No Janet Yellen, The Economy Is NOT Getting BetterMichael Snyder As you will see below, there are all sorts of signs that the economy is taking a turn for the worse. And when the next great economic crisis does strike, most Americans will be completely and totally unprepared because they trusted our leaders when they told us that everything would be just fine. It is amazing how deceived people can be. Just consider the case of 56-year-old Brian Perry. He is a former law clerk that has applied for nearly 1,500 jobs since 2008 without any success. But he says that he is optimistic that he will get another job soonbecause he believes that the economy is recovering By his own count, Brian Perry has applied for nearly 1,500 jobs since being let go as a law clerk in 2008. The 56-year old Perry lives in Rhode Island, where the 9.1 percent unemployment rate is 2.5 percentage points above the national average. Perry remains optimistic that a job is forthcoming. He thinks a more robust economy would create better opportunities for the long-term unemployed like him. -In January, we were told that the U.S. economy created 113,000 new jobs. But that figure was arrived at only after adding a massive seasonal adjustment. In reality, the U.S. economy actually lost 2.87 million jobs in January. During the past decade, the only time the U.S. economy has lost more jobs in January was during 2009. At that time, the U.S. economy was suffering through the peak of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. -Prominent retailers are closing hundreds of stores all over the United States. Things have gotten so bad that some are calling this a retail apocalypse -McDonalds is reporting that sales at established U.S. locations were down 3.3 percent in January. -In January, real disposable income in the U.S. experienced the largest year over year decline that we have seen since 1974. -As I wrote about the other day, the number of planned job cuts in January was 12 percent higher than 12 months earlier, and it was actually 47 percent higher than in December. -Only 35 percent of all Americans say that they are better off financially than they were a year ago. -What is happening to the U.S. stock market right now very closely resembles what happened to the U.S. stock market just before the horrific stock market crash of 1929. Just check out the chart in this article. For dozens more statistics that show that the U.S. economy is not improving, please see this article and this article. Meanwhile, things continue to unravel all around the rest of the globe as well. In previous articles, I have detailed how the reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve has inflated massive financial bubbles in emerging markets all over the planet. Now that the Fed is tapering, those bubbles are starting to burst and we are witnessing a tremendous amount of economic chaos. Here are three more examples #1 Ghana: Ghanaian Economist Dr. Theo Richardson says Ghanas economy will crash by June this year if the Bank of Ghana continues with its kneejerk measures to rescue the cedi. The government is facing liquidity problems and if we dont get the appropriate remedies to address the issues at hand the situation may worsen and by June the economy may crash, Dr. Richardson said. #2 Kazakhstan: With only $24.5 billion left in FX reserves after valiantly defending major capital outflows since the Feds Taper announcement, the Kazakhstan central bank has devalued the currency (Tenge) by 19% its largest adjustment since 2009. At 185 KZT to the USD, this is the weakest the currency has ever been as the central bank cites weakness in the Russian Ruble and speculation against its currency as drivers of the outflows (which will be exhausted by this devaluation according to the bank). The new level will improve the countrys competitiveness (they are potassium heavy) but one wonders whether, unless Yellen folds whether it will help the outflows at all. #3India: In the wake of a global stock market sell-off driven by worries over slower growth in emerging markets, the head of Indias central bank, Raghuram Rajan, criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve as it pressed on with plans to dial back its monthly bond purchases: International monetary co-operation has broken down, said Rajan, who added that the U.S. should worry about the effects of its polices on the rest of the world. We have reached a turning point for the global financial system. Things are beginning to fall apart both in the United States and all around the world. But at least the dogs at the White House are eating well. Just consider the following photo that was recently tweeted by Michelle Obama 