Statistics can paint a picture that reflects our current values and our future prosperity.
1. 15% of us are in a breadline.
Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That’s an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.
2. Half of U.S. Households pay no Federal Income Tax…yes, none.
47 percent of American households pay no federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
3. 30% of the citizens we produce are marginally employable. And our production rate of tax-paying, self-suffucient citizenry is worse in our big cities.
A report released in 2008 by an educational advocacy group founded by retired general and former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell found that almost half of all public high school students in the US’ fifty largest cities fail to graduate.
The report stated that only 52 percent of public high school students in these cities graduate after four years, while the national average is 70 percent.
With spending and investment portfolios declining in the midst of a household debt contraction our chances of going into recession are rising.
Household spending fell in June for the third straight month; never in the past five decades has this happened outside of a slump.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index plunged 16.8 percent in 11 days,
Continue reading Spending and Investments Decline, Chance of Recession Rises
The national discussion on how to get our debt problem under control and reduce our spending raises many various arguments. A recent example offered that our pluralistic society is causing the givers to resent giving to the takers. Now, Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, shares that only by allowing people to struggle to improve
Continue reading Our Federal Debt and the Pursuit of Wealth and Happiness
Marc Faber believes bonds are currently a bad investment.
“I disagree with the bond bulls that are basing their case on a deflationary environment. In such an outcome tax revenues would collapse and stocks would fall heavily.” Should stocks fall the Fed would initiate more quantitative easing.
Faber says people shouldn’t be buying bonds with yields trading
Continue reading Dollar will Drop so Don’t Invest in Dollar Assets – Marc Faber
A financial crisis initiates a sudden flight to safety among bondholders – widening interest-rate spreads, diminishing the private sector’s desire to sell bonds to raise capital and encouraging individuals to save more and consume less as they, too, hunker down. Thus bond prices rise, and interest rates drop. As rates fall, firms see that they
Continue reading A Liquidity Trap – Monetary Policy Unable to Stimulate the Economy
Retirees may have to delay Social Security benefits and buy an annuity to have enough money for retirement, said a U.S. government study.
“The risk that retirees will outlive their assets is a growing challenge,” according to a study from the Government Accountability Office scheduled for release today. Increased life expectancies and health-care costs coupled with
Continue reading Buy an Annuity and Delay Social Security – GAO
The attempt by households and governments to reduce debt is showing that it is difficult to do. Today, U.S. consumers have more mortgage and credit-card debt than they did five years ago, and the U.S. budget deficit is worsening.
The government and individuals alike are still heavily in debt. U.S. consumer debt has skyrocketed by 37%
Continue reading Attempt to Reduce Debt is Difficult and Impacts Global Economy
Bill Gross, PIMCO founder and co-chief investment officer, shares his insights on the value of a college education.
Bill Gross:
College was great as long as the jobs were there.
Now, however, a growing number of skeptics wonder whether it’s worth the time or the cost. Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and head of Clarium
Continue reading College Education – Finding Value in the High Cost and Student Debt in a Global Economy – Bill Gross
Andy Tobias, author of “The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need”, believes that after a certain point, it doesn’t help to know more about investing.
Andy Tobias:
If you’re using more complex strategies, that implies active trading. Transactions have costs. There are brokerage commissions. You have the spread. And then you have taxes if the trade’s not
Continue reading At Some Point It Doesn’t Pay to Learn More About Investing: Andy Tobias
The U.S. government can choose one of two economic paths: Austerity or irrelevance. Our debt burden and money-happy efforts to avoid the difficult parts of an economic crisis have left an economy virtually immune to stimulus yet devoid of actual growth in jobs or GDP.
On the other hand, clamping down on stimulus in a world
Continue reading Our Economy: No-Growth and Immune to Stimulus
