I can’t help it. I love to go to the government websites and look at the actual numbers they report versus the story I hear in the MSM. Today they reported Personal income and personal spending. Below is a link to the table of data.
http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=9&step=1
It seems that real (after using the fake government inflation number) consumer spending has fallen and can’t get up.
If the government used the real rate of inflation of 9% then real spending would be plunging. Still, the data in the government table is fascinating. Here are my takeaways:
- Wages from private companies topped out in March 2008 at $5.48 trillion. Today, they stand at $5.44 trillion, even with more people in the workforce and three years of inflation.
- You’ll be happy to know that government wages have increased from $1.13 trillion to $1.19 trillion over this same time frame. That’s what we need – more government workers.
- In August 2008 savers and senior citizens were able to generate $1.42 trillion of interest income. Thanks to Ben Bernanke, savers and senior citizens are now generating $1.02 trillion of interest income. Ben has taken $400 billion from savers and seniors and handed it to his puppet masters on Wall Street.
- You’ll be happy to know that dividend income is higher than 2008 because we wouldn’t want to hurt the 1% richest Americans that own all the stocks and get all the dividends.
- And now for the real kicker. Government transfers for SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and UC was $1.7 trillion in the middle of 2007. Today it is running at $2.3 trillion, a 35% increase in four years.
- Something smells in the State of America. Here are the percentage increases over the last four years in major government transfers:
- Social Security – 23%
- Medicare – 31%
- Medicaid – 42%
- Other (WTF is $432 billion of other?) – 52%
Sorry folks, these government transfers don’t pass the smell test. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be increasing at the rate of people turning 65 years old. These rates of increase are 5% to 10%. This tells me that millions are going on these rolls by faking disabilites or illnesses. I think that goes without saying. The Democrats and bleeding heart liberals think this is a good thing.
This data paints a bleak picture for America. Wages from real companies declining, government hiring more people, and government transferring hundreds of billions more each month to the unproductive by borrowing against the futures of the productive and unborn. Welcome to Obama’s World.
The fact that consumers are spending less and saving more is decried as a bad thing in the MSM. What a warped society we have wrought.
Thinker says:
Easy to understand why… look at the ‘surge’ of negative sentiment on the economy in this recent Gallup poll.
July 26, 2011
Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index falls to -46 in the three days ending July 24by Dennis Jacobe, Chief EconomistPRINCETON, NJ — Seventy-three percent of Americans in Gallup Daily tracking over the July 22-24 weekend say the U.S. economy is getting worse. This is up 11 percentage points from the three days ending July 6, and the worst level for this measure since the three days ending March 12, 2009.
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2nd August 2011 at 10:13 am
Colma Rising says:
That’s about right. Inflation and wage stagnation are bogging me down. Its a matter of time and I’m officially poor…
Anyone else?
No toys, flat screens… shitty truck, old clothes. I’m used to it.
Anyone else?
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2nd August 2011 at 10:40 am
Stucky says:
Anyone else?
In the past two years the following people all said that the economic crisis could be worse than the Great Depression:
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan
Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker
Economics scholar and former Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin
Head of the Bank of England Mervyn King
Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman
Former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead
Economics professors Barry Eichengreen and and Kevin H. O’Rourke
Investment advisor, risk expert and “Black Swan” author Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Well-known PhD economist Marc Faber
Morgan Stanley’s UK equity strategist Graham Secker
Former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae Edward J. Pinto
Billionaire investor George Soros
Senior British minister Ed Balls [god, I love that name!]
.
Hello?? Hello!! Anyone paying attention??
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2nd August 2011 at 10:54 am
Administrator says:
Stucky
How about me?
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2nd August 2011 at 11:05 am
Stucky says:
Here’s a pretty good article from a surprising source (NaturalNews ??)
Anyway … the reason I am posting it is because of Number Five on the list.
I’m not sure it has been discussed much here on TBP, but in a collapse THE GOVERNMENT WILL STEAL EVERYTHING FROM YOU ….. your gold, your pensions, your investments …. EVERYTHING!!
