Since the last financial crisis, the U.S. national debt has nearly doubled, corporate debt has doubled, stock valuations have reached exceedingly ridiculous extremes<\/a>, the student loan debt bubble has surpassed a trillion dollars, we are facing the largest unfunded pension crisis in U.S. history<\/a>, and in many parts of the country (particularly the west coast) we are facing a housing bubble that is even worse than the one that burst in 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n And even with all of these bubbles, U.S. GDP growth has been absolutely anemic.\u00a0 Even if you believe the grossly manipulated numbers that the federal government puts out, the U.S. economy grew at a \u201cmiserably low\u201d<\/a> rate of just 1.6 percent in 2016\u2026<\/p>\n In terms of GDP, the fourth quarter was revised up slightly, but there were adjustments for prior quarters, and overall GDP growth for the year 2016 remained at a miserably low 1.6%. We\u2019ve come to call this the \u201cstall speed.\u201d It\u2019s difficult for the US economy to stay aloft at this slow speed. As Q4 gutted any hopes for a strong finish, GDP growth in 2016 matched the worst year since the Great Recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n And corporate profits, despite a stock market that has been surging for years, are even worse. A lot worse. They\u2019ve declined for years. In fact, they declined for years during the prior two stock market bubbles, the dotcom bubble and the pre-Financial-Crisis bubble. Both ended in crashes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Things have continued to get even worse early in 2016.\u00a0 At this point, it is being projected that U.S. GDP will grow at an annual rate of just 0.9 percent during the first quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n So anyone that tries to tell you that the U.S. economy is in good shape is simply not being honest with you.<\/p>\n But even though things don\u2019t look great now, they are going to look far, far worse after the biggest debt bubble in human history bursts.<\/p>\n For example, what do you think that America will look like after half of all stock market wealth disappears?\u00a0 In a recent note to his clients, John P. Hussman<\/a> stated that his team is projecting that by the end of this current market cycle \u201croughly half of U.S. equity market capitalization \u2013 $17 trillion in paper wealth \u2013 will simply vanish\u201d.<\/p>\n And of course that projection lines up perfectly with what I have been saying for quite a while.\u00a0 In order for key measures of stock market valuation (such as CAPE, etc.) to return to their long-term averages, stocks are going to have to fall at least 40 to 50 percent from their current levels.<\/p>\n As this coming crisis unfolds, other asset classes will experience astounding downturns as well.\u00a0 This week, Morgan Stanley (one of the too big to fail banks) released a report that said that used car prices \u201ccould crash by up to 50%\u201d<\/a> over the next several years\u2026<\/p>\n For months we\u2019ve been talking about the massive lending bubble propping up the U.S. auto market. Now, noting many of the same concerns that we\u2019ve highlighted repeatedly, Morgan Stanley\u2019s auto team, led by Adam Jonas, has just issued a report detailing why they think used car prices could crash by up to 50% over the next 4-5 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Housing prices are primed for a major plunge as well.\u00a0 This is especially true on the west coast where tech money and foreign purchasers from Asia have pushed home values up to dizzying levels<\/a>.\u00a0 Half a million dollars will be lucky to get you a \u201cstarter home\u201d in San Francisco, and it was being reported that one poor techie living there was paying $1400 a month just to live in a closet.\u00a0 Many believe that some cities on the west coast will be quite fortunate if home values only go down by 50 percent during the coming crash.<\/p>\n Everywhere you look there are bubbles.\u00a0 In a recent piece, Daniel Lang pointed out some more of them<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n At some point the imbalances become just too great and the system collapses in upon itself.<\/p>\n In other words, we are heading for a massive implosion.<\/p>\n And once the implosion happens, people are going to go absolutely nuts.\u00a0 Anger and frustration are already rising to the boiling point all over the country, and it isn\u2019t going to take much to push millions of Americans completely over the edge.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with Greg Hunter, author James Rickards warned that when things get really bad in America we could actually see what he refers to as \u201cmoney riots\u201d<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theeconomiccollapseblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Time-Is-Running-Out-On-This-Economic-Bubble-Public-Domain-460x345.jpg\")
<\/a>Have you ever thought about what comes after the bubble?\u00a0 In 2008 we got a short preview of what life will be like, but most Americans seem to have come to the conclusion that the last financial crisis was just a minor bump in the road toward endless economic prosperity.\u00a0 But of course the truth is that the ridiculously high debt-fueled standard of living that we are enjoying now is not sustainable, and after this bubble bursts it will be an extremely painful adjustment for our society.<\/p>\n\n