Trapped between the Fed and Congress
By Mike Krauss
Despite the never ending assurances of the Federal Reserve that happy days are almost here again -- the same tune the Fed has sung for nearly seven long years -- there is mounting evidence that the U.S. is headed for another economic crash. It will be more terrible than the last.
The Washington Post headlined, "U.S. economic growth slows to 0.2 percent, grinding nearly to a halt."
Fox News reported the
real story of unemployment: the official, good news government figure of 5.4
percent is a fiction, achieved by not counting the millions who have given up
looking for work, and those who can find only part-time work.
Fox was playing
catch-up. That story has been out there for years, but ignored by the corporate
media and clueless politicians.
Tyler Durden reports in
his blog, Zero Hedge, that year-on-year sales at the big retailers have taken a
precipitous drop. Most Americans have no disposable income to dispose of, after
they pay the food bill, mortgage, rent and utilities.
Wholesale trade has
fallen like a stone, dropping more than $100 billion over four months.
Wholesalers provide the goods that retailers sell. If retail demand is off,
wholesale trade is off. The last time it dropped like that was in 2008-2009.
Post crash. Then it took seven months to go from the high to the low; now, only
four.
New manufacturing orders
indicate the future. Not good. In only one of the last seven months has there
been growth in new orders. Things were not that bad during the 18-month-long
credit crunch of late 2008 through 2009.
Poverty in the U.S. is
off the charts. The number of children living in poverty is nothing less than
shocking.
For almost seven years,
seniors have seen their savings and pensions eaten alive.
Public and private debt
are at record levels.
Durden reports that the
median net worth of the American people is down 40 percent from where it was
before the last collapse.
Tens of millions of
Americans who are far worse off today than they were seven years ago will be
brought to their knees in the next crash, while the wealthy will rest easy on
an even greater cushion of wealth.
The people who know are
running scared.
Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernake -- now cashing in as an adviser to a couple of hedge funds -- has sounded the alarm which he failed so spectacularly to sound before the last crash.
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