Unemployment

Barack Obama, The Federal Reserve And The New York Times: Millions Of Unemployed Americans Are NOT Going Back To Work Any Time Soon

Most Americans seem to be under the impression that the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs over the last few years will soon be going back to work as the U.S. economy recovers.  But that is not going to happen.  In fact, even Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve and the New York Times are all admitting that millions of unemployed Americans are not going back to work any time soon – and they are some of the biggest optimists regarding the long-term prospects for the U.S. economy.  Many are calling this a “jobless recovery”, but what we are experiencing right now is not a “recovery” at all.  Rather, we are currently in a “lull” in the economic storm.  All of the “bailouts” and “stimulus packages” have stabilized the U.S. economy for now, but they have made our long-term debt problems far worse.

So what does that mean?

It means that eventually millions and millions more Americans will lose their jobs.

So don’t count on the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed going back to work any time soon.

Even the most important newspaper in the United States (the New York Times), the most important financial institution in the nation (the Federal Reserve) and the president of the United States (Barack Obama) all say that the employment situation is not going to improve for quite some time…. 

*Barack Obama’s most recent budget proposal projects that the U.S. unemployment rate will remain at about 10% in 2010.  Of course we all know that the current official unemployment rate of approximately 10% is actually more like 18-22% in reality.

*The Federal Reserve also caused a stir recently when they said that the official U.S. unemployment rate will continue to stay up around 10% throughout 2010.

*In a recent article entitled “Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs”, the New York Times admitted that millions of Americans that have lost their jobs during this “recession” may be out of work for years.

Meanwhile, according to the Department of Labor, approximately 2.7 million unemployed Americans will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless the U.S. Congress decides to extend their payments.

So what happens when millions of unemployed Americans don’t even have an unemployment check coming in?

Things are getting bad out there, and many financial institutions are beginning to take steps to protect themselves.

In fact, Citibank is now telling some of their customers that they are reserving the right to require 7 days advance notice before allowing a customer to withdraw their own money.

Yes, this is true.

Citibank is currently sending the following notification to their customers all over the United States, but according to them it was only supposed to go to their customers in Texas: “Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change.”

Could you imagine having to give your bank 7 days notice before you take your money out?

Dark economic times are ahead.

The truth is that the once great U.S. economy is crumbling.  Just check out the chart below.  Does this look like part of a “normal” economic cycle to you?….

Will This Generation Of Young Americans Be Able To Make It In Hard Times?

Our recent article entitled “A Record Number Of Young Americans Are Unemployed – Are They Just Lazy Or Are There Simply No Jobs Available?” has generated some absolutely outstanding comments.  We have held back on publishing the best of those comments until now because we wanted to feature them all in one place.  The truth is that this economic downturn is having a disproportionate impact on young Americans.  So why is this?  Well, that is what we want to explore.  In today’s economic climate, it can be very difficult to get that first job.  In fact, in some areas of the U.S. today it is close to impossible to get a great job even if you have tons of experience.  But there are some young Americans who are making it out there and who are doing very well despite what the economy is doing.

Certainly when you talk about any very large group of people there are going to be exceptions.  There are some young adults in America today who are absolutely shining examples of what it means to be a hard working American.  But are they the exceptions or are they the rule?

Some would argue that we have raised a generation that is spoiled, lazy and who expect everything in life to just be handed to them.  Of course one could very easily say that is now true of the American people in general.

The American people have had it so good for so long that most of them have no conception of what it means to suffer.  This is especially true of our young people unfortunately.  But now hard times are coming.

Will our young people be able to make it?

Will we be able to make it?

The following are four excellent comments that were left by readers of this website.  They all make excellent points and they all touched us on an emotional level.  Especially Brian’s story.  Never give up Brian.

After reading the comments below, we encourage you to add your own comments at the end of the article.  Do you think that Americans (especially young Americans) are going to be able to make it through the tough times that are ahead, or are we in really, really big trouble?

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Annie:

I can definitely see many people having temper tantrums. I see it on a small scale now.

I managed a retail establishment last year that is seasonal. All of the employees that the owner hired that were under 40 I had to fire. The first half were lazy obsessively texting internet surfing junkies or illegal aliens I had to fire. Oh boy did they think I was a bitch, but I got the job done, on time and under budget.

The 2 best employees I had was a 40 year old white man and a 65 year old Columbia woman. The man was a class A employee. He made slightly over minimum wage but he was grateful to have a job. Worked anytime I asked him. If I were to call him, he’d be on the next bus to show up for work. Wanted to work, needed to work. Stellar employee. Anytime I get a call in regard to a reference to him, I gave him high accolades.

The Columbian woman, same thing. Showed up on time, dressed professional, spoke professionally on the phone and interact with the customers like a class act.

