Debt

Debt Cancer: More Than 80 Percent Of American Adults Owe Somebody Else Money

February 22, 2018 By Sheep Media

How long can our debt levels keep growing much, much faster than the overall economy?

We haven’t had a year of 3 percent growth for the U.S. economy since the middle of the Bush administration, but we keep borrowing money as if there is no tomorrow.

Much of the focus has been on the exploding debt of the federal government, and that is definitely something I plan to address once I get to Washington. But on an individual level, U.S. consumers have been extremely irresponsible as well. In fact, one new survey has found that more than 80 percent of all American adults are currently in debt…

It’s no secret that America is a nation that runs on debt, but it may surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults owe money in some way, shape, or form. According to new data from Comet, here’s how many Americans have debt at present:

80.9% of Baby Boomers

79.9% of Gen Xers

81.5% of Millennials

For most of us, it starts very early. We were told that going into debt to get a college education would not be a problem because we would be able to pay those loans off with the good jobs we would get after graduation.

Unfortunately, those good jobs never really materialized for many of us, and now millions of former college students are absolutely drowning in debt…

A study released Friday by the Brookings Institution finds that most borrowers who left school owing at least $50,000 in student loans in 2010 had failed to pay down any of their debt four years later. Instead, their balances had on average risen by 5% as interest accrued on their debt.

As of 2014 there were about 5 million borrowers with such large loan balances, out of 40 million Americans total with student debt. Large-balance borrowers represented 17% of student borrowers leaving college or grad school in 2014, up from 2% of all borrowers in 1990 after adjusting for inflation. Large-balance borrowers now owe 58% of the nation’s $1.4 trillion in outstanding student debt.

In addition to owing more than a trillion dollars on student loans, Americans are also now carrying more than a trillion dollars of auto loan debt and more than a trillion dollars of credit card debt.

Corporations have been incredibly irresponsible as well. Corporate debt has doubled since the last financial crisis, and corporate bankruptcies have been rising steadily in recent years. All it would take for the dominoes to really start falling is some sort of a major economic downturn.

Local, state and federal government debt levels are all at record highs as well. It is now being projected that our national debt will hit 30 trillion dollars by 2028, and those projections are probably too optimistic.

My guess is that we will almost certainly hit the 30 trillion dollar mark far sooner than that.

We can’t keep doing this to ourselves. Our incessant greed is literally destroying the future, but anyone that tries to warn about the collective insanity that has descended upon our society is mocked and ridiculed.

Let me ask you a question.

Would you willingly choose to give yourself cancer?

Of course not, but that is essentially what we are doing to ourselves as a society.

Debt is economic cancer, and as Lance Roberts has pointed out, if we continue to allow debt levels to grow like this eventually it will kill our entire economy…

Debt is, by its very nature, a cancer on economic growth. As debt levels rise it consumes more capital by diverting it from productive investments into debt service. As debt levels spread through the system it consumes greater amounts of capital until it eventually kills the host.

Debt is addictive, because it does boost our standard of living in the short-term. It is so easy to keep going back for one more “hit”, but every time we do it just makes our long-term crisis even worse.

Most people out there seem to think that our economic problems have been “solved”, but that is not true at all.

The truth is that our long-term problems just continue to grow with each passing day, and that is one of the reasons why I am so determined to go to Washington. We are at such a critical juncture right now, and if something is not done the prognosis is extremely negative.

If we stay on this current path, the very best that we can hope for is a “soft landing” and a greatly reduced standard of living for future generations of Americans. Here is more from Lance Roberts…

The processes that fueled the economic growth over the last 30 years are now beginning to run in reverse, and when combined with the demographic shifts in the U.S., the impact could be far more immediate and prolonged than the media, economists, and analysts are currently expecting. Sacrifices will have to be made, the economy will drag on at subpar rates of growth, individuals will be working far longer into their retirement years and the next generation of Americans will lead a far different life than what the currently retiring generation enjoyed.

It is simply a function of the math.

I am sorry for not writing more lately. I have been working night and day to get ready for May 15th. With Donald Trump in the White House, this is our opportunity to take our government back. If we miss this window, we may never have this sort of opportunity ever again.

America is drowning in debt, but of course our problems go far beyond that. Our economic, political, cultural and spiritual problems go very deep, and we desperately need to change course as a nation.

Unfortunately, most of the population is in a deep state of sleep, and my hope is that we can wake them up while there is still time to turn things around.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Source: The Economic Collapse

We Had BETTER Unite Against THIS – and QUICK!! Wait For it…..

October 15, 2017 By Sheep Media

“Real criminals are getting away with REAL crimes that affect us all in a VERY profound way…EVERY DAY! Why don’t we unite against THIS?!!! Why are we so busy bickering among ourselves?

We need to get our act together and start focusing on our real enemy, or we’re all toast!

If you’re anything like me, I’m sure your thoughts were just as preoccupied trying to wade through the deception of what happened in Las Vegas and the myriad of other things that have been going on at home and abroad.

My entry joke was a way for me to kind of reset a little. Humor works like a medicine. Being serious and concerned all the time can tend to wear a person down.

Thanks for giving me some room to do that…my intent was to brighten your day for a couple seconds, not to offend. Peace.” – Brian Young, Creator of HighImpactFlix on YouTube

Via HighImpactFlix:

State Deals Blow to Federal Reserve, House Passes Bill To Treat Silver and Gold as Money

February 25, 2017 By Sheep Media

This article by Justin Gardner was originally published by thefreethoughtproject.com.

As central economic planners at the Federal Reserve continue their vision of “prosperity” through crushing debt and dollar devaluation, some states are fighting back. The Arizona House took a major step toward sound money by passing a bill to eliminate penalties in the form of taxes on gold and silver specie.

The move would be an important step toward currency competition and help undermine the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Tucson) introduced House Bill 2014 (HB2014) on Jan. 9. The legislation would eliminate state capital gains taxes on income “derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender.” The bill defines legal tender as “a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues.” “Specie” means coins having precious metal content.

In effect, passage of the bill would “legalize the Constitution” by treating gold and silver specie as money.

HB2014 passed the full House by a 35-24 vote.”

Capital gains tax on gold and silver is an insidious disincentive based on intentional dollar devaluation. When the dollar’s purchasing power goes down, the metals’ nominal dollar value goes up, triggering a “gain” which is taxed.

“The U.S. Mint is charged with protecting the value of money, but the Federal Reserve creates nothing but debt. Yet Congress authorized a tax when making the exchange of precious metals for dollars. It’s illegal and they know it, this bill is an effort by one state to protect the people from such confiscation,” said Representative Finchem.

The Arizona bill would allow people to “deduct the amount of any net capital gain derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender or specie (gold and silver coins) from their gross income on their state income tax.” The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Finchem argues that any perceived capital gain from gold and silver is not actually a gain, but a protection against losing money in the inflationary federal reserve system.

“Finchem’s theory of economics and currency, however, is that people buy gold coins not to make money but to keep from losing it in what he says is a flawed federal reserve system where federal reserve notes — the bills we carry in our wallets — actually lose value.

