$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '#')1 U.S. banks repossessed a record total of 102,134 homes in September. That was the very first time that home repossessions in the United States have ever surpassed the 100,000 mark during one month.
#2 The price of gold hit another record high on Thursday as the U.S. dollar continues to get even weaker.
#3 Household spending for the middle fifth of all U.S. income earners was down 3.5% in 2009. That was the steepest one year decline since records began being kept back in 1984.
#4 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program passed the 41 million mark for the first time ever during the month of June.
#5 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program has set a new all-time record for 20 consecutive months.
#6 The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans that they have ever recorded in 51 years of record-keeping.
#7 According to the Associated Press, experts believe that in 2009 the U.S. poverty rate experienced the largest single year increase since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.
#8 It is projected that the major financial firms on Wall Street will pay out an all-time record of $144 billion in compensation for 2010.
#9 In July, sales of new homes in the United States declined to the lowest level ever recorded.
#10 As of last March, U.S. banks had an inventory of 1.1 million foreclosed homes, which was a new all-time record and which was up 20 percent from one year earlier.
#11 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.
#12 Earlier in 2010, the average time needed to find a job had risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
#13 As millions of Americans struggled just to survive in this economy, the number of marriages fell to a record low in 2009.
#14 A record 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid, the U.S. government health care program designed principally to help the poor.
#15 Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record.
#16 The U.S. government has accumulated a national debt that is rapidly approaching 14 trillion dollars. The U.S. national debt sets a new all-time record every single month with no end in sight.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/16-new-records-that-the-american-economy-has-set-over-the-past-12-months-and-they-are-all-bad
PeakOil is You
The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direction
The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direction
by Sixstrings » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 01:30:00
Of course, "good" and "bad" depends on who you are and where your allegiance lies. If you're a cross-borders, globalist bankster who got a cut of that 144 billion in bonuses then this is all good news. The globalist bankster couldn't care less what happens to the US, they can live anywhere they want and deploy their capital anywhere in the world. There are no borders for them, only money to be made.
And, if your money's in gold then this is all good news (for now).
For everyone else though, and for this idea called "America," this is all bad news: the most poverty in 50 years, a collapsing US dollar, record food stamp dependence, almost a trillion dollars in student loan debt slavery, an imploded housing and construction industry, more offshoring, more globalism, fewer jobs, no end in sight.
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Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Tanada » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 06:24:39
IMO the big problem is we have computerized and mechanized ourselves to the point where we do not need nearly so many workers as we have available, which in turn depresses wages to the point where no single income average person can support a spouse and the 2.3 kids needed for replacement level demographics.
150 years ago the excess work force would have starved to death and things would have come back into balance, but now we subsidize people instead. This is moral and proper, but does nothing to alleviate the over abundance of moderate skilled workers. I do think there are solutions to this, but not many people would like them. One solution would be for people on government assistance to have to live in a certain state. If you can't find a job then you can move to state X and be subsidized, but you have to live there to get the subsidy. The people who take the subsidy would be removed by choice from the work force and employment in the other 49 states would get much better. To really work state unemployment benefits would have to run out for real at 26 weeks so that the unemployed would have to choose after 6 months. Also you would not be required to live in the subsidy state forever, you can leave any time but lose your subsidy when you do. Of course you would have to end illegal immigration and enforce it ruthlessly so that the subsidy state doesn't just become a haven for illegal aliens and so that they do not compete for the moderate skill jobs in the other 49 states.