The Nintendo generation (boy that’s a good one) is full of lazy, obese, low IQ brain dead people. There are few good young people out there, but they are far and few between. When I go to a retail store, I purposely try to pick a register that has a baby boomer working it. If I happen to get a younger man/woman, it’s a joke. They rarely make eye contact and mumble intelligible. I leave the register and don’t even know what they said.

Just to screw with them sometimes I mumble something stupid like I’m being beamed up to Mars after I leave here to see if they’re really paying attention.

The entitlement mentality is the worst. All of these kids want a $100K job or something close. Those days are over unless you get a cushy government job. I’ve been in and out of work for the last 3 years. It’s been rough for me. I’ve worked minimum wage jobs, scavenged for cans and bottles to sell for money, held garage sales, etc…to put food on the table. Many people would think they’re too good to do what I do.

Recent College Graduate:

I recently graduated with a BBA in finance from prestigious university. I wanted to comment of this article because I can completely identify with the subject, in fact, when I saw the picture I laughed to myself and was like that’s me, kinda sad huh. I now live with parents and have no intention of looking for a job. I have been highly motivated my entire life and was well on my way to getting a job in a hedge fund or private equity firm within the oil and gas industry. However a couple months before graduation, something snapped and I became very depressed and lost almost all motivation. I think its because I really woke up the the reality that the the path that the US is on economically speaking is unsustainable. I don’t feel like there is any money to be made anymore. Of course in the short term I could be making about $75,000 a year (typical starting pay for classmates of mine), however I don’t see a point. The dollar will most likely be gone in the next two years and honestly we are on the verge of social and political chaos…I think the best use of my time presently is to prepare myself and get my family prepared for what lies ahead. So from the horses mouth so to speak, as a 22 year old college graduate, that is my opinion.

Brand:

Many recent college grads move back home for two reasons.

First, the education system has become absolutely addicted to debt. Look at the cost of tuition over the last three decades, and then look at the number of loans issued by Sallie Mae. As soon as demand went through the roof, the universities started doubling and tripling tuition rates, while offering in-house consultation on how to maximize student loans. Twenty years ago, most college students didn’t graduate $40-60,000 in the debt.

Second, it’s a tough job market. If you’ve got a tuition payment to make, and you can’t get a job, then it’s reasonable to move back in with mom and dad for a while. That’s what family is for. They have every right to expect you to pull your weight, including doing chores and getting a part-time job to help pay for food and utilities. Of course, when mom and dad get old, they have the right to live at *your* place for a while, at least until they require permanent care.

I don’t dispute that there are a lot of lazy punks out there. I also happen to think that kids go $40-60,000 into debt while majoring in dead-end subjects that offer no chance of repaying their loans. But there are also plenty of responsible young people who get stuck between a rock and a hard place, and there’s nothing wrong with taking a little family help as long as it’s appreciated and repaid in kind.

Just my two cents.

Brian:

I am 31 year old male, but everyone says I look 17-20. I had a son at 18 and never had the money to go to an expensive college to get a degree and got turned down for a federal grant/loan, but I did save and go to community college for paramedic. The above article really bothered me because for years I have been put down by older adults, Friend of court, and places I applied to for work for taking care of my grandparents who have been married almost 60 years, and my mother who has MS. My grandmother has never had a license and my grandfather has had emphysema for 20 years and is on oxygen, and my mother uses a wheel chair or a walker on her good days. (the bad are spent crying in pain in bed, sleeping, or bed ridden for days, sometimes weeks at a time.) FOC says I don’t send enough directly to her and taking care of my family is not a “real” job since I do not pay federal tax’s or get paid a weekly check they can commandeer(that’s a whole other story, I guess they didn’t get the memo that woman are to pass men as family “breadwinners” this year or next.), other older adults say I need to look out for myself and get a real job, and the jobs I do apply for,(to work nights or part time) also say it is not a job and therefore I have a huge employment gap on my resume. I have lived on and off between my grandparents and mothers in Michigan my whole life. I stayed with grandparents because my mom waitress-ed full time at night when I was younger.I do not care what they say, I love my family and will help them no matter what, until they pass or they can afford a home nurse. On the nights and weekends that I don’t have my son, I sit home and reading and learning programming and web design. I am willing to work hard anywhere for any (legal) pay. Everyone complains about everyone else and thinks it is so easy to get a job until it happens to them. I glad I don’t care about money and I do not have anything worth anything, so it can’t be taken away. Maybe all the people who were doing the complaining on the board up there should give me and people like me a chance. We might just be the most kind, loyal, hard working person you ever had working with or for. I just would like to let you know, Not being able to financially support myself makes me feel like a loser and maybe I am just a burden on my family and it would be better of if I just”went away”. If it would not hurt my son and family so much, I would be gone.

Survive After Collapse

OOPS! – U.S. Government Unemployment Numbers Have To Be Revised Because They Were Off By Almost One MILLION!