You may not agree with me, but I strongly feel I am correct. So …. hide your shit, people!!
==========================================================================
Seven startling things most people still don’t know about the national debt, banking and the money supply
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
Most people, even smart people, know surprisingly little about the way money really works in Big Government. With the debt ceiling fiasco suddenly raising awareness of the possibility of a total global financial blowout, now seems like a good time to remind people of seven disturbing facts about money that are almost never acknowledge in the old media.
.
Fact #1 – There is no FDIC insurance fund.
The money at your bank is insured against loss by the FDIC’s insurance fund, right? Nope. That’s total fiction. There is no actual money in the fund. The FDIC insurance money has already been looted by the U.S. Treasury which has simply replaced the money with a bunch of IOUs.
Why does this matter? Because it means that if the U.S. government goes into default, so will the FDIC! And that means all your bank funds have zero insurance. That’s gonna be a big shock for tens of millions of people when they finally figure this out one day…
—————————–
Fact #2 – There are no social security funds, either.
When you pay social security taxes, all that money goes into a trust fund that’s held for safekeeping until the day it pays you back, right?
Ha! That’s the “sucker’s view” of social security that only ignorant people believe. In reality, there is no money in the social security trust fund because it too has all been looted by the U.S. Treasury and spent. In truth, social security is already broke. Can’t wait for people to wake up and figure this one out, either…
—————————–
Fact #3 – The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every day, even if you pay no taxes!
Here’s a mind-boggling truth that most people just can’t seem to get their heads around: The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every single day by the simple fact that they keep creating new money and handing it out to wealthy banksters. Well, technically this is being done by the Federal Reserve, which isn’t even part of the federal government. But it’s all done in cahoots with the Treasury, which is eroding the value of your money through these money creation and distribution actions.
That’s why prices keep going up all around you, folks: Food isn’t suddenly worth more money; the truth is that your money is worth less! That’s how the Treasury and the Federal Reserve steal from you without even breaking into your home.
Probably 99.9% of the population has no understanding of this phenomenon — the erosion of currency valuation through the centralized government printing of more currency. And yet it is a government scam that has been carried out against citizens of the world time and time again, spanning millennia! As history has clearly shown, every nation that goes down the path of printing more currency to pay its bills eventually ends up in a runaway hyperinflation scenario followed by economic collapse. The USA will be no different.
—————————–
Fact #4 – The “balanced solution” isn’t balanced.
Don’t you love the quirky White House Press Secretary who keeps spewing out the phrase “balanced solution” even while the debt deal leaves the U.S. budget entirely unbalanced?
When you’re spending more money than you’re earning, that’s not financial balance. When the White House says “balanced” what it really means is “compromised” — as in, half way between the Republican position (spend us into purgatory) and the Democratic position (spend us into oblivion). Neither party has any real solution to the cancerous growth of Big Government. That’s because they are creatures of Big Government!
Politicians can no more solve the problems of Big Government than arsonists can solve the problem of office fires. Because they are, themselves, creatures of runaway debt spending (how else do you get elected these days?), they simply do not possess the cognitive framework from which real financial solutions must stem.
—————————–
Fact #5 – THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO STEAL EVERYTHING FROM YOU BEFORE IT COLLAPSES
Oh my, this is a tough one for people to get their heads around… especially those who naively trust governments to act in the interests of the People. The simple truth of the matter — and I’ve publicly made this prediction before — is that the government is going to STEAL almost everything you own as it heads toward a total financial implosion. This will include:
• The government theft of private retirement accounts. The feds will claim they’re taking them over “for your protection.” Yeah, right. And then one day they will simply all vanish. Kiss your IRA goodbye…
• The government theft of precious metals. Within the next 3 years, watch for a national emergency to be declared, followed by government confiscation of gold and silver. The feds will take your gold and hand you paper money in exchange. The paper money, of course, will be all but worthless shortly thereafter. Only the suckers, of course, will actually turn in their metals…
• Government takeover of your bank accounts. As banks begin to fail in the big collapse, the government will step in and take ownership of the failed institutions, just as it did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which used to be publicly-owned companies but are now largely just government finance operations). This will put your bank accounts under the direct control of the White House, which can use executive orders to do things like banning all wire transfers out of the country or limiting daily withdrawals and transfers. Sure, you’ll still “own” your money in the bank, you just won’t be able to freely access it!
