Please Read Nick Carey's Full Piece

But in the meantime, here are my excerpts and commentary:

(Carey's reporting highlighted in boldface.)

To the few remaining auto workers left in [Detroit,] a city half the size it was in 1960, the America they knew growing up is long gone and things can only get worse.

[M]any Americans typically...see Michigan as a long-standing financial basket case of a state thanks to the shrinking U.S. auto industry. But the problem is that the broad decline of the manufacturing sector that has been underway in this country for decades now may threaten not just the long-term health of the economy but also the living standards of all but the wealthiest Americans.

AND, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THE WEALTHIEST AMERICANS NO LONGER SEE THEMSELVES AS "AMERICANS," BUT RATHER AS "CITIZENS OF THE WORLD." IF INVESTING IN CHINA RATHER THAN AMERICA IS GOING TO BRING THEM THE LARGEST RETURN IN THE SHORTEST PERIOD OF TIME... (*SIGH*)... THAT'S WHERE THEY'LL INVEST THEIR MONEY.

"The whole country is now seeing the story that Michigan has been living with for a long time," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "We have kicked the can so far down the road that now all we have is a cliff to fall off."

"The recession merely revealed a reality that has been with us for a long time. We faced a growing gap in education and skills that we tried to fill with debt and credit, which gave us the illusion of growth."

ABOUT THAT GAP IN EDUCATION... (*PAUSE*)... FURTHER DUMBING DOWN OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES SO AS REACH THE ARTIFICIAL GOAL OF "COLLEGE FOR ALL" IS NOT "EDUCATION." HALF-ASSED LIBERAL ARTS - AFRICAN-AMERICAN BASKET WEAVING AND TRANSGENDER SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 21ST CENTURY - AREN'T THE COURSES THAT WILL ARM AMERICAN 20-SOMETHINGS TO TAKE ON CHINESE 20-SOMETHINGS WHO HAVE JUST COMPLETED THEIR UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES IN ENGINEERING AND PHYSICS.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The U.S. trade deficit with China- a nation that tightly controls its imports - hit a record of $268 billion in 2008 and could reach $270 billion this year.

Deregulation and a laissez-faire attitude toward financial institutions culminated in the housing "boom" that former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (who failed to win reelection in November) has aptly described as a "Roman orgy" of debt.

WELL... LET'S DEFINE "DEREGULATION" AND "LAISSEZ-FAIRE" AS BARNEY FRANK AND CHRIS DODD DID: THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT - BY POLICY AND REGULATION - WAS THE DRIVING FORCE WITH REGARD TO INFLATING THE HOUSING MARKET AND CREATING THE BUBBLE THAT BURST WITH SUCH TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES. (AND, OH, BY THE WAY... BARNEY FRANK WAS JUST RE-ELECTED LAST MONTH.)

By one estimate, since 2003 up to 20,000 manufacturing plants have shut down. The trend is leaving the country with a legion of unskilled workers stuck on long-term unemployment benefits.

WHICH OBAMA, THE DEMOCRATS, AND FAR TOO MANY RINOs APPEAR NOT ONLY WILLING, BUT EAGER TO SUBSIDIZE - TO SUBSIDIZE VIA EVER INCREASING DEBT...!!!

FOLKS... THESE BASTARDS ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY...!!!

"Over the past 20 years we have simply borrowed more money in order to prosper," said Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of the world's biggest bond fund manager PIMCO. "We forgot that the more stable and safe way to go is to make things."

"Now we're paying the price."

(*CLOSING MY EYES*) (*SIGHING*) (*LITERALLY SHUDDERING*)

America now faces "structural" unemployment. Which means unless the world's largest economy changes in a fundamental way, millions of unskilled workers will remain jobless and economic growth will be sluggish, at best.

JUST... LIKE... EUROPEAN... DEMOCRATIC... SOCIALIST... COUNTRIES...

FOLKS. I'M NOT SAYING OBAMA, PELOSI, REID, AND THE LIKE ACTUALLY WANT AMERICANS TO BE UNEMPLOYED; I AM HOWEVER SAYING THAT IF STRUCTURAL UNEMPLOYMENT ALONG TRADITIONAL POST-WW2 EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE LINES IS "THE PRICE TO PAY" FOR A MORE "PROGRESSIVE" AMERICA... THEN OBAMA AND THE AMERICAN LEFT WILL SHOUT "FULL STEAM AHEAD!"

