The REAL truth the US economy - ACTUAL unemployment and benefit numbers are obscured from reality

Silent misery: Actual US unemployment 37.2%, record number of households on food stamps in 2013
RT NEWS
January 22, 2014 

As the White House proclaims a recovery is occurring, and the stock market has a head of steam, millions of Americans and their dependents are being left out of the recovery, according to a set of economic indicators.

Perhaps the most worrying yet least reported aspect of the so-called US recovery involves the national labor picture. Although the official US unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, this figure obscures the reality, according to an influential Wall Street adviser.

In a leaked memo to clients, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of Americans out of work at an astronomic 37.2 percent, as opposed to the 6.7 percent claimed by the Federal Reserve.

“The unemployment rate only describes people who are currently working or looking for work,” he said.

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work,” he and colleague Megan Russell reveal in their client report, which was leaked to the Washington Examiner.

Contrary to expectations, a drop in the unemployment rate, Marotta argues, is presently a sign that the unemployed are simply dropping out of the job market.

The “officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work,” said Marotta and Russel. “A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental.”

The authors then take aim at the so-called Misery Index, which provides something of a pulse rate of American prosperity, based on unemployment and inflation. The Wall Street adviser said the Index, which he maintains is actually over 14, as opposed to the 8 advertised by Washington, fails to address how the US economy is being hugely subsidized by various schemes, including monthly bond purchases by the Federal Reserve.

“Today, the Misery Index would be 7.54 using official numbers,” the two analysts wrote. However, taking into consideration the full unemployment picture, including workers who have given up the job search, which is 10.2 percent, together with the historical method of calculating inflation, which is now 4.5 percent, ‘the current misery index is closer to 14.7.”

In food stamps we trust
Marotta’s findings, which put the actual US unemployment rate at over 37 percent, seem more credible when viewed alongside other indicators, including the number of Americans who now rely on government assistance to make ends meet.

It has just been reported that a record 20 percent of American households were receiving food stamps in 2013, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA data shows there were 23,052,388 households on food stamps in an average month of fiscal 2013, a jump of 722,675 from fiscal year 2012, when there were 22,329,713 households on food stamps per month on average.

Last year, according to data from the Census Bureau, there were 115,013,000 households. With 23,052,388 households – or 20 percent of the total number of households –now dependent on food stamps.

In just half a decade, the number of American households on food stamps has significantly increased. In fiscal year 2009, for example, the number of households receiving the government assistance program was 15,232,115. Five years later, in 2013, that number had surged by 51.3 percent to hit 23,052,388 households.

Meanwhile, the monthly average for individuals on food stamps hit an all-time-high of 47,636,084, according to the USDA. This is an increase of 1,027,012 over the 46,609,072 people who were getting food stamps in 2012.

In 2009, the number of individuals relying on the government program stood at 33,489,975. In 2013, the number was 47,636,084, an increase of 42.2 percent.

It should come as no surprise that spending on the US government’s food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has reached an all-time high.

Last year, SNAP cost $79,641,880,000 - a 164 percent increase over the past decade.

During the last five years, the SNAP program exploded by 36.8 percent, from $58,223,790,000 in 2009 to $79,641,880,000 in 2013.

Current US Congress is most despised, unproductive and least popular in history, but who cares, more members of Congress are millionaires than ever

Make the money, make the laws: Congress has more millionaires than ever - report
RT NEWS
January 09, 2014 

AFP photo/Mark Wilson

The most unproductive and least popular US Congress in history can count on another distinction: For the first time ever, most members of the Legislative Branch are millionaires.

At least 268 of the 534 current members of the 113th US Congress have an average net worth of US$1 million or more, according to personal financial disclosure data members registered last year on 2012 net worth, the Center for Responsive Politics reported Thursday.

In 2011, only 48 percent of members had a median net worth of at least $1 million. That number is just over 50 percent for 2012.

The median net worth in 2012 for the 530 current congressional members who were in Congress as of the May 2013 filing deadline was $1,008,767, up from $966,000 in 2011. The totals represent a 5.8 percent net-worth increase for all members.

Net worth for Republicans and Democrats went up 10.3 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively.

For all members of the House of Representatives, net worth increased 4.6 percent, from $896,000 to $856,000. House Democrats and Republicans both saw increases, at $929,000 and $884,000, respectively.

In the Senate, there was a 10.8 percent increase in net worth overall. Median net worth for all senators went up to $2.794 million from $2.5 million. For Senate Republicans, the median net worth went up to $2.9 million from $2.5 million. Senate Democrats, on the other hand, saw a decline, at $1.7 million from $2.4 million.

That decrease can be explained in part by wealthy senators no longer in the upper chamber. John Kerry, now Secretary of State, was the wealthiest member of the Senate in 2011, with a net worth of $248 million. Sen. Frank Lautenberg was worth $87.5 million before his death last year.

Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is the richest member of Congress, with a net worth of $464 million in 2012.

Issa, who made his fortune in the car alarm business, had held the top spot for years before 2011, when fellow House Republican Michael McCaul reported a net worth of $500.6 million. For much of his wealth, McCaul can thank marrying the daughter of Clear Channel Communications Chairman Lowry Mays.

Yet McCaul’s reported wealth in 2012 went down to $143.1 million. The drop exemplifies a rule change the House adopted this year from the Senate in which members reporting high-value assets, income and liabilities that belong to spouses are only required to report that wealth as being worth “$1 million or more” on official filings. McCaul’s wife was reportedly worth over $50 million in his 2011 filings. In 2012, that amount was reported as a “spousal asset over $1 million” despite the likelihood that it is much more.

Though more members of Congress are millionaires than ever, and their median net worth is tops all-time, the total net worth for all lawmakers in 2012 actually fell to $3.9 billion from $4.2 billion in 2011.

The Center for Responsive Politics found that investing in the stock market, after declining for several years with congressional members, is again on the rise. More members invested in the top 50 stocks of 2012 than in 2011, with General Electric and Wells Fargo being the two most popular for investment.

Financial powers like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, among others, make up most of the top 10 congressional investments. Mutual funds and managed portfolios are also popular, based on good returns and the ability for members to avoid blatant conflicts of interest.

Pew Research Center reported in December that the 113th Congress (2013 to 2014) was the least productive Congress in its first year. Gallup reported in November that the 113th was the least popular Congress of all-time, with a 9 percent approval rating.

"Despite the fact that polls show how dissatisfied Americans are with Congress overall, there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Of course, it's undeniable that in our electoral system, candidates need access to wealth to run financially viable campaigns, and the most successful fundraisers are politicians who swim in those circles to begin with."

A little lesson on the U.S. debt crisis and the global economy

Stagflation (Inflation+Recession); Expense, Income, Debt, Inflation, Economic Collapse.


video courtesy of & uploaded by nsamneang`s YouTube Channel, on Aug 10, 2011


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