10 Charts Which Show We Are Much Worse Off Than Just Before The Last Economic Crisis

By Michael Snyder, on March 18th, 2015

If you believe that ignorance is bliss, you might not want to read this article and the ten charts that follow.  I am going to dispel the notion that there has been any sort of “economic recovery”, and I am going to show that we are much worse off than we were just prior to the last economic crisis.  If you go back to 2007, people were feeling really good about things.  Houses were being flipped like crazy, the stock market was booming and unemployment was relatively low.  But then the financial crisis of 2008 struck, and for a while it felt like the world was coming to an end.  Of course it didn’t come to an end – it was just the first wave of our problems.  The waves that come next are going to be the ones that really wipe us out.  Unfortunately, because we have experienced a few years of relative stability, many Americans have become convinced that Barack Obama, Janet Yellen and the rest of the folks in Washington D.C. have fixed whatever problems caused the last crisis.  Even though all of the numbers are screaming otherwise, there are millions upon millions of people out there that truly believe that everything is going to be okay somehow.  We never seem to learn from the past, and when this next economic downturn strikes it is going to do an astonishing amount of damage because we are already in a significantly weakened state from the last one.

For each of the charts that I am about to share with you, I want you to focus on the last shaded gray bar on each chart which represents the last recession.  As you will see, our economic problems are significantly worse than they were just before the financial crisis of 2008.  That means that we are far less equipped to handle a major economic crisis than we were the last time.

#1 The National Debt
Just prior to the last recession, the U.S. national debt was a bit above 9 trillion dollars.  Since that time, it has nearly doubled.  So does that make us better off or worse off?  The answer, of course, is obvious.  And even though Barack Obama promises that “deficits are under control”, more than a trillion dollars was added to the national debt in fiscal year 2014.  What we are doing to future generations by burdening them with so much debt is beyond criminal.  And so what does Barack Obama want to do now?  He wants to ramp up government spending and increase the debt even faster.  This is something that I covered in my previous article entitled “Barack Obama Says That What America Really Needs Is Lots More Debt“.

#2 Total Debt
Over the past 40 years, the total amount of debt in the United States has skyrocketed to astronomical heights.  We have become a “buy now, pay later” society with devastating consequences.  Back in 1975, our total debt level was sitting at about 2.5 trillion dollars.  Just prior to the last recession, it was sitting at about 50 trillion dollars, and today we are rapidly closing in on 60 trillion dollars.

#3 The Velocity Of Money
When an economy is healthy, money tends to change hands and circulate through the system quite rapidly.  So it makes sense that the velocity of money fell dramatically during the last recession.  But why has it kept going down since then?

#4 The Homeownership Rate
Were you aware that the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen to a 20 year low?  Traditionally, owning a home has been a sign that you belong to the middle class.  And the last recession was really rough on the middle class, so it makes sense that the rate of homeownership declined during that time frame.  But why has it continued to steadily decline ever since?

#5 The Employment Rate
Barack Obama loves to tell us how the unemployment rate is “going down”.  But as I will explain later in this article, this decline is primarily based on accounting tricks.  Posted below is a chart of the civilian employment-population ratio.  Just prior to the last recession, approximately 63 percent of the working age population of the United States was employed.  During the recession, this ratio fell to below 59 percent and it stayed there for several years.  Just recently it has peeked back above 59 percent, but we are still very, very far from where we used to be, and now the next economic downturn is rapidly approaching.

#6 The Labor Force Participation Rate
So how can Obama get away with saying that the unemployment rate has gone down dramatically?  Well, each month the government takes thousands upon thousands of long-term unemployed workers and decides that they have been unemployed for so long that they no longer qualify as “part of the labor force”.  As a result, the “labor force participation rate” has fallen substantially since the end of the last recession…

#7 The Inactivity Rate For Men In Their Prime Working Years
If things are “getting better”, then why are so many men in their prime working years doing nothing at all?  Just prior to the last recession, the inactivity rate for men in their prime working years was about 9 percent.  Today it is just about 12 percent.

#8 Real Median Household Income
Not only is a smaller percentage of Americans employed today than compared to just prior to the last recession, the quality of our jobs has gone down as well.  This is one of the factors which has resulted in a stunning decline of real median household income.

