Obama Policies Forcing US and World Deeper Into Recession

Barack Obama is the most pro-government, anti-private sector US president in many years -- since Jimmy Carter. It is no coincidence that the US private sector economy has suffered so deeply during the Obama years. And when the US economy catches cold, most of the world gets pneumonia.

...just when you thought it was safe to get back into the market, here comes Gary Shilling to throw ice water on your hopes and dreams.

Shilling, a perennial contrarian, said that when economists sift through all the data, they will say the next U.S. recession began in the second quarter of 2012.

Gary Shilling says we’re in a recession now... Earlier this year, Shilling predicted a global recession would occur in 2012; now, it’s well under way in Europe and he said it already has hit our shores. _MarketWatch

Most US voters this November will know someone close to them who is either unemployed or underemployed -- to a large part due to Obama's economic and energy policies. And despite the skankstream hoopla!, the employment picture appears to be distinctly darkening:

...The unemployment rate climbed to 8.3 percent, while the broader U6 unemployment rate climbed to 15 percent. "Consider this for a second – one in every seven Americans is either unemployed or underemployed. In this light, it would be most disingenuous to consider this to be a robust report., headline notwithstanding."

Moreover, the household survey was disastrous, since it showed that household employment fell 195,000, the first decline in three months. And all the declines were in full-time jobs. _BI

California is a preview of what happens when Obamaesque economic, energy, and faux environmental policies are put into full play. The tsunami of public - pension instigated municipal bankruptcies is not the half of it:

“It got out of control,” said Jay Goldstone, who was Pasadena’s finance director from 1996 to 2006 and now is chief operating officer of San Diego. “No one understood the potential impacts of what these increased benefits were and how they were being paid.” No one understood the potential impacts of what these increased benefits were and how they were being paid...

State Controller John Chiang said steps toward bankruptcy taken by Stockton, San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes within weeks of each other shows the need for greater scrutiny of city finances and pensions. _FP

The Wall St. Journal focused on states seeing the biggest gap between the jobless rate and the true rate of economic misery. California leads the pack. There’s a 9 percentage point difference between the jobless rate (11.2%) and the broader underemployment rate (20%). _COD

And as the full impact of the economic mismanagement at all levels of government hit California, government employees and welfare recipients may be the only ones left to share California with the media celebrities and those wealthy enough to retire in the Golden State.

Where California goes now, America will tend to follow -- particularly if President Obama remains in the White House next year.

And if America goes down that sad road, the rest of the world will regret the day it urged America to elect Mr. Obama.