One Economic Chart That You Should Permanently Burn Into Your Memory...

One Economic Chart That You Should Permanently Burn Into Your Memory

As you can see from the chart below, the total of all debt (government, business and consumer) is now somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 percent of GDP. Never before has the United States faced a debt bubble of this magnitude....

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c41543aad2eb.jpg[/atsimg]

And the article goes on to talk more about this 'debt bubble' that we are unfortunately apart of...

Most of us were not alive during the Great Depression, but those who were remember how incredibly painful it was for America to deleverage and bring the economic system back into some type of balance.

So if our current debt bubble is far worse, what kind of economic horror is ahead for us?

But the truth is that we are facing some circumstances that even the folks back during the Great Depression did not have to deal with....

Source (I saw this was posted in breaking alternative news which isn't even the right area, but also it did not have the actual source, this is the origin of it)

I have to say this article explains fairly well what situation we're in currently, although I may even say it's worse than the author is saying.

We are having the MSM tell the masses that the economy is improving somewhat, while in reality it is not; it's actually getting worse. While we have the FED printing more and more money and selling it to us for more than it is worth (which is nothing other than the paper it's printed on and the ink that is on the actual paper), most American's truly believe that the economical hardship is over with and will turn around completely before they know it... well open your eyes and take a look - things are not getting better.

Just because the government/banksters bails out certain companies which whom they have connections with does not mean they are going to bailout the common man when they are having trouble. American's are losing their jobs, their homes, and every single item they own. Who is going to pay them back and help their families out this winter? The US government?


MOD NOTE: Posting work written by others

[edit on Sun Jul 25 2010 by DontTreadOnMe]

And this graph uses the government's own phony GDP numbers. In reality im sure the debt to real GDP ratio is 500-700%

reply to post by highlyoriginal


you know why it's this way, don't you?

WAR

the government spends over 54% of the Federal budget EVERY year on military, defense, homeland security, etc.

which are all nice words for making war on foreign soils.

i'm going to cut and paste a post i made in another thread, because it's relevant here, too, and if i just link to it, not many will see the information.
but here's the link to the thread, as well.

------------------------
Originally posted by queenannie38
Worldwide, the annual cost for military "defense" is $1000 billion - that is 1 trillion dollars.

Last year, in 2009, the U.S. spent $742 billion on the military.

That's 75% of the total global expenditure.

This comes out to around $12 billion a month.

If you ask a representative of government how much of we-the-people's money is going for defense, depending on who you ask, you will get a variety of answers. These answer are more often than not in the form of percentages.

Such as:
4% of the GNP (gross national product) is spent on "National Security"
Oh, okay, well, that's not so bad, is it?

But even percentages can be startling:
54% of the Federal Budget = 4% of the GNP


What does the GNP have to do with Federal Military Spending, anyway?

Gross National Product (GNP) is the market value of all goods and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country.

source

Federal Budget:

During FY 2009, the federal government collected approximately $2.1 trillion in tax revenue. Primary receipt categories included individual income taxes (43%), Social Security/Social Insurance taxes (42%), and corporate taxes (7%). Other types included excise, estate and gift taxes. Tax revenues have averaged approximately 18.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) over the past 40 years, generally ranging plus or minus 2% from that level.

source

US Military Budget at Wiki provides an in-depth breakdown of this spending.

The U.S. average national unemployment rate is 9.7 percent. Only those who are actively looking for work are included in this statistic. Among Black Americans, the rate is 15.5 percent and Latinos, 12.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that unemployment will remain almost unchanged in 2011, about 9.5 percent.

Many families have been surviving on small, weekly unemployment checks provided for 26 weeks by their state government, and an additional 73 weeks by the federal government. The first group of unemployed to run through both benefits hit that point Jul. 1, and today about a million people are receiving no assistance at all. About nine million more are still receiving unemployment payments.

Congress is considering extending federal assistance for another 20 weeks. The House approved the legislation, but the Senate did not. Congress left town for its holiday break until mid-July without passing the legislation.

