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An economic nightmare is descending on Europe. With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse. At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression. In fact, some parts of Europe are already there. In Spain the overall unemployment rate is over 22 percent, and in Greece one out of every five retail establishments has already been closed down. All over Europe, economic activity is rapidly slowing down, unemployment is skyrocketing and bad debts are unraveling. It isn't even going to take a default by a nation such as Greece or a collapse of the euro to push Europe into an economic depression. All Europe has to do is to stay on the exact path that it is on right now and it will get there. Normally, European governments would respond to an economic slowdown by increasing government spending. But this time most of them are already drowning in debt. Instead of increasing government spending, most governments in Europe are actually cutting back. All over Europe, national governments are being encouraged to implement even more tax increases and even more budget cuts. The hope is that all of this austerity will help solve the nightmarish sovereign debt crisis that Europe is facing. But unfortunately, all of these tax increases and budget cuts are also going to involve a tremendous amount of economic pain. (Read More.....)
Did you know that the new World Trade Center tower is being constructed with glass from China and steel from Germany? 1 World Trade Center, also known as "The Freedom Tower", is not just another skyscraper. It is essentially a national monument. But that doesn't mean that we are above awarding construction contracts to the lowest bidder. The new World Trade Center tower will contain 250 tons of steel from Germany and the lower floors will be surrounded with blast-resistant glass from China. This is yet another example of how the U.S. economy is being hollowed out. Once upon a time, the United States produced more steel and glass than anyone else in the world. But now we are being deindustrialized at a blinding pace. We have lost tens of thousands of factories and millions of jobs over the past decade. We are going to have a trade imbalance of about a half a trillion dollars this year. Meanwhile, our federal, state and local governments are going into massive amounts of debt in order to keep funding government activities at a level that our hollowed out economy simply cannot support any longer. (Read More.....)
Government in America has gotten completely and totally out of control. Our founding fathers originally intended to set up a nation where the power of government would be greatly limited, but today government has become a horribly bloated monster that is relentlessly growing. It is not just the federal government that I am talking about. All over the country, there are state and local governments that have become monstrous as well. No matter who we elect, they just want even more of our money, they demand even more of our time and our resources, they pile even more rules and regulations on to our backs, they seek even more control over us and our children and they take even more of our liberties and freedoms away. They have invented hundreds of different ways to drain money out of us, and yet it is never enough. They pile up nightmarish debts that they expect our children and our grandchildren to repay, and yet our cities and our infrastructure are crumbling all around us. Government seems to have a relentless appetite for demanding even more from all of us, and yet they seem to badly mess up everything that they try to accomplish. Well, I have a message for the government. Get off our backs! (Read More.....)
Are we about to see a huge push for a "United States of Europe"? As the sovereign debt crisis in Europe continues to spiral out of control, suddenly this term is popping up in the New York Times and in major newspapers all over Europe. So is this by accident? Surely not. The truth is that there is an overwhelming consensus among the political and financial elite of Europe that a "United States of Europe" is what would be best for the eurozone. However, they are likely going to need a massive financial crisis in order to reach their goal. Right now, the citizens of the countries that make up the eurozone are overwhelmingly against deeper European integration. Without experiencing a massive amount of financial pain, they are unlikely to change their minds any time soon. So who is going to win in the end? Unfortunately, the clock is ticking because Greece is on the verge of defaulting on their debts and several other countries are not that far behind. If Europe does not decide on a course of action soon, the euro is going to collapse and financial institutions all over Europe are going to come crashing down. (Read More.....)
Sorry to break this to you, but the future for most Americans is going to be pretty crappy. Unless you are independently wealthy, the chances are good that you will have a low paying job, that you will be drowning in a sea of bad debts and that you will have to go on government assistance at some point. Most American families are completely dependent on their jobs for income, and right now good jobs are disappearing at a frightening pace. Over the last couple of decades, millions of high paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped out of the country and they are being replaced by low paying service jobs. Small business creation is being absolutely crushed by the federal government, and millions of illegal immigrants have been allowed in to the country and they are now competing for the limited number of jobs that are still available. The vast majority of the money and the vast majority of the power in this country are now in the hands of either the big corporations or the government. Together, the big corporations and the government are absolutely crushing everyone else. If you are not part of the "privileged class", there is a good chance that your job is serving them. Perhaps you are bringing them lunch or cutting their hair or stocking shelves for them. Once upon a time, America was "the land of opportunity", but now that has all changed. Tomorrow morning, millions of Americans will get up and go to pathetic, low paying jobs and millions of others will wonder why they can't find anyone to hire them. Sadly, if nothing is done to reverse the long-term trends that are destroying our economy, the number of "working poor" is going to continue to increase. (Read More.....)
Did you know that the United States military is now bombing 6 different countries? U.S. aircraft are conducting air strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and now Somalia. There is a U.S. military base in over half of the countries on the planet and U.S. military spending is over 7 times larger than the military spending of any other nation on earth. Yes, the United States will always need a strong military. But with our national debt exploding at an exponential rate, can the United States really afford to continue to be the police of the world? (Read More.....)
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A Message For The Government: Get Off Our Backs!