Wednesday

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to my lovely wife, Marie. I won't mention her age, but I will mention that, last Fall, while working at a long-running county fair food booth fundraiser, an elderly man remarked to her, "It's good to see you high school kids still volunteering here." Yes, the man probably suffered from poor eyesight, but my wife is the cutest old bag out there.

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Are you stoked about the stock market? The mainstream media is. The Wall Street Journal even declared that it signals an end of economic hard times: "Dow Clinches Record, Riding Economic Recovery." The last time the Dow hit these levels, it was October 2007. So, Zero Hedge points out, it's appropriate to look at the economy in October 2007 and compare it to the economy today, in order to get a better feeling for this recovery. Here's what they found:

Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
USDJPY: Then 117; Now 93
EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares

Translation: Don't sell out your short positions just yet.

Hunger Games Revisited

Finally, someone out there is pointing out that the problem with the federal government isn't special interests, or taxation rates, or regulations. The problem with the federal government is the federal government. It is the enemy, and it's preparing to swallow up the country. I don't much care for this group's name ("Government Gone Wild"), but if they can get their message out there with such gimmicks, I salute them. This video is well worth the five minutes:

Note: I haven't verified this video's various statistics, but they're consistent with other things I've read.