Current Article

It is a Depression, Not a Recession

By Larry Johnson on July 2, 2011 at 3:30 PM in Current Affairs

* Bumped Up *

Folks, it is all about the numbers. Before hitting you between the eyes with the hard facts let me give you a couple of anecdotal accounts. These I know first hand. I know of four small businesses–two in Florida and two in Maryland–that employed people and survived during the hard times of 2009 and 2010. They are now closed and in the process of closing. Because they are small businesses and they do not make the news in a visible way that the closing of a large plant, like a Catepillar, generates.

Here is what has been happening over the last three months across the United States–small businesses, hit by rising costs (e.g., fuel and food and health care) are shuttering their shops, laying off employees and filing for unemployment. It is truly shocking how many small businesses are on the ropes now compared to the dark days of early 2009.

Another factor exacerbating things is tight credit for the average Joe. Even if you have a credit score in excess of 750, you will be getting the third degree if you try to get a mortgage. The lenders of the big companies, still stung by the mortgage debacle of 2007-08, are leery of making more loans. And without those loans the chain of consumption that stimulates a growing a economy is strangled in the crib.

Now, are you ready for some shocking numbers?

You can find these facts courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The first time the number of jobless claims rose above 400,000 in 2008 was on 19 July 2008. Four hundred three thousand people filed first time unemployment claims. That number did not fall below 400,000 until 5 February 2011. However, out of 23 weeks this year only seven weeks recorded unemployment claims that fell below the 400,000 threshold. And over the last 9 weeks that number has been more 400,000 per week.

But that’s not the shocking fact. In July 2008 the “Covered Employment” number was 133,690,617. In other words, the total labor force was almost 134 million. How about June 2011? EIGHT MILLION FEWER–125,572,661. WHERE THE HELL DID THOSE 8 MILLION PEOPLE GO?

You can maintain the fiction that unemployment is still hovering around 9% as long as you eliminate 8 million people from the work force. But, if you put those folks back in then you are looking at a rate closer to 16%.

Why does the media, even Fox, continue to perpetuate the bullshit of a non-existent recovery when the Covered Employment number has been falling or stagnant for almost three years? It is criminal.

Anonymous

I’ve seen that posted before, maybe by you. It’s not shocking to me. I live in Ohio and we were hit hard and I work for Dr’s (small business) and it’s been tough this last year. Between my hubby and I, we’ve LOST $15,000 in wages last year alone due to loss of overtime and bonuses. $15,0000 income loss for one year and the asshole tries to tell everyone that he “fixed” the economy. He sure did and it’s worse.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MCA6QIPPR3EXRQRYL3MVYJSKLQ Joe

I run a small town ice cream shop and have about 20 employees, all part time. They want more hours but I cannot provide them. Our sales are down more than 15% this year, and food costs are up about $1,000 per month. The simple truth is, my employees are making more money than me.

The media is not aware of the reality on the ground, in the tiny hamlets of flyover country. First people change their behavior, but after so long, it is their mindset that changes. Once that starts to happen, they are unlikely to return to their previous ways.

The obama trainwreck is happening in slow motion, and we cannot do any more than watch… for now. When true change does begin to occur, it will take twice as long for the scars to heal over.

SHV

I run a small town ice cream shop and have about 20 employees, all part
time. They want more hours but I cannot provide them.
*********
Local ice cream company just shut down after having been in business for 78 years. Same reasons, sales down, costs up.
200+ people suddenly without jobs.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MCA6QIPPR3EXRQRYL3MVYJSKLQ Joe

We have been going for 17 years. I have the commercial property for sale… but there are no buyers.

http://noquarterusa.net Larry Johnson

Joe,
My heartfelt empathy.
Anonymous

And probably no bank financing. Dammit – 17 years! And you still are paying people. You’re a good man, Joe.

Anonymous

Seems to me the only solution is for hundreds of thousands of people to show up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and demand change!! We can talk until we are blue in the face, but a huge, peaceful horde of people would speak volumes….the time for change is now; we cannot wait any longer, unless we want everyone to go broke.

“Say What You Will…It Feels So Good”
http://www.saywhatyouwill.proboards.com

Anonymous

Convoy–with the high price of diesel, I’m surprised we haven’t seen some D.C. convoys. Maybe the fuel is just too expensive to burn it in long-haul demonstrations….

yttik

I was just thinking that. I would love to march on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I can’t afford the darn gas to get there.

i george

Back on September 10, 2009, hundreds of thousands of people did show up in D.C. Sort of the beginning of the Tea Party movement protesting healthcare. The media wouldn’t report it or made light of the numbers of people attending. Bo flew over their heads in the helicopter and went on to Minnesota that evening to campaign. He was like a raving lunatic at the podium. That crowd shook him up some. Remember, back then he was still flying high!

Anonymous

Joe–

Obama didn’t do to well with his campaign encounter with Joe the Plumber. I don’t think he’ll be visiting your town with his camera crews to speak with Joe the Ice Cream Man . . .
Anonymous

Joe

My sister and brother-in-law own a diner in a very populated commercial area. They have been at the same location for over 20 years. The last 2 years have been dismal for them. They are now closed on weekends. When I used to go in for lunch the line was out the door, for the last couple of years no line. Of course, they invested well when they were doing well but I feel for their employees who will be out of a job if they close.

My own employer, a corporation, is talking layoffs and I am helping 2 children who just graduated from college who can’t find work. Things are very,very bad.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MCA6QIPPR3EXRQRYL3MVYJSKLQ Joe

Unfortunately, this is the truly frightening state of mom & pop shops all over… and unlike larger businesses, the ability to carry foward in the face of negative cash flow is significantly reduced.