In the Senate the issue fell almost precisely along party lines, with all but one Democrat for extending the benefit, and all but two Republicans against it, saying the 34- billion-dollar cost was not worth adding to the federal deficit.

source

According to the Department of Labor:

The average weekly unemployment insurance check is $292.
That's $1168 a month and $14,016 a year.

As of June, 2010, the national unemployment rate was 9.5%.
(but remember, this is only those who are actively looking for jobs who are registered with the DOL - an alternate way of counting puts it near 20%.)

The number of INITIAL unemployment claims for the week ending July 3, 2010 was 454,000.

President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.

Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)

source

there is no solution other than to quit war.
plain and simple
it gains nothing for anyone and it is death.
it will be the death of us, if we don't put a stop to it.

but it has to be a peaceful end or else it will not be an end but rather just a pause or a temporary break.



P
E
A
C
E

reply to post by queenannie38


Thanks for adding that. I completely agree that war/money/greed/power is really the reasons we are were we are. Those who have the power to stop this madness are now comforted with greed. Those with greed have found comfort with money, and with this money have created war, and through all of this they gain more power.

The people [the masses] do not have a choice other than to fight against the 'system' or to abide by it and be a slave. I honestly would fight for my freedom just as I'd hope most American's would - however many do not understand why we must fight and why we must do it now (actually we've should have started to fight much longer ago).

The time for protests and the like are for the past, much more peace is needed - that is so very true.

I hope I live to see the day that we fight back and are no longer slaves and are able to live in peace - wishful thinking maybe, but wishes do come true sometimes, do they not?

Another thing that is much different now, than it was for the great depression, is liberty. While our forefathers had liberty when they lost all, our government is setting itself up to clamp down on our liberties. Being in a huge depression but free to cope with it in a manner that suits us is one thing, but being in a depression with our liberties and freedoms stripped away is an entirely different animal. Unlike last time, our government is ready and poised to take control of the population, thus exploiting us for their own ends.

God help us all.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


Exactly, you're basically expanding on what I was saying about us being slaves.

We're already seeing events unfold and they are just going to increase until people start to really band together and such events become more violent.

As I said protests are not doing it anymore, and we can't even have peaceful protesting since the police/govt. like to put under cover cops/agents within the crowds whom entice/provoke others or the police themselves to the point of beating/arresting/killing protesters.

What a world we live in

Stories like this help me to understand how the "older folks" came to live on humble means and hoard their money.

I've met many people in my life who were alive or at least connected to the crash of the 30's. I could never relate to it. My attitude was, "that was then this is now. You don't have to worry about that now." How wrong I was.

It makes me realize how humanity is destined to repeat past mistakes because we don't heed the wisdom of others. How many times have we seen our children do the same stupid things we did? We try to warn them, we know the outcome, but they don't listen. And neither did we.

If I could give one piece of advise to anybody, any age, it would be "Listen those with experience and wisdom".

Its a great article, but it doesn't get to the heart of why debt is exploding other than saying government is responsible.

The actual cause of the credit expansion is due to the criminal federal reserve artificially suppressing interest rates.

When interest rates are high, this is a limiting check on the amount of money people (and government) can borrow. We never would have had the housing boom, even with lax lending standards and fannie/freddie, if the fed had not pushed rates down to nothing.

The low rates allowed for things like ARM loans and all other manner of mischief that turned average home buyers into real estate speculators.

The low rates allowed for credit expansion, which in turn drove our jobs overseas. "Outsourcing" has very little to do with why the US has lost so many production jobs. When a countries credit supply expands, this allows its citizens to purchase foreign goods without actually having to produce anything of their own.

Think if you were handed a million dollars. You wouldn't have to actually produce anything or go to work in order to live. You could simply live off of the million until it ran out. This is basically what happened to the entire country.

All of the problems in this country can be traced back to our criminal federal reserve system and fiat monetary system.

Ultimately, national debt (credit expansion) has a limiting factor that is very dangerous. Eventually the other countries that we are buying things from will begin to reject our money. They will demand "things" instead of worthless paper. This is what is about to happen now.

This is the market forcing the nation to actually become productive again instead of living off a credit card.



[edit on 25-7-2010 by mnemeth1]

reply to post by mnemeth1


Yeah, I'm just waiting for China to ask for their money we owe them

Take a look at the American flags in the store, they are made in China. How sad.

