Posts Tagged ‘Budget’

Even though the U.S. financial system nearly experienced a total meltdown in late 2008, the truth is that most Americans simply have no idea what is happening to the U.S. economy.  Most people seem to think that the nasty little recession that we have just been through is almost over and that we will be experiencing another time of economic growth and prosperity very shortly.  But this time around that is not the case.  The reality is that we are being sucked into an economic black hole from which the U.S. economy will never fully recover.

The problem is debt.  Collectively, the U.S. government, the state governments, corporate America and American consumers have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  Our massive debt binge has financed our tremendous growth and prosperity over the last couple of decades, but now the day of reckoning is here.

And it is going to be painful.

The following are 20 reasons why the U.S. economy is dying and is simply not going to recover….

#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression?  Well, the “second wave” of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it.  A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages.  The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years….

#2) The Federal Housing Administration has announced plans to increase the amount of up-front cash paid by new borrowers and to require higher down payments from those with the poorest credit.  The Federal Housing Administration currently backs about 30 percent of all new home loans and about 20 percent of all new home refinancing loans.  Tighter standards are going to mean that less people will qualify for loans.  Less qualifiers means that there will be less buyers for homes.  Less buyers means that home prices are going to drop even more.

#3) It is getting really hard to find a job in the United States.  A total of 6,130,000 U.S. workers had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in December 2009.  That was the most ever since the U.S. government started keeping track of this statistic in 1948.  In fact, it is more than double the 2,612,000 U.S. workers who were unemployed for a similar length of time in December 2008.  The reality is that once Americans lose their jobs they are increasingly finding it difficult to find new ones.  Just check out the chart below….

#4) In December, there were also 929,000 “discouraged” workers who are not counted as part of the labor force because they have “given up” looking for work.  That is the most since the U.S. government first started keeping track of discouraged workers in 1949.  Many Americans have simply given up and are now chronically unemployed.

#5) Some areas of the U.S. are already virtually in a state of depression.  The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent.

#6) For decades, our leaders in Washington pushed us towards ”a global economy” and told us it would be so good for us.  But there is a flip side.  Now workers in the U.S. must compete with workers all over the world, and our greedy corporations are free to pursue the cheapest labor available anywhere on the globe.  Millions of jobs have already been shipped out of the United States, and Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades. The days when blue collar workers could live the American Dream are gone and they are not going to come back.

#7) During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time around the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.

#8) All of this unemployment is putting severe stress on state unemployment funds.  At this point, 25 state unemployment insurance funds have gone broke and the Department of Labor estimates that 15 more state unemployment funds will likely go broke within two years and will need massive loans from the federal government just to keep going.

#9) 37 million Americans now receive food stamps, and the program is expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.  The United States of America is very quickly becoming a socialist welfare state.

#10) The number of Americans who are going broke is staggering.  1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#11) For decades, the fact that the U.S. dollar was the reserve currency of the world gave the U.S. financial system an unusual degree of stability.  But all of that is changing.  Foreign countries are increasingly turning away from the dollar to other currencies.  For example, Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.

#12) The recent economic downturn has left some localities totally bankrupt.  For instance, Jefferson County, Alabama is on the brink of what would be the largest government bankruptcy in the history of the United States – surpassing the 1994 filing by Southern California’s Orange County.

#13) The U.S. is facing a pension crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  Virtually all pension funds in the United States, both private and public, are massively underfunded.  With millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire, there is simply no way on earth that all of these obligations can be met.  Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the collective unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states for Forbes magazine.  So what was the total?  3.2 trillion dollars.

#14) Social Security and Medicare expenses are wildly out of control.  Once again, with millions of Baby Boomers now at retirement age there is simply going to be no way to pay all of these retirees what they are owed.

#15) So will the U.S. government come to the rescue?  The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion.  The chart below is a bit outdated, but it does show the reckless expansion of U.S. government debt over the past several decades.  To get an idea of where we are now, just add at least 3 trillion dollars on to the top of the chart….

#16) So has the U.S. government learned anything from these mistakes?  No.  In fact, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $2 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would allow the U.S. national debt to reach approximately $14.3 trillion.

#17) It is going to become even harder for the U.S. government to pay the bills now that tax receipts are falling through the floor.  U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% in the year that ended on September 30th, 2009.