Moreover, the liability protection of the typical small business entities offer little help when you are faced with needing to put more of your personal capital on the line, to keep things solvent.

The dirty little secret WE all know, and Washington DOESN’T GET …

In our real world, simply printing more money, or going further into debt, is NOT an optoin.

Anonymous

Down the street from where I live, a local pet shop went out of business. They specialized in fish and exotic birds. They’d been in that location for 20 years. The woman running the shop said she was thankful that her husband had a full time job elsewhere, otherwise they would be bankrupt.

The local pizza shop(voted the best pizza in town) has added “breakfast” on weekends.
They must be desperate for revenues as well.
Obama is destroying this country from the bottom up.

Riellyrltr

A close friend works in a popular deli where lots of Bridgeport politicians, police and fire employees are regulars. What she has heard would curl Obama’s ears.
The black professionals who come in are scathing in their criticisms of Obama and want him out. Everyone exchanged stories and this is just spreading.
Their daily lunch business, which was a mainstay, has dropped, but my friend says that on the day the welfare checks come in, the recipients of this free money are there in droves, indulging in expensive foods in huge quantities that even their other customers don’t buy.
Others have seen this and understand that this is free money for not working for most of these people and the resentment is palpable.
You can thank Obama for this growing anger.
Anonymous

The simple truth is, my employees are making more money than me.
______________________________________________

Hang in there Joe. That statement is true of every company I handle.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W6RLFUOLWP23SJ5RQHENEPHKME David L

Joe, Here in Tucson, we had Krispy Kreme donuts just close all their local shops, it seems that the owner also has shops in the Phoenix area, and he had been doing all the baking in Phoenix and trucking the donuts South to Tucson daily in an attempt to keep his shops open. His reason for closing the Tucson shops, he couldn’t even break even with the price of fuel . I don’t think a lot of people fully understand that the small business are the backbone of our economy. There is no way this country could ever stand another 4 years of this asshole in the White House !!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MCA6QIPPR3EXRQRYL3MVYJSKLQ Joe

David – The fuel price issue is a deal breaker for so many small business equations. However, food related businesses have taken a double hit on their input costs; in addition to the fuel/transportation pricing component, most of the commodities themselves have gone up significantly.

Dairy, butterfat, chocolate, nuts, cooking oil, sugar, corn, grains… you name it, and it is up! Also look for continued pricing pressure in produce, pork and beef, as the impact of all of the flooding and drought makes its way into the system.

JackN

Obama and Bernanke thought giving Wall Street Banks more “liquidity” would compel them to “loan.” The banks (post-Glass-Steagal casinos) put the money into commodity futures.

What is also alarming is how every mainstream media “economist” never reports on the big movers of commodity prices, only to cast them as something to do with end users.

QE2, Obama’s super deficits, cause inflation. But the Democrats would tell you “Keynes said x” Republicans say “they are supply side.” Both boomer elites have maxed out the cards. Even the top Dems and Repubs are ignoring their hack university economists talk about “debt is good.”

JackN

About medical care: Obamacare really sped that rise in prices. First those so-called “protections” obama acted as if he was giving us for free, nope, insurers charged more. Individual mandate will go far to kill competition, insurers don’t have to offer good prices if you must buy their product! The idea that this was going to lower prices is a complete joke.

Anonymous

insurers don’t have to offer good prices if you must buy their product!
__________________________________________

I agree with you Jack and that keeps me from agreeing with Ryan on Medicare change.

http://openid.aol.com/sljbook lizzy s

Health care costs have been rising rapidly for the last forty years. If there is a set amount given the senior must pay from his pocket for expenses. I also distrust the Ryan plan. I think that those on Medicare as it is under Obama will be uninsured to all intents and purposes. Seniors have been stabbed by both parties.

Docelder

At some point people are going to be forced to be honest and just call this the second great depression. We would have been fine by now were it not for Obama. The economy would have righted itself were it not for all the damn capital being gifted to Tarp 2 and big business and the rest being spent by government in the form of non-stimulus. There are no loans because there is no money left to loan. This was intentional. Nobody can convince me that the democrats were too damn ignorant to know they were suffocating free enterprise. Not even these jackasses are that damn stupid.

JackN

.”Nobody can convince me that the democrats were too damn ignorant to know they were suffocating free enterprise. ”

I will try. They are plenty ignorant because they absolutely believe deficit spending is a panacea, misquoting various economists from the past. You know who else does it? Republicans, except they don’t have past economists who say this is good, so they invent some ideology like, “growing out of the deficit” mantras will work.

Docelder

Let me preface this… Bush was nobody’s conservative. He was maybe a conservative progressive. But, there is no comparing for example the Bush tax cut in effect to what Obama and the democrats did. All we heard from the democrats was “tax cuts for the rich”… but I am not rich and under Bush’s tax cut I had more money to spend. As did probably most of us… which makes us feel better about things in and of itself regardless of long term effects. Seeing the government spend all the money makes me feel like we have transmuted into some detached European state. I don’t like it at all. I would love to go back to 2004 right now and just stay there forever for all I care. Spending money at the government level isn’t even close to being the same in effect to letting people spend some of their own money. We see that plain as day by now. Or we should.

Anonymous

Actually, Doc, I am making the same as 2004 but working 2 jobs to do it.
Ferd_Berfle

… but I am not rich and under Bush’s tax cut I had more money to spend.
===================
That is the unvarnished truth, which will drive the obots crazy. What Barry wants to do is soak everyone who works so he’ll have a stash of cash to hand out to his supporters who don’t work and are in need of some of that Obama money.
beachnan

Remember Doc when Cheney stated “deficits don’t matter”? Both sides need a good kick in the pants. I will agree-Obama needs to go!!!

