The U.S. economy is dead on its feet and the majority of the American people don't even know it.  Sure, most Americans understand that things are not going well right now, but the vast majority are still convinced that we will "fully recover" at some point.  After all, we have always fully recovered and gone on to bigger and better things in the past, haven't we?  Well, unfortunately this time it is different.  The very foundations of our economic system are rotting.  Yes, unemployment numbers will go up and down and housing numbers will go up and down and inflation will go up and down, but those are not the numbers you should be paying attention to.  Instead, if you want the real truth about the U.S. economy, focus on the long-term trends that are at the root of our problems.  Every single month, the United States loses jobs and economic assets.  Every single month, more wealth flows out of the United States than flows into it.  Every single month, the United States goes into a lot more debt.  Most other economic statistics are simply symptoms of those three big problems.  The truth is that the U.S. economy is bleeding, and the truth is that very few politicians in either party are doing a thing to stop it.

We were told that "globalism" and "free trade" would be so wonderful for America.  What we were not told was that U.S. workers would now be put in direct competition for jobs with the cheapest labor in the world.  We were not told that it was intended for the standard of living in the third world to go up while the standard of living in America was intended to go down.  We were not told that millions of jobs and lots of shiny new factories would go to China while many of our once great manufacturing cities (such as Detroit) become rotted-out war zones.

China has become the second largest economy in the world and a major global superpower at our expense.  If we had not agreed to "free trade" agreements with them they would still be struggling to escape third world status.

But now they own nearly a trillion dollars of our debt.

And the next time anyone tries to tell me that free trade with communist China is something that "conservatives" should support I may just barf all over my shoes.  Almost everything about communist China should be absolutely repulsive to true conservatives, and why any conservative would support making China wealthier is a complete and total mystery.

Anyway, the sad reality is that the United States is in horrible economic shape and it is getting worse every single month.  The following are 3 points that you can use to prove the truth about the U.S. economy to anyone....

#1) Every Single Month The United States Loses Jobs And Economic Assets

Many people try to convince us that trade with China and other foreign nations is so good because it fills up our stores with really cheap goods.  But there is a huge price for those cheap goods.  The United States is losing jobs, factories and even entire industries at a staggering pace.  Our lust for cheap goods is absolutely killing us.  It is kind of like tearing your house apart to get more firewood to keep your fire going.  Sure the fire is roaring quite nicely, but eventually you will not have a house anymore. 

According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies skyrocketed 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

Are you starting to get the picture?

The United States is bleeding lots of jobs every single month.

But nobody seems to care until they lose their own job.

Unfortunately, things have now gotten so bad that unemployment is at epidemic levels.  According to one recent survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one person that is looking for a full-time job.

So is there any chance that this is going to turn around?

No, the U.S. economy is going to continue to bleed jobs.

For example, Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a facility that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost.

So why did Ford close the plant?

Are they going to quit making Ford Rangers?

No.

Ford is going to keep producing Ford Rangers. 

They just aren't going to do it in Minnesota. 

The people of Minnesota really wanted the plant to stay open.  In fact, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty even offered Ford a multi-million dollar package of tax cuts and job creation incentives to keep the factory in Minnesota.

But Ford rejected it.

Why?

The following is an excerpt from the statement issued by Ford about the plant closing....

"Ford continues to concentrate on implementing the plan we initiated four years ago to streamline our plant operations and better leverage our global platforms. At this time, the Twin Cities Assembly Plant does not fit into our global manufacturing strategy."

Did you happen to take note of the fact that the world "global" was used twice there?

In other words, Ford plans to make Ford Rangers some place where labor is a lot cheaper.

But Ford is far from alone.  For a list of even more factories that are closing across the United States, please see the following article that we recently published on our sister site: "As Americans Celebrate Labor Day 2010, U.S. Factories Are Closing In Droves".

So why is all of this bad?

Well, these jobs, these factories and these industries are economic assets.  Once they are gone, there are less jobs, there are more Americans on welfare, there is less money being spent in our local communities and there are less taxes being paid.

A health economy has a healthy manufacturing base, but every single month the United States becomes deindustrialized just a little bit more.  An economy that is losing jobs, losing factories and losing countless other economic assets every single month is a dying economy.

#2) Every Single Month The United States Is Getting Poorer

Each and every month, tens of billions more dollars leaves the United States than comes into it.  The transfer of wealth that this represents is absolutely mind blowing.