What a mess! We all knew that U.S. government unemployment numbers were off, but this is ridiculous. It is now being reported that the U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on February 5th.  How in the world could the original figures be so far off?  The truth is that U.S. government figures have been getting more and more out of touch with reality each year.  Government bureaucrats have been monkeying with the “definitions” of unemployment and inflation for decades, and at this point the figures they give us mean little to nothing.  For example, the U.S. government has been telling us that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is somewhere around 10 percent, while everyone knows that the “real” number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-22 percent.

But one thing is for certain – unemployment is going up.  The Labor Department announced on Tuesday that unemployment rose in 82 percent of U.S. metro areas during the month of December.

For those keeping score at home, that is not good news.

And all of this unemployment is starting to create huge social problems.

According to a new study from America’s largest food bank operator, the number of Americans in need of food aid has jumped 46 percent in just the last three years.

A 46 percent increase in hunger in just 3 years?

What is going to happen when the economy really collapses?

So is life good for anyone right now?

Oh yeah – life is really good for the companies that the U.S. government bailed out.  In fact, it was just reported that AIG was scheduled to distribute about $100 million in bonuses to its employees on Wednesday.

AIG is giving out about 100 million in bonuses while hunger and unemployment throughout the U.S. are rocketing into the stratosphere – is anyone else disgusted by that?

The truth is that the whole system is failing and we are headed for an economic collapse.  The U.S. economy is in a slow death spiral, and it is only a matter of time until the U.S. dollar implodes.  Ron Paul is warning about that in the video posted below, and he also says that when the dollar does collapse that it could cause a total breakdown of law and order in American society….

What in the world are the American people going to do when the crap really does hit the fan?

Things haven’t even gotten really bad yet and yet Americans are already more doped up on antidepressants than anyone else in the world.  In fact, Americans, who make up about 6 percent of the population of the world, consume approximately 66 percent of the world’s supply of antidepressants.

What a sad nation we have become.

Really, really hard times are on the horizon, and the vast majority of Americans simply do not have the capacity to handle them.

What a mess.

A Record Number Of Young Americans Are Unemployed – Are They Just Lazy Or Are There Simply No Jobs Available?

A record number of young Americans are now unemployed.  According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept in 1948.  So why is this happening?  Certainly it is much harder to find a job today than it was just 3 or 4 years ago.  But are there other factors involved?  Even when the economy was still flying high back in the middle of the decade, an increasing number of young people were moving back in with Mom and Dad after they graduated from college.  Is it our fault for raising kids who simply cannot adjust to the real world?  Is society to blame for all of the young Americans who believe that everything should be handed to them on a silver platter without them having to work for it?  Or would young Americans be more than willing to step up if there were good opportunities available to them?

The quality of young adults in America today is a theme that a number of our readers have commented on recently.  In particular, there were four comments that were so exceptional that we thought they deserved special attention and we have reproduced them below.  If there is any hope for the future of America, it will be crucial for the next generation to step up to the plate.

But are they capable of it?  Please read the following comments left by our readers and then post your own comment and let us know what you think….

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Joyce:

I keep hearing conservatives say we need to get rid of “Social Security” and go back to when families took care of family members. These people have to be “out of touch with reality” because the family unit has been broken for years in this country and continues to break down. Disabled, elderly people, in general, have no family members willing to help them. Children and grandchildren often have no time for their older parents and grandparents and often feel that older and disabled folk are in the way and only contact them when they themselves need money or wish to check on their possible inheritance from older members of their family. Many young people think nothing of “stealing” from thier parents and elderly grandparents if they think they can get away with it. Many families with children have only one adult or parent to support and nurture the children and many women, right here in Missoula, Montana, are supporting thier “boy friends” and fewer and fewer “couples” are getting “married”. A large number of family units are in deep financial trouble as the good paying jobs keep disappearing and the materialistic young people feel they must buy the latest new toy or electronic gadget on the market. Even these college graduates often leave college with huge debts they incurred in the form of student loans and are often in serious financial trouble. Where is the “family” support and help for the elderly and disabled coming from??? Many young adults often try to make older folks feel they have outlived thier welcome no matter how hard they worked when they were young to help build the nation these young people feel belongs only to them.

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Elldee:

I do know a few individuals in their 20s who are hard workers. One is my son. He was going to college full-time, employed part-time, participates in auto racing, and served in the Army Reserves as a staff sergeant. He was recruited by the race car owner because of his work ethic. He just graduated from college in December with a degree in mechanical engineering technology, has his resume out there and is waiting to hear back. In the meantime, he is working full-time in construction and part-time for a company that builds race car engines. I know I may be accused of being partial because he’s my son, but he is a good worker, loyal, dedicated, motivated, and engaged in whatever he is doing.

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Penny:

I’m 65, and came from very creative, old style common sense family. I know how to do so many things from scratch it would blow your mind. THAT is what gives me confidence.

