As the economy stumbles the American standard of living recedes. 44 million people are using food stamps and in one year that figure will be 60 million. Washington and Wall Street say, what me worry? Of course not they are the masters of the universe. We are 24 months into an inflationary depression and it still goes undiscovered. Who cares that the issuance of food stamps is up 80%, as long as the bonuses on Wall Street and in banking continue to flow and bureaucrats get higher and higher salaries and benefits? The high cost of health insurance, no longer affordable to most have increased and Medicaid users are up 17%, as the program costs increased 36%.
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US Suicide Rate Rises, Falls With Economy
America’s suicide rate rises and falls in relation to how well the economy is doing, according to the first-ever study to compare age-specific suicide rates to U.S. business cycles.
The study, titled “Impact of Business Cycles on the U.S. Suicide Rates, 1928-2007,” was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
Mental health experts and economists say the strongest correlation between suicide and economic downturn is found in Americans in their prime working years, ages 25 to 64.
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Over the past twelve months, many economists and investment professionals (along with the occasional politician such as Ron Paul, and more recently Gary Johnson) have been warning Americans that a severe dollar collapse was likely given the U.S. government’s view that the economy was in severe dire straights, just as it was in the Great Depression. They also warn that the only way to fix these problems (in their myopic and incorrect view) is to simply print more money and heap more and more layers onto our already spiraling national debt. Those who argue that the debt increases are actually beneficial must either be hard asset bulls or live in a world where food and fuel are not an important part of their daily budgets (ie. the super-rich and their well-lobbied political string puppets).
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Actor, writer, economist Ben Stein blames Bush in Springs visit
The nation’s economy has recovered much faster than expected from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, but still faces plenty of challenges that range from competing with China to reforming education, said actor, economist and writer Ben Stein on Tuesday in Colorado Springs.
“We were on the precipice of an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression,” Stein said in an interview before his keynote speech to more than 400 investors attending the Accredited Members Inc. Spring Small Cap/Micro Cap Conference at the Antlers Hilton hotel. “I doubt anyone would have believed you if you had told them most of the TARP (Troubled Asset Recovery Program) money would have been paid back and the government made a profit on it and that the banks are making money again, all in less than three years.”
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