The 10 economic charts that you are about to see are completely and totally shocking. If you know anyone that still does not believe that the United States is in the midst of a long-term economic decline, just show them these charts. Sometimes you can quote economic statistics to people until you are blue in the face and it won't do any good, but when those same people see charts and pictures suddenly it all sinks in. What is great about charts is that you can very easily demonstrate what has been happening to the economy over an extended period of time. As you examine the economic charts below, pay special attention to what has been happening to the U.S. economy over the last 30 or 40 years. The truth is that what is wrong with the U.S. economy is not a great mystery. All of the economic problems that we are experiencing now have taken decades to develop. Hopefully the charts in this article will help people realize just how nightmarish our economic problems have become, because until people start realizing how incredibly bad things have gotten they will never be willing to accept the dramatic solutions that are necessary to fix our financial system.
The sad fact of the matter is that we have been living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world over the last 40 years. All of this debt has purchased a wonderful standard of living for the vast majority of us, but all of this debt has also destroyed the economic future of our children and our grandchildren. Someday future generations will look back on what we have done in absolute horror.
The 10 economic charts posted below are meant to shock you. Most Americans today need to be shocked before they will be motivated to take action. Please share these charts with as many people as you can. Hopefully we can wake enough people up that something will be done about all of these problems while there is still time.
1 - Government spending is expanding at an exponential rate. As you can see from the chart below, federal spending is almost 18 times higher than it was back in 1970. Now Barack Obama has proposed a budget that would increase U.S. government spending to 5.6 trillion dollars in 2021. Just imagine what the following chart would look like if that happens....
2 - U.S. government debt is absolutely exploding. The U.S. national debt is currently $14,081,561,324,681.83. It is more than 14 times larger than it was back in 1980. Unfortunately, the national debt continues to grow at breathtaking speed. In fact, the Obama administration is projecting that the federal budget deficit for this year will be an all-time record 1.6 trillion dollars. Can we afford to continue to accumulate debt at this rate?....
3 - Unless something changes right now, the outlook for U.S. government finances in future years is downright apocalyptic. The chart posted below is from an official U.S. government report to Congress. As you can see, it is projected that interest on our exploding national debt is absolutely going to spiral out of control if we continue on the path that we are currently on....
4 - Household debt has soared to almost unbelievable levels over the last 30 years. The sad truth is that it is not just the U.S. government that has a massive debt problem. U.S. households have also been accumulating debt at a staggering rate. Total U.S. household debt did not pass the 2 trillion dollar mark until the mid-1980s, but now total U.S. household debt is well over 13 trillion dollars....
5 - The total of all debt (government, business and consumer) in the United States is now well over 50 trillion dollars. For the past couple of years this figure has been hovering around a level that is equivalent to approximately 360 percent of GDP. This is a debt bubble that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history....
6 - As tens of thousands of U.S. factories get shut down and as millions of our jobs get shipped overseas, the number of unemployed Americans continues to go up and up and up. As you can see from the chart below, there has been a long-term trend of increasing unemployment in the United States. In fact, there are about 3 and a half times as many unemployed workers in the United States today as there were when 1970 began. These jobs losses are going to continue as long as we allow our corporations to pay slave labor wages to workers on the other side of the globe. All of the major trends in global trade are very bad for the U.S. middle class. For example, the U.S. trade deficit with China for 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990. How long will our politicians stand by as our nation bleeds jobs?....
7 - The median duration of unemployment in the United States is in unprecedented territory. For most of the post-World War 2 era, when the median duration of unemployment in America reached 10 weeks that was considered a national crisis. Well, today competition for jobs is so intense that the median duration of unemployment is now well over 20 weeks....
8 - Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by over 95 percent. One of the reasons given for the existence of the Federal Reserve is that the Fed helps control inflation. But that is a huge lie. The truth is that the United States never had consistently rampant inflation until the Federal Reserve took control. In particular, once the U.S. totally went off the gold standard in the 1970s inflation really started escalating out of control....