Originally posted by mnemeth1The actual cause of the credit expansion is due to the criminal federal reserve artificially suppressing interest rates.

Yes, yes, yes, yes & yes. I'm no economist, but there's no way in hell the rates should be as low as they are. It's seemed to me that they've been far too low for 10 years now. I can understand a dip in the rate now and again, but these things have stayed low without much variation for a decade or more.

Its a great article, but it doesn't get to the heart of why debt is exploding other than saying government is responsible.

Well, I'd argue that it's more about personal responsibility than the government keeping rates low enough to make the populace happy. Aside from a home, if you can't buy it with cash then simply don't buy it. Our own greed is what gets us in debt. Nobody is holding a gun to your head forcing you to finance cars, furniture, electronics, jewelry, or whatever the heck you're enslaving yourself to.

reply to post by highlyoriginal


interesting how much it spiked during the reagan and bush jr years.
so much for our "conservative" presidents.

If I owe you 10 grand, I have a problem.

If I owe you 10 million, YOU have a problem.


So, the USA owes Japan and China a few trillion.

THEY have the problem.

Ah, the fall of Rome. Does anyone remember it? Obama is leading us down the same yellow brick road - only he's not half as good a man as the guy behind the curtain in Oz.

To say that most Americans are obsessed with this celebrity b.s. is very wrong. You are confusing what the establishment and what the citizens find interesting.
The waning popularity of the media as they continue to spotlight the sports and Hollywood "happenings" is proof.
I work in a restaurant; exposed to may opinions, I have yet to hear a conversation about the two mentioned people.

Well, I don't like all this false prosperity and printing money either. But you know who is really to blame? Us the greedy and materialistic consumer who demands more, more, and MORE. We are the ones who have and continue to bask in this money orgy.

Also, I have been hearing this gloom and doom, economic ticking time bomb stuff since the 80's and nothing has really changed. I thought this had to end decades ago and I was wrong then and continue to be wrong now.

So what if everyone and every country is in debt? What different does it make if all debt is forgiven so the money orgy can go on? Who or what is going to put an end to it, if all members are content on keeping the game going (meanwhile looking the other way at each others debts)?



[edit on 25-7-2010 by whatsup]

The downfall of America has already come. We are a joke to the rest of the world. The only thing Americans are good for these days is consuming. Our money is as significant as monopoly money, everything is credit. It's genius really, keep us enslaved while the government pours out the worth us citizens produced. We have grown complacent with mediocrity. The media distracts us from what's really important. Our government continues to bury us in debt while we just sit on our asses and watch American Idol.

No one would be complaining if the bubble didn't burst. Remember all those tech sector guys becoming instant millionaires overnight? Well, 10 years later they couldn't pay their mortgage. Oh yeah, two wars and a stock market crash later.

Blame Reaganomics and Bushwhackernomics folks. Cut and Dry...

It's actually a lot worse than the chart at the beginning shows. I believe the total US debt when you add in required entitlement spending that the US owes back to the American people would put the total US debt up over 56 trillion dollars. Of course I'm not expecting the money our government pays back to be worth that much years from now if our government even does pay the money out. Our health care and entitlement spending will be rationed I believe. That's what socialism is all about. Ration everything and give something to everyone but the total amount you have is a whole lot less. The American people voted for that and now they are starting to get it. Basic financial information like what is in this thread should be taught in High Schools.

I would stop trying to pin the blame on either Bush or Obama. Both parties are to blame in my opinion. It's like two sides of a coin, tails the US spends money like crazy, heads the same thing.

[edit on 25-7-2010 by orionthehunter]

Originally posted by Come Clean
No one would be complaining if the bubble didn't burst. Remember all those tech sector guys becoming instant millionaires overnight? Well, 10 years later they couldn't pay their mortgage. Oh yeah, two wars and a stock market crash later.

Blame Reaganomics and Bushwhackernomics folks. Cut and Dry...

"Trickle down" supply side economics.

Because the upper crust always spreads the love.

Looks like the DEBT bubble is about to pop once again.

Soon another depression will be upon us.

Line three.