The great American un-recovery: Banking failures and swindling the wealth from working and middle class Americans. Household assets off by $11 trillion from 2007 peak.
The economic profession and bankers on Wall Street have taken a hit to their credibility with missing the biggest recession since the Great Depression. It is understandable for the average person on the street to miss something as nuanced as a tiny recession but for a group of professionals whose mission statement involves understanding the […]
Middle class in shambles – more debt, more job losses, more deceit. Banks attempt final push to break up the middle class. Housing values down by 30 percent but total household debt only down by 2 percent.
On Friday the grim reality of more job losses for Americans was plastered across headlines. What makes this even more distressing is this is occurring during what is supposed to be a recovery. Yet most Americans realize that there is no recovery outside of Wall Street. If anything, things have gotten progressively worse as foreclosures […]
40 years of housing data – U.S. homes still too expensive for typical families. In 1970 the median home could be purchased with 657 ounces of gold. Today, it only requires 155 ounces. The erosion of the U.S. dollar
The last 40 years have seen the U.S. housing market transform into a market largely driven by incredible amounts of debt. The credit card companies understood the basic notion that the monthly payment drove most financial decisions. Even though people purchase a home with a 30 year mortgage, the implicit understanding was that in a […]
Broken financial generations – U.S. households only have a median of $2,000 saved in retirement accounts. The median net worth for those 25 to 34 is $3,700. Which generation will support the economy going forward? Social Security beneficiaries make up 19 percent of all Americans.
I recently had a conversation with a retired neighbor, a former Navy vet who worked most of his life at a local grocery store. I wouldn’t call him wealthy but he has his financial house in order; he paid off his home in the early 1990s, has no other debts, and lives well below his […]