Beyond the Numbers

Many business and finance sites place a great deal of weight on statistics, trends, and other hard data. So do I. But that doesn't mean I don't take other kinds of information into account.

In fact, I've found that when I look beyond the numbers it gives me a much better handle on what is really going on than the numbers alone. It's one thing to say, as many mainstream analysts do, that the U.S. is experiencing a jobless recovery. But if you go out and look around, read the stories and commentaries, and think about how people's lives have been affected when so many are struggling to find work and to remain afloat, then it's easy to see that the idea that things are getting better is more illusion or wishful thinking than reality.

Under the circumstances, the fact that the American Psychological Association's latest nationwide Stress in America poll shows that a great many people are finding it very hard to cope in the current environment is not a surprise. Here are some of the survey's key findings:

As the U.S. economy continues to struggle for the third year, findings from the 2010 Stress in America survey paint a picture of an overstressed nation. Feeling the effects of prolonged financial and other recession-related difficulties, Americans are struggling to balance work and home life and make time to engage in healthy behaviors, with stress not only taking a toll on their personal physical health, but also affecting the emotional and physical well-being of their families.

...

As the aftershocks of the Great Recession continue to be felt across the country, money (76 percent), work (70 percent) and the economy (65 percent) remain the most oft-cited sources of stress for Americans. Job stability is on the rise as a source of stress; nearly half (49 percent) of adults reported that job stability was a source of stress in 2010 (compared to 44 percent in 2009). At the same time, fewer Americans are satisfied with the ways their employer helps them balance work and non-work demands (36 percent compared to 42 percent in 2009).

While parents report similar sources of stress as the rest of the population (80 percent cite money, 72 percent cite work and 72 percent cite the economy as stressors), many also report that family responsibilities are a significant source of stress (73 percent). Results from the survey suggest that parents feel that they are under a great deal of stress (nearly one-third report feeling this way) and understand the importance of managing it (69 percent say managing stress is important). However, only one-third (32 percent) believe they are doing an excellent or very good job of managing their stress.

...

Stress has behavioral consequences which in excess could have physical consequences.

• Two-fifths of adults reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress in the past month.
• Nearly one-third said they skipped a meal because of stress in the past month.
  More than four in 10 said they had lain awake at night in the past month.
• The most common physical symptoms of stress reported were irritability (45 percent), fatigue (41 percent) and lack of energy or motivation (38 percent).

(Hat tip to Time's It's Your Money blog.)

Comments

[sarah]

Yes the sheeple continue to eat themselves in to mindless donuts

While the world crumbles around them, check out this brilliant video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za-9cqeIzEw

It explains things that are happening

It is time to look beyond the numbers and look for the truth.

[Real Deal]

Stress? STRESS?? You ain't seen nothin' yet my friend.

Are you stressed by loss of house and job? Because the last bubble has burst? Relax.

Our wonderful Ben (master of the universe) Bernanke just announced he is going to give $830 billion dollars to the Federal government. To pay for regular government expenses, like wars, food stamps and such. Because it can't collect no more taxes, can't borrow no more money, and is insolvent. By this magic he said he is going to create instant wealth in the stock market and will revive the value of all houses. Everybody is going to get rich again!

Hey, here's your chance to ride the next bubble dear Ben is creating on your behalf. But be a bit more careful this time. Because when the Ben Bubble bursts, say early 2012, it will be the very last bubble the US of A will experience as a single country. If you know what I mean.

[The funny thing is the illusionists are still having a grand ole time]

Group think hurts everyone but the masterminds.....

Wall Street Collects $4 Billion From Taxpayers as Swaps Backfire

For more than a decade, banks and insurance companies convinced governments and nonprofits that financial engineering would lower interest rates on bonds sold for public projects such as roads, bridges and schools. That failed promise has cost more than $4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as hundreds of borrowers from the Bay Area Toll Authority in Oakland, California, to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, quietly paid Wall Street to end agreements since 2008.

http://tinyurl.com/2b2fykq

[Rocky]

Seventy-two years ago this morning, Germans woke up to see almost all of their country's synagogues in ruins. The night before, Nazi thugs had set almost every one of these houses of worship ablaze in what came to be known as Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass). How did a country that 25 years earlier was looked up to for its scientific advances, Nobel prize winners, education, music, safe streets and economic progress descend into such barbarism in so short a period of time? Blame a war that should never have happened, an unwillingness of the governments of the time to tax their citizens for the costs of the war or the subsequent reparations, a collapsed currency, a people in despair and a great communicator. Five years before the people had been burning books in the streets of Berlin. Four years later, their neighbors would be gassed to death in Nazi occupied Poland in the most efficient killing machine yet devised by men. The US appears to be repeating many of the same mistakes. But we are not as efficient as the Germans and the people in despair do not yet have their messiah. So we still have some time to fix our problems before our own society goes up in flames.

[roger]

How ? Treaty of Versailles,harsh war reparations favored a
philosophy of the survival of the fittess,you are master or
you are slave (mein kampf) Western politics and hypocrisy
England was afraid France would become a dominant power in Europe so they made it possible for Germany to fully rearm.
Fixing our problems? ,that's a pipe dream,humans make their
destiny but don't control it.

[wall street speaks out of two sides of its mouth]

Watch: Taibbi on 'Parker/Spitzer'

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/232182/83512

[how do you cope with this?]

Well, Would You Look at That: Elizabeth Warren Might Be Replaced by a Bank Lobbyist

http://tinyurl.com/235x6vu

[All we have in government is conflicted garbage]

Many deficit commission staffers paid by outside groups

For example, the salaries of two senior staffers, Marc Goldwein and Ed Lorenzen, are paid by private groups that have previously advocated cuts to entitlement programs. Lorenzen is paid by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, while Goldwein is paid by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is also partly funded by the Peterson group.

"Taxpayers fund the commission and they should work independently of Washington lobbyists and power brokers," Kennelly said. "This is the type of shenanigans that average Americans are so upset about right now - that money talks and everyone else is left out."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111007481.html

[The con in congress is that you think their working for you]

ALERT: Congress Considering Retroactively Making MERS ‘Legal’

That would be an ex-post-facto law, and is explicitly barred by The Constitution.

Such a bill, were it to be promulgated, would be an act of intentional subversion of The Constitution and a violation of the oath of office of every Congressperson who votes or argues for it.

http://fedupusa.org/2010/11/11/alert-congress-considering-retroactively-making-mers-legal/