#18) So where will the U.S. government get the money?  From the Federal Reserve of course.  The Federal Reserve bought approximately 80 percent of all U.S. Treasury securities issued in 2009.  In other words, the U.S. government is now being financed by a massive Ponzi scheme.

#19) The reckless expansion of the money supply by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve is going to end up destroying the U.S. dollar and the value of the remaining collective net worth of all Americans.  The more dollars there are, the less each individual dollar is worth.  In essence, inflation is like a hidden tax on each dollar that you own.  When they flood the economy with money, the value of the money you have in your bank accounts goes down.  The chart below shows the growth of the U.S. money supply.  Pay particular attention to the very end of the chart which shows what has been happening lately.  What do you think this is going to do to the value of the U.S. dollar?….

#20) When a nation practices evil, there is no way that it is going to be blessed in the long run.  The truth is that we have become a nation that is dripping with corruption and wickedness from the top to the bottom.  Unless this fundamentally changes, not even the most perfect economic policies in the world are going to do us any good.  In the end, you always reap what you sow.  The day of reckoning for the U.S. economy is here and it is not going to be pleasant.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

SO, what do you do now? Prepare

I caught wind of this on a forum I’m a member of. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. More accurately I couldn’t believe I was reading it for the first time. H.R. 2647 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 is.

“A bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2010 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.”

Here’s one of the “other purposes”. Pay close attention to the phrase “as determined by the Attorney General”. You know, the one that thinks we’re a Nation of Cowards.

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SEC. 524. PROHIBITION ON RECRUITMENT, ENLISTMENT, OR RETENTION OF PERSONS ASSOCIATED OR AFFILIATED WITH GROUPS ASSOCIATED WITH HATE-RELATED VIOLENCE AGAINST GROUPS OR PERSONS OR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

Section 504 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘(c) Persons Associated or Affiliated With Hate Groups-

‘(1) PROHIBITION- A person associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence against groups or persons or the United States Government, as determined by the Attorney General, may not be recruited, enlisted, or retained in the armed forces.

‘(2) DEFINITION OF HATE GROUP- In this subsection, the terms ‘group associated with hate-related violence’ or ‘hate group’ mean the following:

‘(A) Groups or organizations that espouse or engage in acts of violence against other groups or minorities based on ideals of hate, ethnic supremacies, white supremacies, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, or other bigotry ideologies.

‘(B) Groups or organizations engaged in criminal gang activity including drug and weapons trafficking and smuggling.

‘(C) Groups or organizations that espouse an intention or expectation of armed revolutionary activity against the United States Government, or the violent overthrow of the United States Government.

‘(D) Groups or organizations that espouse an intention or expectation of armed activity in a ‘race war’.

‘(E) Groups or organizations that encourage members to join the armed forces in order to obtain military training to be used for acts of violence against minorities, other groups, or the United States Government.

‘(F) Groups or organizations that espouse violence based on race, creed, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

‘(G) Other groups or organizations that are determined by the Attorney General to be of a violent, extremist nature.

‘(3) EVIDENCE OF ASSOCIATION OR AFFILIATION WITH HATE GROUP- The following shall constitute evidence that a person is associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence:

‘(A) Individuals possessing tattoos or other body markings indicating association or affiliation with a hate group.

‘(B) Individuals known to have attended meetings, rallies, conferences, or other activities sponsored by a hate group.

‘(C) Individuals known to be involved in online activities with a hate group, including being engaged in online discussion groups or blog or other postings that support, encourage, or affirm the group’s extremist or violent views and goals.

‘(D) Individuals who are known to have in their possession photographs, written testimonials (including diaries or journals), propaganda, or other materials indicating involvement or affiliation with a hate group. Such materials can include photographs, written materials relating to or referring to extreme hatred that are clearly not of an academic nature, possession of objects that venerate or glorify hate-inspired violence, and related materials, as determined by the Attorney General.

‘(E) Individuals espousing the intent to acquire military training for the purpose of using such training towards committing acts of violence of a purpose not affiliated with the armed forces.

‘(4) REQUIREMENTS FOR RECRUITERS AND ENLISTMENT PROCESSING STATIONS- A military recruiters may not enlist, or assist in enlisting, a person who is associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence, as evidenced pursuant to paragraph (3). A person at any military enlistment processing station who, during the screening process, is found to be affiliated or associated with a hate group (including through admitting to any such affiliation or association on any form or document) is automatically prohibited from enlisting.

