Hi Readers!

Today we have a guest post by Debt Consolidation Care specialist, Samantha Spuckler.  Enjoy!

4 Signs of Yet Another Slump in the US – Is a Double-Dip Recession ‘Round the Corner?

After the Standard & Poor’s stripped off the pristine credit rating of the US and cut it to AA+, the fretting consumers are now worried about the US economic data that shows a double-dip recession is around the corner. The recent news on the GDP, or the Gross Domestic Product, shows that the double-dip is about to come.

There is an expansion of 1.3% and the consumer spending is up by 0.1% in the second quarter of 2011. The debt ceiling issues, the lack of long-term resolution about dealing with the budget deficit and recently the credit downgrade will make the situation worse. Though the US has entered yet another recession, experts are of the opinion that this one will not be as harmful as the first one.

There’s no surprise that most Americans wondered why the economic recession is still in progress as the home prices have fallen to drastic levels, same as that of 2002. The home values have dropped to almost 50% in states like Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada.

The most influential argument that can say that the recession never ended and that yet another double-dip recession is around the corner is the rate of unemployment within the US. Still now 14 million people not working and are struggling hard to keep up with their debt obligations. Have a look at some signs that show that a double-dip recession is almost around the corner.

1. Inflation:

Nothing can damage the confidence of the consumers as badly as the speedy rise in the prices of goods. There is a company that has augmented the price of a bag of tea by at least 18% as he says that the wholesale prices have already been increased by almost twice the rate in 2010. The price of cotton almost doubled in 2010 but has fallen in 2011. However since the apparels have been made months ago, consumers are subject to increased prices on clothes made of cotton.

2. The Auto Industry:

The car industry in the US has staged a comeback although the profitability is usually based on the layoffs that it has made over the last 5 years. Big giant companies like GM and Chrysler have emerged from bankruptcy and year after year the sales have improved. The revenue of GM dropped by 1% compared to that of May, 2010. The consumers are stepping back while making big purchases within this industry as they’re too worried about the economic prospects.

3. Lesser Yields on Investments:

Portion of the US economic revival was driven by the surging stock market. The stock market index has climbed above 12,000 and the prices of stocks have already doubled from their lows. As a result, the American investments that were destroyed by the collapse have yet again bounced back and enabled many people to splurge more than before. Now Americans have fewer places to invest their money except gold. The present market will not pose to be a friend to the investors.

4. Unemployment Rate:

A high unemployment rate creates two basic problems within an economy. Either the people without jobs curtail their spending so much that this affects the GDP or there is need of billions of dollars every year in the form of government aid to help the unemployment from becoming destitute.

Financial economists point out that this leverage helped contribute to the credit crunch within the US as an increasingly large number of people are unable to cover the costs of mortgage loans, home equity loans or even credit cards. The ability to consume things was severely damaged as their incomes have been stagnated. In a nutshell, there is no relief in sight for the US economy!

Samantha Spuckler is a writer for various finance related Communities including Debt Consolidation Care. She is a financial writer by profession and has specialization in dealing with financial problems and its solutions. Visit debtCC on Facebook: facebook.com/debtconsolidationcare

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The unemployment rate dropped by an amazing .4% last month, from 9.4% to 9%.  This represents a drop of almost a full percentage point in the last two months.  While this should be great news, the US economy only created a net 36,000 jobs in January.  Economists and policy analysts are scrambling to figure out how such anemic growth could have resulted in such a dramatic drop.  While weather and population changes contributed to skewing the normally messy process of calculating the unemployment rate, the statistics are becoming an obfuscation of the real pain that Americans are feeling.  As Bob Herbert from the New York Times puts it:

We behave as though the numbers are an end in themselves — just get the G.D.P. up or the jobless rate down — and we’ll be on our way to fat city. But the numbers are just tools, abstractions to help guide us, orient us. They aren’t the be-all and end-all. They don’t tell us squat about the flesh-and-blood reality of the mom or dad lying awake in the dark of night, worrying about the repo man coming for the family van or the foreclosure notice that’s sure to materialize any day now.

The policy makers don’t tell us that most of the new jobs being created in such meager numbers are, in fact, poor ones, with lousy pay and few or no benefits. What we hear is what the data zealots pump out week after week, that the market is up, retail sales are strong, Wall Street salaries and bonuses are streaking, as always, to the moon, and that businesses are sitting on mountains of cash. So all must be right with the world.

