2. ~ 20 states face some form a fiscal problem/crisis [2]
3. I assume he's talking about the alternative means of measuring unemployment? The worst case scenario that is accepted by mainstream economics is ~10% [3]
None of what he said was wrong, but China is in serious trouble. The real-estate bubble is hiding a credit bubble. As the government attempts to scale back stimulus programs, the % of the economy which is dependent on such activity will start to feel the pinch. No one really knows how much pain the average Chinese citizen is going to feel, but the situation has no parallel in history, the amount of money the Chinese government has spent is astronomical. Some economists have stated they expect the debt to peak 283% of GDP... [4]
1. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/us-federal-debt...
2. http://mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings
3. http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm
4. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-21/china-s-de...
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/563caf319dd7ccfc418...
The "unemployment" rate doesn't include people who gave up looking for work among other adjustments, it doesn't tell you how many people are actually working. That's what the labor force participation rate measures.
The rise of nontraditional candidates is less surprising in light of this.
The problem is the Labor Force Participation Rate has fallen much quicker than any of the forecasts based upon Demographics. The reason for this is the lack of people working in their prime working years, the funny thing is the LFP would be even lower if Boomers were retiring at the rate they are supposed too, but the weaker economy had led many of them to delay retirement which in turn harms those who should be working.
A Closer Look at the Decline in the Labor Force Participation Rate
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/o...