55 Interesting Facts About The U.S. Economy In 2012


The Economic Collapse Blog

February 25, 2012
How is the U.S. economy doing in 2012?  Unfortunately, it is not doing nearly as well as the mainstream media would have you believe.  Yes, things have stabilized for the moment but this bubble of false hope will not last for long.  The long-term trends that are ripping our economy and our financial system to shreds continue unabated.  When you step back and look at the broader picture, it is hard to deny that we are in really bad shape and that things are rapidly getting worse.  Later on in this article you will find a list of interesting facts that show the true state of the U.S. economy.  Hopefully many of you will find this list to be a useful tool that you can share with your family and friends.  Each day the foundations of our economy crumble a little bit more, and we need to wake up as many Americans as we can to what is really going on while there is still time.  We have accumulated way too much debt, we consume far more wealth than we produce, millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas, our big cities are decaying, family budgets are being squeezed more than ever, poverty is rampant and we have raised several generations of Americans that expect the government to fix all of their problems.  The U.S. economy is at a crossroads, and the decisions that the American people make in 2012 are going to be incredibly important.
The statistics listed below are presented without much commentary.  They pretty much speak for themselves.
After reading this list, it will be hard for anyone to argue that we are on the right track.
The following are 55 interesting facts about the U.S. economy in 2012....
#1 As you read this, there are more than 6 million mortgages in the United States that are overdue.
#2 In January, U.S. home prices were the lowest that they have been in more than a decade.
#3 In Florida right now, some drivers are paying nearly 6 dollars for a gallon of gas.
#4 On average, you could buy about 10 gallons of gas for an hour of work back in the mid-90s.  Today, the average hour of work will get you less than 6 gallons of gas.
#5 Sadly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year.
#6 According to Gallup, the unemployment rate was at 8.3% in mid-January butrose to 9.0% in mid-February.
#7 The percentage of working age Americans that have jobs is not increasing.  The employment to population ratio has stayed very steady (hovering between 58% and 59%) since the beginning of 2010.
#8 If you gathered together all of the workers that are "officially" unemployed in the United States into one nation, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the entire world.
#9 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million.  Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.
#10 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hoveringclose to an all-time record high.
#11 According to Reuters, approximately 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.
#12 There are about 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment.  That is an all-time record high.
#13 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.
#14 Back in the year 2000, about 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.  Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.
#15 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#16 Amazingly, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since 2001.
#17 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
#18 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risenby 23 percent.
#19 An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all at this point, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.
#20 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in "the fretful zone just above it".

Debt doomsday may come sooner than expected

Politico
February 24, 2012


The federal government could hit the debt ceiling sooner than expected — and possibly around the November election — according to a report out Friday.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had hoped that last summer’s deal to end the nasty fight over lifting the debt ceiling would ensure the issue wouldn’t resurface until at least 2013.

But the Bipartisan Policy Center said Friday that the debt-limit doomsday could come earlier than that.
Analysts from the Bipartisan Policy Center projected that the United States will hit its $16.4 trillion debt ceiling between late November 2012 and early January 2013 due to lower-than-expected corporate tax revenues and the recent extension of the payroll tax holiday.

A number of other factors, such as the ongoing financial crises in Europe, volatile gas prices and how quickly the U.S. economy continues to grow could push the debt-ceiling deadline forward or backwards, according to the center.

“When the Budget Control Act of 2011 increased the debt ceiling last August, Congress, the administration, and outside analysts believed that this increase would allow federal borrowing under the limit well into 2013,” the center’s analysts wrote. “Due to unexpected circumstances … that belief appears increasingly likely to have been misguided.”

The current debt level is $15.4 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.
The center’s report echoes a warning from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week, when he testified before the Senate Budget Committee that the country would reach the debt limit “significantly” after the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, but “before the end of the calendar year.”

“Those estimates will change, it’s a long way away and you know those estimates change a lot,” Geithner told senators. “But what we do try and do is update those estimates regularly, transparently and we’ll keep doing that as we have in the past.”

President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget also foreshadows an earlier-than-expected deadline. As of Sept. 30, the debt level is expected to hit $16.3339 trillion, running close to the statutory $16.394 trillion limit, according to the budget.

Read the entire article

The Birth of World Government with Dr. Michael Coffman


Infowars.comFriday, February 24, 2012
On the Thursday, February 23 edition of Infowars Nightly News, host Paul Joseph Watson talks with Dr. Michael Coffman, CEO of Sovereignty International, who appears in Alex’s Endgame: Blueprint For Global Enslavement.

