Take what he said and run with it. Much as the democrats disappoint me on everything from campaign finance reform to torture, I sure don't want the repugs to take their place.

sure, you can find a dingbat of any persuasion. It's kinda sad that said dingbat will then be used to put a face on a movement of rational people who just want control of their own bodies.

Yes, I completely agree with you there. GE, Ford, Intel, other multinationals that are valued in USD ought to weather inflation well over the long term. I just wouldn't want to be in midcap mutuals or the like.

despite a massive decrease in spending (consumer AND business). What can possibly happen, other than inflation, when spending picks up? I refer to the velocity of inflation. 'v' is currently low. When it rises, absent some miraculous change in one of the other factors, we will see a rise in inflation. I can hardly see the Fed precipitating another recession right on top of this one by dramatically raising rates (aka "reducing the money supply").. so I guess people expect value to appear out of thin air?

This is not rocket science. The reason people don't want to believe it'll happen is that inflation erodes the purchasing power of those 401ks, and who wants to spread that kind of message? The best way to hedge against this is to invest in foreign companies that do a lot of business with the US (so as to profit from our recovery, which will probably be quicker than that of the rest of the world).

Full disclosure: I keep <20% of my assets in USDs, and no more than 40% in any given region (continent, whatever).

It's September, long past time for apologists to cry about how "these things take time". History will eventually catch up with these assholes. This now includes the Yes We Can guy. Keep it up, Salon!

Laff. "historical returns", eh? You think this market is anything like historical? Well, I can think of a couple *periods* of history it resembles, but they are also the periods when great fortunes were made. "Historically", the stock market returns a nonsensical rate over time. That is, based on the window you pick, you can make it say pretty much anything you want.

The simple fact is that I recognized a bottom, and began piling money into stupidly depressed stocks (such as the bank of ireland, though I cheerfully admit to having gotten out way too early. I thought there was a good chance it would collapse, so I sold with only ~150% gain. I could have had 1600%. Oh well).

Eventually things will settle down enough that it will make sense to wipe out the card debt. That moment isn't now, though. As long as it isn't, fixed income < speculation. For the bold, anyhow.

You're wrong. I carry a large balance, so that the money I would use to pay off the card can be more profitably employed in the stock market. That's not a strategy for everyone, but given I'm up a couple hundred percent this year, I'd be a fool to have paid down the debt. I could pretty much pay off my card with half my profit, pay the other half to the government in the form of taxes, and still have my principal. And there's still 4 months to go or so before I have to pay the pirates (aka the United States Govt) their cut. Sometimes it makes sense to run a balance, if you can handle taking some risk.

Hell yes! CFLs are so unutterably ugly, whereas LED light is clean, bright, and electricity friendly. $40 is a pretty small price to pay for halogen-level light. Those things guzzle power by the jackson anyway.

/nt

He's just holding true to the values of his party. Solidarity is socialist, and would be the true betrayal.

He chose to run for president, lied and stole his way to the office, and is utterly responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of human beings, virtually all of whom never intended to do us any harm. Prison is frankly too good for him, but it would be better than "feeling sorry for him".

until you consider that that followers he's amassed really believe this crap.

But as Cary says, it's harder on the drifters. I was just at an exhibition of photos in SF (moma), and ran across a picture of such a man in midlife. He'd probably been given a jacket and white shirt by Avedon in exchange for the photo. He's #17/26, link in sig.

You need someone new, with an edge like the man you must now leave behind, but not quite so much that he has to leave, too. Remember to value him for being able to stay. Good luck.

Abducted from US soil, ultimately flown out of the US into secret prisons where their very existence is kept classified, and where they can never challenge their detention. What's to stop the government from doing that with anyone they like? If no one knows, there can't be any whistle blown?

realize that by talking down from your high horse, you discourage others from following him in this. For my part, I'm just glad the man is speaking out. The richer he is, the better. It's hard to dismiss him as just a "disgruntled former employee" when he's got that golden parachute.

we confronted the real problem: that there are too many people, and more every year? No amount of conservation can address that. Eventually, even if we all eat five leaves and a grain of rice per day, washed down with a single sip of recycled water, all resources will be spoken for.. so why not push less people, and eventually a lot more per person, not to mention a biosphere that isn't all messed up?