Anonymous

Not even these jackasses are that damn stupid.
_________________________________________

I don’t know, Doc. I am never surprised at the expanding bounds of stupidity.

Anonymous

So, with that number of unemployed and intake of taxes at a new low, how can ‘the dick’ stand in front of anyone and say the economy is getting better?

“Say What You Will…It Feels So Good”
William L. Donlon

Larry Johnson

Excellent Article

Hard hitting Piece!

No. 1 topic of the 2012 Electoral Season.!

Factual!!

No Fear Mongering ___

Economical Use of Adjectives!

Informative!

Scale Of ! to 10

10+

The New Media — No Quarter — Replaces The old MSM!!!!

Welcome to 2012 (The New 1984 — Animal farm)!

The Dance Has Just Begun!

You will play a bigger part in this Election Cycle than you could have imagined Four years ago!!!

You, No Quarter, Rev. Amy Etc. Have Come Of Age!!!

From “Side Show” To Big Tent —-

And Not A Moment To Soon!!!!
Onofres arm

But….but…….Larry, what about the army of Obama Pollyanna’s, like Primate Butt, who guaranteed us all that Obama’s Keynesian programs, like Porkulus, would get the country roaring out of the recession by the summer of 2010? Garsh darn, who ya gonna believe?
Anonymous

Good article, Larry. It seems to me that what is mitigating the outrage and alarm over the high unemployment numbers is the rising stock market. It seems like a contradiction–why is the stock market going up?

People with money need a place to park it. Do you put it into bonds, with record low yields? Do you put it into a savings account, with record low interest rates? It is possible for people and corporations with LOTS of money to borrow at record low interest rates: so why not put it into the stock market? Also, the declining dollar increases the relative value of stocks. A combination of factors has led to the stock market’s rise. Will this continue to go on? I don’t think so . . .

http://noquarterusa.net Larry Johnson

Oowawa,
There is a clear disconnect between the stock market and actual economic activity. I don’t have a good feel for it to be able to offer a succinct, pithy explanation. Part of the answer is that traders can make money even in the midst of economic turmoil. Sort of like the contacts in a prison who sell contraband. Prison sucks but even some of the inmates can make some money.

Anonymous

Yes, Larry–and I have wondered ever since the bailout how much of that public money might be finding its way to the NYSE to inflate stock prices (perhaps via GS and other major players). There are so many ways to shift the money around that I confess to be bewildered; I’m easily fooled by card sharps.
Jrterrier

i wonder whether the stock market will plunge one of these days. it doesn’t make sense. it almost seems like a ponzi scheme at this point.

Anonymous

It’s definitely a ponzi scheme!

The market is as rigged as it gets anymore.

They seduce “retail investors” into thinking they should get back in, because it keeps going up; but what’s really going on is HFT. And, it’s criminal.

Anonymous

Quantitative easing, or QE1 and QE2 is the culprit. It’s a deal worked out between the Fed and the Treasury Department. QE2 is the printing of about 600 billion out of thin air, and using it to purchase Treasury bonds, and also propping up the stock market. Watch for the market to go down when QE2 ends soon. This “weak dollar” policy has had an overall disastrous result. While the stock market has done well, the policy is killing the dollar, and causing inflated food and gas prices. While Obama and the Democrats talk about being “for” the middle class, it’s crap like this that is actually destroying us. And it is intentional.
Anonymous

It’s High Frequency Trading now that’s driving the stock market. They’re cheating like crazy. ZeroHedge has good info on it.
Anonymous

Good analogy Larry. There is a lot of money to be made by churning. To hell with everyday reality.

annie

This to is hurting seniors with the medical and presriptions that are out of pocket can sometimes mean eating or taking a pill….Did I hear that congress gave themselves a raise but the seniors haven’t gotten anything since Obama came in to Washington….That damn congress that only takes care of itself….I hope they are all voted out………….
Docelder

Ironic that the man who dreamed of being some kind of beloved second FDR turned into the second version of Herbert Hoover. Nothing can suck like being a hoover.

Anonymous

He is a second FDR, but not the mythical FDR that you and many were taught and believe – but the real FDR.
What caused the depression was a series of government interventional acts after the Stock Market crash of ’29.
It was a series of reckless monetary acts by the Federal Reserve resulting is drastic swings in the stock market that resulted in a panic and the crash. But that would have only resulted in a relatively brief economic downturn.
What caused the Depression was the interventionist policies of Herbert Hoover particularly the Smoot Hawley tariff that created trade protection and halted trade. FDR came in and not only did he not reverse course but went further down the same road. And FDR made the Depression a Great Depression.
Roosevelt’s cornerstone programs of the AAA and the NRA extracted massive tax dollars by raising top rates from 24% to 79% by 1935. All FDR did was transfer private sector jobs to public sector and never decreasing unemployment because people with wealth had nothing to invest because of the massive taxes and small businesses were heavily regulated under the NRA.
In the first year of the New Deal, Roosevelt proposed spending $10 billion while revenues were only $3 billion. Between 1933 and 1936, government expenditures rose by more than 83 percent. Federal debt skyrocketed by 73 percent.
Even FDR’s own Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau admitted that the New Deal had been a failure, “We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . We have never made good on our promises. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”
In the end the Supreme Court found that the AAA and NRA were unconstitutional.
Unfortunately under Obama we are seeing history repeat itself.

