Millions of Americans have lost their homes, tens of millions of Americans can't find a decent job and 44 million Americans are on food stamps.  This is causing an increasing number of Americans to ask this question: "Why is the economy so bad?"  There are some Americans that are old enough to remember the Great Depression, but the vast majority of us have never known hard times.  All our lives we were told that America was the greatest economy on the planet and that we would always experience endless prosperity in this nation.  That was easy to believe because even though we had a recession once in a while, things always bounced back and got even better than ever.  But now something seems different.  The current economic downturn began back in 2007 and yet here we are in 2011 and there seems to be no end in sight for this economic crisis.  So what in the world is going on?  Can anyone explain why the economy is so bad? (Read More.....)

Haven't you heard?  The coming economic collapse has officially been canceled.  The U.S. economy is in full recovery mode.  It has just been announced that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.9% in February.  That was the third monthly decline in a row.  192,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. during February.  That was the fifth month in a row in which the U.S. economy has gained jobs.  Corporate profits are way up.  For the most recent month that numbers are available, sales of GM vehicles were up 49%, sales of Chrysler vehicles were up 13%, and sales of Ford vehicles were up 10%.  Can't you see?  The great American economic machine has roared back to life.  The stock market is way up this year.  The recession is over.  Our financial system is more stable than ever.  Pretty soon all Americans that want jobs are going to be able to get jobs and all of our government debts are going to be paid off.  The greatest days for the U.S. economy are just around the corner.  So don't worry, be happy. (Read More.....)

Is the recession over or is the economic downturn just beginning?  Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve have been busy proclaiming that the U.S. economy is back on track, but the sad truth is that our economic problems look like they are about to get a whole lot worse.  Without oil, our entire economy would shut down cold.  Thanks to the chaos in the Middle East, oil is absolutely exploding in price.  In fact, the price of oil in the United States went up more than seven dollars today.  The global price of food has risen to record levels over the past 12 months and it is projected to continue to rapidly increase throughout all of 2011.  This is going to hit struggling families all over the globe very hard.  Meanwhile, thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of good jobs continue to flee the United States.  The gap between the wealth that we consume as a nation and the wealth that we produce as a nation continues to grow.  We have attempted to fill this gap with asset sales and with massive amounts of debt, but that is a game that cannot last forever.  When we come to the end of every single month, we are poorer as a nation and we are deeper in debt as a nation.  From "sea to shining sea" we have become a nation that is flooded with red ink. (Read More.....)

Now that the economic boom times of the earlier part of the decade are over, cities and states across America are going bust.  In fact, for a growing number of local governments throughout the United States, there is no getting around the fact that "flat broke" accurately describes the situation that they are facing.  For many of these cities and states that are on the verge of bankruptcy, the American Dream is quickly turning into the American Nightmare.  Unlike the federal government, which can ask the Federal Reserve to print up some more money when they get into trouble, state and local governments have nowhere to go when the well runs dry.  They either have to raise taxes or cut spending.  But in many areas of the country, services have already been cut to the bone and people are already being taxed into oblivion.  So what can be done?  Well, many of these state and local governments are just going to have to cut spending even deeper, squeeze even more taxes out of their residents, or go to the federal government for a handout.        (Read More.....)

Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is.  The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession".  What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen.  Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive.  Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era.  We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.  A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. (Read More.....)

The U.S. economy has been riding out one of the worst recessions in modern history, but unfortunately every economic signal seems to be indicating that we are going to be experiencing a "double-dip" recession instead of a recovery.  U.S. government debt is out of control, a massive "second wave" of mortgages is scheduled to reset starting this year, banks have significantly tightened credit, pension funds across the U.S. are broke at a time when a ton of Baby Boomers are ready to retire, and a massive financial crisis in the Eurozone threatens to throw the world into financial chaos.  The truth is that 2010 is going to be another very tough year economically, and for many the American Dream is quickly becoming a distant memory.  The following are ten clear signs that this will be a double-dip recession in the United States.... (Read More.....)