Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
Posts tagged GDP
The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker
14 days ago
Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
10 Amazing Charts That Demonstrate The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker
The middle class American worker is in danger of becoming an endangered species. The politicians are not telling you the truth, and the mainstream media is certainly not telling you the truth, but the reality is that there is nothing but bad news on the horizon for workers in the United States. In the old days, when the big corporations that dominate our society did well, that also meant good things for American workers since those corporations would need more of us to work for them. But in the emerging one world economic system that our economy is being merged into, those corporations have other choices now. For instance, the big corporations can now choose to limit the number of “expensive” American workers that they employ by shipping millions of jobs to the other side of the world. And from their perspective, it makes perfect sense. They can make much bigger profits by hiring people on the other side of the planet to work for them for less than a dollar an hour. If they can get good production out of those people, then why should they hire Americans for ten to twenty times as much, plus have to give those Americans health insurance and other benefits?
Another major factor in the slow, agonizing death of the American worker is technology. We live during a period when technology is advancing at a pace that is almost unimaginable at the same time that it is steadily becoming cheaper and cheaper. That means that it is going to become easier and easier for companies to replace workers with robots and computers. As I have written about previously, it is being projected that our economy will lose millions of jobs to technology in the coming years. Yes, some of us will still be needed to help build the robots and the computers, but not all of us will. And of course the overall general weakness of the economy is not helping matters either. The American people inherited the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and we have wrecked it. Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in the period of steady economic decline that we are experiencing now.
America is simply not the economic powerhouse that it once was. Back in 2001, the U.S. economy accounted for 31.8 percent of global GDP. By 2011, the U.S. economy only accounted for 21.6 percent of global GDP. That is a collapse any way that you want to look at it.
Today, American workers are living in an economy that is rapidly declining, and their jobs are steadily being stolen by robots, computers and foreign workers that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. Politicians from both political parties refuse to do anything to stop the bleeding because they think that the status quo is working just great.
So don’t expect things to get better any time soon.
The following are 10 amazing charts that demonstrate the slow, agonizing death of the American worker…
#1 Wages And Salaries As A Percentage Of GDP
As you can see, wages as a percentage of GDP are hovering near an all-time record low. That means that American workers are bringing home a smaller share of the economic pie than ever before.
#2 Average Annual Hours Worked Per Employed Person In The United States
We are an economy that is rapidly trading good paying full-time jobs for low paying part-time jobs. The decline in average annual hours worked that we have witnessed represents the equivalent of losing millions of jobs. There has been an explosion of “the working poor” in the United States, and this trend is probably only going to accelerate in the years to come.
#3 Manufacturing Employment
As you can see, there are less Americans working in manufacturing today than there was in 1950 even though the population of the country has more than doubled since then. The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001, and yet our politicians stand around and do nothing about it.
#4 Employment-Population Ratio
This is one of my favorite charts. It shows that there has been absolutely no employment recovery at all since the end of the last recession. The percentage of working age Americans that have a job has stayed under 59 percent for 44 months in a row. How much worse will things get when the next major economic downturn strikes?
#5 Labor Force Participation Rate
This is how the Obama administration is getting the “unemployment rate” to magically go down. They are pretending that millions upon millions of Americans simply do not want to work anymore. As you will notice, the decline of the labor force participation rate has accelerated greatly since Barack Obama entered the White House.
#6 Duration Of Unemployment
The average amount of time that it takes an unemployed worker to find a new job has declined slightly, but it is still far above normal historical levels. It is a crying shame that it takes the average unemployed worker two-thirds of a year to find a new job, but this is the new economic reality that we are all living in.