“Let’s say it takes 1,200 of them to buy a U.S. Mint gold coin today, but tomorrow it takes 1,300 of those federal reserve notes,” he explained.

From Finchem’s perspective — and that of House members who gave his measure preliminary approval this past week — selling that coin for $100 more is not a profit.

“You’ve actually experienced a loss,” he said.

If more states can manage to remove punishments such as unjust taxation on gold and silver “gains,” currency competition could return, bringing us toward sound money and away from fiat currency that brings unchecked debt and contributes to financial disasters.

“This isn’t going to end the fed’s monetary monopoly overnight, but it sets the foundation and opens the door for more market activity by the people,” said Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center. “This is an important part of the overall strategy, and activists in Arizona should continue working to get both bills passed.”

Forces at the state and federal level will be working to kill the Arizona bill in order to preserve the Fed’s monopoly on money and the influx of unjust taxes into state coffers. Opponents of the bill are fear-mongering about money traders coming into Arizona and making “a lot of money” without giving their “fair share” in taxes to the state. In 2013, then-governor Jan Brewer vetoed a similar bill on such grounds.

Other states have staked their position too. Utah and Oklahoma have declared gold and silver legal tender in their state, free from any taxation. Such moves are critical in dispensing with the idea that gold and silver are merely investments and speculation.

Several other rules exist around the country that provide further disincentive for sound money through specie. As the Tenth Amendment Center points out, dealers who buy gold and silver from the public are required to collect personal information from sellers and upload this information daily into law enforcement databases. Some dealers are barred from selling gold and silver to anyone for seven days, forcing them to tie up large amounts of capital and absorb market risk.

Such rules rig the system in favor of the Fed’s monopoly on money and create the perception that gold and silver are nothing more than commodity investments.

According to William Greene, professor of economics at New York University:

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Oh, but they do matter Mr. Greenspan….they most certainly do.

The True Reason behind the 40-Hour Work Week and Why We Are Economic Slaves

December 10, 2015 By Sheep Media

Anon HQ| Economic slavery, or wage slavery, refers to one’s total and immediate dependence on wages to survive. Although people throughout history have had to work to get by, we now live in a culture where we are led to believe we have economic freedom, when unbeknownst to most citizens, we are in fact bound in servitude.

We automatically accept a 40-hour workweek with meager hourly pay as normal, even though many work overtime and still struggle to survive. There are also those who make enough to live comfortably but are unable to request less hours—you either work 40 hours a week, or you don’t get to work at all. We submit when told what to wear, when we have to arrive and depart, when we’re allowed to eat, and even when we’re allowed to use the restroom. How is it we have come to allow this?

The 40-hour-work week came about during the Industrial Revolution in Britain when at one point workers were putting in 10 to 16 hour days and began to protest. Working situations for Americans began to worsen as well, and by 1836, labor movement publications were also calling for a 40-hour workweek. Citizens in both situations were so overworked, an eight-hour day was easily accepted. This system is unnecessary now, if it ever was, but we still accept it due to the effects of our capitalist society.

There are many contributing factors that have led to our current economic system and continued acceptance of the 40-hour workweek, three major factors being consumerism, inflation, and debt. First, it’s important to understand exactly what inflation is, how it works, and how it leads to debt.

Inflation:

To put inflation simply, let’s say the U.S. government needs money for whatever war they’ve decided to wage this year. They ask the Federal Reserve for a loan, and the Fed agrees to buy bonds (sort of like IOU’s) from the government in the amount of the requested loan. The U.S. government then prints up a bunch of pieces of paper that say “Treasury Bond” while at the same time, the Federal Reserve prints up a bunch of little pieces of paper that we know as money. A trade is made between the government and the Federal Reserve—the bonds for the money—and the U.S. government directly deposits this newly printed money in a different bank, which in turn, takes its cut in fees and interest. Voilà, money has been created out of thin air.

Although this process takes place electronically now (only 3% of money is in physical form, the other 97% exists in computers) the problem either way is that it depletes the worth of the dollar. At one point in time, currency was worth gold. That was what gave money its value, but now the value of money is trusted to the Federal Reserve who has no moral objections to reducing that value by printing more money (basically legal counterfeit). For the cost of printing, the Federal Reserve creates money that the U.S. government has promised to pay back—money that didn’t even exist in the first place.

It works like this with private bank loans to citizens as well. Each time a transaction of this sort happens, it reduces the value of actual currency, and thus we have inflation. One dollar in 1913 required $21.60 in 2007 to match its value. That’s a 96% devaluation since the Federal Reserve came into existence. How does this lead to economic slavery? By the debt inflation has caused.

Debt:

Since money is created through loans, that means it’s created through debt. Money equals debt, and debt equals money. So the more money there is, the more debt there is, and vice versa. What this means is, if somehow the government and every citizen in debt were able to pay back those loans, there would not be a single dollar in circulation.

Interest plays an important role in this equation as well. When you take out a loan and the bank gives you money that technically doesn’t exist, they also expect you to pay additional interest with it. If the money loaned is coming from the Federal Reserve, where is the money for the interest supposed to come from?

The answer is nowhere.

That means no matter what, the nation will never be able to get out of debt, and that is exactly the purpose of this meticulously orchestrated system. Like a toss of the coin, somebody somewhere will always go bankrupt to make up for the interest that is being paid with even more debt. And so, as the nation sinks further in the hole while the cost of living increases, surviving in the economy becomes more difficult. This desperation to survive, coupled with the fact that we were born into this system, is ultimately what causes us to accept the 40-hour workweek without a moment’s thought.

So now we understand the element that forces us to accept our predicament, but how does the 40-hour workweek benefit banks and corporations? After all, studies show that the average office worker gets less than three hours worth of work done in an 8-hour work shift, and according to reports, US corporate profits are soaring while wages are declining. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that productivity has increased at a 2.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, while hourly pay only increased 1.3 percent in the third quarter, and this has been the basic pattern for some time—it adds up after a while. Corporate profits are at their highest level in at least 85 years, so why aren’t we being paid more, working less, and providing additional jobs to those who need them? This brings us to consumerism.

Consumerism:

Consumerism is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: the belief that it is good for people to spend a lot of money on goods and services. At one point in time this belief may have rang true, but with the current capitalist system and cost of living, consumerism has begun to have negative effects on our society, especially when you take inflation and the increasing debt into consideration. The more we buy, the more we feed the corporations and banks who are in turn pushing us into economic slavery.

Since the 1800’s and the Industrial Revolution, “consumers” have been spending increasing amounts of money on frivolous purchases. This over-indulgence has been nurtured and fed by the corporations using commercialism (the attitude or actions of people who are influenced too strongly by the desire to earn money or buy goods rather than by other values—Merriam-Webster) as a tool. Psychological insinuations have been planted into society’s subconscious for generations through consumer advertisements which have ultimately led to certain habits and beliefs. Some examples are:

“Buy now pay later” – The General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) started this mindset when it was established in 1919 and began to promote giving loans to people who bought cars. Americans eventually started to use the new credit plans on just about everything.