There is no national plan to address the breadth and depth of this jobs crisis.  With bankruptcies and foreclosures expected to rise this year, and many states facing bankruptcy, we can expect the pain and misery to continue to spread.  By focusing all of our collective energy on the ups and downs of the stock market and the few winners in our economy, we completely neglect not only the middle class, who are slipping into poverty every day, but the poor who are faced with a rapidly unraveling social safety net.  There are mountains of data explaining how we ended up here.  There are even some fantastic plans to help spur true growth and innovation throughout the economy.  Corruption and lack of political will have helped shield and further enrich the true culprits of our economic destruction, while guaranteeing that nothing substantive will be done to confront this problem that will one day truly overwhelm us.

Lies, and damned lies.

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For many of us, 2010 has been a year filled with myriad vicissitudes, both professionally and personally.  For me, the lows were at times so pervasive that I could hardly breathe.  Many people ostensibly subscribe to the notion that adversity builds strength of character.  In reality, the idea that there is nobility in pain and suffering is oft overstated and overly simple.  Still, I admire people who maintain a haughty dignity in the face of adversity.  I fancied myself one those people.  Then life threw me another series of humbling curveballs that taught me the true value of friendship.

It took me a while to gain my sea legs.  I entered 2010 in a haze of uncertainty and anxiousness.  Being a supremely cynical individual requires that you create a certain distance between the impending doom that incessantly threatens to overwhelm the fragile barricade that you have erected for yourself.  Maintaining your cynicism about the world around you while cultivating healthy personal relationships is hard, despite your commitment that “never the twain shall meet”.

However, when people genuinely open their arms to you, when you need their help the most and are too consumed by a toxic mix of shame and pride to ask for help, and receive it anyway, even the most emotionally closed among us will eventually stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.  To find such undeserved kindness, kindness without pretense or agenda, is like turning air into gold.  Everyday we commit so many acts of graciousness, compassion, and empathy that your seemingly small gesture may seem insignificant.  It’s not.

I want to thank everyone who encouraged me to do better, disabused me from some silly notion, opened their arms to me, opened their homes to me, opened their hearts to me, bought me a drink, bought me a meal, bought me a cupcake, allowed me to buy them a drink, allowed me to buy them a meal, allowed me to buy them a cupcake, vented to me, allowed me to vent, let me be stupid, silly, vulnerable, ridiculous, provided me with an adventure, gave me a sense of normalcy, nurtured me, kicked my ass, forced me out of my comfort zone, let me wallow in complacency, told me things would get better, let me know things couldn’t get much worse, loved me, and let me love them…

Simply, Thank You.

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The passing of Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards was indeed tragic.  Mrs. Edwards was a brilliant, compassionate person and by all accounts, a fierce political infighter.  She devoted her considerable energies, obvious even when she was in the depths of her sickness, to helping people and making our country better.  Elizabeth Edwards fought to make our country more equitable, more compassionate, and more unified.  She did this with her sleeves rolled up and a smile on her face.  Mrs. Edwards faced her illness with considerable courage and never used it as an excuse to do anything less than what was right.  She was a model human being and she will be missed.

Joan Walsh has a nicely written piece about Elizabeth Edwards’ life.

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The Great Recession has led to severe budget cuts in nearly all sectors of our economy. Money is tight and everyone is feeling the pinch. In this atmosphere, everything on the balance sheet is coming under intense scrutiny. Unfortunately, even our institutions of higher learning are not immune from this terrible economy. Schools are slashing their liberal arts and humanities departments, while liberal arts colleges are having a tough time meeting admission and financial benchmarks.

Educational institutions are already taking measures to expand their medical, engineering, and business departments, as well as strengthen pre-existing programs to help prepare students for their vocational lives.

However, in many colleges and universities, students enrolling in many liberal arts programs are finding teacher shortages, budget shortfalls, or even the outright elimination of their programs.

Economic conditions have made universities exercise more care with how they allocate resources. One way to cut back on expenses is to sacrifice academic departments that are deemed not profitable. Because of their esoteric nature and decreased student enrollment, subjects such as history, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, the arts, languages, and religion are facing budget cuts or elimination.

A liberal arts education is becoming less and less popular. Smaller numbers of students are enrolling in liberal arts programs. When asked why they are not pursuing a liberal arts education, many stated that they want high paying jobs, something that a philosophy or cultural studies degree is unlikely to give them. Compared with the market value of an MBA or a medical degree, liberal arts graduates often end up earning less over time.

A liberal arts education is essential part of learning to be a good citizen in a civilized society. Neglecting the humanities will lead to a less educated, less engaged citizenry. America can ill afford a broken educational system that churns out ready-made automatons unable to participate meaningfully in civil and political discourse.

