6 Nov 2012

 To add some needed perspective on the recent bounce, see the above long term chart.

 The medium term is still rising.

Short term is trying to rally from a not very settled inflection point.  We will see if it can last.

I saw that $6B was spent on the election between the two candidates.  This is a large number and disgusting, but it also shows what a great investment buying the presidency is.  Whoever wins will get to hand out the unborn's money to their friends at $4Trillion per year.  Yes, of course, you will say one of the teams would spend less than the other, but try spending a lot less and the economy (measured in phony nominal dollars) would collapse without massive corresponding tax cuts and incentives to invest.

Whoever wins will likely continue with posturing and maybe bombing Iran, continue putting blood on the hands of every US taxpayer, continue plundering the wealth of the world and future generations, continue to keep us alarmed with endless boogeymen and offering 'solutions' that we pay for, continue to keep the two teams debating over who has better policies on abortion and gay marriage, continue the path to the loss of the reserve currency (it is going to happen), and fail to listen or represent the populace anyways.  In this age of technology, why do we still have a massive centralized representative government that is easy to lobby for favors?  It also seems like a security disadvantage, but we aren't concerned with real threats.