I have shared these next numbers before, but they bear repeating.  In America today, most Americans do not make enough to support a middle class lifestyle on a single salary.  The following figures come directly from the Social Security Administration…
-39 percent of American workers make less than $20,000 a year.
-52 percent of American workers make less than $30,000 a year.
-63 percent of American workers make less than $40,000 a year.
-72 percent of American workers make less than $50,000 a year.
We all know people that are working part-time jobs because that is all that they can find in this economy.  As the quality of our jobs continues to deteriorate, the numbers above are going to become even more dismal.

#9 Inflation
Even as our incomes have stagnated, the cost of living just continues to rise steadily.  For example, the cost of food and beverages has gone up nearly 50 percent just since the year 2000.

#10 Government Dependence
As the middle class shrinks and the number of Americans that cannot independently take care of themselves soars, dependence on the government is reaching unprecedented heights.  For instance, the federal government is now spending about twice as much on food stamps as it was just prior to the last recession.  How in the world can anyone dare to call this an “economic recovery”?

COULD OBAMA RUN FOR A THIRD TERM?

Here is the rationale that says he could and would if he decided to...from Rush Limbaugh ::

The Republican Party has made it clear that they will not use that constitutional measure as a means of reining Obama in, and maybe even getting him out of office.  They have also made it very clear in just the most recent vote on the funding for Department of Homeland Security that they will not use the power of the purse to stop Obama.  Okay, so those duo realities equal Obama fully aware the Republican Party will take no steps to stop him in his ongoing violations and running up to the edges of the Constitution.

Now, let's fast forward to, say, May, June of 2016.

Let's say that Mrs. Clinton has withstood all of this e-mail stuff, that Elizabeth Warren has not gotten in the race, that Algore took the temperature and decided not to go, that it's just Mrs. Clinton and Joe Biden.  On the other side, the Republican field has a great list of possible candidates, and they will have by that time engaged in a vigorous debate which may have served to educate the country on the foibles and the problems of the past eight years, and the country may be looking forward to a dramatic change to Republican in the election of 2016.

Obama fully aware of this, would go on television and say that the Democrat field is so weak that he's not confident that Mrs. Clinton can win. He might even take steps to make sure she can't win. You know, sabotage her campaign.  And then call a national speech to the nation in which the main point is that it's beginning to look like the Republicans will win the White House, and this is something that he can't risk.  Not after eight courageous years of transforming America!
We just He will say he cannot put it all to the risk of being unraveled and undone by these racist, sexist, misogynist, whatever else Republicans.  So as a service to the nation and for the nation, he is going to forget the Twenty-Second Amendment and either not leave office or run for reelection himself as the Democrat nominee. Just imagine that scenario.  I don't care how unreal it sounds, how unbelievable it sounds. Imagine it.  What would anybody do?  What would Mitch McConnell do?  What would John Boehner do?

Mark Levin would have a heart attack.

I would have an aneurysm.

We'd be done.

What would anybody do?  The Supreme Court would say, "Nobody has standing here! There's no case yet.  Obama hasn't done anything yet.  We can't do anything about this until he actually serves a third term, and then you gotta bring the case to us." What would anybody do if he says this?  The media would be cheering it.  Put all this in the mix.  This guy's out there thinking about this.  It's hard to believe, it's so unlikely, but don't think... Obama's planning on staying in Washington part of time.
He's got a plan to continue to live in Washington after he has left office for that exact reason. Whoever the next president is, Republican or Democrat, if that next president starts to unravel any of this, Obama's on television every night. He knows he's gonna have the media in his back pocket and whoever the next president is will not get away with anything without a huge fight from Obama.  What would the Republicans do?   I think the odds are the Republicans might call an emergency constitutional convention and amend the Twenty-Second Amendment, permitting Obama to do this because their fear of being critical of Obama would destroy their chances of winning with the independents.

Writing a Book??

Everyone thinks they want to write a book. Mostly they don't  because this is what it takes to write and get a book on the market.  It's called an Authors Platform.  Mine is pretty shaky so far, but getting better.

Obama in trouble??

