Why the US is in an invisible Depression

[Burt Gummer]

I believe Diebold rigged the last several elections. Most people don't want to hear it because if they believe that then there's only one box of freedom left

Of course. All important politicians are pre-selected and bought. If by some chance a real person were to squeeze through, the rigged machines take over.

People are so incredibly desperate in wanting to believe they have a choice in matters; they don't. It is all a facade.

The actual technicians that have rigged election voting machines have even come forward to admit to doing it at the risk of doing jail time, but even that does not matter. People believe only what brings them COMFORT. Acknowledging that you are actually a slave and that you have absolutely NO SAY in this country is not comforting. The best slave is one that falsely believes he is free.

Voting (when the candidates are important, like a President; not your local sheriff) is completely for the deluded masses. Such candidates are groomed stooges working for the global financial elite only and couldn't care a less about you on any level.

That includes the losers; the Gores, the Romneys; they were just stage actors and knew their role. Once they lose as planned they graciously compliment the winner and talk about how wonderful the election process is; all fake; all for your 'comfort.'

 

[gunnoob75]

Not that a voting machine couldn't be manipulated, but;

Is the testimony of one easily paid-off well trained actor enough to cast such accusations?

 

[SonicBlue03]

...when the majority of the people who voted for (A COMMANDER AND CHIEF THAT NEVER SERVED in the MILITARY)....

You described all three notable candidates on the ballot this past election.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Not that a voting machine couldn't be manipulated, but;

Is the testimony of one easily paid-off well trained actor enough to cast such accusations?

Actually many have come forward, not just in congressional testimony. Research it, voting is all rigged.

You may be one of the people that believes your vote counts or that every important politician is not pre-selected for you by the financial elite (the Euro Oligarchs that actually run this country/corporation), but that is the case. They would never risk their gains at social control and international banking, wars for profit, etc by allowing a real honest man or woman to have any chance.

Life is better spent on other things than playing cards when the other fellow has marked all the cards. Voting is for suckers. I proudly did not participate in voting for Puppet A or B on Nov 6th; there simply is no point to it. By participating you are just part of the problem and showing that you are among the deluded flock of sheep. There are real elections in other countries, but not here in the land of the fee, home of the slave.

"Forget the politicians. Politicians are just there to give you the illusion of choice. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you." - G. Carlin

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Please, everyone watch this short video.. how easy it is to hack these machines

Princeton University Exposes Diebold Flaws - YouTube

 

[Sabertooth]

My old philosophy professor, a libertarian, used to remind us that we cannot survive by doing each other's laundry. In realistic terms, that is what a "service" economy is. In order to fuel an economy, someone somewhere has to take something out of the ground, make it into a product that didn't previously exist, and sell it at a profit. Selling information to each other doesn't qualify. Making furniture out of trees, or making cars out of iron ore, aluminum ore, and plastic does. How much of the latter is America doing these days? Almost none. That's why there are no livable wage jobs for high school graduates.

The Right is fond of saying that small business is our greatest job creator, but small business typically doesn't manufacture things. Small businesses typically sell services. Such businesses typically offer less than full time jobs, paying minimum wage, with no benefits and no future.

A service based economy can exist only upon the foundation provided by manufacturing businesses. The US has no such manufacturing foundation any more. All that went to China, India, and Mexico long ago. The dollar has been devalued in relation to actual commodities (inflation) to the point where we are becoming cost competitive in the labor market with Japan. Things won't turn around employment-wise until we're cost competitive with China, India, and Mexico where the bulk of manufacturing is going on now. What does that future look like for American manufacturing workers? Take a look at lifestyles in those three countries.

This is where unregulated capitalism always takes us, and we never learn the lesson.

Well said, I'll just copy this and send it around if its ok with you.

 

[Burt Gummer]

#1 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming."

#2 In October 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps. By August 2012 that number had risen to 47.1 million Americans.

#3 Right now, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#4 It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.

#5 According to new numbers that were just released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans living in poverty increased to a new all-time record high of 49.7 million last year.

#6 The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by about 6 million over the past four years.

#7 Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level.

#8 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for children living in the United States is about 22 percent.

#9 Overall, approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.

#10 In the United States today, close to 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor".

#11 One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.

#12 Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6 percent poverty rate.

#13 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#14 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children in Detroit are living in poverty.

#15 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#16 Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began.

#17 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30 percent of the children are facing food insecurity.

#18 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#19 Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And that does not even count Social Security or Medicare.

#20 According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, approximately 40 percent of all food in America "is routinely thrown away by consumers at home, discarded or unserved at restaurants or left unharvested on farms."

At some point this con game is going to collapse and the rest of the world is going to say a big, fat, resounding "NO" to the U.S. dollar.

