Did you know that there are some U.S. states that have already officially fallen into recession? Economic activity all over the planet is in the process of slowing down, and there are some areas of the country that are really starting to feel the pain. In particular, any state that is heavily dependent on the energy industry is hurting right now. During the years immediately following the last recession, the energy industry was the primary engine for the growth of good paying jobs in America, but now that process is completely reversing. All over the U.S. energy companies are going under, and thousands upon thousands of good jobs are being lost.
On Sunday evening, Bloomberg published an article entitled “The U.S. States Where Recession Is Already a Reality“. The following is an excerpt from that article…
As economists size up the chances of the first nationwide slump since 2009, pockets of the country are already contracting. Four states — Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — are in a recession, and three others are at risk of prolonged declines, according to indexes of state economic performance tracked by Moody’s Analytics.
The three additional states that are “at risk of prolonged declines” are Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. What all of those seven states have in common is a strong dependence on the energy industry. Last year, 67 oil and gas companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy, and approximately 130,000 good paying energy jobs were lost.
From the opinion piece:
“And everything changes if Saudi Arabia and Turkey get trigger happy and decide to invade Syria. If that happens, it could very well be the spark that sets off World War 3 and a full-blown meltdown of the global financial system.”
The House of Saud is in real peril of imploding. Many in the muslim world would cheer, as Saudi Arabia is recognized as a self-serving provocateur. It would certainly be within the realm of the possible for the House of Saud to continue to escalate regional conflict and tensions as a way of dissipating the internal pressures for meaningful reform.
Domestically, I think calling areas of the US in a “recession” is grossly understating the true, on the ground situation. Many areas of the US have been in economic depression for an extended period of time, hidden by the overt manipulation and redefining of the stats used to keep score. Whether or not it is defined as a “recession” or “depression”, the pain is real, and my heart goes out to those who at risk for losing everything.
If ever there was a time for developing local alternative systems for “everything” from education to economic activity, the time is now when it is still possible to experiment and adjust to smooth out the hollows and ridges before it becomes a community’s lifeline.