A New Anti-Imperialist Bloc of Nations Convened by Russia is Needed to Prevent a New Middle East War


originally posted on PressTV on Feb.18, 2012
The US tries to break up existing countries and turn them into “rump states”, such as Libya that is descending into chaos, an analyst tells Press TV referring to the current situation in Syria.
After vetoing an anti-Syria resolution in the UN Security Council earlier this month, China and Russia said that the current crisis in the Arab country should be resolved through political channels.
Meanwhile, the United States, Israel and some Arab States as well as al-Qaeda are seeking to overthrow the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March and many people have lost their lives in the violence.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Webster Griffin Tarpley, author and historian from Washington, to share his opinion on this issue. The following is a transcript of the interview: Continue reading A New Anti-Imperialist Bloc of Nations Convened by Russia is Needed to Prevent a New Middle East War

Ron Paul Highlights from 2/22/2012 Debate


CNNThursday, February 23, 2012
All of Ron Paul’s answers from the last GOP debate before Super Tuesday.

Russia warns Israel not to attack Iran

Reuters
February 22, 2012



(Reuters) - Russia warned Israel on Wednesday that attacking Iran would be a disastrous and played down the failure of a U.N. nuclear agency mission to Tehran, saying there is still a chance for new talks over the Iranian atomic program.
"Of course any possible military scenario against Iran will be catastrophic for the region and for the whole system of international relations," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a news conference.
It was one of Russia's starkest warnings against resorting to force, an option Israel and the United States have not ruled out if they conclude that diplomacy and increasing sanctions will not stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
"I hope Israel understands all these consequences ... and they should also consider the consequences of such action for themselves," Gatilov said. "I hope a realistic approach will prevail, along with a sensible assessment."
Russia, China as well as many allies of the United States are concerned that any military action against Iran could engulf the Middle East in wider war, which would send oil prices rocketing at a time of global economic troubles.
Iran has threatened to retaliate for any attack, or even if it feels endangered, by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for Gulf oil exports crucial to the global economy, and hitting Israel and U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Immigration enforcement program to be shut down

USA Today
February 22, 2012


Editor's note: Apparently Obama needs to get more votes!


WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is starting to shut down a program that deputized local police officers to act as immigration agents.



Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have trained local officers around the country to act as their agencies' immigration officers. Working either in jails or in the field, the officers can check the immigration status of suspects and place immigration holds on them.
The program, known as 287(g), reached its peak underPresident George W. Bush, when 60 local agencies signed contracts with ICE to implement it. But that trend slowed significantly under President Obama— only eight agencies have signed up since he took office, and none has done so since August 2010.

US troops now in 4 African countries to fight LRA

AP News
February 22, 2012



NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- U.S. troops helping in the fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army are now deployed in four Central African countries, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa said Wednesday.

The U.S. announced in October it was sending about 100 U.S. troops - mostly special operations forces - to Central Africa to advise in the fight against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa, said the U.S. troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic.
Read the entire article

Chart of the Week: Nearly Half of All Americans Don’t Pay Income Taxes

Heritage.org
February 22, 2012


Editor's Note: In English - We're Hit Like a "Soup line" Soup Sandwich!!!

This year’s Index of Dependence on Government presented startling findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. (See last week’s chart.)
Another eye-popping number was the percentage of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, which now accounts for nearly half of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, most of that population receives generous federal benefits.
“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell. “The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009.”
That means 151.7 million Americans paid nothing in 2009. By comparison, 34.8 million tax filers paid no taxes in 1984.
The rapid growth of Americans who don’t pay income taxes is particularly alarming for the fate of the American form of government, Beach and Tyrrell warned. Coupled with higher spending on government programs, it is already proving to be a major fiscal challenge.
“This trend should concern everyone who supports America’s republican form of government,” Beach and Tyrrell wrote. “If the citizens’ representatives are elected by an increasing percentage of voters who pay no income tax, how long will it be before these representatives respond more to demands for yet more entitlements and subsidies from non-payers than to the pleas of taxpayers to exercise greater spending prudence?”

Ron Paul Is Being Cheated Out of the Republican Nomination


The GOP establishment has resorted to vote fraud in almost every state
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Despite his runaway success in terms of straw poll victories, campaign contributions and grass roots energy, a plethora of evidence strongly indicates that Ron Paul is being cheated out of winning any of the Republican caucuses, with the GOP establishment desperate to prevent the Texan Congressman from building any kind of momentum that the likes of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have been afforded.

