr 2, 2013.. .
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BALTIMORE (AP) -- Antonio Hammond is the $18,000 man.

He's a success story for Catholic Charities of Baltimore, one of a multitude of organizations trying to haul people out of poverty in this Maryland port city where one of four residents is considered poor by U.S. government standards.

Hammond says he ended up in Baltimore three years ago, addicted to crack cocaine and snorting heroin, living in abandoned buildings where "the rats were fierce," and financing his addiction by breaking into cars and stealing copper pipes out of crumbing structures. Eighteen months after finding his way to Catholic Charities via a rehabilitation center, the 49-year-old Philadelphia native is back in the work force, clean of drugs, earning $13 an hour cleaning laboratories for the Biotech Institute of Maryland and paying taxes.

Catholic Charities, which runs a number of federally funded programs, spent $18,000 from privately donated funds to turn around Hammond's life through the organization's Christopher's Place program which provides housing and support services to recovering addicts and former prisoners.

Such success stories are in danger as $85 billion in federal government spending cuts begin squeezing services for the poor nationwide. The cuts started kicking in automatically on March 1 after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit. They are hitting at a time of spiking poverty as the U.S. slowly climbs out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"All I wanted to do was get high," Hammond said. "I didn't even know any more how to eat or clean myself."

Now he lives with two other men in housing subsidized by the charity, got his driver's license and bought a car. What he marvels at the most is that he has been accepted after a 20-year absence by some of his nine children. That's the best part, he said. "At least I know now they might not hate me."

The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government's so-called War on Poverty. As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty. The bureau said 20 percent of the country's children are poor.

Although it is far from the country's poorest city, Baltimore's poverty rate far outstrips the national average of one in six.

Catholic Charities of Baltimore is a conduit for state and federal money for programs designed to help the poor. The charity plays a major role in administering Head Start, a federal program that provides educational services for low-income pre-school children and frees single mothers to find work without the huge expense of childcare.

The spending cuts, known as the sequester, are going to hit Head Start especially hard.

"Before the sequester only half of the need was being met. Now, after the cuts fully take effect, there will be 900 children already in the program who won't be able to take part," said William McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities.

There is no question the national belt-tightening "will deepen and increase poverty," said McCarthy, citing the cuts in long-term care for poor seniors including assisted living and nursing care, and fewer low-income housing spaces, among other ripple effects.

Under the spending cuts, Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said his agency faces a $25 million shortfall in funds to help poor people with housing. There are 35,000 people on the waiting list. He also lamented cuts that will hamper the city's efforts to clean up or demolish blighted neighborhoods. Baltimore has 15,000 vacant and abandoned structures as a result of a steep population decline over the past half century.

"It's very, very disheartening. We take a couple of steps forward and then fall back at least one. The private sector isn't going to fix these neighborhoods. I view these things as investments, not expenditures. These things are an investment in the future that bring returns many times over," he said.

While the U.S. economy is slowly recovering, improvements for those deep in poverty do not keep pace with the cuts now in place. The spending reductions going into effect will hit hardest at Americans whose prospects are not directly tied to the economy — people like Antonio Hammond and children in the Head Start pre-school programs.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore depends on federal grants and funding for 12 percent of its budget. The austerity cuts "to housing programs_as well as those to public safety, health, and education_will have an adverse effect on Baltimore and throughout the country," she said.

The cuts, which will also hit U.S. defense spending, were designed two years ago as an incentive for lawmakers to avoid a standoff over the federal debt and a potential government shutdown. The measures were seen as so onerous as to force Republicans and Democrats in Congress to reach a compromise spending plan. But compromise proved impossible before the March 1 deadline, and what were once seen as unthinkable cuts automatically went into effect.

Democrats want a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans balk at any more tax increases and insist the problem should be addressed solely by reigning in spending. That feud continues as the two sides battle out future fiscal issues.

Republicans want to see even more cuts in next year's budget, reductions that would, by and large, return military spending to pre-sequester levels and provide big tax benefits to wealthy Americans.

A 2014 budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate on the unsuccessful Republican presidential ticket last year, would be particularly tough on social safety net programs. His plan would slash $135 billion over the next decade from the program that provides food aid for low-income Americans. Nearly three-quarters of households receiving help from the program include children, who, census figures show, are the group hardest hit by poverty.

Ryan's plan would also turn the government's Medicare health insurance program for Americans age 65 and over into a voucher system, providing direct government payments to seniors who would then try to buy insurance on the private market.

Ryan defends his drive for austerity as necessary to begin shrinking the country's $16 trillion national debt.

"If we never balance the budget, if we keep adding deficit upon deficit we have a debt crisis like Europe has. That means seniors lose their health care benefit, that means the people in the safety net see the net cut and they go in the street. That means you have a recession. These are the things we prevent from happening by balancing the budget. Balancing the budget is but a means to an end. It's growing the economy, it's creating opportunity, it's getting government to live within its means," he said in an interview with Fox News.

Obama backs increasing taxes on the wealthy while instituting smaller government spending cuts, a plan that would reduce deficit spending but more slowly. He and most fellow Democrats argue that European-style austerity has not worked there and will harm the U.S. recovery from the Great Recession.

It's an ideological fight that dates back decades. Republicans work from the premise that by unleashing the private sector and removing government controls, all Americans will prosper along with the economy and benefits will flow down to lower-income earners. Democrats insist there is an essential role for government in putting a floor under the poor and helping local governments with problems that the private sector cannot or will not shoulder.

Some worry the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. will keep widening under the austerity measures.

According to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service late last year, "U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries and the United States appears to be among the nations experiencing the greatest increases in measures of income."

Mary Anne O'Donnell, director of community services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, said increasing income inequality has shown itself dramatically during the U.S. downturn.

"In the last three years, there's been a great change in the kinds of people we are serving. There are increasing numbers of people who owned a home, lost their jobs, end up living in their car and are coming with children to our soup kitchen," she said.

Her organization spent $126 million in the last fiscal year feeding the poor, helping them find jobs and housing, running nursing homes and putting men like Hammond back on their feet.

Of that figure, $98 million came from various programs funded by the city, state and federal governments. Those now face the big cuts as politicians in Washington fail to find a compromise.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 03, 2013, 07:47:46 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/03/Cost-of-Food-Stamp-Fraud-More-Than-Doubles-In-Three-Years


Jesus  Christ - WTF!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 04, 2013, 05:47:47 AM
Jobless claims on the rise for the 4th straight week, the moving avg. is also trending up.

Back up to around 400k.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100615845 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100615845)

I think it's safe to to posit the theory that we aren't in a recovery, nor have we ever been in a recovery.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2013, 06:12:16 AM
Red Flags Are Popping Up For Both The Economy And The Market
 


Joe Weisenthal|22 minutes ago|569|2
 
REUTERS/David Gray

The news that initial jobless claims have spiked to 385K is a good time to bring up two big themes we've been talking about lately.
 
One is that people see the economy rolling over a bit.
 
The other is that people see market internals deteriorating.
 
First on the economy we wrote on Tuesday about fears of a "Spring Swoon." Although Q1 numbers looked great, with GDP coming in as high as 3.5%, estimates for Q2 are already below 2% in many cases. In the last couple weeks there have been a fair number of downside economic surprises.
 
And then on the market there's a lot of talk about market internals.
 
We wrote about this yesterday. Breadth is narrowing, small caps are underperforming large caps (a sign of investor nervousness), and transports and banks have been lagging sectors.
 
Markets are close to record highs, but fears related to both stocks and the economy are on the rise.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/people-getting-worried-about-the-economy-and-market-internals-2013-4#ixzz2PV3bZjk1

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2013, 08:02:43 AM
Yale Senior: We Millennials Don't Stand A Chance
 


Bijan Stephen, Quartz|11 minutes ago|322|4















 






Tableau’s $150 million IPO offers more proof of Big Data’s big growth potential
 Markets do as they’re told after Bank of Japan delivers big
 ECB keeps pressure on euro governments and small businesses by doing nothing (again)
 Yale senior: We millennials don’t stand a chance
 The Bank of England did nothing today—but new UK data hint that maybe it didn’t have to
 
I mark the change in weather by rotating my music selection: there are bands for the winter, and bands for summer and fall, but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi about spring air that demands reciprocating its freshness.
 
As a result, I’ve recently rediscovered Vampire Weekend’s eponymous debut album. One song in particular—the record closer, “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance”—has resonated with me, and not just for its cherry blossom, campus-pop aesthetic: I’m a senior at Yale, graduating in May, and I’m terrified. After commencement ends and I leave the warm embrace of academia, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of job opportunities.
 
And I’m not the only one. In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks extensively quoted Victoria Buhler, one of his students and a fellow classmate of mine. Through him, she describes our generation as the Cynic Kids: we’re suspicious of causality, we don’t like idealism, we’re budding wonks, and we require mountains of empirical evidence before we make any decision, no matter how trivial. I’d add that we’re deeply, pathologically ironic, but, aside from that, I think Buhler gets it right. We’re cynical because we have to be. America’s economy is self-destructing, wealth inequality is at historic highs, and there’s a chronic shortage of employment, especially for recent grads. According to a Rasmussen report, released on Feb. 5, only 15% of American adults think that their children will be better off than them. That’s a bleak number. What’s worse are theunemployment rates for recent college graduates, astronomically high rates of underemployment, and the phenomenon of long-term negative economic effects—termed “scarring”—that happen as a consequence of recessions.
 
Of course, our current situation isn’t entirely unique. In the early 1980s, the world plunged into a severe economic recession. In America, it lasted for two years, and was a direct result of the Federal Reserve’s attempt to control high inflation after the twin oil and energy crises of the ’70s. Though the recent financial crisis was precipitated by different events, the state of the economy and the fears of the public were very similar.
 
In 2009, Lisa Kahn, a labor economist and professor at the Yale University School of Management, published a study analyzing the situation of graduates who came of age during the 1980s.
 
Here’s what she found:
 Graduating from college in a bad economy has a long-run, negative impact on wages
 There’s a negative effect on occupational attainment and slight increases in both educational attainment and tenure for those who graduate in worse national economies
 Wage loss ranges from 1-20% each year, relative to the cohorts with the minimum state and national unemployment rates
 
However, recent graduates face challenges that didn’t exist in the ’80s that make our situation worse: for example, the rise of unpaid internship culture (and the commensurate decline in entry-level positions), as well as the requirement that workers be constantly connected to their jobs via smartphones. I’ve done my fair share of internships, desperately trying to gain the necessary experience to land an entry-level position. Isn’t the whole point of an “entry-level” position the fact that one doesn’t need prior experience to hold it?
 
The New York Times Magazine recently published an article entitled “Do Millennials Stand a Chance in the Real World?” Predictably, the comment section was ablaze with vehement opinions from people who identified themselves as Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, Gen-Yers, and Millennials.
 
The millennials in the comment section were angry about their prospects for the future. And I empathize, although as a future graduate of Yale, I’m in an arguably different position. Ideally, I’d like to work in some sort of creative field next year, and I won’t pretend that the Yale name doesn’t carry some weight.
 
Even so, my friends and I all know people who graduated from Yale and haven’t been able to find jobs that pay better than minimum wage afterwards: they work as bartenders and in sandwich shops, doing unpaid internships, living on tips.
 
There are only four weeks of classes left in my college career, and I’m still unemployed.
 
It doesn’t surprise me that we’re a generation of cynics. Do we—the kids—stand a chance?
 
You can follow Bijan on Twitter at @bijanstephen. We welcome your comments atideas@qz.com.

Now Read: A Revolution Is Happening In Offices Everywhere


Read more: http://qz.com/70400/yale-senior-we-millennials-dont-stand-a-chance/#ixzz2PVVL8VCV







They voted for O-Twink - F em. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 04, 2013, 07:49:59 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/non-fam-payrolls-whisper-number-2013-4



LOL!!!!

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 05:39:53 AM


US economy adds 88K jobs, rate drops to 7.6 pct.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months and a sharp retreat after a period of strong hiring. The slowdown is a reminder that the job market's path back to full health will be uneven.
 
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent. While that is the lowest in four years, the rate fell only because more people stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for a job.
 
The weakness in March may signal that some companies were worried last month about steep government spending cuts that began on March 1.
 
March's job gains were half the pace of the previous six months, when the economy added an average of 196,000 jobs a month. The drop raises fears that the economy could slow after a showing signs of strengthening over the winter.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 05:44:12 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/march-labor-force-participation-rate-2013-4


What a friggin disaster 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 05:49:41 AM
US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%

 Text Size   Published: Friday, 5 Apr 2013 | 8:42 AM ET
 
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images




Nathan DeSantis looks at a company brochure at a National Career Fairs job fair in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.Job creation slowed to a crawl during March, with the U.S. economy creating just 88,0000 positions though the unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent.

The number was a sharp slide from February's upwardly revised 268,000.

The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payroll growth eased amid hopes that the economy had begun to achieve the escape velocity needed for sustained growth.

Friday's report fell short of economist expectations of 200,000 new jobs, though it did confirm some of the weakness in recent reports.

"Having such a disappointing figure in March will have a volcanic negative impact on sentiment in critical economic areas, such as housing," said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital. "Wall Street will not be happy, and are certain to punish stocks today."


Markets reacted negatively to the report, with stock futures indicating a fall of more than 1 percent across the major indexes.

With speculation rising that the Federal Reserve soon would start winding down its asset purchase program, the weak jobs report probably keeps the central bank on hold at least through the end of the year.

The drop in the jobless rate was little more than a statistical anomaly, with the labor-force participation rate tumbling to a 35-year low. However, a broader measure of unemployment that counts the discouraged and underemployed also fell, declining to 13.8 percent from February's 14.3 percent.

Services and health care accounted for most of the new jobs, with 51,000 and 23,000 new positions respectively.


On the minus side, retail lost 24,000 jobs and the U.S. Postal Service cut its workforce by 12,000.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 05:52:14 AM
Awful number, still not in a recovery or even close.

LFP rate continues to decline several years after the supposed "Recovery" began. That should be the story.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 05:56:05 AM
Awful number, still not in a recovery or even close.

LFP rate continues to decline several years after the supposed "Recovery" began. That should be the story.

Don't worry - we have gay marriage, gun control, global warming, animal rights, amnesty for illegals to worry about. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 06:26:37 AM
The Grand Illusion

The Obama administration is more inclined to public relations than hard-headed pragmatism in dealing with unemployment


 By Mortimer B. Zuckerman
April 4, 2013



Which way are we going? The stock market has revived, though it still is off a high in real terms. There's suddenly good news about housing demand, which is showing signs of life after six years of stagnation. Yet Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warns that the package of fiscal cutbacks – the fiscal cliff, sequester, and other cuts – is set to reduce growth by 1.5 percentage points. He calls that "very significant" and adds that "job creation is slower than it would be otherwise." This is the key to where we are. New research from the Brookings Institution concludes that rising inequality in the United States is not something that will vanish with a real recovery. It is here to stay, a reflection of an increasingly calcified society and a whole crisis in itself.

The present phase of our Great Recession might be called the Grand Illusion, because all the happy talk and statistics that go with it, especially on the key indicator of jobs, give a rosier picture than the facts justify. We are not really advancing. We are, by comparison with earlier recessions, going backward. We have a $1.3 trillion budget deficit. And despite the most stimulative fiscal policy in our history and the most stimulative monetary policy, with a trillion-dollar expansion to our money supply, our economy over the last three years has been declining or stagnant. From growth in annual GDP of 2.4 percent 2010, we bumped down to only 1.8 percent in 2011 and were still down at 2.2 percent in 2012. The cumulative growth for the last 12 quarters was just 6.2 percent, less than half the 15.2 percent average after previous recessions over a similar period of time. It is the slowest growth rate of all the 11 post-World War II recessions.
 
What has gone wrong? There seems to be a weakness in the investment of private capital. Today, corporate spending on investments is the weakest it has been in six decades. The billions invested in the Internet, spreading its application and comingling the technology with labor, boosted multifactor productivity but, as David Rosenberg of wealth-management firm Gluskin Sheff points out, most of that occurred several years ago. As he has written, a capex-led business recovery that breeds sustained productivity growth and decent job creation is what underscores the best and longest economic expansions since the end of WWII.
 
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
 
Anemic growth looks likely to continue because of various downers implicit in Bernanke's caution. Sequestration will take $600 billion of government expenditures out of the economy over the next 10 years. Payroll taxes up 2 percent hit about 160 million workers and will drain $110 billion in aggregate demand. The Obama health care tax will be a $30 billion-plus drag. The surge in gasoline prices by some 50 cents recently may be temporary, as Bernanke suggests, but meanwhile represents another $65 billion of consumer cash flow. Conservatively, these nasties add up to roughly a 2 percent hit to baseline GDP growth when we are barely able to muster 2 percent growth.
 
Then there's housing. Yes, it is nice to see a surge in some areas. But millions of homes are owned by banks or are in the foreclosure process. The New York Times noted last week that the home where Bernanke was raised, in a small town in South Carolina whose unemployment rate was recently 15 percent, had just been foreclosed upon the last time he visited, and one of his relatives was unemployed. Talk about symbolism. Single-family home sales and starts are barely off their depressed levels, and have only recouped 17 percent of recession losses. The housing market is mostly driven by investor-based, rental-related, multifamily buying activity, reflected in the fact that multiple housing units have reversed more than 70 percent of the damage they sustained from the recession.
 
Our economy's most important player, the consumer, offers no relief from this cascade of downers. About 70 percent of national expenditures come from consumers, but their confidence level has dropped to only 58.6 percent. Restaurant traffic, one of the most reliable trend indicators, has slipped to a three-year low. In fact, the only reason that real consumer spending is not shown as contracting is because personal savings rates since November 2007 have declined from 6.4 percent to around 2.5 percent of incomes.
 
[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should the Senate Have Passed an Online Sales Tax?]
 
Still, can't we take comfort in headlines celebrating the decline in unemployment to 7.7 percent? Not really. If you add in all the unique categories of people not included in that number, such as "discouraged workers" no longer looking for a job, involuntary part-time workers, and others who are "marginally attached" to the labor force, the real unemployment rate is somewhere between 14 and 15 percent. No wonder it has been harder to find work during this recession than in previous downturns.
 
Though last month we theoretically added 236,000 jobs, these numbers are misleading, too, because so many of the jobs are in the part-time, low-wage category. So the backdrop to the most recent job numbers is the fact that multiple job-holders are up by 340,000 to 7.26 million. In essence then, all of the "new" positions are going to people who already are working, mostly part time. It is clearly more important to create jobs for people who aren't. Other aspects of the jobs picture deteriorated, too. The pool of people unemployed for six months or longer went up by 89,000 to a total of 4.8 million, and the average duration of unemployment rose to 36.9 weeks, up from 35.3 weeks.
 
Moreover, the decline in the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent is shaky. It reflects the departure from the workforce of some 130,000 individuals. A change in the denominator makes the unemployment numbers look better than they are. The labor force participation rate, which measures the number of people in the workforce, also dropped to around 63.5 percent, the lowest in more than 30 years. The workweek remains short at 34.5 hours. Quite simply, employers are shortening the workweek or asking employees to take unpaid leave in unprecedented numbers, and these people are not included in the unemployment numbers.
 
[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should Congress Extend Federal Unemployment Benefits?]
 
Clearly, the rate of job recovery has slowed drastically. Typically it takes 25 months to reach a new post-recession peak in employment, but today we are over 60 months away from that previous high, and we are still down 3.2 million jobs. We need between 1.8 million and 3 million new jobs every year just to absorb the labor force's new entrants. At the current rate, we will have to wait seven years to restore the jobs lost in the Great Recession, and we will need 300,000 or more hires every month to recover substantially above the current levels. The prospects for that are gloomy, since employers now feel they can do with fewer workers. Over 20 percent of companies say that employment in their firms will not return to pre-recession levels.
 
In the face of these figures, the government is just whistling in the dark. The programs it has announced are sensible, but don't do anywhere near enough to plug the gap in workers needed with skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the best way to deal with the threat of a big permanent underclass. Nor is there any sense of a vigorous follow-through on multiple well-intentioned programs. We are told we live in an accelerated world, and so we do in communications. But when will we see reform of a patent system that imposes long delays on innovators and inventors and entrepreneurs seeking approvals? It often takes two years to obtain the environmental health and safety permits to build a modern electronic plant, a lifetime in the tech world.
 
A dramatic consequence of the inertia is that our trade in high-tech products has gone from a $29 billion surplus to a $60 billion-plus deficit.
 
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]
 
When employers can't expand or develop new lines because of the shortage of certain skills, the employment opportunities for the less skilled are restricted. Government must restore and multiply funds for training programs, especially vocational training and postsecondary education. And it must support every program to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math in high schools and at the university level, as well as broadening access to computer science. Until we get such programs properly underway, we should increase the number of annual visas for foreigners skilled in science and technology. They are not job destroyers, as nativist sentiment suggests. They are job creators, and not only that. They are job multipliers. Barring their entry or residence means they will compete against us in the industries that are both growing and competitive. It is astounding that we attract the brightest and the best brains to our universities, the world's best, and then send them packing. We must re-conceptualize immigration as a recruiting tool and open the door to the skilled and the educated. It is disappointing that so soon in a new administration, decisively elected, both party leaderships seem still stuck in a campaigning mode. It isn't just that agricultural companies lack the labor to pick crops of citrus fruits and onions, but that we are stupidly cutting off one of the great sources of innovation. About half the companies in the Fortune 500 owe their origins to the ideas and enterprise of immigrants. Diversity breeds ideas. Look at the history of America.
 
What we get from the administration instead of pragmatism is politics; instead of constructive strategies shed of ideology, we get steady attacks demonizing the wealth creators and discrediting the private sector, along with rhetoric that seeks to exploit divisions by blaming the rich and positioning them against the rest, as if government is not part of the problem.
 
No wonder Fox News found earlier this year that 48 percent of us believe America is weaker than it was five years ago, while just 24 percent think the nation is stronger. Have we really so lost our mojo? Have we lost our way? As 18th-century economist and writer Adam Smith once observed, "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation." Indeed there is. One serious recession does not mean the beginning of the end of a great power. But the risks will multiply so long as we remain locked in a rancorous political culture, and have a leadership more inclined to public relations than hard-headed pragmatic recognition of what must be done to restore America's classic vitality.
 •Read Susan Milligan: The Problem With David Stockman's Economic Solutions
 •Read David Brodwin: Big U.S. Banks And Big Government Undermine Capitalism
 •Check out U.S. News Weekly, now available on iPad
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 06:35:27 AM
Even The US Energy Sector Lost Jobs
 


Rob Wile|45 minutes ago|350|2


Wikimedia Commons
 
Oil wells offshore at Summerland, California c. 1915
The oil and gas extraction industry lost 600 payrolls in March, according to the BLS report out this morning.
 
That ends a 27-straight month period without job losses for the sector.
 
Total payrolls fell to 192,500 from 193,100.
 
We shouldn't necessarily be surprised — oil prices have now entered their second year of a downward trend.
 
But natural gas prices rose practically every other day in March thanks to the cold snap.
 
One data point does not a trend make, but watch this space.
 
For more on today's jobs report, see here >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-and-gas-jobs-fall-in-march-2013-4#ixzz2PazuR9Fx


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 06:38:38 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-05/people-not-labor-force-soar-663000-90-million-labor-force-participation-rate-1979-le


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 06:41:29 AM
We are still in a recession.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 06:50:46 AM
We are still in a recession.

I tried helping the economy. 

I did get a new car this week.  GMC Terrain.  The 2002 Ford Explorer was giving me nightmares after the front wheel popped off in the Bronx while I was driving. 

I did not want to patronize GM, but i figured its still better to keep americans employed and i got a good deal on it.  Does everything I need for less than the Wrangler, Escape, CRV, or Outback
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 07:17:13 AM
By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON | Fri Apr 5, 2013 10:12am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March, a sign that Washington's austerity drive could be stealing momentum from the economy.

The economy added just 88,000 nonfarm jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, well below market expectations for a 200,000 increase. The jobless rate ticked a tenth of a point lower to 7.6 percent largely due to people dropping out of the work force.

Analysts suspected some of the weakness was due to tax hikes enacted in January. While retail sales data had not shown a big impact earlier in the year, retailers cut staff in March by 24,100.

