Top 1 Percent Control 42 Percent of Financial Wealth in the U.S. – How Average Americans are Lured into Debt Servitude by Promises of Mega Wealth.
Many Americans are not buying the recent stock market rally. This is being reflected in multiple polls showing negative attitudes towards the economy and Wall Street. Wall Street is so disconnected from the average American that they fail to see the 27 million unemployed and underemployed Americans that now have a harder time believing the [...]
Commercial Real Estate Holders Decide to Walk Away: The Continuing Double Standard from the Banking Industry. Debt Ceiling Raised to $12.4 Trillion Making Room for more Bailouts.
There will be many new financial stories in 2010 but one that is certainly to garner much attention is the implosion of the commercial real estate market. A $3.5 trillion market that has taken it on the chin alongside the residential real estate market. The commercial real estate debacle usually follows a similar pattern. Residential [...]
The Ponzi Decade: A Lost Decade in Stocks, Industrial Production, U.S. dollar, and Housing. How we Managed to Inflate and Destroy the Biggest Financial Bubble of our Generation.
It is fitting that we end the current decade just like we started it, with the bursting of bubbles. In the early part of the decade we were dealing with the fallout of the technology bust. That was quickly replaced by the even bigger housing bubble and that has now popped as well. The trillions [...]
Credit Card Debt up to 15 Percent of Annual Household Income. Average Credit Card Debt in 1980 was $670 and Today it is up to $7,800. The Slimy World of Credit Card Lending.
Credit card companies have made it their passion to ensure that every eligible American has access to a credit card. They have also created a financial labyrinth with traps in every corner from tricky financial statements to interest rates that would make loan sharks blush. The credit card has become some form of financial rite [...]
The Commercial Real Estate Default Wave is Here: Commercial Mortgage Defaults Now at 16 Year High. 3.4 Percent of all Commercial Real Estate Loans in Default.
What has been lost in the housing talk recovery is the grim statistics that commercial real estate has fallen 37 percent in value in the last year. This wouldn’t be such a big problem aside from the tiny detail that some $3 trillion in commercial real estate loans are still outstanding. The commercial real estate [...]
Pillaging the Average American: Wall Street Paying Back Bailouts with Bailouts. Total Bailout Package Ceiling of $14 Trillion Yet Focus Only on TARP Repayments in the tens of Billions.
In the last few weeks the corporatocracy has gone on a massive Madison Avenue public relations tour touting the great job banks are doing and how they are paying back the taxpayer for the generous gift of life. Instead of working with small business or lowering credit card rates banks have taken it upon their [...]
The Corporatocracy Systematically Destroying the American Middle Class: In 40 Years the Corporatocracy has Shifted Americans from a Sustainable Middle Class to a Perpetual Cycle of Debt Serfdom.
The biggest scam of the century is making a full conclusion with this deep recession. What made America the envy of the entire world, a strong and vibrant middle class, is being quickly dismantled so the new order of corporate raiders can siphon off life support from the productive economy. Nothing highlights this grand robbery [...]
S&P 500 Overvalued by 100 Percent: Estimated Price-Earnings Inflation Adjusted Ratio does not Reflect Actual Earnings. VIX now Back to August 2007 Levels. Bank of America P/E Ratio over 500?
It is hard to justify the 1,100 mark for the S&P 500. The 676 low of March, as disastrous as it may have felt, actually reflected a more accurate measure of earnings potential of the 500 S&P companies. The S&P 500 is a good index because it measures 500 companies with a current collective market [...]
The New Economic Misery Index: Five Sectors that Show Financial Pain for Americans. Food Stamps, Bankruptcy, Credit Access, Employment, and Housing.
Talking with a few colleagues I was reminded about a misery index used in the 1970s to measure the real feel of the stagflation hitting the country. Today, we have a more insidious version of economic crisis because what is good for Wall Street is counter to what is good for the average American. There [...]
Bankruptcy Filings up 100 Percent from 2007: Americans Financially Unable to Meet Current Debt Payments. 85 Percent of Chapter 7 Filings are Classified as No-Assets.
The U.S. Courts released data last week closing out the 2009 fiscal year. In the release we find that bankruptcy filings are up 100+ percent from 2007. No other economic vehicle shows deeper signs of financial strain than bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is the end of the road for many Americans. Although businesses file for bankruptcy as [...]
