Record-Breaking Season For Our Economy As Well

Well, it’s officially a record-breaking winter for the East Coast, with snowfall dumping over 57 inches in New York City alone! It’s been a record-breaking season for our economy as well, with the prolonged recession-like conditions continuing to find many Americans looking for cover from the on-going financial storm. According to a recent CBS Poll, almost 60% of Americans believe that we are STILL in a recession, and that a true recovery has YET to begin.

January’s Consumer Price Index Summary was recently released, and it shows that inflation is on the rise, up 1.6% from January of 2010 to January 2011. Rising prices for consumer goods have left many Americans anxious about what the future holds. And with the price of a gallon of gasoline reaching a 2-year HIGH, and the price of food increasing FASTER than the rate of inflation, it appears to be an uncertain future for sure!

Ok, so what’s really going on here? Let’s “check” the facts using our Checks and Balances process.

The economy is still a BIG conce
for many Americans. The unemployment rate is still ABOVE 9%, for the 21st month in a row, something our country hasn’t experienced since World War II. And while the recent unemployment figures say unemployment is on the DECLINE, the small drop to 9% in January after just 36,000 jobs were added, has left more Americans confused than encouraged. While the unemployment rate is holding, so is the price of labor. Since the “demand” for labor is less than the “supply” of the workforce, employers can pay LESS to willing workers.

According to a recent Gallop poll, the #1 conce
of Americans now is NOT the unemployment figure, but rather HOW unemployment is impacting them personally, in the form of low wages and lack of savings. In addition, more than half of the people surveyed said they were worried about losing their current standard of living.

Other economic factors impacting one’s standard of living, as well as extending these recession-like conditions include: RISING interest rates for lending, DECREASED consumer savings, INCREASED consumer debt levels, the CONTINUATION of the housing crisis, and the INCREASE in the price of consumer goods.

Although the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that the recent recession ended in June 2009, most Americans do NOT see it that way. In the survey conducted by CBS, they found that 77% of Americans think the economy is as bad as it was 2 years ago, with nearly a third of those respondents saying, it’s actually getting worse.