“I woke up this past Saturday morning and opened my local paper to find out that all was well. An Associated Press article declared a healthy jobs market, fantastic auto sales, a surging housing market, and a stock market rocketing to new all-time highs. What’s not to love? If the mainstream media says the economy is as good as new, it must be so. Why should we let facts get in the way of a good storyline? The stock market has surged to 2007 highs, so the country’s employment situation must be strong.

The chart above tells a slightly different story. The S&P 500 has regained almost all its losses since October 2007 as Bernanke and Washington politicians chose to save Wall Street and screw over Main Street. The working age population has risen by 12.8 million since 2007 and there are 4 million less Americans employed. The December Household Survey from the BLS being touted by the mainstream media as proof of a jobs recovery told a slightly different story:

• The number of unemployed Americans went up by 126,000 in one month
• Another 169,000 Americans left the workforce evidently because their stock market gains made them wealthy.
• There are 250,000 more Americans unemployed than there were in September 2012.
• There are 6,000 less Americans employed than there were in October 2012.
• The unemployment rate reported to the masses went up to 7.9% (the true rate reached 23%).

This is just the picture over the last few months. The picture since 2007 is beyond horrific, as more than 10 million Americans have left the workforce. Everyone knows people willingly leave the labor force when the economy crashes and their net worth is reduced by 30%. Who needs a paying job then? Just because there are 101 million working age Americans not working and the labor participation rate of 63.6% is at a three decade low, certainly doesn’t mean we aren’t experiencing a tremendous jobs recovery, according to the mainstream media.

The deep thinkers at CNBC, Fox, CNN and the rest of the captured corporate status quo mouthpieces, propagate the false storyline that the reason for Americans leaving the workforce is Baby Boomers retiring. Considering the average Boomer has $90,000 of total savings and 28% of them have less than $1,000 saved, I suspect there are few willingly leaving the workforce. The Boomers have taken on 4 million additional jobs since the low point in 2009, while the 16 to 54 year olds have lost an additional 2.9 million jobs. Does this reflect a strengthening jobs market? Does the fact that real hourly wages have fallen for the last two years reflect an improving labor market?

Inquiring minds might wonder how auto sales could be booming when there are 4 million less employed Americans and real wages are falling. Of course, mainstream media faux journalists aren’t paid to inquire, think critically, or even think at all. They are paid to regurgitate propaganda designed to keep the masses sedated and ignorant. The “fabulous” rebound in auto sales has been buoyed by the return of easy money lending, even to deadbeat borrowers with lousy credit histories. There is a reason the Federal government hasn’t attempted to spin off their 80% control of Ally Financial (aka GMAC, Ditech, Rescap). The Feds are attempting to manufacture a recovery by doling out subprime auto loans to anyone who can scratch an X on a loan document and offering 0% loans over 7 years to good credits. How exactly does a finance company generate a profit by making 0% loans for seven years and approving loans to people with no means of paying them back? Experian recently noted that 44% of ALL auto loans have been to subprime borrowers over the last year. When a financing company doesn’t have to worry about profits or loan losses, everyone gets a Cadillac Escalade. The losses on these subprime loans will be in the billions when the next leg down in this Crisis hits. The taxpayer will unknowingly pick up the tab, just as they have been doing for the last five years. The trend in this chart is nothing but a Federal government induced fraud.

PhD in Stupidity….”

Full article

“* Spending on Social Security, healthcare due to double in decade

* CBO warns of sharp rise in debt unless Congress acts

* Gradual changes would minimize economic impact

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – U.S. spending on Social Security and healthcare will double to $3.2 trillion a year over the next decade, threatening a sharp rise in national debt unless Congress acts to avoid the danger, congressional researchers warned on Tuesday.

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office did not put forth a plan to resolve the long-term imbalance between revenues and spending on retirement and healthcare benefits. But it said that action taken now would help minimize the economic impact of whatever course lawmakers can agree on.

“Unless the laws governing these programs are changed – or the increased spending is accompanied by corresponding reductions in other spending, sufficiently higher tax revenues, or a combination of the two – debt will rise sharply relative to (the U.S. economy) after 2023,” the CBO warned.