The More Illegal Immigrants That Go On Food Stamps The More Money JP Morgan Makes
02 weeks ago
Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
By Michael
Recently uncovered documents prove that the Obama administration has been working with the Mexican government to increase the number of illegal immigrants on food stamps, and when more illegal immigrants go on food stamps JP Morgan makes more money. As you will read about below, JP Morgan has made at least 560 million dollars processing Electronic Benefits Transfer cards. Each month, JP Morgan makes between $.31 and $2.30 for every single person on food stamps (and that does not even include things like ATM fees, etc). So JP Morgan has a vested interest in seeing poverty grow and the number of people on food stamps increase. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been aggressively seeking to expand participation in the food stamp program. Under Obama, the number of people on food stamps has grown from 32 million to more than 47 million. And even though poverty in America is absolutely exploding, that apparently is not good enough for the Obama administration. It has now come out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided the Mexican government with literature that actively encourages illegal immigrants to enroll in food stamps. One flyer contains the following statement in Spanish: “You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.” The bold and the underlining are in the original document in case you were wondering. Overall, federal spending on food stamps increased from 18 billion dollars in 2000 to 85 billion dollars in 2012, and at this point one out of every five U.S. households in now enrolled in the food stamp program. When people illegally or fraudulently enroll in the food stamp program, it makes it harder for those that desperately need the help to be able to get it.
It is certainly a good thing to help fellow Americans that are suffering. It is a crying shame that more than a million public school students in America are homeless. That should not be happening in the “wealthiest nation on earth”.
But today we have a system that has turned poverty into big business. According to an article posted on Breitbart.com, JP Morgan has made at least 560 million dollars (and probably much more) processing EBT cards…
A new report by the Government Accountability Institute finds that JP Morgan has made at least $560,492,596 since 2004 processing the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards of 18 of the 24 states it has under contract for the food stamp program.
A Daily Beast article provided some more specifics about the monster profits that JP Morgan is making…
Just how lucrative JP Morgan’s EBT state contracts are is hard to say, because total national data on EBT contracts are not reported. But thanks to a combination of public-records requests and contracts that are available online, here’s what we do know: 18 of the 24 states JP Morgan handles have been contracted to pay the bank up to $560,492,596.02 since 2004. Since 2007, Florida has been contracted to pay JP Morgan $90,351,202.22. Pennsylvania’s seven-year contract totaled $112,541,823.27. New York’s seven-year contract totaled $126,394,917.
These contracts are transactional contracts, meaning they are amendable based on changes in program participation. Each month, the three companies that administer EBT receive a small fee that can range from $.31 to $2.30 (or higher depending upon the number of welfare services on an EBT card and state contractual requirements) for each SNAP recipient.
So the more people that are out of work and that need to turn to the government for food, the bigger profits that JP Morgan makes.
What makes all of this even more insulting is that many of the jobs that JP Morgan could be providing to Americans to help alleviate this poverty are being shipped overseas instead. As I noted in a previous article, many EBT card customer service calls are being routed to call centers in India by JP Morgan.
So why doesn’t anyone do anything about this?
Well, it turns out that JP Morgan has the politicians that oversee the food stamp program in their back pocket. The following is from a recent Money Morning article…
And the bank has taken steps to make sure the SNAP program remains a growing source of revenue. JPMorgan’s political donations to the members of House and Senate agricultural committees, the ones with legislative responsibility for the program, soared from just over $82,000 in 2002 to nearly $333,000 as of 2010.
What a wonderful system we have, eh?
And surely JP Morgan just loves the fact that the Obama administration is actively encouraging illegal immigrants to apply for food stamps.
What you are about to read should absolutely shock you. At a time when the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt, the Obama administration is making it abundantly clear to illegal immigrants that their immigration status will not be checked when they apply for food stamps. The following is from a recent Judicial Watch press release…
Judicial Watch today released documents detailing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with the Mexican government to promote participation by illegal aliens in the U.S. food stamp program.
The promotion of the food stamp program, now known as “SNAP” (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), includes a Spanish-language flyer provided to the Mexican Embassy by the USDA with a statement advising Mexicans in the U.S. that they do not need to declare their immigration status in order to receive financial assistance. Emphasized in bold and underlined, the statement reads, “You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.”
The documents came in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made to USDA on July 20, 2012. The FOIA request sought: “Any and all records of communication relating to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals, and migrant communities, including but not limited to, communications with the Mexican government.”
The documents obtained by Judicial Watch show that USDA officials are working closely with their counterparts at the Mexican Embassy to widely broaden the SNAP program in the Mexican immigrant community, with no effort to restrict aid to, identify, or apprehend illegal immigrants who may be on the food stamp rolls.
You can see a copy of the flyer right here.
So who pays for all of this?
You do of course.