Why should they continue to use a currency that is becoming extremely unstable and that is constantly being manipulated?

And when the rest of the world rejects the U.S. dollar, the value of the dollar will drop like a rock because there will be far less global demand for it.

In addition, if the rest of the world is not using the U.S. dollar for trade any longer, other nations will cease to soak up our excess currency and huge mountains of our currency that are floating around out there will start flooding back to our shores.

At that point we will be looking at inflation unlike anything we have ever seen before. The era of cheap imports will be over and we will pay far more for everything from oil to the foreign-made plastic trinkets that we buy at Wal-Mart.

Most Americans don't even know what a "reserve currency" is, but when the U.S. dollar loses reserve currency status it is going to unleash a nightmare that most economists cannot even imagine.

So enjoy this holiday season while you can. There are still lots and lots of cheap imports filling the shelves of our stores.

Once the coming giant currency superstorm strikes, we will dearly wish for the good old days of 2012.

Yes, the U.S. dollar is alive and ticking for now. But at the pace that our authorities are abusing it, I would not say that things are looking good for a long and healthy lifespan.

-Economic Depression Blog

 

[Grunwald]

How many Americans on food stamps own an iPhone?

 

[ATCclears]

Cox and Archer: Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt - WSJ.com


A decade and a half ago, both of us served on President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, the forerunner to President Obama's recent National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In 1994 we predicted that, unless something was done to control runaway entitlement spending, Medicare and Social Security would eventually go bankrupt or confront severe benefit cuts.

Eighteen years later, nothing has been done. Why? The usual reason is that entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics. That explanation presupposes voter demand for entitlements at any cost, even if it means bankrupting the nation.

A better explanation is that the full extent of the problem has remained hidden from policy makers and the public because of less than transparent government financial statements. How else could responsible officials claim that Medicare and Social Security have the resources they need to fulfill their commitments for years to come?

As Washington wrestles with the roughly $600 billion "fiscal cliff" and the 2013 budget, the far greater fiscal challenge of the U.S. government's unfunded pension and health-care liabilities remains offstage. The truly important figures would appear on the federal balance sheet—if the government prepared an accurate one.

But it hasn't. For years, the government has gotten by without having to produce the kind of financial statements that are required of most significant for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. The U.S. Treasury "balance sheet" does list liabilities such as Treasury debt issued to the public, federal employee pensions, and post-retirement health benefits. But it does not include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and other outsized and very real obligations.

As a result, fiscal policy discussions generally focus on current-year budget deficits, the accumulated national debt, and the relationships between these two items and gross domestic product. We most often hear about the alarming $15.96 trillion national debt (more than 100% of GDP), and the 2012 budget deficit of $1.1 trillion (6.97% of GDP). As dangerous as those numbers are, they do not begin to tell the story of the federal government's true liabilities.

The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.

Why haven't Americans heard about the titanic $86.8 trillion liability from these programs? One reason: The actual figures do not appear in black and white on any balance sheet. But it is possible to discover them. Included in the annual Medicare Trustees' report are separate actuarial estimates of the unfunded liability for Medicare Part A (the hospital portion), Part B (medical insurance) and Part D (prescription drug coverage).

As of the most recent Trustees' report in April, the net present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare was $42.8 trillion. The comparable balance sheet liability for Social Security is $20.5 trillion.

Were American policy makers to have the benefit of transparent financial statements prepared the way public companies must report their pension liabilities, they would see clearly the magnitude of the future borrowing that these liabilities imply. Borrowing on this scale could eclipse the capacity of global capital markets—and bankrupt not only the programs themselves but the entire federal government.

These real-world impacts will be felt when currently unfunded liabilities need to be paid. In theory, the Medicare and Social Security trust funds have at least some money to pay a portion of the bills that are coming due. In actuality, the cupboard is bare: 100% of the payroll taxes for these programs were spent in the same year they were collected.

In exchange for the payroll taxes that aren't paid out in benefits to current retirees in any given year, the trust funds got nonmarketable Treasury debt. Now, as the baby boomers' promised benefits swamp the payroll-tax collections from today's workers, the government has to swap the trust funds' nonmarketable securities for marketable Treasury debt. The Treasury will then have to sell not only this debt, but far more, in order to pay the benefits as they come due.

When combined with funding the general cash deficits, these multitrillion-dollar Treasury operations will dominate the capital markets in the years ahead, particularly given China's de-emphasis of new investment in U.S. Treasurys in favor of increasing foreign direct investment, and Japan's and Europe's own sovereign-debt challenges.

When the accrued expenses of the government's entitlement programs are counted, it becomes clear that to collect enough tax revenue just to avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually. That is the total of the average annual accrued liabilities of just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the annual cash deficit.

