By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Every time I see a speech on the economy, such as President Obama’s on Monday, I rarely see someone cut to the heart of the problem.  There is too much debt!  That is the simple answer to what is wrong with the economy.   The President really did not address that issue.  He basically just scolded Wall Street for needing a bailout.   We have spent or committed 13 trillion dollars and we are nowhere near out of the woods. 
Here are a few examples of  the debt problems American is facing that I have talked about in …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
I want to highlight this AP article below because it is why I started USAWatchdog.com.  I do not think people are getting the whole story, especially when it comes to the economy.  Things are much worse than what is being reported, and it is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.    I know that is not what you are hearing in the mainstream media.   Maybe the press, as a whole, is just not brave enough to put out the real story.  Some journalists are doing good reporting, but …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
This cartoon would be even funnier if were not partially true.  These days the average American owes $8,000 dollars on his credit cards.  I was asked by a friend of mine, “How should I hedge my investments in this environment?”   What  he really should ask is, “ How do I prepare for an economic storm?”  I am not a money manager, so I cannot tell you how to make tons of money.  I can tell you how to rig for trouble.
First of all, the best hedge you can …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
President Obama’s speech on health care to Congress was high on emotion but short on details.  When he was finished, I wasn’t sure the “Public Option” was in or out.  I do not know how you can insure an additional 46 million people for free.  Obama said he won’t sign a bill that adds,”one dime to the deficit, now or in the future.”   On the other hand, the Congressional Budget Office thinks health care will add 239 billion dollars to the deficit in the next 10 years.  Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute says,”If the …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
I am not a gold bug, but I can spot a warning sign when I see one.  Gold is near an all time high and this is no fluke!   High prices are the result of  big demand from monster players who are afraid of a dollar crash.    My fears all center around Fed Chief Ben Bernanke’s announcement in mid-August of  plans to end Quantitative Easing.  QE is a program where the Fed used more than 300 billion in “printed money” to buy Treasuries to artificially hold interest rates down.   The Fed wants this program phased out by the end …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
I love the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words”  because you tell a lot of people a complicated story in a short amount of time with just one look.   The “Other Real Estate Problem”  I am talking about in the headline is commercial real estate such as malls, hotels, office space and industrial sites.    You have not heard too much about this problem, and most people believe it does not affect them, but it does!   As commercial real estate goes so goes the economy and that could very well mean continued …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The Friday headline in the Wall Street Journal reads “Job Losses Moderate But Unemployment Hits 9.7%.”  This is just a short post to give you the “Real” number according to John Williams at shadowstats.com.  He recreates government statistics the way they were done before the Bureau of  Labor Statistics changed methods to make things look better than they really are.  According to shadowstats.com, the unemployment rate using the BLS method in 1994 would be 21.1%, an increase of .5%.  By the way, Williams predicted there would be a negative surprise two days ago.  (see USAWatchdog post ”Alert! …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
There are so many reasons why this stock market should be hitting a wall.  Just a few are: high unemployment, plummeting tax revenues, major real estate declines, defaults in both residential and commercial properties, hundreds of banks are expected to fail this year and next, cities and states going broke and wars fought on 2 fronts. There is no end or resolution in sight for any of these problems.
Yet, the stock market has ”climbed a wall of worry” to produce one of the biggest bear market rallies in history.  The DOW is up about 50%  …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
John Williams of shadowstats.com put out an alert today (9/2/09).   It read, in part,”Something Brewing in Systemic Solvency Crisis?” Part of what Williams  does is give forecasts to clients, some of which are big companies and hedge funds.  He  bases his predictions on government statistics but not the way they are done now.  Williams rebuilds government stats the way they were computed before they were distorted.   In other words, the way government statistics are done now makes things look better than they really are.   For example, the official unemployment rate …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair dropped a small bomb on CNBC last night.  She said, “Commercial real estate will be more of a driver of bank failures.”   What! You mean more than the imploding residential real estate market? Oh… at that point I felt a little sick at my stomach.  There already is a huge unrelenting problem in housing.   (see my post from last week “Real Estate at a bottom?…Not!”) Now there is going to be an even bigger drag on the banks!  It will be a colossal second …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
This is a tale of 2 stories the press started covering last week.  One, let’s call it the “Kidnapped Girl” story.  It’s about a young woman who escaped after being kidnapped and held against her will for 18 years.  The other, let’s call it “The Fed Secrets” story. It’s about the Federal Reserve losing a court decision that will force it to say who it gave trillions of dollars to during the financial meltdown.
No doubt, the young girl who was kidnapped 18 years ago will get plenty …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
John Crudele is one of the good guys when it come to telling the truth and protecting your investments.  The article below is nothing short of brilliant, concise and adds real clarity with what stinks about the economy.  When I say stinks, I mean fishy.  If you have money invested in the stock market, you should read this until the very end because  Crudele offers a warning everyone should give serious thought to.  I have been reading Crudele’s column in the New York Post for years, and he has …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
The country has lost one of the most influential members of the U.S. Senate in the last 50 years. Ted Kennedy was called the “Lion of the Senate” for good reason.  Even though he was a staunch Republican opponent, he was also known as the “go to” member of the Senate to get bipartisan support for legislation.  Few of Kennedy’s big bills did not have at least one big name Republican sign on to it.  This morning, I heard Hard Ball host Chris Matthews say on television …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve lost a big decision regarding it’s transparency.  Bloomberg, a financial news organization, filed a Freedom Of Information Act  last year  to get records  to find out where the Fed spent trillions bailing out big banks in the financial crisis.  When the Fed refused the request,  Bloomberg sued and  now won.   Every American should want to know what the Fed is doing and who it is helping by printing trillions of dollars out of thin air.  After all, the Federal Reserve is ultimately responsible for the value …

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
In July comedian Jon Stewart, anchor of the Daily Show on Comedy Central, was voted the “Most Trusted” Newscaster. He had almost as many votes as Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams combined. Katie Couric, according to the Time Magazine poll, came in dead last. Boy, if that is a not a wake up call to mainstream media I do not know what is.
I don’t think it’s as much of a put down of the anchors as it is what they put on the air for news content. The …