“Keeping up with the Joneses” – Commonly thought to be the beginning of the American consumer culture, this mindset began when GM introduced the yearly automobile model change. People wanted to have the latest model each year, and soon this idea spread out. Most of us, whether we want to admit it or not, are familiar with this mentality. Rather than keeping our old toaster that works perfectly fine, we want the new retro-style stainless steel model because it looks swanky sitting on our kitchen counter.

“1929-1945 Depression and War” – Soon after The Depression came WWII, during which advertisers promised products to be available when there was peace. As a result, customers (consumers) were eager to take up spending immediately after the war was over.

“Peace” – When the war ended, consumer optimism and economic growth accompanied victory.

“Charge it!” – Credit cards were first promoted through the Diners Club—a charge card company that services affluent and well-travelled individuals from around the world. Other companies followed suit and started advertising credit cards as a “time-saving device” rather than a way to spend money that wasn’t actually there.

“Bigger is better” – During the 1970’s, companies began to send credit cards out by the masses to those who had not requested them. While Americans had already been developing the idea that “bigger is better”, the credit card boom ended up exploiting that idea. Now people had the means to obtain extravagant items they couldn’t before, even though it put many in colossal debt. Congress soon had to regulate the credit card boom, and ban sending cards to those who never requested them in the first place.

Companies in all kinds of industries hold a huge stake in the public’s penchant to be careless with their money, and they encourage this habit of casual or non-essential spending when they can. For example, in the documentary The Corporation, a marketing psychologist discussed a method she used to increase sales that involved encouraging children to nag their parents to buy toys. Studies showed that 20% to 40% of purchases of this sort resulted after children nagged their parents.

“You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying, your products. It’s a game.” Lucy Hughes, co-creator of “The Nag Factor”.

The 40-hour workweek is the ultimate tool for corporations to sustain this culture of over-indulgent spending. Under our current working conditions, people are forced to build a life in the evenings and their days-off. We find ourselves more inclined to spend heavily on entertainment and conveniences because we rarely have any free time. When we do have time to ourselves, it’s usually fleeting, and we eventually find ourselves neglecting those activities which are free—walking, exercising, reading, meditating, sports, hobbies, etc.—because they take too much time.

While having extra money comes at the sacrifice of personal time for some, for others they not only are robbed of their personal freedom, but they struggle to make ends meet on top of it. The “perfect” consumer works full-time, earns a fair amount of money, indulges during their free time, and somehow just makes it by each month. However, even those who don’t earn fair wages sometimes find themselves wasting small increments of money on unnecessary items for the wrong reasons—a cup of Starbucks here, a McDonald’s cheeseburger there, and those really cool fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view of your 1993 Honda Civic.

Any way you look at it, we have become an unhappy, mindless, over-worked society. We buy silly items for a few moments of happiness before getting bored and moving on. We feel a need to keep up with fads, or to fulfill our childhood vision of what adulthood would be like. We hide our insecurities, avoid issues, and replace psychological needs with material items. By keeping society’s free time scarce, people will pay more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy.

Keeping America unhealthy has become extremely profitable for big-business, and so far their efforts have paid-off beautifully. Our society has been transformed into an industry fueled by economic slavery, and consumerism is a key factor in this corrupt system—one the people have direct influence over. Consumers are the only ones who can stop consuming.

Most Sheeple Can’t Imagine Their Economic Hell Is Coming & Here’s Why!

November 7, 2014 By Sheep Media

Michael Snyder| The idea that the United States is on the brink of a horrifying economic crash is absolutely inconceivable to most Americans. After all, the economy has been relatively stable for quite a few years and the stock market continues to surge to new heights.

Last Friday, the Dow and the S&P 500 both closed at brand new all-time record highs. For the year, the S&P 500 is now up 9 percent and the Nasdaq is now up close to 11 percent. And American consumers are getting ready to spend more than 600 billion dollars this Christmas season. That is an amount of money that is larger than the entire economy of Sweden.

So how in the world can anyone be talking about economic collapse?

Yes, many will concede, we had a few bumps in the road back in 2008, but things have pretty much gotten back to normal since then, right?

Why be concerned about economic collapse when there is so much stability all around us?

Unfortunately, this brief period of stability that we have been enjoying is just an illusion.

The fundamental problems that caused the financial crisis of 2008 have not been fixed. In fact, most of our long-term economic problems have gotten even worse.

But most Americans have such short attention spans these days. In a world where we are accustomed to getting everything instantly, news cycles only last for 48 hours and 2008 might as well be an eternity ago.

In the United States today, our entire economic system is based on debt.

Without debt, very little economic activity happens. We need mortgages to buy our homes, we need auto loans to buy our vehicles and we need our credit cards to do our shopping during the holiday season.

So where does all of that debt come from?

It comes from the banks.

In particular, the “too big to fail banks” are the heart of this debt-based system.

Do you have a mortgage, an auto loan or a credit card from one of these “too big to fail” institutions? A very large percentage of the people that will read this article do.

And a lot of people might not like to hear this, but without those banks we essentially do not have an economy.

When Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, it almost resulted in the meltdown of our entire system. The stock market collapsed and we experienced an absolutely wicked credit crunch.

Unfortunately, that was just a small preview of what is coming.

Even though a few prominent “experts” such as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have declared that the “too big to fail” problem is “over”, the truth is that it is now a bigger crisis than ever before.

Compared to five years ago, the four largest banks in the country are now almost 40 percent larger. The following numbers come from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times…

Just before the financial crisis hit, Wells Fargo & Co. had $609 billion in assets. Now it has $1.4 trillion. Bank of America Corp. had $1.7 trillion in assets. That’s up to $2.1 trillion.

And the assets of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation’s biggest bank, have ballooned to $2.4 trillion from $1.8 trillion.

At the same time that those banks have been getting bigger, 1,400 smaller banks have completely disappeared from the banking industry.

That means that we are now more dependent on these gigantic banks than ever.

At this point, the five largest banks account for 42 percent of all loans in the United States, and the six largest banks account for 67 percent of all assets in our financial system.

If someone came along and zapped those banks out of existence, our economy would totally collapse overnight.

So the health of this handful of immensely powerful banking institutions is absolutely critical to our economy.

Unfortunately, these banks have become deeply addicted to gambling.

Have you ever known people that allowed their lives to be destroyed by addictions that they could never shake?

Well, that is what is happening to these banks. They have transformed Wall Street into the largest casino in the history of the world. Most of the time, their bets pay off and they make lots of money.

But as we saw back in 2008, when they miscalculate things can fall apart very rapidly.

The bets that I am most concerned about are known as “derivatives“. In essence, they are bets about what will or will not happen in the future. The big banks use very sophisticated algorithms that are supposed to help them be on the winning side of these bets the vast majority of the time, but these algorithms are not perfect. The reason these algorithms are not perfect is because they are based on assumptions, and those assumptions come from people. They might be really smart people, but they are still just people.