The trade deficit normally comes in at around 40 or 50 billion dollars each month these days, and that means that by the end of the year a half trillion dollars (or more) will have left the United States.

That means that as a nation we will be a half trillion dollars poorer at the end of the year.

Our gigantic trade deficit is literally bleeding the U.S. economy dry.  In the early 1990s we were assured that the WTO and NAFTA would be so good for us.  But since then the U.S. trade deficit has absolutely skyrocketed and we are hemorrhaging wealth at an astounding pace each month.

What makes things even worse is how China is taking advantage of us.  They keep their currency pegged to the U.S. dollar at a price that is about 40 percent lower than what it should be.  This enables them to flood our shores with cheap goods and it has killed entire industries in the United States. 

Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.  They have their fangs in us and they are sucking out our wealth as hard as they can.

We end up "consuming" the massive amount of cheap goods we get from China and other nations and they end up with huge piles of our cash.  This is what has enabled China to accumulate nearly a trillion dollars of our debt.

But in the end, the borrower always ends up the servant of the lender.  We have made China rich and now they have been lending that money back to us at a dizzying pace.

How incredibly stupid can we get?

When wealth flows out of the United States, that means there is less of a pie for those of us who are Americans to divide up. 

Most Americans simply do not grasp this incredibly important concept.

At the end of this month, America will be poorer than when the month began.

At the end of the following month, America will be even poorer than that.

We are constantly getting poorer.  Imagine a giant wallet with 100 bucks in it.  If you keep taking 5 dollars more out of the wallet each month than you put into it, you are eventually going to have an empty wallet.

That is what is happening to America.  We are buying far, far more from the rest of the world than they are buying from us each month.  If we do not stop doing this, eventually we are going to be broke.

#3) Every Single Month The United States Goes Into Even More Debt

Americans like to think of themselves as "the richest nation in the world", but the truth is that we have accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

Today, the U.S. government has piled up a national debt that is fast approaching 14 trillion dollars.  It is increasing by over 4 billion dollars per day.

Democrat Erskine Bowles, one of the heads of Barack Obama's national debt commission, claims that the U.S. government will be spending 2 trillion dollars just on interest on the national debt by the year 2020 if nothing changes.

Can you imagine that?

A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times.  That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.

Meanwhile, our state and local governments have accumulated absolutely staggering amounts of debt.

Illinois is bankrupt.  California is very close.  Hordes of city and local governments are on the verge of default. 

So what happens if the economy gets even worse?

But it is not just government debt that is the problem.  The total amount of consumer debt that American consumers now owe stands at a total of approximately 11 trillion dollars.

As a society, we have been absolutely addicted to debt.  It has fueled the greatest party that the world has ever seen, but now the party is ending and we are drowning in debt.

In fact, if you total up all government, business and consumer debt, it is approximately equivalent to 360 percent of GDP.  At no point during the Great Depression did we ever even come close to approaching such a level.

So what can we conclude from all this?

Well, on a personal level if your bank account got smaller every single month and you went into a lot more debt every single month you would soon find yourself in a complete and total mess.

On a national level, that is the situation that America is now in.  We are bleeding economic assets, we are bleeding wealth and we are getting into stunning amounts of new debt every single month.

If anyone can explain how this is a recipe for economic success, please leave a comment and explain that to all of us....

Many of the things that Americans have been able to take for granted for decades are rapidly coming to an end.  The truth is that a growing economy that produces an ever-increasing amount of good jobs for a thriving middle class is not guaranteed to last forever.  In fact, there are lots of signs that the middle class in America is already being ripped to shreds.  The number of Americans on long-term unemployment benefits is exploding, personal bankruptcies are setting new records, foreclosures are at an all-time high and one out of every eight Americans is now on food stamps.  Meanwhile, the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt and America is facing a pension crisis that is so immense that it is almost indescribable.  Most Americans still assume that even if we do have hard times for a while things will always turn around and eventually get better than ever.  But sadly, that is just not the case.  The truth is that the United States is in the early stages of a devastating economic collapse, and the "new normal" is going to be incredibly difficult for a lot of Americans to adjust to. 

The New Normal: Millions Of Chronically Unemployed Americans And Not Nearly Enough Jobs For Everyone

*According to one recent survey, 28% of U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

*A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 81 percent of American adults know someone who is looking for a job.

*Despite the fact that the U.S. population has exploded, less Americans are employed in manufacturing today than in 1950.

*Today it takes the average unemployed American over 8 months to find a job.

*The number of Americans receiving long-term unemployment benefits has risen over 60 percent in just the past year.

