Using the young as a shield for hitting the deficit spending wall – the bill will come due for the young. Government spending prioritizes old American immediate needs and will send the bill to the young.
The level of government spending is mind boggling but has taken a backseat to the issues being experienced over in Europe. We are running trillion dollar deficits as if this was somehow customary in our history. For each dollar spent we are seeing less of a result in the real economy. Part of the issue [...]
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 [...]
Middle class dysphoria – What does the new American Dream look like? Inflated college tuition, lower home ownership rates, and compressed wages.
The American Dream was always tied to economic prosperity. The ability to work and save for a respectable retirement seemed cornerstones to this vision of middle class success. The idea that future generations would have it better seemed to also be part of this vision of economic prosperity. The last two decades have seen a [...]
The old get wealthier and the young get poorer.
This recession has been unmercifully brutal on younger Americans. Many are entering the most difficult employment market in generations with a flood of low wage jobs saddled with record levels of student debt. Many have never even witnessed how it is to live in a bull stock market. Of course this is assuming they had [...]
How does an America with no middle class look like? Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects top two jobs for the next decade will pay roughly $20,000 a year. Approval rating of Congress at 10 percent. In comparison, Americans approved of BP’s handling of the Gulf oil crisis at a 16 percent rate.
A strong middle class has been at the core of what has been promoted as the American Dream. How would America look like if the middle class simply vanished? We may not need to wait too long at the current rate since we are quickly siphoning people off the middle class and throwing them into [...]
United States of Dollar Stores – dollar stores see a rise in households making $70,000 a year or higher as a customer base. What does the rise of dollar stores say about the middle class?
Before 2000 dollar stores were largely seen as a bazaar of quirky trinkets and plastic oddities. Many sold excess volume of products, even selling old Super Bowl t-shirts of teams that did not win. Yet the dollar store of today is not the one of even one decade ago. The disillusionment of the middle class [...]
The banking protection racket – 5 charts highlighting the laundering and dismantling of the middle class. New methods of looking at employment. Peak debt and tweaking statistics.
Part of the crushing blow to the middle class is the misinformation being lobbed out as good economic news. For example, inflation is increasing yet the average American worker pulls in $25,000 per year. You also have the civilian population ratio still at levels last seen three decades ago. It depends on how you look [...]
The great deleveraging event – household debt has fallen 4 percent since recession hit. Household debt has fallen dramatically from the peak when household debt aligned itself with annual GDP.
The debt bubble bursting has jammed the bottom line of American households. Debt and money are synonymous for many households in our current economy. The ability to spend, or buying capacity, is looked at in the same light as savings from many in the financial sector. This is why data recently released shows the balance [...]
The catastrophe of our economy for the young American worker. Average college debt higher than typical new automobile cost, annihilation of pensions, and younger Americans moving back home because of financial necessity.
The economy for young Americans might as well be in a parallel universe to the stock market run since early 2009. Talks of recovery must fall on confused ears as many young college graduates compete for fewer jobs with higher amounts of student debt. In the last decade college graduates have encountered the highest tuition [...]
Kabuki financial theatre – Congress net worth up 15 percent from 2004 to 2010 while the average American sees their net worth decline by 8 percent in the same timeframe. Welcome to plutocrat USA.
We truly have the best government money can buy. From 2004 to 2010 members of Congress increased their median net worth by 15 percent while the average American saw it fall by 8 percent. Yet this fall in net worth does little justice to the rising cost of food, energy, healthcare, and college expenses that [...]