SKILLS for life, on all levels. I can grow, cook,& preserve food.I can throw together a meal for 6 or more in a hurry out of almost anything. How many of you can make a noodle, a mainstay of hard times ? Can you grow a patch of potatoes? Repair shoes, make shoes for a small child. Hand sew? Mend or iron. Hand wash clothes. Do you know what basic tools are for. What if the web goes? Do you know how to use a library?

More to the point, can you tell when you can’t afford something? Can you tell when you need to go back down the technology scale to provide your needs, because that’s where it’s cheaper? Can you steam rice, mash potatoes? Stop a leak? Can you figure out the cost of your appliances so you know what to turn off and leave off?

Can you tell you can’t afford to use the dryer? Do you know enough about nutrition to know you need to plant a garden? Do you know how much effort is needed for basic jobs, or how long it takes? Can you make yourself get up and walk to get what you need when you have enough for food and gas, but not both? Skills are also nice for barter.

I saw a show on Western kids working in rice fields in Thailand. What BS.Supposedly they’d been there working for 6 weeks. They still had body fat and a double chin.Anybody doing day long hard agri work for 6 weeks would be getting lean and mean.

Character is built as you learn skills and come to respect your own efforts; then you understand the efforts of all. Morality isn’t a stamp you stick on someone, it’s innate unless it’s corrupted. I don’t know what’s happened to our lazy behinds, but it doesn’t seem to me we’ve had enough physical work required of us, so we don’t have a clue how much we’ll need to do..the whines will be heard to the skies, then weeping..we should start a skill bulletin board and tell each other what we know while we have time.

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Kelly:

I work in an ER…. When the s–t really hits the fan, most Americans (90%) will totally fall apart… If they can’t handle a paper cut now (I kid you not!), can you imagine the chaos when things really get rough? When the vicodin runs out? Some parasites make 2-3 visits or more a week to the ER for BS….. the human devolution is truly mind-boggling…

90% of americans are totally worthless parasites… I hired an american to mow my lawn… he got a cell phone call in the middle of it, said he would come back, never did! I had to finish the half-mowed lawn myself….. I went thru 8 people mowing my lawn, till I finally found someone reliable, on time, gentle w the equipment, willing to work hard…… me! Yep, it is that bad… I hired myself to mow my lawn… Now I am hiring myself to plant it in wildflowers for the coming days when lawnmowing will become impossible…

One of the 8 failures was a 16 year old native born American kid doing some landscaping for me… I had to show him how to use a shovel. He had never picked one up before… Unbelievable! … I told him to slope the dirt away from the house so the water would run down and away from the foundation. He asked me, “What is slope?” I had to draw him a picture!! Pitiful… Down the toilet the american empire falls….

Austin Coins

 

10 Heartbreaking Stories Of Unemployment And Economic Despair In America

At times it can be really easy to get caught up in the data and the statistics of the economic collapse and forget that there are millions of very real stories behind these numbers.  The truth is that millions of Americans have had their lives absolutely devastated by this economic crisis, and things are only going to get much worse in the years ahead.  Many Americans who find themselves out of work don’t even understand what is going on – all they know is that they desperately want someone to give them a job and that they will work night and day if they could just get a chance.  In fact, employment is the number one issue on the minds of American voters right now.  A new poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that the two issues that Americans are most concerned about at this moment are the economy and jobs.

You see, if you can’t pay your mortgage and if you can’t feed your family, suddenly other issues become a whole lot less important.  If you still have a job and you can still pay your rent or mortgage every month, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate.  Right now there are literally tens of millions of Americans who are living on the edge of financial disaster.  The following are 10 heartbreaking stories of unemployment and economic despair which should make the rest of us very thankful for what we still have….

1) Can you imagine having to move your wife and kids into your mother-in-law’s basement?  You have got to read this amazing article by Paul Schwartzman in which he profiles the heartbreaking story of one average American couple who have lost their jobs and have completely given in to despair….

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He sinks into the couch, his gaze traveling from his wife to the television to the darkness outside, broken now and then by the distant glow of passing headlights.

His mind settles into another round of “What if?”

As in: What if we don’t have cash to buy milk, eggs, bread or diapers? What if our unemployment benefits run out? What if we never find jobs?

Scott Nichols thinks of the option the 39-year-old husband and father of two has hoped to avoid since being laid off nine months ago.

They already took free food from a church pantry, cardboard boxes filled with Corn Flakes and bologna and saltines. His wife, Kelly, walking in, head down, while he stayed in the car, ashen. They pawned his wedding ring, sold part of her coin collection and had help from the Salvation Army paying their electric bill.

Now another cliff approaches: the loss of the home they rent.

“Looks like we’ll have to go to your mom’s,” Scott Nichols says to Kelly, 33, who is in a beige recliner, staring ahead.