The Obama administration is doing all that it can to promote illegal immigration, and big banks such as JP Morgan just make bigger profits the more illegal immigration that we see, but it is you and I that end up with the bill. This was put beautifully in a recent article by Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com…
Nearly $75 billion of taxpayer money is spent each year on federal food stamps, and it turns out some of that is alarmingly being handed out to illegal immigrants — people who contribute nothing to the federal tax base in America but who seem to be experts on collecting social welfare benefits of all kinds. If you are working for a living, you are buying food for illegals who are being actively recruited by Obama and the democratic party so that they will vote more democrats into office.
When we reward illegal immigration, what happens?
That’s right – we are just going to get even more illegal immigration.
According to WND, we have already started seeing a huge increase in illegal immigrants coming across the border since Congress began debating the amnesty bill…
Illegal border crossings have doubled, and possibly even tripled, since the latest congressional push began toward comprehensive immigration reform.
In reporting first published by Townhall.com’s Katie Pavlich, border patrol agents in the Tucson/Nogales sector claim illegals are coming here in much higher numbers in just the past few months.
“We’ve seen the number of illegal aliens double, maybe even triple since amnesty talk started happening,” an unnamed border agent said to Townhall. The data from Customs and Border Protection cited in the report shows 504 illegals were detected crossing in that sector between Feb. 5 and March 1. Only 189 were caught on camera, and just 174 of the 504 were apprehended. Of those spotted on camera, 32 were carrying huge packs believed to contain drugs and several were heavily armed.
If that bill is passed, it is being projected that it will bring 33 million more people into this country…
The pending Senate immigration bill would bring a minimum of 33 million people into the country during its first decade of operation, according to an analysis by NumbersUSA, a group that wants to slow the current immigration rate.
By 2024, the inflow would include an estimated 9.2 million illegal immigrants, plus 2.5 million illegals who arrived as children — dubbed ‘Dreamers’ — plus roughly 3.4 million company-sponsored employees with university degrees, said the unreleased analysis.
The majority of the inflow, or roughly 17 million people, would consist of family members of illegals, recent immigrants and of company-sponsored workers, according to the NumbersUSA analysis provided to The Daily Caller.
We have made legal immigration a complete and total nightmare while leaving the back door completely wide open at the same time.
We greatly punish those who are trying to do things legally while at the same time we are greatly rewarding those that are cheating the system.
What kind of sense does that make?
Shouldn’t we insist that everyone come in through the front door?
Those that are coming over our borders illegally know what the score is…
Linda Vickers, who owns a ranch in Brooks County, which is Ground Zero for the immigration debate, pins the blame directly on talk of ‘amnesty’ and a ‘path to citizenship’ for people who entered the U.S. illegally.
She recalls one man being arrested on her ranch not long ago.
“The Border Patrol agent was loading one man up, and he told the officer in Spanish, ‘Obama’s gonna let me go’.”
Border Patrol agents report that immigrants are crossing the border, and in some cases surrendering while asking, “Where do I go for my amnesty?”
We are already becoming a poverty-stricken nation. We simply can’t afford to feed millions upon millions of illegal immigrants as well.
As I write this, the U.S. national debt is $16,758,107,082,298.63.
We now have a debt to GDP ratio of about 105 percent.
In the United States today, the amount of money that is deposited in our banks is about 9.3 trillion dollars. If we took every penny of that and used it to pay off the national debt, we would still owe more than 7 trillion dollars.
We are stealing more than 100 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day to pay our bills, and yet everyone seems to think that this is “normal” somehow.
The truth is that what we are doing is absolutely criminal, and we should all be ashamed.
For much more on our exploding national debt, please see the following article: “55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances That Every American Voter Should Know“.
In the end, it should be apparent to everyone that our system is failing. Our government is corrupt, our big banks are consumed with greed and most average Americans are so addicted to entertainment that they have absolutely no idea what is going on.
What would those that bled and died for this country think about what we have become today?
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For more articles by Michael please visit http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
Actual U.S. debt lies hidden, exceeds $86.8 trillion
0Source: http://times247.com
by: Chris Cox and Bill Archer
Actual U.S. debt lies hidden, exceeds $86.8 trillion
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. Photo Credit:AP
The full extent of the [debt] 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? …
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. …
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. Read the original article at The Wall Street Journal
Ron Paul Full Speech With Rand’s intro – We Are the Future Rally
08 months ago
For those wanting to see the rally in it’s entirety follow the C-Span links below.
