Americans Say Goodbye to Benefits… Hello to “Interesting” Times
Politics / US Politics Dec 08, 2010 - 12:49 AM GMTDon’t they get it?
It’s truly bizarre to me that the powers that be cannot figure out WHY the average American is growing increasingly disenfranchised with how things are going.
Let’s do a quick review of the facts:
- Food stamp usage at record highs
- Real unemployment around 17%
- Food and energy inflation on the rise
- Incomes and housing prices falling
- Wall Street bonuses at record highs
- The Fed continuing to pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the banks while proclaiming a “recovery”
Seriously, a second grader could connect the dots here and see how this will work out (hint: BADLY).
What’s truly strange is to see allegedly educated, intelligent people like Ben Bernanke talk as though the stock market is somehow an economic indicator. I’m sure it’s a great indicator of prosperity if you work at Goldman Sachs or are a corporate insider at a publicly traded company.
However, for those Americans who DON’T have flawless trading records (or stock option grants) stocks have NOTHING to do with your day-to-day activities.
After all, your typical American DOESN’T buy food or pay their mortgage with the profits from their day-trading; they pay with the money they earn from their JOB.
On that note, get ready for some “interesting” times.
I’ve been warning for months that things are going to get “interesting” in the US.
After all, with over 42 million folks on food stamps and millions of others one paycheck away from being homeless, it was only a matter of time before something broke.
In fact it just did.
As of yesterday, people who have been unemployed for more than six months began losing their unemployment benefits. Whether or not you agree with the concept of unemployment they’ve been the one thing keeping millions from homelessness and desperation.
Desperate people do desperate things. And with two million Americans about to lose their benefits this month, desperation is going to be on the rise BIG TIME going forward.
On that note, NOW is the time to be preparing. I’ve been urging my subscribers to stockpile some food, water, cash, and bullion for well over a year now. I do not believe we’re heading into some Mad Max/ Armageddon times, but I DO think that there will be periods of shortages in the US in the future. And those shortages will not be handled well by most folks.
As a personal anecdote, earlier this year the area I live in suffered a severe snow storm that made it difficult for shipping trucks to get in to town. The grocery stores were virtually picked clean within 24 hours. I shudder to think what would have happened if this has lasted more than a day or two.
Graham Summers
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Graham also writes Private Wealth Advisory, a monthly investment advisory focusing on the most lucrative investment opportunities the financial markets have to offer. Graham understands the big picture from both a macro-economic and capital in/outflow perspective. He translates his understanding into finding trends and undervalued investment opportunities months before the markets catch on: the Private Wealth Advisory portfolio has outperformed the S&P 500 three of the last five years, including a 7% return in 2008 vs. a 37% loss for the S&P 500.
Previously, Graham worked as a Senior Financial Analyst covering global markets for several investment firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. He’s lived and performed research in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States.
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