Read this staggeringly FOS missive on economics and politics courtesy of the folks at San Fran Bay Guardian.
No wonder the American Body Politic is lying prone, anemically coming in and out of consciousness... it seems that every special interest group/political wing has a pre-determined point-of-view/outcome and then proceeds to promote anything/everything that supports their positions while discarding everything else... they must have learned this from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mind you... these are the same people that claim to be the champion of the environment... but they want the economy to grow (burn MORE OIL, COAL, and NAT GAS) ostensibly via expansion of government spending to employ more people so that they can live alone in 2000 sqft homes and drive 6000 lbs cars back and forth to work while consuming massive amounts of industrially produced food during the weekend football games that will be viewed on 70" flat screens that burn 40 lbs of coal per hour.
California is on the verge of anarchy... but that's not good enough... now they want the rest of the U.S. to join them. And don't confuse them with facts, analysis, or the numbers thank you. These folks are all highly educated in the humanities... they have no need of a calculator... all of life's questions have already been answered... sounds like a religion to me...
------------------------------------------
The Rail Data is not supportive of the view of an economy growing "organically" (whatever the hell that means). The data (charts)clearly shows rail cargo transport rates have been declining steadily since the end of the 2nd quarter, and are well below the levels of 2008.
Not sure how to reconcile this with the steepening of the yield curve and the increase in stock prices... yes, markets are forward looking discounting mechanisms... but these data trends don't support that...
-------------------------------------------
The "Price of everything and the Value of Nothing"?
Propaganda is EVERYWHERE. It issues forth from the University/Industrial complex, Politics, the Military/Industrial Complex, Feminists/and other Victims...
Left-leaning political sites/groups parading as non-partisan are among my favorites... with politifact.com taking the cake with its "Lie of the Year" BULL SH#!.... Still, the University/Industrial Complex is makes every other group PALE by comparison... YES! You, too, can dig yourself out of excessive debt incurred to fund the lifestyles of the Left/Liberal Intellectual Elite that hardly work, refuse to be measured (else they might actually be managed), yet cause all manner of mischief from their titled positions! But WAIT! There's MORE! Change a bed pans for an hour and you will be credited with $15 worth of student loans (never mind that you paid $375 per hour for a 3 hour class that was taught by an Adjunct who was working for a pittance)! AAAANNND!! You'll gain a degree that will qualify you to work at Wal-Mart!
The irony here is that the people supporting this system for their own personal interests have enslaved a generation of people to their peculiar University Plantation System.
------------------------------------------------
I speak about the price mechanism for Oil.... I should mention it should apply for Nat Gas, too. A barrel of Oil has about 6X the energy content (BTU's) as 1 mmf of Nat Gas. At today's price a Nat Gas BTU is about 28% of the cost of an Oil BTU.
That is simply so far out of bounds that, one way or another, that gap will close (but that is not to say that it can't get even wider in the short term). The problem is that markets can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent.