For a truly frightening look at the mess the Washington spending machine has created, have a look at these:

From the Washington Post:

"New Estimate of U.S. War Costs: $4 Trillion"

Amid a growing debate over how to bring down the government’s debt, a new study has concluded that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan has cost up to $4 trillion over the past decade.

The study, by the nonpartisan Eisenhower Research Project based at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, also estimates that at least 225,000 people, including civilians, troops and insurgents, have died as a result of the conflicts. Of that number, an estimated 6,000 were uniformed U.S. military personnel.

Pentagon spending accounts for only half of the budgetary costs incurred and represents a fraction of the full economic cost of the wars, according to the study. Among other line items, the study’s contributors — more than 20 economists, political scientists and other experts — estimate federal obligations to care for past and future veterans will eventually total $600 billion to $950 billion.

The estimates are based on reports from the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service and myriad other sources.

The $4 trillion estimate could be fodder for lawmakers increasingly concerned that the United States can ill-afford to maintain a large military presence in Afghanistan.

The study’s authors say that’s a debate worth having.

And from usfederalbailout.com [red highlights mine]:

To paraphrase the words generally attributed to the late Senator Everett Dirksen: "A trillion here,... [Read More]

In "Financial Press Getting Very Scary — Good Sign?," the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog notes that at least one "expert" believes bearish sentiment about the economy is at or near a contrarian extreme.

The financial press sometimes is ahead of the curve, but it can also act as a contrarian indicator.

The most famous incidence of this is the BusinessWeek story in August 1979 that proclaimed the Death of Equities. This story ran on the eve of what would become a remarkable two-decade surge in shares, capped by the craziness of the Internet bubble of the late 1990s.

With that in mind, Ed Yardeni, head of Yardeni Research, takes a tour of the recent financial press landscape. He finds plenty of really scary headlines, including:

• The Wall Street Journal’s Monday story about how debt is hampering the recovery. It talks in stark terms about how debt-fueled binges usually result in a very, very long recovery period.
• This week’s Economist features a cover illustration of a man in a suit staring down at a drain. The headline: If Greece goes…The story argues that “the opportunity to avoid disaster is shrinking fast.”
• The Financial Times weighed in this week with another glumster: “The outlook for income growth has rarely looked worse than it does today.” Big debt, no income. Yikes.
• Not to be outdone, Bloomberg this week features Gary Schilling, an economist, arguing that [Read More]

Most reasonable (and unconflicted) observers would agree that the U.S. economy is not "recovering" in any real sense of the word. That doesn't necessarily mean, of course, that they aren't hopeful about the future. Unfortunately, various reports, including the three articles featured below, suggest the outlook going forward is worse than what we have now -- and looking shakier by the day.

"Murdoch Warns of ‘Fearful’ Business" (Financial Times)

News Corporation’s James Murdoch has warned that companies have become “very fearful” about the macroeconomic environment in recent weeks, with the corporate mood “not great” as consumer confidence and spending falters.Speaking on stage at the Cannes Lions advertising conference, Mr Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, said: “The mood music has shifted, people are very fearful.”He added: “Hopefully companies are in a good enough shape after the shock of 2008-2009 that we are a better position to go forward.”

"Analysis: Christmas Gloom for China Toymakers as Orders Shrivel" (Reuters)

China may be the world's toy-making capital, but for Cheung Tak Ching the Christmas season is shaping up to be lean and joyless.

Sitting in a showroom amid an array of bright smiling toys he makes for Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) and Mattel Inc (MAT.O), the 40-year industry veteran bemoans a 5-10 percent fall in pre-orders.

"Our customers, mainly in the United States, still have good levels of inventory after restocking last year," said Cheung, managing director of Wah Lung Toys, which operates several factories in southern China employing nearly 8,000 wor... [Read More]

How special are we? Well, as the following three charts from a recent Mother Jones article, "Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil," reveal, the U.S. really stands out when it comes to how much the ordinary Joe -- seemingly regardless of political persuasion -- has been screwed by the U.S. corporatocracy, especially in recent years.

Take one helping of an economy wrecked by rampant greed, reckless speculation, and failed policies, and combine that with financial and other markets distorted by the same toxic brew, and what do you get? Developments like these:

"Antioch Copper Wire Thieves Reach New High – Or Low" (KCBS)

ANTIOCH – Just days after Pacific Gas and Electric lamented the ongoing and widespread theft of copper wire from its Antioch power poles, the utility is now revealing that a particularly brazen thief – or thieves – stole an entire transformer from a power pole.