9 - Now the Federal Reserve says that the solution to our current economic problems is to print even more money out of thin air. The games that the Federal Reserve is playing with our money supply are simply inexcusable. Just look at what the Federal Reserve has done to the monetary base since the beginning of the recession....
10 - All of this new money is creating tremendous inflation. In particular, the price of oil is now ridiculously high. A high price for oil is very, very bad for the U.S. economy. Our entire economic system is based on being able to use massive quantities of very cheap oil. Unfortunately, that paradigm is starting to break down and the consequences will be very bitter. Back in mid-2008, the price of oil hit an all-time record of $147 a barrel and subsequently the world financial system imploded a few months later. Well, the price of oil is on the march again and that is very bad news for the U.S. economy....
Needless to say, if the economic trends documented by the charts above continue the U.S. economy will be totally wiped out. The U.S. economy as it currently exists is unsustainable by definition. It is only a matter of time before we slam into an economic brick wall.
We have developed an economy that cannot function without debt, and at this point it seems like almost everyone is drowning in red ink. The federal government is massively overextended, most of our state and local governments are massively overextended, most of our major corporations are massively overextended and the majority of U.S. consumers are massively overextended.
The only way that the game can continue is for the Federal Reserve to print increasingly larger amounts of paper money out of thin air and for everyone in the economic food chain to go into increasingly larger amounts of debt.
But no debt spiral can go on forever. At some point this entire house of cards is going to collapse.
When that happens, there is going to be economic pain that is greater than anything that this country has ever seen before.
Someday we will all desperately wish that we could go back to the "good times" of 2011. A great economic collapse is coming, and all of us had better get ready.
Funny that you would want to impeach one of the only guys that is calling out the Federal Reserve for helping destroy the US economy, middle class, and national currency which will be inflated into oblivion.
You’re an uneducated idiot….
Fun with Multi-Decade Charts
Well done, Tim.
These charts would be a lot more useful – but a lot less persuasive – if they used inflation-adjusted dollars.
As Tim’s link shows, anything financial can be scary when looked at over 100 years.
WE need to make tough decisions as a country,Change needs to be made otherwise we are headed down a road of no return. Ron Paul 2012
Looking at these charts forces me to consider the possibility of the intentional destruction of the economy and the middle class. The severity of the decline seems to be more than a matter of greed. It seems to indicate “intention”. I am wondering if others see the situation this way?
This site proves Ron Paul was right all the time.. Any imbecile can see that. And without God there is no sanctity to human life, no eternal life, no enduring joy, no lasting peace, no redemption, no hope. The last people who claimed God did not exist and came to power murdered over 120 MILLION of their own people, and they are called communists.. Vile iniquity has consequences. Without God evil has no consequences.
Ron Paul is one of the few in Congress who know the real score. The U.S. is bankrupt, the dollar will soon become worthless, and gold and silver will soar.
These are the same people that profit from taking your money and put into investment accounts overseas. There is no doubt we have debut crises, but someone could have looked at the chart and predicated the same thing during 35 years ago when Reagan was president.
“God is a myth for the less intelligent to cling to”
The reality is that only fools do not comprehend or recognize the existence of God. Another reality is that such fools will go the way of the dinosaur soon enough… and no amount of fools, no matter how great their number or how “brilliant” their arguments, will be able to change that anymore than an ant on a rail can stop a speeding freight train…
Charts 6 and 7 – baby boomers are retiring NOW! It seems logical that available jobs are being created by their retirements.
Debt – a preview of cause / effect
The State of Wisconsin tried to peacefully overthrow corrupt government officials who chose anarcy over following the State Balance Budget over the last four years.
The newly elected officials attempted to follow the demands of the peaceful revolution and address the budget. But, the hard-core “entitled” minority stopped work and came to protest (while still on the payroll no less).
