It’s Been Here A Long Time!

Matters Worse Than U.S. Economic, Unemployment Statistics Reflect

Back in 1990, a publication called Underground Texas was created by W. Leon Smith, publisher of The Iconoclast. Although short-lived, Underground Texas was on target in predicting the future. Here is the text from an article written by Ruth Hacker in the October 1990 edition regarding the economy. Sound familiar?

By Ruth Hacker
Underground Texas Contributing Writer

Only now are U.S. government economists admitting that we are in a recession. Truth is, we have been in a serious economic slump for the last half of this decade. The recession, fully manifested at this point, can no longer be denied by those who would make us believe otherwise. Instead, they are now busy trying to conceal the impending depression.

It has been said that a recession and a depression can best be defined in this manner: “A recession is when you don’t have a job. A depression is when I don’t have one.”

Look around you. How many people do you know who are out of work or who expect a layoff any day? How many businesses do you see hanging in the balance, throwing good money after bad, trying to ride out this present downward spiral…hoping for even the slightest upswing in the economy?

Statistics released by U.S. government agencies have played an important role in the colossal cover-up to conceal the fact that our nation is bankrupt. Unemployment figures, for example, a key indicator of the economic climate, cannot be relied upon.

The headcount of the unemployed, released by the government for publication and broadcasting from time to time, is based on the number of persons receiving unemployment benefits at the time the report is generated. The dreadful truth is that many, many more people than this do not have jobs, but because they have used up all their unemployment benefits, and are no longer eligible to receive compensation, have been dropped from the unemployment roll! These are the long-term unemployed – many whose jobs have been exported – that government programs such as the Job Partnership Training Act were supposedly designed to re-train and put back on the job in other fields. But like most government programs, the JPTA has failed to deliver on its promise to the majority of those applying for assistance.

As one employee in the massive bureaucracy confessed, “It is heart-breaking to see these people lied to. They go through a long series of tests and preparation for interviews. All along they are encouraged and made to think that a new career awaits them. Months and months go by…no interviews, just more excuses. Soon, they realize that they have been wasting their time. They leave here more bitter and frustrated than when the applied for help.

“It gets harder and harder for me to be a part of a scheme which gives the terminally unemployed false hope.”

Figures released by the government concerning the S&L bailout are also deceiving. Although officials say $365 billion will take care of it, a number of insiders say the actual cost is likely to exceed $500 billion. This, they argue, may even be conservative since the final price-tag may not be realized until the assets of these failed institutions are disposed of by the FDIC – a move that will further depress the real estate market and building industry.

But taxpayers are already picking up the tab in more ways than one for the banks and S&Ls that have been robbed from the inside out. Instead of punishing the looters and establish internal security measures to prevent a reoccurrence, new banking policies which cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as “kinder and gentler,” are now being equally applied to everyone. And, whether or not you’re the patron of a bank under new ownership or old, you may have found that the situation has become a one-way street with everything favoring the lending institution.

By now, you have probably discovered that the banker who was once your partner in business has become your greatest adversary. You may be feeling the discomfort of strict, even harsh, guidelines. Could be that the hassle of meeting ever-changing conditions on a business loan may even have your business in a stranglehold. The injustice of it all may be that you have borrowed and paid back hundreds of thousands of dollars to this bank, but now, when you need help to weather the storm, there is none.

Perhaps this is evidence that even the banks do not see immediate hope for economic recovery. Further proof could be the fact that foreclosures, these days, are occurring even when there have been no delinquent payments, but because the owner cannot pay upon demand the entire balance on notes deemed undesirable by the lien holder.

In most instances, property values have fallen below the loan balance, making it for the owner to secure a loan elsewhere in an amount sufficient for a pay off. Those who did what the government had encouraged them to do —  to put their profits back into business expansion – are losing their lifesavings. The Grim Reaper, who began stalking farmers and ranchers several years ago, is now knocking on the doors of family-owned businesses. Sadly, the “wheat” and the “tares” are being harvested together.

Interest is high, inflation is rampant, the budget deficit is out of hand, unemployment is on the rise, and our trade imbalance is abominable! Our Social Security funds have been raided – our future hocked on second-rate military systems and third-world countries. While our nation is teetering, the politicians who squandered our hard-earned tax money have been standing by, idly watching from the peaceful shores of foreign lobby soil.

Is our current mess what Ronald Reagan and subsequent leaders have touted as “the longest economic expansion in U.S. history?” Is there anyone left out there who still believes this fairytale?

Although our “leaders” are reluctant to acknowledge it, we’ve been waist-deep into a recession for a long time. You know it, I know it, but our “godfathers” won’t admit it! Unfortunately, the news ahead is not good, for we’re slipping out of the recession in the wrong direction. No Middle East diversion is going to change our fate. Only structural changes at home will provide that. We can only hope it’s not too late to head off the impending return of an overwhelming economic depression.

Earth stands on the brink of a human disaster. A global depression seems eminent. If that is the case, we could at least exercise one last act of defiance by expelling the lousy bastards who got us in this mess, and at least regain some of our dignity.
When the smoke clears, we might have a chance to build our lives, once more, under a new era of responsible leadership.

Payday’s a comin’!