The report, CBO’s latest on the U.S. budget and economic outlook, comes as President Barack Obama and Congress prepare for a showdown over the federal deficit in coming months.

“Deciding now what policy changes to make to resolve that long-term imbalance would allow for gradual implementation, which would give households, businesses and state and local governments time to plan and adjust their behavior,” CBO said.

The agency estimated last June that Social Security and federal health programs would account for more than one-quarter of U.S. gross domestic product by 2037 unless laws were changed.

Federal spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid stood at $1.6 trillion in 2012, with healthcare spending alone at $885 billion.

CBO predicts that annual outlays for those programs alone will top $3 trillion by 2023, with Obama’s healthcare reform law adding another $134 billion in costs to provide coverage for 26 million people through new state-based healthcare exchanges…..”

Full article

“The American workplace is about to get grayer.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 45 and 60 say they plan to delay retirement, according to a report to be released Friday by the Conference Board. That was a steep jump from just two years earlier, when the group found that 42% of respondents expected to put off retirement.

The increase was driven by the financial losses, layoffs and income stagnation sustained during the last few years of recession and recovery, said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at the organization and a co-author of the report, which is based on a 2012 survey of 15,000 individuals.

Matt Stern, 51 years old, a former analyst at a Manhattan hedge fund, met with a financial planner in December, days before he was laid off and the fund announced its imminent liquidation. At the meeting, the planner projected that Mr. Stern could retire at age 62. But now, with his assets down 10% to 20% from their 2008 peak, he is looking for a job and retooling his expectations for retirement.

“I might have to prioritize income over whatever calls to me on other levels,” such as travel or being involved in nonprofit organizations, Mr. Stern said…”

Full article

“One look at the headline December data and one would get the impression that millions of Americans had started dealing meth out of some New Mexico RV, as personal income exploded by the most in 8 years, soaring some 2.6% in December to $13.936 billion. And since the surge in income, which was expected to rise some 0.8%, was hardly matched by a comparable boost to spending which missed expectations of 0.3%, rising just 0.2% – somewhat paradoxical considering the biggest boost to the otherwise negative Q4 GDP print was precisely this: spending and consumption, meant that the personal saving rate (which is merely a function of income less spending) soared to 6.5% or the highest since May 2009 – superficially an indication that consumers are hunkering down in expectation of something very bad.

Breaking Bad jokes aside, just how did the US consumer see their personal income soar as much as it did? …”

Full article

“The Federal Reserve will keep purchasing securities at the rate of $85 billion a month as the economy paused because of temporary forces including bad weather.

“Growth in economic activity paused in recent months in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors,” the Federal Open Market Committee said today at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Washington. “Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has shown further improvement.”

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has unleashed the power of the central bank to buy unlimited amounts of Treasury and mortgage- backed securities in a bid to end a four-year long period of unemployment above 7.5 percent and bolster an economy that shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

“Although strains in global financial markets have eased somewhat, the committee continues to see downside risks to the economic outlook,” the FOMC said.

The purchases will remain divided between $40 billion a month of mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion a month ofTreasury securities. The central bank also will continue reinvesting any Treasury securities that mature and will reinvest its portfolio of maturing housing debt into agency mortgage-backed securities.

The Fed repeated that the purchases will continue “if the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially.”

The Fed also left unchanged its statement that it planned to hold its target interest rate near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and inflation remains below 2.5 percent.

Inflation Outlook…”

Full article

Hold onto the oh shit handle…

Full report

“Guess what, American taxpayer: More than four years after the financial crisis started, you are still on the hook for a nearly $15 billion investment in a subprime mortgage lender.

That’s just one of a litany of troubling facts in a new report by Christy Romero, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which pumped more than $600 billion into failing banks and other companies during the crisis. The report details the many billions of taxpayer dollars still sunk into hundreds of struggling banks, some of which are still failing, and the risks still festering that could create a future crisis.

The report is a striking reminder that, even as the stock market comes close to cruising to record highs, led by skyrocketing bank stocks, the crisis still haunts us.

