For the first time since this Greatest Recession Since the Great Depression (GRSGD) began, bank delinquencies on the books of the more than 7800 banks that report to the FDIC are on the decline.  And Exhibit 1 shows the first point on what should continue to be a downward trend as loan delinquencies return to pre-GRSGD levels over the next few years.

Andrew recently pointed out that society’s taste in Google keyword choices may point to a cultural decay. Justin Bieber is great and all, but those 124,000,000 folks Googling his name probably aren’t tuned in to the vital matters of the day. And it got me to thinking: what other signs point to a breakdown in our skin-deep civilization?

The new job data is out and it was so bad it caused a 300+ point drop in the Dow Jones. The market is now down over 10% since late April. Robert Reich is now saying what I thought would happen: we are headed into a double dip recession. Basically, only 431,000 jobs were created, but that itself is very deceiving.

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to get a job in a down economy:

As bad as all that sounds, it ignores the dire situation we are facing in a very familiar setting; the housing market. Contrary to popular wisdom, the ‘toxic assets’ have not been cleaned out. It is very likely we are heading for a second mortgage meltdown.

Perhaps losing 36,000 jobs is better than expected, or even a sign of a recovery (which I doubt), but at best it’s a sign that things aren’t as bad as they were, not good news.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury have pumped an ungodly amount of money back into the economy, which raises serious concerns about future inflation, but for now, much of that money is stuck in the banks and velocity is extremely low.

So what have some city governments and businesses done to combat this? Well, they’ve decided to print their own money. MSN Money highlights one such example:

Here’s the problem: the United States has lost approximately 3.3 million jobs since the stimulus package was passed. Unemployment has risen from 7.6% to over 10%. Furthermore, if you include people who are underemployed (working part-time even though they’d prefer to work full-time) or have simply given up on finding a job, unemployment is closer to 20%. So how, exactly, does Obama know he’s saved 640,000 or a million jobs or whatever it is? The exact methodology is difficult to ascertain, but the best explanation I can come up with is an extremely creative imagination.

As the jobless recovery rhetoric continues by the federal government, many have braced for October unemployment figures in the double digits. The Department of Labor released the latest unemployment data today, confirming those double digit concerns. U.S. unemployment hit 10.2% in October, up from 9.8% in September, the highest since April 1983.

Real GDP has retreated 0.7% in the second quarter of 2009. The national unemployment rate ticked up to 9.8% in September, from 9.7% in August, the highest since 1983. The underemployment rate has climbed to 17%, the highest in 16 years of counting the metric. The dollar is down 10% to a basket of currencies off the March highs. Once again, during this tumultuous time, in an epic struggle to scrape by and preserve wealth, one question rings in our ears: how is the current economic climate affecting pretty girls? (1) (2)