Just put some Gold Bond medicated power on that DOOM; it'll clear right up.

Remember how the stock market went up on Tuesday? Never mind. Stock futures are lower this morning, indicating another see-saw day. My own rule of thumb when markets are freaking out like this? Stay calm. It's only a loss if you sell. Never sell into a panic.

AllahPundit over at HotAir noticed this little factoid: two of the top ten point-drops in Dow history have come in the last week. Now that's volatility, my homies.

Tom Friedman dreams of a world where everyone thinks like Tom Friedman. Notably absent: any discussion of entitlement reform. Which is strange, given that entitlement spending is the main driver of our debt. Also: Tom Friedman insists upon himself.

Teh Bernank has thrown in the towel. If you don't know what to do next, sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing.

Economic reality trumps economic theory every time.

The stimulus passed in February of 2009 didn’t go to shovel ready projects. Instead it propped up state and local governments that were broke. What didn’t go to governments was spent on projects without any regard for their return on investment. For example, green light bulb research might be a neat concept, but the short term return on investment is 0. You might even believe that green light bulb research will have positive economic effects in the future-but stimulus is designed to help us today so it’s still a stupid way to spend government dollars. Even if you think stimulus can work, it doesn’t because of politics. This phenomena occurs no matter which party is in charge.

California? Oh yeah, they're still boned.

Forget gold! Buy dirt.

Holy crap, did Stiglitz just admit that Keynesianism is a failure?!? He must have taken a severe blow to the head; someone call 911!

You know, the first Civil War was just so much fun that maybe we should have another one. Or, you know, we can go the Dr. Phil route: scream at each other, apologize, and then have great make-up sex.

"They are essentially wild beasts."

Bonds: real vs nominal yields.

Las Vegas casino comes up snake-eyes.

Via Insty, Susannah Breslin on why she's unemployable. There's some good advice in this column, but beware: in general, "follow your dreams" is really shitty career advice. Most people aren't all that good at doing what they love, or can't make a living wage at it. My advice? Find a job that you can do, that you can stand, and that pays enough to support you and your family. If you hate the job, hang onto it until you find something better. (My mom used to tell me this: If it was fun, they wouldn't call it "work".)

Since "The Great Depression" was already taken, we decided to call our financial disaster "The Great Stagnation". This is one of those "read it all" articles.

Are Islam and capitalism compatible? Much of the economic stagnation that afflicts the Muslim world is caused by other factors than religion: tribalism, superstition, pervasive corruption, a lack of education, and the oppression of women. Arabs in particular suffer from a lack of transparency and rule of law, which is death to free markets: force of law is necessary to protect property rights, enforce contracts, and regulate exchanges. And the law must be applied fairly, without regard to political or social standing. Basically, a sound economy depends upon a sound civil/secular society.

UPDATE 1: Via Insty -- Jobless claims come in at 395K, which is the first time in awhile that they've come in under 400K. Wait for the inevitable revision upwards, though.

UPDATE 2: What does "debt forgiveness" mean? Remember, somebody ends up paying -- the debt doesn't just disappear into thin air.

-------------------------
Mr. Serious is not amused by your shenanigans.

posted by Monty at 08:57 AM

| Access Comments