What U.S. Economic Recovery? Five Destructive Myths

“I’m doing what parents have done for many years,” Jim Rogers says. “I’m trying to prepare my children for the future, for the 21st century. I’m trying to prepare them as best I can for the world as I see it.” Rogers believes the future is Asia—he was recently on cable television flogging Chinese commodities. “The money is in the East, and the debtors are in the West. I’d rather be with the creditors than the debtors,” he adds.

It has become a convention of public discourse to regard rapid globalization—of economies and business; of politics and conflict; of fashion, technology, and music—as the great future threat to American prosperity. The burden of meeting that challenge rests explicitly on our kids. If they don’t learn—now—to achieve a comfort level with foreign people, foreign languages, and foreign lands, this argument goes, America’s competitive position in the world will continue to erode, and their future livelihood and that of subsequent generations will be in jeopardy. Rogers is hardly the only person who sees things this way. “In this global economy, the line between domestic and international issues is increasingly blurred, with the world’s economies, societies, and people interconnected as never before,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks in the spring of 2010 at the Asia Society in New York. “I am worried that in this interconnected world, our country risks being disconnected from the contributions of other countries and cultures.”

The US government has released its latest set of economic growth figures - which includes a set of revisions going back all the way to 2003.

The figures show that the recession - in 2008 and 2009 - was actually much worse than thought.

. . . .

This is a bit dated, but -

Why has the US economy stalled? (July 29)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14348710

That's true for some. But in the big picture, the data show a more insidious pattern. After a sharp dip in 2008 and '09, U.S. economic output quickly recovered to near pre-recession levels. The United States did better than most of its fellow G-7 economies. But U.S. workers didn't see the benefit: During the recession far more people here lost their jobs than anywhere else, and far fewer were hired back once the recovery began. And who knows what will happen now that the economy has made another downward turn?

Workforce down, output up: No wonder corporate profits are up 22% since 2007, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. To repeat: Up. Twenty-two. Percent.

Oh, yeah one more thing... feeling like speedup is haunting you on your job, well, maybe it is...

U.S. workers are the victims of a speedup

and


I would like to see corroborating studies on this, not just from EPI, anybody know where to find them ?

Rhody...

"There's a generation here being formed under the crucible of unemployment, debt and lack of economic chances," said Conway, who was chief of staff at the Labor Department during the George W. Bush administration. "They're just seeking an opportunity to get in the game."

I would like to see corroborating studies on this, not just from EPI, anybody know where to find them ?

Here’s how the nine major sectors have performed since recent highs:

Financials -25.2%
Industrials -18.3%
Energy -16.3%
Materials -15.4%
Consumer Discretionary -13.7%
Health Care -13.5%
Technology -10.3%
Consumer Staples -8.9%
Utilities -7.6%

For today, multiple death crosses in major indexes and sectors would indicate the potential for danger ahead.

Listen to that hissing: The fuse is rapidly burning, warning us. Wake up before the rage explodes in your face. This firestorm is endangering America’s future. From forces outside, yes. But far more deadly, from deep within our collective psyche. We have lost our moral compass. We are self-destructing.

Crackpot warning? No. This warning comes from the elite International Monetary Fund. A recent IMF report looked at “the causes of the two major U.S. economic crises over the past 100 years, the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2007,” writes Rana Foroohar, an economics editor at Time magazine.

“There are two remarkable similarities in the eras that preceded these crises. Both saw a sharp increase in income inequality and household-debt-to-income ratios.” And in each case, “as the poor and middle-class were squeezed, they tried to cope by borrowing to maintain their standard of living.”

But the rich “got richer, by lending, and looked for more places to invest, bidding up securities that eventually exploded in everyone’s face. In both eras, financial deregulation and loose monetary policies played roles in creating the bubble. But inequality itself — and the political pressure not to reverse it, but to hide it — was a crucial factor in the meltdown. The shrinking middle isn’t a symptom of the downturn. It’s the source of it.” Today the consequences of the meltdown still haunt us — there’s more to come.

Just watched a video about South Korea. The student interviewed said she attends school from 7am to 11pm. I have consulted at TSMC in Taiwan they work from 9am to 11pm. Global competition means we will have to work more for less.

If and when these young people return to work, they'll earn 20% less over the next 15 to 20 years than peers who were employed.

A crisis that has been four decades in the making will not be solved overnight. It will be difficult to recast the global monetary system to ensure that the next few years see gradual recovery rather than depression. Wall Street and the City will resist all attempts at clipping their wings. There is strong ideological resistance to the policies that make decent wages in a full employment economy feasible: capital controls, allowing strong trade unions, wage subsidies, and protectionism.

But this is a fork in the road. History suggests there is no iron law of progress and there have been periods when things have got worse not better. Together, the global imbalances, the manic-depressive behaviour of stock markets, the venality of the financial sector, the growing gulf between rich and poor, the high levels of unemployment, the naked consumerism and the riots are telling us something.

This is a system in deep trouble and it is waiting to blow.

I am no economics expert but I think this article is fair IMO, however, you decide...

Admittedly, this depends on what you count as a middle-class job. I'm bartending, and make enough to be in the top half of households.

Also IMO - I don't think President Obama understands that cutting the "payroll taxes" for workers doesn't help create jobs. While the $10 per week boost in the paycheck may help offset $4.00/gal gasoline - it (MIGHT save a job or 2 but) doesn't create new jobs.