"The U.S. economy just hit a major speed bump," said Marcus Bullus, trading director at MB Capital in London.

It was unclear whether across-the-board federal budget cuts that began in March played a significant role in the weak pace of hiring, although nervousness over the cuts might have made businesses shy about taking on more staff.

Some economists cautioned against reading too much into the report.

"We don't think there is enough signal here to conclude the U.S. economy is wobbling. Rather, it appears that the underlying trend has not improved as much as the January-February data suggested," said Julia Coronado, chief North America economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent at open on the data, while prices for Treasury debt rallied. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

AMMUNITION FOR THE FED

The slowdown in job growth could make policymakers at the Federal Reserve more confident about continuing a bond-buying stimulus program. Prior advances in the labor market recovery had fueled discussion at the central bank over whether to dial back the purchases, perhaps as soon as this summer.

"The recent discussions about the Fed backing off from its quantitative easing has been premature," said Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.

The report did have some positive news for the economy. The Labor Department revised readings for January and February to show 61,000 more jobs added than previously estimated. The average workweek rose to its highest level in a year.

"Companies ramped up working hours instead of hiring additional people. The fact that labor demand kept rising should bode well for future job gains," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York.

The construction sector added 18,000 jobs despite cold weather in parts of the country, reinforcing the view that a recovery in the housing sector has become entrenched.

But analysts have noted that the federal spending cuts have only just begun and will be a more substantial drag on the economy between April and June, when many government workers begin taking days off work without pay.

Government payrolls fell only 7,000 in March, partly reversing the 14,000-job gain from February.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who has said the labor market must show sustained improvement before monetary stimulus is eased, has voiced concern about the spending cuts.

The jobless rate fell to its lowest since December 2008, but the report showed that much of the drop was due to the labor force shrinking by 496,000 people.

That pushed the labor force participation rate -- the percentage of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one -- to 63.3 percent, its lowest since 1979.

The unemployment rate is derived from a survey of households which is separate from the survey of employer payrolls. That survey actually showed employment fell by 206,000 in March.

Some of the people dropping out of the labor force are retiring or going back to school, but others have given up the job hunt out of discouragement.

Separately, Commerce Department data showed the U.S. trade gap narrowed unexpectedly in February as crude oil imports fell to their lowest level since March 1996 and overall exports increased slightly.

The deficit narrowed to $43.0 billion. The consensus estimate of analysts surveyed before the report was for the trade gap to widen slightly to $44.6 billion.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer and Lucia Mutikani in Washington and Herb Lash in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 07:42:52 AM
I tried helping the economy. 

I did get a new car this week.  GMC Terrain.  The 2002 Ford Explorer was giving me nightmares after the front wheel popped off in the Bronx while I was driving. 

I did not want to patronize GM, but i figured its still better to keep americans employed and i got a good deal on it.  Does everything I need for less than the Wrangler, Escape, CRV, or Outback

That's actually pretty damn good vehicle, I have friend that drives one (4 cyl.) and it's pretty sweet. Prefect size as well.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 08:05:14 AM
That's actually pretty damn good vehicle, I have friend that drives one (4 cyl.) and it's pretty sweet. Prefect size as well.

I got the 4 cyl AWD and it does everything I want and is not terrible on gas.  Tows the jet ski, can go in the snow, fine for hauling shit, tail gates, does not look gay like the CRV, etc. 

I traded in my 2002 Explorer which was on deaths' doorstep w 102k miles and walked out of the door on a lease for 300 a month, zero down, and the sticker was 32k. 

I might have done a little better, but i like the car and glad i bought american 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 08:27:19 AM
Why did you help Obama?!

>:(

Because the Escape was too small and the Wrangler was too expensive for what I wanted and drove like shit. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 08:33:25 AM
That is unfortunately why American cars are not doing well.

The CRV looks awful, the Outback looks like "family car", the X3 is too small and expensive for what i want, the Murano is kind of wierd, the Acura RDX is a rip off, the Rav4 was up there for sure, etc. 

The Terrain was perfect price and fit for what i wanted.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 08:58:52 AM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 09:21:32 AM
Because the Escape was too small and the Wrangler was too expensive for what I wanted and drove like shit. 

The Escape is in the size class below the Terrain, that's why. If you wanted similar size and such you should have looked at the Ford Edge. And as for the Wrangler, well, it's a Wrangler with a live rear axle, high center of gravity and a short wheelbase....it isn't going to drive very well.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 09:28:50 AM


Look on CNBC.com (http://CNBC.com) and watch the whole segment. He doesn't know what say and is desperately trying to come up withe excuses, it was sad, he's lost. And I got a huge chuckle when he said, "If it wasn't for Bernanke, how bad would things be! Things would be horrible!" Totally clueless and lost, but he has a microphone on a TV show. Just a mouthpiece for the rich and the market controllers.

We are where we are due, in large part, to the Fed policies. The Fed keeps on printings money, monetizing debt, pumping cash into the market and all manner of gimmicks and what has happened? Things have gotten worse.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 10:03:54 AM
Record 89,967,000 Not in Labor Force; Another 663,000 Drop Out In March



 April 5, 2013



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



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 124 65

 

 
 

President Barack Obama and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, whom Obama has nominated to be secretary of labor. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) - A record 89,967,000 Americans were not in the labor force in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is an increase of 663,000 from the 89,304,000 Americans who were not in the labor force in February.
 Since President Barack Obama was first inaugurated in January 2009, 9,460,000 people have dropped out of the labor force.
 


The BLS counts a person as not in the civilian labor force if they are at least 16 years old, are not in the military or an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home, and have not actively looked for a job in the last four weeks. The department counts a person as in the civilian labor force if they are at least 16, are not in the military or an institution such as a prison, mental hospital or nursing home, and either do have a job or have actively looked for one in the last four weeks.
 
The number of people that BLS considers "in the labor force" affects the unemployment rate--which is the percentage of people "in the labor force" who are unable to find a job during the month. If someone previously considered "not in the labor force" were to go out and search for a job and not find one, they would have to be counted as in the labor force for that period--and thus would increase the unemployment rate.
 
To the degree that Americans choose to simply drop out of the labor force rather than search unsuccessful for a job they decrease the unemployment rate.
 
In keeping with the increase in the number of people not in the labor force, the labor force participation rate decreased from 63.5 percent in February to 63.3 percent in March. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of Americans in the civilian population over age 16 who did not have a job or seek a job during the month.
 

In January 2009, when Obama was first inaugurated, there were 80,507,000 people not in the labor force compared to the 89,967,000 who were not in the labor force in March.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 10:26:30 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/new-jobs-report_n_3016714.html?ir=Business&ref=topbar

Liberals in total meltdown 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 10:29:32 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/treasury-bond-market-yields_n_3020703.html?ref=topbar


O-Train Wreck! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 10:31:20 AM
This Sure Doesn't Look Like An American Manufacturing Renaissance
 


Rob Wile|Apr. 5, 2013, 12:02 PM|376|3
 

Americans have high hopes for a manufacturing renaissance — the idea that rising overseas labor costs and falling domestic would be bring jobs back to the U.S.
 
But as Goldman Sachs' Jan Hatzius has noted, there isn't much evidence that this is actually happening.
 
Marketwatch's Steve Goldstein just gave us more evidence that this renaissance may be just a myth.
 
It's pretty simple: a chart showing total nonfarm payrolls versus manufacturing payrolls. The lines are going in the wrong direction.  And manufacturing jobs are actually falling faster than other jobs:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-manufacturin-jobs-are-falling-2013-4#ixzz2PbxM5J2v

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 10:32:16 AM
Disney Is Planning Major Layoffs Within The Next Two Weeks
 


Kirsten Acuna|Apr. 5, 2013, 11:58 AM|677|
 



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Disney is expected to make cuts to its studio and consumer products division in the next two weeks.
 
More cuts are coming to Disney.   

The Walt Disney Company will lay off a number of workers in the coming weeks, according to Reuters.
 
Cuts to both Disney's film studio and consumer products division could come as early as two weeks.
 
Employees from animation and marketing and home video are expected to be laid off.
 
It's currently unknown how many reductions will occur, but the layoffs are reported to be a cause of an internal audit from CEO Bob Iger who wants to cut costs.
 
Numbers wise, Disney had record earnings ever in November.
 
Its stock continues to hit all-time highs reaching $53.53 in January and $57.76 last month.
 
In February, the company revealed lower first quarter results, attributing them in part to "rising costs of acquiring TV sports rights for its ESPN division," something Iger previously predicted would occur at the end of 2012.
 
Right now, Disney doesn't need as much man power as it once did at its studio.
 
The studio is now heavily relying on brands Pixar, Marvel, and, now Lucasfilm to release films.
 
Marvel has six films set to release now through 2015, Pixar just announced a highly-anticipated sequel to 2003 hit "Finding Nemo," and the new "Star Wars" trilogy is set to begin in another two years time.
 
These aren't the first layoffs to be announced this week.
 
Earlier this week, Disney shut down video game company LucasArts, laying off 150 people. 
 
The Mouse House acquired Lucasfilm back in December after initial word of a $4 billion purchase was revealed last October. 
 
Work on future "Star Wars" related games will most likely come from its own troubled game segment, Interactive, which is hoping for a massive success when its new gaming initiative, Infinity, launches later this summer.
 
Last September, Disney Interactive laid off more than 50 employees. 
 
A year prior, the company laid off a reported 200 employees from its interactive unit.
 
In December, The Walt Disney Company was ordered to pay $319 million to the creator of game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Celador, after losing an appeal for a new trial.
 

SEE ALSO: Disney shuts down LucasArts >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/disney-is-planning-layoffs-2013-4#ixzz2PbxbLduw
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 05, 2013, 10:54:00 AM
I read some of that HuffPo stuff.....pretty bad, not a lot of coherent thoughts.

I love the use of "Austerity" and "Republicans" as the main culprits for the bad economy. Especially since spending is still increasing year over year and the Sequester was Obama's idea and he signed off on the bill.

Austerity is a myth in Europe as well, EU countries haven't cut budgets either.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: syntaxmachine on April 05, 2013, 10:57:40 AM
We are where we are due, in large part, to the Fed policies. The Fed keeps on printings money, monetizing debt, pumping cash into the market and all manner of gimmicks and what has happened? Things have gotten worse.

Simply indicating that the Fed has launched policies and that things have 'gotten worse' (when? in what sense?) does nothing to establish a causal connection between the two, nor that things would be better without such action (which is implied by the former).
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 11:02:18 AM
Simply indicating that the Fed has launched policies and that things have 'gotten worse' (when? in what sense?) does nothing to establish a causal connection between the two, nor that things would be better without such action.

Businesses will not hire when they know there will be massive future tax hikes and inflation to pay for this along w other looming disasters like ObamaCare, etc taking hold 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 02:41:02 PM
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/05/employment-situation-march

more spin and bs 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 02:45:59 PM
After poor jobs report, politicians trade blame for sequester
 cbsnews.com ^

Posted on Friday, April 05, 2013 12:35:56 PM by Sub-Driver

By Stephanie Condon / CBS News/ April 5, 2013, 11:48 AM

After poor jobs report, politicians trade blame for sequester

After the Labor Department on Friday released a disappointing jobs report for the month of March, the White House, House Speaker John Boehner and other politicians cited the sequestration for the slow economic growth -- and sparked Democrats and Republicans to revive the debate over whom to blame for the spending cuts.

Friday's jobs report showed just 88,000 jobs were created in March -- far fewer than the 175,000-200,000 expected. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent, but that happened largely because 496,000 people simply stopped looking for jobs. The labor force participation rate now stands at 63.3 percent, the lowest level since May 1979.

White House economic adviser Alan Krueger put some positive spin on the report, arguing in a White House blog post that it "provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression." He noted the economy has added private sector jobs every month for 37 straight months.

Still, he said, "It is important to bear in mind that the March household and payroll surveys are the first monthly surveys to look at employment since the beginning of sequestration. While the recovery was gaining traction before sequestration took effect, these arbitrary and unnecessary cuts to government services will be a headwind in the months to come, and will cut key investments in the Nation's future competitiveness."

Krueger said the administration "continues to urge Congress to replace the sequester with balanced deficit reduction" -- a goal the White House says has been hampered by Republicans.


(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 05, 2013, 02:49:56 PM
I don't see where the sequester has done anything bad... looks like we can cut some more shit.

Correct:  the sequester has nothing at all to do with it. 

Payroll tak hike
ObamaCare
Federal Reserve Money Printing Scam
Energy is sky high

Etc etc


Oh yeah, W and Palin too. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 06, 2013, 03:10:02 PM
http://michaelsnyder.mensnewsdaily.com/2013/04/21-statistics-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-everyone-should-know


 ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 07, 2013, 07:00:17 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/06/labor-force-dropouts_n_3030349.html


LOL.   Blaming W still.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 09, 2013, 12:31:04 PM

Investing

|

 4/08/2013 @ 11:21AM |52,440 views

Unemployment Is Really 14.3%--Not 7.6%







 128 comments, 68 called-out
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The current job-creation numbers are meaningfully below the level we might expect during a period of record corporate earnings and the reaching of new peaks in the major stock market indices.

Let’s go to the videotape –

The unemployment rate is 7.7%. But, there is another 0.6% of discouraged workers,(about 800,000) mainly the young, minorities and those without the all-necessary high school diploma. Another 0.9% are only marginally employed (whatever that means) and have mostly stopped looking for a job recently. More crushing is the 5.1% of the workforce most impacted by the 2008 downturn, who are working only part-time and would prefer to have a full-time position. That 5.1% part-time workers total 8 million people, who mostly are having trouble making ends meet and most likely have no health plan from their employer, according to Bob Eisenbreis, vice chairman and chief monetary economist at Cumberland Advisers, a New York-based investment firm that makes useful comments on the economy.



 Rising Home Prices And Falling Unemployment: Don't Trust the Numbers Shah GilaniContributor

These numbers added together suggest that the true unemployment level– when part-time workers are included– is 14.3%–meaning that one in seven of every potential full-time employee in the U.S. economy is not able to earn a proper living wage–and thereby contribute to the snails-pace of economic growth.

To my way of thinking the dropout rate is the most perplexing, because how do these people survive? Moreover, the percentage of people employed is only 58.5%, down from 61%, the level hit in 2008 when Obama was first elected–and to be fair before the meltdown on Wall Street. And the jump in first-time unemployment claims last week was the highest level since last November.

Now comes the sequester–which is meant to slice 1.75% from GDP at a time the economy is supposed to be growing at only a 1.6% pace at best. In other words, fewer people will be earning wages just as bullish sentiment is gaining momentum for a risk-on long position in equities. Everywhere I go seasoned veterans believe the market’s current valuation of about 14 times earnings makes them comfortable for a long-lasting bull market. Because, after all, they argue–there is far more risk in the bond market. Incredibly, perversely almost–the public’s accumulation of fixed income mutual funds and ETFs continues big time.

I can only conclude that maybe corporate earnings will continue to increase, rewarding equity investors, because of the high unemployment rate.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 09, 2013, 08:36:26 PM
http://www.counselheal.com/articles/4797/20130409/money-over-meds-govt-finds-americans-skipping-prescriptions-save.htm

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 15, 2013, 05:58:06 AM
Empire Fed Manufacturing Falls More Than Expected
 


Matthew Boesler|23 minutes ago|408|
 



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The New York Fed's April Empire State Manufacturing Survey is out.

The headline index fell to 3.05, below expectations for a 7.00 reading and last month's 9.24 reading.
 
Below is a summary of the report, from the release:
 
The April 2013 Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that conditions for New York manufacturers improved slightly.
 
The general business conditions index fell six points but, at 3.1, remained positive for a third consecutive month. Similarly, the new orders index was lower than last month but still positive, dipping six points to 2.2, and the shipments index fell to 0.8. The indexes for both prices paid and prices received inched higher—a sign that the pace of input and selling price increases had picked up over the month. Employment indexes climbed, showing a modest increase in both employment levels and hours worked. Indexes for the six-month outlook pointed to a moderate degree of optimism about future conditions.
 
In a series of supplementary questions—previously posed in surveys conducted in April 2012 and earlier—respondents were asked how much difficulty they had experienced finding workers proficient in mathematical, computer, interpersonal, and other workplace skills. As in the earlier surveys, the most widespread difficulties related to the search for workers with advanced computer skills. In addition, a skill set that has reportedly grown harder to find is punctuality and reliability. Responses to other supplemental questions indicated that firms expected wages to rise by roughly 2½ percent, on average, over the next twelve months, and that, for nearly a third of firms, retaining skilled workers would become increasingly difficult in the year ahead.
 
Click here for the full release >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/empire-fed-manufacturing-april-2013-4#ixzz2QXJiId5o
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 15, 2013, 10:34:00 AM
Economy is still in the ditch and going nowhere fast.

Going to be interesting to see what happens when small-businesses are hit with ObamaCare and fully realize its effects.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 16, 2013, 11:36:09 AM
6 Signs The Economy Is Slowing Down
 


Mamta Badkar|49 minutes ago|147|
 



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Reuters/Mike Segar
Economists have said that GDP growth is now tracking over 3% in the first quarter, after a revised 0.4% growth in Q4.
 
But numerous economic indicators suggest that a spring slowdown in underway.
 
Here's a quick look at some of the recent disappointing data:
 Headline industrial production increased 0.4% in March. But MacroEconomic Advisers writes that this was because "unusually cold weather in March (a 2-standard-deviation event), following normal temperatures in February, led to a surge in utilities IP that added roughly 0.5 percentage point to the change in total IP."
 America's manufacturing Renaissance also looks to be a way off. In April the Empire Fed manufacturing survey fell to 3.05 missing expectations.
 Retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.4% in March. Part of this was because of temporary factors like adverse tax conditions, and delayed tax returns. But Nomura pointed out that the downward revisions to sales in the last two months showed that "consumer adjustment to lower disposable income at the start of the year has begun."
 Moreover, consumer confidence also missed expectations and fell to 72.3 in April, from 78.6 in March.
 Housing, which has been a huge part of the economic recovery, is also showing signs of stalling. Building permits are down, homebuilder confidence is down, foreclosure starts are up, and capacity constraints among mortgage lenders are also impacting the recovery.
 And of course there is the jobs report, which showed that only 88,000 new jobs were created in March, very shy of expectations for 190,000. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6% but this was because of a decline in the labor force participation rate.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/signs-the-economy-is-slowing-down-2013-4#ixzz2QeXPzTRw
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 17, 2013, 05:35:18 AM

The Jobs Crisis: It May Not Be "Breaking News," But It's Definitely "Broken News"

Posted: 04/16/2013 9:15 pm


BREAKING! This just in: the economy is terrible and the country is suffering its worst jobs crisis since the Depression... developing...

Of course, this isn't actually breaking news -- it's aching news -- and, before the tragic bombings in Boston, the most important story going on. But you wouldn't know that if you watched any of the Sunday shows last week.

On CBS' Face the Nation, the topics were the background check bill and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

On ABC's This Week we had the president's budget, Jay-Z's trip to Cuba, Ken Burns' Jackie Robinson documentary and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

On NBC's Meet the Press, they went with the background check bill, the president's budget, Ken Burns' Jackie Robinson documentary, and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

CNN's State of the Union went with a wild card -- North Korea -- and then the president's budget and immigration, with... (how'd you guess?) Senator Marco Rubio.

Virtually unmentioned was the economy and the long-term jobs disaster that's been enveloping the country for five years now. The only mentions jobs got were in the context of the debate over whether immigrants might take away the jobs of hard-working Americans. The plight of many millions of Americans who are actually out of work is apparently not very newsworthy. Or at least not as newsworthy as an American rapper traveling in Cuba. Or a Cuban-American traveling in Washington to all four Sunday news shows.

Yes, I know I've banged this drum before, but it is hard to believe that what the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls the "longest, and by most measures worst economic recession since the Great Depression" doesn't warrant a mention on shows ostensibly devoted to the biggest news stories. Talk about missing the forest for the trees. Only in this case, the forest has largely been clear-cut.

But just because something is old news doesn't mean it's not still important news. Perhaps we need to come up with an alternate term to the breathless "BREAKING" tag. How about "BROKEN"? Yes, the story has already been broken, but the real story is that it's still going. And going and going. And the top "BROKEN" news story is clearly our still-broken economy. Here's some supporting evidence:

Only 88,000 new jobs were produced last month, and the only reason the unemployment rate ticked down to a still-alarming 7.6 percent is because so many people left the work force altogether, which sent the labor force participation rate down to 63.3 percent, the lowest point since 1979. If we were to include in the calculations those who have given up looking for work, the unemployment rate would actually be 9.8 percent.

As of February, there were 12 million workers officially unemployed, but only 3.9 million job openings, which means a little over three unemployed job seekers for every open job. And of the nearly nine million jobs lost during the recession, only about six million have been recovered, leaving us with nearly three million fewer jobs than we had at the beginning of the economic downturn. At the current rate of growth, we're not due to get back to full employment until around 2020.

And even for those who have found jobs, it's still a "BROKEN" story. As Jed Graham of Investor's Business Daily writes, "As bad as the current job recovery has been -- and it's by far the weakest since World War II -- the recovery in wages has been far worse."

Graham notes that in the last recession, in 2001, the wage recession lasted only two and half years, much less than the four-year jobs recession that accompanied it. In that recession, at the point where we are now, relative to the start of our current recession, wages were up 8 percent over their previous high. But not this time. Graham cites a study last year that found that low-wage jobs made up 21 percent of this recession's losses but a whopping 58 percent of the recovered jobs. Which is one reason why real annual median household income continues to fall, most recently to just over $45,000 -- down from around $51,144 in 2010.

As Brad Plumer put it, "America's middle-class jobs have been decimated since 2007, replaced largely by low-wage jobs." And this is a "BROKEN" news story that keeps on breaking. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, when middle class workers lose their jobs and find new ones at lower wages, over the next 25 years they'll earn an average of 11 percent less than workers who kept their jobs. And since our so-called recovery started, almost 40 percent of new jobs have come in low-wage areas like food service, retail and clerical jobs.

For the long-term unemployed, the situation is verging on hopeless. According to The Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien, the long-term unemployment picture is "the scariest thing in the world." It's an alternate economy, he writes, that's "horribly dysfunctional" -- and comes with consequences for the entire country. "The worst possible outcome for all of us is if the long-term unemployed become unemployable," he writes. "That would permanently reduce our productive capacity."

In fact, given our lack of recovery so many years after the start of the recession, that permanent reduction might already be happening. In the last quarter of last year, our actual GDP was around $975 billion less than the potential GDP our economy has the capacity for. Nearly a trillion dollar gap.

In that context it's not that surprising that there are currently 46 million Americans living in poverty, over 16 million of them children. "Yet," as HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery writes, "the issue has all but disappeared from the legislative agenda in Congress as lawmakers focus squarely on deficit reduction. Obama, too, has been largely silent on the issue, and has even proposed cutting Social Security -- a key tool for combating poverty." To Rep. Marcia Fudge, an Ohio Democrat who is also chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, it's "unfathomable" that the issue isn't "at the top of everybody's priority list." Though it's a bit more fathomable when it's not at the top, or even the bottom, of any of our Sunday news shows.

Of course we could make taking on poverty and the jobs crisis a national priority; but instead, the parameters of the ongoing economic debate -- which the media play an important role in setting -- are largely confined to how big of an austerity hit we're going to impose on ourselves. According to the CBO, the sequester and payroll tax hikes could cut growth by 1.5 percent over the course of this year. "Unless the government takes steps to boost growth, we will be seeing millions of people needlessly denied employment for over a decade," writes Dean Baker. "That should be the central focus of everyone in Washington."

Including the media.

But it's hard to imagine our jobs disaster will get the attention -- and the solutions -- it deserves if our media doesn't think it's a story worth telling. I know it's not "BREAKING NEWS!" but it's "BROKEN NEWS" to the tens of millions whose lives are still being turned upside down by it.








LOL - FUCK YOU ARIANNA - YOU VOTED FOR THIS TWICE!   YOU OWN THIS! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 23, 2013, 06:24:34 AM
MISS: US Flash PMI Falls To 52.0
 


Sam Ro and Matthew Boesler|25 minutes ago|782|1
 



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April Flash PMI is out.
 