According to ABC News, President Obama accused the voters of “Attacking” them. (funny, just the opposit off Egypt).
Eventually, the voters must either confront the anarchist who do not believe in democracy or the laws of economics or they must submit to the new form of government.
Do Americans have what it takes to maintain freedom? Maybe, maybe not. Wisconsin may show the rest of the nation how things will shape up.
Joe said: “The reality is that only fools do not comprehend or recognize the existence of God.”
When the Buddha was asked if there was a god he replied with a questions, ‘would the existence of god make you a better person’?” Perhaps in the context of the US economy the we could ask “would the existence of god solve our economic problems?”
Not sure what religion has to do with the US economy…. assuming we still have some basic freedons in this country to discuss anything. But you started it.
Thank Goodness (not some supreme diety) that most people on this planet believe in God and something “of greater power” to have hope in. Without it, who knows how many of you might not have enough intelligence – yes, intelligence – to believe that in billions of years on this planet that a great ecosystem of life can come to be, alive and abundant, and able to regenerate itself…. but anyway… many of you would be dangerous, evil beings, without law or intelligent capacity to function in a world with others. Thank Goodness… you have God.
Folks;
Let me say up front that I am from Canada, and I am somewhat shocked at many of your childish answers. Surely, the graphs deserve some intelligent comments. I don’t pretend to be an economics major, and I agree that there are some faults with some of the graphs, but it seems to me that the graphs in general are telling us that there will not be an easy solution and even if the politicians and their economic advisors did everything right, this will be a long long hard road back to health. That means that everything will only improve slowly, gradually, and any hicups along the way are going to hurt a lot of people. It seems to me that this problem is like the global warming phenomena(if you believe in it).It can be solved and every day you delay in taking positive steps will make it much harder to achieve a positive result, until you arrive at a tipping point, where even if you can quotes”recover”, your country will never be the same, for your future generations. Surely your future generations would want you to tackle the problem and do your best, rather than some of the nonsense I have seen in some of your comments. You are not making a very good impression on the rest of the world. And remember, there is no place to hide anymore.
Dave
National debt needs to be represented in terms of a percent of Gross Domestic Product, otherwise the linear represenation distorts the reality. This was not done. When will the scary economist posting the article take the correct steps in this regard?
I completely agree with GREYFOX’s comment about Ron Paul – he is likely the ONLY Statesman amongst a body of politicians whom mostly carry out self-serving agendas. How do I know about the self-serving agenda aspect? Well, I already told you.. They’re politicians.
We need more thinkers like David K. Stay with us DK and shoot down the naysayers and mush brains. LB
As for the answer to your personal economic problems being gold…remember FDR. When he needed the money, he took everyone’s gold with the stroke of a pen…paid you $20/oz fiat money and sold it to the banksters in Europe for $35/oz. It will happen again!!! “That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (King Solomon)
Two observations:
1. I do believe in God; I doubt that He is threatened by people who mock Him.
2. Social Security and Medicare are not “giveaway” programs for those who have or are paying into them. We’re giving away our citizenship and birth rights to people who have no right to them.
This “impeachRonPaul” person has shown up with ridiculous, unproven, obscene comments on this site before just to cause a stir. I just want to say this, mostly because I can spend time debating with people that have intelligence; I once heard a very wise person say: “It takes far more ‘faith’ and ‘hope’ to be an atheist, as more evidence and reason is needed to show God does not existence, than it ever will for those of us that know God is very real. All of this wasn’t just an accident by chance that so happened to take place in the right degree on space and reality that placed all the planets around one Sun in perfect harmony.”
From an Australian perspective it is both strange and a pity that comments on an economic issue are dominated by questions of religion and God.
That aside, the arguments that jobs have been exported is a no brainer since both Republicans and Democrats have foisted World read ‘Free’ Trade on the world as it was initially seen to be an advantage to the US economy. Cheap goods in Walmart etc. has freed up money to speculate on real estate or Wall Street. Just call it the chickens coming home to roost.