150 years ago the excess work force would have starved to death and things would have come back into balance, but now we subsidize people instead. This is moral and proper, but does nothing to alleviate the over abundance of moderate skilled workers. I do think there are solutions to this, but not many people would like them. One solution would be for people on government assistance to have to live in a certain state. If you can't find a job then you can move to state X and be subsidized, but you have to live there to get the subsidy. The people who take the subsidy would be removed by choice from the work force and employment in the other 49 states would get much better. To really work state unemployment benefits would have to run out for real at 26 weeks so that the unemployed would have to choose after 6 months. Also you would not be required to live in the subsidy state forever, you can leave any time but lose your subsidy when you do. Of course you would have to end illegal immigration and enforce it ruthlessly so that the subsidy state doesn't just become a haven for illegal aliens and so that they do not compete for the moderate skill jobs in the other 49 states.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Alfred Tennyson', 'W')e are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Timo » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 11:59:43
Tanada, your post surprises me. I usually agree with most of your comments, but not that one. Parts of it, yes, but not the solution. How can quarantining the unemployed in a certain state help anything on a national scale? This would seem to make life so miserable for millions of people that their very numbers would go down rather quickly, which i just can't see you (or anybody else) supporting. Maybe i read your post wrong, but the solution is MUCH more complex than anything acceptable to anybody. And i'm not advocating this, but i think Malthus had a good point in his curve. (I admit that i just put myself in a Catch 22 by saying that.)
- Timo
Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Plantagenet » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:39:12
Industrial production just came in lower. That means more job losses.
US industrial production still dropping
Tanada has raised an important point.....we can't limp along forever losing more jobs month after month in this weak jobless "recovery."
US industrial production still dropping
Tanada has raised an important point.....we can't limp along forever losing more jobs month after month in this weak jobless "recovery."
Never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to f#@% things up---Barack Obama
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Keep running between the raindrops.
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Keep running between the raindrops.
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Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Ludi » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:14:38
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')
While at the same time our corporations destroy jobs and families with automation in the name of "competition." We are competing ourselves into the poor house. A fools game.
The best we can hope for is a jobless recovery.
')
While at the same time our corporations destroy jobs and families with automation in the name of "competition." We are competing ourselves into the poor house. A fools game.
The best we can hope for is a jobless recovery.
The people who run corporations (remember, they are run by actual human beings, they don't run themselves, in spite of having more rights than humans) want to get rid of the minimum wage in the US so new super-low-wage jobs competitive with China can be brought back. This is also why they want to get rid of all environmental regulation including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. (see Tea Party Platform in the Americas forum)
That's the plan for bringing jobs back to the US.
- Ludi
Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Sixstrings » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 16:23:39
Since the thread has drifted into proposed solutions, I'll go ahead and list my ideas:
1. Targeted tariffs, designed to make it cost effective to produce goods here -- that means TV's, iPads, even plastic pumpkins. Tax the imports so much that it's cheaper to make them here. This would also include services, so that means sorry Punjab no more call centers for you we need those jobs here.
2. MUCH higher taxes on the rich. Something closer to the 90% top bracket we had for many decades (before the "Reagan revolution"). BUT.. I would also add generous tax breaks, up to 50% of their taxes. The catch here would be that the deductions would be for all expenditures that EMPLOY an American citizen. So if the rich want to drink French wine, they can't write that off. But if they drink Napa Valley, they get the tax break. If they hire an illegal immigrant nanny, no tax break. But if they hire a US citizen, then they can write it off.
If this tax structure were in place then someone like John Kerry, who bought a yacht from New Zealand, would have instead bought one form his own home state of Massachusetts since he could have written it off. Money put into commodities and financial investments would not get a tax cut, but money put towards HIRING American employees would.
The basic premise here is that there's nothing wrong with being rich when the money is spent HERE and actually EMPLOYS American citizens. When the rich spend their money offshore, or use it to inflate commodity bubbles, then that's a DRAIN on our society and should rightly be taxed 90%.
3. END ALL IMMIGRATION, legal and illegal. We don't have enough jobs for our own unemployed, much less millions more illegals and H1B visa immigrant imports. We need a labor shortage in this country and we need it NOW. The market cannot work in favor of the working class unless there's a labor shortage, so that wages can rise which will attract people to train for in demand fields.
After unemployment has reached normal levels for a few years, then we can cautiously start up immigration again, but shut it down the moment unemployment creeps up.
