This moving, color-coded map shows unemployment trends across the country, county by county, from January 2007 through September 2009. (more…)

“But the big ‘post-bailout’ paradox remains, and this is the central question of the recession vs. recovery tension we live in right now. The broader economy cannot survive if the banks do not lend to businesses. If they don’t, many more earnings will be at stake than just the financial sector from December 2008. Thousands of businesses need lines of credit to keep running month-to-month, and if the banks don’t lend to sustain these businesses, the talk of recovery is a dream and unemployment will continue upward. But if the banks do lend, then that huge infusion from the monetary base will no longer stay deposited with the Federal Reserve. But then the ‘fractional reserve’ factor will kick in, and that $700 billion will enter public circulation as several trillion. If this happens, we will see terrible price inflation and perhaps new speculative bubbles in some sectors.” (more…)

“That number went above 140 on September 31, 2009 — the highest ever recorded. It had continued upward all year. … My guess is that the company came under pressure from the brokerage industry to stop publishing what has to be a frightening statistic for brokers, a statistic that says ‘Sell!’” (more…)

“Here is the latest chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve on the adjusted monetary base. We can see what has happened since mid-August. The rate of increase is accelerating.” (more…)

“All job cuts are not equal. If we had to sum it up, paper pushing jobs in the financial sector seem more immune than good producing jobs. … What is happening is the bailout structure is designed to prop up the primary industries that created the housing bubble.” (more…)

“A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner.” (more…)

“The commercial real estate sector is even more fragile than residential real estate because commercial space is a direct reflection of the health of the economy.” (more…)

“While some people use the stock market as their barometer of economic recovery, there are a few other ‘misery’ indicators that show things are still bad for millions of Americans and counter the recovery talks. If you want to track a broader recovery, I would recommend people examine the five indicators of the misery index. Food stamps, bankruptcies, long-term unemployed, foreclosures, and credit card defaults are probably your best gauges to the real economic recovery.” (more…)

“This chart shows you it isn’t over yet….” (more…)

“Many Americans have a hard time wrapping their mind around a declining currency or the hidden tax that is inflation. The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve understands this and for decades has exploited this issue to slowly siphon off the buying power of the U.S. dollar. …

“The Fed and U.S. Treasury have been slowly robbing the buying power of each American dollar for nearly 3 decades. That is why even though the median income has not moved for nearly a decade, buying power has collapsed. These are methods of making Americans poorer in more hidden ways that politically work in favor of the banking elite.” (more…)