In fact, the bailout could arguably have made a future crisis more likely, by encouraging big banks to take on even more risks, in the widespread belief that they can always turn to the government for more cash in the event they crash the Hindenburg, again.

“The people taking those risks are insulated from the consequences — that’s moral hazard,” Romero said in a telephone interview. “It continues to exist, and it must be dealt with.”

The government is still mopping up the mess from the last crisis, as Romero’s report makes clear. Its portfolio of pain includes a 74 percent stake in Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC, which was rescued repeatedly during and after the crisis, with little or no plan for ending the rescue, according to Romero.

Ally still owes the government $14.6 billion and might ultimately cost the Treasury Department $5.5 billion in losses, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget — part of a total long-term TARP cost that could exceed $60 billion….”

Full article

“As President Obama said in his inaugural address last week, America “cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”

Yet that continues to be the direction we’re heading in.

A newly-released analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the super-rich have done well in the economic recovery while almost everyone else has done badly. The top 1 percent of earners’ real wages grew 8.2 percent from 2009 to 2011, yet the real annual wages of Americans in the bottom 90 percent have continued to decline in the recovery, eroding by 1.2 percent between 2009 and 2011.

In other words, we’re back to the widening inequality we had before the debt bubble burst in 2008 and the economy crashed.

But the President is exactly right. Not even the very wealthy can continue to succeed without a broader-based prosperity. That’s because 70 percent of economic activity in America is consumer spending. If the bottom 90 percent of Americans are becoming poorer, they’re less able to spend. Without their spending, the economy can’t get out of first gear….”

Read more

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Jobless Americans are paying millions in unnecessary fees to collectunemployment benefits because of state policies encouraging them to get the money through bank-issued payment cards, according to a new report from a consumer group.

People are using the fee-heavy cards instead of getting their payments deposited directly to theirbank accounts. That’s because states issue bank cards automatically, require complicated paperwork or phone calls to set up direct deposit and fail to explain the card fees, according to a report issued Tuesday by the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit group that seeks to protect low-income Americans from unfair financial-services products. An early copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press.

Until the past decade, states distributed unemployment compensation by mailing out paper checks. Some also allowed direct deposit. The system worked well for people who had bank accounts and could deposit the check without paying a fee.

It also cost states millions of dollars each year to print and mail the checks.

Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America Corp. seized on government payments as a business opportunity. They pitched card programs to states as a win-win: States would save millions in overhead costs because the cards would be issued for free. And people without bank accounts would avoid the big fees charged by storefront check cashers.

However, most of the people being hit with fees already have bank accounts. The bank-state partnerships effectively shifted the cost of distributing payments from governments to individuals. The money needed to cover those costs is deducted from people’s unemployment benefits in the form of fees….”

Full article

“Median weekly earnings in the U.S. for wage and salary workers was $775 at the end of 2012.
But just how much you make depends on a number of factors, including your race and gender,
CNNMoney gives you a snapshot into what Americans earn:

The more schooling you have, the more you get in your paycheck….”

Full article and graphs 

“When people say that Barack Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, they’re not kidding; a new Gallup Poll takenbetween January 7-10 shows that when Americans were asked whether they had a positive view of the country, only 39% agreed. This is the lowest percentage since August 1979, when Carter was president, inflation was out of control and the economy was hurtling toward the abyss. The percentage of those who believe that things will be better in five years is only 48%, the lowest since that same time period under Carter. Another 40% said things will be worse.

When they were asked whether the United States stood five years ago, 55% said things were better, indicating their belief that the more they have seen of Barack Obama, the worse they have felt. But even that figure is revealing in other ways; the 55% number is the most negative number since 1991….”

Full article

“President Barack Obama approaches his second inauguration amid persistent public resignation about the tepid economic recovery and a widespread belief that Washington’s budget fights have made things worse.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that just 34 percent look at 2013 as a moment of economic expansion and opportunity; fully 60 percent call it a moment “to hold back and save because harder times are ahead.”

Just 36 percent express significant confidence that Obama, after four years in the Oval Office, has the ability to produce a strong and growing national economy.

More ominously, as the White House and Congress move from the recent fiscal-cliff showdown to new battles over the federal debt limit and scheduled across-the-board budget cuts, a 51 percent majority says negotiations between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue make them less confident about prospects for economic improvement.