If things stay fairly stable like they have the past few years, the algorithms tend to work very well.

But if there is a “black swan event” such as a major stock market crash, a collapse of European or Asian banks, a historic shift in interest rates, an Ebola pandemic, a horrific natural disaster or a massive EMP blast is unleashed by the sun, everything can be suddenly thrown out of balance.

Acrobat Nik Wallenda has been making headlines all over the world for crossing vast distances on a high-wire without a safety net. Well, that is essentially what our “too big to fail” banks are doing every single day.

With each passing year, these banks have become even more reckless, and so far there have not been any serious consequences.

But without a doubt, someday there will be.

What would you say about a bookie that took $200,000 in bets but that only had $10,000 to cover those bets?

You would certainly call that bookie a fool.

But that is what our big banks are doing.

Right now, JPMorgan Chase has more than 67 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it only has 2.5 trillion dollars in assets.

Right now, Citibank has nearly 60 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it only has 1.9 trillion dollars in assets.

Right now, Goldman Sachs has more than 54 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it has less than a trillion dollars in assets.

Right now, Bank of America has more than 54 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it only has 2.2 trillion dollars in assets.

Right now, Morgan Stanley has more than 44 trillion dollars in exposure to derivatives but it has less than a trillion dollars in assets.

Most people have absolutely no idea how incredibly vulnerable our financial system really is.

The truth is that these “too big to fail” banks could collapse at any time.

And when they fail, our economy will fail too.

So let us hope and pray that this brief period of false stability lasts for as long as possible.

Because when it ends, all hell is going to break loose.

19 Reasons Why You Can Laugh When Anyone Tells You That The Economy Is In Good Shape

June 11, 2014 By Sheep Media

Michael Snyder

Have you heard the one about the “economic recovery” in the United States? It’s quite funny, but it is not actually true. Every day, the establishment media points to the fact that global stock markets have soared to unprecedented heights as evidence that the economy is improving. But just because a bunch of wealthy people have gotten temporarily even richer on paper does not mean that the real economy is in good shape.

In fact, as you will see below, things just continue to get even tougher for the poor and the middle class. Retail stores are closing at the fastest pace since the fall of Lehman Brothers, the rate of homeownership in this country is the lowest that it has been in 19 years, one out of every five families do not have a single member that is employed, and one out of every five children is living in poverty.

We are working harder, earning less and going into more debt. With each passing day, the middle class gets a little bit smaller and the ranks of the poor get a little bit larger. But at least the stock market is doing great, eh?

If the U.S. economy really was doing well, government dependence would not be at epidemic levels.

If the U.S. economy really was doing well, we wouldn’t have more than a million public school children that are homeless.

If the U.S. economy really was doing well, the percentage of Americans that have a job would not be lower than it was when the last recession supposedly “ended”.

Nobody that takes an honest look at the numbers can honestly say that the U.S. economy has recovered. The following are 19 reasons why you can laugh when anyone tells you that the economy is in good shape…

#1 RadioShack just announced that it is going to close an additional 200 stores on top of what it was already planning to close.

#2 During the first quarter of this year, reported earnings by major U.S. retailers missed estimates by the largest margin in 13 years.

#3 One out of every three grocery store workers in the state of California is on some form of public assistance.

#4 The percentage of Americans that believe that it is a “good time to buy a home” is the lowest that it has been in four years.

#5 According to one recent survey, 52 percent of Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now.

#6 Sadly, only 36 percent of American adults under the age of 35 currently own a home. That is the lowest level that has ever been recorded.

#7 According to one new study, half of all college graduates are still relying on their parents financially when they are two years out of school.

#8 The number of planned job cuts by U.S. employers is on the rise again…

Job cuts climbed to the highest level in more than a year, as U.S.-based employers announced plans to reduce payrolls by 52,961 in May, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

#9 Right now, one out of every six men in their prime working years (25 to 54) do not have a job.

#10 The percentage of Americans not in the labor force is still at a 36 year high.

#11 53 percent of wage earners in the United States make less than $30,000 a year.

#12 The average age of vehicles on America’s roads has hit an all-time high of 11.4 years. Are we making them better or is it just that people simply cannot afford to buy new vehicles anymore?

#13 According to Pulitzer prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston, the economic recovery following the depths of the Great Depression was far superior to what we are experiencing today…

The most eye-opening measure of how poorly the vast majority are faring these days comes from comparing the periods after the Great Recession and the Great Depression.

The 90 percent, the vast majority, saw their income decline in 2012 compared with 2009, the year the Great Recession officially ended. Average annual income was down $556, or almost 2 percent, adjusted for inflation, to $30,997.

But in 1936, three years after the Great Depression ended, the vast majority enjoyed 31 percent more income than in 1933. The average increase, in today’s dollars, was $2,146 per household.

#14 The U.S. economy did not experience any economic growth during the first quarter of 2014. In fact, it actually contracted.

#15 The growth of furniture spending has just gone negative for the first time in about two years.

#16 More than 20 percent of all children in the U.S. are living in poverty, and 49 million Americans are dealing with food insecurity.

#17 As I have written about previously, approximately 20 percent of all American families do not have a single member that is employed at this point.

#18 According to a recent Gallup survey, “Unemployment/Jobs” represents the number one concern for U.S. voters.

#19 After adjusting for inflation, median household income in the U.S. is now about 7 percent lower than it was in the year 2000.

Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream , The Truth and Economic Collapse Blog.

Understanding and Dismantling the Global Control System

February 9, 2014 By Sheep Media

Max Igan

Looking at the global situation from the perspective of fear is counterproductive. We need to look at it from a perspective of concern, and see the opportunity that lies in having the knowledge of the global situation. There are opportunities in all these problems. Many people, when they discover the global situation and discover the truth about the world we live in, they move straight into fear. This does not help alleviate the situation. It’s one thing to be aware of it, but it’s another thing to be working actively to rectify this problem – the problem of government corruption, the problem of corporatism, the problem of commerce being superimposed over the human experience to the point where money and economics is viewed as being more important than people and more important than life. Unfortunately this is the situation we currently face.

Many people in our society have grown quite accepting of this; they believe that if they don’t pay their bills then they should be removed from their houses and cast out onto the street. These bills are all contrived, and the way they are contrived is by superimposing a system of interest-based commerce over the minds of the people. Our money system itself is created by a private bank which charges the government interest on the use of their money, which immediately places everybody who uses money into a state of unofficially manufactured debt. This is a simplistic way of looking at it, and it is actually much worse than that. The banks manufacture the paper that we use as money. Money is in fact created when people take out loans. Because the paper that we use is privately printed, privately owned and privately run, there is a debt attached to using that paper. This has the effect of placing everybody within our society into a state of perpetual self-generating debt, which lasts their entire life and sometimes beyond; thereby passing that debt onto their children. All of this debt is contrived and manufactured, and is completely unnecessary.

