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On one hand, western governments and mainstream media sources tell people that their economies are recovering and moving forward. Sentiment is high, confidence is growing.
Unfortunately the data show a completely different story:
In the US, while the official unemployment rate is falling, a much better indication of the labor market is the Labor Force Participation Rate– the percentage of people within a society who are engaged in the work force.
It rose steadily for decades after World War II as more and more women entered the work force, peaking in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It has been in terminal decline for the past ten years, having now reached the same level as from the late 1970s.
A record 46.7 million Americans -- or roughly one in five adults -- used food stamps in June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently reported.
Food stamp use has spiked 51 percent since October 2008, when the economy was in free fall. The number of Americans now using food stamps is roughly the same as the number of Americans living in poverty.
The Commerce Department reported that economic growth has plummeted from a 3 percent growth rate to a far-worse-than-predicted 2.2 percent, so slow that the economy is almost sure to stall. With 7.2 percent real world inflation eating up any improvement, our real economic growth is now negative 5 percent as the economy tips into a downward death spiral. Stick a fork in it. The recovery is done.
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