15 Signs That You Better Get Prepared For The Obama Recession Of 2013

							15 Signs That You Better Get Prepared
For The Obama Recession Of 2013
Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse
Feb 1, 2013




You better get ready, because there are a whole host of signs that economic trouble is on the horizon.
U.S. economic growth slipped into negative territory during the fourth quarter of 2012. That was the
first time that has happened in more than three years. Several important measures of manufacturing
activity have also contracted in recent weeks, and consumer confidence is way down. There is a
tremendous amount of economic pessimism in the air right now, and Americans are pulling enormous
amounts of money out of our banks and they are buying up precious metals at unprecedented rates.
Meanwhile, our “leaders” seem very confused about what is happening. For example, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid continues to insist that we are “in a recovery“, and some other Democrats are
calling the latest GDP numbers “the best-looking contraction in U.S. GDP you’ll ever see“. On the
other hand, the Federal Reserve says that economic growth has “paused” in recent months, and
therefore a continuation of their latest quantitative easing scheme is necessary. Well, no matter how
hard any of them try to spin the numbers, there is no way that they are going to get them to look good.
Despite four years of outrageous “stimulus” spending by the federal government, despite four years of
record low interest rates, and despite four years of unprecedentedmoney printing by the Federal
Reserve, the U.S. economy continues to perform miserably. Later this year the federal government will
probably finally acknowledge that we have entered another recession, even though the truth is that if
the federal government used honest numbers they would indicate that we are already in one. In any
event, nobody should have ever expected that our debt-fueled prosperity would last forever. When
the debt bubble that we have been living in completely bursts, a “recession” will be the least of our
worries.
Hopefully this little stretch of false economic hope that we have been living in will last for a little while
longer. I don’t think that too many people are very eager to repeat the horrible economic pain that we
experienced back in 2008 and
2009. Unfortunately, we
never fully recovered from
that last downturn and now the
incredibly foolish decisions
that our “leaders” continue to
make have made another
major economic downturn
inevitable.
Personally, I would very much
prefer for 2013 to be a year of
peace and prosperity for
America. But at this point
there appears to be a great deal
of downward momentum for
the economy.
The following are 15 signs that you better get prepared for the Obama recession of 2013…
#1 The mainstream media was absolutely shocked when it was announced that U.S. GDP actually
contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012. This was the first
contraction that the official numbers have shown in more than three years. But of course the truth is
that the official numbers always make things appear better than they really are. According to John
Williams of shadowstats.com, U.S. GDP growth has actually been continuously negative all the way
back to 2005 once you account “for distortions in government inflation usage and methodological
changes that have resulted in a built-in upside bias to official reporting.”
#2 For the entire year of 2012, official U.S. GDP growth was only about 1.5%. According to Art
Cashin, every time economic growth has fallen that low (below 2 percent annually) the U.S. economy
has alwaysended up going into a recession.
#3 According to the Conference Board, consumer confidence in the United States has hit its lowest
                                                               level in more than a year.

                                                                   #4 For the week ending January
                                                                   26th, initial claims for
                                                                   unemployment rose to 368,000. In
                                                                   future weeks, watch to see if it goes
                                                                   above 400,000. If we hit that level,
                                                                   that will be a sign of real trouble for
                                                                   the economy.
                                                                   #5 During the first full week of
                                                                   January, an astounding $114 billion
                                                                   was pulled out of U.S. banks. That
                                                                   is the largest amount that we have
                                                                   seen moved out of U.S. banks in one
                                                                   week since 2001.
                                                                   #6 The U.S. Mint was on pace to
                                                                   sell more silver eagles during the
first month of 2013 than it
did during the entire year
of 2007. Why is so much
silver being sold all of a
sudden?
#7 The payroll tax hike that
went into effect in January
has reduced the paychecks
of average American
workers by about $100 a
month.
#8 Several important
measures of manufacturing
activity along the east coast
missed expectations by a
huge margin in January.
The following summary is
from a recent Zero Hedge
article…
      So much for the latest “recovery.” While everyone continued to forget that in the New
      Normal marketsdo not reflect the underlying economy in the least, and that the all time
      highs in the Russell 2000 shouldindicate that the US economy has never been better, things
      in reality took a deep dive for the worse, at least according to the Empire State Fed,
      the Philly Fed, and now the Richmond Fed, all of which missed expectations by a huge
      margin, and are now deep in contraction territory. Moments ago, the Richmond Fed
      reported that the Manufacturing Index imploded from a 9 in November, 5 in December and
      missed expectations of a 5 print at -12: this was the biggest miss to expectations since
      September 2009.

#9 An astounding 33 percent of all “subprime student loans” are at least 90 days past due. Back in
2007, that number was only at 24 percent. Could this be evidence that the student loan debt bubble is
beginning to burst?
#10 Time Inc. has just announced that it will be eliminating hundreds of jobs.
#11 Blockbuster recently announced that they are closing hundreds of stores and eliminating about
3,000 jobs.
#12 Toy maker Hasbro has announced that the size of their workforce will be reduced by about 10
percent.
#13 According to a new Pew Research study that was just released,one out of every seven adults in the
United States is financially supporting their kids and their parents at the same time. Pew Research is
calling it “the Sandwich Generation”.
#14 According to one recent Gallup poll, 65 percent of all Americans believe that 2013 will be a year of
“economic difficulty“, and 50 percent of all Americans believe that the “best days” of America are now
behind us.
#15 According to a different Gallup poll, Americans are now more pessimistic about where the U.S.
economy will be five years from now than Gallup has ever recorded before.
So what is Barack Obama doing about all of this?
Not much.
Actually, he is shutting down his much
ballyhooed “Council on Jobs and
Competitiveness”. It last convened more than a
year ago on Jan. 17th, 2012, and apparently
Obama does not feel that it is needed any longer.
Of course we all know that it was just a political
stunt to begin with.
Sadly, the truth is that both parties have been
leading us down a road toward economic
oblivion. The past four years under Obama have
been absolutely nightmarish, and even though the
Republicans have been in control of the House for
the last couple of years they have done very little
to even slow him down.
For much more on the decline of the economy over the past four years, please see this article: “37
Statistics Which Show How Four Years Of Obama Have Wrecked The U.S. Economy“.
Yes, I tend to criticize Obama’s economic policies a lot, and rightfully so, but neither political party is
willing to tell the American people the truth.
40 years ago, the total amount of debt in the U.S. economic system wasless than 2 trillion dollars.
Today, the total amount of debt in the U.S. economic system has grown to more than 55 trillion dollars.
It hasn’t mattered which party has occupied the White House or which party has been in control of
Congress. The debt bubble that we have been living in has just continued to grow.
And all bubbles eventually pop.
The mainstream media is endlessly obsessed with the little fights that the Republicans and the
Democrats are having, but they never talk about the bigger picture.
The prosperity that we are enjoying today is the result of the biggest debt binge in the history of the
world.
We have stolen a giant mountain of money from our children and our grandchildren and we have
destroyed their futures.
People can debate about whether the next “recession” has already started or not, but the truth is that
what we are experiencing now is nothing compared to what is coming.
In the end, we will pay a great price for our decades of foolishness.
The U.S. economy is going to completely collapse, and the last few years have only been the very
beginning of that process.




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