The headline index fell to 52.0 from last month's 54.9 reading.
 
Economists were looking for a smaller decrease to 53.9.
 
Any number over 50 indicates expansion, so this reading says American manufacturing is still expanding, but at a slower pace than last month.
 
Below is a full breakdown of the sub-components of the index:


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/april-us-flash-pmi-2013-4#ixzz2RICTrrH8
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 24, 2013, 07:01:57 AM
DURABLE GOODS ORDERS TANK 5.7%
 


Matthew Boesler|Apr. 24, 2013, 8:30 AM|1,238|5
 


REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
Durable goods orders data are out.

Total orders fell 5.7% in March versus expectations of a smaller, 3.0% decline.
 
Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft and parts (a.k.a. "core capex") rose 0.2%. Economists were looking for a 0.3% increase.
 
February's 5.7% growth in total orders was revised down to 4.3%.
 
February core capex was revised down to -4.8% from -2.7%.
 
Click here for the full release >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/durable-goods-orders-march-2013-4#ixzz2ROCX7bfI


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 24, 2013, 07:14:46 AM

Wow. Some recovery, huh? Levels are heading right on down to 2001-2002 recession levels. Ouch

(http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/04/Durable%20Goods%20Ex%20Transportation.jpg)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 24, 2013, 07:40:12 PM
DAVID ROSENBERG: 12 Signs The Economy Is Weaker Than You Think
 


Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism|Apr. 24, 2013, 8:24 PM|2,162|8
 



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Cullen Roche is the editor of Pragmatic Capitalism.

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We’ve seen plenty of conflicting data in recent weeks as we begin to see some weakness in the economy (right on time again!).  In his latest note David Rosenberg highlights 12 indications that the economy is weaker than we think:
 
Household employment (-206k in March, the steepest decline in well over a year).
 Real retail sales (-0.3% in March, down for the second time in three months).
 Manufacturing production (-0.1% and also down in two of the past three months).
 Core capex orders (-3.2% in February, and again, down in two of the past three months).
 Single-family housing starts (-4.8% in March and negative for two of the past three months as well.
 New home sales (-4.6% in February).
 Philly Fed for April down to 1.3 from 2.0.
 NY Fed Empire manufacturing index down to 3.05 from 9.24.
 NAHB Housing Market index down to a six-month low of 42 in April from 44.
 Conference Board consumer confidence index down to 59.7 in March from 68.
 University of Michigan consumer sentiment down to 72.3 for April from 78.6, the lowest in over a year.
 Conference Board leading indicators down 0.1% in March, first decline in seven months.
 
Source: Gluskin Sheff


Read more: http://pragcap.com/david-rosenberg-12-signs-the-economy-is-weaker-than-we-think#ixzz2RRHQazaB
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2013, 10:38:40 AM
http://cnsnews.com/blog/joe-schoffstall/record-number-households-food-stamps-1-out-every-5


FORWARD!!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 25, 2013, 12:09:18 PM
$2 Trillion Underground Economy May Be Recovery's Savior
 Text Size   Published: Wednesday, 24 Apr 2013 | 9:52 AM ETBy: Mark Koba
Senior Editor, CNBC

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Peter Cade | Image Bank | Getty Images The growing underground economy may be helping to prevent the real economy from sinking further, according to analysts.

The shadow economy is a system composed of those who can't find a full-time or regular job. Workers turn to anything that pays them under the table, with no income reported and no taxes paid — especially with an uneven job picture.

"I think the underground economy is quite big in the U.S.," said Alexandre Padilla, associate professor of economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. "Whether it's using undocumented workers or those here legally, it's pretty large."

"You normally see underground economies in places like Brazil or in southern Europe," said Laura Gonzalez, professor of personal finance at Fordham University. "But with the job situation and the uncertainty in the economy, it's not all that surprising to have it growing here in the United States."

Estimates are that underground activity last year totaled as much as $2 trillion, according to a study by Edgar Feige, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That's double the amount in 2009, according to a study by Friedrich Schneider, a professor at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. The study said the shadow economy amounts to nearly 8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

Much of that money goes into cash registers, said Gonzalez, as personal consumption has risen since the recession.

"There is consumer spending in the short term, with people having money even if it's not reported, and that's boosting the economy," she said. "But in the long run, an underground economy is telling us that things have to change."
Shadow economies are usually associated with illegal activity, such as drug dealing. But anecdotal evidence indicates that off-the-books work in today's job market includes personal and domestic workers, such as housekeepers and nannies.

"The jobs are in service industries from small food establishments to landscaping." said David Fiorenza, an economy professor at Villanova University. "Even the arts and culture industry is not immune to working off the books in areas of music and entertainment."

It also includes firms that hire hourly or day construction labor, information technology specialists and Web designers. Many who have a job that doesn't pay enough take another one that pays under the table.

"We've always had people who make income without recording it, so it's not really new," said Peter McHenry, an assistant professor of economics at William & Mary College. "But the fact that more and more people are doing it shows how bad the job picture is," he added.

The reasons behind the underground economy's growth are fairly simple, according to Gonzalez.

(Read More: Spooked by Uncertainty, Little Main Street Hiring)

"There's a lot of uncertainly about immigration changes and who will be legal, and about paying for Obamacare," she said, adding that most workers in the shadow economy are in the country illegally. "Government rules are keeping businesses from hiring."


A report from ADP Research Institute states that many employers, especially in low-wage businesses such as retail and food service, plan to reduce workers' hours to less than 30 a week to avoid having to offer health benefits through Obamacare (or pay a fine).

"This type of regulation could put more people out of work and into an underground economy," McHenry said.


But employers have their own agenda, according to Padilla.

(Read More: Small Business Owners: Can I Get Some Cash Please?

"Businesses are not angels, and they exist to make a profit," Padilla said. "They are going to do everything they can to keep costs down, and if that means paying people off the books, they will do it. The government doesn't really have the resources to track down every business that does this."

What the government is keeping track of is lost revenues. According to the Internal Revenue Service, about $500 billion in taxes were lost last year because of unreported wages, versus $384 billion in 2001.

"The effects of the underground economy are larger than we think," said David Fiorenza. "The result is less tax money paid to the various levels of government."


"Those working and not paying the taxes puts the burden on those who pay the tax," added Fiorenza. "Taxes could be lower if the government where able to capture the underground economy instead of raising taxes on those currently paying the various income and payroll taxes."

But the dangers of a shadow economy go beyond dollars and cents, analysts said. Workers who aren't on the books don't get Social Security or health benefits, and worse.

"People who do these types of jobs run the risk of getting exploited with lower pay or not being paid at all," Gonzalez said. "There could be more exploitation if more people are forced into this type of economy."

"Some income is better than none, but there is a reason we have certain regulations in place to protect workers and what they do," McHenry said.

(Read More: Stealth Sequester? Where It's Really Being Felt)

In the end, what's happening below the normal economy should not come as too much of a shock, according to Gonzalez.

"People are running out of patience when it comes to finding a job and losing income," Gonzalez said. "So it's not that surprising to have workers take jobs that are in the shadow economy. But it's a sign of how bad things are and how we have to get the real economy moving again."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100668336

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 26, 2013, 05:54:39 AM
Markets Slip After GDP Report
 


Sam Ro|22 minutes ago|239|
 



Flickr / quinn.anya
The Q1 GDP report is out. The headline number grew by 2.5%, but missed expectations calling for 3.0%.
 
Dow futures are down 42 points.
 
S&P futures are down 5.1 points.
 
Just before the report, Dow futures were down 26 points, S&P futures were down 3.5 points, and Nasdaq futures were down 9.7 points.
 
Click Here For Full Coverage Of The GDP Report >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/futures-update-2013-4#ixzz2RZceU7RM
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 26, 2013, 10:49:22 AM
Job Picture Looks Bleak for 2013 College Grads
 Text Size   Published: Friday, 26 Apr 2013 | 8:54 AM ETBy: Mark Koba
Senior Editor, CNBC

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Leland Bobbe | Stone | Getty Images Even as new numbers show the overall employment picture improving—or at least not getting worse—new college graduates may not be so lucky when it comes to finding work.

A survey released last week from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reported that businesses plan to hire only 2.1 percent more college graduates from the class of 2013 than they did from the class of 2012.

That's way down from an earlier NACE projection of a 13 percent hiring rate for 2013 grads. (Read More: Surging Student-Loan Debt Is Crushing the System)

This comes even as the college graduate jobless picture seems to be getting better. The rate of unemployment in 2012 for college grads—defined as 20-24 years old—was 6.3 percent, down from the 8.3 percent for 2011 graduates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate in 2010 was 9.4 percent.

It's not only a bleaker job outlook 2013 graduates face. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the class of 2013 will likely earn less over the next 10-15 years, than they would have before the recession hit and jobs were more plentiful.

(Read More: Student Loan Borrowers Leaving Lots of Money on the Table)


NACE said employment areas with the greatest demand for this year's graduates include business, engineering, computer sciences and accounting.

One reason there may not be so many grads hired is that many employers don't believe college graduates are trained properly.

A survey of 500 hiring managers by recruitment firm Adecco, found that a majority—66 percent— believe new college graduates are not prepared for the workforce after leaving college. Fifty-eight percent said they were not planning to hire entry level graduates this year, and among those managers hiring, 69 percent said they plan to bring on only one or two candidates.

"Too many students are graduating with a weak background in science and math," said Mauri Ditzler, president of Monmouth College.

"We need to make sure our graduates know the basics and many don't."

(Read More: Why Businesses Prefer a Liberal Arts Education)

A frequent mistake graduates make that keeps them from getting even an interview is spelling, according to the Adecco survey. Forty-three percent of managers said spelling errors on resumes can automatically disqualify a graduate from being interviewed.

In fact, 54 percent in the survey said they failed to hire anyone in the last two years because of a weak resume, regardless of having a good interview.

(Read More: Job-Seeking Teens Might Get a Break This Summer)

"Businesses want people in a chosen field but they also want people who can read and write and who are cultural literate," said Jonathan Hill, an associate dean for special programs and projects at Pace University.

"College students must take courses in the humanities like English classes as well as focus on science and math," Hill said. "Otherwise, graduates are going to have a tough time in the job market."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2013, 07:44:47 PM
Report: Obama Has Spent 3.6% of Presidency on Economy
 

by Wynton Hall28 Apr 2013, 3:03 PM PDT50post a comment View Discussion
 
A new report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) finds that President Barack Obama has spent 3.6% of his total work time throughout his presidency in economic meetings of any kind.

The study, titled “Presidential Calendar: A Time-Based Analysis,” based its findings on the official White House calendar, Politico’s comprehensive presidential calendar, and media reports through March 31, 2013. The study defined the president’s work week as a six-day, 10-hour-a-day time period.
 
“You should know that keeping the economy growing and making sure jobs are available is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning,” Obama said in 2011 to an audience of UPS workers. “It's the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night."
 
The GAI report, however, reveals Obama’s hours spent on the economy have fallen significantly since entering office. In 2009, Obama spent 187.2 hours in economic meetings; in 2010, 127.8 hours; in 2011, 73 hours; in 2012, 80.4 hours.
 
In total, the report says Obama has spent 474.4 hours (or 47.4 10-hour workdays) in economic meetings or briefings of any kind throughout his presidency.
 
To be sure, any president’s economic work includes private conversations and discussions not necessarily captured on the official White House presidential calendar. But the study granted wide parameters to include any meeting that might remotely deal with economic matters. For example, calendar entries like “Obama meets with Cabinet secretaries” and “Obama has lunch with four CEOs” counted as economic meetings. If the White House calendar did not include the time a meeting ended, a generous two hours were given.
 
GAI’s latest study is in alignment with findings from its presidential calendar analysis last July, which found Obama spending scant time on the economy. Prior results found that Obama spent an average of just 138 minutes a week in economic meetings of any kind.

“There will be some who will be encouraged by the numbers and some who will wish the president spent more time in economic meetings,” said GAI President Peter Schweizer. “We just tabulate the numbers and let others decide how to interpret them.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/28/REPORT-Obama-Has-Spent-3-6-Of-Presidency-On-Economy

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2013, 08:19:00 PM
American Rail Traffic Growth Has Nearly Ground To A Halt
 


Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism|Apr. 28, 2013, 1:28 PM|2,927|4
 


 
After a big first quarter rail traffic has come out of the gate extremely soft in Q2.  The average pace of year over year expansion in intermodal traffic was a very healthy 5.3% in Q1, but has averaged just 0.08% so far in the first 4 weeks of the second quarter.  This is a trend that has been developing since early March as the pace of expansion has averaged just 2.11% since the first week of March.  Overall, that brings the 12 week moving average to 4.01%.  That’s still a healthy pace, but the recent slowing is a trend worth keeping a close eye on.  If rail traffic is any indicator it’s possible that economic growth peaked in Q1.
 
Here’s more from AAR:
 
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported mixed traffic for the week ending April 20, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 276,662 carloads, down 2 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 240,698 units, up 0.6 percent compared with the same week last year.  Total U.S. traffic for the week was 517,360 carloads and intermodal units, down 0.8 percent compared with the same week last year.
 
Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, up 40.1 percent. Commodities showing a decrease included grain, down 21.8 percent.
 
For the first 16 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 4,403,958 carloads, down 2.3 percent from the same point last year, and 3,799,366 intermodal units, up 4.6 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 16 weeks of 2013 was 8,203,324 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.7 percent from last year.”
 
Chart via Orcam Investment Research:


Read more: http://pragcap.com/rail-traffic-continues-to-soften-in-q2#ixzz2RopHp9xZ

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 29, 2013, 03:57:18 PM
Markets Slip After GDP Report
 


Sam Ro|22 minutes ago|239|
 



Flickr / quinn.anya
The Q1 GDP report is out. The headline number grew by 2.5%, but missed expectations calling for 3.0%.
 
Dow futures are down 42 points.
 
S&P futures are down 5.1 points.
 
Just before the report, Dow futures were down 26 points, S&P futures were down 3.5 points, and Nasdaq futures were down 9.7 points.
 
Click Here For Full Coverage Of The GDP Report >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/futures-update-2013-4#ixzz2RZceU7RM


That's great fucking news! It means the Fed will keep printing into infinite and the Federal Govt. will give blow outs in welfare and sorts of deficit funded crap!

Good news is bad but bad news is awesome.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2013, 07:12:12 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/chicago-pmi-april-2013-4


FORWARD!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2013, 07:28:59 AM
Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession [blacks were hurt worst of all races under Obama]
 New York Times ^ | April 28, 2013 | ANNIE LOWREY

Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 9:43:45 AM by grundle

the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families

when it comes to wealth — as measured by assets, like cash savings, homes and retirement accounts, minus debts, like mortgages and credit card balances — white families have far outpaced black and Hispanic ones. Before the recession, non-Hispanic white families, on average, were about four times as wealthy as nonwhite families, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of Federal Reserve data. By 2010, whites were about six times as wealthy.

The dollar value of that gap has grown, as well. By the most recent data, the average white family had about $632,000 in wealth, versus $98,000 for black families and $110,000 for Hispanic families.

Many experts consider the wealth gap to be more pernicious than the income gap, as it perpetuates from generation to generation and has a powerful effect on economic security and mobility.

Higher unemployment rates and lower incomes among blacks left them less able to keep paying their mortgages and more likely to lose their homes, experts said.

Black families also suffered bigger hits to their retirement savings, the Urban Institute found. With lower earnings and higher unemployment rates leaving them with a thinner safety net to begin with, black families were more likely to take funds out of the market when it was depressed, leaving them out in the cold as the market recovered.


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



LMFAO!!!!

SUCKERS!!!!!


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2013, 07:04:22 AM
ADP Private Jobs Plunge, Miss; Fall For Fifth Month In A Row
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/01/2013 08:33 -0400




With the March Payroll number printing at a miserable 88K compared to ADP's 158K print, it was only a matter of time before Mark Zandi, still furious from getting the news he won't be the next GSE Tzar, revised the last month's data to 131K as he just did. Concurrently he also announced that the just released April ADP was a huge miss to expectations of 150K, printing at just 119K, or a 31K miss. This was the 5th month in a row of declines excluding the small bounce in February data. It also means that the combined miss to expectations including March (original estimate +200K) and April (estimate 150K) is precisely 100K. This excludes whatever revisions ADP will do to the April number following the even bigger looming NFP miss. Manufacturing jobs? -10,000. Oh yes, anyone looking for seasonally unadjusted ADP data, good luck - keep on looking. In short: yet another atrocious economic data point which however may need the support of the equally horrible sub-49 Mfg ISM due out shortly to take out 1600 in the S&P.

Aside for the tiny bounce in February, this would be the 5th consecutive drop in the ADP number starting with the November 276K surge, driven purely by the QE4EVA euphoria.


Via ZH
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2013, 07:07:07 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100691168


UE 10% in most parts of the country!


FORWARD!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2013, 07:31:41 AM
http://news.investors.com/050113-654209-companies-cut-employee-benefits-as-obamacare-looms.htm


SUCKERS


FORWARD!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 01, 2013, 12:23:26 PM
Another batch of bad economic news today.

Sad.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2013, 01:44:44 PM
http://nation.foxnews.com/economy/2013/05/01/santelli-explodes-obamas-socialistic-policies

Nice
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2013, 01:05:25 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/hungry-pets-can-now-get-pet-food-stamps-2013-5


LMFAO.  FORWARD!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2013, 12:59:11 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/02/America-suicide-rate-jumps



FORWARD!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 04, 2013, 07:14:11 AM
Suicide rate quadrupled under Obama Presidency
 Constitution School: News for We the People ^ | May 3, 2013 | Constitution Shool
 
Posted on Saturday, May 04, 2013 9:38:57 AM by keats5

More Americans now die of suicide than from car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a disturbing statistic that some experts say points to the true depths of the US economic crisis.

In a letter to The Lancet medical journal, scientists from Britain, Hong Kong and United States said an analysis of data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that while suicide rates increased slowly between 1999 and 2007, the rate of increase has more than quadrupled since President Obama was elected to the Presidency in 2008, Reuters reports.

Citing the nation’s severe economic recession as having a direct connection to the rise of suicides, Aaron Reeves of Britain’s University of Cambridge, warned that politicians are partially to blame.

“The increase does coincide with a decrease in financial standing for a lot of families over the same time period.”

In 2010, 93% of all pre-tax income gains went to the top one percent of the American population, which in that year meant any household earning more than $358,000.

Meanwhile, preliminary research suggests that the risk for suicide will unlikely subside for future generations.

“The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn’t panned out that way,” said Julie Phillips, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University. She warns that the number is actually even higher. “We know we’re not counting all suicides… It’s vastly under-reported.”

In 2010, there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.

Although suicide has been traditionally viewed as a problem among the youth and elderly, the recent study, published in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows a marked rise in the number of suicides among middle-aged men and women.

This may be connected to the fact that middle-aged individuals who find themselves out of work find it severely more difficult to find employment than their younger counterparts.

The suicide rate for men aged 35–64 years jumped 27.3 per cent, while the rate for women increased 31.5 per cent, from 6.2 to 8.1 per 100,000.

Among the male population, the greatest increases were among those aged 50–59 years, (from 20.6 to 30.7). Among females, suicide rates tended to increase with age. The largest percentage increase in suicide rate was observed among women aged 60–64 years (59.7 percent, from 4.4 to 7.0 per 100,000).

The pandemic of suicides seems to respect no political or cultural divisions in the United States, as two of the hardest hit states were the vastly differing localities of Wyoming and Hawaii. In conservative Wyoming, suicides jumped 78.8%, while liberal Hawaii witnessed a 61.2% increase.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2013, 08:52:24 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rosenberg-bernanke-wizard-potemkin-mauldin-presentation-2013-5


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2013, 09:14:36 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/part-time-employment-in-retail-rises-2013-5


They voted for him - fuck em 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2013, 09:54:39 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/jolts-data-job-market_n_3230132.html


HOAX AND CHAINS



FORWARD TO COMMUNISM!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 15, 2013, 06:23:04 AM
EMPIRE FED MANUFACTURING UNEXPECTEDLY SINKS INTO CONTRACTION
 


Matthew Boesler|52 minutes ago|633|2
 
Ryan J. Reilly


The New York Fed's Empire State Manufacturing Survey for the month of May is out.
 
The headline index fell to -1.43 from 3.05 in April, defying economists' prediction for a rise to 4.00.
 
The new orders sub-component fell to -1.17 in May from 2.20 in April.
 
The shipments sub-component fell to -0.02 from 0.75.
 
Below is a summary of the data from the release:
 
The May 2013 Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that conditions for New York manufacturers declined marginally. The general business conditions index fell four points to -1.4, its first negative reading since January. The new orders index also edged into negative territory, and the shipments index fell to zero.
 
The prices paid index declined eight points to 20.5, indicating a slowdown in selling price increases, while the prices received index was little changed at 4.6. Employment indexes were mixed, showing both a modest increase in the number of employees and a slight decline in the length of the average workweek.
 
Indexes for the six-month outlook were generally lower, suggesting that optimism about future conditions had weakened.
 
Click here for the full release >


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/empire-fed-manufacturing-may-2013-5#ixzz2TMpiTGWD
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 15, 2013, 07:13:14 AM
"Unexpectedly"   ::) ::) ::)

This report follows several reports that were also disappointing.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2013, 06:17:20 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325237/President-Obama-shows-possible-decline-net-worth-assets-valued-6-8-million-compared-12-million-2010.html


President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama held assets last year that were worth between $1.8 million and $6.8 million, according to federal financial disclosure forms the White House released Wednesday.
 
The top range of the Obamas' net worth has declined steadily over the past couple years. Their assets were valued between $1.8 million and $12 million in 2010, and between $2.6 million and $8.3 million in 2011.
 
Required by law, the forms allow public officials to list their assets in broad ranges, which makes it difficult to determine a precise net worth.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325237/President-Obama-shows-possible-decline-net-worth-assets-valued-6-8-million-compared-12-million-2010.html#ixzz2TSevhSOp







LMFAO!!!!!

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2013, 06:18:30 AM
http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/biden-take-out-home-loan


LMAO!!!!

Biden forced to take out a second loan on his house.

FORWARD! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 16, 2013, 06:22:38 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/tragic-trifecta-initial-claims-soar-housing-starts-plunge-cpi-below-expectations (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/tragic-trifecta-initial-claims-soar-housing-starts-plunge-cpi-below-expectations)

Another 3 bad economic reports to add to the other bad reports in the last few weeks. Wal-Mart had a bad showing, as well.

-U.E. claims raise to 360k, 30k more than "expected."

-Housing starts declining in a big way.

-CPI below expectations, even with the spigots opened as far as they will go. The inflation is being sheared off at the source.

But, hey, the markets will hit new highs today, income disparity will continue to explode to levels not seen since right before the Great Depression, the bottom 90% will see their real incomes decline...blah blah blah.

This means Q.E. will get to spray it's sweet juice for years to come.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 16, 2013, 06:23:50 AM
It pays to be diversified.   ;D

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/tragic-trifecta-initial-claims-soar-housing-starts-plunge-cpi-below-expectations (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/tragic-trifecta-initial-claims-soar-housing-starts-plunge-cpi-below-expectations)

Another 3 bad economic reports to add to the other bad reports in the last few weeks. Wal-Mart had a bad showing, as well.

-U.E. claims raise to 360k, 30k more than "expected."

-Housing starts declining in a big way.

-CPI below expectations, even with the spigots opened as far as they will go. The inflation is being sheared off at the source.

But, hey, the markets will hit new highs today, income disparity will continue to explode to levels not seen since right before the Great Depression, the bottom 90% will see their real incomes decline...blah blah blah.

This means Q.E. will get to spray it's sweet juice for years to come.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 16, 2013, 06:48:31 AM
And like clockwork, last weeks U.E. claims were revised up by 5k, just like they are every week for the last 2 years or so.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 21, 2013, 09:57:15 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/report-espn-is-laying-off-hundreds-of-people-2013-5



FORWARD!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 25, 2013, 11:52:15 AM
Cessna lays off salaried workers; numbers unclear By Molly McMillin
 The Wichita Eagle ^ | May 23, 2013

Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2013 9:57:35 AM by KeyLargo

Cessna lays off salaried workers; numbers unclear By Molly McMillin

Posted on Thu, May. 23, 2013

The Wichita Eagle

Cessna Aircraft laid off an undisclosed number of salaried workers Thursday, a month after it offered a voluntary retirement program for hourly and salaried workers.

