Likely, no better chart exists that reveals the true state of the USA economy than this one, the ratio of household debt payments to disposable personal income.
To believe that years of Quantitative Easing done by successive Federal Reserve Chairmen, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell grew the economy rather than papered over a massive decline not only defies not only logic but also the eyes.
Anyone who has lived through ages of advance and prosperity knows what prosperous times are like. I lived through Ronald Reagan's short-lived Morning in America prosperity—it lasted only from late 1983 through 1986. I lived also through the Greenspan-Bernanke Great Inflation, the greatest credit bubble in the history of mankind, one that ran from 1994 through to Q4 2007.
The first leg of the Greenspan-Bernanke Bubble ran during the Greenspan years of 1994-2001. Any adult alive shortly thereafter knows that era as the Dot Com Bubble. After 9/11 hit, Congress and the Federal Reserve conspired to push the residential realty bubble under Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. Bernanke's leg prevented what should have been a recession, i.e., a Federal Reserve controlled credit contraction typically done to wring out credit excesses in the economy.
In prosperity, profits are rising, whether for firms (revenues minus outlays) or individuals (wages minus costs). Credit expands as people believe in a rising future.
Only near the peak of an economic expansion are wage rates high and employment is high as firms are forced to hire workers of marginal productivity, aka "scrub" workers to fulfill work orders.
Right now, many would claim there is "wage rate inflation" and thus believe the economy is expanding over overheating. Yet, we are living during peak Baby Boomer retirement. Many are leaving the work force. The much smaller Gen X generation can not fulfill these jobs. As well, the youngest Millennials are but 26 and only a small portion of Gen Z have entered the workforce.
The Age of Propaganda
We live in the Age of Propaganda, with establishment media pushing fake news at the behest of those in the USA with power, the so-called establishment, which might include billionaires, Wall Street, Big Tech and Deep State government technocrats.
While it is hard to know where an economy is looking at dollar figures unless one has an accurate way to deflate bank credit accretion, it is impossible to fake percentages. The Household Debt Service Payments as a Percent of Disposable Personal Income chart likely reveals the true picture of the US economy.
Likely the USA Has Remained in Economic Depression Since 2008
The economy barely seemed to take off late in the second year of Trump's only term. By the end of the first quarter of Trump's last year, 2020, with politician-mandated lock downs over the Covid-19 scamdemic (There is over a 99% survival rate by almost all Americans under the age of 80 with symptoms being no worse than the common cold or flu), the short-lived Trump recovery stopped.
At least since 1980 and likely never in the history of the United States has the ratio of household debt service to disposable personal income declined during an economy expansion. It defies everything known about how the economy works to have credit contractions in true terms during times that people claim are economy expansions.
Having lived through the eras of Reagan's Morning in America as well as the Greenspan-Bernanke Great Inflation, I know what prosperity feels like. During those eras, I experienced my best financial times.
Since the Obama presidency, there has not been a meaningful economy expansion. The entire Obama presidency felt like one long depression. Never were there green shoots during Obama's two terms.
Only during 2019 of Trump's presidency did anything begin to seem normal. Nothing has felt normal since early 2020. That Congress handed out at least $1,600 dollars to every adult in the USA says much about how things went during 2020 and 2021.
The Biden $1.9 trillion America Rescue Plan did nothing but fuel dollars in circulation and hence rising prices against declining output owing to lock downs. Without Federal Reserve intervention, American could see the ongoing malaise of a stagflation economy.
Gab It