Because the worth or value of people in our society is very much based on their economic or social standing (according to the parameters of this society), we tend to readily discard people below us on the social ladder – because we deem them to be of less worth or value than people who have substantial financial interests in the world. This is a programmed, fictional reality – people are quite literally trained to think this way. This is one of the main objectives of the modern education system. The education system has become more and more business-oriented as generations have gone by, and this makes it possible for sections of society to be discarded, one rung at a time, while the people above them on the social ladder never really believe that it could happen to them. However the entire system is designed to slowly move up the social ladder until it has discarded everybody except those who issue the currency. This will effectively create a two-tiered society whereby we will have a ruling elite and a working class.

There are many people who are quite well-off in the world at the moment who believe that they will be safe from this system, but ultimately they won’t. Eventually it will get that high on the social ladder, that everybody who does not control the money supply will be under the control of those who do.

We the people, should we choose to step into our power, can prevent all of this from happening; because it’s all happening due to fictional rules that public trustees have written on paper. It is important for people to bear in mind the uncomfortable truth that if we do not choose to step into our power then the situation just described will occur, because it is the only possible outcome of this money system. This is why this money system has been put in place, to create the two-tiered society separated only by those who perceive they have power between the ‘elite’ and the working class. These people with perceived power will be the police and government officials who sit in the middle. These people will be given small tokens of power to make them feel as though they have authority over people, which of course will serve to give them the confidence they need to oppress the working class.

If you take everybody’s power away from them, reduce people to the point where they are quite literally abject slaves without their knowledge and you start giving small tokens of power to people within the group, then their egos will always take over & they’ll start throwing their weight around. If you watch which people throw their weight around the heaviest, you find the sociopaths within the crowd. Those are the ones that the ‘elite’ elevate to positions of authority, because they know that they have no empathy, and that they are quite happy to harvest energy from the population around them.

By taking people’s inherent power and value from them, you effectively disconnect them from the true energy source of the universe, and the most ready source of energy for these people then becomes the people around them – and that’s where they harvest their energy. This is why people who are so disconnected make the best ‘leaders’ for this system.

The plan is to create a two-tiered society whereby the only separation between the two will be the controlling hand which controls the debt-slaves, all of whom are controlled and do the bidding of those who issue the paper. This process is going to be achieved and is in fact well under way. It is occurring all due to the parameters of a UN directive known as Agenda 21. When looking at Agenda 21, many people understand that it is a depopulation programme; it is a programme designed to corral humankind into manageable portions which will be achieved by placing them within controlled sections of population (concentrated areas), and to ‘return the Earth to nature’ (or at least that’s how it is presented to the world). However, they are not quite sure how it is going to be carried out. The reality is that Agenda 21 is being implemented right now, in a very subtle manner, using means which most people would consider to be completely unrelated, and yet which are all connected.

To see these connections, it is extremely important for people to realize that the money system – money itself – is the glue that is used to hold this control mechanism together. Money connects everything together and is the catalyst for the whole thing. When you look at the system of commerce that has been superimposed over our societies, and how it slowly moves up the rungs of the social ladder, where people are discarded according to their economic worth, you begin to see how the depopulation plan is coming into effect. When looking at concentrated pockets of civilization and ‘returning the Earth to nature’, one might ask, “How is this to be achieved?” Since many people live in rural areas. Well what happens if you destroy the ground-water in rural areas? People who do live in rural areas, who run farms, simply cannot stay there anymore. It simply doesn’t become viable to ship water in all the time. Not to mention the fact that the water that is coming out of the ground is now toxic. Enter coal seam gas mining, or fracking

We don’t actually need gas as an energy source; there are other means of energy we could have. The Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla was going to give the whole world free energy back at the turn of the last century, and his financers wouldn’t allow him to do it because they realized they were not able to meter his energy device, and so therefore there was no economic gain in doing so. Many of the problems we face as a society, and many of the most pollutive industries on the planet, exist solely to meet our energy needs. Indeed it is the demand for energy which perpetuates these industries, and it is these industries which keep many people working. The demand for energy is one of the things that makes the modern world go round, and if people were to obtain access to free energy then it would most certainly free them from debt-slavery.

We don’t need to be harvesting coal seam gas in order to meet our energy needs – there are far better ways of doing things. So, what is the real purpose of coal seam gas? The only guaranteed outcome from having a gas well somewhere is that it is going to pollute the ground water below the gas well. This can be seen happening everywhere where gas wells have been. Methane is coming up in streams, tap-water has been catching fire and wells are being polluted. This obviously is the real purpose of coal seam gas mining. This is effectively driving people out of the rural areas, away from their traditional farm lands, and forcing them into concentrated pockets of civilization. This will be ongoing; if you watch this over the next few years you’re going to see more and more people moving from their farms, being forced to as it is too toxic to live there anymore. This is how these sections of population are being cleared and forced to move into the cities. It isn’t about returning the rural areas to nature; it is about making those areas available for sustainable resource practices.

Sustainable resource practices are about sustaining the industry for as long as possible – doing whatever you can to make sure you can keep exploiting the area. That is what sustainable development is all about. It is just wrapped up in a package and painted green so that people will think it is ecologically friendly, when it is exactly the opposite.

There are new laws being introduced in the UK which will effectively outlaw homelessness. People are made homeless due to the economic model; homelessness and the discarding of the population is a natural by-product of this corrupt economic system. Couple this with coal seam gas mining and the pollution of the water, and the introduction of GM crops which effectively cause sterility in those who consume them over successive generations. Tests carried out on animals clearly result in sterility by the third generation in all animals that have been tested consuming GM food. All this is Agenda 21 in motion – depopulation.

It is easy to force people into consuming GM foods simply by placing them in positions of poverty, and providing unlabelled GM food at low prices in supermarkets. The low-priced ‘value’ brands are likely GM, and all are designed to de-populate what is perceived to be the lower-classes of society – those who are not economically viable. This system does everything it can to ensure that people remain in a state which is not economically viable. Another way this is done is through a process of total criminalization. The concept of total criminalization is something which is very attractive to governments because if you make everybody a criminal, suddenly everyone becomes uniform in the eyes of the law.

The way they do this is by gradually introducing more and more laws, so that eventually almost everything becomes a crime. This includes all the things you would normally do as a normal, functioning human being. They then attach fines to these breaches of so-called law, again placing economic stress on people. This again leads to homelessness, which eventually leads to prison terms, and of course those in prison are being fed GM foods. So here we see how the introduction of legislation is again contributing towards the UN depopulation programme.

There is something very important to understand about legislation, when looking at why there is so much crime in the world today. The reason there is so much crime is because the government is introducing more and more legislation thereby making almost everything a crime. The more legislation that is enacted, the more crime is created. That is the main purpose of legislation – it isn’t to keep people safe, it is to create crime and thereby create the mechanism by which the wealth of the people may be extracted from them via fines and jail terms.

All of these things are ongoing; they are happening right now. While all of these little, subtle things are happening in society, designed to place people in a state of manufactured financial stress, people aren’t noticing it because they are distracted waiting for a big cataclysm such as a financial crash or the outbreak of World War III. And so people are not paying attention to what is happening all around them right now, and they’re not seeing how it all connects together.

