50 Statistics About the U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession". What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. But the truth is that you cannot defy the financial laws of the universe forever. What goes up must come down. The borrower is the servant of the lender. Cutting corners always catches up with you in the end. Sometimes it takes cold, hard numbers for many of us to fully realize the situation that we are facing. So, the following are 50 very revealing statistics about the U.S. economy that are almost too crazy to believe....
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined. #49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010. #48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars. #47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. #46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product. #45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP. #44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009. #43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open. #41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening. #40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession. #39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs. #38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year. #37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005. #36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997. #35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005. #33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000. #32) In California's Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure. #31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago. #30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009. #29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together. #28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009. #27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant. June 22, 2010 Copyright © 2010 The American Dream
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