10/9/2011 - Shocking new data on unemployment! What to do

Shocking new data on unemployment! What to do ...

by Mike Larson

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke just told Congress that unemployment is a "national crisis."
This is Mike Larson, and I disagree with "Helicopter Ben" about a lot of things. But on this call, he's right on target!
Just look at the shocking facts we got from the Labor Department on Friday:
The average person out of work in the U.S. now takes a stunning 40.5 weeks to find new work.
That's now MORE than double what it was in the last recession and the WORST in history!
If that's not the prelude to much more trouble for the U.S. economy, I don't know what is.
Meanwhile, 16.5% of Americans are now either out of work, unable to find full-time employment, or so disgusted with the lack of their job searches that they're giving up the hunt entirely. That's the worst reading in 2011, and it STILL underestimates true unemployment by a mile, according to ShadowStatistics.com.
This is the sad legacy of the housing bust ... the credit crisis ... and more. They prove that all the government's highly touted programs to deal with their fallout — TARP, HAMP, the $800+ billion economic stimulus package, and more — have failed to help average Americans.
What about the Fed's QE1 program? QE2? Operation Twist? Also epic failures!
Look, I wish I could be more optimistic about the future. And I would be if we would just take our medicine — let vulnerable banks default, clear out all the bad debts, eliminate the excesses of the bubble years for once and for all.
But instead, our leaders keep trying to get in the way. They keep borrowing, spending, and printing money they don't have.
Can't they see that every single PAST whiz-bang program has failed to restart the great American job engine? Can't they see it has failed to buy more than temporary, artificial bounces that inevitably fail!
The only way to deal with this harsh, yet REALISTIC, outlook? Take matters into your own hands. Take steps to protect your wealth and your assets from destruction.