Over the past few years, a tough economy has forced highly educated people to turn to food stamps and other forms of welfare for help. Over 5,000 PhDs are working as janitors, and many more working as waiters, secretaries, attendants, clerks, and telemarketers. In fact, the number of PhDs and Masters Degree holders on welfare more than tripled between 2007 and 2010.
Nearly 3.8 million households in the U.S. will receive a combined settlement of up to $8.5 billion from ten major banks, reported the New York Times, after their home purchase loans were prematurely foreclosed during the height of the financial crisis in 2009-2010.
The United States economy is worth approximately $15.8 trillion and more than two thirds of that amount is spent on consumption. But how do ordinary Americans spend their money and how has their spending pattern changed over time?
Consumer spending is one of the largest drivers of growth in the United States and its share of total GDP has been rising steadily over the years. But America’s spending habits have changed significantly over the last decades.
Despite maintaining aggressive stimulus measures that have been credited with aiding economic recovery, minutes from December’s Federal Reserve meeting show that officials are increasing split over when to halt the central bank’s controversial bond buying policy.
The last minute U.S. budget deal may have spared millions of Americans the burden of higher taxes amid a weak economic climate, but if American politicians can come so close to falling off a fiscal cliff, they are unlikely to “reach a deal to help their country climb out of an abyss,” said China’s Xinhua, a state-owned news agency.
In an English commentary, Xinhua acknowledged the United States’ dominance as the world’s largest economy, but cautioned that the country “simply cannot live on borrowed prosperity forever.”
It wrote:
The United States’ long-running fiscal cliff crisis was finally resolved when the House voted on Tuesday to approve a Senate bill aimed at averting huge tax hikes and budget cuts that would have pushed the world’s largest economy into recession.
Three days to the edge of the metaphorical ‘fiscal cliff’ and still no clear deal in sight. What will happen if we go off the cliff, and just how will the increase in taxes affect consumers and the macro economy? Will the world’s largest economy really slip into recession in the absence of a budget compromise?
Sometime in the next 10 days, a fiscal cliff agreement is likely, but it almost certainly won’t be a broad deficit reduction plan.
As we approach the New Year, concerns are mounting that the current budget impasse in Washington could trigger another recession in the world’s largest economy. From the Great Depression to the Great Recession, how has the American economy changed over the years?
America has now suffered around 30 shooting massacres over the past 30 years, including this year’s deadly dozen; each a gut-wrenching tragedy for many families. Today, America’s real freedoms depend on sane public policy and the bloodbath in Newtown is the latest reminder that it is time to stop feeding the US’ gun frenzy.
Countries like China and India, which leverage their oil use to a greater extent with more coal use are less affected by a rise in oil prices. This is another reason why jobs are moving to China and India, and away from the US.
If an employer wants to maximize profits, it will want to leverage its use of high-priced energy sources. From an employer’s point of view, there are basically three kinds of energy, from most to least expensive:
1. Human energy
2. Petroleum energy
3. Everything else