—————————–
Fact #6 – Most people have no idea about fractional reserve banking, derivatives, the money supply or the Federal Reserve
It’s not just that most people don’t understand banking and finance; it’s that even members of Congress have no idea how all this works. With few exceptions (like Ron Paul), they’re just clueless!
Get this: Even most bankers don’t even know how fractional reserve banking really works. They don’t understand derivatives, either, which is why they screwed them up so badly in the housing boom that crashed in 2007. And because bankers, investors and bureaucrats have no idea how it all works, they unwittingly turn it all into a runaway catastrophe.
Allowing ignorant adults to play with debt and derivatives is like letting infants play with nuclear weapons. It can only lead to something messy.
—————————–
Fact #7 – Most people are betting their lives on the dollar
People buy insurance for their cars, their homes and even their health. But when it comes to money, 99 out of 100 people in America are betting their entire financial existence on the U.S. dollar! They get their paychecks in dollars, their savings accounts are in dollars, and all their assets are denominated in dollars. As a result, they have no diversity to protect them against dollar devaluation.
That’s kinda crazy, considering just how quickly the dollar could collapse in the near future and become totally worthless. That’s why smart people are diversifying their assets and converting dollars into land, gold, silver or even storable food. Here in central Texas, even ammunition has a long-term barter value that far exceeds dollars.
Looking around at the financial behaviors of others, I’m just stunned at how many people are betting everything on the dollar because they never realized they had any other option (that’s the way the government likes to keep it, of course!).
http://www.naturalnews.com/033207_national_debt_inflation.html
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2nd August 2011 at 11:06 am
Stucky says:
Well, Admin … of course YOU do !!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU are The Knight in Shining Armour. YOU guide peons like myself. YOU provide wisdom and strength in this dire time of need. Without you I would have already met my DOOM!!
Admin ready to do battle.
But behind every great man (and you are a great man) is an even greater woman.
Avalon, Goddess of Love, Quinn’s Queen, Giver of Life, …. the reason I live
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2nd August 2011 at 11:21 am
Stucky says:
WPES
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2nd August 2011 at 11:28 am
Don Levit says:
Stucky:
Great investigative reporting, particularly facts 1 and 2.
There are about 20 funds which borrow from the Treasury to pay current expenses.
Their debt is known as intragovernmental debt, what the Treasury owes the trust funds; ultimately, what the left hand owes the right hand!
Treasury securities are issued as a “promise” to pay back the loans.
Not only the principal of the Social Security trust fund, but the interest, too is phantom.
Interest is not paid in cash, with an immediate budget impact, such as interest on debt held by the public.
Interest on the SS trust fund is paid in debt, with no immediate budget impact.
The principal (excess FICA taxes) has been loaned to the Treasury to pay current expenses.
The entire Social Security trust fund is pay-as-you-go.
To tap principal or interest requires new revenues or new debt held by the public.
For example, the interest has been used in the SS trust fund because outgo exceeded income, excluding interest. This interest was paid by issuing more debt held by the public.
This type of debt is Intragovernmental debt, what the government owes itself, comprises about one-third of total debt.
From a paper entitled “Long-Range Fiscal Policy Brief No. 5,” published by the CBO:
Page 2 “The receipts themselves are deposited into the Treasury, and program expenditures are made from the Treasury. So while trust fund programs’ sources of spending authority and accounting may differ from those of other federal activities, the programs affect the overall financial condition of the government in the same manner as all other programs – through the income and expenditures of the Treasury.
