The Social Security Well about to Dry Up

Social Security has been running surpluses for over 25 years, and is expected to run a surplus growth to $4.3 trillion until 2023. But if nothing changes, after 2023, surpluses will be used to pay benefits. Consequently, some estimates say that we are only going to be solvent -- when Social Security assets are greater than liabilities; i.e. positive balance -- until 2036. At that point reserves would be depleted and experts are predicting that we are not going to have enough money to pay Social Security benefits that we have been promised for retirement or disability. (I say we because I am 35 this year and I am in this pool of future beneficiaries.)  Read more....

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• Social Security disability program running out of funds - CSMonitor.com


• Report: Disability fund losing cash - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com


• New Republic: Social Security Is Our Saving Grace : NPR


• Social Security disability on verge of insolvency - Yahoo! News

Capitalism is the Crisis

New data released by the U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday revealed that the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose in July by more than expected. The PPI is an indicator of wholesale inflation, and currently it is at its highest peak in the last six months, effectively lowering real wages, and consequently consumerism – this has increased worries among economists about the possibility of a double-dip recession. USA Today polled thirty nine economists, who put the chances of another downturn at 30% – twice as high as when they were polled three months earlier. But, corporate profits are robust – up 22% since 2007, even while the personal finances of most Americans are fragile. The current official unemployment rate of 9.1% shows little sign of improvement; 13.9 million Americans continue to look for work.   Read more...


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• Debt, Debt, Debt: 90% of Americans Experience Income Decline As Wealth Gets Sucked Back Into Top .1% -- Debt Explodes As We Try to Make Ends Meet

The decline of the dollar. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad was right, again!

Within the past few weeks the US stock market has been a roller coaster of a ride. US policy makers are still trying to figure out what to do to expedite the economic recovery process, but can we take a lesson from history? 40 years ago President Nixon ended the last remnants of the gold standard, which meant dollars couldn't be converted to gold. Scott Carter, CEO of Goldline, tells us why this was significant.

Lew Rockwell: Death of the Dollar

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• Dollar decline 40 years in the making?

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• The Honorable Elijah Muhammad: The decline of the dollar

The stronghold of the American Government is falling to pieces. She has lost her prestige among the nations of the earth. One of the greatest powers of America was her dollar. The loss of such power will bring any nation to weakness, for this is the media of exchange between nations. The English pound and the American dollar have been the power and beckoning light of these two great powers. But when the world went off he gold and silver standard, the financial doom of England and America was sealed.

Farrakhan: The Federal Reserve, America's Debt & Coming Civil Unrest

Minister Farrakhan discusses the origin and negative influence of the Federal Reserve Bank and coming civil unrest. WATCH the full video @ http://NOI.org/webcast/MillionsInHarlem

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• Martial Law: Corporate Media Hints At Military Plans To Take On The American People During Domestic Civil Unrest : (gunnyg.wordpress.com)

Colbert Report: Don't fool yourself, prepare for the BIG Fall of the American Economy

If video does not play you can watch it here: America's Credit Downgrade

U.S. loses AAA credit rating from S&P

S & P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on concerns about growing budget deficits.

U.S. Treasuries, once undisputedly seen as the safest investment in the world, are now rated lower than bonds issued by countries such as the UK, Germany, France or Canada.  - Yahoo! News

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• US government loses triple-A credit rating - Business - Stocks & economy - msnbc.com

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• ‪S&P double standards? Trust in credit agencies down to junk
• S&P Downgrades US Credit Rating From AAA‬‏ 
  

How The Richest Top 1% are Inpacting the Lives of the Other 99%

The top 1% - Fault Lines - Al Jazeera English

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is underway. As low and middle class wages stagnate and unemployment remains above 9%, Republicans and Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programs that are the backbone of the US's social safety net, and whether to raise taxes — or to cut them further.

The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the United States has never seemed so divided — both politically and economically.

How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions and charitable donations of the top 1% impacting the other 99% of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest.

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• Debt Ceiling Deal All Cuts No Taxes‬‏

Debt deal offers no cure for U.S.' deepening economic ills

The last-minute deal on the debt ceiling may prevent a government default, but it does little to avert a perfect storm of economic problems pushing the nation toward a new downturn and more financial pain for millions of Americans.
Instead of increasing confidence in the future, the emerging agreement seems to have underscored the near paralysis in Washington — and the fact that no substantial new efforts are likely for dealing with unemployment, lagging consumer spending or other problems that have been dragging the economy down.   | Seattle Times Newspaper


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• Debt ceiling deal casts a bleak light on the future - latimes.com 
• The Evil of Two Lessers: perpetual state of war, cutting social programs, fattening the military and the wealthy - Black Agenda Report

• Debt deal does little for US economy's worsening sea of troubles - | Sacramento Bee
• What Gets Cut If The Debt Commission Doesn’t Agree? | ThinkProgress

How The Income Gap Plays Out For Rich And Poor

The gap between rich and poor has widened. Wealth is more and more concentrated among a select few, and those few are mostly white. The median wealth of white households is now 20 times that of black households, and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to the Pew Research Center.  : NPR

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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• Recession shows disparity in US wealth

Quick News: Nearly 70% of America's $14.3 trillion debt is held by America.

Despite the claim that America's debt is in the hands of foreigners nearly 70% of America's $14.3 trillion debt is held by America.  PressTV

MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES

Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil

In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it's also the result of Americans working harder—often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent.    | Mother Jones



(Also read our essay on the great speedup and harrowing first-person tales of overwork.)