Video Playlist:
- Ron Paul Rally in Tampa, FL – Part 1
- Ron Paul Rally – Part 2
- Campaign Rally with Ron Paul & Sen. Rand Paul – Part 3
How Big Is the U.S. Debt?
09 months ago
Uploaded by LearnLiberty on Feb 11, 2011
For more details on the total Federal debt, start on slide 35 of this PowerPoint presentation: http://www.antolin-davies.com/presentations/ihs11a.ppt
Economics professor Antony Davies illustrates the size the U.S. federal government’s debt and unfunded obligations. He breaks down the total U.S. debt and obligations into parts and compares them with the size of the GDP of countries around the world, showing the magnitude of America’s fiscal situation.
Want to give that graph a closer look? Prof. Davies has made it available on his website here:
http://www.antolin-davies.com/conventionalwisdom/governmentdebt.pdf
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[CIM]
Please remember that this video was post almost 1.5 years ago. Since then Washington D.C. has only continued down the path of economic disaster with ever increasing spending, increasing debt, continued wars, increasing entitlements and further increases to the “debt ceiling”.
Russian MPs suggest allowing public use of firearms shortly after Colorado shootings
010 months ago
in Global News
Source: http://www.rt.com
Following the shooting spree in a Colorado cinema, Russian legislators have drafted a bill which would allow public use of firearms. The law’s sponsors hope to curb crime rates, while opponents say legal air-guns already cause enough damage.
The principle behind the drafted bill allowing the private use of handguns is “my home is my castle,” so any invasion of private space could be met with loaded barrels.
Aleksandr Torshin, who drafted the bill, says pistol owners might get divided into several groups. Some would be sanctioned to use weapons to protect their homes only, while others would be authorized to take handguns in their cars. The most privileged group would be permitted to carry pistols anywhere. This third category could include postmen, ambulance staff and social workers.
To have the right to use handguns, Russians would have to prove they are not mentally ill, have no criminal record, are not addicted to alcohol or drugs and undergo special training.
Report: at least $20.3 trillion hidden in offshore banks by global elite
010 months ago
Source: http://endthelie.com
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
1 trillion dollars compared to a standard American football field, a Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner and the White House with both wings. (Image credit: Demonocracy)
According to the most detailed study of the so-called offshore economy to date, conducted by James Henry, former chief economist with the consultancy McKinsey, the world’s richest people have taken advantage of cross-border tax laws in order to put away a shocking $20.31 trillion in offshore banks.
While this likely isn’t all that crazy to those who are familiar with the massive conflicts of interest in the Federal Reserve and the fact that the Federal Reserve works with banks to put Americans on the line for the failures of banks, it might be surprising to those who have no clue how the international financial system works.
The astounding sum uncovered by the Henry is slightly less than the 2011 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Japan ($5.87 trillion) on top of the 2011 United States GDP ($15.09 trillion).
The findings were published in the new report, “The Price of Offshore Revisited,” which shows that money continues to leak out of major nations and into infamous tax havens like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
These transactions are enabled by private banking institutions which all battle to get the accounts of what the Guardian calls the “global super-rich elite,” also known as high net-worth individuals.
Henry demonstrates that sums between £13 trillion ($20.3 trillion) and £20 ($31.23 trillion) have made their way from countries around the world into these secretive banking jurisdictions.
Is Germany preparing to bail out of the Euro?
010 months ago
Source: http://www.humanevents.com
By: John Hayward
The European Union held a summit meeting last week, prompting a significant rally in both European and American markets at the perception of progress in controlling the Euro meltdown. However, it’s difficult for a sober analyst to find anything of long-term significance coming out of the summit. Spain got a vague commitment to pump bailout money directly into its banks, instead of handing the Spanish government a pile of rescue money with “austerity” strings attached, but no one is terribly clear about where this bank bailout money will be coming from.
Post-summit euphoria has already begun to fade, and it fades nowhere more swiftly than in the nation that glumly supposes it knows damn well where the bailout money will be coming from: Germany. It is increasingly clear that the entire Eurozone is powered by a long extension cord, patched here and there with austerity duct tape, running all the way to Berlin.
