Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 21, 2013

Share This Chart With Anyone That Believes The U.S. Economy Is Not Going To Crash - Michael Snyder, on July 21st, 2013 - Anyone that thinks that the U.S. economy can keep going along like this is absolutely crazy.  We are in the terminal phase of an unprecedented debt spiral which has allowed us to live far, far beyond our means for the last several decades.  Unfortunately, all debt spirals eventually end, and they usually do so in a very disorderly manner.  The chart that you are about to see is one of my favorite economic charts.  It compares the growth of U.S. GDP to the growth of total debt in the United States.  Yes, U.S. GDP has certainly grown at a decent pace over the years, but our total debt has absolutely exploded.  40 years ago, the total amount of debt in our system (government debt + corporate debt + consumer debt, etc.) was about 2 trillion dollars.  Today it has grown to more than 56 trillion dollars.                                  Our debt has grown at a much, much faster rate than our economy has, and there is no way in the world that we will be able to continue to do that for long. Posted below is the chart that I was talking about.  The blue line is our total debt, and the red line is our GDP.  As you can see, this chart kind of speaks for itself..

Now That Detroit’s Gone Bust, Is Your City Next? - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - July 20, 2013 

Housing recovery leaves young adults behind - USA Today  - July 17, 2013 - Between 2006 and 2011, those 25-34 experienced the largest decline in home ownership rates in the country, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census Bureau data. High unemployment and debt loads are just some of the factors, but have led to a decreased ability to save for a down payment or qualify for a mortgage.

Bernanke Confirms: “If We Were To Tighten Policy, The Economy Would Tank” - SHTFPlan - Mac Slavo - July 18th, 2013 - Financial analysts have opined that the United States is well on the road to recovery. They cite various data points to make the case that the multi-trillion dollar bailouts and stimulus have brought us back from the brink of a collapse so serious that Congressional leaders had been told that should the bailouts fail, there was a real possibility of martial law being declared.
We’re doing so well, in fact, that just a couple of years ago President Obama assured the nation of our progress, claiming that we “reversed the recession, avoided a depression, [and] got the economy moving again.”                          But were one to take a step back from the rhetoric of talking heads, political leaders and so-called Wall Street experts, a completely different picture begins to emerge.
Just this week it was announced that not only are housing starts plummeting, but permit applications reported their “largest miss in history,” an indicator that the economy is not as healthy as it has been made out to be. And, while stock markets are hitting all-time record highs, what’s curious is that some of the world’s largest companies, including Intel, IBM, Google, Ebay and FedEx, are reporting significant consumer pull back and earnings below analyst expectations.                         And if that hasn’t convinced you, then here is the reality of the situation directly from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the architect of the most massive economic recovery “plan” ever devised in the history of the world.


If We Don’t Break Up the Big Banks, They Will Manipulate More and More of the Economy … Making Us Poorer and Poorer - WashingtonsBlog - July 21, 2013 -


A Truckers anecdotal evidence on the economy