{"id":577986,"date":"2010-05-25T07:26:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T11:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prisonplanet.com\/?p=43939"},"modified":"2010-05-25T07:26:23","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T11:26:23","slug":"25-questions-to-ask-anyone-who-is-delusional-enough-to-believe-that-this-economic-recovery-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/577986","title":{"rendered":"25 Questions To Ask Anyone Who Is Delusional Enough To Believe That This Economic Recovery Is Real"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Prison Planet.com \u00bb Commentary<\/p>\n

The Economic Collapse<\/a>
\nMay 25, 2010<\/p>\n

If you listen to the mainstream media long enough, you\u00a0just might\u00a0be tempted to believe that the United States has emerged from the recession and is now in the middle of a\u00a0full-fledged economic recovery.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0according to\u00a0Obama administration officials, the great American economic machine has roared back to life, stronger and more\u00a0vibrant than ever before.\u00a0 But is that really the case?\u00a0\u00a0Of course not.\u00a0 You\u00a0would have to be delusional to believe that.\u00a0 What did happen was that all of the stimulus packages and\u00a0government spending\u00a0and new debt that Obama and the U.S. Congress pumped into the economy\u00a0bought us a little bit of time.\u00a0\u00a0But they have also made our long-term economic problems far worse.\u00a0 The reality is that the U.S.\u00a0cannot keep supporting an economy on an ocean of red ink forever.\u00a0 At some point the charade is going to come crashing down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And GDP is not a really good measure of the economic health of a nation.\u00a0 For example, if you would have looked at the growth of GDP in the Weimar republic\u00a0in the\u00a0early\u00a01930s, you may have been tempted to think that the German economy was really thriving.\u00a0 German citizens were spending increasingly massive amounts of money.\u00a0\u00a0But of course that money was becoming increasingly worthless at the same time as hyperinflation spiralled out of control.<\/p>\n

Well, today the purchasing power of our dollar is\u00a0rapidly\u00a0eroding as the price of food and other necessities continues to increase.\u00a0 So just because Americans are spending a little bit more money\u00a0than before\u00a0really doesn’t mean\u00a0much of anything.\u00a0 As you will see below, there are a whole bunch of other signs that the U.S. economy is in very, very serious trouble.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any “recovery” that the U.S. economy is experiencing is illusory and will be quite temporary.\u00a0 The entire financial system of the United States is falling apart, and the powers that be can try to\u00a0patch it up and\u00a0prop it up for a while, but in the end this thing is going to come crashing down.<\/p>\n

But as obvious as\u00a0that may seem to most of us, there are still quite a few people out there that are absolutely convinced that the U.S. economy will fully recover and will soon be stronger than ever.<\/p>\n

So the following are 25 questions to ask anyone who is delusional enough\u00a0to believe that this economic recovery is real….\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"25<\/a><\/p>\n

#1) <\/strong>In what universe is an economy with 39.68 million Americans<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0food stamps considered to be a healthy, recovering economy?\u00a0 In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.\u00a0 Is a rapidly increasing number of Americans on food stamps a good sign or a bad sign for the economy?<\/p>\n

#2) <\/strong>According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in the month of March<\/a>.\u00a0 This\u00a0was an increase of\u00a0almost 19 percent from February, and it was\u00a0the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report back in January 2005.\u00a0 So can you please explain again how the U.S. real estate market is getting better?<\/p>\n

#3)<\/strong> The Mortgage Bankers Association just announced\u00a0that more than 10 percent of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment in the January-March period.\u00a0 That was\u00a0a record high<\/a> and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.\u00a0 Do you think that is an indication that the U.S. housing market is recovering?<\/p>\n

#4)<\/strong> How can the U.S. real estate market be considered healthy when, for the first time in modern history,\u00a0banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States<\/a> than all individual Americans put together?<\/p>\n

#5)<\/strong> With\u00a0the U.S. Congress\u00a0planning to quadruple oil taxes<\/a>, what do you think that is going to do to the price of gasoline in the United States and how do you think that will affect the U.S. economy?<\/p>\n

#6)<\/strong> Do you think that it is a good sign that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of the state of California,\u00a0says that\u00a0“terrible cuts”<\/a> are urgently needed\u00a0in order to avoid a complete financial disaster in his state?<\/p>\n

#7)<\/strong> But it just isn’t California that is in trouble.\u00a0\u00a0Dozens of\u00a0U.S. states are in such bad financial shape that they are getting ready for their biggest budget cuts in decades<\/a>.\u00a0 What do you think all of those budget cuts will do to the economy?<\/p>\n

#8)<\/strong> In March, the U.S. trade deficit widened\u00a0to its highest level since December 2008<\/a>.\u00a0 Month after month after month we buy much more from the rest of the world than they buy from us.\u00a0 Wealth is draining out of the United States at an unprecedented rate.\u00a0 So is the fact that the gigantic U.S. trade deficit is actually getting bigger a good sign or a bad sign for the U.S. economy?<\/p>\n

