Standard & Poors' Projection - Right On Schedule

"Just last month Standard & Poors projected that they would lower America's Triple A bond rating by 2012 if America's financial outlook continued to deteriorate - S&P cited growing government health care costs & specifically called out that Medicare Part D worsened the outlook."  Some long time readers of these messages may remember these words I posted on July 13, 2006.  The events of this week show that America is right on schedule for the bond downgrade & all of the problems for you & me that ensue.

 

Thanks to a long time member of our group (who probably remembers the above passage) for sending along the chart below that provides some statistics re America's current financial condition - everything that is up should be down & vice versa.

 

As BO continues full force unimpeded with his social compact plans for America we will become all too familiar with the terms - default, insolvency, haircut, bankrupt, & worst yet defunct.

 

Here is the "change" promised 2 years later-----  January 2009 TODAY % chg. Source Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.79 $3.59 100.6% 1 Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2 Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.70 $108.38 180.0% 2 Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,414.50 65.5% 2 Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2 Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2 Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2 Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3 Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3 Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3 Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim) 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3 Real median household income (2008 v 2009) $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4 Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10) 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5 Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10) 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6 Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3 Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009) 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4 People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009) 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4 U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10 Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10) 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11 Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date) 140 164 17.1% 12 U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate (This is even after the earthquake.) 89.76 85.03 -5.6% 2 U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13 U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 8,310.9 8,871.3 6.7% 13 National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.278 34.4% 14 Just take this last item:  In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. Over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically, speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster . . . it would be doing 1,755 MPH! This is a disaster! Sources: (1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury