The Greatest Depression Takes Hold - Part 1 US

Remember those times when your grandparents would tell you about the difficulties of the Great Depression? Well, thanks to the wonders of Government Spending, you too get to tell your grand kids these stories. From Zero Hedge -

The record slaughter of shippers continues as the BDIY posts the largest overnight drop of 4.5% in the most recent 34-consecutive day trounce in dry bulk shipping rates. Short term Capsize and Panamax charters for Pacific delivery have hit $29k and $19k, respectively, both approximately 30% lower than comparable Atlantic delivery rates as the Chinese transit corridor is now massively oversupplied. 

The extend and pretend game fails as retail sales continue to fall -

The deflation threat continues as the drop in total retail sales persists, with the latest number coming in at -0.5%, once again worse than expectations of -0.3%, compared to a prior revised number of -1.1%. Ex autos come in at -0.1%, in line with expectations. The biggest plunge was in "Motor vehicle & parts dealers" which plunged 2.3% in June. 

Housing plummets -

The Mortgage Brokers' Association reported that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes sunk to a 13-year low last week, and refinancing demand also slid despite near record-low mortgage rates. As Reuters noted, "requests for loans to buy homes dropped 3.1 percent in the week ended July 9, after adjusting for the Independence Day holiday, to the lowest level since December 1996, the industry group said....Rock-bottom borrowing costs are helping borrowers with pristine credit to buy and those who still have equity in their homes to refinance."

And the States are spinning the drain -

The latest funding fiasco comes from Texas, which Reuters reports is planning on selling $2 billion in debt just to refill its empty unemployment trust fund. 

The Real Effect
Think about that last bit of info for a second, we are going into debt, to pay people to do... NOTHING. How can we lose!?! Please keep in mind that I am not arguing for or against this policy, merely that when examined on it's own merits, it is a stupendously idiotic policy in the area of production. And for those of you that don't get it, think about it again. We are taking money (production) away from those that are productive and giving it to people that are doing nothing (unemployment).