Anonymous

Thanks Hokma for a more realistic description of FDR than most are used to seeing. FDR also believed in taxing the wealthy to oblivion, so he and Barry have a great deal in common.

Anonymous

Quote from Hoover. (The president not the vacuum cleaner.)

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.~ Herbert Hoover
http://openid.aol.com/sljbook lizzy s

Obama vacuums our money right into his bag.

yttik

Businesses are dropping like flies where I live. Most of our shops are now empty store fronts. People who have been around for 30 years are now gone. The jobs went with them.

We own a small business and we’re barely hanging on. The biggest obstacle is the uncertainty, followed by all the audits and paperwork. My state is going broke so they’re trying to find fraud and abuse. Besides having to keep a revolving door open and the kettle on for all the inspectors and auditors, we can’t predict what Obamacare will cost us, if the 1099 requirement will go thru, what new taxes and fees we’ll be liable for next year, etc, etc

We were talking tonight about how it was kind of like being kept in a state of terror. No matter how good your books are, no matter how legal you try to be, the Gov is constantly threatening you with potential fines, fees, taxes, and new regulations.

Anonymous

I know your frustration – I also am burning the midnight oil dealing with all the governments that are trying to squeeze as much as possible out of everybody. If you are doing everything by the book, try to spin that the tough language is directed at the deadbeats not you.
We don’t need you to stress yourself out and take your eye off the ball – keeping your client base happy and trying to expand it.
Good luck!

http://twitter.com/PennsylvaniaRed PennsylvaniaRed

Democracy from Benghazi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HKnhEqK_QY
DM

Larry, you speak of the workforce that has vanished, 8 million, but what about the additional labor that comes in every month looking for a job. I understood that number is 150,000 per month . So if the labor force was 134 million in July 2008, don’t we need to add another 5.4 million (150K x 12 months x 3 years) to the 2008 workforce?
Pingback: The Bad News Keeps On Coming…. | bearroombrawl
Queenie

And all we keep hearing is ..we must sacrifice!!

Who the hell hasn’t sacrificed that is in the Middle class?
It’s the 1% that hasn’t sacrificed a damn thing! Tell them to sacrifice! Take their SS ..not mine ..Mine was mandated Insurance, I paid it ..since i was 14 years old! 45 years worth of Insurance I was mandated to pay!.
They better damn well not touch it..
Hey Obama ..sacrifice this middle finger!

Anonymous

I understand your rage completely. But what would you give to save Social Security, if you knew that without doing something, you would lose everything? Is there any compromise you’d make to save the patient, if there were gangrene spreading in the extremities?

Stomping feet and shouting won’t save the patient, but a careful and concerted effort to stem the spreading of infection might work. Is there anything worth a try, if the result of the effort is to save the whole?

Anonymous

But what would you give to save Social Security, if you knew that without doing something, you would lose everything?
_________________________________________
Social security won’t go down to nothing, but I wish they’d raise the damned cap!

http://openid.aol.com/sljbook lizzy s

They can’t raise the cap if they want to start means testing. They’re taking their pound of flesh on over one hundred thousand now and they want to not pay you if you have assets or income. They can’s have it both ways.
http://openid.aol.com/sljbook lizzy s

They can’t raise the cap if they want to start means testing. They’re taking their pound of flesh on over one hundred thousand now and they want to not pay you if you have assets or income. They can’s have it both ways.
Anonymous

Sorry Lizzy, I can’t reply to you only to me!!! :p
Raise the cap and forget means testing. They don’t means test Medicare.

Anonymous

I know exactly how you feel Queenie. For 40+ years they took money out of my check without my consent. I had no say in it.

Now when I am collecting on that, on the agreement the government made with me for stealing my money all those years, I am a greedy old bag for wanting to get it back.

I will, probably, get back more than I paid in. Sorry if I’m not willing to die as soon as my “contribution”, make that extorted contribution is gone.

Social Security is not the big problem. It could be fixed easily if the Prima Donna’s in Washington would quit playing politics and tweak it.

The real problems are medicare and medicaid. They are serious problems that require more brains and integrity that I think can be found amongst the political class. A few try to do something and they are attacked and smeared mercilessly.

Paul Ryan’s plan is a place to start. Can’t these POS pols sit down and work together to make the plan a bi-partisan plan that will work for all of us? No one will be happy but at least the country won’t go broke trying to pay out more in Medicare and Medicaid that we can afford.

Am I willing to sacrifice some? Since I am just getting by, have never used one damn dollar of Medicare, what the hell is it I’m supposed to give up next?

Tdsears28

For those who care to study history…..does any of the past 2 years remind you of Western Europe of the 1920-1930′s? To me it is strikingly similar…the unemployment, the movements toward socialism, the unrest and the failure of the economic systems. The only thing new is the travesty of the socialistic pressure on the healthcare systems. There is now a strong movement in medicine of ‘risk aversion’ which I would suggest is the driving force in utilization of unnecessary testing in all situations. Judgement is no longer a priority. Avoidance of lawsuits is the priority. Shifting of responsibility is a priority.

Anonymous

I personally find a GREAT DEAL of similarities to the 20s/30s historical trends, and it is incredibly alarming, not just for the economic impact, but for the political impacts–and I’m not talking about Roosevelt. I’m talking about globally, including Europe. Such times give rise to politicians who are demogogues and extremists.

Ferd_Berfle

Such times give rise to politicians who are demogogues and extremists.
======================
There’s one in the WH as we comment.
Anonymous

You’re right, Noogan. Tough times and desperate people make easy answers extremely popular. And the only people who have easy answers are crooks or morons.