*Since 2007, unemployment has spread across American like a plague....

The New Normal: Americans Going Broke In Staggering Numbers

*Nationwide, bankruptcy filings rose 20 percent in the 12 month period ending June 30th.

*There were 422,061 bankruptcy filings between April and June of this year.  That was an increase of 9 percent from 388,148 in the prior three-month period, and was up 11 percent from 381,073 a year earlier.

The New Normal: A Dead Housing Market And Millions Of Americans Losing Their Homes

*During the month of May sales of new homes in the U.S. declined to the lowest level ever recorded.

*The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes has sunk to a 13-year low.

*Construction of new homes in the U.S. and applications to build new homes in the U.S. both fell to their lowest levels in more than a year during the month of July.

*One out of every seven mortgages were either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.

*According to RealtyTrac, a total of 1.65 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings during the first half of 2010.

*U.S. Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.

The New Normal: Tens Of Millions Of Americans Living In Poverty And Dependent On The Government For Food

*The U.S. poverty rate is the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

*Approximately 50 million Americans could not afford to buy enough food to stay healthy at some point during the last year.

*The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a new all-time record of 40.8 million in May.

*The number of Americans on food stamps has set a new all-time record for 18 consecutive months.

The New Normal: A Pension Crisis And A Social Security Nightmare That Will Fundamentally Change What Retirement Means In America

*3 out of every 5 Baby Boomers do not have enough money saved for retirement.

*Unfunded pension benefit liabilities at the state government level - the amount state governments owe in promised retirement benefits beyond what they have collected - exceed $3 trillion.

*In 1950, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers.  In 2010, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 U.S. workers.  By 2025, it is projected that there will be approximately two U.S. workers for each retiree.

*According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes in 2010.  That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.

*The present value of projected scheduled benefits surpasses earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by approximately 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.

The New Normal: The U.S. Government Absolutely Drowning In Debt

*If you started spending one million dollars every single day when Jesus was born, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

*The U.S. government has accumulated a national debt that is rapidly approaching the 14 trillion dollar mark.

*The IMF says that in order to fix the U.S. government budget deficit, taxes need to be doubled on every single U.S. citizen.

*The U.S. government will spend an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.

*If the U.S. government does not change course, it will be paying 2 trillion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2020.

The 13-story, $100 million Islamic mosque that is slated to be built just two blocks from ground zero in New York City has been making a ton of national headlines over the past week, but the truth is that this is far from an isolated incident.  Islam is rapidly growing and is gaining tremendous influence inside the United States.  50 years ago, there were very few mosques inside the United States and Muslims were a very, very small minority.  But today all of that has changed.  Even as Christianity is losing millions of adherents in the United States, Islam is experiencing explosive growth.  The Council on American-Islamic Relations says that there are 7 million Muslims inside the United States in 2010, and huge new mosques are going up from coast to coast.  Each year, increasingly large numbers of Muslims immigrate to the United States both legally and illegally.  But Islam is not just growing through immigration.  All across America, substantial numbers of Americans are converting to Islam each year, and this is particularly true in U.S. prisons where radical Islam has found a ready-made pool of disaffected young men to exploit.  The danger signs are there.  Are we going to start paying attention to them?

The following are 12 signs that show the tremendous progress that radical Islam is making in America in 2010.... 

1 - According to Ihsan Bagby, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky, there were only approximately 1,200 mosques in the United States ten years ago.  Today there are approximately 1,900.

2 - An rapidly increasing number of U.S. public schools are actually adjusting their school calendars for the observance of Islamic holidays.

3 - Less than 100 feet from where it is said a plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, Muslim military personnel bring prayer rugs and gather for group worship on weekday afternoons.

4 - Muslims now constitute approximately 10 percent of the total number of students in the New York City School District.

5 - A survey of Muslim Americans by the Pew Research Center in 2007 found that 39 percent of adult Muslims living inside the United States were immigrants that had arrived in the U.S. since 1990.

6 - In Dearborn, Michigan one high school football team has so many Muslim players that it has moved its two-a-day summer practice schedule to between 11 PM and 4 AM during Ramadan.  This was done so that the Muslim members of the team would not be forced to practice in the heat without drinking water.

7 - In the state of Maryland, Anne Arundel County recently decided to ban sporting events on the night before Islamic holidays.  They have also placed a ban on administering tests on the dates of Islamic holidays as well.

8 - In March, the opening prayer at the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly was delivered by a radical imam.

