U.S. economic depression of 2008 update: manufacturing orders dropped to lowest levels since 1948.

U.S. depression update, Jan. 2, 2008, found here, at Bloomberg.com:

”

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — The decline in U.S. manufacturing deepened in December as demand for such products as cars, appliances and furniture reached the lowest level since at least 1948, signaling further cutbacks in factory jobs and production this year.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 32.4, below economists’ forecasts and the lowest level since 1980, from 36.2 the prior month. Readings less than 50 signal contraction. The group’s new-orders measure reached the lowest level on record and prices slid the most since 1949.

“Every component suggests that the weakness is going to carry over into 2009,” Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “There’s just not a whole lot of new business coming in,” and companies will have a “painful adjustment” as consumers shun spending.

Today’s figures underscore that, with private demand collapsing, manufacturers’ best hope for new business this year may be President-elect Barack Obama’s plans for an unprecedented stimulus package. Obama has pledged an investment program in roads, schools and the U.S. energy network akin to the 1950s- era interstate highway construction boom….”

Federal Reserve and Treasury ask Congress for permission to buy $700 BILLION in bad loans to “avoid recession…”

Great idea, increase the American taxpayer’s already daunting burden with the purchase of $700 BILLION in bad debt….I gues that will somehow save some companies, but I don’t see how it can possibly help joe public keep his house form being foreclosed on or get a raise.  Scary.  Read Washington Post article about this here.

“Corporate Personhood,” 1886, and the end of American Government “Of, For and By the American People.”

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with taxation of railroad properties. The case is most notable for what it did not hold, but was later misunderstood to have held–namely, that juristic persons are entitled to protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.

This misinterpretation was the beginning of the end of government for, by, and of the people in the United States of America and the sitting president, Grover Cleveland knew it then when he said in his 1888 state of the Union address:

“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel.

Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”

–Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States of America

3 December, 1888

Found this interesting quote in Grover Cleveland’s 1888 ‘annual address to Congress:’

(given in a joint session of Congress)…(following the 1886 Santa Clara County Court Decision, which paved the way for Corporations enjoying 14th Amendment Protection and “corporate personhood.”)

2007 U.S. Financial Report and Government Accountability Office memo warn of tough times coming for American tax payers.

Found this at Steve Skojec’s excellent blog, here (post called: “economic stimulus package: made in China.”):

According to the 2007 U.S. Financial Report, here’s Government Accountability Office’s included memo that tries to give the lowdown on the unaccounted for future liabilities:

“Fiscal year 2007 marked the second year in which the Statement of Social Insurance has been presented as a basic financial statement. As noted above, this year, we were able to render an unqualified opinion on the 2007 Statement of Social Insurance. This is a significant accomplishment for the federal government. This statement shows that projected scheduled benefits exceed earmarked revenues by approximately $41 trillion in present value terms for the next 75-year period.

Considering this projected gap in social insurance, in addition to reported liabilities (e.g., debt held by the public and federal employee and veterans benefits payable) and other implicit commitments and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support, the federal government’s fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000.

This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household. (page 33)”

And then this:

“Unsustainable Debt…”

“As noted earlier, the Government must borrow from the public to finance any gaps between expenditures and revenues. Increased borrowing leads to higher debt service (net interest) which in turn can make it more difficult to balance expenditures and revenues in the future. Chart J shows that by 2030, public debt is projected to rise to 68 percent of GDP, surpassing the non-wartime peak of 49 percent in 1993. By 2040, public debt is projected to be 128 percent of GDP, well above the World War II peak of 109 percent, and by 2080, debt is projected to approach 600 percent of GDP.

At some point before the debt reaches such unprecedented levels, the world’s financial markets would likely cease lending to the United States. Although the precise point at which this would occur is unknown, these projected debt levels cannot be sustained indefinitely. Many economists believe that persistent debt/GDP levels over 100% are unhealthy. The U.S. is projected to surpass that mark within the next 30 years, with the debt/GDP ratio at that point on a continually and dramatically rising trajectory (more than 10 percentage points per decade through 2080). Avoiding the catastrophic consequences of this fiscal path will require action to bring program expenditures in line with available resources. How soon those actions are taken will greatly influence their ultimate impact on the Nation. (page 19)”

The blogger who originally posted these snippets from the 2007 U.S. Financial Report, Steve skojec, adds:

“Did you notice anything off about these two paragraphs? Maybe the idea that we’re fast approaching a debt that’s 600 TIMES THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT OF THE WEALTHIEST NATION ON EARTH? How about the fact that the financial report itself characterizes the consequences of this trend as “CATASTROPHIC”?”

==interesting and scary….If this information scares you or is something you have not heard before, you should really check out Ron Paul and some of his speeches on yourtube and else where as he is one of the few politicians who has been trying to warn against the dangerous fiscal policies of our central bank, the federal reserve, as well as the spending habits of the US Federal Government.

U.S. and post World War I German republic share monetary policies, lets pray it does not lead to the same results…

Read a great new post about the US economy and monetary policy here, this is an excerpt:

“…We are reaching a point, however, where the economic issues facing our nation are becoming a grave moral concern. What happens when we run out of money? When foreign countries dump our currency? When the dollar completely tanks? When unemployment soars?

Ever heard of the Weimar Republic? That period of post World War I Germany where inflation had spiralled so far out of control that the German Mark, which had an exchange rate of 4.2 to the American Dollar in 1914 had reached an unfathomable low of 2 TRILLION marks to the dollar by 1923? People were bringing cash to the store by the wheelbarrow full to buy things like a loaf of bread. Nearly 1,800 government printing presses were running around the clock just to produce enough cash. (For more on this aspect of Weimar Germany, go here.)

What had precipitated this massive decline? A huge war debt, financed only partially by taxes. The bulk was paid for by loans, the sale of treasury bills, and an increased monetary supply.

Sound familiar?

We need to get this country’s spending under control. We are making ourselves vulnerable in so many ways. Economic crisis leads to real suffering – extreme poverty, starvation, loss of life…”