The oil bubble of 2008 is a good example. In 2008, the price of oil went ballistic, but the U.S. was already in a recession [it began in Dec. 2007]. There was no rational reason oil should have gone ballistic. The Fed’s easy money just fueled a bubble. It was like a $500 billion tax on consumers courtesy of the Fed. That’s the added amount that it cost you, and it helped push consumers over a cliff in late 2008.
BINGO, give the man a cookie. "Sub-Primes" ( 12% of All US Mortgages ) and "No Docs Mortgages" ( You needed a 750 Credit Score, most were to Small Business people who dealt in cash like Hair Salons, Pizza Shops, et al ) didn't KILL the U.S. economy.
What killed the economy was CITI, BOA ( who Issue most consumer credit cards like Macy's, Sears, Home Depot ) Jacking interest rates to 31% EVEN WHEN the card holders:
- Paid on Time,
- Paid WAY more than the minimum, and
- Had Great Credit.
The BANKSTERS "Slayed" the Host not being content to "Shear" it.
Then, as Illustrated by Faber, gas went to $ 4.50 a gallon in 08'. The Two Grand that most people HAD in disposable income each month evaporated overnight . And everyone's "budget" got busted. People began falling behind on card payments and mortgages.
People out here 25 Miles from a major Pennsylvanian city, put their Rural "Dream Homes" on the block since it was costing them an additional $800.00 a Month in gas to get into the city for work. The housing market crashed, and those Middle Class people got foreclosed.
There are empty homes (Nice Ones) sitting empty with "Bank Owned" signs on them everywhere out here.
Then the cascade of no disposable income & foreclosures swept into small, then big businesses. Big companies like Sieman's left the U.S. construction scene. Trucking companies went under due to high fuel costs which they couldn't re-negotiate with their customers as they were locked In by contracts. One trucking company owner told me: "I lose money if I turn the key to start the rig"
The largest mall in Pa. (Pittsburgh Mills) is a ghost town. Century III Mall is now shuttered and Monroeville, and Ross Park Mall are WAY off in Sales. Commercial real estate is dying.
There is not a SINGLE Mall under Construction ANYWHERE in the U.S. according to an old college classmate who designs and builds mall "Food Courts."
The 40-year-old phoney "Consumer Economy" in the U.S. is dead. Manufacturing went to Asia. There is nothing in economic terms to use as a "Keystone" in the U.S. left, at least as I can see, to rebuild the American Economy.
Energy production COULD BE if the Govt. would allow it. It WON'T. Because the current American Govt. is complicit with the banksters who killed the Host. Turbo-Tax Timmy ( " I Never Had a REAL Job" ) Geitner and his Goldman, JP Morgan / Chase and CITI Crew will now move their usury to China and India, having bled the U.S. dry.
I have more respect for La Cosa Nostra. At least with the Mob, everyone got to make a buck. Not with the "White Shoe Guys" (as Gerald Celente calls them) whose names DON'T end in Vowels.
WE didn't cause this. But by our lack of vigilance, and having no Generational Memory of the LAST Depression and it's lessons of thrift and savings, we got blindsided, and lost our future.
Paul Craig Roberts Dire Prediction of a "Road Warrior" America by 2012 is now a very, very real possibility.
