Author: Bonddad

OK People…Yes, I know a Federal Prosecutor is conducting a grand jury investigating the Plame Leak.  There is no way I couldn’t know, BECAUSE IT’S ALL WE SEEM TO TALK ABOUT.  

Fitzgerald appears to be doing a damn good job.  He’s keeping silent.  

We have no idea what he will do.  None.  Zip.  Nada.  We won’t know until he indicts anybody.  That’s the point of a Grand Jury’s secrecy.

All this speculation — so and so said X — means, well, nothing.

We’ll know soon enough.  Let the man do his job — and get back to yours.

I know — it’s not Plamegate.  No indictments, no intrigue.  Just a basic threat to our national existence.  

Those from families with the highest income and education levels finished college at more than double the rate of high-scoring students from the lowest socioeconomic grouping.

Sandy Baum, a College Board analyst, said the data showed that college completion increasingly was “not about academic preparation; it’s about money.”

I have serious problems with several popular government economic numbers.  The first of these is the unemployment rate, which several studies have clearly demonstrated under-report the degree of US unemployment.  The second of these is the inflation number.   My own experience simply buying and selling goods over the last few years combined with evidence from the financial press adds up to suspicion.  After doing some digging on the internet, I realize my concerns are well-founded.  The core CPI number has serious flaws that understate inflation, largely because it does not include health insurance premiums and the appreciation of house prices.

For God’s sake, I knew this would happen as soon as the inflation numbers came out.  Some right wing noise machine jackass would claim there was no inflation because the core number was low, completely ignoring the issue of energy based inflation.  Well, someone has taken-up my challenge.  That person is none other than Larry “I just say what they tell me to say” Kudlow.  How anybody can sleep at night spewing the lies he does is completely beyond me.  However, somehow he does.  So, let’s look at his statements, shall we?

Within the next three months, Alan Greenspan will retire.  Personally, I don’t put him in the complete “political hack” category, although I will admit he has made some questionable calls for what appear to be purely partisan reasons.  My main complaint with Greenspan is his failure to raise interest rates in the 1990s and 2000’s to prevent asset bubbles from bursting.  But, that is not the reason for this essay.