FrenchNail

True story: about 2 weeks ago a dear English friend who is at the latest stage of cancer called the emergency services in London to be transfered at the hospital as the pain that day was terrible. The ambulance came and sat for few minutes in front of his appartment building. When he expressed thru the interphone he was too weak to drag himself from his bed to the elevator and to the street, the ambulance personnel responded they were not contracted to enter private property and that if he had not help to reach the front door they would have no choice but to leave soon. AND THEY DID. His son had to leave his work in the middle of the day to carry him downstairs and wait for the ambulance to come again.

EllenD818

Unfortunately, FrenchNail, I am familiar with that thinking in the UK. It isn’t the socialized medicine, it’s the damned narrow minded bureaucratic thinking there. Rules are rules. Can’t break the rules you know. They’d let someone die rather than to break the rules.

Madame deFarge

I was told Tuesday by a business owner in Carmel that Pierre Duex, a French home design business has declared bankruptcy and is out of business. The local store is said to have given no notice to their employees but told them when they showed up for work. Paid them and closed the doors. I am surprised because I thought any company with more than 50 employees would have to adhere to federal plant closing regulations…6 weeks notice, etc. Maybe because they are a French owned company they don’t have to? They have been in Carmel a long time…very scary.
Anonymous

First lady describes toll of job on husband.

“I see the worry creasing his face. I hear the passion and determination
in his voice. ‘You won’t believe what these folks are going through;’
he told me that last night. ‘Michelle, it is not right. We’ve got to fix
this. We have to do more,’” she said during a visit to Boston for a
fund-raiser on behalf of the Democratic National Committee

“Barack always reminds me that we are playing a long game,” she added,
replicating her husband’s call for patience amid the country’s slow
emergence from a recession. “He reminds me, as I said to you, too, that
change is slow. He reminds me that change doesn’t happen all at once,
but that if we keep showing up, if we keep fighting the good fight,
doing what we know is right, then eventually we will get there, because
the truth is we always have in this country. We always have.”

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/06/first-lady-describes-toll-job-husband/47iBKS2khmr50CPho3xSqK/index.html?comments=all#readerComm

Anonymous

GAG ME.

I saw the DICK making his arrogant, adolescent machismo, jive-talkin’ street gangsta speech.

That isn’t the demeanor of a man who is “burdened” with anything but his own ego gratification!

Michelle Obama is a greedy, craven liar, who will stop at nothing to salvage her own shockingly spendthrift lifestyle while this nation sinks into the sewers of history.

To hell with you, Michelle Obama. You make me want to vomit.
Anonymous

GAG ME.

I saw the DICK making his arrogant, adolescent machismo, jive-talkin’ street gangsta speech.

That isn’t the demeanor of a man who is “burdened” with anything but his own ego gratification!

Michelle Obama is a greedy, craven liar, who will stop at nothing to salvage her own shockingly spendthrift lifestyle while this nation sinks into the sewers of history.

To hell with you, Michelle Obama. You make me want to vomit.
Queenie

Hey Michelle..When millions have lost their jobs..the banks stole their homes they can’t feed their kids or pay the college bill …let alone the electric bill or grocery bill…this is no damn game! Unlike you Michelle these people aren’t gallivanting the globe and telling people in Spain and Africa things are going to get better..your better half isn’t telling Americans a damn thing about how he will fix his “GAME” to help them! He is too busy slamming congress and then doing exactly what he accuses Congress of doing!

Michelle we all can’t grow our veggies in our gardens with $1000.00 dollar boots on!
Ferd_Berfle

First lady describes toll of job on husband.
==================
Cry me a fucking river, Moochelle. He wanted the god damn job and can’t shirk his responsibility any longer. Own it, you half wit, and stop the incessant whining.
Anonymous

Poor Barry…it must be so tough having people at your beck and call 24 hrs a day. And I can’t imagine how grueling it is having to travel in that flying luxury hotel, we call Air Force One. Oh, and then there’s only having to snap his fingers and he’s on green for a round of golf no matter where he is. Truthfully, I think it’s probably hard on Barry to even have to tie his own shoes. Give me a frigging break Michelle.
Anonymous

What was he doing wasting time reading letters? Wouldn’t he be better off doing something about the problems instead of reading letters and whining to the press about how the mean old Republicans are causing all the problems. Oh wait..that would probably cut into his golf time.. silly me..expecting a president to actual work at his job! What was I thinking??
Sighhhhhhhhh……

A.Men

The Man-Child-In-Chief will bring America’s economy to her knees by any means necessary!

Anonymous

he is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams

Anonymous

They are desperate, because they know how bad it really is. The alarming thing is they continue to advocate actions that will only make things WORSE!

Enter Bill Clinton with the latest DESPERATE idea:

Let’s write down all those mortgage principals for those poor idiots who couldn’t manage their budgets!

DOA. Dead on Arrival, Bill. You’re not “being helpful” as they say.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/slick-willie-calls-broad-principal-mortgage-writedowns

Docelder

Bill wants to buy votes. Period. Typical big government democrat tactic. Make one group of people think they will get something for nothing from another group… or scare them they will lose something if they don’t vote for big government. This is all these people have to sell or to give. There is no magic without the curtains provided by the media from any of them.
Anonymous

If the banks took these write-downs they’d probably end up with an accurate figure for their current net worth. Can’t have that. Accounting has become a joke.

Anonymous

They are desperate, because they know how bad it really is. The alarming thing is they continue to advocate actions that will only make things WORSE!

Enter Bill Clinton with the latest DESPERATE idea:

Let’s write down all those mortgage principals for those poor idiots who couldn’t manage their budgets!

