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

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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 ...

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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.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/homeless-rate-in-the-us-remains-steady_n_2269092.html#comments


O-THUG economy

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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.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/paul-krugman-american-eco_n_2270362.html#comments


Ha ha ha ah ha ha ha

Krugfag = fail

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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? 

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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:

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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.

[GigantorX]

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.

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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 ...

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http://www.businessinsider.com/the-true-reason-many-americans-are-broke-2012-12


Great job by the Fed here. 

[GigantorX]

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!

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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.

[AbrahamG]

Stupid is flowing like a river.....

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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 ...

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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.

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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.

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http://www.dailyjobcuts.com


Geeeeeezzzzzz

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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.

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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.

[AbrahamG]

What's the most dicks you've sucked in a single day?

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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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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.

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http://cnsnews.com/news/article/unemployment-rises-women-african-americans-december

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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