FedUpUSA

Archive for December 16th, 2011

How long will it be before this happens here?  Just how far away are we from this happening?

Answer:  With the passage of NDAA through both Houses of Congress, not as long as you think and not so far away.

Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don’t make dramatic changes immediately.  If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them.  Just “tweaking” things here and there is not going to fix this economy.  We truly do need a fundamental change in direction.  America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding.  If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable.  Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

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.

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.

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.

The Economic Collapse

I’ve watched this movement, I’ve talked to people within it, I’ve observed.

And now I have to ask the salient question: Where do you actually stand on one important part of the issues facing this nation — and indeed the world?

You need to decide.  And the question being asked here is simple: Do you or do you not accept, and formulate all of your other views and premises, around the following central point — “Government must spend no more than it taxes.”

It’s a yes or no question and no weaseling is allowed.

A “yes” answer means, incidentally, that the government must cut spending by some 45%, raise taxes by 45% of the budget in received funds (not “rates” on some group — incidentally this is pretty close to a 100% tax increase!), or some combination of the two – right now.

Now let me put the gauntlet down in front of you: If you don’t support this, and come out for an immediate cessation of all deficit spending pretty much in the contemporary, immediate format, I cannot support you — and neither can anyone else with any hint of intelligence.

I recognize that “the 99%” believe they got screwed by the banksters (the “1%”, which really ought to be the 0.01%.)  You’re right.  But screwing others will not make you whole.  You cannot become better off economically by taking a dollar from one pocket and putting it in the other.

This means that the “Free $hit” army nonsense has to be eliminated from your ranks, from your speech, from your demands and from your protests.  And it has to happen now.

It should happen because you voluntarily recognize that continuing it is (1) destructive because it is (2) impossible to provide and thus (3) you will contribute to the destruction of this nation and her government if these demands continue.

Note that this does not mean you can’t argue for justice.  Justice occurs when you borrow money and can’t pay — you go bankrupt and lose your “stuff” and your credit rating.  But it also means that the person who loaned the money loses his or her investment at the same time.  That is justice — not getting a “free house” or “free education” because you “deserve” it.

It is the latter half of the check and balance found in justice that hasn’t happened.  It is the frauds involved in making bogus loans, securitizing bogus loans and lying about them, then knowingly selling crap labeled as “Grade A Chocolate”, cost-shifting in the medical system and exempting student loans from bankruptcy that has led to these problems.   Private banks put all this crap together and lobbied for it, getting the ability to steal from the common man in the process because people demanded “free stuff” and to get it government had to deficit spend.  That in turn resulted in the ability to cover up the economic rot caused by offshoring your jobs and destroying our economy — for a while.

The limits of that cycle have been reached.  It thus now will end, not because someone wants it to or doesn’t, but because the math mandates that it cannot continue.

If you continue to press for this destructive cycle to continue the damage that will be done our nation, to you, to your children and grandchildren will go up exponentially.  That damage may reach the level of government and civil society collapse, and if it does odds are that what comes out the other side is much worse than what we have now in terms of corruption and loss of freedom.

In short, we have to be adults and cut that crap out — right now.

So read the question above, debate it and then answer it.  Do so in your General Assemblies, on your mailing lists, in your public pronouncements.  But do it soon, because just as the Tea Party was co-opted by the “Guns, Gays and God” radical right wingnuts I see the same bomb-throwing rhetorical garbage corrupting what you’re trying to do from the radical left.

There is no solution in the GGG radical right wing.  It won’t work because it does not demand the cessation of the theft and fraud, the end of deficit spending right here, right now, today, and the prosecution of those who committed fraud upon the public everywhere we can find it.

But likewise there is no solution in the “bomb-throwing anarchist” left wing or calls for more “free stuff.”  It won’t work for the same reason: It does not demand the cessation of the theft and fraud, the end of deficit spending right here, right now, today, and the prosecution of those who committed fraud upon the public everywhere we can find it.

You must, and only you can, decide.

Is OWS a force for positive change, or have the real and just complaints that led to your formation been co-opted by those who have no solution to offer that can actually work and will advance justice and freedom for everyone in society, just as the Tea Party was co-opted and hi-jacked?