Why we need the liberal arts:

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The Wikileaks organization is under a sustained attack from the United States government. Ever since their latest document dump, politician, bloggers, and pundits across the ideological spectrum have called for Julian Assange, founder and leader of Wikileaks, to be prosecuted for treason or assassinated. It started Thursday, when Senator Joe Lieberman, Homeland Security Chairman, pressured Amazon.com to stop hosting the Wikileaks website. According to Glenn Greenwald,

That Joe Lieberman is abusing his position as Homeland Security Chairman to thuggishly dictate to private companies which websites they should and should not host — and, more important, what you can and cannot read on the Internet — is one of the most pernicious acts by a U.S. Senator in quite some time.

After this, Tableau, a software company based in Seattle, stopped hosting charts uploaded by Wikileaks because Senator Lieberman asked them nicely. This morning, Paypal suspended the account Wikileaks was using to collect donations. These actions are part of a sustained fear campaign being implemented by some powerful politicians in order to discourage whistleblowers from coming forward and prevent Wikileaks from continuing to disseminate information that the public deserves to know. There is no legal basis for these actions. That this is occurring under the banner of “Protecting National Security” makes it all the more abhorrent.

Many nations already restrict Internet access for their citizens. However, the United States is supposed to be a shining “city upon a hill”, a beacon in a dark world occupied by less enlightened peoples. By attacking Wikileaks, the United States has become China, Saudi Arabia, or any other “scary” country that the government uses to keep the population scared, stupid, and docile. The Internet was supposed to be truly liberating. It has only made it easier for the government to invade and restrict our privacy.

Michelle Obama caught plenty of flak for her statement about being proud of her country for the first time. Yet with the unparalleled attack on our civil liberties and the shit our government does in our name, every real Patriot ought to be hanging their head in shame.

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The jobless rate inched closer to 10% as shown by the release of November’s unemployment rate. Inexplicably, this comes as shock to many politicians and pundits lulled by earlier news of tepid economic progress. The economy is in a state of emergency and our corrupt corporatocracy is too gridlocked to do anything about it. Meanwhile, millions of unemployed Americans are losing their meager benefits because Republicans in Congress are blocking an extension of unemployment benefits. They are fighting to keep the Bush era tax cuts in place for the top 1% of wage earners. If the Republicans succeed, this extension would add nearly $1 trillion to the deficit.

We are in dire financial straits. Conservative Democrats and Republicans want to impose severe austerity measures that would put even more pressure on middle and working class Americans who are already struggling to make ends meet. Robert Reich published a must-read post detailing how bad the situation is outlining very specific measures that would fix our economy and get it growing again. Yet, no one in the supposedly liberal Obama administration is seriously considering any of these measures. This is a clear sign of how corrupt and broken our system has become.

If the Republicans and a few Democrats have their way, the Bush tax cuts will be made permanent for the top earners and millions of Americans will be left without any social safety net. States are already slashing Medicare and Medicaid benefits, laying off workers, and cutting back on critical services. What the Republicans intend to do to the economy is untenable. So is two years of gridlock. Various bloggers and pundits who I respect do not believe that things are going to get much worse. I am not optimistic at all. As long as our political leaders lack the courage, conviction, and/or desire to buck their corporate masters, there will be no political will to make the substantive changes necessary to fix our economy and give everyday people the help they need to be successful.

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How can one person learn to “think outside of the box?”  For example, cut a cake into eight slices, however you have to make no more than three cuts.  Most people will have trouble coming up with a way to cut the cake.  But to solve this, you have to change the way you look at the cake and how to cut it.  One perfect solution is to cut the cake into two equal sizes and put the other half on top of the other.  Cut it again in half then stack the other half pieces on top of one another and cut them again.  That is thinking out of the box.

Another example of thinking out of a box is this:  Here are four words…  subtract, multiply, add, decrease…  Now which one does not belong to the group?  Most people would say that the word “decrease” does not belong.  Why?  Because all the other three words are mathematical functions and the latter is not.  Unfortunately, that would place you squarely in the box because the answer is “add” since it only has three letters while the others have six or more.  There are many ways to view the world.  Yet, there are only a few that demonstrate creativity and fresh thinking.

