By Jeff T. Allen

We are facing a tipping point. There will soon be a crisis affecting US citizens beyond any experienced since the Great Depression. And it may happen within the year. This past week three awful developments put a dagger into the hope for a growth-led recovery, which held promise of possibly averting a debt and currency implosion crushing the American economy.

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By Vedran Vuk

In 2008, a lot of educated individuals justified the bailouts by warning of riots and social upheaval. Hence, the bailouts were absolutely necessary. If the unemployment rate rose, people would take to the streets. They’ll elect a new Hitler. Society will come to a halt.

Even conservatives and libertarians sometimes make the same argument against their own proposals. If the government lowers welfare benefits, there will be Molotov cocktails flying through the air. I call BS. First of all, economic hardship around the world is nothing new. In fact, it’s the norm. And unfortunately, the average person has an extremely high tolerance for unemployment, scarcity, and tyranny.

Threats of social unrest are always presented as one-way streets. We’re always told, “If we don’t bail out the banks, people will riot.” But why not another version, “If we bail out the banks, people will riot.”

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The United States by every measure is hanging on by a thread to its First World status. Saddled by debt, engaged in wars on multiple fronts with a rising police state at home, declining economic productivity, and wild currency fluctuations all threaten America’s future.

The general designations of the ranking system for world status date back to the 1950s, and have included countries at various stages of economic development. Since the Cold War, the definition has come to be synonymous with repressive countries where a wealthy class of ruling elites segment society into the haves and have-nots, many times capitalizing on the conditions that follow an economic crisis or war.

While much of the world is still mired in poverty, the reduced cost of innovative tools such as computing and connectivity ironically puts traditional Third World countries at the forefront of a new lean-and-mean economy that is based on ideas of empowerment for the disenfranchised. For better or worse, the world is leveling due to Globalism. However, America and other over-leveraged countries face this re-balancing of the globe at a time when they have dwindling resources. We can speculate about who and what is to blame for America’s fantastic fall, but for the purposes of this article we shall focus on the obvious signs that the United States is beginning to resemble a Third World country.

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By Greg Jones

Judging from the anti-Obama comments from a dozen state and national public officials – including a rousing keynote address by Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott – anyone but the mentally ill would have agreed that the current political climate in the country is in self-destruct mode.

They called for a continued “new awakening” in America to “take back the country” from a Democrat Party that has thumbed its nose at Americans in an all-out czar-studded power grab ignoring the U.S. Constitution and like “drunken sailors” is spending the -being of future generations into serious jeopardy.

Addressing the lively audience of vocally patriotic conservatives, the intensity at the Waco Convention Center went off the charts as the highly popular state conservative chief legal officer wheeled himself to the microphone on the speakers’ platform. Above the extended ovation, Greg Abbott shouted loud welland clear to “fire Nancy Pelosi,”and “retire Harry Reid.” At that point, and barely audible over the roar of the crowd, he shouted, “… and send that message on to Barack Obama.”

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By Adam Lass

Washington can misdirect us all they like, but their amateur-hour magic act can never create real value.

For a thousand years, alchemists worked day and night at stained workbenches in darkened smoky cells to discover the great secret of turning dross lead into brilliant gold. I can now announce that this great riddle has finally been sulved, but not by chemists or physicists or even black magicians.

No, in the end, the answer was ginned up by bureaucrats in Washington D.C. Turns out, all you had to do to turn crap into gold was lie about it! Let me show you how it’s done.

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By Jake Tate

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or “Stimulus Package,” is a bill that was passed by the U.S. Congress and later signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. It is a bill that by most estimates will cost at least $787 billion dollars. The legislation was supposed to stimulate our struggling economy and promised to create between 3 and 4 million jobs in a one year period. Also included in this sweeping legislation is money to modernize roads, improve our public school systems, and lower health care costs.

While all these things might seem logical and maybe even needed to the average American, many details of this expensive bill are commonly not explained or understood by most. This massive spending bill is replete with wasteful spending and political pet pork-barrel projects such as the $21,000 dollars set aside to fix tennis courts in Montana and the $10,090 to build a fence in Nevada. Although drivers may not be hitting livestock and kids in Montana can play more tennis, does this spending “stimulate” our economy? Is it the government’s job to use our money like this?

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By Vedran Vuk

The Census aims to be every man’s hero. It promises an economic stimulus, a reduction in unemployment, and greater funds for every community. Of course, the reality is much closer to a game of musical chairs with your money. And guess who will be left standing?

The most immediate impact of the Census is that it distorts unemployment rates. With 1.2 million hired temporarily during the fall, the Census is already skewing the unemployment numbers in the government’s favor. Specifically, the fall data shows unemployment at 9.8% (Sept), 10.1% (Oct), and 10% (Nov).

Who can forget the hoopla over the November reduction from 10.1 to 10? To government officials, it was as if the clouds had parted after a relentless hurricane, “proof” that the massive stimulus spending was working.

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By Peter Schiff

With today’s unexpected decline in December payrolls, the cry for more job-related stimulus will grow even louder. But the sad truth is that any new stimulus or jobs bills will ultimately swell the ranks of the unemployed, thereby raising calls for an even bigger federal effort. If we are not careful, government regulations, subsidies, and spending, all designed to fight unemployment, could push the labor market into a death spiral.

Regulation acts like a tax on job creation. By subjecting employers to all sorts of extra expenses when they hire people, regulations increase the cost of employment far beyond the wages employers actually pay their workers. In fact, some regulations are specifically tied to the number of workers employed. This provides some employers with a strong incentive to stay small and not hire.

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By Patrice Hill

The so-called “Great Recession” has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before.

Without record levels of welfare, unemployment and other government benefits as well as tax cuts last year, the income of U.S. households would have plunged by an astonishing $723 billion — more than four times the record $167 billion drop reported last month by the Commerce Department.

Moreover, for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.

The figures show the devastating results of the massive job losses last year and indicate that the economic recovery that began last summer is tenuous and has a long way to go before many Americans resume life as normal, analysts said.

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The House and Senate attempted to pass a $10 billion bill last night that would have extended unemployment benefits for 1.1 million people.
They ran into this:

Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who says he’s not seeking reelection, and who admittedly gets his news only from Fox News, single-handedly blocked the legislation late Thursday. He vowed to again today [...]

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By Conn Carroll
The snowstorms that have already dumped over two feet of snow on the nation’s Capitol and that are threatening to dump another 12 to 16 inches, have grounded the legislative process to a halt. But that might not be such a bad thing. Senate Democrats had hoped they could pass President Barack Obama’s second [...]

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