May 14 2012

The curious calculus of the US employment numbers – Decline of 2.4 million in extended and emergency unemployment benefits coincides with 2.2 million rise in disability benefits. Last time we had 8.1 percent unemployment rate we had 14,000,000 fewer Americans on food stamps.

The math on the employment situation in the US simply does not compute.  Over the last few years, many have escaped the employment market by diving into massive student loan debt.  This looks good for the employment figures since these people are not counted as part of the workforce.  The headline unemployment rate of 8.1 percent does not jive with 1 out of 7 Americans on food stamps.    The last time we had a headline unemployment rate close to 8.1 percent was back in February of 2009 and at that time, we had 32,000,000 Americans on food stamps or over 14,000,000 less!  Digging around the data you begin to realize how much phony calculations are being used especially when talking about employment.  There is an interesting figure that emerges from a recent surge in disability benefits.

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May 11 2012

The wrecking ball of hidden inflation and Fed based strategies – food inflation far outpacing overall inflation and eating away at the purchasing power of 46,000,000 Americans on food stamps.

The Federal Reserve has openly called for a steady growth of inflation.  This almost dogmatic view on inflation is problematic because it is detached to the lack of wage growth being experienced by working and middle class families.  What you do not hear articulated from the Fed is that they would like to encourage wage inflation as well.  The inflation growth is really a shadow bailout of the banking sector in our economy that still requires billions and billions of dollars for horrible bets and poorly placed gambles.  If the beat of inflation marches on, these debts can be washed away simply because purchasing power is lost moving forward.  Yet this is bad policy for the vast majority of Americans.  Inflation has crept into the daily lives of Americans because of this policy.  Food prices have increased steadily while energy remains expensive.  The cost to go to college still continues to increase in spite of a bubble in student debt.  Inflation is a double-edged sword and the Fed is aggressively pursuing this option largely to aid their banking allies.

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May 8 2012

How to bankrupt a generation of young Americans in four steps – young Americans living at home surges by 50 percent from 2005.

The viable pathway for success for many young Americans seems to have gotten very narrow in the last decade.  The opportunities for many young workers have become mired with an economy that is largely in a deep recession with limited quality positions.  Many are saddled with debt and taking on employment positions that may not even utilize the very expensive college education some have taken on.  Education is important but doing it intelligently has become tougher since we are living in a student loan bubble.  Many young Americans have been forced to move back home to live with mom and dad because of the shoddy economy even if they have a job.  Each point of data suggests that we will have a less affluent generation coming forward yet this is the generation that is largely going to shoulder the burden of unsupportable government debt?  The bill is largely coming due but many younger Americans are already starting with a negative net worth.

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May 5 2012

The chicanery between the Fed and ECB – twin balance sheets near peak levels and many European nations back in recession. Methods of understating US unemployment rates.

The Fed and ECB (European Central Bank) have taken notes from the exact playbook in dealing with the global financial crisis.  People tend to believe that these are somehow fully set government agencies but in reality, they are designed to protect their number one constituency group.  The Fed and ECB have the primary mission of protecting select financial institutions.  At their core they are where the bankers bank.  I was examining the balance sheets of both the Fed and ECB and from 2008 onward their reactions to the financial crisis have been nearly mirror images.  But ask most Americans and Europeans if their trillion dollars of asset maneuvers have worked out.  To the contrary, many of the European nations are back in recessions while in the US the unemployment rate only falls because people are dropping out of the workforce or being shadowed out in colleges with massive student debt.  The central banks have succeeded in allowing the financial system to essentially transfer the waste onto the backs of the public.

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