Our minds work by inserting referencing past experiences and processes.  Another good sample is when you are asked to name two days that begin with the letter “T”.  Your answer would probably be Tuesday and Thursday.  What about Tomorrow and Today?  Companies try to test a new product and are sure they are getting a design at a reasonable cost.  They look at things in the business and think that their objectives will work just as planned.  Unfortunately, these ideas are already outmoded due to their monotony and reliance on past patterns.  Patterns are helpful since they help finish tasks such as driving, eating or drinking.  However, these same patterns make it hard for people to look at the world with new eyes and create alternative solutions to dilemmas they are facing.

One important move to break the pattern is trying to reverse patterns, designs, or potential solutions in order to gain a new perspective.  Take things as they are and turn them inside out, upside down, or simply turn them around and you may be surprised with the result.  This was Henry Ford’s personal experience.  His conventional plan was to “bring people to work.”  He tried to change all this into, “bring work to the people.”  This plan generated more revenues.

In order to think out of the box, never shy away from the fact that some of your ideas could really be crazy enough to work.  Breaking the rigidity of our thinking is a way to sift through the harebrained and irrational and find ideas that are revelatory.  Start by listing several odd or absurd ideas about a certain problem.

Remember that you could be a genius in your own way.  Your thoughts come from deep reaches and are often unique.  Many times these completely different ideas are clever enough to make a difference in the end.  Being creative and out of the box is wild sometimes, but practicing creative thinking could move you to new heights of growth and self-development.  You will be surprised at how easy and differently it will be for you to address problems, find solutions, and innovate.  Start looking at the world with anew.  You will be happier, more focused, and truly think outside of the box.

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I love this scene from Jackie Brown, a Quentin Tarantino film released in 1997.  Although underrated, this is one of Tarantino’s best movies.   I was actually watching this movie today when I realized how perfectly Jackie summarized the fear and angst that many people feel right now.  Too many people feel trapped with no options and are growing increasingly desperate.  And starting over is scary as hell…

Enjoy.

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This article was originally published at The Soulside Out.  Reprinted with permission.

The conclusion was far from inevitable.  Amidst the ruin of war, the seeds for a new society were being planted.  Poor whites took stock of their cultural and economic situation and a few realized that they had common cause with the newly freed black slaves.  They had both been victimized by a classically bourgeois system that benefitted the few at the expense of the many.  Soon, blacks and whites began organizing around labor and farming rights.  The powerbrokers in American society recognized this as a threat and began seeking ways to sow discord and disunity in the nascent labor movement.  It was a game as old as empire.

Entrenched power structures become very active right before a pre-Revolutionary period.  Although the Civil War proved to be the onset of dramatic changes in American society, the need for cheap labor was not abated by its result.  Although Southern planters no longer had access to free labor, the North was on the cusp of an industrial revolution spurred on by the war.  While white and black farmers began to unite throughout the south and west, black and white laborers also found common cause.  They united to strike for higher wages, shorter hours, and safer work conditions, culminating in the New Orleans general strike in 1892.  For the moneyed interests in this nation, this movement was becoming untenable.

Deeply entrenched notions of white supremacy coupled with state sponsored efforts to quash labor movements ensured that black and white workers would never unify fully.  The same arbitrary racial constructs that permitted two centuries of chattel slavery also kept blacks subjugated for another one hundred years after they were freed, and inhibited many whites from unifying around common economic goals that may have resulted in a freer, more equitable, and more just society.

Alas, these are lessons that still have not been internalized by a large number of people.  For the last thirty years, conservatives in this nation have waged an economic and cultural war that has appealed to the base prejudices of millions of people while seeking to undo New Deal and Great Society gains.  While this war raged on, oligarchs were busy stealing trillions of dollars.  These actions exacerbated the decline of the middle class and the cycle of poverty that inhibits the type of social mobility that is supposed to form the backbone of the American dream.

After years of stagnant wages, harsh politics, and war mongering based upon official state lies, many people were justifiably upset after the economic collapse of 2008.  It was a moment that could have galvanized the nation, a moment when people rose up and united against the corporatocracy that the United States had become.  However, cynical politicians and their corporate backers seized this energy and turned a scared populace against itself.  By turning the citizenry against each other, the entrenched powers were able to avoid the bottom-up revolution that was sure to completely reverse the balance of power.

The post-Reconstruction labor movement is merely one example of people in this nation voting against their economic interests because of racial or economic prejudice.   This pattern has been repeated throughout the world across the ages.  However, if humans are going to progress as a species, they must forge alliances across the arbitrary, specious things that divide humans.  Uniting behind common economic interests in order to combat the dehumanizing forces of corporate greed is a good place to start.  If recent history is illustrative, we have a long road to travel.

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