That is a smart, competent show--good luck with it, it's a good venue for you.

Surging against what? The dollar will buy ever less than the year before. As proof, try to get the millitary to live with the same budget 10 years in a row. No reduction, just no increase. I wonder what they would say?

From one of the numerous sites showing historical inflation:

A 2071% increase is a hard concept to grasp so to put it another way, something that cost $1.00 in 1913 would cost $21.71 today ($1 + $20.71 inflation). Or conversely a dollar today is only worth 4.8¢ in 1913 dollars. In other words the government over the years has stolen 95.2¢ out of every dollar.

If that isn't bad enough, actually the situation is even worse than that. If you look at the chart carefully you will see that inflation was fairly steep during the "teens" from 1913 - 1920. Then during the 1920's and 1930's inflation actually declined.

So actually most of the 2000% inflation occurred since 1940. The average annual inflation rate since 1940 has been 4.11% with the 1940's, the 1970's and the 1980's having 5.63%, 7.09% and 5.55% average annual inflation respectively.

Each of those decades were especially hard economically for people trying to make ends meet while prices increased and wages didn't keep up.

What cost $100 in 1907 would cost $2280.06 in 2007. Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2007 and 1907,they would cost you $100 and $4.51 respectively. All that in only one hundred years. A few humans live that long. They live long enough to see their dollar lose almost all its value!

While overwrought, I can agree with the basic idea. The part you aren't getting, is that for most other countries, political favoritism is the MOST important aspect of business. There is no human system anywhere, that doesn't require the natural form of monopoly, or political favoritism. We just happen to have some of the least.

You are missing the point that we have what is defined as fascism. Leave out all the political connotations or the history of Germany; but fascism is an economic system --- ours. The government and business class merge until you can hardly tell where one begins or the other ends.

Simply saying that we slaves, ah voters, are treated better here than somewhere else is pure meaningless bunk.

Sorry, LWM, the Government of the United States is no longer of, by or for the People; hasn't been lo, these many years. Let's stop pretending it is.

I know you are responding to my thoughts in response to your comment on the previous thread. I never actually intended for you to take that is literally what I believed we have now. It was intended by the Framers, I think, or at least I prefer to give their honest intentions the benefit of the doubt. Thomas Frank's new book, The Wrecking Crew, just came out. What Naomi Klein did in The Shock Doctrine, for a global perspective, Frank has done for the domestic picture. You should check that out, if you liked Shock Doctrine. He was on Colbert the other night but the interview could have been much better, It was too much of them both horsing around.

Heru-ur,

I'll just sit this out butI do enjoy watching you and shooter debate the economy.

:-)

Jeffrey A. Taylor, US Attorney for the Distric of Columbia, has said that "new genetic techniques had to be developed" in order to solve this case - but the FBI has never revealed what these "new genetic techniques" are. Bloomberg has a good story on this:

Experts Question FBI's Genetic Test in Anthrax Case (Update2)

By James Rowley and Avram Goldstein, Aug 7

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYQsr8zvielo

Scientists and legal experts questioned the reliability of novel genetic tests that the FBI says link deadly anthrax letters to an Army bioweapons scientist who authorities allege carried out the 2001 killings by himself.

Because the FBI has never offered such tests in criminal cases, it's uncertain the results would have been admitted in court as evidence against Bruce E. Ivins, who committed suicide last week, experts said.

Despite all this, the FBI and Justice are still making the same repetetive statements, while refusing to address the many issues here:

"We are confident, based on the evidence we had, that we could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jeffrey Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. "We are confident that Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks."

They also have so far not made available the list of samples that they tested for presence or absence of the anthrax strain, and where they came from. So far, it all looks incredibly shady - this forensic evidence that would have been easily demolished by any competent lawyer and tossed out by any court in the land.

Leaving what?

What debate? The man is a moron. Ah, I mean: the man is ..., ah, deluded. Yes, that is the ticket. Deluded.

There is no objective way to tell the shoppers of America that the dollar is "surging". Surging? Is this a play on the Iraqi war "surge" in Baghdad?

Anyway, don't dignify these little quips as a debate.

In the last century we have never had a party in DC that believed in a "free market"; but we have had a party of assholes who claim to be so inclined.

Total USA debt as estimated by the US government (not an unbiased source by the way) in 2000 was 20 Trillion dollars and in 2006 it had risen to 65 Trillion dollars. I guess shooter would claim that we should thank god that the "tight fisted" Repugs were in power. Yes, Bush the Frugal!

Blah!

Since we're in the comments horse latitudes before Glenn's next post, I'll offer the trivial observation that I'd never seen/heard Thomas Frank on the air before, AFAIK; I couldn't take his bubbling, somewhat manic style on yesterday's "Democracy Now". It really got in the way.

Maybe it was me; I unexpectedly had my first tooth extraction as an adult earlier this week-- molar #19-- and I'm still grieving.

But I think Frank would benefit from Glenn's services as an Understatement Coach.