DOJ report

[Ron AZ]

Among other things our he said is that "he was going to level the playing field" (his words) (country to country). If the other countries are below us, then there can be no other interpretation than that he intended to, has done, and will continue to take the US down. He is leading this degradation in the power and influence of our country, respect in the world, and strength of our economy. And for those who love our country and have a different vision for USA, it is sickening to have to watch and incredulous that many can not see this happening or think it is a good direction.

[muggsy]

Well at least there is no bootlicking sycophantery here! [emoji23]

Exactly, only the truth plays here.

[muggsy]

Among other things our he said is that "he was going to level the playing field" (his words) (country to country). If the other countries are below us, then there can be no other interpretation than that he intended to, has done, and will continue to take the US down. He is leading this degradation in the power and influence of our country, respect in the world, and strength of our economy. And for those who love our country and have a different vision for USA, it is sickening to have to watch and incredulous that many can not see this happening or think it is a good direction.

+1 Only the fools think that its a good direction, Ron, Only the liberal fools.

[marcinstl]

well, the judge in Ferguson just resigned, not surprising. he's still the attorney in some other burgs. let's hope he can pay off what he owes to the IRS before he has to go away to a Fed. facility.
Ferguson could close it's courts and have ongoing and future cases moved to the STLCounty courts(an individual can request having their case moved to county, many do as it's a more professional venue). Ferguson can get rid of it's PD and contract services from County Police. other services available from County would include building inspection and health inspection. like the south side village of St.George, there is the option of disincorporating and turning the entity over to the county.

[ScottM]

+1 Only the fools think that its a good direction, Ron, Only the liberal fools.

Anyone else's investments doing well? Profiting from record-low interest rates? Expanding their businesses? Picking up durable goods at low cost? Buying homes at a discount? Some sure are, and they're not all liberals.

[getsome]

What we have here is failure to communicate.....Some men you just can't reach

[Ron AZ]

Anyone else's investments doing well? Profiting from record-low interest rates? Expanding their businesses? Picking up durable goods at low cost? Buying homes at a discount? Some sure are, and they're not all liberals.

And what is your interpretation of the labor participation rate (62.8%), lowest in 30-40 years? The record low interest rates are because we are in the worst (slowest) economic recovery in the post WWII era. The market has done well because the Federal Reserve is propping it up with free money. Without businesses growing and hiring into good jobs, any attempt at recovery will be anemic and short lived at best. Not to even mention what it does to the deficit.

What continues to grow unabated is the size of the US Gov't and the Washington DC real estate market.

[ScottM]

And what is your interpretation of the labor participation rate (62.8%), lowest in 30-40 years? Without businesses growing and hiring into good jobs, any attempt at recovery will be anemic and short lived at best. We are in the worst (slowest) economic recovery in the post WWII era.

It's a catch 22 isn't it? People need jobs to afford stuff. But jobs aren't available when people aren't buying things. And it's deeper: goods sell best when the housing market is hot, like furniture, carpet, TVs, home improvement supplies, tools, and appliances. But houses only sell when credit markets are healthy. Credit markets are healthy when loans are profitable and repayment rates are in the black. But repayment rates are good only when people are employed, and you can't get a job until people are buying things...

[ScottM]

What continues to grow unabated is the size of the US Gov't and the Washington DC real estate market.

No arguments there. And social security and defense spending. I'm all for doing right by our elders and having a strong military (none of those rinky-dink VA shenanigans), but those combined categories consume a majority of our federal spending. Every day we're at war overseas with questionable results, we lose more soldiers and spend billions of borrowed money.

[Ron AZ]

It's a catch 22 isn't it? People need jobs to afford stuff.

Good diversion of the question. So you agree that the current administration policies and direction are not supportive of improving the labor participation rate, right? I would not have known it from your comments. The government does not create most good jobs and business growth. But what it can do, and is doing, is suppressing the opportunities for people venture their own money and take a risk, and start new businesses or expand, instead of getting out of the way. Then entrepreneur's will hire people who will buy things because they have a job.

[marcinstl]

Wall St. loves politics and politicians, some of the best bargains money can buy. in a perfect Wall St. world, politics is in total gridlock and everybody is a hater. great time for robbing/raping.
I'm not in love with anything, just trying to buy low and sell high. profit is the only truth. going shooting tomorrow, Wed. is dollar day. ($5range fee reduced to a buck). instead of arguing about the evil Pres. Urkel and his plans to destroy 'merica, how about changing this up and start some stock chat, you know, make some darn money up in here? anybody know how to do that?