Nothing like that $8 trillion amount is available for the IRS to target. According to the most recent tax data, all individuals filing tax returns in America and earning more than $66,193 per year have a total adjusted gross income of $5.1 trillion. In 2006, when corporate taxable income peaked before the recession, all corporations in the U.S. had total income for tax purposes of $1.6 trillion. That comes to $6.7 trillion available to tax from these individuals and corporations under existing tax laws.

In short, if the government confiscated the entire adjusted gross income of these American taxpayers, plus all of the corporate taxable income in the year before the recession, it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities. Some public officials and pundits claim we can dig our way out through tax increases on upper-income earners, or even all taxpayers. In reality, that would amount to bailing out the Pacific Ocean with a teaspoon. Only by addressing these unsustainable spending commitments can the nation's debt and deficit problems be solved.

Neither the public nor policy makers will be able to fully understand and deal with these issues unless the government publishes financial statements that present the government's largest financial liabilities in accordance with well-established norms in the private sector. When the new Congress convenes in January, making the numbers clear—and establishing policies that finally address them before it is too late—should be a top order of business.

Mr. Cox, a former chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is president of Bingham Consulting LLC. Mr. Archer, a former chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, is a senior policy adviser at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

 

[Grunwald]

"....;and establishing policies that finally address them before it is too late—should be a top order of business..."

it is already too late.

 

[HBIII]

Cox and Archer: Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt - WSJ.com


A decade and a half ago, both of us served on President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, the forerunner to President Obama's recent National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In 1994 we predicted that, unless something was done to control runaway entitlement spending, Medicare and Social Security would eventually go bankrupt or confront severe benefit cuts.

Eighteen years later, nothing has been done. Why? The usual reason is that entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics. That explanation presupposes voter demand for entitlements at any cost, even if it means bankrupting the nation.

A better explanation is that the full extent of the problem has remained hidden from policy makers and the public because of less than transparent government financial statements. How else could responsible officials claim that Medicare and Social Security have the resources they need to fulfill their commitments for years to come?

As Washington wrestles with the roughly $600 billion "fiscal cliff" and the 2013 budget, the far greater fiscal challenge of the U.S. government's unfunded pension and health-care liabilities remains offstage. The truly important figures would appear on the federal balance sheet—if the government prepared an accurate one.

But it hasn't. For years, the government has gotten by without having to produce the kind of financial statements that are required of most significant for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. The U.S. Treasury "balance sheet" does list liabilities such as Treasury debt issued to the public, federal employee pensions, and post-retirement health benefits. But it does not include the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and other outsized and very real obligations.

As a result, fiscal policy discussions generally focus on current-year budget deficits, the accumulated national debt, and the relationships between these two items and gross domestic product. We most often hear about the alarming $15.96 trillion national debt (more than 100% of GDP), and the 2012 budget deficit of $1.1 trillion (6.97% of GDP). As dangerous as those numbers are, they do not begin to tell the story of the federal government's true liabilities.

The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.

Why haven't Americans heard about the titanic $86.8 trillion liability from these programs? One reason: The actual figures do not appear in black and white on any balance sheet. But it is possible to discover them. Included in the annual Medicare Trustees' report are separate actuarial estimates of the unfunded liability for Medicare Part A (the hospital portion), Part B (medical insurance) and Part D (prescription drug coverage).

As of the most recent Trustees' report in April, the net present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare was $42.8 trillion. The comparable balance sheet liability for Social Security is $20.5 trillion.

Were American policy makers to have the benefit of transparent financial statements prepared the way public companies must report their pension liabilities, they would see clearly the magnitude of the future borrowing that these liabilities imply. Borrowing on this scale could eclipse the capacity of global capital markets—and bankrupt not only the programs themselves but the entire federal government.

These real-world impacts will be felt when currently unfunded liabilities need to be paid. In theory, the Medicare and Social Security trust funds have at least some money to pay a portion of the bills that are coming due. In actuality, the cupboard is bare: 100% of the payroll taxes for these programs were spent in the same year they were collected.

In exchange for the payroll taxes that aren't paid out in benefits to current retirees in any given year, the trust funds got nonmarketable Treasury debt. Now, as the baby boomers' promised benefits swamp the payroll-tax collections from today's workers, the government has to swap the trust funds' nonmarketable securities for marketable Treasury debt. The Treasury will then have to sell not only this debt, but far more, in order to pay the benefits as they come due.

When combined with funding the general cash deficits, these multitrillion-dollar Treasury operations will dominate the capital markets in the years ahead, particularly given China's de-emphasis of new investment in U.S. Treasurys in favor of increasing foreign direct investment, and Japan's and Europe's own sovereign-debt challenges.