This is in addition to the knocking down of an estimated 300 power poles, stripping them of their lucrative copper wiring.

There is copper wiring in the transformer, as well.

It’s a risky move, the utility warned, because it’s energized electrical wiring that’s being taken. In fact, people have been electrocuted or otherwise seriously injured attempting to lift the wiring.

It will cost PG&E tens of thousands of dollars to replace the downed power poles and stolen transformer. The price tag to replace just one power pole and its missing transformer: $12,000.

"Thieves Steal 4-Thousand Dollars in Storm Drain Covers" (WINK)

ALVA, FL-Thousands of dollars of your taxpayer dollars gone down the drain.

That's after thieves stole at least 10 storm drain covers from various Lee County locations.

Metal drains, grates, and covers the Florida Department of Transportation says at one time, they've all been stolen from swales and retention ponds in Lee County.

Now deputies say thieves have a new target storm drain covers or scuppers.

Debbie Towers with the Florida Department of Transport... [Read More]

In "Post-Recession Lingo: Need-to-Know Phrases for Today's Consumers," Time.com's It's Your Money blog highlights some financial crisis-era contenders for addition to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Adding to the list of post-recession terms such as "unbanked" (individuals without checking or savings accounts), "anti-dowry" (student loan debt holding you back from getting married or buying a house), and "Groupon remorse" (regret felt upon buying a daily deal you can't use or never really wanted), here's a roundup of zeitgeist-y phrases, including "squatter's rent," "light bulb anxiety," and "not retiring."

"Financially Fragile"
If an emergency occurred and you needed to come up with $2,000 within 30 days, could you do it? (Legally, hopefully?) If not, then you'd be categorized as "financially fragile," and researchers say that nearly half of Americans fit the description.

"Squatter's Rent"
Also referred to as "free rent," it's the money a homeowner—soon to be ex-homeowner, most likely—gets to keep each month when he stops paying the mortgage and has yet to be kicked out of the home. "Squatter's rent" around the nation is estimated to come to a total of [Read More]

Although I've pooh-poohed the notion of a U.S. economic recovery (click here and here for some recent commentary on the subject), that doesn't mean some parts of the economy aren't showing signs of life. Indeed, business is booming for certain of those firms that cater to the less well off -- especially the newly poor who've been left high and dry amid endless Wall Street bailouts, an orgy of cheap money speculation, and a raging bull market in financially-engineered profits. Here are a few examples:

1. Grooming services

"A New Buzz About Budget Haircutters" (Pioneer Press)

Stacey Krech has her hair foiled by Kim Rheault at Fantastic Sams in Woodbury. I like that I can just walk in and have services done, and I don t have to make an appointment, Krech said. (Pioneer Press : Scott Takushi)

Despite a sluggish economy, Andrew Terwilliger opened a Fantastic Sams last month in Woodbury and recently bought two other existing franchises in Rochester, Minn.

There's a good reason.

Terwilliger has seen sales grow at his other three Fantastic Sams franchises in Cottage Grove, Hastings and Red Wing and says there's more opportunity ahead for the budget-friendly salon, where haircuts start at about $13.

"We grew throughout the recession," he said.

That's in stark contrast to what many in the beauty business experienced, as customer traffic dipped for many salons during the worst of the downturn. Customers scaling back went longer between haircuts and started manicuring their nails at home.

Overall, the beauty business has stabilized since the recession but problems remain.

2. Food services

[Read More]

Although I've repeatedly questioned the notion that we've had a "recovery" in any genuine sense of the word, it looks like whatever we did have as a result of all the financial steroids that were injected into the U.S. economy since the financial crisis began is withering fast.

To wit, along with today's "unexpectedly" bad data from the Richmond Federal Reserve (ably discussed here by The Market Ticker), we've also had similarly downbeat reports from their New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago counterparts (the Dallas survey is due out next week). In fact, three of the regional Fed indexes are at or near one-year lows.

Given how well one popular measure of economic activity, the ISM manufacturing index, has tracked these data series over time, odds are that the "R" word more and more people will be focusing on next won't be "recovery" -- it'll be "recession."