The ‘divide and conquer’ strategy has worked very effectively on our society, and that is the main reason these problems still exist and, no matter what we do, things just keep going along in the same direction. This is because we are attempting to use the parameters of the system to deal with the system, when really we have the potential and the power to step above the system and rain the whole thing in – and hold our public trustees accountable for their actions. We have the power to do this, but it will only be achieved by a united community. That type of unity will only ever be achieved by people who are willing to respect one another.

The Divide and Conquer Agenda is how a small group of criminal elite reign over their larger slave population. They create the events that cause the division and the people react with infighting. This created friction and resulting response from the people, guarantees that their slaves will never unite to over throw their rule.

The solution is as simple as people changing their perspective and their attitude, not only towards the people around them, but also towards themselves. The lack of respect for other people always has its basis in one’s lack of respect for themselves. This is a programmed reality which people are forced to endure simply by operating in the parameters of the system. This is a very clever system and it is designed to completely mess-up the human psyche, and you’ve got to give it 10 points for effectiveness.

However, that being said, the tide is about to turn – things are about to change. It will however require the participation of the people in order for it to happen. I genuinely believe that’s what this time in history is about, and things are indeed about to change. More and more people are beginning to question this reality and question this system. Something people can do, when looking at this whole system – social, economic or government, is to ask themselves if their life is one of comfort and abundance; and if it isn’t, to ask themselves why. Why are you forced to run so hard on the treadmill? Why are you forced to be enslaved to an economic model which is interest-based and designed to place you in scarcity? Why is our system like this? Why are there laws making it illegal to feed homeless people? Why is it that when a supermarket throws food out at the end of the day, they put it in a locked bin and won’t simply give it to poor people? Why are they attempting to bring in laws which may outlaw homelessness? Why do we have a system which was created by mankind to serve mankind’s needs, and yet mankind has become the most expendable thing within its parameters?

When you ask yourself these questions it becomes clear that what has happened to our societies is that we have had a slavery system gradually superimposed over our reality. Thus in the modern world today, virtually everybody is forced to live in a state of perpetual or self-generating debt as soon as they are old enough to work. What we have here is ‘people farming’; we have human trafficking by debt-slavery, whereby every person within this society has been turned into a commodity. Turned into a mechanism by which the criminal, ruling banksters at the top of the food-chain are able to harvest your wealth.

Real wealth is not measured in terms of possessions; it cannot be judged in terms of financial security. Real wealth is your life; your health. What makes you wealthy is if you are a happy, healthy person living in a good environment. The banksters harvest your time, your health and your life – they harvest you.

It is extremely important for people to see the reality of this, and it is very much necessary for people to understand that this is a system that is wholly supported and perpetuated by governments. The reason that governments are able to get away with it is because the people have forgotten what their place in the social hierarchy is. People have forgotten that governments are public servants – public trustees; we actually sit above them in the food-chain. They are in fact our employees. Through the imposition of the government-controlled education system, this knowledge has been gradually educated out of the masses. Meanwhile the bills and laws have been raised and raised, and people have been taught to run faster and faster on the treadmill, so that now they’re running flat-out and they don’t even realize that their running. This means of course that they never really have time to look around them and notice what is going on, and how this system is run.

When you start to see how the system is run, it becomes obvious that we’re being scammed by the very people we employ to manage our infrastructure for us and to keep us safe. These are the very people who we appoint to positions of trust to manage our society in an honest, caring and decent manner. Our public servants are not doing that; they are all in breach of trust, and they are using the power we give them to steal the wealth of all of our nations. It is about time we paid attention to this fact. If we were to pay attention to it, from the perspective of a respectful and therefore empowered community, we could change this situation in a day. There is a real need for us to do this.

When looking at the world today, one must ask the questions: How far are we prepared to go? How much are we prepared to take? Are we prepared to allow our planet to be destroyed and the lives of the people around us to be ruined simply because some people wrote some words down on a piece of paper, and dared to call it law? Is that what it takes to control us? Is that all it takes to decimate the human species – simply writing something down on a piece of paper? Is that all it takes to remove the will of the people, and to force them to comply with their own destruction? Are we so confused as to what reality is that we really believe this fictional paper-based world is real?

People are waking up in vast numbers all around the world, and are beginning to question the fiction. The more a government attempts to lock society down, the more people wake up to the control mechanism. So ultimately the government, and the control system itself, is bringing about its own demise. The system is ramping up the control grid so much now and in such a hurried manner. The people who are doing it are stumbling; they’re making mistakes and making their presence known. More and more people are becoming empowered with the knowledge of who and what they are – and that is truly a beautiful thing. The key word in this control system is ‘fiction’. We can step above the entire thing once we remember who and what we are and choose to stand in our power.

Nobody controls the vessel that you inhabit. The only mind that controls your flesh is yourself. Anybody who claims otherwise is running a slavery system. Once you become aware of it you start to see the way out of the slavery system. It has to be done with respect and in a peaceful manner. Once you understand how the system works, and when you truly understand and respect yourself, then you really don’t see any need to conduct yourself otherwise anyway. Because if you do, really all you’re doing is playing right into their hands. There is a far better way of doing things. The way to conduct yourself in any of these situations is from a perspective of empowerment and respect. It all comes down to the individual, and always has.

There are a lot of movements, currently being waged in the world, against many of the problems that we face. But all too often these organizations are still attempting to use the legal system to find a way of making a stand against the actions of our corrupt governments. By doing this what they are failing to see is that the modern legal system was not constructed to afford people remedy, but rather to tie people up in red tape and to protect the system. The legal system was designed by the system in order to protect itself. So we are never going to find a remedy for our current situation by using the parameters that are given to us by the system. What we need to do is remember or place in the social hierarchy, step above it, and hold our public trustees in breach of trust. This could be done through something like a People’s Mandate. If you could get enough people together in your country to mandate your will to the government and instruct them to carry out that will, then if they wish to maintain the facade of being a democratic and fair system they will have no choice but to comply with the will of the people. Failure to abide by a People’s Mandate, properly delivered to our elected trustees, would mean that the government has abdicated its right to govern – and would be required to step down. Again, this could only happen if people choose to respect each other.

Ultimately, when you look at this situation, the solution to all of the problems we face always comes down to the people themselves. The power to change the world is in the hands of each individual. The key to your own salvation is in your heart, and the key to changing this world is in applying your heart, energy and respect to the people around you and to the world at large. If we do this, we can change things.

The question is: What is it going to take for that to happen? Participation is all it would take. There is nobody on the Earth who really has any more power than anybody else. The only power that people perceive they have is the power they are granted from others who choose to give their own power away. Once one becomes aware of the situation, and aware of the fact that these choices do exist, things can be viewed very differently. From the very moment that you wake up to the machinations of this control system, you are given the conscious choice whether to participate in this system or not.

Refuse to comply with any piece of legislation which interferes with your moral compass. Ultimately there is only one law on this planet: Do No Harm. Any legislation that contravenes that law is no law, and is entitled to no obedience.

