The Debt Ceiling Debate Really Doesn’t Matter – Either Way U.S. Government Finances Are Going To Crash

Congratulations America, you are now 14 trillion dollars in debt.  The U.S. national debt is now more than 14 times larger than it was just 30 short years ago.  The federal government is literally drowning in debt.  Now some members of Congress are actually debating whether we should raise the debt ceiling again.  At the moment, the U.S. government debt ceiling is is set at $14.294 trillion, and considering the fact that the U.S. government is borrowing approximately 2.63 million more dollars every single minute, that cap will be reached very quickly.  The U.S. Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling six times in just the past three years, so you would think that raising it again would not be that big of a deal for our debt-addicted politicians.  But this past November a significant number of Tea Party candidates were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and they are eager to prove that they are serious about fiscal responsibility. (Read More...)

Is The New Madrid Fault Earthquake Zone Coming To Life?

What in the world is happening in the middle of the United States right now?  Thousands of birds are falling dead from the skies, tens of thousands of fish are washing up on shore dead, earthquakes are popping up in weird and unexpected places and people are starting to get really freaked out about all of this.  Well, one theory is that the New Madrid fault zone is coming to life.  The New Madrid fault zone is six times bigger than the San Andreas fault zone in California and it covers portions of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.  The biggest earthquakes in the history of the United States were caused by the New Madrid fault.  Now there are fears that the New Madrid fault zone could be coming to life again, and if a “killer earthquake” does strike it could change all of our lives forever. (Read More...)

30 Reasons Why 2011 Is Going To Be Another Crappy Year For America’s Middle Class

Do you think that 2011 will be a good year for America’s middle class?  Well, you might not be so optimistic after you read the 30 statistics posted below.  The truth is that 2011 is going to be another crappy year for America’s middle class, and there is not a whole lot that you or I can do about it.  Sadly, what we are facing as a nation is not just a short-term economic downturn.  Rather, there are some very serious long-term economic trends that are absolutely ripping apart the U.S. middle class.  For example, did you know that even though our population has been growing at a brisk pace we have lost about ten percent of our middle class jobs over the past decade?  The vast majority of jobs that have been created have been low paying service jobs.  We now have hordes of highly educated young people that are waiting tables and that are welcoming customers to Wal-Mart.  Without good paying jobs there is no middle class, but today American corporations are actually creating more jobs overseas than they are inside the United States.  This has helped pad the profits of the big corporate fatcats, but it has been devastating for middle class communities across the United States.  Every time a factory gets closed down in America and gets set up in some other country instead, it means that the U.S. middle class is shrinking just a little bit more.  The new “global economy” has been good for the bottom line of the largest U.S. corporations, it has been great for countries like China and India, but it is absolutely wiping out the U.S. middle class. (Read More...)

What Kind Of Mood Are The American People In As We Enter 2011?

Around the end of the year a ton of polls and surveys get taken.  Media organizations love to get a “snapshot” of how the American people are feeling as the new year begins.  So what kind of mood are the American people in as we enter 2011?  Well, if the polls are to be believed, they are less optimistic, they are a bit scared, they are very frustrated and they are becoming increasingly angry.  A solid majority of Americans believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction and they desperately want someone to fix the economy.  What Americans seem to want most of all are good jobs.  At the end of the day, Americans want to be able to pay the mortgage and put food on the table.  If they can’t do that, then what is going on with other “important issues” really isn’t going to seem very important to most of them. (Read More...)

In 2011 The Baby Boomers Start To Turn 65: 16 Statistics About The Coming Retirement Crisis That Will Drop Your Jaw

Do you hear that rumble in the distance?  That is the Baby Boomers – they are getting ready to retire.  On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turn 65.  Millions upon millions of them are rushing towards retirement age and they have been promised that the rest of us are going to take care of them.  Only there is a huge problem.  We don’t have the money.  It simply isn’t there.  But the millions of Baby Boomers getting ready to retire are counting on that money to be there.  This all comes at a really bad time for a federal government that is already flat broke and for a national economy that is already teetering on the brink of disaster. (Read More...)

Will 2011 Be A Nightmarish Year For The U.S. Housing Market?

As we come to the end of 2010, there seems to be very few reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. housing market as we enter 2011.  Home prices have fallen for several months in a row, mortgage rates are going up, mortgage delinquencies are increasing again, the mortgage industry is mired in horrific legal problems and the underlying economy is still extremely sluggish.  During 2009 and throughout the first half of 2010 the U.S. housing market experienced a time of stabilization and it looked like the housing industry might recover, but when the tax breaks expired things started to get bad once again.  Now many analysts are publicly using the term “double-dip” when speaking about prospects for the U.S. housing market in 2011. (Read More...)

9 Signs That The Price Of Oil In 2011 Will Soar Well Beyond 100 Dollars A Barrel

Will we see the price of oil rise significantly in 2011?  Unfortunately, that appears to be precisely where we are headed.  Despite stubbornly high unemployment and a very sluggish economy in the United States, the price of oil continues to creep upward.  Part of it can be attributed to the fact that the U.S. dollar and other major currencies are continuing to lose value relative to all commodities, and part of it can be attributed to the continuing rise in the global demand for oil.  But those factors alone do not explain what we are seeing.  Expectations are a very powerful thing, especially for financial markets, and right now there is an overwhelming consensus that oil prices are going to rise in 2011.  The big oil companies, the big oil exporting nations and the big investment banks are nearly all in agreement that a higher price for oil is coming and the speculators smell money and are starting to jump on to the bandwagon. (Read More...)

The Big Business Of Abortion

Abortion has become very big business in the United States.  Since Roe v. Wade was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, tens of millions of babies have been killed in the wombs of their mothers.  In fact, it has been estimated that approximately 50 million babies have been aborted in America since 1973.  It is a national horror that will never be erased.  Most proponents of abortion will tell you that it is all about giving mothers the “right to choose” whether to end the life of their babies or not, but there is actually a lot more to the big business of abortion than just that.  The truth is that abortion in America is also about population control, eugenics, “protecting the environment” and making a ton of money. (Read More...)