Immigrants who come in with an investor visa would be exempt -- as long as they start a business that EMPLOYS Americans. Also self-supporting retirees and foreigners who want a vacation home would be welcome. As long as a foreigner can support himself, then he's not a drain and that's OK.
4. Major tort reform. The Republicans have this one right. There are too many liabilities involved with running a business, and that has to change. Damages need to come in line with what the offending party can AFFORD without ruining them.
5. The technology is now in place for online university education. For companies like Phoenix University, this is a freaking GOLD MINE. They charge regular tuition but they have none of the overhead -- they don't have research fellows, no buildings, no utility bills, almost no expense at all. And their professors work cheap and have many students in each "class."
There's no reason why online education can't be free. The federal government should fund a national online university offering degrees in everything that can be taught online -- and it would all be free of charge to any US citizen.
The federal government should also take over vocational / technical schools and expand funding. This training should all be free too. If this were done, you'd end up with a workforce cross-trained and qualified for numerous fields of work. Admittedly, more educated people also means lower wages since the degree is no longer rare -- but this is happening anyway with everyone going to school, and if we had pro-American import tariffs and stopped immigration then we'd have a labor shortage and wages would still rise even with more people educated.
With the efficiencies enabled by the Internet, an education can and should be free of charge.
6. REAL STIMULUS.. spend a trillion dollars on real things that add something NEW to the economy that wasn't there before; things that build a framework that private business can use to create jobs. Just picking up existing bills for the states doesn't count as something new.
My idea would be a major space initiative -- you can't deny all the innovation that's trickled down from NASA over the years. As a country, we have to do big things again or we're dead in the water. We need a lunar base with industrial labs, and then work towards bases on some of the Jupiter and Saturn moons.
Another idea would be a nationwide high speed rail network -- the fastest, best tech we can do. This would allow workers to travel farther for work, and would revolutionize freight transport. That's the kind of stimulus you want, a game changer.
And there are all kind of other stimulus, with green energy, power grid upgrades, and the like. The green energy stuff is tricky, we need to stop the idiot things like using all our corn for gas.
And if the government pays one red cent for a wind turbine, the damn thing should be made HERE and not China.
Well that's about it, those are 6 ideas that would turn things around for the better in this country. And none of them will never happen, because the American globalist financial elite like things fine just the way they are.
1. Targeted tariffs, designed to make it cost effective to produce goods here -- that means TV's, iPads, even plastic pumpkins. Tax the imports so much that it's cheaper to make them here. This would also include services, so that means sorry Punjab no more call centers for you we need those jobs here.
2. MUCH higher taxes on the rich. Something closer to the 90% top bracket we had for many decades (before the "Reagan revolution"). BUT.. I would also add generous tax breaks, up to 50% of their taxes. The catch here would be that the deductions would be for all expenditures that EMPLOY an American citizen. So if the rich want to drink French wine, they can't write that off. But if they drink Napa Valley, they get the tax break. If they hire an illegal immigrant nanny, no tax break. But if they hire a US citizen, then they can write it off.
If this tax structure were in place then someone like John Kerry, who bought a yacht from New Zealand, would have instead bought one form his own home state of Massachusetts since he could have written it off. Money put into commodities and financial investments would not get a tax cut, but money put towards HIRING American employees would.
The basic premise here is that there's nothing wrong with being rich when the money is spent HERE and actually EMPLOYS American citizens. When the rich spend their money offshore, or use it to inflate commodity bubbles, then that's a DRAIN on our society and should rightly be taxed 90%.
3. END ALL IMMIGRATION, legal and illegal. We don't have enough jobs for our own unemployed, much less millions more illegals and H1B visa immigrant imports. We need a labor shortage in this country and we need it NOW. The market cannot work in favor of the working class unless there's a labor shortage, so that wages can rise which will attract people to train for in demand fields.
After unemployment has reached normal levels for a few years, then we can cautiously start up immigration again, but shut it down the moment unemployment creeps up.