I said earlier that the administration had used $250,000 US taxpayer dollars to fund opposition to Netanyahu in this election. It was actually $350,000. And now there is a Bipartisan senate committee investigating this action. The group that was the middleman in this is an NGO called ONE VOICE MOVEMENT. They are a dirty bunch.
Since the spotlight has shown on them, they have scattered like rats. This is actually a serious issue. Obama deciding to intervene in an ally's election is verboten. But he did.

It’s against international law for one country to interfere in the elections of another and that case would be heard in The Hague, in the World Court. A conviction there would mean an almost automatic impeachment preceding that even most of the most liberal democrats dare not try to stop.
Here's a bit more... http://freebeacon.com/…/anti-netanyahu-nonprofit-forms-new…/
And more http://redstatements.co/bipartisan-investigation-of-obama-…/

US Senate probes Obama funding for anti-Netanyahu campaign – report

 

Descending to Idiocracy

This is the kind of Test my Mom and Dad had to take to graduate 8th grade. Our college grads of today can't pass it. Heck I had a hard time with some of the questions. We have really been dumbed down. IF it weren't for the reality that School is actually daycare for working parents, perhaps we should just try to return to the day when at 8th grade kids had a college education.. then let them enter the work force. Today we have the dumbest generation ever produced on the planet. Idiocracy has ensued. (see movie for more) http://www.zerohedge.com/…/2015-03-17/its-official-american…

Bullitt County History - 1912 School Exam

ABC: ‘There’s a Lot of Disappointment at the White House This Morning’ with Bibi Victory

When you spend the kind of money he did (your money) on trying to get him defeated, when you try to negotiate the end of Israel with Iran, when you make a public snub of his visit and 53 caucus members slavishly follow suit, when you send the village idiot Kerry over to try to convince everyone to play nice and when you have allowed the middle east to go up in flames and you did nothing, that will be a disappointing day in redrock. SMH

ABC: ‘There’s a Lot of Disappointment at the White House This Morning’ with Bibi Victory

We have class warfare in the USA, between those with class and the classless. A few thoughts:

“Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. ”
― Ann Landers
“Swearing doesn’t make your argument valid; it just tells the other person you have lost your class and control.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“There's money, and then there's class. The two are often separated.”
― Kate Jacobs
“It is common knowledge that a well-bred man should as far as possible have no face. That is to say, not so much be completely without one, but rather, should have a face and yet at the same time appear faceless. It should not stand out, just as a shirt made by a good tailor does not stand out. Needless to say, the face of a well-bred man should be exactly like that of other (well-bred) men and of course in no circumstances whatsoever should it alter. Naturally houses, trees, streets, sky and everything else in the world must satisfy the same conditions to have honor of being known as respectable and well-bred.”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin
“Dignity will only happen when you realize that having someone in your life doesn’t validate your worth.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“Class never runs scared.
It is sure-footed and confident.
It can handle anything that comes along.
Class has a sense of humor.
It knows a good laugh is the best lubricant for oiling the machinery of human relations.
Class never makes excuses.
It takes its lumps and learns from past mistakes.
Class knows that good manners are nothing more than a series of small, inconsequential sacrifices.
Class bespeaks an aristocracy that has nothing to do with ancestors or money.
Some wealthy “blue bloods” have no class, while individuals who are struggling to make ends meet are loaded with it.
Class is real.
It can’t be faked.
Class never tried to build itself by tearing others down.
Class is already up and need not strive to look better by making others look worse.
Class can “walk with kings and keep it’s virtue and talk with crowds and keep the common touch.” Everyone is comfortable with the person who has class because that person is comfortable with himself.
If you have class, you’ve got it made.
If you don’t have class, no matter what else you have, it doesn’t make any difference.”
― Ann Landers
“Never wrestle with pigs for the pigs remain clueless and you end up muddy.”
― Orrin Woodward
“What does it mean to be cultured? Who is the cultured person? The cultured individual is not defined nor determined by status in society nor by wealth; but the cultured individual is determined and defined by his or her sense for the art of life. And what is the art of life? The art of life is the reflection of the mind and the soul upon the world, upon other people, upon the respect and understanding of other people and upon the things that are in this world and beyond. There is a joy that is always sought in beautiful things. Being cultured is being conscious, reflective, understanding, feeling, aware. Knowing how to feel, to listen, to understand. A desire to find or to create joy in many things— that is the art of life. And these things define a cultured person.”
“People think that the word "class" involves the color black, wearing Chanel No. 5 and carrying a Louis Vuitton. The word "class" and "classy", to me, mean what happens when you are able to be thankful, able to give and be a true friend to anybody regardless of their background and where they come from. That's class. It's a beautiful wave that washes away faults and paints things in a graceful light. You can't always do this, though. Sometimes you just need to slap someone. Still, you can slap someone with a lot of poise and that makes all the difference.”
― C. JoyBell C.
When I say someone is without class, it isn't about money or fame, they are without the marks of true humanity and at the same time knowing who they are in Christ. This is a malady we have today in our culture.. classless people.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign Let’s Move is out with new advice for Americans: skip the buffet and stick to unsweetened tea. The tips were introduced as part of Mrs. Obama

