The American dream shatters: The death of the middle class

Middle-class families, which used to be the backbone of the United States economy are becoming poorer. Despite the constant bombardment of news of a “healthy economy,” 62% of middle-class families struggle to afford a basic middle-class lifestyle.

Even though the unemployment rate that has reached a 50-year low of 3.7 percent, most jobs across the U.S. don’t support a middle-class or better lifestyle, leaving many Americans struggling, according to a new study. When factoring in both wages and the cost of living in the metro area where the job is located, 62% struggle to provide a middle-class lifestyle according to the study by Third Way, a think tank that leans center-left on the political spectrum.

Fading College Dream Saps U.S. Economy of Productivity Miracle

 

For decades, a growing pool of college graduates poured into the U.S. labor market, boosting productivity and shaping America’s status as the world’s dominant economic power.

That driver of growth is diminishing. Enrollment has declined every year since peaking in 2011, according to the Census Bureau and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The reasons include an aging population, rising tuition costs and a healthy rate of hiring that lessens the demand for learning.

Monday’s EU Summit & Trioka’s Misguided View of Greece

The European Union is indeed on the ropes and their arrogance as lawyers cannot see the reality of economics. They view the world only through the power of their pen to write a law and DEMAND under threat of penalty we do as they command. This group of super–heroes lack the comprehension that people will not follow laws that make no sense or go against human nature.

These super–heroes command that everyone shall abide by austerity can only lead to the Grexit and the beginning of a period of unprecedented levels-destruction in Europe along with rising civil unrest across the continent. Anyone who has EVER worked on a foreign exchange desk knows far more about the market flows than they will ever think about with all their law degrees. Based upon the botched job they have mastered so far, the EU will descend into the final destruction phase. The idea that one government would end European wars is producing rising civil unrest and the very finger-pointing that creates war.

The ultimate consequences of this wrong policy from the outset to create a single currency without consolidating the debts of member states, has led to this crisis in the monetary system for the entire world. The consequences will certainly still be felt for many decades to come if not 112 years impacting generations of Europeans. However, the destruction unleashed in Europe will contribute to taking down the United States from its lofty perch and shift the entire new economic age to those nations who were once in the firm grip of Marxism.

Eurozone debt crisis: Greece admits it cannot make loan repayments

GREECE raised new fears of eurozone collapse yesterday after saying it could not afford an international loan repayment due next week.

nterior Minister Nikos Voutsis, whose Syriza party was elected earlier this year on a left-wing, anti-austerity ticket,  told Greek TV his country did not have the £1.1 billion expected by the International Monetary Fund on June 5.

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The Greek government is being told by the IMF and EU to make more reforms in exchange for a further £5 billion in bailout cash to stave off bankruptcy.

Greece warns it does not have the money to make IMF repayment

Because of the interconnectedness of the world economy, if Greece does truly fall apart and cause the currency bloc to crumble, it will spread to South America. South America’s weakest countries, such as Argentina or Venezuela or both, would be the most likely to take the hit and then collapse. From there, it will spread north up to Mexico which would then take a hit and go through the same process. When the falling dominoes reach Mexico, the United States has two weeks before it will suffer the same fate. Respectively, ordinary Americans will have a buffer of two weeks time to withdraw all the cash they can from the bank.

Keep your eyes wide open and remain on guard. The world is too interconnected and is one catastrophe away from implosion.

 

Greece cannot make debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund next month unless it achieves a deal with creditors, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said on Sunday, the most explicit remarks yet from Athens about the likelihood of default if talks fail.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said it would be “catastrophic” if Greece left the euro, predicting it would be “the beginning of the end of the common currency project”.

Shut out of bond markets and with bailout aid locked, cash-strapped Athens has been scraping state coffers to meet debt obligations and to pay wages and pensions.

Greek debt crisis: Cash-strapped country runs out of money to pay public sector workers

GREECE’s public sector employees and suppliers have not been paid amid further signs the cash-strapped country’s bankruptcy is imminent.

As the country’s need for a bailout loan reaches crisis point, workers and business reliant on government funding have been left in a state of panic and confusion.

“We are now running one month behind on our salaries. Until only recently we were two months behind, and no-one would tell us if and when we would get our next pay cheque,” one employee at an institution funded by the government told the BBC.

Stunned Greeks React To Initial Capital Controls And The “Decree To Confiscate Reserves”, And They Are Not Happy

Earlier today, following weeks of speculation, Greece finally launched the first shot across the bow of capital controls, when it decreed that due to an “extremely urgent and unforeseen need” (ironically the need was quite foreseen since about 2010, but that is a different story), it would be “obliged” to transfer – as in confiscate – “idle cash reserves” located across the country’s local governments (i.e., various cities and municipalities) to the Greek central bank.

Several hours later the decree which was posted in the government gazette has finally percolated among the population, and the response to what even ordinary Greeks realize is now the endgame, is less than exuberant.

19 Signs That American Families Are Being Economically Destroyed

The systematic destruction of the American way of life is happening all around us, and yet most people have no idea what is happening.  Once upon a time in America, if you were responsible and hard working you could get a good paying job that could support a middle class lifestyle for an entire family even if you only had a high school education.  Things weren’t perfect, but generally almost everyone in the entire country was able to take care of themselves without government assistance.  We worked hard, we played hard, and our seemingly boundless prosperity was the envy of the entire planet.  But over the past several decades things have completely changed.  We consumed far more wealth than we produced, we shipped millions of good paying jobs overseas, we piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and we kept electing politicians that had absolutely no concern for the long-term future of this nation whatsoever.  So now good jobs are in very short supply, we are drowning in an ocean of red ink, the middle class is rapidly shrinking and dependence on the government is at an all-time high.  Even as we stand at the precipice of the next great economic crisis, we continue to make the same mistakes.  In the end, all of us are going to pay a very great price for decades of incredibly foolish decisions.  Of course a tremendous amount of damage has already been done.  The numbers that I am about to share with you are staggering.  The following are 19 signs that American families are being economically destroyed…

The U.S. economy is showing cracks

 

America’s economy is starting to see cracks after closing out 2014 with Superman strength.

The U.S. job market had its best year of gains last year since 1999, and economic activity hit a whopping 5% in the third quarter — the best quarter since 2003.

Three months later, the U.S. economy is looking a little tired. It’s losing momentum in puzzling ways. Hiring is still strong, but experts are starting to scale back their growth forecasts.

A worsening morale crisis

So goes the nation when the will of the military has been broken. This is the culmination of decimating purges and cuts from the Obama administration. The hammer of the world (see also HERE) and most powerful nation, that the world has ever seen, is being systematically destroyed from within and a new chapter in world history is about to be formed — one without America.

 

 

Chapter 1 – A Worsening Crisis

After 13 years of war, troops feel burned out and without a sense of mission. More doubt their leaders and their job security.

For many of the war-weary troops who deployed to combat zones over and over again for 13 years, the end of an era of war in Iraq and Afghanistan is good news.

But for Marine Sgt. Zack Cantu and other service members, it’s a total morale killer. For many of them, particularly the young grunts and others in combat arms specialties, it’s the realization that they may never go into battle for their country and their comrades.