[ScottM]

Good diversion of the question. So you agree that the current administration policies and direction are not supportive of improving the labor participation rate, right? I would not have known it from your comments. The government does not create most good jobs and business growth. But what it can do, and is doing, is suppressing the opportunities for people venture their own money and take a risk, and start new businesses or expand, instead of getting out of the way. Then entrepreneur's will hire people who will buy things because they have a job.

Business lending is at an all-time high and so is the stock market (though not at 4pm today). Corporate profits are strong throughout. The public isn't spending as much though - they got caught without adequate savings and even the savers got punished in 2008 if their savings were in equities (as most were). Deposit balances today are much higher than they were pre-crash and credit balances are lower. While that's prudent for the individual, it's delaying the recovery. When this happened in the 80s, Reagan told everyone to go spend, spend, spend, which they did. Too much. It stimulated some of the highest inflation rates since the 1970s and set the stage for the 90s boom and bust, which is why the fed isn't telling folks the same thing this time around. So, complain all you want about the slower recovery, and it does suck if you're out of work or are struggling in a trailing-indicator sector, but this time around the public will be more resilient to future black swans.

So, it wasn't a diversion, mine was an explanation of one macroeconomic interdependency that your question omitted. You say that government doesn't create most "good" jobs, but I think you meant organic-growth jobs, because government certainly can be good for the employee and everyone they spend money on. And I'd agree with that for the most part - most government jobs are not organic and cannot be sustained on their own. But the the thing is, no modern business exists without benefiting from public utility and legal frameworks. In fact, some businesses wouldn't exist at all without public partnerships - even their very innovation depends on it. Don't believe me?...

It's a quietly-held fact that most truly groundbreaking medical and pharmaceutical innovations are hatched in university research programs funded by a combination of public and private sources. In most cases, those basic research outcomes are NOT open-sourced to the public - they are sold or licensed to the private companies who helped to fund the research. This model should feel similar to anyone involved with defense suppliers, particularly military aviation. This is a huge advantage to Merck, Glaxxo-Kline and the rest because basic research is very, very expensive and time-consuming. It's a huge advantage to the public as well - the government isn't (and shouldn't be) in the business of selling medical products, but public health very much benefits from those innovations. It also lets businesses hold the risk of products that fail to succeed.

The problem with answering your question the way you wanted me to was that you're talking about one slice of a complex macroeconomic pie. There are far, far, far more moving parts in all of this that can be summarized in a single statistic.

[ScottM]

Wall St. loves politics and politicians, some of the best bargains money can buy. in a perfect Wall St. world, politics is in total gridlock and everybody is a hater. great time for robbing/raping.
I'm not in love with anything, just trying to buy low and sell high. profit is the only truth. going shooting tomorrow, Wed. is dollar day. ($5range fee reduced to a buck). instead of arguing about the evil Pres. Urkel and his plans to destroy 'merica, how about changing this up and start some stock chat, you know, make some darn money up in here? anybody know how to do that?

Agreed. For every winner, there is a loser. For every economic boom, someone (who took a shorts position) forgoes his shirt. For every recession, there are cash-rich opportunists who buy up cheap equities. And the prez is responsible for little if any of either.

Marcinstl, you're probably much more sophisticated than I am about trading, and once I learned the ins and out of high-frequency trade systems, I put up my white flag and decided to stick with long-term index funds, mutual funds and ETFs. Boring. But profitable so far. Cost averaging on low expense ratio tickers isn't the worst way to go I think.

[Longitude Zero]

I put up my white flag and decided to stick with long-term index funds, mutual funds and ETFs. Boring. But profitable so far. Cost averaging on low expense ratio tickers isn't the worst way to go I think.

Yup. IMHO long term appreciation beats the hopscotch of potentially high yield short term day trades.

[marcinstl]

Yup. IMHO long term appreciation beats the hopscotch of potentially high yield short term day trades.

if your young and the testosterone is raging then go for it. don't be stupid and try to be a Wall St. gunslinger, trade like a back shooting assassin. simple(is best) charting can show the trends. go long on up trends and short on down trends. important to have a set of unbreakable trading rules-- your heart or gut may want you to stay, if the rules say go, your gone. if you lose, your only paying tuition to Wall St. Univ., suck it up, keep moving. in the end, realize this wasn't about money, your just a junkie for the action.
when you retire and take up guns and shooting build a portfolio of the usual boring div. payers--- soap, bonds, utilities, agriculture, soap, boring.
(ScottM, you might find it challenging to find yourself momentarily in agreement with neochristian/crypto-fascists but imagine my dismay to admit that John Bogle isn't totally wrong, in fact he may have been right all along. yikes!)