If one believes the “happy talk” emanating from the establishment media about “green shoots” in the economy, one could think the recession is over. However, these “green shoots” are mostly appearing among the big firms on Wall Street, which have benefited from trillions of dollars in repeated infusions from the US Congress or the Federal Reserve Board. As soon as one looks at “Main Street” instead of “Wall Street,” it is clear the recession is far from over. While it is true that the “cash for clunkers” program has helped car sales figures for a short time, this was a “one time program” which will only give a short-term boost to car sales data. Let’s look at some hard data from recent reports which have not received much publicity from the establishment media and see what is really happening on “Main Street.” The following reports need little explanation from me, so I will cite the information in chronological order. You can read more about these developments in the links below which verify each report.
The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose 22% from June, 2008 to June, 2009 as 35,000,000 Americans are now on the food stamp program (see first link). The USA Today reported in a one-paragraph story on September 3, 2009 that this was the highest number of American on food stamps in 26 years! The unemployment rate rose in the USA also just rose to a 26 year high as more hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost in America each month (see second link). The third link below offers a recent analysis that the unemployment situation is actually much worse than the government is reporting. I recommend that you read it! Does this sound like the recession is over?
As of the 4th quarter of 2008, over 8,300,000 American mortgages were “under water” (i.e. borrowers owed more on the homes than they are worth). The same report (see fourth link) notes that 2,200,000 more American mortgages were also about to go “under water,” and that residential real estate has lost tens of trillions of dollars in value in this recession. Think that sounds bad? A Deutshe Bank analysis indicated that 26% of all American mortgages were “under water” in March, 2009 and that by 2011, 48% (!) of American mortgages will be “under water.” If Deutshe Bank believes that the number of “under water” mortgages will almost double in America in the next 2 years, that sounds to me like a prediction for disaster for the US economy. Consistent with these reports is the article that TransUnion, a major credit-reporting firm, acknowledged recently that mortgage delinquencies are rising and are expected to rise throughout the rest of 2009. A report earlier this summer noted that credit card delinquencies are also reaching crisis levels as credit card companies are having to make “record high” charge-offs on unpayable balances. This is not surprising as each new round of large monthly layoffs results in more Americans who cannot afford to pay their mortgages or their credit card debts. Does this sound like the recession is over?
The eighth link reports that retail sales dropped 9.4% in the USA in one year! While much of this drop comes from reduced gas prices, this dramatic drop in retail sales will hurt state tax revenues all over the USA. While the federal government can create funny money in unlimited amounts from a monetary “la la land” at the Federal Reserve Board, the 50 states have to live by honest accounting standards and many states are in deep financial trouble. California’s budget woes have topped the media reports, but other states are in very bad situations as well. Does this sound like the recession is over?
Remember the TARP money that a spineless Congress voted to give to the reckless Wall Street banks in 2008 when then-Secretary of Treasury Paulson bullied Congress into that action? The ninth link below reports that no one seems to know where that TARP money went. What a surprise! Want to bet it went to Sec. Paulson’s buddies on Wall Street, especially since Sec. Paulson was a former Goldman Sachs executive. Don’t you feel pity for those poor Wall Street firms which pleaded for a bail-out from Congress, the Federal Reserve Board and anyone else they could bamboozle! It turns out these same Wall Street firms which pled poverty to Congress were suddenly able to give out $74,000,000,000 in bonuses to their own favored executives after the TARP money disappeared into various black holes on Wall Street. I’m sure that the many millions of Americans who have lost jobs in the last couple years are delighted to hear that the gullible US Congress has enabled the greedy and reckless bankers of Wall Street can live like kings on the backs of the oppressed American taxpayers.
One last report for you to consider. USA Today reported that bankruptcy filings were up 34% from July, 2008 to July, 2009 (see 11th link below). Does that sound like the recession is ending?
Revelation 17 and 18:2-3 prophesy the corrupt globalist system where the “merchants of the earth” (multinational companies) and the “kings of the earth” (the national leaders and politicians) enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else will fall in the latter days. The incredible arrogance of the Wall Street crowd in lavishing mega-billions of dollars on themselves while the rest of the nation is going through severe economic pain will likely contribute to their undoing. Who knows! Maybe even the gullible US Congress will eventually figure out that they have been sold down the river by the excesses of the Federal Reserve Board and Wall Street. A previous blog commented that Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to do a complete audit of the Federal Reserve Board now has more than enough co-sponsors to pass the US House of Representatives. If that audit ever gets done, it could hasten the fall of Babylon the Great’s self-indulgent and self-serving system of global economics. The next few years may prove to be far more interesting than anyone cares to live through.
Oh, yes. If anyone suggests the recession is over, send them these links, which the mainstream media wants to ignore. The recession is still very much a reality on Main Street America. Remember those “green shoots?” It turns out they are most likely to be weeds.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/currency/1752679,CST-NWS-wallet04.article
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090904/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_jobs
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3329458
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aTX3K2Tvs5cs
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7739323
http://seekingalpha.com/article/145696-banks-curtail-lending-as-rising-credit-card-delinquencies-loom
http://www.joc.com/node/412876
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/73212.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/10/wall-street-bonuses-set-off-alarms-after-bailouts/
