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Economic Statistics Indicate U.S. Financial Crisis

There should be little doubt that the U.S. economy is in significant trouble. Indeed, objective criteria, as well as spokespersons from both sides of the political spectrum, indicate an economy approaching crisis levels. A survey of views illustrates the challenge:

The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics  reveals that “Real hourly compensation decreased 0.4 percent…”

The Bloomberg news service reports that “One in seven U.S. households has a negative net worth, as student loans and credit cards plunge a diverse group of people—including those with good jobs—into the red…Almost 15 percent of Americans, or 47 million people, live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Then there are the people loaded up with debt. Even people with good jobs can owe so much on credit cards, student loans, or mortgages that, on paper, they’re worth less than zero. About 14 percent of U.S. households fall into this category, with a negative net worth, according to an analysis this month by the New York Federal Reserve. Add up all their possessions—cash, property, retirement accounts—and subtract all their debts, and one in seven Americans ends up in the red. Overall, U.S. households have $12.3 trillion in debt, according to another New York Fedreport, released this week.”

Liberal-oriented truth-out.org  notes that: “…the evidence shows that living-wage, family-sustaining positions are quickly being replaced by lower-wage and less secure forms of employment. These plentiful low-level jobs have padded the unemployment figures, leaving much of America believing in an overhyped recovery… New research is beginning to confirm the permanent nature of middle-income job loss. Based on analysis that one reviewer calls ‘some of the most important work done by economists in the last twenty years,’ a National Bureau of Economic Research study found that national employment levels have fallen in U.S. industries that are vulnerable to import competition, without offsetting job gains in other industries. Even the Wall Street Journal admits that ‘many middle-wage occupations, those with average earnings between $32,000 and $53,000, have collapsed.”

The financial source Profitconfidential  notes that Washington is “hiding” inflationary statistics.

“According to government statistics, inflation was held to just 0.6% during the first seven months of 2015. Unfortunately, that data disregards the most basic items that everyone uses, including food and energy costs… (Alternative non-government measures of inflation tell a completely different story. The Chapwood Index is an alternative inflation indicator that looks at the unadjusted costs and price fluctuation of the top 500 items that Americans spend their money on in the 50 largest cities in the country. (Source: chapwoodindex.com, last accessed September 22, 2015.) The index looks at the fluctuations in the cost of items such as Advil, Starbucks coffee, insurance, gasoline, tolls, fast food restaurants, toothpaste, oil changes, car washes, cable TV and Internet service, cellphone service, dry cleaning, movie tickets, cosmetics, gym memberships, home repairs, piano lessons, laundry detergent, light bulbs, school supplies, parking meters, pet food, and People magazine.For example, in 2014, the [official consumer price index] CPI rose 0.8%. But according to the Chapwood Index, major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, and Boston saw inflation for the trailing 12 months (through to June of this year) run over 10%.”

Ignoring real inflationary numbers has a dire effect on senior citizens, who have suffered through more years without a cost of living increase in their social security checks than at any other time in living memory.
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Republicans have been sharply critical of the President’s economic policies. GOP candidate Donald Trump uses the worrisome economic statistics as a bludgeon against opponent Hillary Clinton, who has pledged to continue the Obama legacy. His web site states:

“… let’s look at what the Obama-Clinton policies have done nationally.Their policies produced 1.2% growth, the weakest so-called recovery since the Great Depression, and a doubling of the national debt.

“There are now 94.3 million Americans outside the labor force. It was 80.5 million when President Obama took office, an increase of nearly 14 million people. Home ownership is at its lowest rate in 51 years…

“Nearly 12 million have been added to the food stamp rolls since President Obama took office. Another nearly 7 million Americans were added to the ranks of those in poverty.

“We have the lowest labor force participation rates in four decades. 58 percent of African-American youth are either outside the labor force or not employed. 1 in 5 American households do not have a single member in the labor force…Meanwhile, American households are earning more than $4,000 less today than they were sixteen years ago.”

While substantial disagreement exists about the remedies that should be applied to America’s broken economy, the reality that a crisis exists is one which has fairly widespread support.

