This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
At the same time, high food, energy, medical, transportation and other costs grow more unaffordable. Households with limited resources feel it most.
Home prices haven't stabilized. Meaningful job creation is moribund. Solutions for issues this important aren't addressed. Rhetoric substitutes for sound policy.
Expect more wars instead of ending current ones. At the same time, homeland needs go begging. Europe's sovereign debt and banking crisis looms ominous. Standards of living in Western countries keep declining. No end of hardships continue.
China's property market began deflating. It's got a long way down to go. Its economy may prove much weaker than predicted. It has major unresolved problems.
Economic softness spread from Europe and America to Asia and Latin America. Chinese manufacturing is contracting. So is Brazil's.
Despite healthy corporate balance sheets, median OECD country public and private sector debt exceeds 400% of GDP. The OECD government debt to GDP ratio exceeds 100% for the first time post-WW II.
Unwinding excess will take years. Consumer spending will suffer. So will economic growth. Bad policies exacerbate hard times. Public pain generates instability. Strikes and angry protests continue. They'll grow and spread.
Boil over threatens. People take so much, then react disruptively. It's been ongoing for years but will intensify. Historically, political turmoil follows secular economic peaks. The harder and more protracted the fall, the more disorderly the reaction.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).