The nation's chief unelected dietician is coming out against Buffets. Actually I will never forget once in an Old Country Buffet in Villa Park I think where this woman who needed TWO CHAIRS to contain her superample posterior bringing two trays of food from the Buffet piled high and she ate the whole thing. It was something to behold. Now that is a sickness. I get that. It is also wrong in so many ways. I live close to two Golden Corrals and have been in them three times in ten years. All three times to my personal disgust. So.. except for the Kale Burgers.. I'm not so sure this isn't a good play.

Let’s Move: Skip the Buffet

Admitting his mistake is a start.

Suppose you are a middle class working American who happened to be one of the 8000 households who made their home in Ferguson MO a year ago. Life wasn't perfect, you had corrupt cops, there was abuse by them, but you had a Quick Trip, an Advance Auto Parts, and a "Main Street" that worked .. Now today your house is worth a fraction of what it was a year ago IF you could sell it. Your community is in shambles. Nothing is left. Where do you go to get your life back, at least the one that you had? OH and if you think that someone is going to come in and rebuild for you after the house was burned down, allow me to take you an a tour of the west side and the south side of Chicago.. It's still a ghost town of shamble. I remember the fires after MLK was killed. That's the result of racism.. from both camps.

From this article linked below:
I am sure Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post felt warm and fuzzy when he posted, ” ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie.”
Admitting his mistake is a start.
When will he pony up some money to help the 8,192 households in Ferguson, Missouri, recover the approximately $250 million in lost property values caused by his sloppy journalism and to be blunt, racism?
Jonathan Capehart is not alone in repeating this outrageous lie, of course, but before he pats himself on the back for finally admitting the truth, four months after the truth came out, how about some cash. This is a tort. Jonathan Capehart, Comcast (through MSNBC) and dozens of other news organizations made stacks of money by repeating a lie for months.
They should pay.
Ferguson, Missouri, was an inner suburb of St. Louis in August when the media began repeating the lie that Michael Brown, 18, was “hunted down” (to use the words of Comcast’s Al Sharpton) by a racist white cop.
Today it is a shambles.
http://donsurber.blogspot.com/…/journalistic-liars-cost-800…

30-year study finds you'll have a higher IQ, too.

Probably not as much about the nutrition as the nurture

If You Were Breastfed, You'll End Up Earning More

and a Chamberlain in the White House

Like the great British prime minister, Netanyahu is warning the free world of mortal dangers it would just as soon ignore.

nationalreview.com

A Churchill for Our Times, by Thomas Sowell, National Review

Once upon a time, much of the state of California was a barren desert. And now, thanks to the worst drought in modern American history, much of the state is turning...

What is sad, there is enough rainfall in a year to support a reasonable population and some agriculture IF and it's a BIG if all the water was retained on the land and none shuffled off into the ocean. Plus if all the waste water was held and reused.. there would be no release. This isn't global warming, this is climatic cycles. BUT holding the water ON THE LAND is the critical issue. Means snail darters have to die, means the EPA goes away.. or you can do a reverse Joad (Grapes of Wrath) and head east as the dustbowl that California becomes drives them out. It's a myth that there will be some megasalvation. There is enough water to deal with this.. but you gotta hold it on the land. But that would take brains.. and that's a problem

California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans

BIBI ran AGAINST Obama and his lackeys (using our money)

The big difference is that BIBI ran AGAINST Obama and his lackeys (using our money) and beat them all soundly. Make no mistake about it, this is a profound defeat for all that Obama stands for.. this is a shellacking in the real sense. Obama might have pretended to like BIBI when he was here.. but he is turning out to be tone deaf.