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America’s Embattled Seniors

A combination of government policies, inflationary economics, and employer bias is making life exceedingly difficult for those over 50 years old.

From Obamacare’s “Independent Patient Advisory Boards” that are empowered to decide if providing medical services to seniors are cost effective, to the President’s proposed Medicare Part D changes, seniors’ health is clearly subject to economic pressure. A  Philly.com report notes that   “In February, the president recommended a change that would result in doubling co-payments on brand-name medications for low-income Americans who use Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit. That could raise the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs for 11 million beneficiaries…Medicare Part D provides essential drug coverage to America’s seniors.”

The problem is not confined to medical issues. The Federal Reserve’s practice of keeping interest rates artificially low to mask a failing economy harms older Americans living off their savings. Also, the historic low cost of living social security increases during the tenure of the current White House has made life increasingly hard for America’s senior citizens.

The extraordinary increase in the federal debt, which soared 70% under President Obama, (from $10.626 trillion when he took office to over $18 trillion currently) is a key factor in the current inflationary spiral. Inflation, particularly in the cost of food, has been devastating to those on fixed incomes, which describes a substantial portion of older Americans. In 2014, the price of standard grocery items soared.

The President’s environmental policies, particularly his move to sharply reduce the role of coal in the energy equation, will result in devastating cost increases that will have deeply harmful effects on the nation’s seniors. In July, according to the Washington Examiner,  “Regulations for new coal plants would increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent…Julio Friedmann, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the Department of Energy, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”

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Unfortunately, the private sector has added to the challenges faced by older Americans.  “Older” is, of course, a relative term. In the eyes of far too many employers, “older” may mean a job seeker only 40 year old.

An AARP report recently released outlines the extraordinary difficulties—far greater than the general population– faced by those who have lost their job but, because of age, are met with resistance in getting hired.

“On average, 45 percent of older jobseekers (ages 55 and older) were long-term unemployed (out of work for 27 weeks or more) in 2014.” [The national average is about 29.8%.] Many of those who are fortunate enough to find some work “end up accepting jobs at lower pay, with fewer hours, and with limited benefits…Almost half (48 percent) of the reemployed said that they were earning less on their current jobs than the job they had before they recently became unemployed…among the reemployed, half were earning less because they were being paid less, 10 percent were working fewer hours, and 39 percent gave both as reasons.”

In an era when the media and the White House are over-eager to claim unfairness or discrimination in so many instances, the most verifiable, inexcusable and harmful bias–that against America’s older population—is substantially under-reported, ignored, or even facilitated by government practice and employer decisions.

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Economic Crisis Unreported

The U.S. economy is in a state of crisis, but you would hardly know it from listening to the major media. The facts, recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, are damning:

America’s real gross domestic product  marginally ticked upwards during 2014’s first quarter at 0.1%, a figure that is only technically not indicative of a recession.

In a clear symptom of a failing economy, exports are down, as is nonresidential fixed investment.  But federal spending—(except for the crucial area of defense, at time when Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, and Islamic extremists threats are growing exponentially)—has increased, perhaps the only reason the numbers don’t reflect an actual recession in the civilian economy.

At the same time, inflation increased at an annualized rate of 5.6%, and that excludes the price hikes in the most inflationary areas of late, food and energy.In a clear indication of the descending strength of the U.S. economy, real exports of goods and services decreased 7.6 percent in the first quarter.
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While Americans struggled, federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 0.7 percent. But as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea drastically expand their militaries and engage in threatening behavior, that extra government spending didn’t include defense, which, in these times of crisis, dropped 2.4%, while nondefense spending was hiked an unsustainable 5.9%.

Making life more difficult, Personal current taxes increased $18.9 billion in the first quarter. Personal saving — disposable personal income less personal outlays –dropped 28.7 billion from the prior quarter. The personal saving rate — personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income – dropped .2%

Combined with the nation’s ongoing unemployment crisis, the drastic increase in the national debt, the expenditure of over $700 billion dollars by the White House in a stimulus program that accomplished nothing, the mismanagement of the American economy is clear and drastic.