The evidence is mounting that the American economy is very far from being out of the woods. For one thing, the latest job reports show that 85,000 more jobs were lost during the month of December, leaving the shattered American economy with 7.2 million jobs fewer than in December 2007.

Official unemployment nationwide remains at 10 percent, but economists are now admitting what has been deliberately ignored for many months, that the real figure — adjusted to include those out of work who are no longer actively searching — is much, much higher, exceeding 15 percent. Some states, like Michigan, are showing official figures in excess of 17 percent, and, with the latest figures significantly worse than the consensus expectation, the jobs picture appears to be grim for years to come. If the last decade was characterized by net zero growth in terms of stocks, this decade may see little to no net job creation.

Meanwhile, the great stock rally of 2009 is being revealed as a bear market fraud. Small investors, who have helped to drive previous rallies, are sitting this one out; the recent runup in stock prices is being driven by big investment firms. According to a new report from the AP’s Bernard Condon:

After being key players in bull runs of the past, small-time investors have not only stopped buying, they're selling. The question for the new year: If the man on the street doesn't jump back in, will stocks continue to defy gravity?

So far, the market's comeback is almost entirely due to buying by professional investors at hedge funds, pension funds, banks and other institutions.
"We've never seen this before — such a huge rally, and the little guy is out," says Vincent Deluard, a strategist for TrimTabs Investment Research.

Last year saw small investors withdraw a net $14 billion from stock mutual funds, on top of $245 billion withdrawn in 2008. The money is being reinvested in bonds or other more conservative savings. This time around, the experts say, individual investors — whose money accounts for around 80 percent of the $19 trillion in stock held in U.S. companies — may be right to be bearish where the happy-talking big investment firms are unwarranted in their continued optimism. “People have been lured into two bubbles seven years apart, and for a lot of them it's over,” David Rosenberg, chief economist at Toronto money manager Gluskin Sheff, told the Associated Press. “The bulls say if the market is up this much without retail investors, just watch when they come in, but it isn't going to happen.”

Watch for stocks to come back to earth this calendar year and job losses to continue, as the Mother of All Recessions continues to run its course.

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Bonnie said:

	... The woods are a lot deeper than government economists think. They may believe they have turned things around, but the fact is, they are lost, disoriented, and simply running in circles with each cycle actually going deeper in.
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January 09, 2010
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Whitey Lawful said:

	... Should'nt paleo-conservatives understand that the bulk of America wrought this economy?
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January 09, 2010 | url
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BV said:

	... Bernanke has been bragging about how he "saved the economy" and the whole picture has been a fraud just like we thought. Those bailouts were the single biggest robbery in American history.
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January 09, 2010
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zman said:

This has been orchestrated by elites The bulk of America hasn't "wrought" this economy. Many Americans are ignorant sheep, to be sure, but this economy was intentionally wrought by the banks and other financial elites to facilitate ushering in the New World Order. In large measure this is something that has been done to us rather than something we have done to ourselves. Not to excuse ignorance or arrogance, but this was orchestrated by those with ulterior motives and sold to us through fraud, deception and outright lies at every turn by all the machinery that could be brought to bear--government, media, academia, clergy, etc.

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January 09, 2010
Votes: +6

PW said:

... Ironic that M2 and M3 money supply reporting was discontinued sometime ago (approx 18-24 months?) Imagine the supply of FRN's presently! Counterfeiting will come home to roost. As a former educator in government schools (public), I have witnessed the green brainwashing of our youth. Why not teach high school juniors and seniors that the FED is "private?" Definition of "public/private" partnerships at the level of present reality? Fascism anyone?

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January 09, 2010 | url
Votes: +3

Jim said:

... Once again, this shows that politicians not only know nothing about running a country and our monetary system, but they are clueless on how the economy works by tossing billions to the wind to try to stimulate it. It's amazing that almost all members of congress and The White House staff have high-powered educations, but no common sense as to how things work. Why do we spend billions on education to mass produce such miseducated people who are neither students of history or government and botch everything they touch? Where is the critical thinking? As Lee Iacocca asked, "Where are all the leaders?" They're just frittering away everything the Founders sacrified to put in place to assure our well being. Ask yourself, "What have these folks in Washington ever done in your lifetime to improve anything?" All they do is tax and spend your livelihood and hand out hot checks to perpetuate themselves in office. It's like whacking off a starving dog's tail and feeding it to him and having the dog lick your hand in greatful appreciation.

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January 10, 2010
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Brad Harrington said:

	Objective data and Agenda 21 Please check out the Shadow Stats web site at http://www.shadowstats.com for objective US economic data that is not distorted by the US government. You will find that the real numbers do not lie about the collapse of our economy... a collapse which seems to be paving the way for the United Nation's Agenda 21 plan.
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January 10, 2010
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Gerald said:

Real Wealth Real wealth and real monetary value is created and/or acquired ONLY when the members of a family (or a nation, tribe, city-state, etc.) plant, grow and/or harvest something of commercial value from the earth, extract something of commercial value from the earth, provide professional services (medical, legal, dental, engineering, architecture, accounting, land surveying, technology, etc.) to others outside of that family, and/or manufactures or constructs something of commercial value that is consumable (or permanently useful for income or rent) and then sells, leases or rents these items and/or services to parties outside of their family, in return for a net transfer of gold, currency or commodities from other parties outside of their family into their own family. The members of that family can reflect their real wealth with the accumulation of grain, gold, cattle, jewels, land, buildings, commodities and/or other marketable products for reserve use in times of emergency and/or also to raise the standard of living for the members of that family.

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January 21, 2010
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