I, and others, are waiting for your answer.

It seems that more and more Americans are becoming desperate enough to steal scrap metal in order to survive this economy.  With staggering unemployment figures at an all-time high; home foreclosures in the millions, and with little hope of ever achieving that “American Dream”, stealing scrap metal here and there to put food on their tables may be the only option left for some Americans.

All over America today, desperate people are doing desperate things.  As the economy continues to crumble, the American people are starting to become very frustrated.  Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs.  As hopelessness and despair rise, an increasing number of Americans are turning to crime or are lashing out in unpredictable ways.  Many parts of America are rapidly turning into lawless hellholes.  In some of the areas that have been the hardest hit by the declining economy, police forces are being severely cut back and desperate criminals are being given a lot of freedom to roam.  In fact, in some major cities (such as Oakland, California), the police have announced that there are certain types of crime that they will not even respond to any more.  For a couple of decades, crime had been steadily declining in the United States, but now we are seeing very disturbing reports from all over the nation of desperate people doing desperate things as they scramble to survive or as they vent their frustrations.  If the examples that you are about to read are any indication, then America is headed down a very dark path.

• According to the Demos report “The Downslide before the Downturn,” five years ago, three-quarters of middle-class families lacked sufficient financial assets to cover even a subset of their essential expenses for a few months if they lost their income or hit a bump in the road.
• And the last five years have been bumpy indeed. With no equity in their homes, no savings to speak of, and no adequate safety net in place, many families have turned to credit cards to pay for essentials. More than 40 percent have used credit cards to buy necessities like groceries or gas — putting off payments and inflating them with astronomical interest rates. Already in a hole financially, these families have dug themselves deeper just so they can survive.
• When you are barely getting by, and it’s already a hard choice between putting food on the table and gas in your car, every unexpected expense — from a kid’s growth spurt and need for new shoes to having to repair your roof — is a stressful event.
• This is exactly what millions of working- and middle-class families have been dealing with. The wild weather since late August has only added to the pressure.
• One grandmother in Florida has been accused of trying to sell her newborn grandson for $75,000.
• In Antioch, California a total of approximately 300 power poles were recently knocked down by thieves and stripped of their copper wiring.
• In Minnesota recently, a mob of teen girls brutally pummeled a mother and her two daughters until they were black and blue.  Apparently the mob of teen girls was enraged over a pair of missing sunglasses.
• In Asheville, North Carolina thieves recently took off with 4 metal tables and 16 metal chairs that were sitting outside a pizzeria.
• In Florida, thieves have actually been stealing storm drain covers.
• In Oregon, thieves recently broke into a Salvation Army community center and stole 3 large air conditioning units.  Now all the people that come to that facility for help and for community programs this summer will be absolutely sweltering.
• In the Cleveland area, two young boys that had set up a lemonade stand were robbed in broad daylight.  The crooks got away with approximately 12 dollars.
• In Oklahoma, thieves recently broke into a church and stole “arts and crafts supplies meant to help teach bible stories to children”.
• A 59 year old man from North Carolina named Richard James Verone was so desperate for money that he actually robbed a bank and got caught on purpose so that he could be put in prison and be given free health care.
• In the Cleveland area, two young boys that had set up a lemonade stand were robbed in broad daylight. The crooks got away with approximately 12 dollars.
• In Oklahoma, thieves recently broke into a church and stole “arts and crafts supplies meant to help teach bible stories to children“.
• A 59 year old man from North Carolina named Richard James Verone was so desperate for money that he actually robbed a bank and got caught on purpose so that he could be put in prison and be given free health care.

The Coming Depression

Now we’re talking…

60 Minutes’ December 11, 2011 interview of President Obama included a claim by Obama that, unfortunately, did not lead the interviewer to ask the obvious, essential follow-up questions.

“I can tell you, just from 40,000 feet, that some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn’t illegal.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57341024/interview-with-president-obama-the-full-transcript/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Obama did not explain what Wall Street behavior he found least ethical or what unethical Wall Street actions he believed was not illegal. It would have done the world (and Obama) a great service had he been asked these questions. He would not have given a coherent answer because his thinking on these issues has never been coherent. If he had to explain his position he, and the public, would recognize it was indefensible.