Moving to her mother’s would mean returning to the rundown industrial town where they grew up, a place that makes him feel dirty, inside and out. They would sleep in her basement jammed with forgotten furniture, a few steps from a pair of cat litter boxes and below three narrow windows blocked by insulation.

2) The Nation recently ran an article that included a stunning description of what many California neighborhoods are like in the aftermath of the housing crisis….

There’s a Mad Max feel to daily life in many neighborhoods. The Central Valley has a swath of cities whose home foreclosure rates rank in the top ten in the country. Friends looking to buy a home in a poor part of Sacramento tell me of foreclosed houses stripped of their copper wires, their toilets, their pipes, even their drywall. An ex-student reports visiting homes in which furious foreclosed owners and evicted tenants have urinated and defecated on the carpeting, abandoned pets to starve, left kitchens filled with rotting food. Sure, you can buy these properties for next to nothing, but you’ll have to bring in the biohazard squads before you can safely occupy them.

3) Robin Sherwood

My husband, Ron, was a construction superintendent, and in that field you know the job is always going to end. At the end of September, they handed Ron two checks. We knew it was coming, but we just didn’t expect it so soon.

With more than 1,400 people on the list at the union, it just doesn’t look like any work for a while. With most of the construction sites shut down, the work is just not there. Now what? We don’t know.

It’s rough in Boulder City. There are no construction jobs, and even for me to go find a retail job the chances are slim. In this town, they don’t look at bringing jobs in for local residents.

We get $1,500 a month from the unemployment checks, and the money is not enough to cover expenses. Our mortgage is $1,110 a month.

We’ve cut back to just the basics, even with groceries. We’ve applied for free lunches for my daughter so at least she can have a hot meal at school. We don’t go into town unless we absolutely have to.

4) Kathy Edwards

I lost my job March 6, 2009. I have been working in the insurance industry for 40 years.

At the age of 60 I doubt that I wlll find another job. I lost everything and had to file bankruptcy.

A sad way to end a good life…

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Its the pits… not knowing what the future holds and when unemployment ends who knows.. You start considering what you options are: anywhere from homelessness to suicide.

I used to love life and my job now I feel worthless and can offer my son nothing to help him out as well.

5) An anonymous poster on the GLP forum

My daughters 23 year old friend graduated with a Bachelors in Foreign Business over a year ago. We are a coastal state (WA) and he has been unable to find a good job in that time. Currently working at a clothing wholesaler making a pittance and struggling to pay his school loans and living expenses.

A couple we are close friends with are about to lose their home. Husband managed a trucking crew. We all know what’s going on with the trucking industry. They’ve for almost a year attempted to save the home they built with their own hands by offering the bank interest only payments or refi to lower payments, they’ve filled out too many forms to count to qualify for the Obama plan to save their home (they totally qualified at every point but new forms were sent again and again and finally after almost a year they were told they do not qualify but not given a reason why) and the bank just last week told them they have until next week to come up with $36,000.00 or move out.

My father, who is on a fixed income, keeps his house at freezing temps, doesn’t go anywhere, and eats crap food and he is living on two retirements! You know why? His lenders suddenly raised interest rates on two loans he had. Then his auto and home insurance company found out he had higher interest rates and used that as an excuse to raise his insurance rates!

6) Carmen

I was working as a Production Supervisor for a very large manufacturing company. They hired me on and about a month later I was told that the plant would be closing down and moving production to Mexico. I like many others am a victim of outsourcing and now the economy.

I have worked in the manufacturing industry for several years in Management Roles. I have actual experience in the industry that I obtained through trial and error, training, and just working. My expertise is Cost Reduction. I am old school and did not graduate from a college with a degree. I am from the school of hard knocks.

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Being unemployed is truly the most difficult thing I have ever had to live through. I have worked since I was 15 and right now have been unemployed for over 16 months. I have applied to every job I am qualified for, joined all the social networks, worked my own personal network and try to utilize any creative way to find work.

I feel useless sitting at home not be able to work and support my family. My wife is working two jobs and still we cannot make ends meet. I have been trying to work with my mortgage company for a year now to modify the loan on our home but basically have been told that because I have still be able to make my payments (by the grace of God we have been able to do so, with the help of family and a little savings, this is all gone now) that being unemployed is not a dire enough hardship, and there is no help for me.

It is frustrating to say the least and seems never ending. I hope they extend the unemployment extensions that are due to expire at the end of February 10 because if they don’t I know what I am going to do. All I want to do is work, I would work 16 hours a day, night, afternoon or morning shift, weekends, overtime, holidays, part-time full time, seasonal, you name it.

7) Jan

I lost my full time job in an automotive related field in April 2008 and have been unemployed since. I finally found a part-time job in July 2009, which was far below the money I was making however I felt, a job is a job. Now after continuing to look for full-time employment without any success, I am at risk of losing my home as my mortgage company is not willing to work with me.