‘(5) SEPARATION-

‘(A) SEPARATION REQUIRED- A person discovered or determined to be associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence, as evidenced pursuant to paragraph (3), shall be immediately discharged from the armed forces, in the manner prescribed in regulations regarding discharge from service.

‘(B) EXCEPTION- Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a member of the armed forces who has renounced the member’s previous affiliation or association with a group associated with hate-related violence, as determined by the commanding officer of the member.

‘(6) REPORTING REQUIREMENT- Not later than April 1, 2010, and annually thereafter, the Secretary concerned shall submit to the Committees on Armed Service of the Senate and House of Representatives a report–

‘(A) on the presence in the armed forces of members who are associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence and describing the actions of the Secretary to discharge such members; and

‘(B) describing the actions of the Secretary to prevent persons who are associated or affiliated with a hate group from enlisting.’.

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So it will be up to one man to decide who’s on ze hate list. Welcome to 1930′s Germany. Oh maybe they’ll appoint a hate czar.

Here’s a link to the H.R. 2647 0n govtrack.us that will take you directly to this section 524 of the bill. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-2647&version=eh&nid=t0%3Aeh%3A1655 You have to click to get it to load and then wait a minute for it. It’s a big one.

Here’s a link to the US Code 10,504 that will be affected if the HR2647 goes through Congress and is signed by the President. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode10/usc_sec_10_00000504—-000-.html A link to this is also on the govtrack.us site at the 524 section of the HR2647.

Let’s see who voted against HR 2647 in the house. This is weird 389 Ayes and 22 Noes, 20 of which were Democrats including Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, and Jessie Jackson. Well that just makes it all ok doesn’t it. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-460

And here’s the Gentleman from my home State who proposed the amendment. June 26, 2009: Hastings’ Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act Passes House Oddly enough that amendment doesn’t show at Thomas.gov unless you actually download the PDF of it. How’s that for transparency.

Here’s some more info on the upstanding Congressman Hastings

I tried to make a link to thomas.gov of the bill and/or pdf file of it but all their pages are loaded dynamically with cgi scripts so it’s not possible but you can go there and search for the bill number H.R. 2647 and the one appended with EH is the version that passed. Once you have navigated to that you’ll see a link on the left for GPO’s PDF Display. That’s the (Government Print Office) print version. www.thomas.gov

UPDATE: 7/8/09 If you find the [HR 2647 EH] on thomas you can click on section 523 to make 524 show. Must be a bug or glitch. Yeah, I can see Gibbs saying that now. I kind of like the pdf myself for impressing people when I show it to them. It’s got that nice official logo at the top of an eagle representing freedom. “Hey check out this Appropriations Act”  Also, section 524 is on page 152 of the pdf.

I also see that:

7/6/2009:

Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 96.

Strange Days

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But Since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead..

This has really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn’t know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty ‘Obama’ bumper stickers on our employees’ cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can’t think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change, I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

I don’t know which is worse. At least the last administration tried to hide the fact that every decision was based on profit. This one’s just so obvious. 5 top officials including Pelosi and Frank, Oh and Waxman, yeah the guy that wrote the bill,  just invested in green companies. Talk about writing your own ticket. Must be nice.

Another big spending bill pushed on through without proper reading or time to amend it. Oh wait it was amended at 3:00 in the morning and voted on the following no make that the same day. It was not on display available to read as it’s supposed to be. Organized crime has truly taken over. Of course it’s been this way for years. Who runs our country? Haliburton, GE, Wall Street, Pharmaceutical companies, WalMart? All of the above. It’s not us that’s for damn sure. Millions of phone calls to OUR Representatives were 20:1 against the cap and trade yet it passes the senate.

Now phrases like “arm twisting” are being talked about. The President even “made some calls”. What is going on? I’m starting to wonder if it would do any good to vote them all out. Will the new ones simply be bought or coerced just like the old ones. It’s time for a new kind of “Peoples Court”. We the People find you guilty of corruption at the highest level and sentence you to life in debt just like you did to our children. Oh and all of your assets will be used to pay off the deficit you created. Next case please. Hey just a joke guys, no need to send in the black SUVs. Nothin to see here, move along. I’m just a little guy, a simple voter, I have no power, no reason to be alarmed.

Emergency Tea Party Protests for today and the next five days are being organized across the country. Find yours at http://www.teapartypatriots.org/

I love visualizations.  They did for get to mention the 78,000 jobs created.

IN WASHINGTON!