Corporate Debt Defaults Explode To Catastrophic Levels Not Seen Since The Last Financial CrisisBy Michael Snyder We should rejoice that U.S. stocks have rebounded a bit in the short term, but the euphoria in the markets is not doing anything to stop the wave of corporate defaults that is starting to hit Wall Street like a freight train.Zero Hedge is reporting that we have not seen this many corporate defaults since the extremely painful year of 2009 And, as Bloomberg reports, with last weeks five defaults, the 2016 to date total is now 31, the highest since 2009 when there were 42 company defaults, according to Standard Poors. Four of the defaults in the week ended March 23 were by U.S. issuers including UCI Holdings Ltd. and Peabody Energy Corp., the credit rating company said. And by all indications, what we have seen so far is just the beginning.According to Wolf Richter, the average rating on U.S. corporate debt is already lower than it was at any point during the last financial crisis Credit rating agencies, such as Standard Poors, are not known for early warnings. Theyre mired in conflicts of interest and reluctant to cut ratings for fear of losing clients. When they finally do warn, its late and its feeble, and the problem is already here and its big. So Standard Poors, via a report by SP Capital IQ, just warned about US corporate borrowers average credit rating, which at BB, and thus in junk territory, hit a record low, even below the average we recorded in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 credit crisis. What all of this tells us is that we are in the early stages of an absolutely epic financial meltdown. Meanwhile, we continue to get more indications that the real economy is slowing down significantly. According to the Atlanta Fed, U.S. GDP growth for the first quarter is now expected to come in at just 0.6 percent, andMoodys Analytics is projecting a similar number First-quarter growth is now tracking at just 0.9 percent, after new data showed surprising weakness in consumer spending and a wider-than-expected trade gap. According to the CNBC/Moodys Analytics rapid update, economists now see the sluggish growth pace based on already reported data, down from 1.4 percent last week. Of course if the government was actually using honest numbers, people wouldnt be talking about the potential start of a new recession. Instead, they would be talking about the deepening of a recession that never ended. We are in the terminal phase of the greatest debt bubble the world has ever experienced. For decades, the United States has been running up government debt, corporate debt and consumer debt. Our trade deficits have been bigger than anything the world has ever seen before, and our massively inflated standard of living was funded by an ever increasing pile of IOUs. I love howDoug Noland described this in his recent piece With U.S. officials turning their backs on financial excesses, Bubble Dynamics and unrelenting Current Account Deficits, I expected the world to lose its appetite for U.S. financial claims. After all, how long should the world be expected to trade real goods and services for endless U.S. IOUs? As it turned out, rather than acting to discipline the profligate U.S. Credit system, the world acquiesced to Bubble Dynamics. No one was willing to be left behind. Along the way it was learned that large reserves of U.S. financial assets were integral to booming financial inflows and attendant domestic investment and growth. The U.S. has now run persistently large Current Account Deficits for going on 25 years. Seemingly the entire globe is now trapped in a regime of unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus required to levitate a world with unmatched debt and economic imbalances. History has seen nothing comparable. And I would strongly argue that the consequences of Bubbles become much more problematic over time. The longer excesses persist the deeper the structural impairment. As this bubble bursts, we are going to endure a period of adjustment unlike anything America has ever known before. I talk about the pain coming to America in my new book entitled The Rapture Verdict whichis currently the #1 new release in Christian eschatology on Amazon.com. To be honest, I dont know if any of us really understands the horror that is coming to this nation in the years ahead. None of us have ever experienced anything similar to it, so we dont really have a frame of reference to imagine what it will be like. This spike in corporate debt defaults is a major league red flag. Since the last financial crisis, our big corporations went on a massive debt binge, and now they are starting to pay the price. We never seem to learn from the errors of the past. Instead of learning our lessons the last time around, we just went out and made even bigger mistakes. I am afraid that history is going to judge us rather harshly. Those that are waiting for the next great financial crisis to begin can quit waiting, because it is already happening right in front of our eyes. If you believe that the temporary rebound of U.S. stocks is somehow going to change the trajectory of where things are heading, you are going to end up deeply, deeply disappointed. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. Early Stages? Are you kidding? Unemployment at over 24%, they dare not include our African American Inner City males or it would be closer to +50%, which is our Poverty rate in the US and thats low due to the ridiculous number used to define the poverty limit. Im tired of reports intimating WHAT IS as if it HASNT HAPPENED YET! Unless, of course, your POV is from the upper 20% in the US economic classes! Actually, that figure is about right. If it was at 50% things would be much worse. Actually according to the Census 1/2 the US population lives at or near the poverty level which is $20 k for a single person and $44,800 for a family of 4. Of these 1/4 live below the poverty line, which is $10k for a single person and $22,400 for a family of 4. In NJ alone 1/3 Of its working class population only receive $8.38/HR. The unemployment figure is 41% of the working age population defined as 16-62 currently does not have a job. A job defined as employment lasting, I cant recall the exact figure but I think its at least 30 days . How then do you get these ridiculously low figures of 6%? Well the Bureaucrats of labor measures unemployment as anyone over 26 and under 62 who is currently collecting unemployment. Moreover if you work 12 days a year, youre considered employed.if youre a CEO 12 days of work might earn you $1 mill, but the average worker gets less than $9. As of 2015, 51% of the US population collected at least 1 government subsidy including the 2%, which includes social security that supports 1/3 of the population including unemployed children grandkids in the household. Right now single healthy adults can no longer collect foodstamps for more than 2 months. In 2021 they will cut families with children off. No jobs, no foodstamps, plus they will be privatizing social security. Had times are ahead in the next 10 years unless we organize. The Donald will punish corporations that hire outside of the USA (tariffs) and reward those that manufacture and hire locally. Best marijuana sales and plug contact us at 420cannabisplug dot com 