If this is true, this is the kind of thing that generates improved living standards for decades.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203471004577140413041646048.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t

How to create wealth by James Hamilton. Read some of the comments from some of the tree huggers...amazing.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2012/01/wealth_creation.html

Health care costs have eaten your pay raise.

http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2012/01/health-care-costs-are-eating-your-pay.html

Get this termite out of here.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289159/gingrich-and-reagan-elliott-abrams?pg=2

Newt Gingrich gets the Midas touch. I can't think of a more dangerous idea.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/18/news/economy/gingrich_gold_standard/index.htm?section=money_news_economy&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_news_economy+%28Economy+News%29

Income distribution and other total nonsense.

More to ponder.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/01/how-much-of-us-consumables-are-made-in-china/

Something to ponder from the ever insightful Mark Perry

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/01/us-exports-to-china-have-increased-by.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And that's how the fight started.....

HOW TO START A FIGHT

One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as
a Christmas gift...

The next year, I didn't buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied,
"Well, you still haven't used the gift I bought you last year!"
And that's how the fight started.....
________________________________


My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while
we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, 'Do you want to have Sex?'
'No,' she answered. I then said,
'Is that your final answer?'
She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, 'Yes..'
So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."
And that's when the fight started...l
________________________________

My wife and I were sitting at a table at her school
reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his
drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.

I asked her, "Do you know him?"

"Yes", she sighed,

"He's my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking
right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he
hasn't been sober since."

"My God!" I said, "Who would think a person could go on
celebrating that long?"

And then the fight started...
________________________________

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting
to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had
something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat,
making beer... Always something more important to me. Finally she
thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall
grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing
scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into
the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again
I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish cutting the
grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

______________________________
My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, "What's on TV?"
I said, "Dust."
And then the fight started...
________________________________

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my
lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the
boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential
downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the
garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather
would be bad all day.

I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back
into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back; now with a different
anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is
terrible."

My loving wife of 5 years replied, "And, can you believe my
stupid husband is out fishing in that?"

And that's how the fight started....
_______________________________

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming
anniversary.

She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in
about 3 seconds."

I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started......
______________________________

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped
your pants. You might have gotten disability too.'
And then the fight started...
________________________________

My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
"I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.'
I replied, "Your eyesight's darn near perfect."
And then the fight started...
________________________________

I rear-ended a car this morning...the start of a REALLY bad day! The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!!
He looked up at me and said 'I am NOT Happy!' So I said, 'Well, which one ARE you then?'

That's how the fight started.

Here are the numbers. Look for yourself.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/02/tax-rates-for-rich-and-poor.html

News Flash: Newt's second wife claims he wanted an "open marriage" before the divorce.

Hey fellas, go home tonight and break the news to the wife that YOU want an open marriage. Watch what happens.

Filthy bastard.

Barack Hussein Roosevelt.

"A mere builder of more industrial plants, a creator of more railroad systems, an organizer of more corporations, is as likely to be a danger as a help. Our task is not necessarily producing more goods. It is the soberer, less dramatic business of administering resources and plants already in hand."

These are words from FDR in the 1930s. How different is this mindset from what we have today? Not at all because it is the twin brother of the stupidity that continues to prevent the Keystone pipeline from being built, rejected yet again yesterday. There are over 168,000 miles of pipeline carrying hazardous materials around the US (it is how you get your gasoline) and 25,000 miles of pipeline criss-crossing the sand hills of Nebraska that all the folks are so worried about. That is enough to wrap around the world at the equator. It is not necessarily the thousands of jobs that are not being created, all with private money, not a nickel from government, that bothers me the most. It is the anti-growth mindset that leads one to consider this decision acceptable and even desirable that I just can't stomach. And you wonder why we stay caught in the frozen years. Well, wonder no more and keep sending your dollars to our friends the Saudis.

Awww holy hell! I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.

It was a great ride for a while.

What if the long run is now? What if this is as good as it gets? What if the graph below is true? Wait...it is true.

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2012/01/goolsbee-on-budgets.html

Surprised it happened?

I remember when that Australian dude was swimming with sting rays and got stung in the chest and killed. His best friend said "I'm surprised it happened." Really....surprised it happened?

The Fed loaned out $7.7 trillion? Nuts.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2011/12/777_trillion_in.html

God help them.

The Greek one-year note hit 376% yesterday. And five-year credit default swaps on Greek debt sell for $6.2 million per year to insure $10 million in Greek government bonds. Read it here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577152583935106976.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

The experts all agree, the Yuan is manipulated. How long can it go on?

http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_3IWI6URnw6jxTla

This is the problem: The Fed is doing fiscal policy and compromising their independence. That should keep you awake nights.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203471004577142883453169136.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

Barry Eichengreen: Will it be the 1930s or the 1970s?

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136779/barry-eichengreen/when-currencies-collapse?page=show

The European Crisis by flow chart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16290598

Political Match Game...Who You Got???

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game

Do deficits and the national debt matter?

Thanks again to Dr. Rothman for sending this along....


http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/01/the-30-years-debt-burden-non-war.html

John Cochrane now blogs as "The Grumpy Economist".

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/