Structural imbalances facing the economy

• An employment-to-population ratio of 58.5% that remains stuck near 30-year lows.
• The first time ever that labor mobility has contracted.
• Contraction in organic real personal incomes.
• One-in-six American adults are either unemployed or underemployed.
• Over 40% of the unemployed have been so for over six months; 30% for at least a year.
• Nearly 4½ million home loans either in the foreclosure process or at least 90 days past due (and the real possibility that 11 million homeowners will lose their homes without some effective modification programs that are still lacking).
• A record 42 million are now on food stamps, or the new politically correct acronym — SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
• A health care package that has frozen the small business sector.
• A household sector that is fearful of taking on debt.
• Cash hoarding by banks and corporations alike because of the lingering uncertainty over the economic outlook.
• A massive cyclically-adjusted budget deficit at a time of rising dependency ratios, and
• Ongoing spending cutbacks at the state and local government level.

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