DOA. Dead on Arrival, Bill. You’re not “being helpful” as they say.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/slick-willie-calls-broad-principal-mortgage-writedowns
Anonymous

For months now, I’ve been visiting the dailyjobcuts.com site, which details as much as possible the layoffs which continue around the country. When you read this site every day, or every few days, you get the real picture about jobs.

This is a depression, not a recession. I’ve been saying this for two years now, and so far, I have seen nothing to indicate to me that it’s getting better. They talk around it all the time, even on Lou Dobbs last night he let an economics guest speculate that the housing market has hit bottom, even as he wondered aloud about the fact that in all other recessions, housing has led the way back but that isn’t happening this time!!!! It is annoying in the extreme. It’s practically unethical if you ask me. They are engaging in “management of perspective economics,” or as Jim Sinclair [jsmineset.com] calls it–M.O.P.E. The U-6 number on unemployment is right around 16-17%. So, there isn’t a “recovery.”

Check this site every day or so and you can see what’s going on:

http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dawn-Elle/100000171102021 Dawn Elle

almost every other home around here is being sold, abandoned or foreclosed (we are renting fortunately) but it’s a sad state we are in Larry for sure!! I’m not sure we can WAIT until Nov 2012 (or JAN 2013 really) grrrr damn fool obots

Anonymous

Damn Fool Obots. Yes, very true. But it’s not just Obots. There are decades and dozens of reasons for our current disaster, it’s not just the last 2 years. Both parties were involved, and it will take utter devastation to create the will to save this country from its current course. Obama’s the worst thing that could have happened to us at this point, because he is the opposite of what we needed, but so was G.W. Bush, and for all of his accolades about “budget surpluses” so was Bill Clinton, who appointed the very people who created the conditions for what we’re experiencing now. This game isn’t going to play out overnight; this is a very long, sure, slide into fiscal disaster. Each piece of the story–each individual job loss, or home loss, or bankruptcy, or homeless tale is just a blip on the radar of history. That is calamity for each one, but universally, we’re all involved in this calamity.

Here’s a good infographic of how we got here:

http://www.econmatters.com/2011/06/tracing-americas-too-big-to-fail-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EconForecastFullFeed+%28EconMatters+Full+Content%29

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dawn-Elle/100000171102021 Dawn Elle

Bush NEVER spoke about us the way Barry does! I could not stand either BUSH but compared to this INSULT to HUMANITY and all that he brings with him! holder, geitner,etc and of course he needs a good LONG vacation to recover from his last vacation now at Camp D. What a HUGE POS! he’s like the Bushs on Crack on Steroids!!!
Anonymous

Clinton allowed the repeal of Glass-Steagall which made the banks into casinos. Bush listened to Cheney who said “Deficits don’t matter”. Plenty of blame to go around.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MCA6QIPPR3EXRQRYL3MVYJSKLQ Joe

The repeal of Glass-Steagall, and the passing of Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as the recent Dodd-Frank bills were tantamount to incest and rape for the average investor. It is ALL special interest in disguise.

As for rising medical AND health insurance costs, the roots of these problems go back to the passing of HIPAA. The costs of compliance were enormous – just ask your local little dentist office. There was really little benefit to the population at large. It was probably the most expensive “special interest” legislation EVER passed.

elaine

noogan, Wow! What a trip down memory lane. Is there anyone who doesn’t conclude this was all intentional?

Frenchnail

I just got an investment property in a bidding war in super prime location in Florida for less than 1/3 of what it last sold in 2005. I got it not at construction costs, but at material costs. I will be moving in one of the appartments. Never been better located for so cheap….That said, I am under no illusions that I will not see any real appreciation on this investment for years may be decades.

A disaster of such proportion as the real estate disaster will take a generation to recover from. Yeh…. Damn fool obots

Anonymous

According to the Department of Labor, the unemployment rate rose in 210 metro areas during the month of May, and it only declined in 131 metro areas.Consumer confidence in this country has hit a seven-month low, and average Americans are becoming increasingly anxious about the state of the economy.

Despite the talk about ending QE2:

The Federal Reserve has announced that it is going to continue to purchase U.S. government debt using the proceeds from maturing debt that it already owns. It is being projected that the Federal Reserve will purchase 300 billion dollars in U.S. government debt over the next 12 months using this method.

This isn’t being called “quantitative easing”, but that is essentially what it is. In fact, one CNN article is calling it “QE2.5″….
QE2 is just about done. But the Federal Reserve will still be buying massive amounts of long-term Treasuries.In fact, the Fed’s purchases over the next year will likely be at least $300 billion. That’s half the size of QE2 — even if QE3 never takes place.

More here: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/shell-game

And, “who could have anticipated”?!

The Fed has discovered that it can’t unwind its balance sheet. What now, Ben?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fed-halts-sales-toxic-aig-sludge-upon-realization-any-balance-sheet-unwind-crashes-market

Anonymous

Yes, Noogan, without some engine driving a recovery the Fed can only roll over its purchase of government debt and tread water.

er1

From what I am reading it seems that the US is verging on bankruptcy. Can you imagine what that would mean to other countries if it happened, because so many of them have economic ties with the US. Even though Australia (where I live) is enjoying a strong economy at the moment because of China’s need for its minerals, if the US economy fails it too will be affected. The aura that surrounded Obama (yes, even in OZ) has a way to go before it is deminished here. I haven’t met anyone yet who views Obama in a negative light, even conservatives that I know think of him favourably.

Ferd_Berfle

Just how strong is the Kool-Aid down there, er1?

Anonymous

When you’re upside down, the blood tends to rush to your head and you get a bit giddy . . .

