Michael Snyder: The Coming Economic Horror Show!

The people who believe that the US economy is experiencing a permanent recovery and that very bright days are ahead for us should have their heads examined. Unfortunately, what we are going through right now is simply just a period of "hope-timism" between two financial crashes. Things may seem relatively stable right now, but it won't last long. The truth is that the financial crisis of 2008 was just a warm up act for the economic horror show that is coming. Nothing really got fixed after the crash of 2008. We are living in the largest debt bubble in the history of the world, and it has gotten even bigger since then. The "too big to fail" banks are larger now than they have ever been. Americans continue to run up credit card balances like there is no tomorrow. Tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of jobs continue to leave the country. We continue to consume far more than we produce and we continue to become poorer as a nation. None of the problems that caused the crisis of 2008 have been solved, and we are even weaker financially than we were back then. So why in the world are so many people so optimistic about the economy right now? A simple chart shows the growth of total debt in the United States. During the financial crisis of 2008, there was a little "hiccup", but the truth is that not much deleveraging really took place at all. And since the recession "ended", total credit market debt has gone on to even greater heights. So what does this mean for the future? Well, if a small "hiccup" in the debt bubble caused so much chaos back in 2008, what is going to happen when this debt bubble finally bursts? That is something to think about!