thestatedtruth.com | September 6, 2011
So…overall household debt to disposable income has declined minesquely from a peak of 134% in 2007 to 125% currently. That doesn’t exactly set the house on fire as most assets have declined at a faster rate, especially for entities that have not experienced stable or growing revenues (main street America comes to mind). If Dick Stoken is […]
thestatedtruth.com | August 31, 2011
Amoung areas of interest for investing in this demographic tidal wave …..We would expect to see strong growth in all areas of health-care spending, that’s a no brainer. Women and baby boomers entering the American workforce after 1950 helped to supercharge expansions in 1975 and 1983 by filling an increasing number of jobs and purchasing more goods and […]
thestatedtruth.com | August 22, 2011
Demographics my dear Watson……According to a Federal Reserve Bank report just out stocks could fall an average of 13% over the next ten years solely because of retiring baby boomers. The actual P/E ratio should decline from about 15 in 2010 to about 8.3 in 2025. The model-generated path for real stock prices implied by demographic trends […]
thestatedtruth.com | August 3, 2011
The rules have just changed. The little guy gets screwed again. Tiny Central Falls, R.I. filed for bankruptcy on Monday, but a new state law in Rhode Island places bondholders ahead of other creditors. It may turn out to be a bondholder’s dream as the real winners end up being the large municipalities located across the country as they target similar […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 23, 2011
This is a lead bowling ball going down hill….the first pin to be hit is New Jersey! And even more interesting, Democrats control both houses of the Legislature…. and union membership is among the highest in the country. Go figure! From The New York Times…… TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday approved a broad rollback […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 18, 2011
Retirements are changing more then anyone thought possible. From… The Wall Street Journal Several factors are driving the trend toward older people earning and working less, from the sour economy to downsizing and the fact that employers have been moved to more “performance-based” pay, which often translates into smaller pay increases, as well as pay […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 15, 2011
It’s a sign of the times and also why generations of workers are screwed for as far as the eye can see….main street Jack and Jill see little if any government stimulus drift down to him or her. It’s the sad but real truth. The better question though is ….How do we fix this? The common answer from the […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 9, 2011
About a year ago Zero Hedge posted an article…..”Record Number Of Americans Using Retirement Funds As Source Of Immediate Cash” after a report by Fidelity uncovered that “plan participants with loans outstanding against their 401(k) accounts had reached 22 percent versus 20 percent a year earlier.” Well guess what? The new number is now 30% […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 9, 2011
Household wealth in the U.S. climbed by $943 billion in the first quarter of 2011 according to the Federal Reserve’s flow of funds report out of Washington,  as rising stock market share prices outstripped declines in home values. From the peak in June 2007 to the low in 2009 the losses from all asset groups combined were -24.9% of assets. As of […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 8, 2011
Bill Gross has been on a roll talking about this……….Governments such as the U.S. are intentionally keeping interest rates artificially low to help reduce record debt levels, setting up investors up for a “pocket picking.†The U.S. has done little to reduce the size of the excess liabilities accumulated, Pimco wrote in what it called […]
thestatedtruth.com | June 4, 2011
This is the global wealth pyramid……in U.S. dollars. Basically only 8% of the WORLD population has $100,000 dollars or more of net worth! Put another way, 92% of the world population has less then $100,000 in total wealth.Â
thestatedtruth.com | May 30, 2011
Robert Reich is a well qualified guy……we agree with most everything he says, politics aside to stay objective of course! Reich: During the Great Prosperity the American middle class saved about 9 percent of their after-tax incomes each year. By 2008, Americans saved nothing, and the typical American owed 138 percent of their after-tax income. The fundamental […]
thestatedtruth.com | May 30, 2011
We’ve had some very smart people talk pointedly about this lately…..In an almost verbatim repeat of Carl Icahn’s words of caution which were noted recently, Templeton’s legendary chairman Mark Mobius said that “another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one haven’t been resolved.” And we would venture, that’s official! The total value of […]
thestatedtruth.com | May 21, 2011
Our society is changing, so maybe we need to pay attention to this……..says Knox College psychologist Tim Kasser, author of “The High Price of Materialism.”  Recognize the real benefits of wealth — freedom and flexibility — and don’t let the pursuit of its illusory trappings interfere with your ability to reap those rewards. Debt is slavery: “The […]
thestatedtruth.com | April 30, 2011
From The Wall Street Journal….Retirement annuities, may not be such a good idea after all, especially now. Read on! Turmoil in the stock market. Paltry interest rates at the bank. What are the newly retired to do? Many are taking a look at buying a fixed annuity instead. These products let you swap a lump […]
thestatedtruth.com | March 31, 2011
To see the real story, just look at the charts….. The top 1 percent control 42 percent of all financial wealth. Growing Inequality…the middle class vs. the rich Growing Inequality…in income Source: Social Security Does this look like a recovery to you?  More and More Food Stamps……and no end in sight And Real Estate values are […]
thestatedtruth.com | March 9, 2011
This is moving East to West, California’s day not to far away! TOPEKA, Kan. – A Kansas House committee endorsed a bill Wednesday that would cut future retirement benefits for current teachers and government workers to help solve the long-term funding woes of their pension system. The measure that cleared the Pensions and Benefits Committee […]
thestatedtruth.com | March 4, 2011
Wisconsin Governor Walker……We’re Broke! So what does that make California and Illinois to name a few others. Yep. they’re even more broke. Wisconsin governor Walker announced he would fire 1500 state workers unless democrats, who have been fled and are hiding in Illinois to avoid a critical vote on collective bargaining, return to the state. […]
thestatedtruth.com | March 1, 2011
Well, this is a deep subject, no pun intended, suffice to say 401K’s are not the only way states can help their pension funds. They can manage them more wisely and put less faith into Wall Street. The financial collapse, poor management and the housing bubble are amoung the reasons these plans are in crisis. Here are some definitions: A defined benefit […]
thestatedtruth.com | February 27, 2011
Ridiculous 7.5%-9.0% assumed rates of return are not “little white lies” — they are Everest-sized whoppers. They are far from reality and nearly impossible to ever realistically have happen over the medium term and even more impossible over the long term in mature economies. If the three big California Public Retirement Funds used a realistic 4.5%-5% rate of return instead of the make […]
thestatedtruth.com | February 26, 2011
So…Inquiring minds want to know what other computer systems are using this same software and why it takes 8 years to figure this out. We think there’s more to this story! SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — A $228 million mistake has landed two employees for Orange County’s pension system on paid leave. It’s all linked to a […]
thestatedtruth.com | February 25, 2011
Sounds like there was more then one way to play the game of hide and seek, but the Democrats weren’t paying attention while hiding! MADISON, Wis. — Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, by passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized […]
thestatedtruth.com | February 22, 2011
How Rich Are The Superrich A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.