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It is horrible and makes you feel inadequate in every way when u cannot find a full-time job and when you cannot support your family. I am close to losing my home and am frustrated that there is no where to turn. I have spent endless hours on the phone trying to follow up for jobs in which I have applied, only to be told that often there is 1 job available and there have been over 400 or 500 applicants. I don’t even get a letter or any correspondence telling my I did not get a position, I am just left hanging. I have tried to look into many different fields only to be told I have no experience, well how can I get any experience if no one will give me a chance? The problem is that there are so many people here in Michigan without a job, employers don’t HAVE TO take a chance and they have their pick of whoever they want (usually a friend or family member gets hired).

8) Joe

I worked a major online retail store for womens clothing and apparel, i worked at the distribution center here in West Virgina. I operated various loading equipment from order pickers, to forklifts,reese trucks, standups, and walkies.

I was laid off in January of 2009, because it was cheaper for the company to bring in new workers that would not have to be provided with bennefits such as, insurance, paid sick days, holidays, vacation, things of that nature, they laid myself and about 100 other employees off, and turned around and hired about the same number of employees the same month.

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I have now been unemployed for over a year, i have applied for over 250 jobs,and have had no luck with any of them, the only thing that has kept me from losing everything is my unemployment compensation, which ran out at the beginning of the year. I have done everything in my power to find a job, I am also taking courses for IT related field, but I fear that I will have to stop the classes because with no type of income coming in i can no longer afford them. I enough money saved to maybe survive for the next 2 months, after that i don’t know what my family is going to do. there is just simply no work here or anywhere for that matter.

9) Lady Wolf on the GLP forum

We are fortunate in that we have set aside a nest egg for ourselves in the form of a 401K that we can dip into if we absolutely have to and it’s looking like that might be the case. But that’s supposed to be for our retirement. We’re both in our 40’s so that seems a long way off still…but we may not have a choice. My husband had already enrolled into college because he sees the handwriting on the wall in this economy and he just doesn’t see it getting any better with millions out of work in this country, but the field he’s chosen to branch off into could take up to a year to get his degree…

He’s feeling so discouraged right now…that’s got to be a real beating to a man’s ego. I’m trying to be there for him, but I don’t think this is something I can fix this time. All I can do is let him know how much I love him and that as long as we have each other, everything else will work out…I hate seeing him like this! He’s such a hard worker with a solid work ethic. He doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him…then again, no one really does.

People just want to provide for their families…is that such a bad thing?

10) Carlene Balderrama

On the morning she realized her husband and son would learn the family was losing their house, Carlene Balderrama, 53, faxed a note to the mortgage company, then went to the basement and shot herself.

“I hope you’re more compassionate with my husband than you were with me,” she wrote in a suicide note left for the company.

****

Unfortunately, these stories do not represent isolated incidents.  There are millions of other stories just like these.  In fact, you probably have friends, relatives or neighbors who find themselves in similar situations.

Perhaps your own life has been turned upside down by this economic mess.  Millions of people who worked hard in school, always did everything “right” and who were always good to their employers now find themselves up a creek without a paddle.  The reality is that it is almost impossible to find a good job in many areas of the United States today.

If you have a story to share we would love to hear it.  Just post a comment below, and as long as it is is clean and does not advocate violence we will be glad to post it.  The truth is that we will all have to offer one another a helping hand to get through this economic crisis.

And let us not look down on anyone who finds themselves out of work.  Almost all of us have been there, and almost all of us will be there again.  Many Americans who are now out of work are good, hard-working people.  They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The reality is that the gigantic economic tsunami that is coming is going to impact all of us whether we like it or not.  Millions of jobs and millions of homes are going to be lost.  Many families will be destroyed.  A lot of innocent people are going to pay the price for decades of incompetence and foolishness in Washington D.C.

Things did not have to turn out this way, but this is the hand that we have been dealt.  Let us be kind and compassionate to one another and let us be certain to retain our humanity as we all head into a future that appears to be very bleak.

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Economic Black Hole: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover

Even though the U.S. financial system nearly experienced a total meltdown in late 2008, the truth is that most Americans simply have no idea what is happening to the U.S. economy.  Most people seem to think that the nasty little recession that we have just been through is almost over and that we will be experiencing another time of economic growth and prosperity very shortly.  But this time around that is not the case.  The reality is that we are being sucked into an economic black hole from which the U.S. economy will never fully recover.

The problem is debt.  Collectively, the U.S. government, the state governments, corporate America and American consumers have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  Our massive debt binge has financed our tremendous growth and prosperity over the last couple of decades, but now the day of reckoning is here.

And it is going to be painful.

The following are 20 reasons why the U.S. economy is dying and is simply not going to recover….

#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression?  Well, the “second wave” of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it.  A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages.  The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years….