25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve

February 9, 2014 By Sheep Media

Michael Snyder| We’ve already approached the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, and it is absolutely imperative that we get the American people to understand that the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems. It is a system of money that was created by the bankers and that operates for the benefit of the bankers.

The American people like to think that we have a “democratic system”, but there is nothing “democratic” about the Federal Reserve. Unelected, unaccountable central planners from a private central bank run our financial system and manage our economy. There is a reason why financial markets respond with a yawn when Barack Obama says something about the economy, but they swing wildly whenever Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opens his mouth.

The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does by a huge margin. The Fed is the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world, and if the American people truly understood how it really works, they would be screaming for it to be abolished immediately. The following are 25 fast facts about the Federal Reserve that everyone should know…

#1 The greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was when there was no central bank.

#2 The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created. In the century before the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation was about half a percent. In the century since the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation has been about 3.5 percent, and it would be even higher than that if the inflation numbers were not being so grossly manipulated.

#3 Even using the official numbers, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 95 percent since the Federal Reserve was created nearly 100 years ago.

#4 The secret November 1910 gathering at Jekyll Island, Georgia during which the plan for the Federal Reserve was hatched was attended by U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department A.P. Andrews and a whole host of representatives from the upper crust of the Wall Street banking establishment.

#5 In 1913, Congress was promised that if the Federal Reserve Act was passed that it would eliminate the business cycle.

#6 The following comes directly from the Fed’s official mission statement: “To provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded.”

#7 It was not an accident that a permanent income tax was also introduced the same year when the Federal Reserve system was established. The whole idea was to transfer wealth from our pockets to the federal government and from the federal government to the bankers.

#8 Within 20 years of the creation of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy was plunged into the Great Depression.

#9 If you can believe it, there have been 10 different economic recessions since 1950. The Federal Reserve created the “dotcom bubble”, the Federal Reserve created the “housing bubble” and now it has created the largest bond bubble in the history of the planet.

#10 According to an official government report, the Federal Reserve made 16.1 trillion dollars in secret loans to the big banks during the last financial crisis. The following is a list of loan recipients that was taken directly from page 131 of the report…

Citigroup – $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley – $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch – $1.949 trillion
Bank of America – $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC – $868 billion
Bear Sterns – $853 billion
Goldman Sachs – $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland – $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase – $391 billion
Deutsche Bank – $354 billion
UBS – $287 billion
Credit Suisse – $262 billion
Lehman Brothers – $183 billion
Bank of Scotland – $181 billion
BNP Paribas – $175 billion
Wells Fargo – $159 billion
Dexia – $159 billion
Wachovia – $142 billion
Dresdner Bank – $135 billion
Societe Generale – $124 billion
“All Other Borrowers” – $2.639 trillion

#11 The Federal Reserve also paid those big banks $659.4 million in fees to help “administer” those secret loans.

#12 The Federal Reserve has created approximately 2.75 trillion dollars out of thin air and injected it into the financial system over the past five years. This has allowed the stock market to soar to unprecedented heights, but it has also caused our financial system to become extremely unstable.

#13 We were told that the purpose of quantitative easing is to help “stimulate the economy”, but today the Federal Reserve is actually paying the big banks not to lend out 1.8 trillion dollars in “excess reserves” that they have parked at the Fed.

#14 Quantitative easing overwhelming benefits those that own stocks and other financial investments. In other words, quantitative easing overwhelmingly favors the very wealthy. Even Barack Obama has admitted that 95 percent of the income gains since he has been president have gone to the top one percent of income earners.

#15 The gap between the top one percent and the rest of the country is now the greatest that it has been since the 1920s.

#16 The Federal Reserve has argued vehemently in federal court that it is “not an agency” of the federal government and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

#17 The Federal Reserve openly admits that the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks are organized “much like private corporations“.

#18 The regional Federal Reserve banks issue shares of stock to the “member banks” that own them.

#19 The Federal Reserve system greatly favors the biggest banks. Back in 1970, the five largest U.S. banks held 17 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets. Today, the five largest U.S. banks hold 52 percent of all U.S. banking industry assets.

#20 The Federal Reserve is supposed to “regulate” the big banks, but it has done nothing to stop a 441 trillion dollar interest rate derivatives bubble from inflating which could absolutely devastate our entire financial system.

#21 The Federal Reserve was designed to be a perpetual debt machine. The bankers that designed it intended to trap the U.S. government in a perpetual debt spiral from which it could never possibly escape. Since the Federal Reserve was established nearly 100 years ago, the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.

#22 The U.S. government will spend more than 400 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt this year.

#23 If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt rises to just 6 percent (and it has been much higher than that in the past), we will be paying out more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.

#24 According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress is the one that is supposed to have the authority to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”. So exactly why is the Federal Reserve doing it?

#25 There are plenty of possible alternative financial systems, but at this point all 187 nations that belong to the IMF have a central bank. Are we supposed to believe that this is just some sort of a bizarre coincidence.

Gregory Mannarino: Debt and Currency Crisis that Will Rock the Core of the Earth! [Video]

February 5, 2014 By Sheep Media

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Analyst and stock trader Gregory Mannarino says the market meltdown this week was caused by the Fed and weak economy. Mannarino says, “We understand there is a dynamic that has been changing here in the market with regard to the Fed’s purchasing mortgage-backed securities and bonds. This has rattled the emerging markets. They’re having problems with their currencies . . . The Federal Reserve has created an environment of distortions. By them pulling back some of this liquidity from the global economy, they’ve caused problems in these emerging markets, and this is being done on purpose.” What is the Fed trying to accomplish by destabilizing emerging market countries? Mannarino claims, “So, by rattling the emerging markets here, they are going to force investors into U.S. equities and into the U.S. bond market. It’s sort of a backdoor stimulus. . . . This just keeps the party going. That’s all this is.”

This may work in the short term, but it is not long term bullish for the markets. Mannarino warns, “We have this issue with the U.S. economy. They have been force feeding us nonsense . . . that we are in some kind of recovery. . . . This ISM number we got (Institute of Supply Management), we have not seen a pullback like this since 1980. It rattled the market. . . . We’re also getting mediocre earnings reports. We got unemployment numbers that are not good. So, this is spooking the market.” Looking at the big picture of the global economy, Mannarino goes on to say, “I am still a bull here in regards to the U.S. equity markets, but we all know where this is going. This is going to end terribly at some point. A complete financial meltdown is happening. You can see this already how the Federal Reserve has distorted this beyond the point of ridiculousness. Now, they are forcing the emerging market investor to look to the U.S. equity markets. At some point, people are going to see this whole thing is not sustainable. We are going to have a crisis of currency, a crisis of debt that is going to rock the core of the earth—period.”

This is a confidence game according to Mannarino. He says, “This is all about perception, not reality. If we were really in some type of a recovery, would we be talking about extending unemployment benefits for people? Would we be talking about more stimulus? Of course not, because there is no recovery. This is just smoke and mirrors across the board.” Don’t expect the market to plunge just yet because Mannarino says, “The Fed is counting on turmoil in the emerging markets to drive money into the U.S. market to keep the system propped up.”

