Debt based delusion: Fed spending far outstripping revenues, balance of trade, and business inventories decline.
One clear symbol of our new Gilded Age is that of the peaking DOW while food stamp usage is at a peak as well. Even though the DOW is only a reflection of a handful of companies, the media focuses on this as if it were a barometer of the real economy. It isn’t. Household [...]
The United States of Debt Addiction: Our reliance on debt has created an entire economy fortified in the fires of moral hazard and fiscally dangerous leverage.
16 point 7 trillion dollars. That is our current national debt. 12 point 8 trillion dollars. That is the amount households carry in mortgage and consumer debt. We are now addicted to debt to lubricate the wheels of our financial system. There is nothing wrong with debt per se, but it is safe to say [...]
Sequestering the working and middle class – The implications of runaway debt. GDP at record levels yet nonfarm employment is 4 million below previous peak. Trillion dollar coins. Greece unemployment reaches a new record.
Gear up those printing presses. You might be thinking that some of the policy talk coming out today is from The Onion but no, the idea of a $1 trillion coin is being discussed. The Federal Reserve is already very willing to become a shadow bad bank and take on all the questionable assets from [...]
Diving into the fiscal economic mess – Fiscal cliff a reckoning for decades of poor financial management and massive debt based spending.
The media is making it appear that the fiscal cliff is a sudden event. Like a countdown to a New Year’s party. Yet this cliff was as predictable more than a decade ago as we spent more than we took in as an economy. The challenge is real because our spending is so much more [...]
Young, educated, and deep in debt – College debt over 18 percent of all consumer debt. Half of college graduates under 25 are unemployed or working in a field where no degree is required.
I doubt anyone is opposed to education or advancing your knowledge in life. Who can oppose something so valuable? Now this lofty aspiration is great but becomes problematic especially when the cost of higher education has gotten so expensive. How expensive you ask? The fact that we have over $1 trillion in student loans outstanding [...]
False prosperity through debt – 4 out of 10 Americans have less than $500. The dangers of building a consumption based nation.
If most Americans had to choose between saving and spending, they would decide to join the spending team. Americans are so drawn to spending that they will even purchase items they cannot afford. Another recent survey found that 40 percent of Americans have less than $500 saved. This aligns with a survey we found last [...]
How the Fed bluffs the financial system – Labor force participation back to levels last seen over three decades ago. Fed policy aims at pushing US dollar lower.
The US is facing a long trend of aging Americans entering into retirement or what can be viewed as life post-work. The vision of sitting on the sand in some resort villa is largely a dream. Nearly half of American when they leave this world go out broke like a country western song. Today as [...]
Federal Reserve slaps on financial rocket boosters but who will benefit? Half of Americans spend more than they make and household incomes fall back to levels last seen in 1995.
The Federal Reserve announced the sequel to the sequel on Thursday with Quantitative Easing 3. After all, if something didn’t work the first time might as well rinse and repeat. The markets are rallying yet what has come from the QEI, QEII, TALF, TARP, and all of those other backdoor bailouts? What has resulted is [...]
Welcome to the land of the poor and rich – Trading the middle class for economic extremes.
The extremes in the US have gotten more pronounced in this economic crisis. It is hard to imagine a country where 46 million people are living with the assistance of food stamps while 6 of the 400 top income earners pay no federal tax. I’m sure that just like most Americans you pay your fair [...]
Long live the debt ceiling – approaching the fiscal cliff by spending $1 trillion more than is being taken in. A breakdown of government spending and revenues.
History does love to repeat itself especially when it comes to debt bubbles. At the rate the US government is burning through money, we are likely to breach the debt ceiling limit even before we enter 2013. We’re about $400 billion away from the $16.39 trillion limit but considering we’ve already spent $700+ billion that [...]