Even the establishment media is now being forced to report that “Ron Paul Might Have Won Maine,” with evidence of potential vote fraud targeted against Ron Paul prompting the state’s GOP chairman Charles Webster to ask for a recount.
With just 84 per cent of the votes being counted, and with many towns and counties showing strong support for Ron Paul having not yet cast their votes, the media along with the Republican establishment brazenly declared Mitt Romney to be the winner, despite him having just a 194 vote lead over Ron Paul.
Erroneous reports of a snowstorm were cited as a pretext to cancel the caucus in Washington County, an area heavily dominated by Paul supporters, delaying the vote for a week. Voters in the county are still waiting to cast their ballots.
“That’s right. A prediction of 3-4 inches–that turned into nothing more than a dusting–was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight,” spokesman Gary Howard wrote in an E-mail to supporters, adding that even the local Girl Scouts’ meeting survived the weather.
Local reporters in Maine also revealed how the vote for most Waldo County towns was entered as “0”, as if no one had turned out to vote.
Rachel Maddow expanded on the reports in a feature on MSNBC, pointing out that when one town in Waldo attempted to call in its results, State officials said they already had results from the town showing Romney had won, when in reality that wasn’t the case and in fact Ron Paul had won.

Qetz Ha Yamim "The End of Days"

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
By Mark Matheny
February 22, 2012

Humanity has lost it's way, and now the price we must pay is on the horizon. Respect for our fellow man, and respect for the Creator of the Universe have both grown cold.

Greed and lust for power has taken over, and those who have gained the highest seats in the High Tower of control have decided that those below are not worthy of this thing called freedom and self determination.

They have, as the bible states, "sought out many inventions", and those inventions have through the annals of history been primarily used to destroy - not build.

There is a cosmic stirring in the universe, between the forces of evil against the infinite Force of Righteousness, and soon it shall manifest across the lands, hills, valleys, and even the seas of the planet earth.

It will be a time like none other - a time spoken of since the recorded history of mankind. The day is passing, and the night is coming when no man can work.

We have seen the effects of the darkness. The misery. The death. The destruction.

And yet we seem to welcome the coming final darkness with a lusting desire. We seem to call out for the darkness to engulf us, through the ways of our own selfishness.

We have a light that has been given, but we shun it as though it were poison, though it be the very fountain of life.

We deny it's warmth and look instead to the eternal damnation that we have made for ourselves!

We have only ourselves to blame if we deny the Light given!Black Fire on White Fire! Revealed on Har MorYah!!

U.S. Moves Closer to Arming Syrian Rebels


Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper
Associated Press
February 22, 2012
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to ramp up diplomatic efforts against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime on a trip to North Africa this week, as some countries begin to explore the possibility of arming Syria’s rebels.
Clinton is traveling to London on Wednesday for a conference on Somalia, but U.S. officials will be using the international gathering to lay the groundwork for a major conference on Syria’s future taking place later this week in Tunisia. The trip comes as the Obama administration is opening the door slightly to international military assistance for Syria’s armed opposition.

Israel: Public U.S. objections to military attack serve Iran’s interests


Barak Ravid
Haaretz
February 21, 2012
Israel has protested to the United States over recent comments by senior American officials critical of any Israeli attack on Iran, saying this criticism “served Iran’s interests.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other senior officials made their displeasure known to Tom Donilon, U.S. national security adviser who has been in Israel this week.
A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu and Barak told Donilon of their dissatisfaction with the interview given by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, to CNN on Sunday.

STEVEN SEAGAL TOLD US THE TRUTH AND WE DIDN'T LISTEN!

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
February 21, 2012

Too bad we can't have Steven Seagal kick some Globalist **s!!!

You Tube


Don't Be Misled - Israel Wants Peace

HonestReporting
February 21, 2012

Is the media misleading you on Middle East peace? Don't follow the herd - watch this video to find out why Israel is not the obstacle to Middle East peace and see HonestReporting's resources page for more information.http://honestreporting.com/resources-on-israels-peace-efforts/

Grain Products and Meat Prices to Rise Higher Than 2011 Levels

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
February 21, 2012

Food prices grew steadily in 2011. U.S. consumer food prices rose more than 6% last year.

What can we expect for 2012? According to AG Today, we can expect home food prices to increase again this year on an average of 3 and 4%. Bread cereal and bakery products may see higher increases than 2011 due to higher wheat prices.

