16 Nightmarish Economic Trends To Watch Carefully In 2011

If you only watch the “economic pundits” on television, it can be very confusing to figure out exactly what is happening with the U.S. economy.  One pundit will pull out a couple statistics that got a little bit better over the past month and claim that we have entered a time of solid recovery.  Another pundit will pull out a couple statistics that got a little worse over the past month and claim that we are headed for trouble.  So what is the truth?  Well, if you really want to get a clear idea of what is really going on you have to look at the long-term trends.  There are some economic trends which just keep getting worse year after year after year, and it is those trends that tell the real story of the decline of our economic system. (Read More...)

U.S. Military Spending Is Out Of Control: 12 Facts That Show That We Cannot Afford To Be The Police Of The World

Today, the United States has become the police of the world.  The U.S. military has a total of over 700 military bases in 130 countries around the world.  Total military spending by the U.S. government is nearly equal to the combined military spending of the rest of the globe.  Meanwhile, the federal government is literally drowning in debt.  So if we make some significant cuts to military spending will we fix the national debt problem?  Of course not.  In fact, it would only put a small dent in it.  But at least it would help.  The truth is that we cannot afford to be the police of the world and the Pentagon wastes so much money that it is almost incomprehensible.  Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once publicly admitted that the Pentagon lost track of 2.3 trillion dollars and cannot tell us how it was spent.  Just imagine how your boss would react if you lost track of just 2.3 thousand dollars.  So why wasn’t there more of an uproar about losing track of 2.3 trillion dollars?  Have we become so accustomed to military waste that we don’t even care anymore? (Read More...)

China #1, United States #2? 25 Facts That Prove The Transition Is Really Happening

On a recent episode of The Office, Michael Scott spent much of the show bemoaning the fact that China could soon become the number one economic superpower.  Of course by the end of the episode everyone had concluded that the United States would continue to be number one indefinitely, but in the real world things are not so simple.  Sadly, the cold, hard facts reveal that China is on the rise and the United States is experiencing a dramatic economic decline.  The world is changing and China is projected to become the largest economy in the world at some point during the next decade.  Americans have been taught from birth that “the U.S. is number one”, but the transition is really happening.  China is passing the United States even in quite a few high tech industries and in many areas of scientific research.  The numbers that you are going to read below are absolutely staggering.  It is getting really hard to deny that the Chinese are wiping the floor with us economically.  In fact, they are beating us so badly that it is hard to put into words. (Read More...)

24 Signs That All Of America Is Becoming Just Like Detroit – A Rotting, Post-Industrial, Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

For years, people have been laughing at the horrific economic decline of Detroit.  Well, guess what?  The same thing that happened to Detroit is now happening to dozens of other communities across the United States.  From coast to coast there are formerly great manufacturing cities that have turned into rotting, post-industrial war zones.  In particular, in America’s “rust belt” you can drive through town after town after town that resemble little more than post-apocalyptic wastelands.  In many U.S. cities, the “real” rate of unemployment is over 30 percent.  There are some communities that will start depressing you almost the moment you drive into them.  It is almost as if all of the hope has been sucked right out of those communities. (Read More...)

12 Simple Things You Can Start Doing Right Now To Prepare For The Coming Financial Apocalypse

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the U.S. economy is heading for complete and total disaster.  State and local governments across the nation are uncontrollably bleeding red ink.  The federal government has accumulated the largest debt in world history.  Every year we buy hundreds of billions of dollars more from the rest of the world than they buy from us.  That means that we are getting hundreds of billions of dollars poorer as a nation every single year.  Meanwhile, thousands of factories and millions of jobs continue to be sent overseas as American cities turn into post-industrial wastelands.  Incomes are down, unemployment remains at depressingly high levels and very few of our politicians seem to have any idea how to fix things.  Yes, things are really, really bad.  So what are some things that we can all be doing to prepare for the coming financial apocalypse? (Read More...)

Obama’s Mistakes: 12 Examples That Show That Just About Everything That Barack Obama Tries To Do Turns Out Badly

Why does it seem like virtually everything that Barack Obama tries to do turns out badly?  There is a reason why his approval rating has fallen so precipitously.  Whether you agree with his policies or not, it is getting hard to deny that he is having a really hard time getting anything done right.  Health care reform was a total disaster, the economy continues to get worse, foreign policy is an unmitigated mess and faith in the federal government is at an all-time low.  Some Democrat insiders are now wondering if Barack Obama is actually losing it.  There are even whispers that Barack Obama may be challenged for the Democratic nomination in 2012.  That still seems far-fetched at this point, but without a doubt it is not just Republicans that are wondering about Barack Obama’s competence at this point. (Read More...)

The 12 Stupidest Ideas That Anyone Has Ever Come Up With To Fight Global Warming

Today, some of the “top scientists in the world” are coming up with some really, really dumb ideas for fighting climate change.  First of all, the theory of man-made global warming is currently falling apart like a 20 dollar suit because it never was backed up by solid scientific evidence, but even if it was true what some of these scientists are proposing to do to stop it is absolutely crazy.  Some of the ideas being proposed are fairly harmless such as putting giant mirrors in space or filling up our oceans with millions of tons of Special K.  However, some of the other ideas being floated by prominent scientists are incredibly frightening.  There are scientists that are now openly proposing strict population control measures and the forced relocation of human populations.  They believe such proposals are necessary “for the good of the planet”, but the truth is that what they are suggesting quickly conjures up images of the worst totalitarian regimes that the earth has ever seen. (Read More...)

Americans Are Willing To Trample One Another To Get Their Hands On Cheap Foreign-Made Plastic Crap Even As The United States Turns Into A Post-Industrial Wasteland

As this latest Black Friday clearly demonstrated, Americans are literally willing to trample one another to get the best deals on cheap foreign-made plastic crap.  Meanwhile, as thousands of factories and millions of jobs continue to get shipped overseas, the United States is rapidly turning into a post-industrial wasteland.  Once great manufacturing cities such as Camden, New Jersey have become crime-ridden, gang-infested hellholes.  In some U.S. cities, the “real” unemployment rate is around 30 or 40 percent.  The American people desperately need jobs, but the American people are also showing no signs that they plan to give up their addiction to cheap foreign goods.  Our politicians keep insisting that the American people just need “more education” and “more skills” in order to compete, but they don’t ever seem to explain how more education and more skills are going to make new jobs pop into existence out of thin air.  The truth is that the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Nightmare and there is not much hope that any of this is going to turn around any time soon. (Read More...)