I think RT endless reports of U.S internal social and economic malaise is hot air since the U.S can command Russia’s foreign policy at the drop of a hat!

I 'm always amused when New Yorkers are allowed to comment on the state of the US economy without acknowledging Wall Street's blatant abuse of the mortgage fiasco...New York's financial institutions and media empires are the epitome everything disturbing about the US... Financial Pyramid schemes emanating from Wall Street in NYC have crippled the US economy twice ...(three times if one includes the "dotcom" fiasco)..New York is a city that has abused the slave labor of fresh immigrants in sweat shops throughout its history, harbored some of the wealthiest robber barons, sold out to the imperial British during the Revolutionary war and in general has produced nothing beneficial to the US economy other than financial schemes, fashion, advertising, media trends and other such non quantifiable commodities. New Yorkers are also famous for literally stepping over the destitute on their way to shop at Macy's. The other obvious financial drain is that the US is leveraged to the hilt in foreign policy expenditures controlled largely by secret, unaccountable CIA secret 'intelligence' funds. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Bosnia, Kosovo, all the gulf states & Iraq are hopeless money pits that seem to benefit only the obscenely rich Saudi aristocracy and the NATO mercenaries attached to them.The Middle East is mired in an endless dance of corruption and self-destruction that threatens to suck the life out of the American economy. The US middle class has ended up the cash cow since the wealthy Americans have gone global to shelter their fortunes....and the cow is dying now that multi-national corporations have laid them all off..

But it is not the same people "under poverty line" in the U.S. as in Russia because a great part of people who are middle-class in Russia would be considered poor in America according to their income and wages...

Enrique, one big difference between Russia and the USA is that the middle class in Russia is growing, while in the USA it is shrinking. If there are no changes, then the USA future looks dismal compared to Russia's. We are meeting in the middle of the graph but going in different directions. The mistake American pundits make: they notice Russia is not going the same way as the USA and then they say Russia is going "backward".

Enjoy cleaning the "graveyard" of our nation. Blame yourself. Then watch what happens when you try to take control of anything, including your own life.

Part1 Low productivity of capital is the main reason Imagine this example. Every month, money collected from employees in form of pension contribution, insurance premiums and medical contributions finance construction of a highway. And this is 90% of investment capital. Assume that every $1 billion builds 10 km of that highway. So the length of the highway grows in proportion to money spent. Now assume there is a panic of some kind and 50 km of that highway disappears. Then another $10 billion adds 100km and another panic removes 70 km. And so on,… In the end we may state that many of this investment produced nothing. That money was simply dumped producing no tangible assets neither any return to investors. This may be seen as ludicrous. It is used here only as an example. In real world that will not happen to a highway but it happens on the stock exchanges. Too much money is being dumped there producing no returns, creating no productive assets, no jobs, but causing stock price inflation and being wiped out from time to time. This is colossal waste and THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR CURRENT CRISIS. US data confirms that. Over the last 30 years the pace of US debt increases is faster than the pace of increases in GDP. What leads to conclusion; THE US ECONOMY IS UNABLE TO SUSTAIN ITSELF. Let’s look at the well known example. Warren Buffet, great American hero, the asset manager, investor who invested hundreds of billions of dollars of his clients’ money. • How many jobs he created? • How much did he contribute to the US GDP? • How many fixed assets did he build? Nothing to talk about!