Even Social Security is credited with substantial amounts of intragovernmental income, the largest being ‘interest’ accrued on its holdings of federal securities. But no public or outside entity pays that interest; it is a credit from the government’s general fund to the Social Security trust funds.”
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3974&type=0.
Don Levit
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2nd August 2011 at 11:36 am
Bill Hicks says:
“Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be increasing at the rate of people turning 65 years old. These rates of increase are 5% to 10%. This tells me that millions are going on these rolls by faking disabilites or illnesses. I think that goes without saying.”
There is another possibility you are overlooking–a sharp increase in Baby Boomers taking EARLY SS benefits after age 62 because they are unemployed. Also, the earliest Boomers will not be eligible for FULL SS benefits until next January, when they turn age 66. That’s when you’ll REALLY see those numbers take off.
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2nd August 2011 at 11:43 am
Kill Bill says:
The fact that consumers are spending less and saving more is decried as a bad thing in the MSM. What a warped society we have wrought. -admin
Hard to believe that there arent actually enough suckers born every minute…
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2nd August 2011 at 12:05 pm
AwholeDr says:
Admin:
“Other (WTF is $432 billion of other?) – 52%”
HHS cash payments to Welfare recipients. Has also increased 30% since Obama took office.
“This tells me that millions are going on these rolls by faking disabilities or illnesses.”
No fucking shit. WTF do you think I’m spouting off about on a daily basis?
And don’t forget, Obamacare dumps more than 20 million more into the Medicaid program, so your figures are way low. By the time Obamacare is done, there will be more than 65 million in Medicaid. Let’s not forget, in case you forgot, most of these 65 million will be unable to find a doctor (nobody takes medicaid), will be unable to see a specialist (ibid), and will have to go to the ER with an earache. But go to the ER they will, 3x a day if necessary, because that’s what they do now.
Stucky:
Glad your back. There’s one item missing from that excellent list. Each person’s share of the deficit. Considering the debt ceiling agreement lessens spending by .5%, it’s negligible. The deficit will increase by $1.5 trillion for at least another year or two. Each person’s share of the deficit, each year, is around $4500 per year (assuming pop. 330 million). That is for each man, women and child. So, a family of four $18,000 per year further into debt at the hands of profligate spending politicians. Just a little reminder. If you have a family of four, you have to make about $18,000 just to cover your share of the deficit. By the time the new debt ceiling is reached, a family of four’s share of the deficit will be $200,000. I didn’t see Admin including this in his “net worth” post from last week. Oh well.
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2nd August 2011 at 12:48 pm
Stucky says:
P.R.I.N.T. Money
Pretty funny — 35 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkMmUsi4Gc&feature=player_embedded
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2nd August 2011 at 3:36 pm
AwholeDr says:
Credit downgrade coming, Loved the logic in this article, by Addison Wiggin/The Daily Reckoning
“…Eventually, there’s a downgrade coming,” Pimco’s Bill Gross said yesterday. “It just depends on Moody’s, S&P and Fitch, and they’re very slow-moving. This country has $10-12 trillion worth of outstanding debt. In addition, however, we’ve got about $60 trillion worth of liabilities.
“I call this Debt Man Walking.”
“A downgrade from AAA is a matter of when, not if,” writes our short strategist Dan Amoss. “In it’s wake, the dollar index will fall and gold prices will explode on the upside. Such a downgrade would speed up a slow-moving process that has long been under way: the loss of the U.S. dollar’s role as the primary reserve asset for central banks.
“Even the most radical forecasts are off base.”
“The Fed will have to ensure that there is no liquidity squeeze — perhaps even reopen the commercial paper funding facility it started after the Reserve Primary Fund ‘broke the buck’ in 2008.
“In short, foreign creditors should accelerate their diversification out of Treasuries and into tangible assets when even the slowest money starts realizing that the positive attributes of the Treasury market — liquidity — are far outweighed by the negatives — never getting repaid in honest money.”