I also can’t understand why God is being discussed when this article clearly outlines what will be the USA’s future for a number of years to come. The only real question is when will the ultimate bubble finally cause the total collapse of our daily way of life. I believe with Ben printing $$$$$’s like a drunken sailor on shore leave it is just a matter of time. (Less than 3 years). What is missing in the article is, what will be the effect to our economy if China has a real disruption (runaway inflation, etc.) to their economy. That is also a very distinct possibility. Not a thing I see today either in Washington, Wall Street or the world stage gives me a warm and fuzzy. I hope I am wrong but I think the next 3 to 5 years will be the ultimate test of our economy.
This is amazing! Thank you for waking us up. Wake Up America!
Most people who deny the existence of God do so because of fear. A fear of what they have done that will condemn them. then there are those that deny because they don’t want to believe so they can continue treating those as they choose to and so in the hereafter they will claim ignorance when they are damned! there they will say “Lord I did not know”. I pity those that choose to deny for you will never know the true living God. I am sorry you believe the Lord is some kind of trick to maintain a benevolence in your outlook as if that would be any kind of crime against your free will. Also for you people out there that
believe the world can plan, work or engineer our way out of the current crises we now face around the world but more so in the USA. I don’t believe we can enslave or threaten our way out of this one and don’t want to see us
try. Lord knows we can only continue to borrow so much money. You know your in trouble when you need to borrow money just to pay your debt. I have been uterly ashamed of the way our foreign policy has been handled and the way the corperate media covers it up. I would like to apologize to anyone out there that have been persecuted by my government, military or intelligents agencies of the USA. I only wish that others in my country believed as i did and feel it totally unfair that 4% of the worlds population purchases 30% of the goods and 25% of the fuels. My prayers are with you allways and forever. God help you poor people living in poverty and if you don’t
prosper in this world I pray you do in the next. God help us all to see the light of truth and to help those around us as we would have unto ourselves !!!!!
A disgruntaled American …..
Wisdom and intelligence are not equally the same.
“The fool has said in his heart ‘there is no God’. Psalm 53
and,
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ”Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding. Job 38
I concur with comments posted by Kathleen and Martin F. Aren’t we missing something, like an adjustment for inflation. I’m certainly not an economist, but it would make sense to me that the calculations done here are lacking something. Unless, the results were adjusted appropriately, and I don’t see any evidence that they were.
Take a look at this:
http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm
Most of those that deny God’s existence do so not out of fear but due to an utter lack of proof. Many of those that deny God’s existence accept the ethical and moral values written in the Bible- they just do not need to have God exist in order to act ethically and morally.
Most of those that do believe in God however shut off any possible discussion. Religion is based on faith not science. You can’t quote the Bible as ‘proof’ of God’s existence because it says so. Science has refusted many dogmas. Look at the Muslim countries where they are slavishly following the Koran. Not much different than want happened in Europe during the Dark Ages.
These charts remind me of the gold and silver markets. Can we say bubble and blow-off top.
How can you believe that applying wage laws to US-based corporations with overseas workers will increase the salaries of those workers? Capital seeks the most efficient use except when in the hands go government. Once these these new laws are in place, a company will move its entire operation from the US to a more friendly nation (which is just about any other nation). Many companies have already done this. You do not own the companies that you speak of. Nor do you own the workers outside of the US. Most of the morons in the US believe the answer to any problem is to tax companies. The tax is simply added to the provided good or service until the tax can no longer be afforded, then the entire company seeks a new home nation. Now how many jobs have left the United States? The worst part about this is nothing restricts you from bringing your ignorance to the ballot box where you can spray that ignorance on the rest of us.
politics is too complicated! and it shouldnt be
these charts are rediculous. there is no way we can get out of this one. this is just one example of how the government has screwed its citizens.