When the accrued expenses of the government's entitlement programs are counted, it becomes clear that to collect enough tax revenue just to avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually. That is the total of the average annual accrued liabilities of just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the annual cash deficit.

Nothing like that $8 trillion amount is available for the IRS to target. According to the most recent tax data, all individuals filing tax returns in America and earning more than $66,193 per year have a total adjusted gross income of $5.1 trillion. In 2006, when corporate taxable income peaked before the recession, all corporations in the U.S. had total income for tax purposes of $1.6 trillion. That comes to $6.7 trillion available to tax from these individuals and corporations under existing tax laws.

In short, if the government confiscated the entire adjusted gross income of these American taxpayers, plus all of the corporate taxable income in the year before the recession, it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities. Some public officials and pundits claim we can dig our way out through tax increases on upper-income earners, or even all taxpayers. In reality, that would amount to bailing out the Pacific Ocean with a teaspoon. Only by addressing these unsustainable spending commitments can the nation's debt and deficit problems be solved.

Neither the public nor policy makers will be able to fully understand and deal with these issues unless the government publishes financial statements that present the government's largest financial liabilities in accordance with well-established norms in the private sector. When the new Congress convenes in January, making the numbers clear—and establishing policies that finally address them before it is too late—should be a top order of business.

Mr. Cox, a former chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is president of Bingham Consulting LLC. Mr. Archer, a former chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, is a senior policy adviser at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

So, the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks, that's all you have to say, scariest environment imaginable.

Scariest Enviroment Imaginable - YouTube

 

[ATCclears]

"....;and establishing policies that finally address them before it is too late—should be a top order of business..."

it is already too late.

I agree. It is too late. It is not "if" now but "when". When it happens, then the question is how bad is the rioting, violence, and more.

Peter

 

[Burt Gummer]

"The day will come when the guberment becomes impotent. Crime and social chaos, being directly proportional to the loss of guberment support, will run rampant when their benefits run dry. The guberment is fully aware of this so they either keep printing and spending or stop and watch all hell break loose. No one will want to be in office the day that happens so they will continue to bilk the system for as long as they can to keep it from happening on their watch. When it does arrive, expect WW III the next day."

Good comment from the Economic Depression Blog; not my comment

 

[ATCclears]

Great article. Takers versus Makers.

Do You Live In A Death Spiral State? - Forbes

 

[Burt Gummer]

34 Signs That America Is In Decline

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I corresponded with the author of this book circa Y2K and we had some interesting conversations.. he is apolitical and has no agenda (he considers himself an analyst of trends) but he was a Vietnam vet and a mercenary and has a lot of insight. About the only alteration I made in his thinking process was that the average + US citizen is better off armed 24/7 than not, at this time. Last I talked to him he was drinking too much and going into hiding. I have a lot of sympathy for the fellow

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...sg=AFQjCNEDlPB0rjBeIZB0J5z3joGKrcuHgQ&cad=rja

 

[Burt Gummer]

I am not an expert or claim to know it all (although I may sound like it sometimes LOL) but I am 99% sure of one thing. It will be the collapse of financial derivatives that will implode the economy overnight and wipe out what is left of all paper assets including the dollar. IMO (only) this collapse will be completely orchestrated by the financial elite to rob what little the 99% have left.

The average Joe will be stuck with useless digits in a bank account, a defunct IRA, worthless SS checks, etc. Hyperinflation will take hold almost immediately where when you start standing in line at the grocery store the price will go up WHILE you are standing in line.

It is not too late to wake up and become paper-free and debt-free the best that you can.

The Coming Derivatives Panic That Will Destroy Global Financial Markets

 

[Father of four]

While and after it happens there will be useful idiots who will defend the crooks and their actions with their very last breaths.

I look back at Hitler and it amazes me at the amount of people that followed that man and would kill and die for his ideas.

 

[ATCclears]

While and after it happens there will be useful idiots who will defend the crooks and their actions with their very last breaths.

I look back at Hitler and it amazes me at the amount of people that followed that man and would kill and die for his ideas.

What scares me is some of the parallels between pre-war Germany and now in this country. In Germany they "boiled the frog", and I read about some of the things happening here and now and I wonder if we ever learned anything from history...

Peter

 

[EZLivin]

What scares me is some of the parallels between pre-war Germany and now in this country. In Germany they "boiled the frog", and I read about some of the things happening here and now and I wonder if we ever learned anything from history...

Peter

We could repeat the German experience. We don't have to, but we certainly could. About the only thing we learn from history is that it "repeats," or "rhymes." It is like we are programmed to make the same stupid mistakes over and over and over.