That’s triple the proportion who say those negotiations make them more confident.

Such attitudes, said Peter Hart, the Democratic pollster who conducts the NBC/WSJ survey with his Republican counterpart Bill McInturff, have fundamentally altered the public mood that prevailed during Obama’s first inaugural four years ago.

Instead of “hope” in 2009, Hart explained, Americans are preoccupied with the attempt to “cope” with diminished economic circumstances. (Read More:Conservatives Tell GOP: Don’t Mess With Debt Ceiling)

Obama has received only a faint version of the bump-up in public evaluations that re-elected president’s typically received after election-year acrimony fades. His overall approval rating stands at 52 percent, slightly up from 48 percent one year ago….”

Full article

Banks win again off your back….how does your back feel ?

Full article

“Just as the president reminded us yesterday we are not a deadbeat nation, merely borrowing money today to pay the bills of yesterday, so, as theNY Times reports in this all-too-real article, many of the citizens of the US are also living not just paycheck-to-paycheck but short-term-loan-to-short-term-loan. As one debt-consolidation service noted “They’ve been borrowing just to meet payments on previous loans; it builds on itself.” Rings an awfully loud bell eh? (and yes, we know the government’s finances are not run like a households – though at some point the check book needs to balance). People in tough ‘economic’ situations fall into the ‘poverty trap’, borrowing money at ever higher interest rates in a shell game to keep previous borrowers at bay. The average debt for households earning $20,000 a year or less more than doubled to $26,000 between 2001 and 2010 – as people dig deeper, precisely because they long to escape. As the focus of the article notes, “the belt-tightening was the easy part… the larger problem was cash-flow.” Critically, experiments show that ‘economic’ scarcity by itself – independent of personality or any other factors – fuels a drive to borrow recklessly.

Via NY Times:

The belt-tightening was the easy part. Cancel the cable. Skip the air conditioners. Ration the cellphone, unplug the wireless Internet, cook rice and beans — done, and done. The larger problem for LaKeisha Tuggle, 33, who had lost her public relations job, was cash flow: After her unemployment insurance and savings ran dry, there was none.

 

…”

Full article

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. families struggling with poverty despite parents being employed continued to grow in 2011 as more people returned to work but mostly at lower-paying service jobs, an analysis released on Tuesday shows.

More working parents have taken jobs as cashiers, maids, waiters and other low-wage jobs in fast growing sectors that offer fewer hours and benefits, according to The Working Poor Project, a privately funded effort aimed at improving economic security for low-income families.

The result is 200,000 more such working families – the so-called “working poor” – emerged in 2011 than in 2010, according to the report, based on analysis of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

About 10.4 million such families – or 47.5 million Americans – now live near poverty, defined as earning less than 200 percent of the official poverty rate, which is $22,811 for a family of four.

Overall, nearly one-third of working families now struggle, up from 31 percent in 2010 and 28 percent in 2007, when the recession began, according to the analysis.

“Although many people are returning to work, they are often taking jobs with lower wages and less job security, compared with the middle-class jobs they held before the economic downturn,” the report said.

“This means that nearly a third of all working families … may not have enough money to meet basic needs.”

The findings come three years after the nation’s recession officially ended in the second half of 2009.

Brandon Roberts, co-author of the report, said the results were somewhat of a surprise after Census officials last year said the U.S. poverty rate had stabilized….”

Full article

“American health is in decline as new data finds that one in four US kids are on food stamps as of fiscal year 2011 and the younger generation is more prone to death and poorer health levels compared to their counterparts in other developed nations.

Almost 20 million children out of 73.9 million under the age of 18 were in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, in 2011, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture and US Census Bureau.

Moreover, children accounted for 45 per cent of aid receivers.

The number of people using the food stamp program has been on a rise, since 2009 about 15.5 million more individuals have been added to SNAP.

Latest data released for the month of October 2012 shows the drastic increase with one in 6.5 Americans using SNAP, while in the 1970s only one in 50 were part of the program.

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions argues that US is not working towards any real solutions for the problem.

