Here’s a wide-ranging interview of Mish Shedlock on King World News.

A few take-aways:

Even if the US economy adds a steady 100k jobs a month, unemployment will be flat at 10% indefinitely.

The depression is masked by food stamps, extended unemployment benefits and a million census workers.

The best thing for underwater homeowners is often to just stop paying the mortgage — odds are you can stay in your house for ages while saving up to rent the equivalent for less than the monthly mortgage payment.

Chris Christie of NJ is the only decent governor in the US. He’s cutting spending in a real way, taking on the unions and municipalities and cutting programs.

If consumer spending is really up, sales tax receipts should be up, but they are not, even though many states have raised their rates. Same store sales are only up because stores are closing, driving more business to those that remain. Those that are closed aren’t counted.

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There’s much more on Greece, Iceland, unions, pensions and deflation.