Mannarino contends what you are seeing now is just a short term trade. In the longer term, Mannarino predicts, “Without a doubt, this is going to blow up. . . . I’ve been saying this for years now–we are headed for a pan global financial cataclysm. That’s a fact.” So, how does Mannarino plan to protect himself from this surefire coming calamity? Mannarino says, “I pull my gains out of the market, and I turn them into hard assets. I am the biggest precious metals bull out here. I can’t imagine a better place to be than in gold or silver, especially silver.”

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Gregory Mannarino of TradersChoice.net.

37 Reasons Why “The Economic Recovery Of 2013″ Is A Giant Lie

December 9, 2013 By Sheep Media

By Michael Snyder

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” Sadly, that appears to be the approach that the Obama administration and the mainstream media are taking with the U.S. economy. They seem to believe that if they just keep telling the American people over and over that things are getting better, eventually the American people will believe that it is actually true. On Friday, it was announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to “7 percent”, and the mainstream media responded with a mix of euphoria and jubilation. For example, one USA Today article declared that “with today’s jobs report, one really can say that our long national post-financial crisis nightmare is over.” But is that actually the truth? As you will see below, if you assume that the labor force participation rate in the U.S. is at the long-term average, the unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent. There has been absolutely no employment recovery. The percentage of Americans that are actually working has stayed between 58 and 59 percent for 51 months in a row. But most Americans don’t understand these things and they just take whatever the mainstream media tells them as the truth.

And of course the reality of the matter is that we should have seen some sort of an economic recovery by now. Those running our system have literally been mortgaging the future in a desperate attempt to try to pump up our economic numbers. The federal government has been on the greatest debt binge in U.S. history and the Federal Reserve has been printing money like crazed lunatics. All of that “stimulus” should have had some positive short-term effects on the economy.

Sadly, all of those “emergency measures” do not appear to have done much at all. The percentage of Americans that have a job has stayed remarkably flat since the end of 2009, median household income has fallen for five years in a row, and the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row. Anyone that claims that the U.S. economy is experiencing a “recovery” is simply not telling the truth.

The following are 37 reasons why “the economic recovery of 2013” is a giant lie…

#1 The only reason that the official unemployment rate has been declining over the past couple of years is that the federal government has been pretending that millions upon millions of unemployed Americans no longer want a job and have “left the labor force”. As Zero Hedge recently demonstrated, if the labor force participation rate returned to the long-term average of 65.8 percent, the official unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent.

#2 The percentage of Americans that are actually working is much lower than it used to be. In November 2000, 64.3 percent of all working age Americans had a job. When Barack Obama first entered the White House, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.6 percent of all working age Americans have a job. In fact, as you can see from the chart posted below, there has been absolutely no “employment recovery” since the depths of the last recession…

#3 The employment-population ratio has now been under 59 percentfor 51 months in a row.

#4 There are 1,148,000 fewer Americans working today than there was in November 2006. Meanwhile, our population has grown by more than 16 million people during that time frame.

#5 The “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years (25 to 54) has just hit a brand new all-time record high. Does this look like an “economic recovery” to you?…

#6 The number of working age Americans without a job has increasedby a total of 27 million since the year 2000.

#7 In November 2007, there were 121.9 million full-time workers in the United States. Today, there are only 116.9 million full-time workers in the United States.

#8 Middle-wage jobs accounted for 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession, but they have accounted for only 22 percent of the jobs created since then.

#9 Only about 47 percent of all adults in America have a full-time job at this point.

#10 The ratio of wages to corporate profits in the United States just hita brand new all-time low.

#11 It is hard to believe, but in America today one out of every ten jobs is now filled by a temp agency.

#12 Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.

#13 In this economic environment, there is intense competition even for the lowest paying jobs. Wal-Mart recently opened up two new stores in Washington D.C., and more than 23,000 people applied for just 600 positions. That means that only about 2.6 percent of the applicants were ultimately hired. In comparison, Harvard offers admission to 6.1 percent of their applicants.

#14 According to the Social Security Administration, 40 percent of all U.S. workers make less than $20,000 a year.

#15 When Barack Obama took office, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks. Today, it is 37.2 weeks.

#16 According to the New York Times, long-term unemployment in America is up by 213 percent since 2007.

#17 Thanks to Obama administration policies which are systematically killing off small businesses in the United States, the percentage of self-employed Americans is at an all-time low today.

#18 According to economist Tim Kane, the following is how the number of startup jobs per 1000 Americans breaks down by presidential administration…

Bush Sr.: 11.3

Clinton: 11.2

Bush Jr.: 10.8

Obama: 7.8

#19 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.

#20 The rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row.

#21 Back in 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 54.9 percent of all Americans are covered by employment-based health insurance, andthanks to Obamacare millions more Americans are now losing their health insurance plans.

#22 As 2003 began, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was about $1.30. When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.26.

#23 Total consumer credit has risen by a whopping 22 percent over the past three years.

#24 In 2008, the total amount of student loan debt in this country was sitting at about 440 billion dollars. Today, it has shot up toapproximately a trillion dollars.

#25 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.

#26 Back in the year 2000, our trade deficit with China was 83 billion dollars. In 2008, our trade deficit with China was 268 billion dollars. Last year, it was 315 billion dollars. That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in world history.

#27 The gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is at anall-time record high.

#28 Right now, 1.2 million students that attend public schools in the United States are homeless. That is a brand new all-time record high, and that number has risen by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.

#29 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, there were about 32 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

#30 Right now, approximately one out of every five households in the United States is on food stamps.

#31 According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.

#32 In 2000, the U.S. government spent 199 billion dollars on Medicaid. In 2008, the U.S. government spent 338 billion dollars on Medicaid. In 2012, the U.S. government spent 417 billion dollars on Medicaid, and now Obamacare is going to add tens of millions more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#33 In 2000, the U.S. government spent 219 billion dollars on Medicare. In 2008, the U.S. government spent 462 billion dollars on Medicare. In 2012, the U.S. government spent 560 billion dollars on Medicare, and that number is expected to absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead as the Baby Boomers retire.

#34 According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record high 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program.

#35 The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollarson welfare programs over the past five years.

#36 When Barack Obama was first elected, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio was under 70 percent. Today, it is up to 101 percent.

#37 The U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during the eight years of the Obama administration. In other words, under Barack Obama the U.S. government will accumulate more debt than it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.

Fortunately, it appears that most Americans are not buying into the propaganda. According to a new CNN survey, the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting worse far exceeds the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is improving…

Americans views on the state of the nation are turning increasingly sour, according to a new national poll.

And a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday also indicates that less than a quarter of the public says that economic conditions are improving, while nearly four in ten say the nation’s economy is getting worse.
Forty-one percent of those questioned in the poll say things are going well in the country today, down nine percentage points from April, and the lowest that number has been in CNN polling since February 2012. Fifty-nine percent say things are going badly, up nine points from April.

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