Month: October 2010

According to Gallup, the actual percentage of Americans collecting unemployment is at 10.1%, not 9.7%…

This means we’re .7% away from the peak level of unemployment in 1982, during the 80s recession oh behalf of Carter. Reagan was able to keep us from going into a depression, by instituting conservative measures to effect the economy positively. One of the effects was keeping unemployment in the 9-10% range from lasting longer than 1.5 years.

We’ve been holding an above 9% unemployment rate since May 2009, so it’s already been 1yr 4m. The Fed plans to throw more money into the system, creating inflation, the Bush Tax Cuts are being allowed to expire, resulting in one of the largest tax increases this country has ever seen, and the full effects of Obamacare haven’t set in yet, and won’t until about 2012. These policies… associated with an increasing debt & deficit, are going to keep these unemployment rates high… if not the highest since the Great Depression.

Scary times…

It’s hard to take arguments about the Federal Reserve being “necessary” in order to tackle monetary policy… otherwise, the people and otherwise free market wouldn’t be able to handle such difficult tasks as unemployment, inflation, etc, seriously.

It’s a wonder we were able to take care of business prior to 1913, for nearly 137 years. Now, for 97 years, we’ve been under the impression that the Federal Reserve is the be all/end all answer to all things economical. It’s funny that in the same year of the Federal Reserve Act, we were also slapped with the 16th Amendment, making income taxes permanent.

I would argue that both of these events were the first steps of the
progressive movement in government, taking control of the Free Market and keeping a steady income via taxes coming into the Treasury, in order to feed the troughs of pork bill spending and an increasing Congressional salary.

Funny that the Great Depression occurred after the formation of the Federal Reserve, when it was created to prevent such travesties. Even more interesting, is that we’ve had 19 recessions since the formation of the Fed out of 47 since 1797. So, 40% of our recessions (which includes the Depression of 1920-21, Great Depression of 1929-42, and current “Great Recession” of 2007-2010) have occurred, despite the Federal Reserve’s existence.

Now they want to shovel more money into the fire, in order to level things out… which will cause inflation… which will result in a less powerful USD and a decline in purchasing power, which will make things more difficult for Americans who are already underemployed, living on food stamps and looking toward an astronomical increase in taxes. Meanwhile, those people with jobs will continue to see prices for their everyday items rise, while their paycheck stays the same.

Can you see the trend, here? If their intent was to create another Great Depression… they’re off to a great start.

Sounds like a plan… thank you Obama, Congress & Fed.