FOLKS... FORGET ARGUING ABOUT WHETHER OBAMA IS A "SOCIALIST" OR NOT. HERE... LET ME SAVE YOU SOME TIME AND ENERGY: BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS A "SOCIAL WELFARIST." (INDEED, THE TERM YOU MAY BE MORE FAMILIAR WITH IS "FASCIST," ONLY OBAMA AND HIS "FASCISM" ARE NON-TOTALITARIAN.)

FOLKS... YOU THINK I'M GOING OFF THE DEEP END HERE? I'M NOT. I'M EXPLAINING OBAMAISM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE TERMS. NO, HE'S CERTAINLY NOT A HITLER, A STALIN, A MUSSOLINI... HE'S NOT A CASTRO... A CHAVEZ... BUT HE IS A BIT OF A MITTERRAND... A HUEY LONG... AN FDR ON STEROIDS...

WHAT OBAMA WANTS IS STATE VETO POWER OVER PRIVATE BUSINESS AND EVEN PERSONAL DECISION-MAKING. IT'S NOT SO MUCH THAT HE WANTS TO PROACTIVELY CONTROL ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS EACH AND EVERY BUSINESS AND PERSONAL DECISION THAT TAKES PLACE IN AMERICAN; IT'S THAT HE WANTS TO BE ABLE TO "GUIDE" MACROECONOMIC POLICY (OFTEN VIA MICROECONOMIC REGULATION) AND HE WANTS GOVERNMENT TO EXERCISE ULTIMATE "STEERAGE" CONTROL OVER THE ECONOMY.

BOTTOM LINE... YOU CAN TERM OBAMA A PATERNALISTIC SOCIAL WELFARIST. (*SHRUG*)

America is now the "sick man of the globe," says John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. "The good news is the illness is not terminal."

I'D LIKE TO BELIEVE THAT... (*SIGH*)... BUT DEMOGRAPHICS AND CURRENT IMMIGRATION POLICIES POINT TO JUST THE OPPOSITE. IF ANYTHING, THE UNITED STATES IS "IMPORTING" THE THIRD WORLD INTO OUR SOCIETY. WORSE... WE'RE NO LONGER A MELTING POT... WE'RE NOT LONGER ASSIMILATING "THEM" INTO "OUR" CULTURE; RATHER, WE'RE CAUGHT IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT SPIRAL OF NATIONAL SUICIDE.

OH, YEAH... I'M TELLING IT LIKE IT IS TODAY! I REFUSE TO SUGARCOAT REALITY.

Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital, who predicted the housing-fueled crash (and made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate this year)...favors ending long-term unemployment benefits because he says they prevent Americans from taking low-paid jobs. "Nobody wants to tell the truth and say that lower paying jobs are here to stay," he said. "One way or another, America is going to be poorer. Basically, we're doomed."

(*NOD*)

Manufacturing as a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) peaked in 1953 at 28.3%. By 2009 it was 11%. Employment in manufacturing continued a roller coaster ride for a couple more decades, peaking in 1979 at just over 14.5 million workers. But by 1979 the oil shocks began to threaten the middle-class status of manufacturing workers.

From the 1980s onward, manufacturing jobs and the sector's contribution to U.S. GDP declined, a process accelerated by productivity enhancements and increasing competition from lower-cost markets. Now there are just over 8 million manufacturing workers in a population of 300 million.

"The post-World War Two paradigm that allowed unskilled workers to go straight from high school into the middle class died in the 1980s," Mesirow's Swonk said.

Thanks to low interest rates and the spurious promise that property prices could only go up, U.S. consumers in the first decade of the 21st century bought into the property market hook, line and sinker in order to profit and afford a better lifestyle. They also drew down home equity in order to fund that lifestyle, spending money they did not have.

DUMMIES! F--KING DUMMIES! AND I DON'T WANT TO BAIL OUT THESE F--KING DUMMIES...!!!

The Great Recession took a chunk out of America that is unlikely to come back.