The company is working to align its workforce with a reduced forecast for sales and production.

“On April 29, Cessna announced as part of the Voluntary Retirement Plan offering that the company would also proceed with involuntary separations based on performance and scope of work,” a Cessna spokesman said in a statement. “The communication at that time indicated that notification of these involuntary separations would occur within the next 30 days. Today’s (Thursday’s) actions represent the implementation of the plans announced last month.”

The company declined to say how many people were laid off.

The cuts did not affect hourly employees represented by the Machinists union, said Frank Molina, president and directing business representative of the Machinists District 70 in Wichita.


(Excerpt) Read more at kansas.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 27, 2013, 07:42:40 PM
Food Bank distributed record number of weekend backpacks to hungry kids
Wichita Eagle ^ | 5/27/13 | Roy Wenz
Posted on May 27, 2013 10:24:39 PM EDT by Nachum

The Kansas Food Bank gave out record numbers of Friday food packages to schoolchildren in Wichita and throughout the state this year as part of its Food 4 Kids program. The highest number of backpacks of food handed out to needy school children was 7,158 during a week in February, said Larry Gunkel, a Food Bank official running the program. (Snip) The program ensures that students identified by school staff as chronically hungry can get a backpack of food on Fridays for the weekend. Teachers and school social workers have told the Food Bank

(Excerpt) Read more at kansas.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 28, 2013, 10:52:36 AM
Richmond Fed report (10% of GDP) continues to be in negative territory, this means contraction.

... New order volume plunged to its lowest since January; the number of Employees swung to a negative, also its lowest since January; the average workweek cratered to -6 (its lowest since August 2012); and Wages dropped near its lowest level in a year.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-28/despite-plunge-new-orders-employees-wages-and-workweek-richmond-fed-beats-expectatio (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-28/despite-plunge-new-orders-employees-wages-and-workweek-richmond-fed-beats-expectatio)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 28, 2013, 10:53:21 AM
Richmond Fed report (10% of GDP) continues to be in negative territory, this means contraction.

... New order volume plunged to its lowest since January; the number of Employees swung to a negative, also its lowest since January; the average workweek cratered to -6 (its lowest since August 2012); and Wages dropped near its lowest level in a year.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-28/despite-plunge-new-orders-employees-wages-and-workweek-richmond-fed-beats-expectatio (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-28/despite-plunge-new-orders-employees-wages-and-workweek-richmond-fed-beats-expectatio)

Yet consumer confidence is up!   ;D  ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2013, 08:30:54 AM
Record 10,978,040 Now On Disability; "Disability" Would Be 8th Most Populous State
 CNSNews.com ^ | May 29,2013 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 11:04:03 AM


(CNSNews.com) - The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 million in April, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on May 29, 2013, 09:02:54 AM
That is ridiculous that there are that many people in disability. Something is wrong.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on May 29, 2013, 09:32:50 AM
That is ridiculous that there are that many people in disability. Something is wrong.

I don't think those on disability are counted on the official U-3 count for unemployment numbers.

Good way to hide just how bad it is.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 03, 2013, 07:40:19 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/may-ism-manufacturing-index-decreased-to-49-from-50-7-in-april.html


Hope and Change suckers.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on June 03, 2013, 09:15:24 PM
Do you three amigos enjoy blowing one another?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2013, 08:02:36 AM

Social Security Faces $9.6T in Unfunded Liabilities--$83,894 Per Household



June 3, 2013 - 1:08 PM


By Ryan Kierman



Social Security
(AP Photo)


(CNSNews.com) – The Social Security program faces $9.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 trillion, according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees.

The unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits. (The Social Security trustees calculate the unfunded liability for a period of 75 years into the future, from 2012 to 2087).

The report, The 2013 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds, provides the latest data through the end of 2012.

Social Security is officially called the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, and consists of retired workers, their families, and survivors of deceased workers who get monthly benefits under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance  program and disabled workers and their families who get monthly benefits under the Disability Insurance program.

According to the report, “Through the end of 2087, the combined funds [OASI and DI] have a present-value unfunded obligation of $9.6 trillion.” That is “$1.0 trillion more than the measured level of $8.6 trillion a year ago,” states the report, in reference to the data available for 2011.

That $9.6 trillion shortfall equals approximately $83,894 per household based on the Census Bureau's latest estimate that there are 114,430,000 households in the country.

However, “[e]xtending the horizon beyond 75 years increases the measured unfunded obligation,” according to the report. “Through the infinite horizon, the unfunded obligations, or shortfall, equals $23.1 trillion in present value, which represents 4.0 percent of future taxable payroll or 1.4 percent of future GDP.”

That $23.1 trillion shortfall projection is up from the $20.5 trillion projected shortfall in the 2012 report.

According to the World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States in 2011 was $15.09 billion, which represented about 24.35 percent of the world economy.

“Projected long-range costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable with currently scheduled financing and will require legislative action to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers,” the report reads.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on June 05, 2013, 07:12:31 AM
Another disappointing ADP jobs report, trending down to 100k.

Not good.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 05, 2013, 07:25:56 AM
Another disappointing ADP jobs report, trending down to 100k.

Not good.

BLS always is lower than ADP
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on June 05, 2013, 07:35:08 AM
BLS always is lower than ADP

Indeed.

Those 135k jobs that were created were all in the service sector as it was another month where goods producing jobs were lost.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 13, 2013, 01:11:49 PM
Suicide rate quadrupled under Obama Presidency
Constitution School: News for We the People ^  | May 3, 2013 | Constitution Shool

Posted on Saturday, May 04, 2013 9:38:57 AM by keats5

More Americans now die of suicide than from car accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a disturbing statistic that some experts say points to the true depths of the US economic crisis.

In a letter to The Lancet medical journal, scientists from Britain, Hong Kong and United States said an analysis of data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that while suicide rates increased slowly between 1999 and 2007, the rate of increase has more than quadrupled since President Obama was elected to the Presidency in 2008, Reuters reports.

Citing the nation’s severe economic recession as having a direct connection to the rise of suicides, Aaron Reeves of Britain’s University of Cambridge, warned that politicians are partially to blame.

“The increase does coincide with a decrease in financial standing for a lot of families over the same time period.”

In 2010, 93% of all pre-tax income gains went to the top one percent of the American population, which in that year meant any household earning more than $358,000.

Meanwhile, preliminary research suggests that the risk for suicide will unlikely subside for future generations.

“The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn’t panned out that way,” said Julie Phillips, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University. She warns that the number is actually even higher. “We know we’re not counting all suicides… It’s vastly under-reported.”

In 2010, there were 33,687 deaths from motor vehicle crashes and 38,364 suicides.

Although suicide has been traditionally viewed as a problem among the youth and elderly, the recent study, published in Friday’s issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows a marked rise in the number of suicides among middle-aged men and women.

This may be connected to the fact that middle-aged individuals who find themselves out of work find it severely more difficult to find employment than their younger counterparts.

The suicide rate for men aged 35–64 years jumped 27.3 per cent, while the rate for women increased 31.5 per cent, from 6.2 to 8.1 per 100,000.

Among the male population, the greatest increases were among those aged 50–59 years, (from 20.6 to 30.7). Among females, suicide rates tended to increase with age. The largest percentage increase in suicide rate was observed among women aged 60–64 years (59.7 percent, from 4.4 to 7.0 per 100,000).

The pandemic of suicides seems to respect no political or cultural divisions in the United States, as two of the hardest hit states were the vastly differing localities of Wyoming and Hawaii. In conservative Wyoming, suicides jumped 78.8%, while liberal Hawaii witnessed a 61.2% increase.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 18, 2013, 09:04:16 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/17/marriage-trends-demographics/2424641


 :-*
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 24, 2013, 03:15:26 PM
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/06/24/wow-nearly-all-americans-living-paychecktopaycheck-n1626180

 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2013, 05:33:22 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/poverty-children-us-2011_n_3489368.html


Wait - I thought there was a recovery? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on June 25, 2013, 06:27:42 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/poverty-children-us-2011_n_3489368.html


Wait - I thought there was a recovery? 

The liberal standard of an economic recovery is so low that they consider the current state a boom.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2013, 10:42:31 AM
3/4 of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck: 22% have less than $100 in savings
American Thinker ^  | 06/25/2013 | Rick Moran

Posted on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 11:34:46 AM by SeekAndFind

A nation living beyond its means or is it something having to do with changes in the economy? The bottom line is Americans aren't saving much money, don't put money away for a rainy day, and are living "hand to mouth" as they used to say with 76% living virtually paycheck to paycheck.

From CNN Money:

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.

"It's disappointing," said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com's senior financial analyst. "Nothing helps you sleep better at night than knowing you have money tucked away for unplanned expenses."

Even more disappointing; The savings rates have barely changed over the past three years, even though a larger percentage of consumers report an increase in job security, a higher net worth and an overall better financial situation.

I think a lot of people are just ignorant about how to handle money. They don't budget. They splurge. They have impulse buys. And they get to the end of the month and wonder where it all went.

Also, I don't think there's any doubt that a large percentage of Americans have more house than they can afford. We saw this in the housing meltdown. Too many people take on too much mortgage for their income. And mortage companies have relaxed qualifications so that more people can afford more expensive houses.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on June 25, 2013, 03:58:47 PM
3/4 of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck: 22% have less than $100 in savings
American Thinker ^  | 06/25/2013 | Rick Moran

Posted on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 11:34:46 AM by SeekAndFind

A nation living beyond its means or is it something having to do with changes in the economy? The bottom line is Americans aren't saving much money, don't put money away for a rainy day, and are living "hand to mouth" as they used to say with 76% living virtually paycheck to paycheck.

From CNN Money:

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.

"It's disappointing," said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com's senior financial analyst. "Nothing helps you sleep better at night than knowing you have money tucked away for unplanned expenses."

Even more disappointing; The savings rates have barely changed over the past three years, even though a larger percentage of consumers report an increase in job security, a higher net worth and an overall better financial situation.

I think a lot of people are just ignorant about how to handle money. They don't budget. They splurge. They have impulse buys. And they get to the end of the month and wonder where it all went.

Also, I don't think there's any doubt that a large percentage of Americans have more house than they can afford. We saw this in the housing meltdown. Too many people take on too much mortgage for their income. And mortage companies have relaxed qualifications so that more people can afford more expensive houses.


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


Who needs a growing paycheck or a savings account when you have cheap credit!?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 26, 2013, 05:59:24 AM
U.S. final Q1 GDP revised down to 1.8% from 2.4% [Sharply Down: Obama Economy FAILING]
Investing.com ^  | 6/26/13

Posted on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 8:45:26 AM by


The U.S. economy grew significantly less-than-expected in the first quarter of 2013, fuelling concerns over the U.S. economic outlook, official data showed on Wednesday.

In a report, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said gross domestic product increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.8% in the three months to March, below expectations for a 2.4% gain.


(Excerpt) Read more at investing.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 26, 2013, 07:09:44 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/us-gdp-q1-first-quarter-2013_n_3502310.html


HOPE AND CHANGE BITCHES!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 08, 2013, 09:34:48 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/101m-americans-get-food-aid-federal-gov-t-more-number-private-sector-workers


dAMN!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 09, 2013, 03:16:03 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/unemployed-job-opening_n_3568646.html


3 job seekers for ever job opening
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 19, 2013, 05:39:28 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/unemployment-rate-wrong_n_3619152.html


 :o
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Rhino on July 19, 2013, 08:11:15 PM
If this were Egypt... Obama would have been out a long time ago :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 22, 2013, 09:10:26 AM
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/07/confirmed-gang-membership-up-40-under-obama-violent-attacks-on-whites-up-18


 :o  :o
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 24, 2013, 09:54:41 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/two-americans-added-food-stamp-rolls-every-job-administration


terrible
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 06:31:15 AM
REVIEW & OUTLOOKUpdated July 25, 2013, 9:32 p.m. ET.The Inequality President
The rich have done fine under Obamanomics, not so the middle class..
Article Video Comments (1045) more in Opinion | Find New $LINKTEXTFIND$ ».
smaller Larger facebooktwittergoogle pluslinked ininShare.12EmailPrintSa ve ↓ More .
.smaller Larger 
President Obama made his fourth or fifth, or maybe it's the seventh or eighth, pivot to the economy on Wednesday, and a revealing speech it was. We counted four mentions of "growth" but "inequality" got five. This goes a long way to explaining why Mr. Obama is still bemoaning the state of the economy five years into his Presidency.

The President summed up his economic priorities close to the top of his hour-long address. "This growing inequality isn't just morally wrong; it's bad economics," he told his Galesburg, Illinois audience. "When middle-class families have less to spend, businesses have fewer customers. When wealth concentrates at the very top, it can inflate unstable bubbles that threaten the economy. When the rungs on the ladder of opportunity grow farther apart, it undermines the very essence of this country."

Then the heart of the matter: "That's why reversing these trends must be Washington's highest priority. It's certainly my highest priority."

Related Video
 
WSJ editorial board member Steve Moore on President Obama’s economic speech at Knox College. Photo: Associated Press
.
.
Which is the problem. For four and a half years, Mr. Obama has focused his policies on reducing inequality rather than increasing growth. The predictable result has been more inequality and less growth. As even Mr. Obama conceded in his speech, the rich have done well in the last few years thanks to a rising stock market, but the middle class and poor have not. The President called his speech "A Better Bargain for the Middle Class," but no President has done worse by the middle class in modern times.

By now the lackluster growth figures are well known. The recovery that began four years ago has been one of the weakest on record, averaging a little more than 2%. And it has not gained speed. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 0.4%. It rose to a still anemic 1.8% in the first quarter but most economists are predicting even slower growth in the second quarter.

We hope the predictions of a faster growth in the second half will be right, but the Obama Treasury and Federal Reserve have been predicting for four years that takeoff was just around the corner. Stocks are doing great, and housing prices are rising, but job growth remains lackluster. What has never arrived is the 3%-4% growth spurt during typical expansions.

The official excuse is that recoveries coming out of recessions caused by financial crises are always slow. But then why have we been told every few months for five years that faster growth would soon be coming? Perhaps readers recall former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's famous 2010 op-ed, "Welcome to the Recovery." Mr. Obama wants it both ways: Take credit for recovering from recession, but blame that recession ad infinitum for the slow pace of the recovery.

[image] .
What about the middle class that is the focus of Mr. Obama's rhetoric? Each month the consultants at Sentier Research crunch the numbers from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and estimate the trend in median annual household income adjusted for inflation. In its May 2013 report, Sentier put the figure at $51,500, essentially unchanged from $51,671 a year earlier.

And that's the good news. The bad news is that median real household income is $2,718, or 5%, lower than the $54,218 median in June 2009 when the recession officially ended. Median incomes typically fall during recessions. But the striking fact of the Obama economy is that median real household income has fallen even during the recovery.

While the declines have stabilized over the last two years, incomes are still far below the previous peak located by Sentier of $56,280 in January 2008. No wonder Mr. Obama is now turning once again to his familiar political narrative assailing inequality and blaming everyone else for it. He wants to change the subject from the results on his watch.

The core problem has been Mr. Obama's focus on spreading the wealth rather than creating it. ObamaCare will soon hook more Americans on government subsidies, but its mandates and taxes have hurt job creation, especially at small businesses. Mr. Obama's record tax increases have grabbed a bigger chunk of affluent incomes, but they created uncertainty for business throughout 2012 and have dampened growth so far this year.

The food stamp and disability rolls have exploded, which reduces inequality but also reduces the incentive to work and rise on the economic ladder. This has contributed to a plunge in the share of Americans who are working—the labor participation rate—to 63.5% in June from 65.7% in June 2009. And don't forget the Fed's extraordinary monetary policy, which has done well by the rich who have assets but left the thrifty middle class and retirees earning pennies on their savings.

Mr. Obama would have done far better by the poor, the middle class and the wealthy if he had focused on growing the economy first. The difference between the Obama 2% recovery and the Reagan-Clinton 3%-4% growth rates is rising incomes for nearly everybody.

House Republicans have put a check on Mr. Obama's most destructive economic policies, but the President could do more to help growth if he crossed party lines to pass tax reform the way Reagan did in his second term, or to work out a budget deal as Bill Clinton did in his fifth year.

Mr. Obama's only pro-growth proposal is immigration reform, and we're not sure he wants even that to pass. Judging by the partisan tenor of his Wednesday speech, he may be setting it up to use as a campaign wedge in 2014. If only Mr. Obama understood that before a government can redistribute wealth, the private economy has to create it.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 09:41:50 AM
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/07/24/study-u-s-marriage-rate-lowest-in-a-century



The Obama depression continues
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 26, 2013, 09:49:24 AM
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/07/24/study-u-s-marriage-rate-lowest-in-a-century



The Obama depression continues

LOL - now you're trying to blame Obama for declining rates of marriage (funny no mention of the Obama connection in the article - I wonder why ?)

you're a fucking lunatic

I'm having my best year in 10 years

I suspect that you will be depressed and miserable no matter who is in office
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 09:51:18 AM
LOL - now you're trying to blame Obama for declining rates of marriage (funny no mention of the Obama connection in the article - I wonder why ?)

you're a fucking lunatic

I'm having my best year in 10 years

I suspect that you will be depressed and miserable no matter who is in office

You can get married to your boyfriend - of course you are having a great time. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 26, 2013, 09:55:10 AM
You can get married to your boyfriend - of course you are having a great time. 

you must be thinking about yourself given that you're the alleged straight man who can't stop talking about twinks and posting stories about cock

my income this year is on track to be the best in 10 years

how about you?

weren't you supposed to take over someone business and not have any time to post.   What happened to that.  You seem to post more than ever albeit with the same lack of content as before

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 09:56:53 AM
you must be thinking about yourself given that you're the alleged straight man who can't stop talking about twinks and posting stories about cock

my income this year is on track to be the best in 10 years

how about you?

weren't you supposed to take over someone business and not have any time to post.   What happened to that.  You seem to post more than ever albeit with the same lack of content as before



Just closed on my place this past week and am happy about it. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 26, 2013, 09:59:14 AM
Just closed on my place this past week and am happy about it. 

so you'll be moving out of the ghetto and away from all the beasts and savages and especially those black guys with the gold teeth that seem to scare the piss out of you?

what happened to that practice you were supposed to take over last year ?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 10:02:37 AM
so you'll be moving out of the ghetto and away from all the beasts and savages and especially those black guys with the gold teeth that seem to scare the piss out of you?

what happened to that practice you were supposed to take over last year ?

Im in WHITE Plains now - things are going fine.  Right near Metro North and Supreme Court. 

Im on the move. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 26, 2013, 10:11:31 AM
Im in WHITE Plains now - things are going fine.  Right near Metro North and Supreme Court. 

Im on the move. 

so the Obama depression is mysteriously having no effect on you

why didn't you sell your place back in 2008 before Obama got in office and destroyed the real estate market?

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 26, 2013, 10:15:22 AM
so the Obama depression is mysteriously having no effect on you

why didn't you sell your place back in 2008 before Obama got in office and destroyed the real estate market?



Been trying - found a willing sucker to pay double - all cash deal for it what I paid for it
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 26, 2013, 10:21:17 AM
Been trying - found a willing sucker to pay double - all cash deal for it what I paid for it

so you're saying that your property value is higher now (6 years into the Obama Depression) than when Obama took office

how is that possible?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2013, 10:30:00 AM
Exclusive: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work [OBAMANOMICS!]
ap/big story ^  | 7/28/13 | HOPE YEN

Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2013 12:19:33 PM by SoFloFreeper

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.

Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."


(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2013, 07:34:14 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html#comments

 :D ;D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2013, 10:35:30 AM

economic security

By HOPE YEN
Associated Press
 

 
 
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.

As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused - on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.

Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."

"I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.

"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."

While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show. Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.

The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as experiencing unemployment at some point in their working lives, or a year or more of reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.

Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones.

"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty. He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not.

"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front," Wilson said.

---

Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.

More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.

Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.

Buchanan County, in southwest Virginia, is among the nation's most destitute based on median income, with poverty hovering at 24 percent. The county is mostly white, as are 99 percent of its poor.

More than 90 percent of Buchanan County's inhabitants are working-class whites who lack a college degree. Higher education long has been seen there as nonessential to land a job because well-paying mining and related jobs were once in plentiful supply. These days many residents get by on odd jobs and government checks.

Salyers' daughter, Renee Adams, 28, who grew up in the region, has two children. A jobless single mother, she relies on her live-in boyfriend's disability checks to get by. Salyers says it was tough raising her own children as it is for her daughter now, and doesn't even try to speculate what awaits her grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.

Smoking a cigarette in front of the produce stand, Adams later expresses a wish that employers will look past her conviction a few years ago for distributing prescription painkillers, so she can get a job and have money to "buy the kids everything they need."

"It's pretty hard," she said. "Once the bills are paid, we might have $10 to our name."

---

Census figures provide an official measure of poverty, but they're only a temporary snapshot that doesn't capture the makeup of those who cycle in and out of poverty at different points in their lives. They may be suburbanites, for example, or the working poor or the laid off.

In 2011 that snapshot showed 12.6 percent of adults in their prime working-age years of 25-60 lived in poverty. But measured in terms of a person's lifetime risk, a much higher number - 4 in 10 adults - falls into poverty for at least a year of their lives.

The risks of poverty also have been increasing in recent decades, particularly among people ages 35-55, coinciding with widening income inequality. For instance, people ages 35-45 had a 17 percent risk of encountering poverty during the 1969-1989 time period; that risk increased to 23 percent during the 1989-2009 period. For those ages 45-55, the risk of poverty jumped from 11.8 percent to 17.7 percent.

Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60.

By race, nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.

By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity.

"Poverty is no longer an issue of `them', it's an issue of `us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. "Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need."

The numbers come from Rank's analysis being published by the Oxford University Press. They are supplemented with interviews and figures provided to the AP by Tom Hirschl, a professor at Cornell University; John Iceland, a sociology professor at Penn State University; the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute; the Census Bureau; and the Population Reference Bureau.

Among the findings:

-For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites. White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.

-Since 2000, the poverty rate among working-class whites has grown faster than among working-class nonwhites, rising 3 percentage points to 11 percent as the recession took a bigger toll among lower-wage workers. Still, poverty among working-class nonwhites remains higher, at 23 percent.

-The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods - those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more - has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teenage pregnancy or dropping out of school. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, compared with 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining.

The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children went from 38 percent to 39 percent.

-Race disparities in health and education have narrowed generally since the 1960s. While residential segregation remains high, a typical black person now lives in a nonmajority black neighborhood for the first time. Previous studies have shown that wealth is a greater predictor of standardized test scores than race; the test-score gap between rich and low-income students is now nearly double the gap between blacks and whites.

---

Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures, according to the General Social Survey, a biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Just 45 percent say their family will have a good chance of improving their economic position based on the way things are in America.

The divide is especially evident among those whites who self-identify as working class. Forty-nine percent say they think their children will do better than them, compared with 67 percent of nonwhites who consider themselves working class, even though the economic plight of minorities tends to be worse.

Although they are a shrinking group, working-class whites - defined as those lacking a college degree - remain the biggest demographic bloc of the working-age population. In 2012, Election Day exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks showed working-class whites made up 36 percent of the electorate, even with a notable drop in white voter turnout.

Last November, Obama won the votes of just 36 percent of those noncollege whites, the worst performance of any Democratic nominee among that group since Republican Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale.

Some Democratic analysts have urged renewed efforts to bring working-class whites into the political fold, calling them a potential "decisive swing voter group" if minority and youth turnout level off in future elections. "In 2016 GOP messaging will be far more focused on expressing concern for `the middle class' and `average Americans,'" Andrew Levison and Ruy Teixeira wrote recently in The New Republic.

"They don't trust big government, but it doesn't mean they want no government," says Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who agrees that working-class whites will remain an important electoral group. His research found that many of them would support anti-poverty programs if focused broadly on job training and infrastructure investment. This past week, Obama pledged anew to help manufacturers bring jobs back to America and to create jobs in the energy sectors of wind, solar and natural gas.

