The Financial Destruction Of America Quiz - November, 2011 Edition

It was not a good day today relative to the financial destruction of America. Economic numbers came in and they were not good. Take the quiz and see how good you are at identifying the underlying measurement of destruction from the following sets of numbers:

1. 14,000,000
2. 9%
3. 80,000
4. 203,000,000,000

1. 14,000,000 - The Department Of Labor reported today that the number of Americans who are unemployed and still looking for a job remains stuck at about 14 million people. This estimate does not include the estimated additional 6-8 million Americans that are underemployed or who have become so discouraged that they have stopped looking for a job.

To put this number, 14,000,000 in perspective, it is roughly as if every single adult who lives in the eight largest U.S. cities (New York Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, and San Diego) was unemployed. It is roughly as if every single adult in the entire state of New York was unemployed. Disgraceful economic results.

It seems like this estimate has been stuck at 14 million for a long time. The longer it stays stuck there, it will become more likely that these people will start to give  up looking for a job, further depressing the economy.

2. 9% - This is the current unemployment rate in America today, nine out of every hundred Americans who are looking for a job cannot find one. As with the 14,000,000 number discussed above, this unemployment rate seems to have been stuck at 9% forever.

It is almost quaint how the President once claimed that if his $800 billion economic stimulus program was not passed back in 2009, the unemployment rate could get as high as 8%. After wasting that $800 billion, the unemployment rate stays stubbornly stuck at 9% or higher, with no sane, coherent, and comprehensive plan coming out of Washington to make it lower.

3. 80,000 - Also in the Labor Department's report today was their estimate that only 80,000 new jobs were created last month. Given that first time unemployment filers has remained steady at about 400,000 a week for also what seems like forever, there is no way the economy is in recovery mode, or even in a semi-healthy mode, if it is creating jobs at an 80,000 per month rate but people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time is always in the 400,000 per week range.

4. 203,000,000,000 - This is probably the scariest number in the entire quiz. $203,000,000,000 is the Federal government deficit spending that occurred in the single month of October. In other words, the Federal government spent $203 billion more than it took  in via taxes and fees. Single month, $203 billion. Very, very scary. From a financial solvency perspective, it is as if Halloween never ended and the frights keep coming.

To put this in perspective, to cover this outrageously out of control spending in October, EVERY American household would have had to put out about $1,700-$1,800 to cover the shortfall. Again, this is one month's worth of Federal deficits.

On an annual basis, this comes out to about $22,000 per household per year or about 44% of what an average U.S. household earns every year. Just to cover the Federal deficit. This does not include the non-deficit spending of the Federal government, local property taxes, sales taxes, local and state income taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes, etc.

This one month deficit number deep into the Obama administration is actually larger than some total year's worth of deficits of the Bush administration:

The above charts show the annual Federal government budget deficits from 2002 until 2011 (estimated). The horizontal line is drawn at the $203 billion mark, last month's deficit number. The vertical line is where the Democrats took over control of the House and Senate towards the end of the Bush administration.

As we have discussed in a previous post, the results from 2002 through 2007 were done with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress. Even though the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, financial budgets and results for 2007 were more or less the work of the Republicans in Congress. They finalized 2007 government spending levels in 2006 for 2007, prior to the Democrats taking control.

As the chart shows, Obama's October deficit result of $203 billion in one month was actually more than the budget deficit for two separate years of the Bush administration, 2002 and 2007. In 2006, the Bush budget deficit for the entire year was only abut 20% higher than the budget deficit for last month under Obama.

It is not until the Democrats got full control of everything in Washington that the financial collapse of the country begins and accelerates ever so quickly to where we are now: 14,000,000 million unemployed, 9% unemployment rate, $15 TRILLION national debt, meager job formation.

Given that Obama has been President for almost three years, the Democrats have controlled the Senate for the past five years, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for four of the past five years, this atrocity falls mostly on the shoulders of the Democrats in Washington who have failed to comprehend the root causes of our economic demise and formulate and implement solutions to those problems.

Now, I am not saying the Republicans could have done any better over the past few years. However, the Democrats have failed miserably, the quiz numbers above prove it conclusively. The President is just floundering about, trying to convince us that his current economic stimulus disaster-in-waiting, infrastructure jobs, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Even if it did create hundreds of thousands of jobs, there would still be over 13 million Americans still unemployed. He weakly proclaimed earlier this week, when he signed an edict making Fort Monroe, Virginia a national monument, that 3,000 jobs might be created. He did not explain how designating a recently closed Army base as a national monument would miraculously create 3,000 jobs.

Which brings us to the scariest part of this whole situation. Obama does not have a plan, simple as that. He does not know how to create an economic environment where the private sector feels comfortable and confident in expanding their businesses and the creation of jobs that goes with expansion. Instead of working on the root causes of the problem, discomfort and non-confidence about the future, this administration continues to just throw out very tactical, time tested failures parading as economic policy.

We are a nation being led into financial destruction by a political class that does not have a clue. If they did have a clue, I would have hoped we would have seen it already and we would not be stuck at 14,000,000, 9%, and 80,000. Because the $203,000,000,000 is going to wipe us out very quickly in the absence of any clues from the clueless in Washington.

This is one quiz that even if you pass it you lose. Bummer.



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