9 - Often funded with millions of dollars from overseas, a rapidly growing number of "mega-mosques" are being constructed in communities from coast to coast.

10 - Electronics retailer Best Buy now runs national ads which wish their customers a "Happy Eid al-Adha".

11 - At least one researcher claims that Muslim inmates now comprise 17-20% of the total U.S. prison population.

12 - Even the current occupant of the White House, Barack Obama, goes out of his way to say nice things about Islam.  Just consider the following list of glowing statements that Barack Obama has made about Islam that we documented in a recent article....

#1 "Islam has always been part of America"

#2 "we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities"

#3 "These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings."

#4 "America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

#5 "So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed"

#6 "Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality"

#7 "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith."

#8 "I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month."

#9 "That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

#10 "I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

Meanwhile, Christians that attempt to express their faith and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with Muslims are increasingly being arrested and thrown in jail.  Just consider the following examples....

*Four Christians face fines of up to $500 each and up to 93 days in jail for sharing the gospel with Muslims on a public sidewalk outside of an Islamic street festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

*Two other Christians were arrested recently for sharing the gospel and singing hymns on a public sidewalk outside an Islamic mosque in the city of Philadelphia.

These Christians were simply exercising their free speech on a public sidewalk and they got thrown into prison for it.

It turns out that in America in 2010 it is much more important to protect Muslims from being offended than it is to allow Christians to exercise their constitutional rights.

The truth is that the spread of Islam inside the United States is not harmless.  In fact, radical Islamic groups are setting up training compounds from coast to coast and federal authorities don't seem to be doing anything about it.

For example, a video released by the Christian Action Network shows members of the "Muslims Of America" participating in paramilitary style training outside of their compound in upstate New York, near the town of Hancock.

The "Muslims of America" is the name that an organization known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra uses inside the United States. They are a militant jihadist organization based in Pakistan.

In the video posted below, you will see footage of members of Muslims in America being trained in throat-slitting techniques and in the use of assault weapons....

Oh, but it is so important for us to be "tolerant" of them and to let them conduct paramilitary training on our soil.

Meanwhile, it is getting to the point where if a Christian even tries to share the gospel with a Muslim they are thrown into jail.

What in the world is happening to the United States of America?

10 Quotes By Barack Obama About Islam

#1 "Islam has always been part of America"

#2 "we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities"

#3 "These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings."

#4 "America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

#5 "So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed"

#6 "Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality"

#7 "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith."

#8 "I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month."

#9 "That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

#10 "I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

10 Quotes By Barack Obama About Christianity

#1 "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation"

#2 "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation."

#3 "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?  Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination?  Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"

#4 "Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages - the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity - are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life."

#5 "The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics."

#6 From Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope: "I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount."

#7 "I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.  I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.  That's just not part of my religious makeup."

#8 "Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will--they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths."

#9 On his support for civil unions for gay couples: "If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount."

#10 "I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

1950: The total U.S. national debt is about 257 billion dollars.

2010: The U.S. national debt is increasing by over 4 billion dollars per day.

1950: If a member of Congress doesn't tell the truth it is a felony.

2010: If a member of Congress doesn't tell the truth they are just playing politics.

1950: Americans dress up in suits and dresses to get on an airplane.

2010: Americans are forced to walk through full body security scanners that give gawking security workers a clear view of their naked bodies before they can get on an airplane.

1950: American schoolchildren openly read the Word of God and pray in public schools.

2010: Attempting to read your Bible or pray in a public school will get you slapped with a lawsuit by the ACLU.

1950: Wealth redistribution is considered communist and anti-American.

2010: Wealth redistribution is the official policy of the U.S. government.

1950: The U.S. Constitution is deeply loved and highly revered.

2010: Federal authorities are instructed to be on the lookout for anyone who talks about the U.S. Constitution too much because they might be a domestic terrorist.

1950: Mass murderers are executed and unborn babies are protected by law.

2010: Unborn babies are being mass murdered and mass murderers are protected by law from being executed in many states.

1950: We mobilize the entire U.S. military to protect the borders of South Korea.

2010: The U.S. government barely lifts a finger to do anything about the millions of gang members, drug dealers and serial criminals that are pouring across America's borders.

1950: We actually attempt to parent our children.

2010: We pump our kids full of Ritalin and let video games and television raise our children.

1950: If a company makes too many bad decisions they go out of business.

2010: If you have connections in high places or you are "too big to fail" your business gets bailed out by the U.S. government.