"They feel that politicians are giving attention to other people and not them," Goeas said.

---

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta, News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and AP writer Debra McCown in Buchanan County, Va., contributed to this report.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 29, 2013, 10:46:47 AM
Exclusive: 4 in 5 in US face near-poverty, no work [OBAMANOMICS!]
ap/big story ^  | 7/28/13 | HOPE YEN

Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2013 12:19:33 PM by SoFloFreeper

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor and loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.

The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.

Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."


(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...


Who is SoFloFreeper ?

"Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives" ?

really

I've never been on welfare a day in my life nor do I know anyone who has

where is the data that 80% of adults in the US struggle with "near poverty" and reliance on welfare

Hey 333 - I assume this means that you yourself have at some point in your life relied on welfare and since I never have that means I've been supporting your lazy ass.

why don't stop posting so much and start working more so I don't have to support you
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2013, 10:48:01 AM
The story is from the AP and was on HP as well.

Gettobamanomics has failed. 

Who is SoFloFreeper ?

"Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives" ?

really

I've never been on welfare a day in my life nor do I know anyone who has

where is the data that 80% of adults in the US struggle with "near poverty" and reliance on welfare

Hey 333 - I assume this means that you yourself have at some point in your life relied on welfare and since I never have that means I've been supporting your lazy ass.

why don't stop posting so much and start working more so I don't have to support you
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 29, 2013, 10:53:01 AM
The story is from the AP and was on HP as well.

Gettobamanomics has failed. 


so you admit that you've been on welfare ?

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2013, 10:54:29 AM
so you admit that you've been on welfare ?



Never took a penny of public welfare - EVER

Never took workers comp, UE, nothing. 

I am not like the drug addicted Grifters in the WH - thank you very much. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 29, 2013, 10:56:44 AM
Never took a penny of public welfare - EVER

Never took workers comp, UE, nothing. 

I am not like the drug addicted Grifters in the WH - thank you very much. 

so neither you nor I have ever been on welfare

I assume then that at least 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2013, 10:58:54 AM
so neither you nor I have ever been on welfare

I assume then that at least 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?


I live in NY remember - most people around here are worthless slugs. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 29, 2013, 11:04:04 AM
I live in NY remember - most people around here are worthless slugs. 

so you admit that 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?

I read the article but I can't find the part where it says this is Obama's fault or that it caused by his economic policies

can you cut and paste that part of the article
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2013, 11:07:16 AM
so you admit that 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?

I read the article but I can't find the part where it says this is Obama's fault or that it caused by his economic policies

can you cut and paste that part of the article

Its only getting WORSE under his disastrous junta and occupation
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on July 29, 2013, 11:11:09 AM
Its only getting WORSE under his disastrous junta and occupation

I see you're still too dumb to know the definition of the word junta

I'll ask you again

you admit that 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?

I read the article but I can't find the part where it says this is Obama's fault or that it caused by his economic policies

can you cut and paste that part of the article
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on July 29, 2013, 06:35:09 PM
I see you're still too dumb to know the definition of the word junta

I'll ask you again

you admit that 80% of the people you know (your family and friends) have been or are on welfare....correct?

I read the article but I can't find the part where it says this is Obama's fault or that it caused by his economic policies

can you cut and paste that part of the article

Arguing with that moron is akin to using a stationary bike for transportation purposes.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2013, 11:09:02 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-30/american-dream-erased-as-homeownership-at-18-year-low.html


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 30, 2013, 02:04:55 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-s-goodman/on-his-jobs-tour-obama-to_b_3678474.html


 :D
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2013, 06:00:54 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/part-time-jump-in-july-2013-8


Most are part time jobs - obamacare working out great. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 02, 2013, 07:24:43 AM
Obamacare Full Frontal: Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time
Tyler Durden's pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 08/02/2013 09:04 -0400

BLSBureau of Labor StatisticsObamacare


When the payroll report was released last month, the world finally noticed what we had been saying for nearly three years: that the US was slowly being converted to a part-time worker society. This slow conversion accelerated drastically in the last few months, and especially in June, when part time jobs exploded higher by 360K while full time jobs dropped by 240K. In July we are sad to report that America's conversation to a part-time worker society is not "tapering": according to the Household Survey, of the 266K jobs created (note this number differs from the establishment survey), only 35% of jobs, or 92K, were full time. The rest were... not.



What is worse, however, is when one looks at job creation broken down by "quality" in all of 2013. The chart below does the bottom line some justice:



But what really shows what is going on in America at least in 2013, is the following summary: of the 953K jobs "created" so far in 2013, only 23%, or 222K, were full-time. Part-time jobs? 731K or 953K of total.



Source: Part-Time and Full-Time and BLS

Average:
4.764705.
Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (17 votes)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 13, 2013, 01:19:28 PM
Analyst: Wall St. layoffs ahead
New York Post ^  | 08/13/2013 | MARK DECAMBRE

Posted on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:26:06 PM by SeekAndFind
Edited on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:32:18 PM by Admin Moderator. [history]
 


If Wall Street thinks things are bad now, just wait — they’re about to get worse.

The US financial sector is facing an epic round of layoffs that could hit 100,000 workers as the big banks wrestle with a global contraction and a sluggish economic recovery in the US, according to prominent analyst Meredith Whitney.



(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 22, 2013, 01:27:19 PM
http://washingtonexaminer.com/under-obama-black-unemployment-back-to-twice-the-white-rate/article/2534597


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 29, 2013, 09:51:53 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/28/Labor-Participation-Rate-Hits-34-Year-Low

 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 06, 2013, 08:15:47 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/90473000-record-number-not-labor-force-almost-10m-under-obama


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2013, 12:36:45 PM
http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2013/09/11/citi-mulls-laying-off-2200-in-mortgage-unit/?test=latestnews

Andreisafag - eat a bullet
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2013, 10:38:02 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ralph-nader/obama-priorities_b_3921730.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

boooommmmm
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 16, 2013, 06:46:09 AM
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lower-class-20130916,0,5616335.story


Obama lied - jobs died
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 30, 2013, 12:17:22 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-exchange-the-missing-millions-2013-9


Unreal - worst pos ever
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 02, 2013, 06:51:06 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/bonds-surge-and-stocks-drop-after-adp-2013-10



More Hopeless Change due to Obamanomics
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 03, 2013, 01:21:20 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-york-city-opera-2013-season-bankruptcy-article-1.1472734


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 08, 2013, 05:16:13 AM



Oct 7, 11:47 PM EDT


Carter: Middle class today resembles past's poor

By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
 

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

Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Oakland - the first of five cities he and wife Rosalynn plan to visit this week to commemorate their three-decade alliance with the international nonprofit that promotes and builds affordable housing.

The recent economic downturn revealed that families living in even comparatively well-off, but expensive regions like the San Francisco Bay Area are economically insecure, he said.

"Even in one of the wealthiest parts of the world there is a great deal of foreclosures and now a great deal of people who are fortunate to own their own houses owe more on them than the houses are worth in the present market, and that's all changed in the last eight years," Carter said during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

Taking a break from framing windows at a new 12-unit town house development in a section of East Oakland where Habitat already has built or repaired 115 homes, the 89-year-old former Democratic president said the federal government is investing less in affordable housing at a time of greater need.

"The disparity between rich people and poor people in America has increased dramatically since when we started," he said. "The middle class has become more like poor people than they were 30 years ago. So I don't think it's getting any better."

Years of tax breaks for the wealthy, a minimum wage untethered from the inflation rate and electoral districts drawn to maximize political polarization have reduced the quality of life for all but a small fraction of Americans and imperiled the nation's standing as "a real superpower," he said.

"Equity of taxation and treating the middle class with a great deal of attention, providing funding for people in true need, like for affordable housing, those are the sort of things that would pay rich dividends for Americans no matter what kind of income they have," said Carter, looking relaxed in a baseball cap, blue jeans and white sneakers.

"The richest people in America would be better off if everybody lived in a decent home and had a chance to pay for it, and if everyone had enough income even if they had a daily job to be good buyers for the products that are produced."

Habitat for Humanity was founded in Georgia, the home state of the Carters. They first joined a Habitat for Humanity work site in 1984 in New York and have spent a week every year working on construction sites in the U.S. and abroad.

On Tuesday, the former president and first lady are scheduled to help renovate homes in a section of Silicon Valley that has remained immune to the wealth generated by the high-tech industry. After that, they intend to travel to Denver, New York and Union Beach, N.J., where they will help rebuild homes wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2013, 02:07:25 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-15/bodies-double-as-cash-machines-with-u-s-income-lagging-economy.html


Nice - signs of the private sector doing just fine.   ::)  ::)  ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 21, 2013, 10:58:20 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2469945/New-study-shows-6-million-youth-school-work-49-states-INCREASE-families-living-poverty.html


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 21, 2013, 08:18:14 PM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/28/americans-poverty-no-work/2594203


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 22, 2013, 06:39:48 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101131915


September saw the U.S. economy add just 148,000 jobs, significantly worse than expected, according to a report delayed more than two weeks by the government shutdown.


The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 7.2 percent, the lowest since November 2008, as the labor-force participation rate held near 35-year lows, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Private payroll creation stood at just 122,000, with state and local governments adding 28,000 positions and the federal government cutting by 6,000.

(Read more: More young peopleare out of school...and out of work)

Economists had been expecting 180,000 new positions and a steady jobless rate.

"This kind of report adds to the sense of foreboding about our economy," said Claire McKenna, policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

this kind for eprot adds ot this sense of ofreoboding aboutour econmomy

Financial markets greeted the report with enthusiasm though, boosting stock futures on expectations that monetary stimulus will remain in place.
September non-farm payrolls up 148,000
CNBC's Hampton Pearson breaks down the numbers on last month's employment data.A broader measure of unemployment that takes into account the underemployed and those who have quit looking for work also edged lower, to 13.6 percent.

"Today's blistering jobs report has quickly reminded America that our economic problems are getting worse, despite talking point reassurances from Federal Reserve officials," said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital.


The report likely will do little to move the needle on monetary policy.

Most market-watchers now expect the Federal Reserve to continue its $85 billion a month bond-buying program until well into 2014. Consensus sentiment is now that the central bank won't even start easing back on, or "tapering," the purchases until the spring.

(Read more: Thanks, Congress: Data delay means no Fed taper)

The September report provided another reminder that while the jobs market continues to heal it is far from robust.

The bulk of the jobs came from professional and business services, which added 32,000 positions, while there were 20,000 more temporary jobs. Transportation and warehousing rose by 23,000, and there were 20,000 additional construction positions.

One of the strongest areas of job creation over the past several years, leisure and hospitality, lost 7,000 jobs for the month.

Statistical adjustments played little role in the September data, with an approximation the government uses to estimate the number of jobs gained our lost through new and closed businesses—the so-called birth-death model—subtracting 26,000 from the total.

There were, however, significant moves in previous months' counts.

July's growth was revised lower to a paltry 89,000 from 104,000, while August's count was amped up from 169,000 to 193,000.

Wages grew little in the month, with average hourly earnings up just three cents to $24.09, while the average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours.

In short, the demand isn't there and the money to pay additional workers isn't there," Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for the Conference Board, said in a statement. "Both job and income growth remain stuck in neutral."

(For the full jobs report, click here.)

—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him on Twitter @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 22, 2013, 07:27:59 AM
http://www.nationaljournal.com/economy/the-big-takeaway-from-the-september-jobs-report-the-economy-is-stalling-20131022


FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 22, 2013, 10:26:13 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/90609000-americans-not-labor-force-climbs-another-record

FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 05, 2013, 09:14:39 AM
U.S. Economic Confidence Plunges in October [Worst 1 month drop EVER!]
Gallup ^  | 11/5/13 | Alyssa Brown

Posted on Tuesday, November 05, 2013 11:49:24 AM by SoFloFreeper

Sixteen-point drop to -35 is sharpest in any month since Gallup Daily tracking began...

Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy sank for the month of October amid the partial U.S. government shutdown and partisan bickering over the federal debt limit.....


(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 06, 2013, 11:55:20 AM
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CENSUS_POVERTY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-06-13-38-44


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 06, 2013, 02:09:56 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/income-inequality-crisis_n_4221012.html


boooommmmm


Hope and Change
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on November 07, 2013, 06:10:57 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/income-inequality-crisis_n_4221012.html


boooommmmm


Hope and Change

self dialogue much?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 08, 2013, 09:17:08 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/357000-fewer-women-held-jobs-october-female-participation-rate-hits-new-low



ObamaFAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 12, 2013, 01:40:48 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/americans-participation-labor-force-hits-35-year-low


Obama FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 10, 2013, 09:08:25 AM
http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/06/researchers-private-sector-has-shrunk-in-41-states-under-obama


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 08, 2014, 09:21:59 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/7/obamas-rhetoric-on-fighting-poverty-doesnt-match-h


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 08:48:55 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/december-jobs-report-unemployment-rate_n_4570422.html#comments


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: headhuntersix on January 10, 2014, 08:55:50 AM
Another banner report for the Bush Obama economy.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 08:58:46 AM
Obamanomics is like everything else he goes near - a house of cards
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 09:04:03 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/unemployment-labor-force_n_4575024.html?ref=topbar


Sucks! 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 09:19:36 AM
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/15841



Worst ever for college grads - thanks  O-TWINK!!!!!
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 09:37:19 AM
January 10, 2014
President Obama's Legacy Of Economic Failure
By Wayne Brough


Upon returning from the winter holidays, Congress launched the new year with a debate over raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits. President Obama is an enthusiastic supporter of these efforts, and no doubt, his upcoming State of the Union address will focus on the need for continued government interventions to shore up the lagging economy as well as addressing concerns over persistent income inequality.

Unfortunately, this debate is a distraction from the larger question of restoring economic growth and the abject failure of the administration's various stimulus programs to boost the economy. Rather than promoting economic prosperity and expanding the economic pie, the administration's economic legacy will be viewed as an attempt to divvy up the existing pie, while saddling the economy with massive debt levels and a rising tide of regulation that has stymied even the best of entrepreneurs seeking to expand economic output and create new jobs.

 



 
 
Since taking office in 2009, it has been tough sledding for the economy. Congress and the administration have increased the federal debt held by the public from $7.5 trillion to $11.2 trillion in 2012. To clarify, in terms of percent of gross domestic product-a measure of the nation's total output-the federal debt has grown from 54 percent of GDP in 2009 to 72 percent of GDP in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And the Federal Reserve's aggressive quantitative easing has seen its assets increase by more than $3.7 trillion-much of it composed of questionable mortgage-backed securities. Yet Americans still face a palsied economy, with an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, roughly where it was in 2008. From "shovel ready" spending projects (including the Solyndra fiasco), to bailouts of banks and automakers, the administration's economic policies seem intent on recreating the world as it was before the financial collapse.

But economies are dynamic and the world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace, thanks to advances in the technology sector. It remains unclear whether the Wall Street financial institutions that benefited handsomely from the bailouts are structured optimally for today's markets. Rather than simply restore these institutions under the overwhelming new Dodd-Frank regulatory regime, a better approach may have been to identify unnecessary distortions and government mandates that helped shape the financial institutions in the first place. And rather than lose billions in taxpayer dollars bailing out Chrysler, perhaps it would have been more appropriate to have markets and the bankruptcy courts address this failing company. For all the administration's efforts, Chrysler today is an Italian car company, an outcome that may have been achieved without federal intervention.

Rather than tinkering with the economy at the behest of companies with powerful political interests, Obama and Congress need to address the underlying structural impediments that limit opportunity and hamper job creation. But sector by sector, the administration appears bent on imposing the regulations that thwart entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. ObamaCare, the jewel of Obama presidency, is fraught with problems that have many small businesses questioning their ability to expand or provide health care for their employees. While the online rollout proved problematic, there is much more to this law that will pose problems for both consumers and businesses. From the insurance company bailouts baked into the law to the low enrollment numbers in the exchanges, ObamaCare poses a real fiscal challenge for America's taxpayers.

And the regulatory ramp-up doesn't stop there. The EPA is moving forward with aggressive new rules to reduce CO2 emissions at power plants, and a horde of federal agencies are working to rewrite regulations for the financial sector. To date, only 40 percent of the rules have been written, expanding the law from 848 pages to 13,789 pages. All told, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute finds that federal agencies will issue 56 regulations for every law passed in 2013-at total of 3,659 rules and regulations.

Readers should not be distracted by the coming sideshow over income inequality. The larger question is developing a pro-growth policy agenda that promotes economic prosperity. This includes addressing the looming federal debt crisis and the challenge of expansionary entitlement programs. At the same time, regulatory burdens must be addressed, perhaps by imposing a regulatory budget that imposes a limit on the annual cost of regulations, or through a regulatory sunset program that forces agencies to identify and retire outdated but costly regulations. Ultimately, it is economic growth and entrepreneurs creating jobs that pull people out of poverty. The real challenge for Washington is to unleash these entrepreneurial forces rather than bicker over spending programs.

 


Wayne Brough, Ph.D is Chief Economist and Vice President of Research at FreedomWorks. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 10:59:38 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sessions-every-one-job-added-nearly-5-people-left-workforce_774106.html


 :o
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 07:43:17 PM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-10/people-not-labor-force-soar-record-918-million-participation-rate-plunges-1978-level





Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on January 10, 2014, 07:46:17 PM
Thought this thread finally died. You must have missed yourself.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 10, 2014, 08:25:45 PM
Thought this thread finally died. You must have missed yourself.

The Obama depression wont end until he leaves office
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 11, 2014, 03:17:34 AM
http://freebeacon.com/msnbc-december-jobs-report-is-awful-very-bad-ugly

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 11, 2014, 03:22:07 AM
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/011014-686041-counting-the-ways-obama-policies-have-failed-to-create-jobs.htm


Fail
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 12, 2014, 08:02:11 PM
Men Are 'On Strike' Throughout The U.S.: What Are The Causes? (More John Galt than Peter Pan?)
Forbes ^ | January 8, 2014 | Jerry Bowyer
Posted on January 12, 2014 9:48:42 PM EST by 2ndDivisionVet

I haven’t seen my copy of Men On Strike for several weeks. I kept careful watch on the book until I finished interviewing her, but after that it disappeared into the Bowyer-Family-Book-Sharing Vortex from which it has not yet emerged. That’s because it is an easy read about a topic which is interesting in both a social science theory way, and in a figuring out how to get by in the current world kind of way.

Men on Strike is pretty much what the title says it is, a book about how many men have decided not to participate in certain areas of life, most notably in school, family, and increasingly in work. What separates the work of Helen Smith, a psychologist who deals with men like the ones she writes about in her book, is the lack of scoldiness that you might find in the similar work of say Kay Hymowitz’ Manning Up. For Smith, the men are in large part acting rationally. They’re more John Galt than they are Peter Pan. The book could as well have been titled Andros Shrugged, if ancient Greek titles sold books.

---snip---

“Boys and young men are no less rational, or capable of adapting to incentives, than girls and young women are. They are, in fact, adapting very well to the incentives for female power and independence–which inevitably also serve as disincentives to male reliability and self-sacrifice.”(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 13, 2014, 12:34:12 PM
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/01/13/half-of-u-s-counties-havent-recovered-from-recession/?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop


50% of America still in the Obama depression
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 21, 2014, 12:04:26 PM
Wall Street advisor: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years
http://washingtonexaminer.com via Drudge ^  | JANUARY 21, 2014 AT 1:08 PM | By PAUL BEDARD

Posted on ‎1‎/‎21‎/‎2014‎ ‎2‎:‎46‎:‎47‎ ‎PM by F15Eagle

Don't believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real unemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud.

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

Marotta, who recently advised those worried about an imploding economy to get a gun, said that the government isn't being honest in how it calculates those out of the workforce or inflation, the two numbers used to get the Misery Index figure.

“The unemployment rate only describes people who are currently working or looking for work,” he said. That leaves out a ton more.

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 22, 2014, 08:04:46 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-20-households-food-stamps-2013


If there is a recovery - why are 20% on food stamps?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on January 22, 2014, 08:18:17 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-20-households-food-stamps-2013


If there is a recovery - why are 20% on food stamps?

True.

Why keep extending unemployment benefits until the end of time?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 22, 2014, 06:20:33 PM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101353168


Wave of store closings coming
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: headhuntersix on January 22, 2014, 06:47:51 PM
I think some idiot on Salon was cheering the fact that BestBuy is having issues. Where the hell are you going to buy a TV from if they go out.  Or some cable or some part for whatever electronic device. If you need it that day, where else are you going to go. We had a TV a few years ago go out so I ordered from Newegg..bedroom TV so it didn't have to be great. TV came broken...sent it back and went to Bestbuy. Online is fine if you don't need the crap now. Radio shack is worthless and the otehr department stores don't carry that kind of crap. Circuit city is gone. I suppose somebody will fill the void but how bad is BestBuy's business model that they can't make a go without any real competition. These stores all drove out the mom and pops..now they're going to. Good job Barry..we're becoming Peru.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 24, 2014, 05:58:07 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/obama-can-t-shake-economy-s-downside-amid-signs-of-growth.html



FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on January 24, 2014, 07:24:31 AM
But, but, but the economy is great.

Just look at the stock market. Record highs ::)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 25, 2014, 06:09:57 AM
Free Republic
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Skip to comments.

Walmart Will Lay Off 2,300 Sam’s Club Workers
New York Times ^ | 1/24/2014 | ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Posted on January 25, 2014 8:45:37 AM EST by EBH

Walmart announced on Friday that about 2,300 Sam’s Club employees would be laid off, the latest in a drumbeat of retail job cuts to start off the new year.

Bill Durling, a Sam’s Club spokesman, said the layoffs would target a combination of salaried assistant managers and hourly employees. Certain positions, like telephone attendants, will be eliminated.

“We realized we had pretty much the same club structure whether a club had $50 million in revenue or $100 million in revenue,” Mr. Durling said of the distribution of assistant managers. “What we’re trying to do is balance our resources.”

Sam’s Club has about 116,000 employees, Mr. Durling said, and the job cuts will affect about four employees a store. Employees will have 60 paid days to find another job at the company. If they are not successful, they will be eligible for severance.

Sam’s Club will be opening at least 15 new stores over the course of the next fiscal year, which begins in February.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 29, 2014, 08:18:34 PM
32 Statistics That Obama Neglected To Mention During The State Of The Union Address
TEC ^ | 01/29/2014 | Michael Snyder
Posted on January 29, 2014 10:27:06 PM EST by SeekAndFind

Show this article to anyone that believes that the economy has actually improved under Barack Obama. On Tuesday evening, Barack Obama once again attempted to convince all of us that things have gotten better while he has been in the White House. He quoted a few figures, used some flowery language and made a whole bunch of new promises. And even though he has failed to follow through on his promises time after time, millions upon millions of Americans continue to believe him. In fact, you can find a list of 82 unfulfilled promises from his previous State of the Union addresses right here. Soon we will have even more to add to that collection. At this point, you have to wonder if Obama even believes half the stuff that he is saying. Of course it is extremely unlikely that he is going to come out and admit that he has failed and that he has been lying to us this whole time, but without a doubt the gap between reality and what he is saying to the public is becoming ridiculously huge. To say that his credibility is "strained" would be a massive understatement. No, things have not been getting better in America. In fact, they continue to get even worse. The following are 32 statistics that Obama neglected to mention during the State of the Union address...

#1 According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, only 28 percent of all Americans believe that the country is moving in the right direction.

#2 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be "middle class". In 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans consider themselves to be "middle class".

#3 In 2008, 25 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket considered themselves to be "lower class". In 2014, an astounding 49 percent of them do.

#4 Right now there is approximately a billion square feet of vacant retail space in the United States.

#5 There are 46.5 million Americans that are living in poverty, and the poverty rate in America has been at 15 percent or above for 3 consecutive years. That is the first time that has happened since 1965.

#6 Barack Obama says that the unemployment rate has declined to 6.7 percent, but if the labor force participation rate was at the long-term average it would actually be approximately 11.5 percent, and it has stayed at about that level since the end of the last recession.

#7 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has gone from 32 million to 47 million.

#8 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the percentage of working age Americans that are actually working has declined from 60.6 percent to 58.6 percent.