Bill is a very bright guy who I’ve interviewed on Blogtalk before.

His blind spot is in his failure to recognize the deadly embrace between Congress, the Executive and the Banks.  Without the bubbles that the banks inflate Congress and The Executive cannot overspend, and without that offshoring of jobs cannot happen, the looting cannot happen, none of it can happen.

In short you have Bill’s criminogenic environment but in point of fact it is mutually profitable for everyone except the ordinary person.  He gets serially raped by these practices.  The truth of not only the underlying practice but its duration is found in my now-many-times-reproduced chart:

There is no resolution to this problem that does not put a stop to the behavior that causes that chart to come into existence and be maintained.

There is also no financial stability possible until this practice ends.

Government cannot spend more than it takes in via taxes.  It’s that simple.  Nobody wishes to deal with this but it is the intentional refusal to deal with this fundamental truth head-on and live within it’s confines that leads to all of these frauds.

In 2007 and 2008 I started publishing The Market Ticker focusing on this exact point and the abuse of leverage in the financial system.  Nobody wanted to hear it.  Then the 2008 collapse happened.  You’d think that the pain of that collapse would have forced the government to act, to force financial institutions to pull that leverage out of the system and reverse their perversities, to put a stop to the stupidity.  Perhaps support for a short period of time while that was done would have been reasonable, perhaps not.

But none of that happened.  Instead, what happened is that the support was provided and the government did it level damned best to prevent the removal of the leverage that was endemic in the system.  Specifically, everything possible was done to prevent the clearing of home prices and deflation of those “values” (which were utter and complete crap – and still are.)

Now we’re doing the same crap: This morning it is reported on CNBC that European banks are buying sovereign debt at 5% coupons and borrowing the money from the ECB at near zero for three years.  This is a scam as BASEL allows them to buy these bonds with zero capital!

This is a doomsday trade: If the trade “works” and there is no blowup they’ll make more money than they’ve ever made before.  If it blows up the guys on the other side of the trade will get zero because they can’t pay.  Instead of leverage coming out it’s being added!

This crap has to stop.

Bill closes his column (and you should read the whole thing) with:

To date, Bush and Obama have prosecuted none of the mortgage frauds in the top nine levels. I urge reporters to ask him to explain three things about his statements to 60 Minutes. • Why are there no prosecutions of the felons that drove the crisis and occupy the nine worst rungs of unethical and destructive acts? • Explain the five unethical acts by elite financial institutions that you consider the most destructive and least ethical – but which you believe to be legal. How do you rank the degree of unethical conduct and destruction in those acts? • What specific statutory provisions did you propose to make those five unethical acts illegal? As enacted, which provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act made those five unethical acts illegal? Who has been prosecuted for those formerly legal but seriously unethical and destructive acts that were made illegal by the Dodd-Frank Act?

Reporters will have to be persistent in coordinating their follow-up questions to get Obama to provide direct answers to these questions. I request that private citizens write President Obama to ask him to provide specific, written answers to these three questions. I will be proposing a series of questions that I will urge citizens to demand answers to because it is clear that the regular media will rarely ask demanding questions of elite politicians or bankers. It is up to us to hold them accountable and end the doctrine of Presidential Amnesty for Contributors.

The important factor here Bill is that it’s not just PACs, although certainly “money in politics” hasn’t helped.  It’s the fact that no matter where you look Congress and The Executive have not only bought into the scam of ever-increasing leverage in the system they have been some of the worst abusers of this by making political promises that cannot be fulfilled any other way.

We will never address the true cause of the problem until we come to understand and accept that the promises made by the political class to Americans in the form of forward entitlement promises and similar games in the federal budget process are part and parcel of the scam and they are entirely reliant on the banking system running a serial bubble machine and never being forced to reconcile their books lest all of those promises disappear in a puff of smoke!

Neither left or right sides of the aisle will tell the truth about this — but in fact we must if we are to ever find economic stability.