Greece Is the Way We Are Feeling

The European Union proudly claims to be more than the sum of its 27 parts, with a collective wealth and influence that gives it elephant status in the global zoo. Its common currency, the euro, used by 17 of its governments (but not, importantly, Britain), ranks second only to the dollar as a reserve currency. But it only took a hungry Greek mouse running up the elephant’s trunk to send the beast into an intensifying panic.

The ghastly mess generated by the follies of Greece, a marginal, profligate and congenitally ill-governed Tammany Hall of a Mediterranean nation, is greater by far than Ireland’s banking difficulties or even Portugal’s debts. It has spooked markets worldwide. If it continues to be mishandled, it could derail Western growth.  - Newsweek
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• Q&A: What's behind the rioting in Greece?
• Greece votes in favor of sweeping austerity bill.
• Greece approves austerity bill, setting in motion brutal budget cuts.

Athens Riot Madness: Video of explosions, tear gas in Greece

 Other video:

Raw Video: Greece Passes Cuts; People Riot

Greece scenario to repeat for the US? 

Gold, Silver Now Legal Tender in Utah

The "Utah Legal Tender Act," as the new law is known, “recognizes gold and silver coins that are issued by the federal government as legal tender in the state and exempts the exchange of the coins from certain types of state tax liability,” according to the bill. The law does not force anyone to accept or pay in precious metals, but rather provides the option for those who wish to do so voluntarily.  Read more...

How Miserable Are Americans? Index Says the Worst in 28 Years

The index, first compiled during the soaring inflation days of the 1970s by economist Arthur Okun, is registering a nausea-inducing 12.7—9.1 percent for unemployment and 3.6 percent for annualized inflation—a number not seen since 1983. The index has been above 10 since November 2009 and had been under double-digits from June 1993 through May 2008.  - CNBC

Military budget gets hundreds of billions $$$ while working Americans go hungry

Rhonda Pence, Press TV Correspondent in Washington reports on over 43 million Americans who live below the poverty line.

Hungry Americans

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• US military spending highest in world

Why the Rich Love High Unemployment

In the boardrooms of corporate America, profits aren't everything - they are the only thing. A JPMorgan research report concludes that the current corporate profit recovery is more dependent on falling unit-labor costs than during any previous expansion. At some level, corporate executives are aware that they are lowering workers' living standards, but their decisions are neither coordinated nor intentionally harmful. Call it the "paradox of profitability." Executives are acting in their own and their shareholders' best interest: maximizing profit margins in the face of weak demand by extensive layoffs and pay cuts. But what has been good for every company's income statement has been a disaster for working families and their communities.  World Prout Assembly

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• Unemployment Aid Applications Stuck At High Level

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits hardly changed for a second straight week, stuck at a high level that points to a slowing job market. Weekly unemployment benefit applications ticked up 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 427,000 last week, the Labor Department said. It marked the ninth straight week in which applications have been above 400,000. That trend represents a setback after ... Full Story »

Has the American Dream become a nightmare?-American Dream-(Part1)

People grow up in America with the dream of a good life, housing, a good car, a good job and health insurance. But some believe that we see the opposite today in the US.

They believe something has happened to the American Dream with the high unemployment rate, housing foreclosures, more people in poverty and much more.

This edition of Amrcian Dream asks: Has the American Dream become a nightmare?

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• American Dream Turned To Nightmare With 54% of US tax dallors spent on Military 

Debt ceiling debate lingers into summer

America is coming closer and closer to decision day regarding whether or not the debt ceiling should be raised. It's happened ten times in the last decade, so many think the answer is inevitable. As lawmakers let more and more time go by before reaching a verdict, however, is this indecision becoming another act in the political theatre? Less Government's Seton Motley says the ceiling cannot be raised as he opposes Occidental College's Caroline Heldman.

One in Eight Americans Have Contemplated Bankruptcy, Says New FindLaw.com Survey

More than 1.5 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy last year, according to the National Bankruptcy Research Center. That's the highest level since 2005, which saw a wave of bankruptcy filings just ahead of major bankruptcy law reforms.   - Yahoo! Finance

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• 1 in 8 Americans have either filed or considered filing for bankruptcy | AHN

According to a recent legal survey nearly one in eight Americans, or 13 percent of the country have either filed or considered filing for bankruptcy.

• One in Eight Americans Have Contemplated Bankruptcy, Says New FindLaw.com Survey -PRNewswire

The FindLaw.com survey found that people between the ages of 35 and 54 are 50 percent more likely to have considered filing for bankruptcy than people ages 18-34 or 55 and older. People of retirement age (65 and older) are the least likely to have considered filing for bankruptcy (7 percent).

 

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The 25 Best Blogs for Dealing With Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is something that most of us hope to never face, yet with a poor economy and high unemployment, it is becoming a reality for more and more Americans. Whether your finances are a mess because of a failed business or you’ve lost your job and fallen behind in payments, you need all the help and advice you can get to weather this financial storm. On these blogs, written by accountants, lawyers and other financial experts, you’ll get insights into the bankruptcy process, relevant laws and what you can do to protect yourself and your future throughout the whole process.  | Accounting Degree.com

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• Hummingbird Credit Counseling

Income Inequality Ignorance

Despite the gap between rich and poor in the United States growing steadily since the 1970's most Americans are not getting angry or protesting in the streets. This could be because most of them are unaware of it, with both lower and upper class people considering themselves to be middle class.