“It has become sadly clear that Agriculture Secretary Vilsack wishes to make welfare part of the normal American experience, with no regard for social or economic consequences,” Sessions told The Daily Caller.

Americans have lowest probability of surviving till 50…”

Full article

“…..The number of people with graduate degrees — master’s degrees and doctorates — who have had to apply for food stamps, unemployment or other assistance more than tripled between 2007 and 2010. Of the 22 million Americans with master’s degrees or higher in 2010, about 360,000 were receiving some kind of public assistance, according to the latest Current Population Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau in March 2011.
So holding a PhD does not automatically walk you into even a decent paying job any more. This infographic below helps to illustrates this sad new reality in America.”

Full article and infographic 

“Last year was the warmest on records going back to 1895 for the 48 contiguous U.S. states and the second-worst for weather extremes including drought, hurricanes and wildfires, according to a U.S. report.

The average temperature in the region in 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit (12.9 Celsius), 3.2 degrees higher than the average for the 20th century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climatic Data Center said today in an analysis of the year.

U.S. Climate Extremes Index, which takes into account temperatures as well as tropical storms and drought, showed 2012 followed 1998 into the record books for extreme weather with almost twice the average value, the center said. Eleven disasters caused at least $1 billion in damage, including hurricanes Isaac in August and Sandy in October….”

Full article

“Americans are using more gadgets, televisions and air conditioners than ever before. But, oddly, their electricity use is barely growing, posing a daunting challenge for the nation’s utilities.

The Energy Information Administration is projecting that electricity use in the U.S. will rise an average of just 0.6% a year for industrial users and 0.7% for households through 2040.

That’s a far cry from the middle decades of the past century, when utilities could rely on electricity consumption growing by more than 8% a year. Even after the Arab oil embargo in 1973, the growth in electricity demand averaged 2% to 4% annually. But those days may be long gone.

In response to tepid demand, electricity production in the U.S. fell in 2008 and 2009, amid the recession, then ticked up slightly in 2010 before falling again in 2011.

For decades, electricity use was viewed as a barometer of economic growth, but the link has become less clear cut in recent years, partly because of a big push to make major appliances and other products, such as compact fluorescent lightbulbs and high-efficiency motors, that use less electricity.

The erosion of U.S. manufacturing also has contributed to the consumption slowdown. Industrial electricity use, which includes manufacturing, accounts for about a quarter of the nation’s total. From 1998 to 2010, the electricity used for manufacturing fell 18% as industrial processes grew more efficient and companies produced fewer goods in the U.S…..”

Full article

“RUSTON, La. — With no health insurance and not enough money for a doctor, Laura Johnson is long accustomed to treating her ailments with a self-written prescription: home remedies, prayer and denial.

Over decades, she made her living assisting elderly people in nursing homes in jobs that paid just above minimum wage and included no health benefits. So even as her feet swelled to such an extent that she could no longer stuff them into her shoes, and even as nausea, headaches and dizziness plagued her, she reached for the aspirin bottle or made do with a teaspoon of vinegar. She propped her feet up on pillows and hoped for relief.

“Before I got sick,” she said, “I hadn’t been to the doctor in 20 years.”

After she collapsed last year and landed in in a local emergency room, doctors diagnosed her with congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and hypothyroid. They ordered her not to work. She arranged a Social Security disability benefit, and she enrolled in Medicaid, the government-furnished insurance program for the poor. She used her Medicaid card to secure needed prescription medications. Her ailments stabilized.

But this year, the state determined that the $819 a month she draws in disability payments exceed the allowable limit. By the federal government’s reckoning, her $9,800 annual income made her officially poor. But under the standards set by Louisiana, she was too well off to receive Medicaid.

This is how Johnson, 57, finds herself back amid the roughly 49 million Americans who lack health insurance. This is why she must again reach into her pocket to secure her prescription drugs, a supply that runs about $200 a month. That sum is beyond her, so she has gone more than four months without taking her pills on a regular basis. Once again, her feet are swelling and her chest is filling with fluid. Once again, she is confronted with the realization that a lifetime of labor does not entitle her to see a doctor any more than it enables her to gain crucial medications….”

Full article