Tag Archives: new crisis ahead for US economy

Why are so many families feeling extreme financial stress? Here’s one of the main reasons…

When the cost of living rises faster than paychecks year after year, eventually that becomes a very big problem.  Every month, tens of millions of American families struggle to pay the bills, and most of them don’t even understand the economic forces that are putting so much pressure on them.





Meanwhile, incomes have been so stagnant that median household income did not go up at all during 2016.


The things that we all spend money on month after month just keep going up in price — food, housing, medical care and other essentials.  If there is one thing that we can always count on, it is the fact that things are going to cost more tomorrow than they do today.

Let’s talk about food for a moment.  Remember a time when you could get everything you needed for an entire week for about 20 bucks?  These days you can’t even fill up a cart for hundred-dollar bill!

Food prices have been rising aggressively for many years.  The following is a list that was posted on The Economic Policy Journal showing how much some food and grocery items have increased over the past decade:

1. Tobacco and smoking products

-Price increase: 90.4%

2. Margarine

-Price increase: 63.6%

3. Uncooked ground beef

-Price increase: 46.3%

4. Shelf stable fish and seafood
-Price increase: 45.0%

5. Prescription drugs
-Price increase: 43.5%

6. Rice, pasta, cornmeal
-Price increase: 40.3%

7. Bread
-Price increase: 38.9%

8. Snacks
-Price increase: 38.4%

9. Miscellaneous poultry including turkey
-Price increase: 37.0%

10. Apples
-Price increase: 36.6%

11. Frankfurters
-Price increase: 35.8%

12. Canned vegetables
-Price increase: 35.3%

13. Salt and other seasonings and spices
-Price increase: 34.0%

14. Miscellaneous fats and oils including peanut butter
-Price increase: 34.0%

15. Miscellaneous processed fruits and vegetables including dried
-Price increase: 33.7%

16. Bacon and related products
-Price increase: 33.2%

17. Fresh whole chicken
-Price increase: 32.5%

18. Cakes, cupcakes, and cookies
-Price increase: 32.1%

19. Flour and prepared flour mixes
-Price increase: 32.1%

20. Canned fruits
-Price increase: 32.0%

And thanks to out of control government spending and reckless manipulation by the Federal Reserve, inflation is starting to accelerate once again.


At the same time, evidence is mounting that U.S. consumers are simply tapped out.  Interest rates are going up, consumer bankruptcies are rising, and lending standards for consumers are really tightening up.  All are things we would expect to see if a new recession was starting.

And today we learned that the number of Americans refinancing their homes has fallen to the lowest level since 2009


You might remember we also saw a slowdown in mortgage refinancing just before the great financial recession of 2008.



A 31 percent decline in a single year is catastrophic.





So many negative things are happening now, but most people are choosing not to see these red flags that are popping up all around us.

None of our long-term economic problems have been fixed.  Even though Donald Trump won the election, the truth is that our economy is in the worst shape it has been in since the last financial crisis.  Just like back in 2007, we are experiencing a wave of optimism with the new administration, and most people think the party can somehow continue indefinitely.

Whether Donald Trump won the election or not, the truth is that a major economic downturn was going to come anyway.  Mr. Trump is not some magician who can just wave a wand and somehow make results from decades of very foolish decisions instantly disappear.

We’ve been on the biggest debt binge in human history, and there is going to be a terrible price to pay when this immense debt bubble finally bursts.


[From an article published by The Economic Collapse Blog]




As always, posted for your edification and enlightenment by

NORM ‘n’ AL, Minneapolis






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