Obama Won’t Congratulate Bibi — But He Congratulated Erdogan, Sisi, Rouhani … and Putin!

Obama has been more polite to dictators than to the leader of the only Jewish State.

pjmedia.com

The village called, they are missing an idiot. Wondering if there is a reward for his return?

Secretary of State John Kerry compared himself to Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and other great historical luminaries for having the courage and tenacity to tackle the...

jewsnews.co.il

Kerry Compares His Courage To Lincoln, Churchill, Dr. King, Gandhi And Mandela

My Old VOIP Landline rings with this crap all the time

Why do telemarketers keep pestering you, long after you signed up for the federal "Do Not Call" list? First of all, you're certainly not alone, Consumerist reports: "If this were a disease, it would be an epidemic," says a consumer advocate. The Federal Trade Commission gets between 250,000 and 300,000 complaints each month about telemarketers, and some 60% of those complaints are regarding robocalls, an official said at a panel discussion. One reason for the continuing calls is that recent telephone technology, while it has made our calls cheaper, has also made robocalling easier, Consumerist notes. There's also the fact that it's easy to hide one's number on caller ID, making it hard for officials to track the calls—especially when companies like AT&T are dealing with a total of some 3 billion phone calls every day. On top of all that, "the reason robocalls are still made is because they work," says an expert. "They’re getting money. They’re usually scams, taking advantage of older people." Indeed, FTC lawyer Bikram Bandy writes that "most legitimate companies don't call if your number is on the (Do Not Call) Registry." To fight the calls, he suggests, hang up right away rather than trying to get yourself off the caller's list. Then, file a complaint with the FTC. And if you keep getting a call from the same number, you can look into your phone company's call-blocking options. The FTC has taken legal action against hundreds of firms over such calls, he notes.

I agree with DICK

Dick Cheney spends his days sipping lattes in custom-ordered Starbucks cups surrounded by military history and political biography books in his study in Virginia—and apparently brewing over how President Obama has ruined the country. In an interview with Playboy, the former vice president describes the changes since his time in office.

• On the military: Obama has "done enormous damage to the military" and is "crippling the capacity of future presidents to deal with future crises," Cheney says. Already, the country's ability to deal with terrorist groups "is rapidly diminishing. I look at Barack Obama and I see the worst president in my lifetime, without question," he says. "We are going to pay a hell of a price just trying to dig out from under his presidency."
• On Obama and race: "To say that we criticize, or that I criticize, Barack Obama or Eric Holder because of race, I just think it's obviously not true," he says. "My view of it is the criticism is merited because of performance—or lack of performance, because of incompetence. It hasn't got anything to do with race." He adds, "I think they're playing the race card."

• On Ferguson: Cheney says Michael Brown's killing shouldn't be thrown "all over on the burden of race, or racial inequality, or racial discrimination." He adds, "I don’t think it is about race. I think it is about an individual who conducted himself in a manner that was almost guaranteed to provoke an officer trying to do his duty." He adds he's "disappointed" with the Obama administration's response to protests.
• On the conflict in Ukraine: "If you want to get Putin’s attention, you really ought to whack him economically, and that’s not just a matter of sanctions," Cheney says. "It's also a matter of going after his energy stuff. What's happening to oil prices now, frankly, is a blessing for us, because it really puts the screws to Putin. He's so dependent on oil, in terms of his economy, that we ought to do everything we can to encourage that."
• On Guantanamo and torture: "We did what we felt was necessary and needed to be done" after 9/11 "to make sure it never happened again," the former VP says. "And we bent over backward to adhere to the law, to not do something that was, quote, 'torture,'" he says. "So I feel very good about it." He adds Guantanamo is still open because it's a place to keep the "really bad guys ... If anything, we've let too many of them go."

