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. (Read More...)
The Credit Card Trap: How U.S. Credit Card Companies Are Sucking The Financial Life Out Of The American Consumer
There have been very few things more damaging to American consumers over the past couple of decades than credit card debt. Easy credit has enabled many of us to live absolutely fabulous lifestyles, but outrageously high interest rates, ridiculous penalties and predatory fees have sucked the financial life out of millions of American families. It is very easy to blame the rapidly exploding debt of the U.S. government for the economic collapse that we are now experiencing, but the truth is that tens of millions of Americans have created their own personal economic disasters by overusing credit cards. The temptation of easy credit has been too much for millions of Americans to resist, but now all of that easy credit is proving to be incredibly difficult to pay back, and massive debt problems are literally tearing many American families apart. (Read More...)
FDIC Opens A Massive New Office Near Chicago Just To Handle The Coming Tidal Wave Of Midwest Bank Closings They Are Expecting
Is the Midwest about to see a massive wave of bank closings? That is apparently what the FDIC is expecting. The FDIC is opening up a massive new satellite office in the Chicago area that will be dedicated to managing receiverships and liquidating assets from failed Midwest banks. This new facility will occupy 7 floors in an 11 floor building. The office space that the FDIC is leasing is well over 100,000 square feet and will employ approximately 500 temporary employees and contractors. This is a huge expenditure by the FDIC. So will there really be so many bank failures over the next couple of years in the Midwest that a 100,000 square foot facility is required to deal with it? (Read More...)
Has China Begun Dumping U.S. Treasuries?
Has China decided that now is the time to start dumping U.S. Treasuries? The Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities fell by $53 billion in December, which is an all-time record decline for one month. China alone reduced its holdings by $34.2 billion. So is this because the U.S. doesn’t need to borrow as much money anymore? Of course not. In fact, the Obama administration just released a new budget which calls for a record 1.56 trillion dollar budget deficit. Obama has publicly stated that the U.S. will be running trillion dollar deficits for the foreseeable future. No, China is not getting rid of U.S. Treasuries because the U.S. doesn’t need to borrow anymore. The U.S. needs to borrow from China (and from everyone else) more than ever. (Read More...)
Economic Warning! 4 Signs That U.S. Financial Authorities Plan To Reduce The Money Supply, Tighten Credit And Hoard Cash
More than ever before in U.S. history, American society absolutely relies on credit in order to function. In fact, if you cut off all sources of credit to U.S. businesses, most of them would go out of business fairly quickly. The truth is that when the money supply expands and credit flows freely, the U.S. economy usually hums along pretty good. But when the money supply contracts and the financial powers tighten credit, it almost always means that an economic slowdown is coming. That is why recent signals by the Federal Reserve and the major banks in the U.S. are so alarming. (Read More...)
14 Fun Facts About The U.S. Government’s Massive Debt Problem
The U.S. government is currently creating one of the most colossal monuments in the history of the world. It is the U.S. national debt, and it threatens to literally destroy the American way of life. For decades now, this generation has been recklessly spending the money of future generations and has been convinced that they have been getting away with it. Americans have been enjoying an obscenely high standard of living, but the party is almost over and the day of reckoning is fast approaching. It has been a great party, but it was fueled by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. As many of us know, it can be extremely fun running up a huge credit card bill, but it can be even more painful to pay it off. Now our national “credit card bills” are starting to arrive and nobody really seems to know what to do. The U.S. national debt will forever be a lasting reminder of the greed and recklessness of this generation. The truth is that the United States is NOT the “richest and most powerful nation” in the world. Rather, we are a spoiled, bloated, greedy nation that has run up a debt so big that words simply do not do it justice. (Read More...)
Are We On The Verge Of An Economic War With Russia And China?
Has our exploding national debt become an economic weapon of mass destruction in the hands of the Russians and the Chinese? Have increasing tensions between East and West put us on the verge of an economic war with those two superpowers? Those who are convinced that the Russians and Chinese would never work together to collapse the U.S. economy should really consider what former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is saying in his new book. Paulson’s new book is entitled “On The Brink“, and in it he claims that the Russians contacted the Chinese in 2008 and proposed that both nations dump their Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds at the same time in a bid to force a bailout of the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies by the U.S. government. Fortunately, China declined to go along with Russia’s proposal at the time, but this revelation just underscores the economic danger that the United States has gotten itself into. (Read More...)
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. (Read More...)