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Subscribe to RSSIt appears the economy can really stress a country out.
A new Gallup poll finds that the most stressful day of 2010 for Americans was Dec. 1, the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was concerned the economy wasn’t growing fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate.
That was also the day after Congress allowed federal unemployment benefit extensions to expire.
The benefits were later reinstated under a compromise between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans.
About 18 percent of Americans said they were stressed out Dec. 1, compared with 11 percent on the average day. Gallup said it’s the third year in a row that the most stressful day of the year coincided with bad economic news.
The polling company cautions that it’s impossible to definitively determine the causes of a high-stress day, but they often occur on or close to high-profile negative news stories. The country’s relative stress and happiness was measured using its Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index, which is based on interviews of about 1,000 U.S. adults each day.
In 2009, the most stressful day was Jan. 29, the day after the House passed a huge economic stimulus bill, shortly after President Barack Obama took office.
For 2010, Gallup said other stressful days included Sept. 27, when the Midwest was hit with severe flooding, and Oct. 12, the final day of preparation to rescue trapped Chilean miners.
On the whole, however, the Gallup poll found that Americans were slightly happier in 2010 than in 2009.
The happiest day of 2010? That would be Christmas, when 65 percent of Americans said they were happy. Other happy days included Mother’s Day and the Sunday before Labor Day.
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While it may have created stress, unfortunately, Mr. Bernanke's fears about the economy are true, however his actions will have very little impact on the long-term fiscal picture of the United States.
Without massive intervention on both the spending and revenue sides of government, interest payments on the federal debt will eventually cripple the American economy making any “benefits” from the quantitative easing experiment meaningless. At some point in the future, investors will simply decide that U.S. Treasuries are an extremely risky investment and the market will force up interest rates, impacting the lives of all Americans.
Here is a look at what we can expect unless Congress takes immediate action on spending and debt accrual:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/01/interesting-look-at-interest-on-us-debt.html
Why do we have a federal reserver private bank again. I mean didn't the founding fathers not want that because of the dangers? So why is an appointed man one of the most if not the most powerful persons on the plante?
In the time of the founding of the country such a bank was not needed. Now though it is. This appointed man probably is the most powerful man on the planet. Hope he uses it wisely.
want to reduce the deficit - cut military spending drastically. But most sheepish Americans keep sucking Sarah Palin's or Glen Beck's teat to be able to think for themselves. "Reduce taxes, less government" is the soma mantra of the 21st century. It sounds nice but is doesn't really work when you have millionaires in Congress who are only concerned about their own interests, both DEMS and REPUBS. Only fools buy into partisan politics.
End the Fed
Helicopter Ben's policies are working great in my neck of the woods. Just got my bank statement and made a whopping $25 for the month on my CD's.