Polls even in the United States are showing that Americans have not only record high pessimism about the future, the majority now believes their children will have it worse than they did. Despite the stock market is surging to record highs, retail participation is at historic lows. The American economy is growing at its fastest rate since 2011, and unemployment is at its lowest level in five years, but most Americans do not believe that good economic times are in the future. This is critical for when the Economic Confidence Model turns down in 2015.75, this level of pessimism will make things far worse for this economic decline compared to the last.
According to a CNN/ORC poll released Friday, 68% of Americans view current economic conditions as poor, while just 32% said that the U.S. economy is in good shape. This degree of overwhelmingly negative public sentiment with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record highs recently with the largest annual percentage increase since 1996, has many confused and befuddled. With retail participation in the stock market at record lows, this explains why we are not in a bubble atmosphere. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate has fallen to 7%, and the economy is growing at an accelerated annual pace of 4.1%. Nevertheless, unemployment just before the Great Depression stood at only 5%. This is illustrating what we have been warning about – this downturn will be far worse than any since 1929.
The polls are all showing that the American public is not feeling the relief in their pocketbooks especially as Obamacare is illustrating that the cost for the middle class is rising and there is no end in sight for healthcare sucking up far greater percentages of everyone’s income than ever before. Instead of healthcare costs declining, they are rising for the people who work and then the worst is yet to hit – its application to small business that will cause unemployment to rise after 2015.75 and then the Cadillac tax hits in 2016. We are facing a major meltdown in healthcare for this industry has peaked in it consumption of consumer income as the ECM turns down next year.
These numbers suggest why the White House continues to struggle in its public relations battle. Obama predicted a “breakthrough year for America” in 2014, but the public is not rewarding his optimism. The bankers get richer and exempted from criminal prosecution for everything but the people get the raw end of every deal. According to opinion polls, Obama’s job approval rating stands at just around 42% with the 53% coming in as disapproving.
