Snapshots from a Decaying Economy
From Nick P. at Black Sun Gazette:
I don’t know if you’ve looked at the news lately, but apparently we’re in some kind of economic recovery. You’d probably have to be reading the news to know about it, because no one that I know is experiencing the effects, and economic indicators that affect people without stock portfolios don’t seem to indicate that anything is getting better. To anyone paying attention, we’re in far more danger of total economic collapse than we were two years ago.
20 Economic Weapons Of Mass Destruction That Could Trigger Global Debt Time Bomb
Paul B. Farrell sounds the alarm for the day of reckoning that all of us debtors know is coming, in Marketwatch:
Retire? You can fuggetaboutit if the new Global Debt Time Bomb is detonated by any one of 20 made-in-America trigger mechanisms.
Yes, 20. And yes, any one can destroy your retirement because all 20 are inexorably linked, a house-of-cards, a circular firing squad destined to self-destruct, triggering the third great Wall Street meltdown of the 21st century, igniting the Great Depression II that George W. Bush, Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson and now President Obama have simply delayed with their endless knee-jerk, debt-laden wars, stimulus bonanzas and bailouts.
Wow, what an epic Hollywood blockbuster this will make: You know the drama, can’t miss the warnings. The financial press is flooding us with plot lines … a Forbes cover story focuses on a “Global Debt Bomb: How It Could Wreck Your Life” … Leaders at the World Economic Forum on Swiss Mt. Davos fear another global meltdown will trigger mass rebellions … The Economist calls the plot a “Global Asset Bubble,” with cheap money fast driving up asset prices…
Buy Your Very Own Space Shuttle, for the Rock-Bottom Price of $28 Million!
Reported by the AP via the NY Times:
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Here is a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships to $28.8 million apiece from $42 million.
The shuttles are for sale once their flying days are over, which is scheduled to be this fall.
When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in December 2008 put out the call seeking buyers at museums, schools and elsewhere, the agency received about 20 inquiries. An agency spokesman, Mike Curie, said he expected more interest, especially with the discount.
“We’re confident that we’ll get other takers,” Mr. Curie said Friday.
The Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The Atlantis and the Endeavour are up for grabs. It is possible that the Enterprise, a shuttle…
Government Watchdog Can’t Verify Stimulus Job Stats
EAMON JAVERS writes on the Politico:
The chief federal oversight official for the stimulus program said in a letter Wednesday that he can’t certify whether the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus funds is accurate.
Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney was responding to a request for information by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a letter to Issa dated Nov. 17, Devaney wrote, “Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to make this certification.”
The Obama administration claimed that it saved or created at least 1 million jobs this year. But errors in the stimulus job creation data…
The New (Gringo) Face Of Day Labor
The Las Vegas Sun has an article of the recent trend of U.S. citizens’ joining the ranks of immigrants who stand in store parking lots, hoping to be picked up for work:
It sounds like a George Lopez joke: “Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”
Except it’s true…In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.
Who is “Rewriting the Rules of American ‘Capitalism’”?
“We don’t want your tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to trash the planet” The Federal Reserve, 2009.
By Robert Singer
Having trouble understanding the events since the October 2008 financial crisis?
Any of this sound familiar:
- Banks hoarding their TARP funds
- Gas prices going up when they should be going down
- Automobile dealerships closed without regard to profitability
- Health Care reform: The Kevorkian is out of jail early
What’s going on?
Bush Sr. said our way of life wasn’t negotiable in 1992 but as of October 2008, it’s all over but the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And in one of those coincidences that don’t happen very often: like all four financial meltdowns in history occurring in October, the October 2008 financial meltdown guaranteed Barack Obama, an unknown senator 4 years ago, would be the 44th president of the United…
Ron Paul: Be Prepared for the Worst
Congressman Ron Paul, hero of many, says the recession is not over and all that’s happened is the formation of another bubble, in this opinion piece he wrote for Forbes:
Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing soon at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession.
A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression…
How the Economic Crisis Changed Us
A new PARADE survey shows just how dramatically Americans’ dreams and relationships have been transformed by the current economic crisis:
Nearly four out of five respondents (79%) say that they’ve felt the impact of the financial downturn, with one-third saying that the turmoil has had a big impact on their lives. Most respondents haven’t had to turn on the TV to appreciate the scope of the declining economy—they’ve registered its toll in their own faces or those of friends, family members, and neighbors. Sixty-nine percent have lost a job, suffered a reduction in pay, or know someone who has experienced one of these. Close to half have had difficulty making their mortgage or rent payments or know someone who has.
As a result, many Americans have made significant financial adjustments in their daily…