#2) The Federal Housing Administration has announced plans to increase the amount of up-front cash paid by new borrowers and to require higher down payments from those with the poorest credit.  The Federal Housing Administration currently backs about 30 percent of all new home loans and about 20 percent of all new home refinancing loans.  Tighter standards are going to mean that less people will qualify for loans.  Less qualifiers means that there will be less buyers for homes.  Less buyers means that home prices are going to drop even more.

#3) It is getting really hard to find a job in the United States.  A total of 6,130,000 U.S. workers had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more in December 2009.  That was the most ever since the U.S. government started keeping track of this statistic in 1948.  In fact, it is more than double the 2,612,000 U.S. workers who were unemployed for a similar length of time in December 2008.  The reality is that once Americans lose their jobs they are increasingly finding it difficult to find new ones. 

#4) In December, there were also 929,000 “discouraged” workers who are not counted as part of the labor force because they have “given up” looking for work.  That is the most since the U.S. government first started keeping track of discouraged workers in 1949.  Many Americans have simply given up and are now chronically unemployed.

#5) Some areas of the U.S. are already virtually in a state of depression.  The mayor of Detroit estimates that the real unemployment rate in his city is now somewhere around 50 percent.

#6) For decades, our leaders in Washington pushed us towards “a global economy” and told us it would be so good for us.  But there is a flip side.  Now workers in the U.S. must compete with workers all over the world, and our greedy corporations are free to pursue the cheapest labor available anywhere on the globe.  Millions of jobs have already been shipped out of the United States, and Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.  The days when blue collar workers could live the American Dream are gone and they are not going to come back.   

#7) During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time around the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.

#8) All of this unemployment is putting severe stress on state unemployment funds.  At this point, 25 state unemployment insurance funds have gone broke and the Department of Labor estimates that 15 more state unemployment funds will likely go broke within two years and will need massive loans from the federal government just to keep going.

#9) 37 million Americans now receive food stamps, and the program is expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.  The United States of America is very quickly becoming a socialist welfare state.

#10) The number of Americans who are going broke is staggering.  1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#11) For decades, the fact that the U.S. dollar was the reserve currency of the world gave the U.S. financial system an unusual degree of stability.  But all of that is changing.  Foreign countries are increasingly turning away from the dollar to other currencies.  For example, Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.

#12) The recent economic downturn has left some localities totally bankrupt.  For instance, Jefferson County, Alabama is on the brink of what would be the largest government bankruptcy in the history of the United States – surpassing the 1994 filing by Southern California’s Orange County.

#13) The U.S. is facing a pension crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  Virtually all pension funds in the United States, both private and public, are massively underfunded.  With millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire, there is simply no way on earth that all of these obligations can be met.  Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the collective unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states for Forbes magazine.  So what was the total?  3.2 trillion dollars.

#14) Social Security and Medicare expenses are wildly out of control.  Once again, with millions of Baby Boomers now at retirement age there is simply going to be no way to pay all of these retirees what they are owed.

#15) So will the U.S. government come to the rescue?  The U.S. has allowed the total federal debt to balloon by 50% since 2006 to $12.3 trillion.  The chart below is a bit outdated, but it does show the reckless expansion of U.S. government debt over the past several decades.  To get an idea of where we are now, just add at least 3 trillion dollars on to the top of the chart….

#16) So has the U.S. government learned anything from these mistakes?  No.  In fact, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $2 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would allow the U.S. national debt to reach approximately $14.3 trillion. 

#17) It is going to become even harder for the U.S. government to pay the bills now that tax receipts are falling through the floor.  U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% in the year that ended on September 30th, 2009.

#18) So where will the U.S. government get the money?  From the Federal Reserve of course.  The Federal Reserve bought approximately 80 percent of all U.S. Treasury securities issued in 2009.  In other words, the U.S. government is now being financed by a massive Ponzi scheme.

#19) The reckless expansion of the money supply by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve is going to end up destroying the U.S. dollar and the value of the remaining collective net worth of all Americans.  The more dollars there are, the less each individual dollar is worth.  In essence, inflation is like a hidden tax on each dollar that you own.  When they flood the economy with money, the value of the money you have in your bank accounts goes down.  The chart below shows the growth of the U.S. money supply.  Pay particular attention to the very end of the chart which shows what has been happening lately.  What do you think this is going to do to the value of the U.S. dollar?….

#20) When a nation practices evil, there is no way that it is going to be blessed in the long run.  The truth is that we have become a nation that is dripping with corruption and wickedness from the top to the bottom.  Unless this fundamentally changes, not even the most perfect economic policies in the world are going to do us any good.  In the end, you always reap what you sow.  The day of reckoning for the U.S. economy is here and it is not going to be pleasant.

