Those who believe that the U.S. real estate crash is over are delusional. The truth is that all the numbers point to the foreclosure crisis getting worse – not better. Many of the talking heads on the major news shows want to make the American people feel better about the real estate market and are projecting that things will soon turn around, but a cold, hard look at the statistics tells an entirely different story. Foreclosures are increasing and there is every indication that they will continue to increase. According to RealtyTrac, initial foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March, an increase of almost 19 percent from the previous month. It was also the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report on initial foreclosure filings in January 2005. (Read More...)
14 Pieces Of Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy
Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh told an audience on Friday that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a cyclical recovery and that there are “encouraging” signs of improvement in financial markets. Many other governmental and media talking heads have uttered similar pronouncements about a “recovery” which will put the U.S. economy back on track. But are we really experiencing a recovery? If so, then why are foreclosures still hitting record levels? Why is unemployment so high? Why are so many cities and states on the verge of bankruptcy? Why are so many average Americans hurting so much? The truth is that what we are experiencing now is a period of stabilization before the “second dip” of the double-dip recession so many economists have been talking about hits. What the U.S. economy is actually in the midst of is a complete and total structural failure. The American Dream is going to permanently die for millions of American families. Millions more are going to lose their jobs and millions more are going to lose their homes. This is what we get for piling up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world and outsourcing much of our manufacturing and industry to places like China and India. Now we are an aging, bloated dinosaur trying to survive on a service economy and the biggest debt bubble of all time. (Read More...)
11 Examples Of How Insanely Corrupt The U.S. Financial System Has Become
If you ask most Americans, they will agree that the financial system is corrupt. It is generally assumed that just like most politicians, most big bankers are corrupt by nature. But the truth is that the vast majority of Americans have no idea just how corrupt the U.S. financial system has become. The reality is that the American Dream is literally being stolen from millions of Americans right out from under their noses and they don’t even realize it. The corruption on Wall Street has become so deep and so vast that it is hard to even find the words to describe it. The level of greed being displayed by many Wall Street firms would make Gordon Gecko blush. It seems that the major financial players will try just about anything these days – as long as they think they can get away with it. But in the process they are contributing to the destruction of the greatest economic machine that the planet has ever seen. (Read More...)
Hold On – Interest Rates Are Going To Increase During The Second Half Of 2010 And Into 2011
Interest rates have nowhere to go but up. Interest rates will rise during the second half of 2010, and they will continue to rise during 2011. This is going to cause a lot of pain for the U.S. economy and for American consumers. Unfortunately, this is not just the opinion of a handful of half-baked Internet nutjobs. This is the assessment of the New York Times and of the highly respected economists that they interviewed. It seems that virtually everyone in the financial community agrees that it is inevitable that interest rates are going to rise. And that is really bad news for the U.S. economy. (Read More...)
If The U.S. Economy Is Experiencing A Recovery Why Does It Seem Like Things Keep Getting Worse?
The talking heads on all the major news shows keep telling us that the U.S. economy is experiencing a recovery. Usually the term “recovery” is accompanied by a qualifier such as “jobless”, but they continue to use the word recovery anyway. We are told that the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression is behind us and that the great American economic machine is roaring back to life and everything will be back to normal soon. So why does it seem like things keep getting worse? Why does it seem like the American Dream is out of reach for more Americans than ever? Why does it seem like economic pain is spreading to more families and more businesses? (Read More...)
The Health Care Bill Is Great For American Taxpayers – If You Like Being Punched In The Groin
Thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama, American taxpayers are about to be hit with the largest tax increase in the history of the United States. According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes by 2019. But there are also heavy fines for those who refuse to buy the health insurance mandated by the bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care bill imposes approximately $69 billion in penalties for individuals and businesses who don’t meet mandates to purchase health insurance. This will be the first time in the history of the United States that the federal government has ordered Americans citizens to buy a good or service. But it is not just a small amount of money that the U.S. government is requiring all of us to spend. In fact, the federal government will be mandating that ordinary Americans pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do in federal taxes. (Read More...)
43 Percent Of Americans Have Less Than 10,000 Dollars Saved For Retirement
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...)