This article written Sept 21 2009
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/090921_econ鈥?/a>
Index of articles written by Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/all_columns鈥?/a>
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Americans are being driven into the ground economically, with one million school children now homeless, while Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke announces that the recession is over.
The spin that masquerades as news is becoming more delusional. Consumer spending is 70% of the US economy. It is the driving force, and it has been shut down. Except for the super rich, there has been no growth in consumer incomes in the 21st century. Statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com reports that real household income has never recovered its pre-2001 peak.
At the urging of Larry Summers and Goldman Sachs鈥? CEO Henry Paulson, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bush administration went along with removing restrictions on debt leverage.
When the bubble burst, the extraordinary leverage threatened the financial system with collapse. The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve stepped forward with no one knows how many trillions of dollars to "save the financial system," which, of course, meant to save the greed-driven financial institutions that had caused the economic crisis that dispossessed ordinary Americans of half of their life savings.
The unemployment rate, as reported, is a fiction and has been since the Clinton administration. The unemployment rate does not include jobless Americans who have been unemployed for more than a year and have given up on finding work. The reported 10% unemployment rate is understated by the millions of Americans who are suffering long-term unemployment and are no longer counted as unemployed. As each month passes, unemployed Americans drop off the unemployment role due to nothing except the passing of time.
The worst part of the decline is yet to come. Bank failures and home foreclosures are yet to peak. The commercial real estate bust is yet to hit. The dollar crisis is building.
In the midst of the highest unemployment since the Great Depression what kind of a fool do you need to be to think that there is a shortage of qualified US workers?Should I believe Bernake "recession over" Or Regan's former treasury Secretary - "Great depression"?
Have you read "1984?"
**I seriously don't know who to believe anymore.
But I sense that the crap is fixin' to hit the fan...
...I think "they" want it to.
*I wish I knew who "they" were, so I could kick the crap out of them.
Soon 2+2 will equal 5, or does it already?
I'll hold on to Jesus, the only TRUTH I KNOW.
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Should I believe Bernake "recession over" Or Regan's former treasury Secretary - "Great depression"?At 10% unemployment Bernanke is wrong. Obama has taken a mild recession and turned it into a depression.
Reality doesn't seem to be a part of the feds world. importunately, they will probably not wake up until the pitchforks %26amp; torches are knocking on the door.Should I believe Bernake "recession over" Or Regan's former treasury Secretary - "Great depression"?
Unemployment was higher under Reagan. Are we to believe that the 80's was the Great Depression?
The definition of a recession is two or more consecutive quarters of shrinkage of GDP. A recovery is two consecutive quarters of positive growth of GDP. Most likely after we receive the quarterly report for last quarter of 2009 the recession will be officially over.
Bernake said the recession was "technically over," but that unemployment would continue to be a problem.
Paul Craig Roberts got to the heart of the problem when he pointed out that consumer income hasn't grown this century. Meanwhile CEO income has skyrocketed. Years of Republican union busting and blocking minimum wage increases along with other fair labor practices has taken it's toll.
Bernanke, Geithner, and the entire Obama administration are hiding the truth from the American people. They are buying time in order to implement their agenda before the proverbial 's%it hits the fan. - and it will. Japan is refusing to buy US treasuries unless traded in Yen, HSBC states that the dollar's supremacy is a thing of the past, and the whole group of them are planning to trade in their national currencies until a global monetary system is in place. When the dollar is dumped - probably by the end of the year - it will be known as the Greatest Depression.
I would believe Benake because I have not ever heard him use statistic in a deceptive way but Robert's statement about unemployment vergers on being a lie it is so deceptive. The official unemployment rate is measured the same way now as it was when he was part of the government. The only thing that changed under Clinton is the another measure was also published. If Roberts thinks this is the correct one, why was he silent when he was in a position of power. For both sets of unemployment data see
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008鈥?/a>
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