#9 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen from 19.8 weeks to 37.1 weeks.

#10 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, social benefits as a percentage of real disposable income has risen from about 17 percent to nearly 21 percent.

#11 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen to levels that we have not seen in nearly two decades.

#12 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.

#13 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline has gone from $1.85 to $3.27.

#14 At the end of Barack Obama's first year in office, our yearly trade deficit with China was 226 billion dollars. Now it is over 300 billion dollars.

#15 Workers are taking home the smallest share of the income pie that has ever been recorded.

#16 Sadly, 1,687,000 fewer Americans have jobs today compared to exactly six years ago even though the population has grown significantly since then.

#17 One recent study found that about 60 percent of the jobs that have been "created" since the end of the last recession pay $13.83 or less an hour.

#18 Only 47 percent of all adults in America have a full-time job at this point.

#19 It is hard to believe, but an astounding 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.

#20 The Obama years have been absolutely brutal for small businesses. According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how 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

#21 You can still buy a house in the city of Detroit for just one dollar.

#22 The U.S. cattle herd is at a 61 year low.

#23 It is being projected that health insurance premiums for healthy 30-year-old men will rise by an average of 260 percent under Obamacare.

#24 According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program each month.

#25 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent. Today, it is up to 101 percent.

#26 The U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during the eight years of the Obama administration. In other words, under Barack Obama the U.S. government will accumulate more debt than it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.

#27 Right now, there are 1.2 million students that attend public schools in the United States that are homeless. That number has risen by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.

#28 Only 35 percent of all Americans say that they are better off financially than they were a year ago.

#29 Only 19 percent of all Americans believe that the job market is better than it was a year ago.

#30 According to a recent CNN poll, 70 percent of all Americans believe that "the economy is generally in poor shape".

#31 According to a recent Pew Research survey, only 19 percent of all Americans trust the government. Back in 1958, 73 percent of all Americans trusted the government.

#32 According to another poll that was recently released, 70 percent of all Americans do not have confidence that the government will "make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014."


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 03, 2014, 11:59:29 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/business/the-middle-class-is-steadily-eroding-just-ask-the-business-world.html?hp&_r=0


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 04, 2014, 08:14:39 PM
http://nypost.com/2014/02/04/500-layoffs-expected-at-time-inc

 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 17, 2014, 11:39:13 AM
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/17/food-stamp-use-among-troops-skyrockets-during-obama-admin



 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on February 17, 2014, 04:37:10 PM
You need the affirmation, don't you? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 17, 2014, 05:53:44 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-17/empire-manufacturing-misses-7th-month-last-8



Hope and Change suckers
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 17, 2014, 11:59:32 AM
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/17/moving-backwards-northeasterners-turn-to-burning-wood-for-power



 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 21, 2014, 11:47:01 AM
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/former-obama-adviser-we-should-have-done-more



 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 02, 2014, 02:31:56 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/more-americans-see-middle-class-status-slipping-155155857--finance.html


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 02, 2014, 02:37:49 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sense of belonging to the middle class occupies a cherished place in America. It conjures images of self-sufficient people with stable jobs and pleasant homes working toward prosperity.





Yet nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they're no longer part of it.

They are former professionals now stocking shelves at grocery stores, retirees struggling with rising costs and people working part-time jobs but desperate for full-time pay. Such setbacks have emerged in economic statistics for several years. Now they're affecting how Americans think of themselves.

Since 2008, the number of people who call themselves middle class has fallen by nearly a fifth, according to a survey in January by the Pew Research Center, from 53 percent to 44 percent. Forty percent now identify as either lower-middle or lower class compared with just 25 percent in February 2008.

According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who say they're middle or upper-middle class fell 8 points between 2008 and 2012, to 55 percent.

And the most recent General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, found that the vast proportion of Americans who call themselves middle or working class, though still high at 88 percent, is the lowest in the survey's 40-year history. It's fallen 4 percentage points since the recession began in 2007.

The trend reflects a widening gap between the richest Americans and everyone else, one that's emerged gradually over decades and accelerated with the Great Recession. The difference between the income earned by the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans and by a median-income household has risen 24 percent in 30 years, according to the Census Bureau.

Whether or not people see themselves as middle class, there's no agreed-upon definition of the term. In part, it's a state of mind. Incomes or lifestyles that feel middle class in Kansas can feel far different in Connecticut. People with substantial incomes often identify as middle class if they live in urban centers with costly food, housing and transportation.

In any case, individuals and families who feel they've slipped from the middle class are likely to spend and borrow less. Such a pullback, in turn, squeezes the economy, which is fueled mainly by consumer spending.




.. View gallery 
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012, file photo, delegates&nbsp;&hellip;
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012, file photo, delegates watch as former President Bill Clinton addresses …

"How they think is reflected in how they act," said Richard Morin, a senior editor at the Pew Research Center.

People are generally slow to acknowledge downward mobility. Many regard themselves as middle class even if their incomes fall well above or below the average. Experts say the rise in Americans who feel they've slipped below the middle class suggests something deeply rooted.

More people now think "it's harder to achieve" the American dream than thought so several decades ago, said Mark Rank, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Three years ago, Kristina Feldotte, 47, and her husband earned a combined $80,000. She considered herself solidly middle class. The couple and their four children regularly vacationed at a lake near their home in Saginaw, Michigan.

But in August 2012, Feldotte was laid off from her job as a special education teacher. She's since managed to find only part-time teaching work. Though her husband still works as a truck salesman, their income has sunk by more than half to $36,000.

"Now we're on the upper end of lower class," Feldotte said.

Americans' self-perception coincides with data documenting a shrinking middle class: The percentage of households with income within 50 percent of the median — one way to define a broad middle class — fell from 50 percent in 1970 to 42 percent in 2010.

The Pew survey didn't ask respondents to specify their income. Still, Pew has found in the past that people who call themselves middle class generally fit the broad definitions that economists use.




.. View gallery 
This March 14, 2014 frame grab taken from video, shows&nbsp;&hellip;
This March 14, 2014 frame grab taken from video, shows Rob McGahen in Pensacola, Fla. McGahen, 30, h …

Roughly 8.4 percent of respondents to the General Social Survey, last conducted in 2012, said they consider themselves lower class. That's the survey's highest percentage ever, up from 5.4 percent in 2006. NORC is a social science research organization at the University of Chicago.

Tom Smith, director of the survey, said even slight shifts are significant. Class self-identification "is traditionally one of the most stable measures" in the survey, he said.

By contrast to the most recent recession, the severe 1981-82 downturn had little effect on class self-identification in Smith's survey.

Why do so many no longer regard themselves as middle class? A key reason is that the recession eliminated 8.7 million jobs. A disproportionate number were middle-income positions. Those losses left what economists describe as a "hollowed out" workforce, with more higher- and lower-paying and fewer middle-income jobs.

Rob McGahen, 30, hasn't yet found a job that paid as well as the purchasing agent position at Boeing's defense division that he left in 2011. Nervous about the sustainability of that job because of government defense cuts, McGahen quit after buying a bar near his St. Louis home.

The bar eventually went bankrupt and cost him his house. He and his wife moved to Pensacola, Fla., where he's had little luck finding work in defense contracting.

Now, he works in the produce section of a supermarket. His wife earns the bulk of their income as a speech pathologist. Their household income has been cut in half, from $110,000 to $55,000, and he and his wife have put off having children.

"It's definitely been a step back," McGahen said.




.. View gallery 
In this March 11, 2014 frame grab taken from video,&nbsp;&hellip;
In this March 11, 2014 frame grab taken from video, Jeremy Horning speaks to a reporter in Southfiel …

Now living in an apartment, he misses the couple's three-bedroom house on a quiet cul-de-sac in a St. Louis suburb.

Home ownership is among factors economists cite as markers of middle-class status. Others include being able to vacation, help children pay for college and save for a secure retirement.

Yet stagnant middle-class pay, combined with steep price increases for college, health care and homes, have made those expenses harder to afford. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, hasn't budged since 1996, according to the Census Bureau. Average college tuition has soared 174 percent in that time.

Many of the formerly middle class are still struggling with student debt. McGahen, who has an MBA, estimates he'll be making $600 payments on student loans each month for the next decade. Feldotte, with two master's degrees, says she has "lots and lots of debt."

And she isn't prepared to help her children pay for college.

"There's no money to help them," she said.

Some people feel they've fallen out of the middle class even as their incomes have remained stable, because their costs have risen. One is Richard Timmerman, 66, a retired postal employee in River Falls, Wis.

He's been living off his pension since retiring five years ago. His wife, a sales manager at a hotel and conference center, hasn't had a raise in that time. The recession hammered the hotel's business, though it's slowly recovering.

Yet his cost of living has risen in the past decade or so. Gas prices have surged over that time. So has food. And only this year did the value of Timmerman's retirement savings regain its level of six years ago.

"I see my position in the social structure having gone down a notch," Timmerman said. He considers himself lower-middle class, compared with middle class a few years ago.

A slowly improving U.S. economy could lift some people back into the middle class. Still, the recession and slow recovery have left permanent scars.

McGahen and his wife are trying to rebuild their savings. They no longer have credit cards. Timmerman travels much less than he thought he would in retirement.

"I have really beat myself up a lot over the last 2½ years," McGahen said. "Until I get myself up and going again and in a good place ... it is tough."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on April 03, 2014, 06:09:56 AM
Initial Claims not doing so hot...


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-03/initial-claims-miss-most-5-weeks-rises-most-10-weeks (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-03/initial-claims-miss-most-5-weeks-rises-most-10-weeks)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 11, 2014, 09:32:31 AM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-coldwater-creek-bankruptcy-closing-stores-20140411,0,2162409.story


6000 people fired.


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 14, 2014, 11:22:37 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/food-stamp-recipients-outnumber-women-who-work-full-time


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 16, 2014, 02:04:06 PM
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/86m-full-time-private-sector-workers-sustain-148m-benefit-takers


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 22, 2014, 10:14:07 AM
http://www.guy-the-worlds-richest.html?hp&_r=0


Horrible
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 28, 2014, 06:38:36 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/bls-20-american-families-no-one-works
 :D


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2014, 05:02:15 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/bls-20-american-families-no-one-works#.U172wTyCzro.facebook


Unreal. 

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on April 29, 2014, 05:11:01 AM
And the amount of people getting some kind of government assistance and/or only working part time is double the number of people working full time and not getting any government assistance.

But, hey, everything is good because 8 million people were forced to sign up for crapcare, homos get to "marry", whores get free contraception and retards can smoke weed legally.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2014, 02:13:39 PM
http://news.investors.com/042914-698787-regulatory-economy-booms-under-president-obama.htm


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2014, 07:03:09 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/04/28/Pfizer-to-Relocate-to-UK-to-Cut-Tax-Rate-in-Half?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter



Cant blame them
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on April 29, 2014, 07:22:24 PM
You really need this thread, don't you?
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 29, 2014, 07:27:02 PM
You really need this thread, don't you?


Not about me - but about the tens of millions of poor souls suffering under the communist Obama failed presidency
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2014, 05:56:32 AM
U.S. Economy Barely Grew in First Quarter

The American economy slowed drastically in the first quarter of 2014, as wintry weather depressed corporate spending and housing sector activity, while smaller additions to inventories by farmers and businesses also held back growth.
 
At an annualized rate of 0.1 percent, the pace of expansion in January, February and March was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2012, when output barely grew at all. It also represented a sharp deceleration from the level of growth recorded in the second half of 2013, when the economy expanded at a 3.4 percent rate.

The first-quarter pace also fell well short of the 1.2 percent rate of growth expected by Wall Street economists before the Commerce Department announcement Wednesday morning.

READ MORE »
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/economy/us-economy-barely-grew-in-first-quarter.html?emc=edit_na_20140430
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2014, 07:50:25 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/q1-gdp-april-2014-2014-4


Obamanomics = FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2014, 08:19:05 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101627906


Yikes is right - what a complete disaster Obama and the rats have been
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on April 30, 2014, 10:01:13 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/house-committee-looks-at-war-on-poverty.html


everything going great
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 01, 2014, 06:37:36 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/04/30/the-insiders-the-democrats-own-this-economy


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2014, 08:50:53 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/labor-force-participation-36-year-low


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2014, 09:46:48 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/women-not-labor-force-hits-record-high


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 02, 2014, 10:04:05 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-02/miami-s-poor-live-on-11-a-day-as-boom-widens-wealth-gap.html


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2014, 04:21:44 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/opinion/sunday/bruni-america-the-shrunken.html?_r=0


sad :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 05, 2014, 12:53:21 PM
http://rt.com/usa/156800-americans-economy-unemployed-work


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2014, 01:23:19 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/05/u-s-businesses-are-being-destroyed-faster-than-theyre-being-created/?hpid=z5



Fuck you Obama
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 06, 2014, 01:25:51 PM
"Not only that, but during the most recent three years of the study -- 2009, 2010 and 2011 -- businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed, a first. Overall, new businesses creation (measured as the share of all businesses less than one year old) declined by about half from 1978 to 2011."
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2014, 06:04:25 AM
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/aging-baby-boomers-roommates/story?id=23570035#.U2l018SVtNY.twitter


 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2014, 08:38:53 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/labor-force-participation-rate-25-29-year-olds-hits-record-low


FAILBAMA
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 07, 2014, 02:13:49 PM
http://freebeacon.com/issues/economy-not-keeping-up-with-population-growth


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 09, 2014, 05:50:13 AM
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/05/08/unemployment_and_the_class_of_2014_how_bad_is_the_job_market_for_new_college.html


These morons vote for Ofag in 2012 - f em
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 19, 2014, 12:26:01 PM
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378087/black-americans-are-worse-under-obama-deroy-murdock


 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 19, 2014, 07:42:55 PM
http://www.policymic.com/articles/89551/the-class-of-2014-just-made-history-in-the-worst-imaginable-way


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 22, 2014, 08:47:36 AM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-22/existing-home-sales-miss-worst-start-year-2007


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 22, 2014, 12:08:47 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/sears-quarterly-losses_n_5371593.html


 ???
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2014, 08:17:44 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-29/u-s-economy-shrank-early-this-year-for-first-time-since-2011.html



 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2014, 08:44:10 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101713801


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 29, 2014, 08:48:41 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/us-economy-decline-3-years-contracts_n_5410035.html#comments


 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on May 30, 2014, 09:08:07 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/1-8-american-men-between-ages-25-54-are-not-working_793938.html



 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2014, 09:23:22 AM
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/economy/american-dream/index.html


 >:( 

Nearly 60% say American dream out of reach. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on June 04, 2014, 09:26:49 AM
Truly you are a sad, sad, little man.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 04, 2014, 09:27:20 AM
Truly you are a sad, sad, little man.

The Obama economy doing great huh? 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on June 05, 2014, 05:28:19 AM
The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0)

Oh, yes, there has been a hiring pick up.............at shit jobs that don't pay any money.

Ouch.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 09, 2014, 05:00:11 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/starting-out-behind.html?ref=todayspaper


Even the NYT concedes what many of us have know for like . . . . forever. 
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on June 09, 2014, 11:17:25 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/starting-out-behind.html?ref=todayspaper


Even the NYT concedes what many of us have know for like . . . . forever. 

Employment picture is still moribund and dead. If you're happy to serve coffee or flip burgers you're alright, though.

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 10, 2014, 04:55:30 AM

Opinion

Why Young People Can't Find Work

The main culprits are policies that make new jobs more expensive.
 


 

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By Andrew Puzder
 connect

 

Updated June 9, 2014 7:23 p.m. ET


In President Obama's speeches this year, a steady theme has been creating jobs and economic opportunity for Americans. In his State of the Union address in January he said that "what I believe unites the people of this nation . . . is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all—the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead." And in his weekly address on Saturday, he repeated his strong appeal to young people: "As long as I hold this office, I'll keep fighting to give more young people the chance to earn their own piece of the American Dream."







Enlarge Image   
 cat
Corbis

Yet during the more than five years Mr. Obama has been in office, young people have been especially hard-hit by the slow and virtually jobless recovery. Given the destructive effect this has on individual initiative and the prospects of a productive and rewarding working life, the continuing struggle of young Americans to find jobs, start building families and contribute to society is no longer simply a matter of politics or policy. On a deeply human level, it's profoundly sad.

Consider these grim employment numbers:

• In February the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recorded the lowest percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds working or actively looking for work (32.9%) since the bureau started tracking the data in 1948. The BLS recorded the second-lowest labor-participation rate for this group in April (33.2%) and the third-lowest in January (33.3%). May's rate was the sixth lowest (33.8%).

• Over the past two years, the BLS has recorded some of the worst labor participation rates for 20- to 24-year-olds since 1973, when the Vietnam War was beginning to wind down. In August 2012, the 69.7% rate was the lowest since '73. The second-lowest (70%) came in March last year. This year, the third-lowest rate came in April (70.2%). May's rate was a still-miserable 71%.

• Looking at the seasonally unadjusted data—which is what the BLS makes publicly available—for 25- to 29-year-olds, the April 2014 labor-participation rate was the lowest the BLS has recorded since it started tracking the data in 1982 (79.8%). May's rate was the second-lowest (79.9%). January, February and March tied with the fourth-lowest (80.3%).

These disturbing numbers raise a simple question: Where are the entry-level jobs?

Five years of 2% average yearly GDP growth simply doesn't produce enough jobs to absorb the natural increase in the labor force, and over the past eight quarters GDP growth has averaged only 1.7%. Between May 2008 and May 2014, BLS data show that the employable population increased by 14,217,000 while the number of people employed actually decreased by 94,000 and the number of people unemployed increased by 1,404,000. It remains a bad time for young people to be looking for jobs.

Nonetheless, various states and municipalities have increased their minimum wage, thereby increasing the cost of employing inexperienced workers. Minimum-wage jobs have always been a gateway to better opportunities. In making hiring decisions, businesses must weigh the quality and value of work that entry-level employees produce against the cost of employing them. For many businesses in high-minimum-wage states or municipalities—Seattle leads the list, having approved a move to a $15 minimum wage—that trade-off is no longer working.

The bottom line on labor: Make something less expensive and businesses will use more of it. Make something more expensive and businesses will use less of it. The Congressional Budget Office has forecast a loss of 500,000 jobs should the president's proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour become law.

The CBO also forecast that this increase would lift a number of people who already have jobs above the poverty threshold. For 500,000 unemployed people, however, that's 500,000 opportunities American businesses will never create.

ObamaCare is also increasing the cost of hiring inexperienced workers. The health-care law requires that businesses with more than 50 full-time employees offer medical insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week. The administration knows that the employer mandate will kill jobs and has twice delayed implementing it. With an election on the horizon, American businesses know that these delays were political and that the mandate's economically damaging impact is in the pipeline, coming their way.

ObamaCare gives businesses an incentive to either eliminate entry-level jobs or keep the workers' hours to under 30 a week. It also gives businesses a reason to reduce the hours of experienced employees to under 30 a week. These experienced employees are now working second jobs to compensate for their lost hours—resulting in fewer positions for less-experienced workers.

To get on the ladder of opportunity, America's young people need jobs. Creating disincentives to hire them diminishes the notion that "if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead." The reality is that you can't get ahead if you can't find a job.

I'm not speaking primarily as a business CEO. My company will adjust to new laws. I'm speaking as someone from a working-class family. I started work scooping ice cream for the minimum wage at Baskin-Robbins. To put myself through college and law school while supporting my family, I cut lawns, painted houses and busted concrete with a jackhammer. I know how important these jobs are. For one thing, they taught me—as no lectures from my parents ever could—that I needed a good education so I wouldn't have to settle for low-paying work the rest of my life. Too many young people today are being deprived of even that basic lesson.

 Mr. Puzder is the chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 17, 2014, 01:45:34 PM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/price-index-meats-poultry-fish-eggs-rockets-all-time-high
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 18, 2014, 05:24:13 AM
Obama's Economy: Where Did All The Young Workers Go?
IBD ^  | 06/18/2014 | Stephen Moore

Posted on ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2014‎ ‎8‎:‎18‎:‎01‎ ‎AM by SeekAndFind

Economists are scratching their heads trying to figure out a puzzle in this recovery: Why are young people not working? People retiring at age 60 or even 55 in a weak economy is easy to understand. But at 25?

The percentage of adult Americans who are working or looking for work now stands at 62.8%, a 36-year low and down more than 3 percentage points since late 2007, according to the Labor Department's May employment report.

This is fairly well-known. What isn't so well-known is that a major reason for the decline is that fewer and fewer young people are holding jobs. This exit from the workforce by the young is counter to the conventional wisdom or the Obama administration's official line.

The White House claims the workforce is contracting because more baby boomers are retiring. There's some truth to that. About 10,000 boomers retire every day of the workweek, so that's clearly depressing the labor market. Since 2009, 7 million Americans have reached official retirement age. The problem will get worse in the years to come as nearly 80 million boomers hit age 65.

But that trend tells only part of the story.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 19, 2014, 02:19:53 PM
Sticker Shock: Food, Gas Prices Set to Go Higher
CBN ^  | June 19, 2014 | Caitlin Burke

Posted on ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2014‎ ‎12‎:‎00‎:‎52‎ ‎PM by xzins

You don't have to be an expert to notice that costs for many essentials are at all-time high. From gas to food, Americans can expect to pay even more in coming months.

The current national average for a gallon of gasoline is $3.67 -- that's higher than it's been since 2008.

The higher prices are being blamed, in part, on the instability in Iraq.

According to AAA, both gas prices and global oil prices have steadily risen since ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) took control of Mosul last week. The brutal jihadist army is actually flying its flag over Iraq's largest oil refinery.

High demand and the cost of drilling also play a role in the high price consumers are seeing at the pump.

"It's a lot more expensive to drill for oil today so we need higher prices," oil and gas broker Tom McCarty said.

"Again, if you look at the history going back for the last four years anyway, you know oil prices have been pretty stable," he noted. "Now they tend to swing to the 105 range back down to the 93 range."

"And one of these days it's going to break out above that and I'm afraid we may be close to that happening just simply because of more demand," he warned.

The cost of food is also sky-rocketing.

The price index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs hit an all-time high in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meat costs are rising the fastest. A seven-year decline in herds has left the fewest cattle in at least six decades.

Analysts warn the high prices for both food and gas are here to stay for a while.

To make matters worse, Senate lawmakers actually proposed legislation this week to raise the federal gas and diesel taxes by 12 cents per-gallon over the next two years.

The proposal was pitched as a way to pay for highway and transit programs.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 20, 2014, 07:24:03 AM
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/19/investing/coach-outlook/index.html


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2014, 08:59:17 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/bauer-obama-s-record-more-babies-aborted-jobs-created


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2014, 09:57:17 AM
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/06/23/nearly-half-of-detroit-water-customers-cant-pay-their-bill


 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2014, 09:57:55 AM

One in Four Americans Has No Emergency Savings
 

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By
 Asma Ghribi
 
Twenty-six percent of Americans has no emergency savings, according to a report by Bankrate.com.  Over the past four years, there has been little to no progress when it comes to Americans ‘saving capacity.

—AFP
Even those who manage to save aren’t putting away enough. As many as two-thirds of people in the U.S. don’t have the recommended six months of expenses saved. The percentage of people with savings enough to cover at least three months shrank to 40 % in 2014, compared with 45%, a year earlier.

Despite Americans being more secure in their jobs and more comfortable with their debt since the recession ended, their savings capacity remains weak even among those with highest-income household. Only 46% of those with annual income of $75,000 or above have enough savings to cover six months of expenses.

“People are not making progress. Incomes are stagnating and expenses are high,” said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com’s chief financial analyst. He said that many people are still struggling with payments from the past years and high household costs.

The report also indicates that the segment of the population aged between 30 and 49 are the most likely to have no emergency fund compared with younger people. “That is alarming because those are the people with a house, two cars and a dog but still with no emergency savings. You need emergency savings,” he added.

Although, people between 18 and 30 years old are more likely to have up to five months savings. Mr. McBride commented that the recession might have had a positive takeaway: younger people learned the lesson and are now saving more.