#9)<\/strong> Considering the fact that the U.S. government is projected to have a 1.6 trillion dollar deficit in 2010, and considering the fact that if you went out and spent one dollar every single second\u00a0it would take you\u00a0more than 31,000 years<\/a> to spend\u00a0a trillion dollars, how can anyone in their right mind claim that the U.S. economy is getting healthier when we are getting into so much debt?<\/p>\n

#10)<\/strong> The U.S. Treasury Department\u00a0recently announced that the U.S. government suffered a wider-than-expected budget deficit of 82.69 billion dollars<\/a> in April.\u00a0 So is the fact that the red ink of the U.S. government is actually worse than projected a good sign or a bad sign?<\/p>\n

#11)<\/strong> According to\u00a0one new report, the U.S. national debt will reach 100 percent of GDP by the year 2015<\/a>.\u00a0 So is that a sign of economic recovery or of economic disaster?<\/p>\n

#12)<\/strong> Monstrous amounts of oil continue to gush freely into the Gulf of Mexico, and analysts are already projecting that the seafood and tourism industries along the Gulf coast will be devastated for decades<\/a> by this unprecedented environmental disaster.\u00a0 In light of those facts, how in the world can anyone project that the U.S. economy will soon be stronger than ever?<\/p>\n

#13)<\/strong> The\u00a0FDIC’s list of problem banks\u00a0recently hit\u00a0a 17-year high<\/a>.\u00a0 Do you think that an increasing number of small banks failing is a good sign or a bad sign for the U.S. economy?<\/p>\n

#14)<\/strong> The FDIC is backing 8,000 banks\u00a0that have a total of\u00a0$13 trillion in assets\u00a0with a deposit insurance fund that is basically flat broke<\/a>.\u00a0 So what do you think will happen if a significant number of small banks do start failing?<\/p>\n

#15)<\/strong> Existing home sales in the United States jumped 7.6 percent\u00a0in April<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0That is the good news.\u00a0 The bad news is that this increase only happened because the deadline to take advantage of the temporary\u00a0home buyer tax credit (government bribe) was looming.\u00a0 So now that there is no more tax credit for home buyers, what will that do to home sales?\u00a0<\/p>\n

#16)<\/strong> Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently told the U.S. government that they are going to need even more bailout money.\u00a0 So what does it say about the U.S. economy when the two “pillars” of the U.S. mortgage industry are government-backed financial black holes that the U.S. government has to relentlessly pour money into?<\/p>\n

#17)<\/strong> 43 percent of Americans<\/a> have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.\u00a0 Tens of millions of Americans find themselves just one lawsuit, one really bad traffic accident or one very serious illness away from financial ruin.\u00a0 With so many Americans living on the edge, how can you say that the economy is healthy?<\/p>\n

#18)<\/strong> The mayor of Detroit\u00a0says that the real unemployment rate in his city is somewhere around 50 percent<\/a>.\u00a0 So can the U.S. really be experiencing an economic recovery when so many are still unemployed in one of America’s biggest cities?<\/p>\n

#19)<\/strong> Gallup’s measure of underemployment\u00a0hit 20.0% on March 15th<\/a>.\u00a0 That was up from 19.7% two weeks earlier and 19.5% at the start of the year.\u00a0 Do you think that is a good trend or a bad trend?<\/p>\n

#20)<\/strong> One\u00a0new poll shows that 76 percent of Americans<\/a> believe that the U.S. economy\u00a0is still\u00a0in a\u00a0recession.\u00a0 So are the vast majority of Americans just stupid or could we still actually be in a recession?<\/p>\n

#21)<\/strong> The bottom 40 percent of\u00a0those living\u00a0in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the nation\u2019s wealth.\u00a0 So is Barack Obama’s mantra that “what is good for Wall Street is good for Main Street” actually true?<\/p>\n

#22)<\/strong> Richard Russell, the famous\u00a0author of the Dow Theory Letters, says that Americans should sell anything they can sell\u00a0in order to get liquid<\/a> because of the economic trouble that is coming.\u00a0 Do you think that Richard Russell is delusional or could he possibly have a point?<\/p>\n

#23)<\/strong> Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent<\/a> in the first quarter of 2010.\u00a0 In fact, that was\u00a0almost twice the level of a year earlier.\u00a0 Does that look like a good trend to you?<\/p>\n

#24)<\/strong> In March, the price of fresh and dried vegetables in the United States soared 49.3%<\/a> –\u00a0the most in 16 years.\u00a0 Is it a sign of a healthy economy when food prices are increasing so dramatically?<\/p>\n

#25)<\/strong> 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy\u00a0in March 2010<\/a>\u00a0than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.\u00a0 So shouldn’t we at least wait until the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy is not setting new all-time records\u00a0before we even dare whisper the words “economic recovery”?<\/p>\n

\n

Related Posts:<\/h3>\n