No,
the economy is most definitely not “recovering”. Despite
what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media,
the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was
prior to the last recession. In fact, we are still pretty much
where we were at when the last recession finally ended. When
the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower
level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized
at this much lower level. For example, the percentage of
working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably
flat for the past four years.
We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even
worse. It is almost as if someone has hit the “pause button”
on the U.S. economy. But things are definitely not getting
better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false
stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will
accelerate once again. The following are 17 facts to show to
anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine…
#2 Consumer
spending for durable goods has dropped by
3.23 percent since
November. This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is
ahead.
#3 Major
retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have
seen since
the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20
percent of
all families in the United States do not have a single member that is
employed. That means that one out of every five families in the
entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There
are 1.3
million fewer jobs in
the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December
2007. Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily
since that time.
#6 According
to a
new report from the National Employment Law Project,
the quality of the jobs that have been “created” since the end of
the last recession does not match the quality of the jobs lost during
the last recession…
- Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
- Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
- Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth.
#7 After
adjusting for inflation, men who work full-time in America today make
less moneythan
men who worked full-time in America 40 years ago.
#10 The
middle class in Canada now makes
more money than
the middle class in the United States does.
#11 According
to one recent study, 40
percent of
all Americans could not come up with $2000 right now even if there
was a major emergency.
#12 Less
than one out of every four Americans has enough money put away to
cover six months of expenses if
there was a job loss or major emergency.
#14 As
I wrote about the other day, there are now 49
million Americans that
are dealing with food insecurity.
#15 Ten
years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered
the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1
margin. But now the number of women in the U.S. on food
stamps actually
exceeds the
number of women that have jobs.
#17 The
number of Americans receiving benefits from the federal government
each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private
sector by
more than 60 million.
Taken individually, those numbers are quite
remarkable.
Taken collectively, they are absolutely
breathtaking.
Yes, things have been improving for the wealthy
for the last several years. The stock market has soared to new
record highs and real estate prices in the Hamptons have skyrocketed
to unprecedented heights.
But
that is not the real economy. In the real economy, the middle
class is being squeezed out of existence. The quality of our
jobs is declining and prices just keep rising. This reality was
reflected quite well in a comment that one of my readers left on
one of my recent articles…
It is getting worse each passing month. The
food bank I help out, has barely squeaked by the last 3 months.
Donors are having to pull back, to take care of their own families.
Wages down, prices up, simple math tells you we can not hold out much
longer. Things are going up so fast, you have to adopt a new way of
thinking. Example I just had to put new tires on my truck. Normally I
would have tried to get by to next winter. But with the way prices
are moving, I decide to get them while I could still afford them. It
is the same way with food. I see nothing that will stop the upward
trend for quite a while. So if you have a little money, and the
space, buy it while you can afford it. And never forget, there will
be some people worse off than you. Help them if you can.
And the false stock bubble that the wealthy are
enjoying right now will not last that much longer. It is an
artificial bubble that has been pumped up by unprecedented money
printing by the Federal Reserve, and like all bubbles that the Fed
creates, it will eventually burst.
None
of the long-term trends that are systematically destroying our
economy have been addressed, and none of our major economic problems
have been fixed. In fact, as I showed inthis
recent article,
we are actually in far worse shape than we were just prior to the
last major financial crisis.
Let
us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long
as possible.
That is what I am hoping for.
But let us not be deceived into thinking that
it is permanent.
It
will soon burst, and then the real pain will begin.
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