Ferd_Berfle

I take your point. .

I think I’d rather be giddy right now. There’s a lot of shenanigans in need of a broom going on down here that I will relate later, after the dust settles. Bureaucracies. Somebody shoot me, please.

Madame deFarge

I meet a lot of Aussie tourists and I hear that they are grateful for their conservative government and that they don’t have a Buh-rock in office in their country; also for our dollar losing value. One person said “If you have frequent flyer miles, you have no excuse not to come to the US to shop because the Australian dollar goes so far here.”

However, if we keep losing stores, they won’t have any reason whatsoever to come here for anything…maybe buy up the country.

Another high end store has declared bankruptcy and closed.
Pierre Deux, now Pacific Tweed (took Saks place for quality men and women’s clothing when they closed our local store 6 years ago). When I went by there walking Tallulah a week or so ago, I saw the doors were closed but I thought maybe they were doing inventory, renovating…anything other than gone.

Anonymous

Conservative governments in Australia and Canada aren’t the same as what conservative means here.

Anonymous

However you want to define it, they don’t want an Obama there.

er1

You are quite right about Aussies taking advantage of a low US dollar. Many of my friends are now buying US products (especially clothing and books) online because the exchange rate is so good for Aussies. Surely that has to be good for US manufacturers. I have even heard that many Aussie investors are considering taking advantage of the depressed US housing market and buying up properties there.

Ferd_Berfle

Thanks for the essay, LJ. Hell, I get depressed just reading this but I trust your numbers before I would trust anything coming out of the government at this point. There is an approximate 20% cut in contractor workers occurring up the road in Oak Ridge with the new ETTP Contract. Of course, DOE isn’t losing any bureaucrats because they need a baker’s dozen watching each worker. It’s the damnedest thing. And of course the changeover from the incumbent contractor to the new one costs money that could have been better used performing additional (and needed) cleanup.
Anonymous

The lenders of the big companies, still stung by the mortgage debacle of 2007-08, are leery of making more loans.
_______________________________________________________

I agree completely Larry that the unemployment numbers are bogus. But it’s worse than what you say (above)

The Banks aren’t making loans, not because they are leery but because they CAN’T. They are trying to maintain the fiction that they are conducting business as usual but they had to get the accounting rules changed to maintain this fiction. One of the reasons no one in the government is going after the banks at the moment is because they know that the big banks posted net worth is a fictional house of cards and they don’t want to pull out one at the bottom that collapses the whole thing.

Right now I am dealing with two start-ups. One is a traditional American spunky individuals company, and the other is a London based India ownership expanding into this area. That has thrown me into dealing with Commercial Real Estate and those guys don’t know what hit them. They look like deer in the headlights. Their mortgages are only 5 years and they are constantly re-financing. Except the banks aren’t interested now and, like the home foreclosures, the value of the properties has plunged. The only way to exist now is to be flexible and nimble and all these big guys are stuck in the past so it is only going to get worse for them and the country.

Times have changed. The financial climate has changed and, like the companies that started in the depression, only the smart and innovative will survive.
Guest

Good news but manufacturing is less than 14% of the economy.. We need growth in the dominant sectors which is not happening.Manufacturing activity grew faster in JuneManufacturing activity recovered somewhat in June from a sharp slowdown in May, a private trade group said Friday. There
were more new orders for goods and employment picked up last month. The
Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing
executives, said that its index of manufacturing activity rose to 55.3
in June from 53.5 in May, the slowest growth in 20 months.A reading above 50 indicates that the manufacturing sector is expanding.http://hosted2.ap.org/txdam/a227c868771a4f9a96b85fd8199d46b3/Article_2011-07-01-Economy-Manufacturing/id-2bf679f1b66e4f88805d75879049d68d
Anonymous

Larry, many thanks for this thread. All our small business owners are heroes and this thread highlights that.
Anonymous

Larry, does this mean that Obama really is a dick when it comes to economic leadership?
Anonymous

Larry, does this mean that Obama really is a dick when it comes to economic leadership?
Anonymous

Ok I know some of the illegals are heading back home due to the unemployment rates…But most stay on cause they can get social services like hospital, food, welfare and etc.
Yet even with the few illegals leaving who were probably not counted in the unemployment rolls that does not add up to 8 million…

Larry that is a very good question where did the 8 million unemployed go..

Maybe they are homeless and are no longer counted. I think I remember hearing someplace that the % of Americans homeless has got up a huge percentage in the last couple of years. Some say that the percentage that the homeless has risen is a double digit percentage.
Maybe they are somehow including all the people being employed in jobs that American companies are outsourcing to other countries.
The outsourcing that %$#% me off the most is the out sourcing of Customer Service jobs for companies that have over 3/4ths of their business in the US…
Have you ever tried getting an answer to a question or much less understand some of these guys in these out of the country Customer Service Departments.
Twice I have gotten reps with accents so heavy that there was no way to understand a word they were saying.
Then there was the two reps who after asking the same question numerous ways and times, kept giving me an answer that had nothing to do with my question.
I have told Sears, which uses Obama’s bailed out Citibank, that I will no longer be using their credit card due to their outsourcing. I have told Dish that this was one of the reasons I dropped their service.
Maybe if more Americans did this we could get some of our jobs back here.

Anonymous

I dealt with Dish through instant chat. No way of knowing where they were but after I told them plainly that I was leaving unless they resolved it they found someone to agree with what I was asking for (a new receiver and remote).

