You know times are tough when _______

You know the way our government and the large corporations are out sourcing all of our jobs and selling off our natural resources we will all end up in little hovels such as that apt. Chances are we wont even complain when that happens because we are systematically being desensitized to that eventuality. Now the president is trying to pass a health care reform that will cost more than the war in Iraq. I recall the democrats stating The war was too costly and we couldnt afford it. What then leads them to believe we can afford this reform. By raising taxes? We cant even find work, our food is becoming more expensive and minimum wage just wont cut it after the taxes are taken. Then there is the issue of independent military contractors being used by our government. Our own military doesnt even gaurd some of our embassies, who here sees the wisdom in that? No one seems to be looking to the future. They think cutting our military forces down and outsourcing our protection to mercenarys is the way to go but I ask you this, what happens when someone starts paying them more than we do?

 

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You know times are tough when in winter people are setting their thermostats so low that US refineries are closing due to a glut of heating oil.

See: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZfIACtKTlSk

To read about already shut refineries and:
"... February futures contracts show the premium of heating oil to crude oil, called the “crack spread” in industry jargon, will average $5 to $5.50 a barrel in January, down from $7.83 Oct. 9, said Andrew Reed, a market analyst for Wakefield, Massachusetts-based Energy Security Analysis. That’s down 73 percent from $19.60 a barrel last year, the biggest one-year drop in more than two decades. ..."

 

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You know times are tough when NY State is afraid to borrow more so gives up 8% discount on required payments to pension fund.

See: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTXLmNLxluZs

where read:
"By delaying the $959.1 million payment, which isn’t legally required until March 1, the state sacrificed an 8 percent annualized discount equal to $6.1 million a month ... “If no corrective action is taken, we will have to begin to make difficult choices about which payments to delay,” ... Anderson said the state wouldn’t default on its debt. ...

California sold $5.98 billion of nine-month notes Sept. 21 that yielded 1.5 percent, even after its bond ranking was cut to A, the lowest of any state."

Billy T notes:
NY State has AA bond rating, Illinois a AA- and California has only A. So NY state could have borrowed the 959.1 million (1/6 of what CA borrowed at 1.5%) to get the 8% discount for ~1% or less but probably would have lost its AA rating.

As NY State needs to borrow much more still this year, losing the discount and keeping the AA may have been wise but it still hurts.

 

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Joe American's cash is lacking:

a new "first" for the USA.

BTW, that one room "apartment" pictured in post 100, is looking attractive the evicted family sleeping in tent or car as after their foreclosure, and with the more strictt mortgage rules, they don't qualify for mortgage loan to buy even a one-bedroom house.

But don't worry - they are not adding to the unemployed rate as they stopped going to get their next "Thanks for your interest, but we have no openings, now." notice some months ago.

 

No wonder gasoline prices are still dropping. It's better to put on a sweater than crank up the thermostat - helps keep CO2 releases lower.

 

Good suggestion, but ironically global warming (and stupid release of workers, school children, closing stores and government offices all at the same time) gave a transportation disaster to Atlanta* and has produced a shortage of heating oil with rising prices.

I.e. fact that the Artic region is warming about three times faster than the mid-latitudes has significantly slowed the circumpolar jet stream. It is basically driven by that now lower temperature difference. With lower speed momentum it wanders more. Many times this year your weather lady on TV is standing in front of a "river of blue arrows" curving down into Dixie showing that. So often that "polar vortex" comes out of her mouth often and never did before. I.e. very cold Artic air now dips into the gulf state regions.

My Atlanta GA son-in-law was one stuck in traffic and then ran out of gas. He is a "transplanted yankee" so knows how to drive on iced roads, but more thn 100,000 living there did not, so cars in ditches as well as in lanes out of gas like his, blocked traffic for more than a day. He walked to friend's house to sleep, get some food, use bathroom, and then next day 8 miles more walking to get home after ~ 30 hours. I have not seen yet an economic estimate of the cost of just this one polar vortex dip into deep Dixie, but just the cancelled Delta flights out of ATL alone are 10s of millions of dollars lost.
(ATL is US's busiest airport now - took that title from Chicago's O-Hare more than a decade ago, I think.)

So I'll add that you know times are tough when global warming drains billions each winter month from the US economy via larger and more frequent "polar vertexes"
(Not to mention worse summer floods and sever and frequent storms with more ocean evaporation).

 

You know times are tough when climate change is killing penguin chicks in droves.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140129184826.htm

 

You know times are tough when drug trafficking is causing deforestation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140130141217.htm

 

You know times are tough when 116 million Americans (30% of population) are living with chronic pain.

(i can't post links yet but check Wikipedia for 'Chronic pain' and look at 'Epidemiology')

 

When 8 JP Morgan or financially related bankers committed "suicide" in less than a month. One by shooting him self 14 times with a nail gun! - Each shot very painful! Many by jumping off tall building or bridges as in lead up to and during early days of 1929 crash.

I have documented how the crash of gold prices starting in April 2013, was manipulated - Mainly by JP Morgan's huge "naked shorts" in the Gold goes PoP thread. Also there I told how easy it was to fix the London gold fix to also drive the price of gold down, so JPM and others could cover their short positions, buying gold cheaply and making great profits.

I.e. the "sheep" who sold at a loss - the real "April fools" - were scared into selling more than 1200 TONNES of gold they owned (more than 880 tonnes at GLD alone) before price of gold fell farther with the "experts" and big banks predicting the price of gold would fall below $1000/oz to about $900/oz floor. Well price is now about $1330/ oz and has climbed more than $250/oz since start of 2014, and now the big banks are Long, not Short. -Wanting to see price increase for more profits.
I hope Obama's SEC and Justice Department sends many bankers to Jail this time , not turns a "blind eye" as GWB's did.

 

When the Australian government green lights a proposal (ahem... bribe!) to dump waste from coal mining right into the Great Barrier Reef and when there's no proposal from these polluters to protect the reef by storing the waste securely with sea walls.

Nope, they are just going to chuck a load of toxic waste into the Pacific!!

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WTG corruption! You may well have gotten the last word after all