Warning: Economic Depression Just Ahead!

Make no mistake, the U.S. economy is teetering on the brink. Take the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. So far the banks have admitted to just over $100 billion in bad debts but the truth is – no one knows how much money has been lost. According to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke bank failures will soon be upon us. As I write this the government is hiring large numbers financial analysts to help deal with the burgeoning banking crisis.

According to the Office of Management and Budget the over the next 20 years the 78 million members of the baby boomer generation will extract over $100 trillion dollars from the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid systems. Read my lips – the money ain’t there.

This oil crisis is unlike the ones we’ve seen in the past. This time it’s permanent because it’s being driven by demand from China and India – not mere speculation. Higher energy prices are here to stay.

One in six Americans make their livings directly or indirectly from the American auto industry. Don’t look now but the entire U.S. auto industry is permanently shutting down. Given the high cost of gasoline, no one wants Detroit’s gas-hogs anymore. As a result the big three car manufacturers are dismissing employees and closing factories – for good. Expect unemployment to explode during the next few years.

The U.S. dollar, once as good as gold, has lost more than half it’s value over the past five years. Many of our trading partners including Kuwait are demanding payment in Euros – they no longer will accept dollars. Soon all the oil producing countries will reject our greenbacks and we’ll be forced to pay with more expensive foreign currencies.

The U.S. government is forced to borrow $2.3 billion from the Chinese and Japanese each and every day – just to keep our government in operation. A billion of that borrowed money is immediately spent on the import of oil which allows us to keep on driving our big cars.

Our health care system is in full collapse. Hospitals are closing. Health care insurance premiums are skyrocketing to unaffordable levels. Noted physician and author Dr. Andrew Weil recently commented “I hope the health care system collapses soon so we can get busy creating a new system!”

City debt, county debt, state debt, federal debt, consumer debt and corporate debt are all at or near record levels. Let’s face it, our government and it’s people are broke – worse yet they’re deep in debt.

Credit card debt is exploding. We now owe over $3 trillion. Tens of millions of Americans are living off their credit cards. The question you have to ask is - will all that debt ever get repaid?

The real cost of the Iraq war is being carefully hidden from the American people. It’s being covered by off-budget temporary spending bills, not through normal federal spending.

For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s U.S. housing prices are falling - all over the country. According to federal figures we could see over 12 million Americans lose their homes during the next five years!

President Bush was wrong about the economy. For the past two years he’s been spreading the word that the U.S. economy was “strong” and that the sub-prime mortgage mess wouldn’t have any effect on the economy. Now in a stunning reversal, he’s admitted that the economy is reeling and was forced to sign a ridiculous stimulus bill that will send out checks to tens of millions of Americans in a belated attempt to get the economy moving again. Most people will use the money to cover the increased cost of gasoline.

Inflation is back. The price of the things you buy every day is now going up a whopping 7.5%! When corporations begin passing the increased price of energy along to consumers – you can expect inflation to take off.