The Dow Jones Average is down about 635 points at closing, finishing at right around 10,810. This of course is hardly news as the market has been on a steady downslope for about a week now. Just to give perspective, on July 21st the market closed at 12,724 so the DJIA has lost almost 2,000 points in about two weeks or 15% down. However just to look at things in full … [Read more...] about Dow Closes Down Roughly 635 Points
How Much is the Tea Party to Blame for the Downgrade?
There are times I want to grab some tea party folk by the neck and try and shake some sense in them. Many of them are, indeed, unreasonable and illogical. Advocating not raising the debt ceiling, forcing the government to cut about 40% of the budget in one year, may not be terrorism but they might as well support detonating an atom bomb in New York City considering the similar … [Read more...] about How Much is the Tea Party to Blame for the Downgrade?
Going Forward: More Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Reduction? (Guest Voice)
Going Forward: More Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Reduction? by Steve Suranovic As we come out of the debt ceiling debate in the US Congress and face the prospect of a world economy that seems destined to remain in the doldrums for some time to come, the debate over what to do next is heating up. Should we ignore the budget deficit and debt issues and go all in for anther massive … [Read more...] about Going Forward: More Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Reduction? (Guest Voice)
Rick Perry’s Path (Guest Voice)
Rick Perry's Path by Matt Mackowiak You're always strongest when you're "thinking" about running for president. Gov. Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor in the history of the nation's second-largest state, is unquestionably the "flavor of the month." And his likely entrance into the 2012 campaign has many excited, but, as a recent Politico story reported, some in … [Read more...] about Rick Perry’s Path (Guest Voice)
Going Down
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. … [Read more...] about Going Down
Can America Still Lead?
LONDON -- The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly irrational, wasteful and shameful moment in the political and economic history of the United States. It reflected much of what is wrong with the priorities of our political elites and the obsessions of those who now hold effective veto power over our government. It began with the world hanging … [Read more...] about Can America Still Lead?
Diagnosing Obama’s Failure to Lead
Distressed by George W. Bush, even those of us who try to resist psychobabble eventually succumbed to seeing him as a reformed drunk who had found God and was punishing the nation with his uncomprehending new-found piety. Now Drew Westen, a practicing psychologist and political consultant, offers a diagnosis of Barack Obama that, in all fairness, deserves similar … [Read more...] about Diagnosing Obama’s Failure to Lead
Why 2011 Will Be The High Water Mark For The Tea Party & A Reactionary GOP
There is a wonderful spring-fed swimming pool a short drive from our mountain retreat that even during the dog days of summer is refreshingly cool. The regulars who congregate there include a half dozen folks in their seventies and eighties. Most are widows. The only guy is a retired Air Force fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran. The gals include two retired school teachers and a … [Read more...] about Why 2011 Will Be The High Water Mark For The Tea Party & A Reactionary GOP
Breaking: 30 American Soldiers (including Navy SEALs) Killed In Afghanistan
The shooting down of an American helicopter carrying the elite Navy SEALs in Afghanistan has been described as the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. See here... A Pakistani newspaper says that the Abbottabad raid by US Navy Seals was not the first venture into Pakistan. The team had surreptitiously entered the country on ten to twelve … [Read more...] about Breaking: 30 American Soldiers (including Navy SEALs) Killed In Afghanistan
Easy Jobs Program with (Little or) No Added Taxes
As the subject seems to have finally changed in Washington, It may be time again to consider the actual problem with the economy, jobs. Yeah, sure, some tell us government debt, size and regulation are the problem. Some say jerking the safety net out from under the poor and elderly is the problem. When we are quiet and sitting in our thinking chair however, we all know we have … [Read more...] about Easy Jobs Program with (Little or) No Added Taxes
Wisconsin Money Laundering?