11 Clear Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Headed Into The Toilet

The U.S. Economy Is Headed Into The ToiletThe vast majority of the talking heads on television are still speaking of the current economic collapse as if it is a temporary “recession” that will soon be over.  So far, the vast majority of the American people seem to believe this as well, although for many Americans there is a very deep gnawing in the pit of their stomachs that is telling them that there is something very, very wrong this time around.  The truth is that the foundations of the U.S. economy have been destroyed by an orgy of government, corporate and individual debt that has gone on for decades.  It was the greatest party in the history of the world, but now the party is over.  The following are 11 signs from just this past month that show that the U.S. economy is headed into the toilet and will not be recovering….

#1) When even Wal-Mart is closing stores you know things are bad.  Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it will close 10 money-losing Sam’s Club stores and will cut 1,500 jobs in order to reduce costs.  So if even Wal-Mart has to shut down stores, what chance do other retailers have?

#2) Americans are going broke at a staggering pace.  1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#3) American workers are working harder than ever and yet making less.  After adjusting for inflation, pay for production and non-supervisory workers (80 percent of the private workforce) is 9% lower than it was in 1973.  But those Americans who do still have jobs are the fortunate ones.

#4) Unemployment is absolutely exploding all over the United States.  Minority groups have been hit particularly hard.  For example, unemployment on many U.S. Indian reservations is over 80 percent.

#5) Unfortunately the employment situation is showing no signs of turning around.  December was actually the worst month for U.S. unemployment since the so-called “Great Recession” began.

#6) So just how bad are things when compared to past recessions?  During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs will stop any time soon.

#7) Can you imagine trying to get your first job in this economic climate?  Our young men and women either can’t get work or have given up on work altogether.  The percentage of Americans 16 to 24 who have jobs is 13 percent lower than ten years ago.

#8) So where did all the jobs go?  Over the past few decades we have allowed the corporate giants to ship mountains of American jobs overseas, and there are signs that this trend is only going to get worse.  In fact, Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.  So get ready for even more of our jobs to be shipped off to Mexico, China and India.

#9) All of these job losses are leading to defaults on mortgages.  Over the past couple of years we have seen the American Dream in reverse.  According to a report that was just released, delinquent home loans at government-controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged 20 percent from July through September.

#10) But that is nothing compared to what is coming.  A massive “second wave” of mortgage defaults is getting ready to hit the U.S. economy starting in 2010.  In fact, this “second wave” is so frightening that even 60 Minutes is reporting on it. 

#11) Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has announced that it made a record profit of $46.1 billion in 2009.  Apparently during this economic crisis it is a very good time to be a bankster.

America: Land Of The Unemployed – 3 Unemployment Charts That Will Absolutely Shock You

UnemploymentWith the unprecedented spending by the U.S. government over the past year and a half, shouldn’t we at least see some jobs being produced by now? After all, if we are putting our children and grandchildren into perpetual debt from which they will never emerge, shouldn’t we at least be able to put American workers back to work? Unfortunately, as you will see from the charts in this article, that is most definitely not the case. In fact, unemployment is reaching levels in the U.S. that have not been seen for decades. The high paying manufacturing and construction jobs that were the bedrock for the American middle class for decades have disappeared and they are simply not coming back.

Despite the reckless spending of the U.S. government, the U.S. economy continues to bleed jobs month after month.  In fact, December was the worst month for U.S. unemployment since the “Great Recession” began.  The U.S. labor force contracted by 661,000 in December.  The number that actually “lost” their jobs in December was much smaller than this.  The 661,000 number includes thousands upon thousands of American workers that have given up on employment and have simply dropped out of the system. The broader U6 measure of unemployment in the United States rose to 17.3 percent in December.  That is staggering.

In fact, the civilian participation rate in the employment pool has nosedived and has now reached levels not seen since the recession of the early 80s…..

Unemployment

In particular, the construction industry has been hit particularly hard.  As you can see from the chart below, construction employment boomed during the years of the housing bubble, but the bursting of the housing bubble has been absolutely catastrophic for construction employment….

Construction Employment

But not only have millions of people lost their jobs, they also can’t find jobs once they start looking for work.  The average duration of unemployment is already at record levels and it is shooting through the roof….

Duration Of Unemployment

It is really easy to tell someone to “go get a job”, but in many areas of the United States there simply are NO jobs.

In fact, there have been reports of people literally getting down on their knees and begging for a job at a city dump in Florida.  In other areas of the U.S., hundreds of people line up to apply for fast food jobs.

Without jobs or even the hope for a job, many families are now existing on the edge of survival.  Millions of men and women would be more than willing to work if something was available.

But nothing is available.

All of their jobs have been shipped off to Mexico, China and India.

For the last several decades the politicians in Washington D.C. have sold out U.S. workers and have sold out the U.S. economy and now the day of reckoning is here.

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, it is the working man that is feeling the pain first.

But eventually we will all feel the economic pain.

The great American economic empire is crumbling and the fall will be very great.

The economic despair that is coming in the years ahead is going to be so great that there are no words to even describe it.

You better get ready.

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