We can expect higher meat prices as well due to smaller herds, and while produce and dairy may run at an average increase of 3 to 4%, bad weather in 2012 could drive fruit and vegetable prices to higher than usual rates.


Scientists working on $330,000 test-tube-meat burger


Editor's Note: We may have to resort to the "Hananiah,Azariah, Mishael, and Daniel Diet" now that this  is the new King's Dainties..... (Daniel 1:1-15)- Mark Matheny

Tiffany Hsu
LA Times
February 20, 2012
Would you eat mystery meat grown in a lab if doing so was better for the environment? The debate may seem abstract, but scientists could turn a test-tube burger into reality by October.
The $330,000 project being conducted by Mark Post, chairman of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, involves a cow’s stem cells and funds from an anonymous private investor.
Post has already created several small strips of muscle tissue that, once he makes thousands more, will be mashed together to create a burger patty. The first sandwich could be ready this fall, he said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, Canada.

Obama’s budget is a sneak attack on our Second Amendment freedoms

The Daily Caller
February 17, 2012



Ever since taking office, President Barack Obama has tried desperately to convince gun owners and sportsmen that he supports the Second Amendment. But actions speak louder than words, and Obama’s latest budget proposal contains numerous sneak attacks aimed at the heart of our firearm freedoms.
For example, NRA members and gun owners fought hard for a law to ban government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control from using our tax dollars to produce blatant anti-gun propaganda. Obama wants to kill it in his budget.
We fought hard for a law to ban the Obama administration from spending our tax dollars on illegal schemes like Operation Fast and Furious, which funneled thousands of guns to violent Mexican drug cartels. Obama wants to kill it in his budget.
We fought hard to protect the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, which allows armed, trained commercial airline pilots to serve as the last line of defense should terrorists breach the cockpit and attempt another 9/11-style attack. Obama wants to slash the funding for this potentially life-saving program in half.
Perhaps he doesn’t have the money to protect airline passengers because he spent it all sending guns to Mexico.
We fought hard for a law that prevents the Obama White House from spending our tax dollars to ban shotguns and to stop historic and collectible firearms from being imported into the United States. Obama wants to kill both of these in his budget.
Obama’s budgetary assault on our gun rights doesn’t stop there. For years gun owners have been buying and recycling our military’s spent brass as a way to keep the cost of firearm ownership down. Not anymore. If Obama gets his way with the budget, all of this brass will be melted at taxpayers’ expense.


Establishment Media Ignores Massive Ron Paul Veterans March


Infowars.comTuesday, February 21, 2012
Coverage from the Veterans For Ron paul march on the White House yesterday.

WE'RE HIT!!! TELEVISION Live -Week in Review

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!
Mark Matheny
February 21, 2012


Mark Matheny covers News events over the last week in light of Biblical Prophecy. Recorded Live at WE'RE HIT!!! TELEVISION Live.


U.N. Taking Over City Councils Across America!




  on Dec 24, 2011
Stacy Lynne educates We Are Change Colorado about the International Council on LOCAL Environmental Initiatives. An arm of the United Nations Agenda 21 and how they are using "GREENWASHING" to take over America.

Russian superlaser to be as good as H-bomb

The design of the Luch laser device is to be used for the future Russian superlaser (image from vniief.ru)
RT News
February 20, 2012



Russia has launched a $1.5 billion project to create a high-energy superlaser site which designers pledge will be the best in the world. Capable of igniting nuclear fusion, the facility will be used both for thermonuclear weapon and civil purposes.
The new laser device will be used for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) studies. The field aims to recreate in the lab the processes which happen inside a star or in a hydrogen bomb explosion. ICF is similar to what scientists are trying to do with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, but takes an alternative approach to how nuclear fusion is started.
The laser facility will be developed by the Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF), a leading Russian nuclear laboratory. In its six decades of history, it was involved in the development of both the military and civilian nuclear programs in Russia.
The site will have the size of a 360-meter long 10-story building and be built near the Sarov technology park in Nizhny Novgorod region in central Russia, said the institute’s head of research, Radiy Ilkaev, who said it will be a dual-purpose device.
“On the one hand, there is the defense component, because high energy density plasma physics can be productively studied on such devices. It’s necessary for developing thermonuclear weapons. On the other hand, there is the power industry component. The world’s leading physicists believe that laser nuclear fusion can be useful for future energetics,” the scientist said.
The Russian device will be compatible with the American National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the French Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) in terms of their capabilities. The US laboratory is currently online. The French counterpart is due to be launched in 2012. The Russian facility may be ready in a decade, Ilkaev estimates.