1950: Socialized medicine is considered a bizarre scheme that only communist nations would be stupid enough to attempt.

2010: Congress and the president ram a bill down the throats of the American people that they did not want which basically socializes our entire health care system.

1950: The American people believe that the free market should run the economy.

2010: The American people are told that the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve should run the economy.

1950: American industry provides great jobs for hard working Americans and the United States has the biggest middle class in the world.

2010: Giant global predator corporations ship our manufacturing base and millions of great jobs to the third world and our politicians pretend that it is our fault when we can't get jobs.

1950: Cities such as Detroit, Michigan are shining examples of the great American economic machine.

2010: Cities such as Detroit, Michigan are decaying, rusted-out war zones where houses sell for as little as one dollar.

1950: The United States lends more money to other nations than any other country in the world.

2010: The United States borrows more money from other nations than any other country in the world.

1950: The American people are the envy of the world.

2010: The American people are some of the fattest people on the planet.

1950: The American people are extremely well read and are deeply interested in politics.

2010: The American people are obsessed with American Idol, Dancing With The Stars and with how their favorite sports teams are doing.

1950: If children act up they are tanned on the behind and taught a lesson.

2010: If children act up they are told they have ADHD and pumped full of pharmaceutical drugs.

1950: Communists and socialists are considered dangerous extremists and the American people are taught to love the U.S. Constitution.

2010: Those who love the U.S. Constitution are considered dangerous extremists and we have a communist in the White House.

Most Americans still appear to be operating under the delusion that the "recession" will soon pass and that things will get back to "normal" very soon.  Unfortunately, that is not anywhere close to the truth.  What we are now witnessing are the early stages of the complete and total breakdown of the U.S. economic system.  The U.S. government, state governments, local governments, businesses and American consumers have collectively piled up debt that is equivalent to approximately 360 percent of GDP.  At no point during the Great Depression (or at any other time during our history) did we ever come close to such a figure.  We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen, and now that gigantic debt bubble is beginning to pop.  As this house of cards comes crashing down, the economic pain is going to become almost unimaginable. 

Already, things are really, really, really bad out there.  Unemployment is at shockingly high levels.  Foreclosures and personal bankruptcies continue to set new all-time records.  Businesses are being shut down at a staggering rate, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. government continues to pile up debt at blinding speed.

There is no use sugar-coating it.

The U.S. economy is collapsing.

The following are 40 bizarre statistics that reveal the truth about the collapse of the U.S. economy....

1 - According to one shocking new survey, 28% of U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

2 - A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.

3 - There are 9.2 million Americans that are unemployed but that are not receiving an unemployment insurance check.

4 - In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

5 - According to one analysis, the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007.

6 - China's trade surplus (much of it with the United States) climbed 140 percent in June compared to a year earlier.

7 - This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

8 - According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck.  That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

9 - According to a recent poll conducted by Bloomberg, 71% of Americans say that it still feels like the economy is in a recession.

10 - Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.

11 - Banks repossessed an average of 4,000 South Florida properties a month in the first half of 2010, up 83 percent from the first half of 2009.

12 - According to RealtyTrac, a total of 1.65 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings during the first half of 2010.

13 - The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes has sunk to a 13-year low.

14 - Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

15 - 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.

16 - Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers.  Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

17 - According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

18 - 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

19 - According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

20 - According to one recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

21 - The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply to 52.9 in June.  Most economists had expected that the figure for June would be somewhere around 62.

22 - Retail sales in the U.S. fell in June for a second month in a row.

23 - Vacancies and lease rates at U.S. shopping centers continued to get worse during the second quarter of 2010.

24 - Consumer credit in the United States has contracted during 15 of the past 16 months.

25 - During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

26 - Things are now so bad in California that in the region around the state capital, Sacramento, there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.

27 - The state of Illinois now ranks eighth in the world in possible bond-holder default.  The state of California is ninth.

28 - More than 25 percent of Americans now have a credit score below 599, which means that they are a very bad credit risk.

29 - On Friday, U.S. regulators closed down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to be shut down so far in 2010.

30 - The FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.

31 - The U.S. federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion with three months still to go in the current budget year.

32 - According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

33 - The M3 money supply plunged at a 9.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2010.

34 - According to a new poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.

35 - One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

36 - The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

37 - The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15% between 2000 and 2006, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were earning less than $10 per hour.

38 - According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

39 - For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.

40 - A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that just 23% of American voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.