Mr. McBride doesn’t see any improvement in Americans’ saving capacity as long as there is no substantial income  growth.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 23, 2014, 03:02:07 PM
Washington Examiner ^ | June 23 2014 | Susan Crabtree
Posted on June 23, 2014 at 5:31:31 PM EDT by PoloSec

President Obama held up France as the gold standard the U.S. workplace should emulate during an event at the White House Monday.

Extolling the business virtues of helping workers balance family and employment demands, including providing paid time off for the birth of a child, Obama said if France can provide the benefits, so can the United States.

“Other countries know how to do this,” Obama said. “If France can figure this out, we can figure it out.”

France provides some of the most far-reaching worker rights in the developed world, including limiting a standard work week at 35 hours and providing 16 weeks of paid maternity leave.

France also has an unemployment rate that has hovered above 10 percent for more than two years, well above the rate of unemployed in the United Kingdom and the United States, which are both in the 6 percent range.

Obama made the comment at the first White House summit for working families, which sought to amplify issues like paid-maternity leave and the ability to take paid leave to take care of elderly loved ones.

“Many women can't even get a paid day off to give birth,” Obama said. “There is only one developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave, and that is us. And that is not a list you want to be on, by your lonesome.”

The White House hosted the summit jointly with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and it served in part as a campaign pep rally focused on turning women voters out in November.

The president's filled his remarks with appeals to working moms, talking at length about his role in caring for daughters Malia and Sasha when they were infants and both he and First Lady Michelle Obama worked full-time.

When dads rearrange their schedules to leave early to go to a parent-teacher conference, “everybody in the office says, 'Oh, isn't that nice?'” he said. “And then when women do it, everybody is all 'Like, y'know, is she really committed to the job?'”

The White House attempt to elevate the issue of workplace flexibility isn't corresponding with any new legislative proposals.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest blamed Republicans for the lack of progress on work-place benefits.

“There are a lot of good ideas being blocked in Congress right now,” he said, referring to the House GOP's opposition to an increase in the minimum wage.

TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Click to Add Topic
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2014, 06:54:06 AM
The U.S. economy turned in its worst quarter in five years during the first three months of 2014, shrinking more sharply than previously estimated.
The nation's gross domestic product in the first quarter fell at a 2.9% annual rate vs. the 1% contraction previously believed, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a 1.8% drop in output from the fourth quarter.
The decline was the sharpest since growth tumbled 5.4% in the first quarter of 2009 during the Great Recession. The last time the economy shrank was in the first quarter of 2011, slipping 1.3%.
The more dramatic drop was partly the result of smaller growth in household consumption than previously estimated. Consumer spending increased just 1%, vs. the 3.1% gain previously estimated as health care spending dipped slightly. The government previously said that medical expenditures contributed substantially to growth as the Affordable Care Act began to cover more Americans.
Also, exports declined 8.9%, vs. the 6% drop previously estimated. And businesses replenished their stocks even more slowly than believed after aggressively adding to inventories late last year.
The larger than expected drop in output is not a harbinger of an economy headed back to recession or even softening. Many economists say much of the first-quarter weakness was the result of temporary factors, such as an unusually harsh winter weather. They expect growth to exceed 3% in the current quarter and the rest of the year.
In a research note before Wednesday's report, Goldman Sachs called a decline in output of at least 2% "unprecedented"outside of recessions. But it added that "2014 will mark the start of a period of clearly above-trend growth for the US economy."
Paul Dales of Capital Economics said the contraction "was still largely due to the extreme weather" and "not a sign that the U.S. is suffering from a fundamental slowdown."
Reports this week show that the housing market picked up last month after the dismal first-quarter, with new homes selling at the fastest pace since 2008 and existing home sales posting their largest increase in three years.
Job growth, consumer confidence and measures of manufacturing and service sector activity also have gained steam recently.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2014, 08:12:30 AM
Posted on June 25, 2014 at 10:40:55 AM EDT by Phlap

The U.S. economy shrank at a steep annual rate of 2.9 percent in the January-March quarter as a harsh winter contributed to the biggest contraction since the depths of the recession five years ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2014, 08:27:54 AM
U.S. Economy Shrinks By Most Since Great Recession in 1Q (-2.9%)
Reuters via Fox Business ^ | Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Posted on June 25, 2014 at 8:47:58 AM EDT by kristinn

The U.S. economy contracted at a much steeper pace than previously estimated in the first quarter, but there are indications that growth has since rebounded strongly.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annual rate, the economy's worst performance in five years, instead of the 1.0 percent pace it had reported last month.

While the economy's woes have been largely blamed on an unusually cold winter, the magnitude of the revisions suggest other factors at play beyond the weather. Growth has now been revised down by a total of 3.0 percentage points since the government's first estimate was published in April, which had the economy expanding at a 0.1 percent rate.

The difference between the second and third estimates was the largest on records going back to 1976, the Commerce Department said.

Economists had expected growth to be revised to show it contracting at a 1.7 percent rate. Sharp revisions to GDP numbers are not unusual as the government does not have complete data when it makes its initial and preliminary estimates.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 25, 2014, 11:44:02 AM
http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/25/the-economy-tanked-last-quarter-and-its-everybodys-fault-but-obamas/


The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 2.9 percent during the first three months of 2014, government bean counters announced this morning. That matches the worst non-recession contraction of the U.S. economy in over 40 years.

Each quarter, the government releases three sets of numbers gauging the size of the U.S. economy: preliminary, revised, and final. Today’s numbers were the final version. This is important, because the numbers drastically changed throughout the process, as did the liberal spin about the economy. The preliminary numbers, released at the end of April, suggested that the economy barely chugged along during the first quarter, growing at a meager rate of 0.1 percent.

A normal observer would look at that number and be disappointed, given that it was posted nearly 5 years into an alleged economic recovery. The leftist online illiterati, however, is decidedly abnormal. Here’s how they spun the news:





These commentators seized on the fact that health care spending rose enough to offset contraction elsewhere. Forget that Obamacare promised to drastically reduce long-term health care spending: this spike was great news.

Then came the revised numbers, which were released at the end of May:


The U.S. economy was battered even more than first suspected by the harsh winter, actually shrinking from January through March. The result marked the first retreat in three years, but economists are confident the downturn was temporary.

Sadly, Obamacare could no longer pretend to be the economy’s savior. Spinmeisters found their villain, though: winter. As everyone knows, winter is a freak, unpredictable event. And if there’s anything that makes a cold winter even colder, it’s global warming.

Fast forward to this morning, when the final GDP numbers showed that the economy actually shrank by 2.9 percent, the biggest drop since the devastating recession of 2008 and 2009. Bad news, right? Nobody could possibly be happy about an economy that shrank, due in large part to a massive, 11.7 percent drop in private investment. That plunge in investment contributed to more than two-thirds of the entire drop in GDP last quarter (the investment shrinkage was responsible for 1.97 percentage points of the 2.9 percent drop in GDP). Residential investment fell by 4.2 percent. Exports of U.S. goods fell by 11.4 percent (apparently other countries stop buying stuff from us when it’s winter, even if it’s summer for them).

Your friendly White House apologists at at TNR and Vox found some pretty awesome news, though. News so good that it completely offsets one of the worst economic performances in years. That’s right: according to the best and the brightest, the terrible economic report today is actually good news, according to TNR’s Danny Vinik:


But this may be a case of bad news that’s not so bad—and maybe even good. The reason why consumer spending fell is that health care spending decreased by 1.4 percent in the first quarter. In fact, in the BEA’s second estimate, health care spending contributed 1.01 percent to the growth rate. Under the third estimate, it subtracted 0.16 percent.

For those keeping score at home, when health care spending increases and props up GDP, it’s a good thing. When health care spending falls and subtracts from GDP, it’s a good thing. And when the economy significantly shrinks when it’s supposed to be rapidly growing, it’s a good thing. Sure, your car got totaled by an idiot who didn’t know what he was doing. The important thing to remember is that as a result, you’ll be able to save money on gas for the next few weeks. Make sense?

The best rationalization of all, though, came from Sarah Kliff, the local crime reporter for Vox, which is Latin for “error-ridden summaries of Wikipedia entries“:



That’s a great point, Sarah. It’s like that time Mary Todd Lincoln was treated to a really delightful little rendition of “Our American Cousin” but for some reason wouldn’t shut up about that man who made a mess of things in the balcony. What a drama queen.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on June 26, 2014, 04:10:20 AM
Posted on June 25, 2014 at 10:10:00 PM EDT by lbryce

In the first quarter of 2014, GDP shrunk 2.9 percent and most of the reason is because health-care spending declined. That doesn’t mean we’re in for a recession though. Obamacare did help crash the economy. Only not in the way its critics thought it would.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday revised the growth figures for the first quarter of 2014, and concluded that the economy shrunk at a 2.9 percent annual rate. This comes a month after the government slashed its initial estimate from an annual growth rate of .1 percent to a decline of 1.0 percent. At the time, I called it a hiccup rather than a heart attack.

That was some hiccup.

At first blush, the substantial downward revision is something of a mystery. The U.S. economy didn’t suffer from any major shocks. There was no threat of default, government shutdown, huge cuts in government spending, or sharp tax increases. No major financial institution failed.

Throughout the winter and spring, companies warned that the brutal weather—the disruptive snowstorms, the arctic cold—would have a dampening effect on economic activity. And the weather definitely played a role in stalling the main engine of the U.S. economy—the American consumer.

The BEA breaks down sectors by their contribution to GDP. Personal consumption expenditures—people buying stuff—grew at a meager one percent rate in the first quarter. And that had a significant impact on businesses. When companies add to inventories—i.e. they sell stuff and then order more stuff in anticipation of higher sales down the rate—at a strong rate, it adds to GDP. When they don’t restock depleted inventories, it detracts from growth.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2014, 06:50:25 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-lay-offs_n_5594720.html

Mass layoffs
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 17, 2014, 01:14:18 PM
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-more-millennials-moving-home-20140717-story.html
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: dario73 on July 18, 2014, 05:16:27 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-lay-offs_n_5594720.html

Mass layoffs

And yet this clown wants unlimited guest-worker visas:

Microsoft to Slash 18,000 Jobs Week After Bill Gates Pushed for Unlimited Guest-Worker Visas
On Thursday, a week after former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates argued for amnesty and for an unlimited number of high-tech guest-worker visas, Microsoft announced it would slash 18,000 jobs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella promised his employees that "we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible." Analysts told USA Today that the number being let go was "larger than expected."

The "vast majority" of employees will reportedly be notified "within the next six months" and "earn severance and job transition help in many locations." Microsoft employs 125,000 people.

Bill Gates, along with Sheldon Adelson and Warren Buffett, advocated removing "the worldwide cap on the number of visas that could be awarded to legal immigrants who had earned a graduate degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics from an accredited institution of higher education in the United States."

However, numerous nonpartisan scholars and studies have determined that there is a surplus – not a shortage – of American high-tech workers. Moreover, after a recent Census report found that "74% of those with a bachelor's degree in these subjects don't work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) jobs," the mainstream media may finally be catching on and taking away the high-tech industry's "free pass." CBS News, for instance, concluded that the Census data suggest the high-tech industry's contention that there is a shortage of American high-tech "is largely a myth."

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 21, 2014, 05:36:21 AM
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21607809-countrys-potential-growth-rate-barely-half-what-it-was-two-decades-ago-heres-how-raise?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709


BACK in the mid-1990s, America’s economic prospects suddenly brightened. Productivity soared. Immigrants and foreign capital flocked to take advantage of what was quickly dubbed the “New Economy”. The jobless rate fell to 4%, yet inflation remained low. All this led economists to conclude that America’s potential rate of growth—the speed at which the economy can expand while keeping unemployment steady and inflation stable—had risen sharply from its decades-long average of 3%, to 3.5% or even higher.

Sadly, the New Economy is no more. The recovery from the recession of 2008-09 has been the weakest of the post-war era, and evidence is mounting that America’s potential growth rate has plummeted. Its two big determinants, the supply of workers and the rise in their productivity, have both fallen short. Performance in the past year has been particularly feeble: America’s labour force has not grown at all and output per hour worked has fallen. The IMF recently cut its estimate of the country’s potential rate of growth to 2%. Other economists put it as low as 1.75% (see article).


In this section

America’s lost oomph


A useful crisis


Another fine mess


No panderers, please: this issue’s black and white


Easeful death



Reprints

Related topics

Recessions and depressions


United States


Business


Economics


Economic crisis



So far, the slide in potential has had little practical impact. Because the recession was so deep and the recovery so weak, the economy is still operating below its capacity. But in the long term a halving of the economic speed limit would have grim consequences. Living standards would rise more slowly, tax revenues would be lower and the burden of paying today’s debts heavier.

Solving the short-term problem means boosting demand, so the Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low. But to pep up long-term growth, America also needs to address the supply side. In particular, it needs more workers and faster increases in productivity.

The not-so-mysterious case of the disappearing worker

The number of working-age Americans rose by an average of 1.2% a year in the 1990s, and by a mere 0.4% in 2013. The proportion of them actually in the workforce has fallen from over 67% to less than 63%. The recession is partly to blame, because after years of joblessness some people have given up looking for work. That is one reason why boosting the recovery is important. The ageing of the baby-boomers is another reason. The number of people in their late 50s (when participation in the workforce starts to drop) and older is rising fast.

Both these vulnerabilities are exacerbated by a self-inflicted problem: policies that depress the supply of workers. Most damaging is America’s broken immigration system. Getting into the country has become much more difficult. The number of visas issued today for highly skilled people is a fraction of what it was in the 1990s, even as the number of unfilled vacancies for skilled workers soars. Deportations have surged and the southern border has become far harder to cross.

Obamacare, though good in other respects, tends to shrink the labour force because it helps people get health care without working. There is less to be said for the outdated social safety net, which manages both to be stingy and to discourage work. America spends a smaller proportion of its GDP than other rich countries on retraining the jobless and helping them find work. It has not raised the retirement age and it has allowed its disability-insurance system to become an ersatz welfare scheme. The number of workers on disability, hardly any of whom will work again, has doubled since 1997 to 9m. For once, Europe could teach America some labour-market lessons: thanks to welfare reforms, the proportion of Europeans in the workforce is now rising.

The mystery of the slump in productivity

In the long run, the most powerful way to boost growth is for workers to become more productive, as they did in the 1990s. But raising productivity is hard, and the recent slump puzzling. Innovation drives productivity growth, and a dizzying array of new developments, from “big data” to the “internet of things”, suggests that innovation is speeding up. Yet the growth in the average worker’s output per hour was slowing before the 2007 crisis and has fallen further since.

That may change, because it takes a while for firms to react to disruptive technologies. Computers started to spread in the 1980s but their impact did not show up in the data for more than a decade. The latest surge in innovation will also take a few years to translate into higher output per hour. The slow recovery from the recession may have lengthened this delay, by deterring many firms from investing in information technology. But here, too, politicians have made matters worse.

There is much America’s government could do to boost investment. It could, for instance, increase public spending on infrastructure. It could reduce the sky-high corporate tax rate which encourages firms—such as AbbVie, which is proposing to shift its base to Britain by buying Shire (see article)—to move abroad rather than invest at home. And it could start cutting the endless sprawl of job-destroying regulations that companies say is a worse problem even than taxes. It is doing none of these things.

The impact of a supply-side revolution, with immigration reform, an overhaul of disability and training schemes, infrastructure investment, deregulation and corporate-tax reform all high on the agenda would be gradual. But even the prospect would strengthen the recovery, by encouraging investment and deterring the Fed from raising interest rates too soon.

Thoughtful politicians have produced schemes for radical change in almost all of these areas, but their plans—like so much else—have fallen victim to America’s polarised politics. The Republicans stand in the way of loosening immigration rules, while Democrats fear that supply-side reforms are a plot to hurt the average Joe. Both sides hoover up cash from special interests keen to keep anticompetitive regulations in place. Barack Obama, the least business-friendly president for decades, has devoted far too little attention to the problem. So the odds rise that America’s economy will continue to lumber along at an underwhelming pace, and Americans will have no one to blame but their leaders.

From the print edition: Leaders
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 27, 2014, 12:33:25 PM
https://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2014/07/27/why-the-housing-recovery-has-been-so-muted-median-us-household-wealth-has-fallen-43-since-2007


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: GigantorX on July 27, 2014, 04:20:02 PM
And yet this clown wants unlimited guest-worker visas:

Microsoft to Slash 18,000 Jobs Week After Bill Gates Pushed for Unlimited Guest-Worker Visas
On Thursday, a week after former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates argued for amnesty and for an unlimited number of high-tech guest-worker visas, Microsoft announced it would slash 18,000 jobs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella promised his employees that "we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible." Analysts told USA Today that the number being let go was "larger than expected."

The "vast majority" of employees will reportedly be notified "within the next six months" and "earn severance and job transition help in many locations." Microsoft employs 125,000 people.

Bill Gates, along with Sheldon Adelson and Warren Buffett, advocated removing "the worldwide cap on the number of visas that could be awarded to legal immigrants who had earned a graduate degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics from an accredited institution of higher education in the United States."

However, numerous nonpartisan scholars and studies have determined that there is a surplus – not a shortage – of American high-tech workers. Moreover, after a recent Census report found that "74% of those with a bachelor's degree in these subjects don't work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) jobs," the mainstream media may finally be catching on and taking away the high-tech industry's "free pass." CBS News, for instance, concluded that the Census data suggest the high-tech industry's contention that there is a shortage of American high-tech "is largely a myth."



Nice catch. The big lie that has been promoted by the media and big business is the shortage of STEM labor. The biggest reason those corporations want the H-1b Visa's to be set to "UNLIMITED" in the next big immigration fight is to get more and more cheap labor. It's how it goes. Hire a ton of shoddily trained, inexperienced workers who may or may not have correct academic credentials, bring them in and have your highly trained workers train them and then fire your highly trained tenured workers. Boom, hire H-1b cheap, stack them in some apartment and you're golden.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 05, 2014, 04:51:03 AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/4/incomes-fell-most-families-past-three-years-while-/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 09, 2014, 09:46:09 AM
http://www.my9nj.com/story/26486708/trump-casinos-file-chapter-11-seek-concessions
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 11, 2014, 10:48:10 AM
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-longterm-jobless-20140910-story.html#page=1
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 26, 2014, 06:15:14 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/1-4-americans-25-54-not-working_806178.html
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2014, 05:29:59 AM
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/10/06/clinton_nobody_believes_economy_is_coming_back_because_you_dont_feel_it.html


 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2014, 11:54:02 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102063107

Obama sinks to new low
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2014, 12:05:28 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/food-stamp-recipients-top-46-million-35th-straight-month
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 13, 2014, 08:56:33 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/10/US-Slips-to-12th-in-Economic-Freedom



 :(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 13, 2014, 01:53:05 PM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5455efbe-4fa4-11e4-a0a4-00144feab7de.html#axzz3G3oBFzEX

Blacks getting destroyed under the Obama failed presidency
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2014, 06:00:24 AM
BIG MISSES ACROSS ALL DATA: RETAIL SALES, PRODUCER PRICES, EMPIRE FED ALL WHIFF
BI ^  | 10-15-2014 | Myles Udland

Posted on ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2014‎ ‎8‎:‎55‎:‎26‎ ‎AM by blam

Myles Udland
 October 15, 2014

We just got a slew of bad economic data.

Retail sales in September fell more than expected, producer prices unexpectedly fell, and the New York Fed's Empire manufacturing report came in way below expectations.

Following these reports, the US dollar is falling against the Japanese yen, tumbling back below 107, while US stock futures are sharply lower.

Dow futures are down 145 points, S&P 500 futures are down 22 points, and Nasdaq futures are down 38 points.

Retail sales in September fell 0.3%, and fell 0.2% excluding autos.

Expectations were for sales to show a decline of 0.1% month-over-month, and growth of 0.2% when excluding auto sales.

Last month, retail sales grew 0.6%, and rose 0.3% excluding autos.

Following Wednesday's retail sales report, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macro said, "In one line: Slightly disappointing, but expect much better Q4 numbers... Overall we had hoped for slightly better core numbers, but it is hard to worry about these data given the sustained strength of chain store sales and the massive windfall from plunging gas price."

This chart from the Census Bureau shows the decline in September sales on a month-over-month basis.



(snip)


(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2014, 11:25:09 AM
How is that economy doing lib turds?   8)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 15, 2014, 12:41:11 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-for-oct-15-sell-off-2014-10


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 17, 2014, 09:38:00 AM

Census Bureau: California still has highest U.S. poverty rate



By Dan Walters -
dwalters@sacbee.com
 
 10/16/2014 11:25 AM
  | Updated: 10/16/2014 11:25 AM
 





 
   

 

In this still frame from video provided by the Kasakari For Governor campaign, Neel Kashkari, the Republican candidate for California governor, speaks to the camera during a week he posed as a homeless and unemployed person on the streets of Fresno.       
   

In this still frame from video provided by the Kasakari For Governor campaign, Neel Kashkari, the Republican candidate for California governor, speaks to the camera during a week he posed as a homeless and unemployed person on the streets of Fresno.AP
   

Story


Comments






 

California continues to have – by far – the nation’s highest level of poverty under an alternative method devised by the Census Bureau that takes into account both broader measures of income and the cost of living.

Nearly a quarter of the state’s 38 million residents (8.9 million) live in poverty, a new Census Bureau report says, a level virtually unchanged since the agency first began reporting on the method’s effects.

Under the traditional method of gauging poverty, adopted a half-century ago, California’s rate is 16 percent (6.1 million residents), somewhat above the national rate of 14.9 percent but by no means the highest. That dubious honor goes to New Mexico at 21.5 percent.

But under the alternative method, California rises to the top at 23.4 percent while New Mexico drops to 16 percent and other states decline to as low as 8.7 percent in Iowa.

























The only other state to approach California in the alternate rankings is Nevada at 20 percent, although Washington, D.C., is close at 22.4 percent.

Ever since the Census Bureau first published its “supplemental poverty measure” rankings that placed California at the top a few years ago, poverty has evolved into a political issue.

It’s now routinely cited in official reports and legislative documents, and Neel Kashkari, the Republican candidate for governor, has tried to make it an issue in his uphill challenge to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, even spending several days in Fresno posing as a homeless person to dramatize it.

The Public Policy Institute of California used a similar methodology last year to gauge poverty in the state’s 58 counties, called a California Poverty Measure.

It pegged the statewide poverty rate at 22 percent and found some of the highest rates in the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal communities usually considered affluent due to their high costs of housing. Los Angeles had the highest rate in the state, 26.9 percent, followed by Napa at 25.5 percent.







Call The Bee’s Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns,

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article2916749.html#storylink=cpy
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 20, 2014, 08:17:24 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/20/Politico-Poll-64-Believe-America-is-Out-of-Control


FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 22, 2014, 08:18:08 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/us/nations-confidence-ebbs-at-a-steady-drip.html?_r=0



FAIL
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 28, 2014, 09:28:33 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/11192438/Life-under-Obama-sucks.-And-these-numbers-prove-it.html
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 28, 2014, 10:55:20 AM
US Homeownership Rate Drops To 1983 Levels: Here's Why
Zero Hedge ^  | 10/28/2014 | Tyler Durden

Posted on ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2014‎ ‎12‎:‎32‎:‎40‎ ‎PM by SeekAndFind



The last time US homeownership declined down to 64.4% (which the Census Bureau just reported is what US homeownership declined to from 64.7% in Q2), was back in the fourth quarter of 1983.



It goes without saying that this is about the bearishest news possible for those few who still believe in the American homewonership dream.

Of course, those who have been following real-time rental market trends would be all too aware there is no rebound coming to the homeownership rate. The reason is simple: increasingly fewer can afford to buy, instead having no choice but to rent, which in turn has pushed the median asking rent to record highs. In fact in the past two quarters, the asking rent was just $10 shy of its time highs at $756 per month.



 

But capital allocation preferences aside, while explaining the disparity between rental and homeownership in a world where Renting is the new American Dream, what the charts above don't explain is why there is no incremental demand from all those millions of young Americans who enter the population and, eventually, the workforce. At least on paper.

