If you think prosperity or employment are around the next corner or quarter, think again. America has fully entered the Age of De-leveraging. No, Joe Biden, “Recovery Summer” didn’t materialize in 2010, and neither will it in 2011 or 2012.

Consider first household debt. Household debt as a percentage of average disposable HH income has languished between 55% and 60% for most of the last half century, then rose abruptly to 100% in 2002 and now stands at 133%.

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On Sunday, July 3, the Economy voted to lockout its Employees, barring them from access to jobs, income and millions of adoring fans. The long-expected lockout puts 2012 and beyond in jeopardy and comes as the NFL and NBA are trying to end their own work stoppages that began in March and June respectively.

“We’re just not profitable anymore,” said the Economy. “Something had to give.”

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New York City is The Big Apple, America’s melting pot, perhaps the world’s melting pot, but wow, is it one expensive apple. It’s no wonder the city is a melting pot. You have to make stew with what you can scrape up just to eat. At least it seems that way to most New York denizens and its many visitors. In this article, part 1 of a 2 part series, we’ll examine the high cost of living in New York City and its causes. In part 2, we’ll examine how the high cost of living in NYC affects its many citizens today.

Back in the late 1990′s, Chef Marc Lombardini was an Executive Chef at the famed Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, the 4 star resort that is home to a Presidential bunker which has housed and elaborately fed the rich and famous for many, many years. Chef Lombardini was at a crossroad in his culinary career. The choice was presented to him to either go back home and run the family restaurant in Catonsville, Maryland, or to get a position as an Executive Chef at the famed Tavern On The Green in Manhattan.

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