Scary 1929 market chart gains traction

Via avordvet

 

Opinion: If market follows the same script, trouble lies directly ahead

 There are eerie parallels between the stock market’s recent behavior and how it behaved right before the 1929 crash.

That at least is the conclusion reached by a frightening chart that has been making the rounds on Wall Street. The chart superimposes the market’s recent performance on top of a plot of its gyrations in 1928 and 1929. 

The picture isn’t pretty. And it’s not as easy as you might think to wriggle out from underneath the bearish significance of this chart.

More @ Market Watch

"The problem isn’t drunken students. The problem is administrators who are drunk on their own power."

Author's note: This is a continuation of my previous column. The university responded three days after my call for an investigation into viewpoint discrimination in the student group recognition process at UNC-Wilmington. This is my first response to that investigation. What was intended to be a two-part series will now stretch into three parts. Enjoy part two below.

Dear Chancellor Miller (chancellor@uncw.edu):

I am in receipt of the results of your three day investigation into allegations of viewpoint discrimination by the student affairs division of the administration at UNC-Wilmington. The results of the investigation are unsatisfactory and now compel me to seek outside assistance to remedy problems that administrators are aware of but unfortunately appear to be denying.

More @ Townhall

Police Shoot Dog

Via Charlie

Warning: This video includes profanity and graphic images.) Read the story: http://bit.ly/1eRc3HR. The video from Filer police officer Tarek Hassani's dashboard-mounted camera, released Monday by the Filer Police Department, shows the moments leading up to and following Saturday's shooting that left a dog dead. The animal's owner, Rick Clubb, said Hassani's use of force was unwarranted. The Times-News edited the video for length.

Eric Holder to step down this year: report

He should be stepping behind bars.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will step down this year, he said in an interview with the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin in the magazine’s Feb. 17 edition.

In a feature article, Mr. Holder said he plans on staying in his position “well into” the year.

More @ The Washington Times

Prior Presidents did Executive Orders so why not Obama?

 

So what if the President does executive orders! Did not prior presidents do the same thing? Yes and no! George Washington did 8, John Adams 1, Thomas Jefferson 4, James Madison 1, James Monroe 1, John Quincy Adams 3, and Andrew Jackson 12. The first seven presidents totaled 30 executive orders over forty-seven years. The most recent seven presidents Barack Obama 168, George W. Bush 291, William J. Clinton 364, George Bush 166, Ronald Reagan 381, Jimmy Carter 320, and Gerald R. Ford 169 totaled 1,859, over forty years—sixty-two times as many. Obviously something has radically changed.

A review of the literature shows that, in fact, Barack Obama has fewer executive orders than most and proponents of him are quick to make this distinction. They also convey the idea that all executive orders are similar and constitutional unless undone by Congress or declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. These ideas are easy to dismiss. Rarely does Congress undo an executive order because the president’s party runs interference. Moreover, virtually no executive orders are declared unconstitutional because personal damage to someone (not the Constitution) has to be demonstrated and those damaged must be willing to pursue a legal course for several years before their case reaches the high court.

More @ Liberty Under Fire

Freedom Munitions

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The Trigger: If This Ever Happens You Know You’re Days Away From Nuclear War

Via NC Renegade

Here’s how I think it’s going down. I think there will be an attack against South Korea. The North Koreans have over two million troops… 20,000 artillery… they can level Seoul in a matter of three or four days. The only way the U.S. can stop that attack is using tactical nuclear weapons.

And that would give China the excuse to nuke the United States. U.S. is guilty of first-use, the U.S. is the bully of the world, Russia and Chinese unite to launch against U.S. military targets. Not civilian targets per say. There will be about 12 or 15 cities that are inextricably connected with the military that are going to get hit that I mentioned in Strategic Relocation… you don’t want to be in those cities.

You may have two days notice when that attack in Korea starts, before China launches on the United States.

And if you ever see everything blackout, because both Russia and China will use a preemptive nuclear EMP strike to take down the grid… before the nukes actually fall… anytime you see all electricity out, no news, nothing at all… that’s the time you need to be getting out of cities before the panic hits.

More @ SHTF Plan

Do We Care If The Poor Don't Work?

Via Daily Timewaster

Well, we should. Some of us don't. But we should.

But it’s also possible to argue that as a rich, post-scarcity society, we shouldn’t really care that much about whether the poor choose to work. The important thing is just making sure they have a decent standard of living, full stop, and if they choose Keynesian leisure over a low-paying job, that’s their business.

No, actually. No. It is not possible to argue this in front of anyone with a functioning brain, for more than three seconds.

Here's why: first of all, even conceding the very strange new notion that we are so wealthy we can let much of the population loaf, there is a thing on this planet we call adversity. Bad things happen.

Industrial accidents, floods, economic devastation, massive crop failures, earthquakes, terrorist attacks. And so on.

Stores of excess wealth and widespread economic independence are good and necessary attributes to possess, when adversity strikes.

Douthat's assumption is that this is a time of plenty and things will carry on this way forever. This assumption has had a 100% guaranteed failure rate over the entire course of human history and will fail quite reliably in the future, probably very much sooner than we would like.

More @ Ace Of Spades

Your Memory

Via Blue

 

"He alone deserves to be remembered by his children who treasures up and preserves the memory of his fathers."

--Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

U.S. = The Mafia State of Mind

Via WRSA

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 Once the mafia state of mind has seeped into every nook and cranny of the society and economy, it's not even recognized as corruption: it's simply the way the system works.

We recently spent a few days with a friend who was born and raised in Sicily who now lives elsewhere in Europe with his wife (also Italian, from Naples). Though we talked of many things, one of his comments struck me like a bolt of lightning.

The Mafia isn't about shoot-outs, he said; the mafia is a state of mind.

He then pointed to a city trash collection truck driving by. Those guys are mafia.

I should stipulate that our friends are left-liberal in their views, and deeply concerned about the direction of free enterprise, democracy and social equality in Europe. He did not make these comments as a joke but with the utmost seriousness.

Why are the union sanitation workers a mafia? Because they have the leverage (via strikes) to extract and extort what they want from a populace who earns less than they do in wages, benefits and pensions--a population with no other choice. Is there some other option to giving the striking municipal workers what they demand? Is there another choice to clear the streets of garbage? Is there another train system to get to work when the train operators are on strike? No.

More @ Of Two Minds