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Democrats increased the stock market by 300%, Republicans 0%.

*** gopsmacked ***

Three years from the economic bottom real business fixed investment is up some 18.0%. About the same as the Clinton years. In contrast, during the so-called ‘Bush Investment Boom’ it was up only 6.9%, or merely a third of Obama’s current rise. 

How do Americans spend their money?
And how do budgets change based on income? 

“It’s almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.” —Will Rogers

The bottom line is that there can be no rational expectation that things will get better.

…the mini-booms we’ve seen each year for the last 3 years were ephemeral, lasting only a few months. There is nothing mysterious about this in so far as these episodes were necessarily mirages.

These brief outbursts of hope did not rest upon a foundation of fundamental economic health.

Volatility is an expected outcome in an environment in which central banks alternately do and do not bankroll the stock market, which itself is an emotional non-indicator of our economic health.

In short, movements in the stock market mean nothing.

Payroll extraction vs. falling tax rates on wealth.
And our social confusion about money. 

What must be done is not an expanding economy… but a stable economy.

There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation. ―Herman E. Daly

“I’ve known rich people, and why not, since I’m one of them. The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing Disco Inferno than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar.” —Stephen King

Michael Hudson: 

Suppose you were alive back in 1945 and were told about all the new technology that would be invented between then and now: the computers and internet, mobile phones and other consumer electronics, faster and cheaper air travel, super trains and even outer space exploration, higher gas mileage on the ground, plastics, medical breakthroughs and science in general.

You would have imagined what nearly all futurists expected: that we would be living in a life of leisure society by this time. Rising productivity would raise wages and living standards, enabling people to work shorter hours under more relaxed and less pressured workplace conditions.

Why hasn’t this occurred in recent years? In light of the enormous productivity gains since the end of World War II – and especially since 1980 – why isn’t everyone rich and enjoying the leisure economy that was promised?

If the 99% is not getting the fruits of higher productivity, who is? Where has it gone?

1) The US government has no spending constraint.  
2) There is no such thing as the USA not paying its debt. 

Sovereign is a word that means we do what we choose. 

3) We should not have a debt ceiling.  We should have an inflation ceiling.

Dan Crawford: 

The only commonality is that all of the medications we have seen in shortage status are off patent, generic medications, that are harder to formulate than various others and have a definable shelf life. 

President Obama has signed legislation that will give the FDA more latitude in heading off shortages, but this problem plainly reports to a market problem.

Demand exists, buyers are stable, but profits are not high on these medications. This would suggest that companies are simply avoiding generics and focusing on more profitable patented medications. 

Meanwhile, cancer trials have been put on hold… 

Can’t help myself. 
There’s brouhaha about labor in China.
 There’s less brouhaha about labor in the U.S.A. 
 

The Atlantic:
100 Years In The Life Of The Family Budget 

Journalist Joshua Benton says, “I’m sure there are good legal reasons why the NFL is a nonprofit.“ 

How can that be?! 

Attorney Andrew Delaney says the NFL is a “glorified tax shelter.” 

The salary of National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell is $11,554,000 while the National Football League is a 501(c)(6) non-profit. 

Sportswriter Frank Deford says, “I believe that professional wrestling is clean and everything else in the world is fixed.” Maybe so. Maybe so.