Glenn Beck's the BLAZE is a Mess

I enjoy the Blaze.. WHEN I can use it.  Whoever their webmaster is they are in love with gadgets.. Lots of Gadgets.  What a mess it all is. 

I love the stories, they are great. But the website doesn't work. It's too kluged up with extraneous junk.  I wish I could communicate with them.. but I can't..

Even on my phone it's only occasionally workable. 

Why do folks do this?

ON the other hand, How Obama could get a third term

There is that nasty 22nd amendment written after Roosevelt about only two terms for President.  Not that Obama ever paid much attention to the Constitution.

What IF and I don't want to give any ideas here, WHAT IF Michelle ran...wink wink.  And President Obama just stayed.  He becomes the in house ex pres.  Sort of a Super VEEP.  Shades of Evita.

The problem is, people are really stupid and it could happen.

The END of OBAMA??

There is a huge scandal brewing. The tip of the iceberg is there.  It is against international law to interfere in the election of another country.  That law is enforced by the Hauge.  If Obama is convicted of this felony he will have to be impeached. 

The Divine Proportion    If you have not seen the following article that was initially sent two years ago, I hope you will enjoy it and if you have seen it, I hope you will discover something that you missed the first time.   I have always been fascinated by numbers. The most interesting number of all is one I encountered many years ago in my Design 101 class at Auburn University.  This number is identified in the mathematics community as the Greek letter phi, expressed numerically as simply 1.618. It sounds boring enough until you learn how often and where this number keeps turning up in our lives. Phi was used by the ancient Greeks who employed it prominently in their art and architecture. It was re-introduced to the civilized world in the early 13th century, by the Italian mathematician, Fibonacci, who stumbled upon this series of numbers while conducting a study of the reproductive cycle of rabbits! Since then it has been known variously as The Golden Mean, The Divine Proportion, or the Fibonacci sequence. This mystical ratio is prevalent in all forms of life on this planet, from the microscopic structure of our DNA to the tiny spirals of a seashell to the mind boggling swirls of a galaxy.  Could this be a colossal coincidence or have we literally uncovered the intrinsic building block of the universe?    The Fibonacci numbers may sound a bit intimidating, but are actually understandable on the level of  basic eighth grade math.  The sequence is constructed by continually adding the previous number in the sequence to produce the next number, starting with 1 as follows: 0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, ad infinitum. Once you get to number 8, its ratio to the preceding number (5) is 1.625. With each succeeding number after that, this ratio of the last two numbers gets closer and closer to the mystical 1.618.It should also be noted that not only does phi appear repeatedly in nature, but the individual numbers in the Fibonacci sequence also make frequent appearances in interesting places like the petal count on violets or daisies or the florets in the swirls of a sunflower (counts of 55, 34, and 21); all just coincidentally specific numbers in the Fibonacci sequence! When plotted geometrically,  phi is found repeatedly in patterns and proportions in nature, the human body, art and architecture, even people's behavior. It has become so accepted now in the financial community, that many professional money managers and market traders use Fibonacci ratios on their charts to time when to enter or exit a trade and would not think of doing business without them. Here are a few more examples of The Divine Proportion.     Check out your own body. The distance from your belly button to your toes will be about 1.618 times as long as the distance from your belly button to the top of your head. Check the ratio from the tip of your longest finger back to the first finger joint, from there to the second joint, then to the third joint, and from there back to your wrist joint. Each succeeding joint will be about 1.618 times greater than the one before. Then from your wrist back to your elbow will be about 1.618 times longer than the distance from your wrist to your fingertip, and from the elbow back to your shoulder will be 1.618 times longer than the distance from your elbow to your wrist. Phi is even found in our DNA spiral! That's about as fundamental as you can get.     So the next time you encounter a landscape design or an architectural structure that is not pleasing to the eye, you may find the source of the irritation may be the missing phi. And the next time your stock reaches a new high and "consolidates"  for a while, you may now understand why it will then proceed to retrace to the level of about 62% of its upward move (giving up approximately 38% of its gain, while you gnash your teeth) before it resumes its upward trend.    It never hurts to keep in touch with what Mother Nature has up her sleeve, or to be in harmony with our planet and our Creator.

3 Score and Ten Years ago I became