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50 Statistics About The U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
(Thanks to Jim for sharing this with us)
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation
of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession". What we
are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and
our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360
percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled
our once colossal
manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for
decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning
is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious.
But the truth is that you cannot defy the financial laws of the universe forever. What
goes up must come down. The borrower is the servant of the lender. Cutting corners always catches up with you in the end.
Sometimes it takes cold, hard numbers for many of us to fully realize the situation that
we are facing.
So, the following are 50 very revealing statistics about the U.S. economy that are almost too
crazy to believe....
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world
combined.
#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in
2010.
#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth
of Christ, you still would not have spent
one trillion dollars by now.
#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.
#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and
personal debt, has reached 360 percent of
GDP.
#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending
September 30th, 2009.
#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment
rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.
#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for
every job opening.
#40) According to a Pew Research
Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or
underemployed at some point during the recession.
#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United
States are now working in low-wage service jobs.
#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past
year.
#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which
represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month
since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.
#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.
#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010,
an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since
RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the
suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure
cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.
#32) In California's Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.
#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent
of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent
a year ago.
#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a
35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.
#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in
the United States than all individual Americans put together.
#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.
#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007
and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.
#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost
twice the level of a year earlier.
#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.
#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5
billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even
worse.
#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250
million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its
financial state didn't improve, it could be forced to declare
bankruptcy.
#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short
between now and 2012.
#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.
#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension
liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion
dollars.
#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make
unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make
their payments to the unemployed.
#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United
States.
#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S.
history during the first quarter of 2010.
#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment
insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months
of 2010.
#15) 39.68 million Americans are
now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.
#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000
vehicles and has become the new "Car Theft Capital of the World".
#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of
criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the
United States each year.
#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000
doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care "reform" bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand
more.
#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional
Joint Committee on Taxation the health care "reform" bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the
American people by 2019.
#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.
#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck
was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500
to one.
#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending
currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.
#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases
in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of
all Americans.
#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on
the interest rate).
#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of
American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.
#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in
"Generation Y" pay their monthly bills on time.
#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months
past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive
quarter.
#1) According to the Tax
Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax
rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent
rate would have to be 85 percent.
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Communication with Old Dog - Government Debt
Old Dog: PS: If you circulate the above article, I note that I used 85% to 90% self funded on debt. That percentage was intentionally off and used for one reason of: "Take the bait please". I would love to see a bureaucrat or talking head come back in reply with: They are in a big "Catch 22" situation here. They can not even mention the issue being that a cognitive thought qualifies the issue in the first place so in response the "Silence is Golden" routine or outright obfuscation directing away to the consequential is the only approach those that set up this type of technique can use. The world you are masterfully sound-bite condition to understand is not as it seems... Please spread a cognitive thought far and wide per the issue in the article by copy and forward to all that you know. All need to have this thought register in their mind and thinking.. It is time to break the back of the syndicate with simple but VERY important disclosure clearly presented without distraction. Make their silence is golden routine close in on them until it is suffocating them. This tactic of self funding debt is the 1000 megaton nuke waiting to go off in their laps...  ////////////////////// Keynesian in Chief Obama Interprets Jobless Recovery Report
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Mainstream Media Incompetent About U.S. Inflation
NIA finds it disturbing that mainstream media outlets continue to give credibility to imbeciles like Dave Ramsey. Ramsey recently described
gold as being "dumb", "speculative", "volatile", and one of the "weirdest" investments. Ramsey compared investing into gold to investing into
diamonds and called its value an "illusion". He said that Real Estate is a much better hedge against inflation.
Ramsey recommends to his viewers that they purchase certificates of deposit (CDs) and tells them that once they save up enough money they
should buy rental properties because, "People always need housing." It's a shame that prominent figures in the mainstream media today are
giving such dangerous investment advice that will cause their viewers to see the purchasing power of their savings wiped out. The mainstream
media needs to catch up with the times and realize the devastating effects inflation has had and will continue to have on our economy.
20 years ago, senior citizens were able to purchase CDs and live off of the interest they collected. With just $200,000 in a CD, seniors
would earn $17,000 per year in interest income. Combined with social security, they had plenty of money to live comfortably. Today, $200,000
in a CD would only earn $600 per year in interest income and $600 today only has the purchasing power of $150 compared to 1990. This means
seniors are now earning 99% less interest income on their savings compared to 20 years ago. NIA believes CDs are a "dumb" investment, because
the real rate of price inflation in the U.S. today is already north of 5%. Those who own CDs paying 0.3% interest, are seeing a dramatic
decline in their purchasing power.
Gold is the most stable asset the world has ever seen. While on the surface, U.S. dollars appear to be a "safe haven" because they have a
number on them that always stays the same, U.S. dollars are actually the riskiest asset you can possibly own when you have a Federal Reserve
that has expanded its monetary base by 135% since September of 2008. What volatility in gold prices actually show you is just how unstable
the U.S. dollar is.
Gold is the best possible hedge against inflation because it is the most liquid asset in the world. If you own gold, it is possible to
exchange it for any fiat currency instantaneously. Gold is easy to transport, easily dividable, very durable, fungible (one piece is
equivalent to another - which is why diamonds can't be used as money), difficult to counterfeit, easily recognizable, expensive to produce
(it can't be printed), with a value that's easy to determine at any time. These are all of the qualities that make a good inflation hedge.
Real Estate is not a good hedge against inflation because it's an asset that is very difficult to sell. In today's market it usually takes at
least 12 to 18 months to sell a house and the transaction involves inspections, mortgage approvals, contracts, brokers commissions, etc.
Considering the large shadow inventory of homes that will soon hit the market and cause a second wave of mortgage defaults, it will be many
years until Real Estate is a good investment. By then, the median U.S. home will cost less than 1,000 ounces of silver.
Being a landlord with rental properties will not be a good business to be in during the upcoming U.S. hyperinflationary depression. In Weimar
Germany during the years 1912-1913 before hyperinflation occurred, the average household spent 30.2% of their monthly expenditures on rent.
By the third quarter of 1923, rents fell to just 0.2% of the average household's monthly expenditures. At the height of hyperinflation in
Weimar Germany, households were spending 91.6% of their monthly expenditures on food, making it impossible for landlords to raise rents in
any meaningful way. With a piece of fruit costing more than a month's rent, landlords saw their real rental income evaporate.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don't think for themselves. They get suckered into believing the financial advice of Ramsey and
other morons who spew the same nonsense. Ramsey, who should have been chastised for being so wrong about the U.S. economy for so many years,
is now quoted in the media more often than ever and was rewarded by FOX Business with his own television show. The media's agenda is not to
prepare Americans for the currency crisis ahead, but to help maintain the dollar bubble for a little bit longer.
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Peter Schiff discuss the Euro Bailout
We will pay you back, why, because we have a printing press!
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Ron Paul on FOX Business News 05/21/10
Prepare, serious crisis coming.
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Flash Back
Ron Paul on the Global Financial Crisis (sept 2008)
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