Hiroshima Day seems as good a day as any to drop a bomb. [Note: written on August 6.] James and Eric O'Keefe, from the Right Online 2011 Dinner in Minneapolis (the competing "convention" to the Netroots Nation -- formerly Daily Kos -- Convention that Andrew Breitbart crashed in Mid-June, at the height of his 'Weiner Attack.' (via Gateway Pundit, who states "no … [Read more...] about Wisconsin Money Laundering?
Recommended Reading On Hiroshima & The Atomic Bomb
There were some very insightful comments in response to Dr. E's post on Hiroshima and my earlier offering. Dr. E suggested that interested readers acquaint themselves with the Hiroshima Maidens, while I would recommend these books, all of which I have read: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (Gar Alperovitz) Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician … [Read more...] about Recommended Reading On Hiroshima & The Atomic Bomb
Facing Up To The Man From Chad
In 1987 I published a book titled Planet Of The Financial Planners. It was a collection of short satirical pieces, most of which had run in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angles Times, Boston Globe and a few other newspapers. Among the original pieces that hadn't run elsewhere and that appeared in this book for the first time was one titled "Facing Up To … [Read more...] about Facing Up To The Man From Chad
London’s Big Riots: Was the Economy to Blame?
The event: massive riots in London. Those who did the damage: thugs. The reason: some think its the increasingly bleak financial outlook. Reuters reports: London picked itself up on Sunday from some of the worst violence seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over … [Read more...] about London’s Big Riots: Was the Economy to Blame?
Standard & Poors Tea Party
They just threw America's credit rating off Boston harbor. The privately owned profit-making agency that fueled the economic crisis of 2008 by ranking Wall Street collections of junk-mortgages AAA has downgraded obligations of the United States to AA+, after a half-day delay to consider a Treasury Department notification of a $2 trillion error in their math. In the world … [Read more...] about Standard & Poors Tea Party
The New Era of Hostage Politics (Guest Voice)
The New Era of Hostage Politics by Michael Winship When I arrived in Washington this past Sunday, just as the debt ceiling crisis was approaching its climax, all the flags surrounding the capital's Union Station stood at half-mast. I blackly joked with my brother and sister-in-law that maybe they'd been lowered to mark the death of the New Deal. (In fact, they honored the … [Read more...] about The New Era of Hostage Politics (Guest Voice)
Petrodollars to Petro-What? (Publico, Spain)
How badly does the United States want to maintain the value of the dollar? According to columnist Nazanin Amirian of Publico, what has been behind most recent U.S. wars is not human rights or weapons of mass destruction, but the imperative of beating back all challengers to the dominance of the greenback as the world's currency. For Publico, Nazanin Amirian writes in part: … [Read more...] about Petrodollars to Petro-What? (Publico, Spain)
After Historic Credit Downgrade, Americans Must Mend Ways (Xinhua, People’s Republic of China)
What message should the United States government take away from the first credit rating downgrade in its entire history? According to this bluntly-worded editorial from Xinhua, the state news agency of America’s largest creditor, the U.S must break its 'addiction' to borrowed money, the political ‘wrangling’ in Washington must end, and China’s dollar denominated assets must be … [Read more...] about After Historic Credit Downgrade, Americans Must Mend Ways (Xinhua, People’s Republic of China)
America Adds 345 More to her Melting Pot
As we hurriedly walk in the scorching San Antonio heat to the Scottish Rite Auditorium, my thoughts go back to a much cooler day about 50 years ago when I became an American citizen. I wonder if anything has changed in either America or in those who have traveled thousands of miles, who have left loved ones in far-away lands, who sometimes even risk serious repercussions in … [Read more...] about America Adds 345 More to her Melting Pot
The Prices of Nuclear Power
On this day sixty-six years ago, the world changed, but now hardly anyone remembers that the first atomic bomb in history was exploded over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. News traveled slowly those days. I was a 21-year-old soldier in southern Germany waiting to be sent to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan, and it was only days later we learned of a new weapon that had … [Read more...] about The Prices of Nuclear Power