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July employment numbers provided more clues, less rosy than the headline 117,000 jobs gained and U-3 unemployment falling to 9.1% (belying nearly 23% unemployment based how calculated in 1980).
In fact, the broader Household Survey showed 38,000 jobs lost, putting employment at its lowest level since fall 2007. In addition, 200,000 discouraged workers stopped looking. Notably, from when Obama took office until now, Americans aged 16 or older out of the labor force increased by nearly 3.6 million - a clear sign of economic deterioration, not recovery, growth, or a good sign for what's coming.
On August 2, economist Paul Craig Roberts titled his article, "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire," covering some salient issues, including:
(1) Waiting until the 11th hour to raise its debt limit left world nations "worr(ying) about the judgment and sanity of the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world," putting politics above sound policy.
(2) America's public debt is rising because its economy isn't, "but war expenditures are."
(3) Economic decline results from offshoring manufacturing and key service sectors to low wage countries, hollowing out America in the process.
(4) Only Wall Street, other corporations, and investors benefit at the expense of trashing America over time.
(5) Deregulating the fire sector (finance, insurance and real estate) was "(t)he other destroyer of American economic prospects." Out-of-control speculation followed, reckless casino capitalism, assuring eventual economic chaos, perhaps collapse, bankruptcy and ruin.
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