Immigrants who come in with an investor visa would be exempt -- as long as they start a business that EMPLOYS Americans. Also self-supporting retirees and foreigners who want a vacation home would be welcome. As long as a foreigner can support himself, then he's not a drain and that's OK.
4. Major tort reform. The Republicans have this one right. There are too many liabilities involved with running a business, and that has to change. Damages need to come in line with what the offending party can AFFORD without ruining them.
5. The technology is now in place for online university education. For companies like Phoenix University, this is a freaking GOLD MINE. They charge regular tuition but they have none of the overhead -- they don't have research fellows, no buildings, no utility bills, almost no expense at all. And their professors work cheap and have many students in each "class."
There's no reason why online education can't be free. The federal government should fund a national online university offering degrees in everything that can be taught online -- and it would all be free of charge to any US citizen.
The federal government should also take over vocational / technical schools and expand funding. This training should all be free too. If this were done, you'd end up with a workforce cross-trained and qualified for numerous fields of work. Admittedly, more educated people also means lower wages since the degree is no longer rare -- but this is happening anyway with everyone going to school, and if we had pro-American import tariffs and stopped immigration then we'd have a labor shortage and wages would still rise even with more people educated.
With the efficiencies enabled by the Internet, an education can and should be free of charge.
6. REAL STIMULUS.. spend a trillion dollars on real things that add something NEW to the economy that wasn't there before; things that build a framework that private business can use to create jobs. Just picking up existing bills for the states doesn't count as something new.
My idea would be a major space initiative -- you can't deny all the innovation that's trickled down from NASA over the years. As a country, we have to do big things again or we're dead in the water. We need a lunar base with industrial labs, and then work towards bases on some of the Jupiter and Saturn moons.
Another idea would be a nationwide high speed rail network -- the fastest, best tech we can do. This would allow workers to travel farther for work, and would revolutionize freight transport. That's the kind of stimulus you want, a game changer.
And there are all kind of other stimulus, with green energy, power grid upgrades, and the like. The green energy stuff is tricky, we need to stop the idiot things like using all our corn for gas.
And if the government pays one red cent for a wind turbine, the damn thing should be made HERE and not China.Well that's about it, those are 6 ideas that would turn things around for the better in this country. And none of them will never happen, because the American globalist financial elite like things fine just the way they are.
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Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by Cloud9 » Mon 18 Oct 2010, 18:03:46
I know there were many, my self included, that thought we would evolve into the robot nation and all the undesirable labor would be done by the machines. Unless somebody pulls a rabbit out of a hat and introduces the new cheap energy that is not going to happen.
Higher oil prices will force us to return to more labor intensive forms of production. This will alleviate some of the labor problems. As we become more and more impoverished, this is going to become less and less a country for old men. The die off of us geezers, i.e. baby boomers is going to open up more slots for young people.
Higher oil prices will force us to return to more labor intensive forms of production. This will alleviate some of the labor problems. As we become more and more impoverished, this is going to become less and less a country for old men. The die off of us geezers, i.e. baby boomers is going to open up more slots for young people.
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Re: The record-breaking US economy -- all in the wrong direc
by IslandCrow » Tue 19 Oct 2010, 04:56:02
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')4. Damages need to come in line with what the offending party can AFFORD without ruining them.
')4. Damages need to come in line with what the offending party can AFFORD without ruining them.
This is not quite in line with your proposal, but in Finland many of the smaller court fines (eg for speeding) are expressed not as a Euro sum, but as a number of days earnings (from the last tax year). There have been some spectacular fines of the rich for speeding
We should teach our children the 4-Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rejoice.
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IslandCrow - Heavy Crude
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I guess you could say I'm a nationalist and mercantilist and also for higher taxes, but none of those views are contrary to the fundamentals of capitalism. Your idea would screw with the fundamentals of capitalism, which wouldn't be good. Of course both our ideas are fantasyland and will never happen.