thestatedtruth.com | February 21, 2011
The average person doesn’t realize the shortage they will likely be faced with in retirement!Â
thestatedtruth.com | February 17, 2011
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs have ballooned to 57 percent of the government budget this year and are widely cited as the most significant contributors to the federal deficit.  By the way, this is something nearly all Americans want to see aggressively brought under control. But….Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose changes to Medicare benefits and 64 […]
thestatedtruth.com | February 16, 2011
This review does a good job explaining the U.S. Government “ statistical magic” used in unemployment statistics. We can also call it Vodoo Economics. Benson’s Economic & Market Trends By: Richard Benson, SFGroup America continues to face a true national tragedy as tens of millions of unemployed people have been literally discarded because of big business […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 27, 2011
It’s the new math that’s the problem, nobody knows what the word “deficit” means….in a mathematics nutshell, it means “minus”…or in simpler terms “subtraction”. Funny how everyone understood what “surplus”,  “plus” and “add” meant, especially in thier bank accounts and house supported ATM! WASHINGTON (AP) – Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 24, 2011
It’s hard to have substantial economic growth when you don’t have population growth. So, real estate will have a hard time bouncing very far, and the same goes for other asset classes that the U.S.Fed has artificially stimulated like stocks and commdities for an example!
thestatedtruth.com | January 23, 2011
We have followed Clif Droke for a number of years, and his record with the Kress Cycles is one step ahead of most others. The Kress cycles will take on the financial markets, and by extension the economy from 2012-2014. This will come as a shock for the most optimistic observers. The final “hard down†phase of the […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 22, 2011
From John Mauldin’s “Thoughts From The Front Line” As this budget cutting works its way through the economy, and as inventories are no longer being built (they are already at adequate levels), the growth from the current stimulus (both QE2 and payroll and federal government expenditures) the economy will have to stand on its own […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 18, 2011
Dr Joe Duarte has a good feel for this…..With states cutting budgets across the board, where is the growth going to come from? In San Diego an interesting fight between the city and its unions is developing that could set the stage for how things work out in other places with similar problems. According to […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 18, 2011
We’ve been talking about this for a while here at TheStatedTruth.com …….. U.S. public pensions face a shortfall of up to $2.5 trillion, yes trillion.  It will force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services, according to the former chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund. “States face cost pressure, most prominently […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 17, 2011
This read actually makes a lot of sense, and it takes the government out of the picture. We would add one more thing….. that is for most mortgages to be assumable like they used to be. The negative short term draw back is that like everything the government gets involved with, once they leave, there will […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 14, 2011
TopRetirements.com gave the most weight to three criteria: taxes, fiscal health and climate. Each of these factors is important, generally speaking, to retirees. On the financial front, high taxes can eat away at limited incomes, while poor fiscal health can force state governments to raise revenue or cut services. A warm climate is a natural […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 13, 2011
ICI just revised the last two data points of 2010 which were originally inflows, to one outflow and one minimal inflow.  Looking at last week’s flows, the first of the new year 2011 starts with an equity outflow of $4.2 billion and was the largest one week outflow since early October!
thestatedtruth.com | January 10, 2011
Push will turn into a shove…..Turn out the lights, the party is over!  Meredith Whitney’s prediction, which everyone was quick to mock and ridicule, is about to come back with a vengeance. State and Local finances are at risk. This idea is likely to pick up steam along the way. Some unpleasant news for pensioned […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 6, 2011
CNBC interviews PIMCO’s Bill Gross……….Bill says that U.S. incomes will lag both commodity prices and Gold as U.S. debt rises about a trillion dollars every 12 months and debt to GDP rises above the 90-95% level in the next few years.
thestatedtruth.com | January 6, 2011
Rick’s Picks Thursday, January 6, 2011 “Phenomenally accurate forecastsâ€Â                                   (Cam Fitzgerald posted the following essay in the Rick’s Picks forum, but I am presenting it as a guest commentary because it discusses the all-too-real implications of America’s economic crisis so bluntly. Many of you, even the pessimists, will be troubled by this grim jeremiad, and […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 5, 2011
We have noticed the same kind of thing recently with a variety of products from yogurt to crackers and potato chips…..It’s the old candy bar trick all over again. Two months ago Zero Hedge first touched upon the topic of relative “value deflation” whereby prices for products are kept constant, even as the actual product provided […]
thestatedtruth.com | January 5, 2011
According to just released Census Bureau data, in 2009 total state revenue fell by 31%, from $1.6 trillion to $1.1 trillion. “The large decrease in total revenue was mainly caused by the substantial decrease in social insurance trust revenue. Social insurance trust revenue is made up of four categories — public employee retirement, unemployment compensation, workers […]
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