Anonymous

With about a 150-200 investment you can have it all about 75% cheaper…I have a blue ray for Hulu and Net flex…then I have a device that streams shows to my tv from PC so I dont need them…My tv picks up 2 local stations..so Oh well..
Just havent found a way to stream Fox that was my big sacrifice I guess.
But the point is that Dish is mostly supported by people in the US. Yet from what I am understanding DISH has over 50% of its CS reps in other countries outside of US.

Anonymous

Well, k, I’m investigating an aerial for local HD now that it seems to work connected to my curtain rod
Anonymous

EllenD if it works tell me …might be worth the extra investment if it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg..
Overall I do think that the price of TV has gotten a bit our of hand..
Yet I still feel that paying the price when they don’t even use the money they get from us to hire people from within our country is even more outrageous.

Daisy Crabby Mae

When I, who speaks Spanish fluently, cannot understand the rep with the heavy Spanish accent speaking Spanish, or any other heavy whatever accent, then I demand their boss, and tell them that unless they speak English, I cannot understand. Then it’s drop the business, if I have a choice.

Anonymous

right on Larry and no end in sight
Fire 0bama

Forget the media, that outfit has been an utter joke for the last three years and they show no signs of having any credibility in the future. The media is as inept as 0bama and 0bama is the media’s creation.

And let’s give 0bama full credit for this disasterous economy. With the worthless media’s full backing, this piece of dog dirt has done nothing but blame George Bush for his own shortcomings.

Meanwhile, while others struggle in 0bama’s mess, 0bama does nothing but have the time of his life flying around in his jet and playing golf.

Let’s not give the dumbass people in this country a pass either, especially the guilty whites, racist blacks, and racist Mexicans who crawled on their hands and knees to vote for the marxist.
Anonymous

Larry,

I know you view yourself as an amateur economist, but this analysis is ridiculous.

Your larger point is correct. At 9% unemployment it is tough out there. No doubt. The GOP really did a number on the U.S. economy and the hole is very deep.

I am not sure why you would be adding the difference in the “covered employment” number between 2008 and 2011 or that 8 million to the unemployed number. That makes no sense. You are double counting.

The 8 million difference just represents the 8 million who lost their jobs since 2008. The are no longer employed and do not show up in the numbers of workers that are “covered” by unemployment benefits. That 8 million job loss number has been reported on in the press continueously for the last two years.

The more accurate numbers are that there are currently 13.9 million unemployed and a labor force that is 153.7 million. That is 9.1% unemployment.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

Anonymous

And you keep beating that dead horse about the GOP. The dems played an integral part in all the legislation passed by Congress. Take off those rose-colored glasses and look real hard and you will see the dems were the majority for four years (2 with bush, 2 with obama) during the downshift of the economy. Sane people know that unemployment is really about double what the msm puts out as facts. That is all….you may go back to sticking your head in the sand.

“Say What You Will…it Feels So Good”

Rrtyvt

Bullshit! The President leads. It was Bush’s watch. He drives the bus. He was there during the inflation of the housing bubble, which occured between 2002 and 2007 when all those subprime mortgages were put in place and Wall Street went crazy with financial derivatives. Bush also completely blew-up the budget. This is a GOP and Bush recession. No doubt about it. The two years that the Dems had the house, when they only controlled 1/3 of government they could get absolutely nothing done. Bush vetoed or threatened to veto everything they proposed. The crash in housing bubble took years to build during the Bush era. By the time the Dems took the House the wheels were already set in motion to bring the economy down. Obama was handed an economy that was falling off a cliff. The GOP’s terrible economic policies destroyed this country economically. Bush had the worst jobs record of any modern President. He fiscally mismanaged the country taking the deficit and debt to where it is today and wasted resources and lives on two stupid wars.

Anonymous

Rightbackatcha…..when has obama lead?? And, this is where I will end it as it is evident that you will never see the light and will continue to point the finger of blame. There is never any reasoning with obamarrhoids…..

“Say What You Will…It Feels So Good”
Rrtyvt

Psstt,

As per you comment below.

Actully Obama has stopped the country from falling off the economic cliff. He has stopped the bleeding in job losses. When Obama took over we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. Now we have averaged gaining about 200,000 jobs a month, which is a net swing of about 1 million jobs a month. He has also got the economy growing again. GDP was declining at nearly 5% a year when Obama took over, now it is growing at about 2-3% a year. He stabilized the financial system, etc. etc.

I would say Obama has done a remarkable job at turning this economy around. It is the GOP that are attempting to turpedo this economy. They have done nothing, but attempt to destroy the progress we have made. This is exactly what they are attempting to do with the debt ceiling vote. They are forcing the U.S. government to default on its debt.

If you can provide a case to say that Obama has has you say “continued to take America over the cliff.” I would love to hear it.

Anonymous

Imagine my surprise…chagrined. Shaken not stired. I come back from a deep offline state, to hear the O say “…so it doesn’t reach a Constitutional question….”

Now, I admit to being ignorant of what has been occuring the matrix, but I could not help be puzzeled why, when a person takes the oath of Office, why is it that one would not START from the US Constitution, when they swore a prime obligation to it.

Hells bells if one president and wants to evade the controlling document.

Anywho, May all here at NQ have a wonderful 4th, with family and friends.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4NUONATZWPLGB3WZHAYVVSFXAQ KeepingItReal

Because the government tells them what they can and cannot print.
Raul V Rola

Spot on! You’re the best! Expose the truth so the people can get back the role of good government away from the facists elites, mafia-style bankers, etc. Watch Bill Still’s “The Secret of The Wizard of Oz.” It’s about a debt-free credit system. Then, combine this with Lyndon Larouche’s economic policies based on a scientific and physical aggregates approach. Then the world will be heading in the right direction.