We live in a time compared to the Great Depression…..but let us not forget that during the Great Depression the hardships were much greater (pictorial), the unemployment rate much higher and the economic devastation unparalleled.
Those were times when our nation was Under Pressure.
In 1932 the nation suffered:
• 23.6% unemployment. (August 2009 - 9.4%)
• 40% of banks (10,000) failed since 1929.
• 13,000,000+ Americans have lost their jobs since 1929.
• GNP falls a record 13.4%; falling 31% since 1929.
• Industrial stocks lost 80% of their value since 1930.
• 53% drop in farm prices since 1929.
• 2/3 drop in International trade since 1929.
• 31% contraction in the money supply since 1929.
• 98% drop in capital growth investments since 1929.
• Top tax rate is raised from 25% to 63%.
• The middle class comprises only 15 to 20% of all
Americans.
• By 1929, the richest 1% own 40% of the nation's wealth.
The bottom 93% experienced a 4% drop in real disposable income between 1923 and 1929.
So, while it’s bad, it could be worse…..
What is scary is the amount of interest we pay on the national debt because it could lead to a Greater Depression.
The National Debt is about $11.6 TRILLION Dollars. How much is a TRILLION Dollars?
In Fiscal Year 2008, the U. S. Government spent $412 Billion of your money on interest payments.
Interest represents the 3rd largest expense in the federal budget. See below chart from http://www.federalbudget.com/
There is no easy way out. At one time, the federal deficit about equaled what we had spent to save the world during the cold war era…….but, now it gets bigger because the house of cards our economy is built on is being shaken as we wade deeper into our economic Big Muddy trying to bail out the economy from nearly being "greeded to death" by higwaymen masquerading as business executives or financiers.
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