The United States financial system is facing a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the coming years. Social Security and Medicare are both on the verge of collapse, and both private and public pension funds all over America are massively underfunded. Now new data is revealing that the number of Americans who have virtually nothing saved up for retirement continues to grow at a rapid pace. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the percentage of American workers who have less than $10,000 saved for retirement has grown to 43%. The number of American workers who say that they have less than $1,000 saved for retirement has grown to 27%. But perhaps this should be no surprise considering the fact that tens of millions of Americans are just trying to figure out how to get through each month financially. After all, it is really hard to plan for retirement when you can barely pay your mortgage. (Read More...)
Will The Coming 21% Cut In Medicare Payments Force Doctors To Boycott Medicare Patients?
Will the 21 percent cut in Medicare payments coming this month force many doctors to boycott Medicare patients in order to survive? That is a question that thousands of American doctors are pondering as the U.S. Congress deliberates whether or not to allow a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to go into effect. In fact, the cuts were already supposed to go into effect, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has put a hold for 10 business days on physician Medicare claims, thus giving the U.S. Congress a little bit more time to act. It is thought the the U.S. Congress simply cannot allow these cuts to go into effect, but so far they have not acted. (Read More...)
15 Reasons Why The U.S. Economic Crisis Is Really An Economic Consolidation By The Elite Banking Powers
Is the United States experiencing an “economic crisis” or an “economic consolidation”? Did the financial problems of the last several years “happen on their own”, or are they part of a broader plan to consolidate financial power in the United States? Before you dismiss that possibility, just remember what happened back during the Great Depression. During that era, the big financial powers cut off the flow of credit, hoarded cash and reduced the money supply. Suddenly nobody had any money and the economy tanked. The big financial powers were then able to swoop back in and buy up valuable assets and real estate for pennies on the dollar. So are there signs that such a financial consolidation is happening again? (Read More...)
Executives At Bailed Out Firms Receive Record Bonuses As Millions Of Average Americans Suffer
Even as sales of new homes in the United States plunge to the lowest level on record and even as confidence among U.S. consumers falls to dramatic new lows, it is coming out that bonuses for Wall Street executives and Fortune 500 CEOs are larger than ever. In fact, it is at some of the firms that received the most U.S. government assistance during the bailouts that executives are getting some of the biggest bailouts. So exactly how are the rest of us supposed to feel when millions of Americans are desperately suffering financially while executives at firms that were bailed out by the U.S. government are swimming in bonus cash? Should we be glad that at least a few fatcats are enjoying the American Dream while the rest of us suffer? (Read More...)
Has The American Dream Been Outsourced?
For decades, politicians in Washington D.C. insisted that “globalism” and “free trade” would be good for us. Well, it turns out that “globalism” and “free trade” were good for the wealthy because they could pay someone in a foreign nation 1 dollar an hour when they used to have to pay an American 20 dollars an hour to do the same job. Globalism and free trade were also good for American consumers because they could go down to Wal-Mart and pay 20 cents less for plastic crap made in China than for similar stuff made in the United States. But “globalism” and “free trade” have turned out to be an absolute disaster for hard working middle class Americans. Tens of millions of really good jobs have been sent overseas and they are simply not going to come back. This is causing many Americans to start asking this question: Has the American Dream been outsourced? (Read More...)
10 Clear Signs That This Will Be A Double-Dip Recession In The United States
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...)
Housing Crash Part 2? A Massive Second Wave Of Mortgages Reset Starting In 2010
The housing crash of 2008/2009 was one of the biggest financial disasters in American history. Approximately 6 million homes have been foreclosed on by lenders in just the last three years alone as millions of American families watched their hopes for achieving the American Dream go up in smoke. Since early 2008, approximately 60 million U.S. homes have lost a combined 5 trillion dollars in value. It has been an unmitigated disaster for homeowners, lenders, home builders, real estate agents and construction workers. Now approximately one out of every four U.S. homeowners are “underwater” on their mortgages. That means that they owe more money than their homes are worth. If that wasn’t bad enough, it is estimated that by June of this year approximately 5.1 million American homeowners will own a home valued below 75 percent of what is owed. Can you imagine owing $400,000 on a home that is only worth $300,000? That is where millions of American families find themselves now. In some areas of the U.S., the housing market is so bad that it is almost comical. In California, one bank demolished 16 nearly completed homes because it was cheaper to knock them down than to finish building them. The worst part is that by all indications, the housing crash is far from over. In fact, a massive “second wave” of mortgage defaults is on the way over the next three years that could potentially deliver a knock out blow to the U.S. economy. (Read More...)
Depleted Uranium – One Of The Greatest Environmental Horrors In The History Of The World
Most Americans have no idea that depleted uranium munitions used by the U.S. military are causing one of the greatest environmental nightmares in the history of the world. In fact, most Americans have no idea what depleted uranium even is. But even as many Americans gobble down their burgers and french fries and pizza and enjoy the “good life” watching their big screen televisions, an entirely different story is being written on the other side of the world. In Iraq and Afghanistan today, there are some areas that have been so polluted by depleted uranium that they have literally become uninhabitable hellholes. Americans like to think of themselves as so “environmentally conscious”, but the truth is that one of the greatest environmental tragedies of all time is being caused by the U.S. military and yet nobody seems to care. (Read More...)
16 Cold Hard Facts That Prove That America Has Become A Nation Full Of Perverts And Predators
Much of the discussion about the rapid decline of the American Dream is typically focused on the economic collapse that we have been experiencing. But that is only part of the story. The truth is that one of the biggest reasons why the American Dream is coming to an end for so many people is because our nation has become morally rotten to the core. America is no longer a nation full of good, solid, moral people that you can trust your children with. Instead, America has now become a nation of self-centered, greedy, corrupt, wicked people most of which appear to be obsessed with lust, pleasure and entertainment. The fundamental character of the people in the United States has changed. We can all feel it. We all know it on some level, although it can be hard to put that feeling into words. But unless the moral rot that is plaguing our society is addressed, the solutions to all of our other problems will continue to evade us. (Read More...)