Author Topic: Misery Index: The Obama Depression - "Private sector doing just Fine"  (Read 151808 times)

LurkerNoMore

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #550 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?

Soul Crusher

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #551 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. 

LurkerNoMore

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #552 on: December 12, 2011, 09:16:48 AM »

Definately - you stalking people like a jilted lover. 

Gay projections = evidence of mental instability.

xpac2

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #553 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?

Soul Crusher

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #554 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?

 ::)  ::)


Soul Crusher

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #555 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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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

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #556 on: December 13, 2011, 01:28:37 PM »

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #557 on: December 13, 2011, 01:58:21 PM »

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #558 on: December 13, 2011, 02:12:32 PM »
meltdown


MONSTER TROLLING.    ::)  ::)

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #559 on: December 13, 2011, 05:11:19 PM »

MONSTER TROLLING.    ::)  ::)

 Gayer then posting over 74000 times about politics on a bodybuilding forum  ::)

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #560 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 ...

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #561 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 ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Misery Index: The Great Obama Depression
« Reply #562 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.


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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #563 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 ...

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #564 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

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #565 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?   

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #566 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!!!!!

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #567 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 ...


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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #570 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. 

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #571 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.

 ::)

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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #572 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.


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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #573 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.


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Re: Misery Index: The Obama Depression & Intentional Economic Collapse
« Reply #574 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