(*SAD NOD*)

Manufacturing generates just over a tenth of America's economic output and employs less than 9% of the workforce. Yet it accounted for more than 26% of the 8.4 million layoffs in the downturn, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. ... [I]mprovements in productivity during the downturn mean many of the 2.2 million manufacturing workers who lost their jobs will not be rehired. [Furthermore,] much of the hiring [American manufacturing companies] plan to do will be overseas to serve developing markets.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 6.3 million vacant homes on the market for sale or rent. ... Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors of America, says apart from a few potential bright spots such as North Dakota and the Appalachians where natural resource stories may fuel residential housing projects, the housing glut means little job creation can be expected.

Incidentally, the housing mess also hurt labor mobility. According to real estate website Zillow.com, in the third quarter nearly 1 in 4 single-family homes in America had negative equity, with the home worth less than the mortgage.

"Labor mobility has always been a difference between America and Europe, and has worked in America's favor," said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates. "The housing market has now become a constraint on the labor market."

A review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted for Reuters by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University found the rate of blue-collar workers who are unemployed or underemployed hit 19.5% in the third quarter (compared with 15.1% for all occupations), up from 7.2% in the same period in the year 2000.

BUT FOR WASHINGTON LOBBYISTS, THE AGE OF OBAMA HAS BEEN A BOOM TIME. FOR BANKERS, WALL STREETERS... BONUSES HAVE BEEN GOING UP, UP, UP! (GOOGLE "GOLDMAN SACHS + OBAMA") (HELL... GOOGLE "CLINTON + GOLDMAN SACHS")

FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THE OLIGARCHS... THE "TRANSNATIONALISTS"... ARE DESTROYING YOUR COUNTRY. IT'S HAPPENING IN PLAIN SIGHT - RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN. BARKER'S NEWSBITES CHRONICLES THE STORY DAILY!

"For blue collar workers it is a depression," said Andrew Sum, the center's director. "Why are people having such a hard time? The answer is their jobs don't exist any more, they have nowhere to go."

"We're not very far from the level where the economy is not self-sustaining," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a rare television interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Dec 5th. "It's very close to the border. It takes about 2.5% growth just to keep unemployment stable and that's about what we're getting."

SO SUPPOSEDLY RIGHT NOW - DECEMBER 2010 - TODAY'S ECONOMIC REALITY REPRESENTS BERNANKE'S IDEA OF "SELF-SUSTAINING...???" (FOLKS... WE ARE SO... SO... SO... FRIGG'N SCREWED...!)

In November the long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more) hit 6.3 million...

(*SIGH*) FOLKS... THE ECONOMY HAS NOT GOTTEN BETTER; IF ANYTHING, IT'S GETTING WORSE. ONCE THE INEVITABLE INFLATION HITS...

FOLKS... BUY GUNS... BUY AMMO... TAKE SAFETY COURSES...

As part of a deal to extend tax cuts implemented by President George W. Bush, President Obama and the resurgent Republican Party agreed on a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits. ... Gluskin Sheff's Rosenberg says the problem is extending unemployment benefits alone means in 13 months those same workers will merely need them extended again. "The last thing America needs is a class of permanently unemployed people," he said. "They will lose their drive and lose their ability to gain and maintain future employment."

NOT TO MENTION I DON'T WANT TO SUPPORT THESE PEOPLE...!!! I HAVE MY OWN PROBLEMS...!!! THE WORKING POOR SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO SUBSIDIZE THE NON-WORKING MIDDLE CLASS...!!!

Unlike during the Great Depression, the latest downturn has weakened America's manufacturing sector unions.

WHILE THANKS TO THE DEMOCRATS THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS HAVE BEEN THRIVING... CREATING A BLACK HOLE FOR GOVERNMENT BUDGETING ACROSS THE NATION.

According to the Census Bureau, income inequality has reached the highest level since it began tracking household income in 1967.

In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey released on Dec 7th, American 15-year-olds performed below the OECD average in mathematics (Chinese students in Shanghai topped the rankings) and just average in science and reading.

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT LAST PART. NO FRIGG'N WAY WE ACHIEVED EVEN "AVERAGE." (*SMIRK*)

One third of American college students require remedial mathematics classes...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*) HEY, FOLKS... DO YOU THINK OUR "EDUCATORS" DESERVE ANY OF THE BLAME FOR THIS...??? HMM...?

FOLKS... EITHER OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS AMERICANS HAVE SIMPLY GOTTEN DUMBER (SOMETHING IN THE WATER PERHAPS?) OR ELSE OUR HIGHLY PAID (WITH GOLD-PLATED BENEFITS) PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS... SUCK!