Robert Scheer: Halfway Through the Lost Decade

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/halfway_through_the_lost_decade_20120426/

Does anyone care that the economy is floundering and that we are not getting out of this crisis anytime soon? Housing values are in the cellar, the Fed foresees unemployment remaining unacceptably high for the next three years, and national economic growth is predicted to be, at best, anemic.

Even the substantial rise of stock averages during recent years has been based in large part on the ability of companies such as Apple to outsource jobs and sales to booming markets led by China—while America’s graduating students face mountainous debt and what is shaping up as a decade without opportunity.

These are the inescapable conclusions to be drawn from a gloomy report released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. In that document, the Fed revises downward its growth projection for the next two years and predicts, in the words of a New York Times article about the report, that “unemployment will remain a massive and persistent problem for years to come.” The housing failure that is the root cause of this economic emergency continues unabated because there is no political will in either party to aid beleaguered homeowners.

Beneath all the pundit blather about the election lies the fact that most deeply affects the voters’ well-being: Home prices are at a decade low, and in cities like Atlanta and Las Vegas they are as dismal as they have been since the Case-Shiller indices started tracking housing prices in the early 1990s.

[marmar]

1. Thank goodness there are anti-bullsh*t writers like Scheer .........

...... somebody has to snap the country out of its delusional state.

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2. ...

[leveymg]

3. Depressed housing, jobs, services and consumption are all part of IMF restructuring

This is what happens to all national economies targeted by the global banks for realignment with institutional priorities. Why do you think they put these guys in charge? Restructuring experts.

[LongTomH]

4. This is happening across the planet...

...just read Paul Krugman's blog at the NY Times. The only exceptions are places like Latin America where they've kicked out the IMF.