Quote of the week
“The government can no more save by holding Treasury bonds than I can save for retirement by writing myself IOUs and calling it savings. The Social Security trust fund is a fraud by design. But somehow, this simple sleight of hand dupes the credulous public.” – Anonymous
Slavery, A First World Tendency
by Gary Gibson
“The typical American comes from European stock and though he reflexively yells `liberty’ and `freedom’, he has a hard time letting go of slavery. He stopped thrusting it on imported Africans, but seemed to miss it so much that he started inflicting it on himself and his kin. He enslaves the unborn to debt, the worker to the unproductive, the hedonist to the moralist, and so on.” more…
Should I Buy Gold At Its All-Time High?
by Simon Black
“The US dollar is shattering historic lows against currencies like the Swiss franc, Australian dollar, and Singapore dollar. Any currency that isn’t a complete disaster is now being viewed as a safe haven. And the mainstream world is now, finally, waking up to the reality that the United States might actually default.” more…
Green Agenda has Parallels with Excesses of Communism
by Herald Sun
“Global warming alarmists `want to change us, they want to change our behaviour, our way of life, our values and preferences. They want to restrict our freedom because they themselves believe they know what is good for us. They are not interested in climate. They misuse the climate in their goal to restrict our freedom. Therefore …what is in danger is freedom, not the climate’.” more… [The quote is from the Czech President and the article is primarily about him. Good to see at least one politician that will call a spade a spade.]
The Folly of One-size-fits-all Education
by Michael Maharrey
“Federal Education mandates under No Child Left behind are quickly becoming the hottest state nullification target. Idaho and South Dakota recently joined Montana in openly defying benchmarks set for this year.” more…
Regulars
- The Bain Report
- Friday Fail
- The FDIC shuttered three banks this week.
And now the numbers…
DOW Jones Industrials – 12,143.24 (-537.92/-4.24%)
S&P 500 – 1,292.28 (-52.74/-3.92%)
VIX – 25.25 (+7.73/44.12%)
CSI 300 (China) – 2,972.079 (-95.906/-3.13%)
BSE 500 (India) – 7,111.31 (-194.10/-2.66%)
MICEX (Russia) – 1,705.18 (-23.66/-1.37%)
BOVESPA (Brazil) – 58,823.449 (-1,447.02/-2.40%)
Nikkei 225 (Japan) – 9,833.03 (-299.08/-2.95%)
RICI (Commodities) – 4,033.64 (-70.55/-1.72%)
Oil/bbl (Brent) – 116.74 (-1.93/-1.63%)
Corn/bu – 668.75 (-16.75/-2.44%)
Wheat/bu (CBT) – 715.75 (+23.50/3.39%)
Rough Rice (CBOT) – 16.115 (-0.625/-3.73%)
Copper/lb – 447.95 (+6.95/1.58%)
Gold/oz – 1,631.20 (+29.70/1.85%)
Silver/oz – 40.106 (-0.016/-0.04%)
EUR-USD – 1.4399 (+0.0039/0.27%)
USD-JPY – 76.765 (-1.777/-2.26%)
USD-BRL – 1.5493 (-0.0027/-0.17%)
NZD-USD – 0.8793 (+0.0148/1.71%)
3 Month Treasury – 0.09 (+0.06/200.00%)
2 Year Treasury – 0.36 (-0.03/-7.69%)
10 Year Treasury – 2.80 (-0.16/-5.41%)
30 Year Treasury – 4.12 (-0.14/-3.29%)
3 Month LIBOR – 0.26 (+0.01/4.00%)
U.S. Public Debt (official) – 14,342,865,885,306.50 (-19,059,689.8008/-0.00%)
Baltic Dry Index (BDIY:IND) – 1,264.00 (-59.00/-4.46%)
Wonderful Wife had to work both days this weekend and so it’s just been me and Baby Girl, and we’ve had a good, but pretty busy weekend. She’s napping now, but we’re headed to the park to play when she wakes up. I have to cook dinner tonight too, and I have no idea what to do about that. Nothing comes to mind, maybe a basil and tomato salad.
The little debt ceiling squabble continues to eat up all of the oxygen on the airwaves, but as I said last week the so-called extreme proposal is a joke and far less than the medicine that is required to get the United States straight, so the music will continue to play and everyone will continue to dance.
Wonderful Wife and Baby Girl are headed to New Mexico next week for some birthday fun with the family and friends. She’ll be two later in August. I suppose I’m going to have to think up something better than Baby Girl to call her. After all, there will be a new baby girl in November anyway!
So their trip will leave me with a lot of time on my hands, of which I hope to make productive use. I’ve been told that I will keep the house clean, so at the very least I will be cleaning house! Hopefully I’ll be able to get some sailing in as well.
Well until naptime is over, it’s off to work. Have a great week!