Earlier today, Bank of America in its Chart of the Day earlier was confused by precisely this:








Population growth of 25-34 year olds outpacing growth in the housing stock: The primary driver of household formation is population growth among 25 to 34 year olds. There is notable divergence with the growth in this age group and the growth in the housing stock. This suggests greater doubling up of households as a result of the recession and weak recovery. Unless doubling up turns into tripling up, household formation should recover over time, creating a need for greater building. Given tight credit conditions, this will tend to drive apartment construction more than single family construction. Either way, the housing stock is lagging well behind demographic fundamentals.

 



Yes, in theory, in a normal world, demand should increase over time. But the world is anything but normal.

Enter: the Millennials.

For the benefit of a very confused Bank of America, and everyone else who missed out weeked chart porn on the financial state of the Millennial, here are some of the key charts which explain why owning a home in the US has become a mirage for an entire generation of Americans. Incidentally, the largest generation in US history.

This is what is happening:









 

And this is why:









 

Bottom line: they may be homeless, but Millennials sure love their smartphones...



Much more here.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on October 29, 2014, 06:45:23 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/29/politics/cnn-poll-economy/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 03, 2014, 11:17:08 AM
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/11/03/share-of-first-time-home-buyers-hits-27-year-low/?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 17, 2014, 08:34:34 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/17/child-homelessless-us_n_6169994.html



Child Homlessness at record levels.   >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 17, 2014, 01:35:00 PM
http://freebeacon.com/issues/the-guy-in-america/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on November 20, 2014, 07:22:54 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/19/America-Among-Least-Happy-Countries


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 01, 2014, 10:04:10 AM
http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/baltimore-poverty


Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 04, 2014, 01:55:54 PM
Sears to accelerate closings, shutter 235 stores
CNBC ^  | December 4,2014 | Krystina Gustafson

Posted on ‎12‎/‎4‎/‎2014‎ ‎3‎:‎42‎:‎34‎ ‎PM by Hojczyk

Sears shares fell Thursday, after the struggling department store announced an adjusted net loss of $296 million—in line with the updated guidance it gave in November.

The retailer also said it's accelerating the number of stores it plans to close this year, boosting its list from the 130 underperforming stores it announced in its second-quarter earnings release, to a total of 235 stores.

Analysts called the move a step in the right direction for the company, which has been tapping into its real estate in creative ways to compensate for downward-spiraling sales. Still, they said the haircut won't be enough on its own to turn the tide at Sears, adding that it needs to close even more stores—and figure out how to become profitable.

According to Retail Metrics, Sears hasn't posted a quarterly profit since fourth quarter 2012.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 11, 2014, 10:39:08 AM
http://westchester.news12.com/news/42-9-million-americans-have-unpaid-medical-bills-1.9703690
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 11, 2014, 10:45:16 AM
42.9 million Americans have unpaid medical bills

December 11, 2014 12:17 AM
 By The Associated Press  By JOSH BOAK (AP Economics Writer)






FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2013 file photo, an injured passenger of a New Jersey ferry is loaded into an ambulance, in New York. Nearly 20 percent of U.S. consumers _42.9 million people _ have unpaid medical debts, according to a new report released Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The findings suggest that many Americans lack the financial resources to pay for health emergencies _ and that the notices from hospitals and insurance companies about the cost of treatment are confusing and baffling. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) (10:52 AM)




Related media
 
WASHINGTON - (AP) -- Nearly 20 percent of U.S. consumers -- 42.9 million people -- have unpaid medical debts, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The findings suggest that many Americans are being trapped by debt because they are confused by the notices they get from hospitals and insurance companies about the cost of treatment. As a result, millions of Americans may be surprised to find they are stuck with lower credit scores, making it harder for them to borrow to buy a home or an automobile.

"When people fall ill and end up at the hospital with unexpected bills, far too often they have entered into a financial maze," CFPB director Richard Cordray said in a speech to be delivered Thursday in Oklahoma City.

Read More:  Westchester Top Stories

On average, a person with only overdue medical debt owes $1,766. Someone with unpaid medical bills and other sources of debt -- possibly credit cards or back taxes -- owes an average of $5,638. More than half of all debt on credit reports stems from medical expenses.

The report by the federal regulator indicates that much of this trouble could be avoided. About half of consumers who only carry medical debt have no other signs of being under financial distress. But complaints to the CFPB indicate that consumers are routinely baffled by medical bills. Unwieldy insurance and hospital statements leave them uncertain as to how much money they owe, the deadline for payment, and which organization should be paid.

The confusion tends to generate disputes from consumers about the unpaid debts. This has prompted the CFPB to also announce Thursday that it will require major consumer reporting agencies to provide regular reports on how they investigate and respond to disputed charges.

The unpaid medical bills have negative repercussions for credit scores, which help determine how much money people can borrow and the interest rates for mortgages and auto loans.

An unpaid bill of at least $100 could lower an otherwise sterling credit score of 780 by over 100 points, the Fair Isaac Corp. told the CFPB based on a previous model it used to calculate creditworthiness.

The firm updated its credit score model in August, putting less weight on unpaid medical bills when predicting the likelihood of repayment. Consumers with only medical expenses in collection would see their credit score increase by a median of 25 points once the new model is fully implemented.

The updated model was announced after a separate CFPB report in May on the impact medical debt had on credit scores.

The latest CFPB analysis overlaps with a separate study released in July by the Urban Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank.

The Urban Institute study found that the share of Americans with debt in collections has remained relatively constant, despite the country as a whole whittling down the size of its credit card and other debts since the Great Recession ended in the middle of 2009. That points to a sizeable share of Americans who are not only struggling to understand medical bills but also have no choice but to take on debts they have little chance of repaying.

The Urban Institute found that 35.1 percent of people with credit records had been reported to collections for debt that averaged $5,178, based on September 2013 records.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 13, 2014, 10:28:38 AM

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Why Middle-Class Wealth Is Withering [Alinsky At Work: Destroy The Middle-Class and Destroy America]
CBSNews ^ | December 13, 2013 | AIMEE PICCHI
Posted on December 13, 2014 at 10:16:14 AM PST by Steelfish

By AIMEE PICCHI December 12, 2014 Why Middle-Class Wealth Is Withering

If the middle class is truly the backbone of America, the country's spine may be close to breaking.

Middle America came out of the Great Recession in a precarious position, sinking into "dissavings" -- when spending is greater than income -- thanks to a nasty combination of stagnant wages and a hit to real estate and investment values, according to a new working paper from New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff.

That's led to a grim outcome, with virtually no change in the country's median wealth between 2010 to 2013, even as asset prices, such as the stock market and housing values, rebounded in the years following the recession, Wolff wrote. The cause? "The high dissavings rate of the middle class," he noted.

d already suffered from several years of relatively stagnant wage gains. From 2007 to 2010, median income slumped almost 7 percent, and median wealth plunged by 44 percent.

So, with the recession over and the economy getting back on track, wouldn't Americans have benefited across the board? Not quite, the study found. While home values and stock prices gained, the middle class failed to see much lift because they fell into a dissavings rate of 9.9 percent relative to median income, eating into their assets to make up for stagnant wages.

"It appears that the middle class was depleting its assets to maintain its previous level of consumption," Wolff wrote. "The evidence, moreover, suggests that middle class households, experiencing stagnating incomes, expanded their debt (at least until 2007) mainly in order to finance normal consumption expenditures rather than to increase their investment portfolio."

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

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on December 13, 2014 at 10:16:14 AM PST by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish
>>So, with the recession over and the economy getting back on track, wouldn’t Americans have benefited across the board?

Its not over for the middle class. We live off a stagnant paycheck, pay inflationary prices in an economy where economists only check the price on the box and not the weight and quality of the contents (the “hamburger-is-steak” rule), and really don’t reap the rewards of a Wall St that is fueled by a steady influx of fiat currency.


2 posted on December 13, 2014 at 10:20:00 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 16, 2014, 09:07:14 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/1-5-millennials-live-poverty-census-bureau-says
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 16, 2014, 09:18:49 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/food-stamp-beneficiaries-exceed-46000000-37-straight-months
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 16, 2014, 07:38:42 PM
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/65-percent-children-live-households-federal-aid-programs
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on December 16, 2014, 08:12:33 PM
+ 5,000,000 fertile illegal aliens to that Dem voting bloc.   
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 16, 2014, 08:19:00 PM
+ 5,000,000 fertile illegal aliens to that Dem voting bloc.   

Bi partisan treason
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: 240 is Back on December 16, 2014, 08:25:25 PM
Bi partisan treason

Jon Stewart did a nice piece on the insane amount of PORK that was added to the bill to get it thru the senate.

I dont think getbiggers of EITHER party can ever again bitch about the other.  It was bi-partisan ransacking of 1/2 of the power the new Repub Congress will have. This was JohnBoehnner effectively neutering Ted Cruz & other conservatives, stapling them to insane spending for half the new congress' time. 

He shit all over repubs & dems alike on this - it took them BOTH to make this bill happen.  The pork was nuts.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 19, 2014, 07:35:30 PM
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-immigrant-workers-account-for-all-employment-growth-since-2007/article/2557626

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on December 22, 2014, 08:04:28 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/existing-home-sales-nov-2014-2014-12
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 19, 2015, 05:03:15 AM
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/middle-class-decline-looms-over-final-years-obama-130212665--business.html




FAILbama
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 23, 2015, 12:26:43 PM
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-23/housing-weak-even-with-government-programs-and-big-bank-interest?cmpid=yhoo
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 25, 2015, 07:27:00 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 26, 2015, 04:34:37 PM

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Biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days, with IBM believed to be scrapping 110K
Daily Mail ^ | 1/26/15 | Thomas Burrows
Posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:41:54 PM EST by Libloather

Biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days, with IBM believed to be scrapping 110,000 of its 430,000 workforce around the world

IBM is preparing to scrap 110,000 of its global 430,000 workforce in the biggest corporate cull in the computer giant's history, a report has revealed.

The company will make the job cuts this week under a plan known internally as 'project chrome', according to US technology blogger Robert Cringely on Forbes website.

IBM is in the process of layoffs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week but said the number of job losses was significantly fewer than had been claimed.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: business; corporate; economy; history; ibm; workforce
To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends
 
Freepers, your Contributions make every difference!
Please keep ‘em coming! Thank you all very much!

1 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:41:54 PM EST by Libloather
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To: Libloather
Big Blue is about to become Big Pink Slip.


2 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:44:34 PM EST by VanDeKoik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: Libloather
Hope and change, mofo.... Each and every single o voter who gets laid off deserves Soooooooooooooooooooooo much. Suffer, you sub human pig filth c-ssers...


3 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:45:15 PM EST by Doctor 2Brains
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To: Libloather
“You didn’t lay that!”


4 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:45:18 PM EST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: Libloather
The Lotus Notes/Domino division will somehow stay alive.


5 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:45:57 PM EST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Libloather
....Off...


6 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:46:18 PM EST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Libloather
Will still be a big company but the fact they had to lay off that many people at once suggests that the company was not being managed properly. The ones in charge should put their own names on top of this list.


7 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:46:19 PM EST by SamAdams76
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To: Libloather
2015 is going to be a year of reckoning.


8 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:46:43 PM EST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Libloather
I’ve Been Moved.

takes on a whole new and serious meaning.


9 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:46:46 PM EST by Responsibility2nd (See Ya On The Road; Al Baby's Mom!)
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To: Libloather
Wow.


10 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:48:18 PM EST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: Libloather
Thanks liberals!


11 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:49:00 PM EST by Veggie Todd (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. TJ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: Libloather
So how many people does Obama need to drop out of the labor force entirely to offset this?


12 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:50:27 PM EST by sphinx
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To: Libloather
Let’s wait and see. Could be making this announcement just to boost stock prices and then all of a sudden they’ll only need to lay off half that number.


13 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:50:49 PM EST by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
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To: SkyPilot
B T T T ! ! ! ©

14 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:51:00 PM EST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: Libloather
Obummer will finish with lower ratings than ANY Prez in US history, if there is still a US.


15 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:51:27 PM EST by gaijin
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To: Libloather
Once again, I read it in the foreign press first.


16 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:51:30 PM EST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Libloather
Biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days, with IBM believed to be scrapping 110,000 of its 430,000 workforce around the world
PFL

17 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:52:56 PM EST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: Libloather
Not to worry....they can get a good job at McDonalds making minimum, and shortly Obama will raise it to $10 so they can raise a family.


18 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:54:25 PM EST by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Libloather
best wishes to good ones laid off in this environment.


19 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:55:40 PM EST by Palio di Siena
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To: Libloather
What proportion of their workforce is still in the US? I don’t think they have many actual worker bees left here.

Naturally, there is headquarters, but you can’t very well scrap finance and HR completely, far less the executive suite.


20 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:57:49 PM EST by proxy_user
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To: Palio di Siena
The H1Bs will no doubt be spared. After the bloodletting, how many more will “magically” appear and be immediately needed?


21 posted on January 26, 2015 at 6:59:14 PM EST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Libloather
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/26/technology/ibm-layoffs/

IBM is denying, but does say there will be some. I think Bloomberg says 10K


22 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:00:14 PM EST by NoNAIS (Yet another Government program not needed.)
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To: wally_bert
The Lotus Notes/Domino division will somehow stay alive.
Maybe they can use that knowledge in their new jobs at Mickey D's.

BTW. Worked one day for them and resigned.

23 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:03:18 PM EST by Texicanus (Texas, it's like a whole 'nother country.)
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To: Libloather
ABCNBCCBSCNNMSLSDNYTLAT reporting this in 3...2...1...


24 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:04:56 PM EST by PROCON (Always give 100%---unless you're donating blood.)
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To: Texicanus
IBM or MickeyD’s?


25 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:05:47 PM EST by JohnnyP
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To: Libloather
Very interesting the whack a mole, er, IBMer is called Project Chrome.

Is it named after Google’s Chrome which may be eating IE’s lunch.


26 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:06:20 PM EST by Grampa Dave (Will French, German & Belgians make anti-terror raids on our White House, AG Dept and Homeland Sec.?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: Libloather

One would think IBM could sell lot of these at $2500 a copy.

27 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:07:42 PM EST by Oliviaforever
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To: Libloather
25% of the workforce?

A minor blip on the road to a thriving economy /s


28 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:07:46 PM EST by mylife
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To: proxy_user
Burlington Vermont is still a big operation. Fishkill ny is a ghost town.


29 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:07:47 PM EST by outpostinmass2
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To: wally_bert
Is Lotus Notes still around?


30 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:08:11 PM EST by BwanaNdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]
To: Texicanus
Mixing Lotus Notes and fast food could not end well.....

Imagine running a cash register with a Notes mentality. Replication, location management, corrupt or missing ID file, bad .INI’s, local versus network, turn on different advanced menus to every common function. The list of disasters is endless.


31 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:08:52 PM EST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]
To: VanDeKoik
The good news is that the unemployment numbers will go down!


32 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:09:09 PM EST by rwoodward ("god, guns and more ammo")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]
To: onyx
Thank God in Heaven, I started a new job today after a year of no income.


33 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:09:15 PM EST by mylife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]
To: sphinx
So how many people does Obama need to drop out of the labor force entirely to offset this?
zer0 will but them all on welfare so it doesn't show up on the unemployment stats.

34 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:09:24 PM EST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]
To: Oliviaforever
They revolutionized the world.

For a while.


35 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:11:29 PM EST by mylife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]
To: BwanaNdege
In my case very much but it’s days are numbered.

Notes on citrix clients isn’t too bad but on a laptop with all the custom modifications to make it work is often another story.

Supporting notes has been an eye opening experience. Nothing I’ve run into begins to compare to it in terms of being awful and seemingly badly designed and made worse.


36 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:12:26 PM EST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]
To: Libloather
“The Crisis is Over.”


37 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:15:38 PM EST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: outpostinmass2
Burlington Vermont is still a big operation. Fishkill ny is a ghost town.
Both sites were sold to GlobalFoundries. They are waiting regulatory approval for the deal to be final. I work at BTV and can't wait for the deal to go through.

38 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:15:55 PM EST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]
To: wally_bert
No matter what anyone thinks of Microsoft, EXCEL is fantastic.
Power to the people!


39 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:16:06 PM EST by mylife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]
To: mylife
I have to give Excel it’s due. It is a really great piece of software. I wished I was an Excel guru but I work around a few.


40 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:17:10 PM EST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: wally_bert
I spent a few months back about 1997 working on becoming a Notes programmer. Thankfully, our Engineering Services department had a better offer for me.


41 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:17:58 PM EST by BwanaNdege
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To: wally_bert
It is such a powerful tool.
OMG!


42 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:18:28 PM EST by mylife
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To: wally_bert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_table


43 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:21:33 PM EST by mylife
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To: JohnnyP
IBM...Showed up for work in Dallas, was told to take next flight to Atlanta. Showed them the “no travel” clause in my employment contract and told them KMA.

Best decision I ever made. Made a very good living fixing their H-1B visa guy’s screw-ups. And didn’t have to teach or train any H-1B visa guys either.

Other than that, IBM software and applications been very very good for my career.

Mickey D’s, never worked for them, but I learned to sprechen sie Tex-Mex there.


44 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:23:21 PM EST by Texicanus (Texas, it's like a whole 'nother country.)
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To: Libloather
This must be what is driving the Kenyan’s Gallup Approval numbers up over 50%.


45 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:24:44 PM EST by FlingWingFlyer (When the hell do I get MY white privilege? I'm tired of busting my @$$ for a living.)
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To: BwanaNdege
My company uses it exclusively. The databases are huge and we must access them on and off-line.


46 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:24:48 PM EST by eyedigress
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To: BwanaNdege
“Is Lotus Notes still around?”

You won’t believe this .. I use a spreadsheet that’s 22 years old and yes it was made for Windows. Installed in 1993. Launch it daily to do my simple business accounting.

Anyone want to venture a guess? Made by Borland.


47 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:26:41 PM EST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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To: mylife
EXCEL is great especially working with Apache POI to programmatically manipulate spreadsheets.


48 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:27:06 PM EST by dfwgator
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To: outpostinmass2
As is Endicott, NY.


49 posted on January 26, 2015 at 7:31:01 PM EST by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician. Some assembly required.)
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Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Straw Man on January 26, 2015, 04:40:57 PM
Jesus 333 , can you at least learn how to cut and paste

Since this is a global company and these are global layoffs what exactly is your point in posting this
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 28, 2015, 08:44:41 AM
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/woman-in-custody-after-bellevue-bank-robbery



Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2015, 06:49:48 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/30/economic-growth-gdp_n_6578782.html


GDP slowing down again
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on January 30, 2015, 10:41:57 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-past-six-years-have-been-really-really-hard-country_832112.html
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 11, 2015, 01:27:43 PM
http://www.infowars.com/cnbc-anchors-stunned-there-is-no-economic-growth/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 12, 2015, 10:51:20 AM
Jobless claims rise sharply, top 300,000 again
MarketWatch ^  | 2/12/2015 | Jeffry Bartash

Posted on ‎2‎/‎12‎/‎2015‎ ‎12‎:‎42‎:‎50‎ ‎PM by fhayek

ASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits topped the 300,000 mark in early February for the fourth time in the past six weeks, a sign that the pace of layoffs is starting to level off after an extended decline.

Initial jobless claims increased by 25,000 to 304,000 in the seven days from Feb 1 to Feb. 7, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to rise to a seasonally adjusted 296,000.


(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 13, 2015, 04:52:08 AM
http://www.westernjournalism.com/economy-expert-reveals-2-minutes-pure-truth-obamas-economy/#WlSE50rOxzFkKVa2.97



 ;)
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 24, 2015, 11:58:22 AM
Yellen: Unemployment Rate Looks 'Less Rosy' When Part-Time and Discouraged Workers Are Counted
CNS News.com ^  | February 24,2015 | Ali Meyer

Posted on ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2015‎ ‎2‎:‎54‎:‎36‎ ‎PM by Hojczyk

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the U-6 unemployment rate--which includes people who are working part-time for economic reasons and those who are marginally attached to the labor force--“definitely shows a less rosy picture” of employment in the country.

People "marginally attached" to the labor force "are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for one work sometime in the past 12 months."

In January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "U-3" unemployment rate, which is the one generally reported, was 5.7 percent. U-6 was 11.3 percent.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on February 25, 2015, 06:16:25 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/us-homeownership-rate-hits-20-year-low
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 03, 2015, 02:19:26 PM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102473872

Target cutting thousands of jobs
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 04, 2015, 08:22:53 AM
http://www.businessinsider.com/rbs-plans-to-cut-a-shocking-amount-of-its-investment-bank-jobs-2015-3
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 06, 2015, 09:12:30 AM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/56023000-record-number-women-not-labor-force
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 06, 2015, 12:56:13 PM
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/628-labor-force-participation-has-hovered-near-37-year-low-11-months
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on March 07, 2015, 09:28:31 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/06/total-net-employment-gains-in-the-u-s-since-the-recession-still-went-to-foreign-born/
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 07, 2016, 09:15:57 AM
http://nypost.com/2016/07/06/a-staggering-percentage-of-americans-are-too-poor-to-shop


FNG obama - worst ever
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 28, 2016, 01:36:00 PM
Millennials Cause Home Ownership to Drop to It's Lowest Level Since 1965
NBC News ^ | July 28, 2016 | Diana Olick
Posted on 7/28/2016, 4:21:21 PM by GuavaCheesePuff

After rising just over a decade ago to its highest level ever, the nation's home ownership rate fell to match its all-time low and could drop even further in the months to come.

In the second quarter of this year, the rate fell to 62.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted, which is the same as it was in 1965, when the U.S. Census started tracking the metric. During the epic housing boom in the mid-2000s, the rate soared as high as 69.2 percent. That was when politicians touted the so-called "ownership society."

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

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on July 28, 2016, 06:33:10 PM
That slender black fella who resides on Pennsylvania Avenue sure owns the fuck out of your feeble mind.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on July 29, 2016, 05:48:34 AM
That slender black fella who resides on Pennsylvania Avenue sure owns the fuck out of your feeble mind.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-29/u-s-economy-grew-a-less-than-forecast-1-2-in-second-quarter

Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: andreisdaman on July 29, 2016, 07:37:10 AM
That slender black fella who resides on Pennsylvania Avenue sure owns the fuck out of your feeble mind.

I've been saying this for years...have you seen all of my ass-kicking threads?????......unemployment at 4.9%...and SC still has the nerve to say the economy is bad.......its embarassing how feeble his mind is
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: AbrahamG on July 29, 2016, 07:37:33 PM
I've been saying this for years...have you seen all of my ass-kicking threads?????......unemployment at 4.9%...and SC still has the nerve to say the economy is bad.......its embarassing how feeble his mind is

He shits all over the GOP.  Jobs, healthcare, terrorists killed.  Nuclear deal with Iran.  He could have gone much further left for my liking, but he's the best since FDR and in the upper echelon of ATG Presidents.
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on August 10, 2016, 07:20:07 AM
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-attacks-hillary-clinton-emails-released/story?id=41257876


 >:(
Title: Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"
Post by: Soul Crusher on September 13, 2017, 12:52:25 PM
U.S. Investor Optimism Rises Again, Hits 17-Year High
Gallup ^ | 09/13/2017 | Jim Norman

Posted on 9/13/2017, 3:49:17 PM by


Index rises to +138, highest since +147 in September 2000
Hike is latest in 98-point rise since February 2016

68% optimistic about stock market -- tied for highest percentage on record
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new surge of optimism among U.S. investors has pushed the Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index to its highest level since September 2000. The index, after rising in every quarter since the start of 2016, leveled off in the second quarter at +124 before rising to its current +138 in the third quarter.

U.S. Investor Optimism, 1996-2017
The latest boost in optimism pushes the index almost 100 points higher than the +40 score measured in February 2016. The 98-point hike over the past 18 months is the largest increase in the 20-year history of the index that is not a rebound immediately after a major drop in optimism.

The results come from a July 28-Aug. 6 Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index survey of U.S. investors with $10,000 or more invested in stocks, bonds or mutual funds. The seven items that constitute the index include three on personal finances (meeting long-term investment goals, meeting short-term investment goals and maintaining income) and four on the economy (economic growth, the stock market, unemployment and inflation). The survey was in the field as the Dow Jones industrial average approached, then surpassed, the 22,000-point milestone for the first time.


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Investors' Optimism About Stock Market Matches 1999-2000 Record High

One of the key factors in the robust third-quarter index is investors' growing confidence in the stock market.

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