Ron Paul, Paul Krugman face off in economic debate
01 year ago
Source: http://thehill.com
By Justin Sink
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman faced off for a televised debated on fiscal policy Monday afternoon in a battle likely to appeal to policy wonks on both sides of the political spectrum.
The two staked out positions that predictably offered sharp contrasts, with Paul emphasizing his belief in “very small government” during the appearance on Bloomberg TV.
“I emphasize personal liberties. I don’t like a managed economy, whether it’s through central economic planning or monetary policy or even Congress doing it. It’s a completely different philosophy that markets are supposed to work, you know, in a natural way,” the Texas congressman said.
Krugman, meanwhile, described Paul as “living in the world that was 150 years ago.”
“History tells us that in fact a completely unmanaged economy is subject to extreme volatility, subject to extreme downturns. I know this legend that some people like that the Great Depression was somehow caused by the government or the Federal Reserve, but that’s not true. The reality is it was a market economy run amok, which happens repeatedly,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist said.
That prompted Paul to one-up Krugman, saying the columnist “wants to go back 1,000 years or 2,000 years just as the Romans and the Greeks and all other countries debased their currency.”
“What did the Romans do to their currency? The Byzantine Empire had a gold standard for a thousand years and they did quite well and they didn’t fight wars. But the Roman empire eventually destroyed their currency. They put in wage and price controls before they diluted the metals. They inflated. They thought wealth could come by fooling the people,” Paul said.
Krugman, offering a wiry smile, quipped that, “I’m not a defender of the economic policies of the Emperor Diocletion, let’s make that clear.”
While the two ideological foes broke little new ground, the conversation nevertheless provided a fairly substantive discussion for mid-afternoon cable news.
Paul also pledged to stay in the Republican presidential race until “all the votes are counted.”
“Just look at this last week. The news is very favorable to us. We could even end up winning Iowa, ironically enough. In Minnesota, we’re doing well, and Maine, Nevada and Missouri. We’re doing very, very well. Some of the states we could very well win or come up very much because the delegate process is completely different than these straw votes. We’re pleased … It’s another month or so until they count all the delegates and we find out where we stand,” Paul said.
The Texas congressman added that his support for presumptive nominee Mitt Romney “depends” on what his platform would end up being.
“If I disagree with every single thing in his platform, it’s going to be tough. If it’s 100 percent opposite on everything I have said on civil liberties, on war issues, on spending cuts, on monetary policy, you know, what can I do?” Paul said. “We have millions of people now supporting our campaign, and millions that haven’t been heard from because they’re independents and Democrats that are unhappy with Obama. To support somebody that might have 100 percent opposite views of mine would be difficult. Hopefully [Romney] sticks to his guns about not raising taxes.”
Bernanke’s Warning: We Stand on the Precipice of Economic Destruction
01 year ago
Source: http://www.infowars.com
By Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke again warned that out of control borrowing and spending will eventually destroy the country.
Said Ben to the the Budget Committee:
Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult.
But here is something Bernanke didn’t mention – a large chunk of that debt is owed to the Federal Reserve. In February, the corporate media fessed up to this undeniable fact. From CNBC:
That’s right, the biggest single holder of U.S. government debt is inside the United States and includes the Federal Reserve system and other intragovernmental holdings. Of this number, The Fed’s system of banks owns approximately $1.65 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities (as of January 2012), while other U.S. intragovernmental holdings – which include large funds such as the Medicare Trust Fund and the Social Security Trust Fund - hold the rest.
The bankers that own the Federal Reserve love debt and that’s why they continually expand the money supply.
“Without the Fed’s relentless expansion of the money supply during both the Greenspan and Bernanke eras, the U.S. Treasury never would have been able to issue the staggering sums of debt that now threaten our economic well being,” Ron Paul told the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy last year. “This Treasury debt is the very lifeblood of deficit spending, permitting one Congress after another to spend far more than the Treasury collects in taxes. It is precisely this unholy alliance between the enabling Fed and a spendthrift Congress that I hope our witnesses will address today.”
It’s a great situation for the warheads in the Pentagon and the military industrial complex. Excluding Social Security and other “trust funds” (no pun intended), the Pentagon spends most of this money. Flush with trillions, they are free to continue and expand the wars necessary for the globalists to extend their reach (as they are now doing in Africa).
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
