Category: Benson’s Economic & Market Trends

America continues to face a true national tragedy as tens of millions of unemployed people have been literally discarded because of big business outsourcing to China, India, and elsewhere.  Worse yet, the unemployment statistics are manipulated every month in a cruel hoax to make it look like the unemployment rate is far lower than it…

If what I read recently is correct, the cost of medical care linked to obesity in America is approaching $150 billion a year.  (At least we’re not alone; worldwide, an estimated 1.6 billion adults are now overweight, and 400 million of them are classified as obese.)   We have gone from “living off the fat of…

The interesting part of growing older, that my wife and I have noticed, is the appearance that time speeds up.  As each month that passes turns into years, as a 60+-year-old I’m feeling the passage of time quite differently than a child would; a year to me feels more like a month, whereas a month…

Living realistically is not something anyone wants to do in an election year, and it may be especially difficult for the Baby Boomer generation to grasp, along with their children.  Over the last two decades as wages swelled, and job prospects were unlimited, the Baby Boomers became accustomed to living well beyond their means.   Moreover,…

Inflation is defined as the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, the purchasing power is falling.  I’ve always thought of inflation in terms of what we get and what we pay, but quality and service are as important as quantity, for the price.   I felt…

My wife and I are getting a little older, so naturally we are beginning to think about where the cash flow will come from when we truly retire.  We realize we won’t be able to live on Social Security benefits alone, and even though we have paid into the system our entire lives in the…

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”.  This phrase about government expenditures has become a classic but with great inflation underway, it needs to be brought up to date. Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), a Republican senator from Illinois, is often credited with this saying.  Indeed, several people recall that Dirksen…

From 1959 to 1964, Rod Serling created and directed the ground-breaking series “The Twilight Zone” which will never be forgotten by anyone growing up in the 1950’s with a black and white TV.   The weekly episodes revealed with ironic, perplexing and totally unexpected results, what happened to otherwise normal people whose lives were forever changed…

Spokesmen for the Obama Administration and the Wall Street establishment refer to the slight up tic in lower-priced housing prices and existing home sales as a positive sign that we’re close to a bottom.  Why is it, then, that housing prices in the mid to high-end range are still crashing?  Indeed, if you close your…