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IN THIS ISSUE:

1. GDP Growth in the 1Q Was Disappointing

2. The Fed's Decision & the Press Conference

3. Editorial: A Tale of Two Recessions

4. Reliance on Uncle Sam Hits a Record

5. Unemployment Devastates Savings - and Benefits

Introduction

Our main topic this week is a new report from USA TODAY which found that Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation’s history, based on federal data. A record 18.3% of the nation's total personal income in 2010 was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs.

Yet before I get into our main topic, there has been some important news on the economy and the Fed since last week's letter. Last Thursday's initial report on 1Q GDP was considerably weaker than expected. The government reported that 1Q GDP rose at an anemic annualized rate of only 1.8%, as compared to 3.1% in the 4Q of 2010.

The Fed's monetary policy committee met last week and decided that the latest round of quantitative easing (QE2) will end in June as scheduled, and that no new QE3 is in the works. They also announced that short-term interest rates will remain near zero for an extended period. And Fed Chairman Bernanke continued to maintain that he believes rising inflation is temporary. I'll have more details below.

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President Obama unveiled his fiscal year 2011 federal budget last week, and it is another whopper. If approved, he would spend a record $3.83 trillion and run a deficit of at least another $1.3 trillion. The actual deficit could be much higher because his assumptions about the economy are considerably too optimistic in my opinion and that of many economists. Obama's new budget projections now show that the budget deficit for FY2010, which ends on September 30, will be much higher than previously forecast - a whopping $1.6 trillion. This week, we will examine the implications of trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

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Based on the Obama administration's own spending forecasts, the US national debt is projected to double over the next 10 years. Currently at over $11.4 trillion, the national debt is projected to balloon to at least $22.5 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO now forecasts the fiscal 2009 budget deficit at a record $1.845 trillion alone, with another deficit of $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2010. If our national debt in fact doubles in the next 10 years (and it could more than double), this will be bad news for the US dollar and interest rates, which in turn is bad news for stocks. As you might expect, the liberal media is not talking about these new debt numbers, so I will lay it all out for you this week. Feel free to pass this week's E-Letter on to others - we need to get out the word!...