Of the $2.2 trillion in revenue the Treasury pulls in each year, about 10% is going for debt service.
“We’ve had higher numbers before,” said veteran analyst Adrian Day on Friday during our symposium in Vancouver. “But rates are now at 70-year lows. And more of the new debt Treasury is issuing these days is of short duration… because those rates are lower.”
Just a reversion to “normal” interest rates… never mind a downgrade… would quickly drive up debt service to 30% of revenue.
This is a reality foreigners already recognize… which is why they’re buying fewer U.S. Treasuries. China’s Dagong rating agency gives its top ratings to Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Singapore. Among the world’s nations, Dagong ranks the United States No. 13.
If foreigners got serious about fleeing Treasuries, the heavy lifting would fall once again to the Federal Reserve. As yet, the Fed has already bought up 80% of Treasury debt issued in 2011.
“There’s something dramatically wrong when one arm of the government is creating money to buy the debt of another arm of the government.”
Amen, Mr. Day.
“This whole wrenching effort to shrink the debt may actually increase the debt,” explained an AP story anticipating a downgrade.
A downgrade “could increase the cost of borrowing for the government — hence more interest and debt — not to mention for everyone else.” Not the least of which are state and local governments who received 80% of the last round of stimulus.
Read more: Causes of an Unstable Market http://dailyreckoning.com/causes-of-an-unstable-market/#ixzz1Ttzo0fMU
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2nd August 2011 at 3:42 pm
Thinker says:
AWD, I’m also hearing that Wall Street secretly wants the downgrade, and the farce in Washington was all about making that come about by delaying a deal in an attempt to force the ratings agencies’ hands. Apparently, Wall St. stands to gain significantly from a downgrade, because they’ll make billions in trading fees.
Haven’t seen confirmation of it yet, but will keep watching for more.
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2nd August 2011 at 3:57 pm
Administrator says:
Food Stamp President with new record. Congrats Obama.
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2nd August 2011 at 7:43 pm
llpoh says:
Hell, the stock market is crashing so I will divest into cash. Wait, wait … real rate of return on cash is negative.
Maybe property then. Oh fuck….. not property.
That leaves …. precious metals, which is a speculation, but what the fuck else is there?
Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck.
There is almost no place to hide. Buy Australian dollars perhaps? Even modestly well to do folks are going to get an absolute screwing. If anything they are going to be the hardest hit, as they have more to lose. The super wealthy will have sufficient hard assets – i.e. property, etc. – to ride it out. The modestly wealthy – say a couple of million – are going to get fucked like there is no tomorrow. Joe Sixpack will lose it all too, but has a lot less to lose.
Those that have done the right thing and have saved and been thrifty are going to end up with nothing unless they get very, very lucky.
I can see why a lot of folks are of the opinion of why bother.
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2nd August 2011 at 8:24 pm
Administrator says:
Job Cuts Surge 59% In July, Highest Since March 2010 As Hiring Intentions Plunge
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/03/2011 07:47 -0400
Those looking for an optimistic early look of this Friday’s NFP (nobody cares about the ADP any longer) should probably avoid the Challenger lay off data just released. As Bloomberg summarizes, U.S. planned firings up 59% Y/y in July to 66,414, led by pharma, retail; largest number in 16 months. The number includes Merck’s plan to cut ~13k jobs. This 3rd consecutive increase; “seems to provide additional evidence” recovery has stalled, according to CEO John A. Challenger. New Jersey (where MRK is based) led states, with 13,330 cuts, followed by Michigan. Employers also announced plans to hire 10,706 after prior month’s 15,498: this is just barely better than the lowest number this year printed in May when just 10,248 businesses announced intention to hire, and well off the 72,581 highs in February. Bottom line: subzero NFP print coming?
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2nd August 2011 at 8:21 am
Thinker says:
I knew it… I was going to estimate 300,000-400,000 based on my tracking. Now we wait for the data on the surging foreclosures.
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2nd August 2011 at 9:03 am