Sinners and Saints

Ordinary ideals of Americana range as far and wide as the North American continent.  The valued conviction of one American vastly differs from that of another.  Joe from Santa Fe may have little connection with Joe in South Bend or Joe in South Boston.

One may celebrate adventures in mysticisms.  Another may find inspiration sitting in a college football grandstand.  While a third struggles to free himself of the orthodox hobgoblins that suffocate his soul.

Until Donald Trump came along, the story of the national struggle, as outlined by the discredited mainstream media, had been told with delicate regularity.  The news was professed from the locus of the two party political system…any diverging views were carefully sifted out.  What was reported was only what the story editors allowed to pass through their single micron particulate filters.

We were told a never ending Marxian tale of the evil rich exploiting the noble poor.  Even worse, we were told that Hillary Clinton was as upright as Saint Andrew.  Plus we were told over and over again that Bill – the former President – would be looking out for our best interest. Continue reading

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Putting an End to the Regulatory Industry

Corporate life in America these days is fraught with tedium.  First the MBAs imposed their silly six sigma processes and reduced workers to mere widgets.  Then the regulators went through and squashed out any fun that remained.

Gone are the days when shrewd eccentrics could get rich using technobabble to hawk the Turbo Encabulator.  Alas, there are rules and regulations stymieing all creativity.  In fact, as a matter of law, such restrictions are shoved in the worker’s face each morning as they fill up their morning cup of coffee.

By our rough calculation the break room metric currently indicates an economy that’s grossly overburdened by regulation.  The break room metric, if you’ve never heard of it, is the ratio of wall space in office break rooms that is utilized by mandatory federal and state regulatory postings.  Anything above 10 percent utilization represents gross regulatory overburden.

No doubt, office break rooms across America are nearly out of wall space.  Mandatory OSHA postings fill the voids. Continue reading

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Donald Trump’s Plan for Economic Salvation

trumpOne of the unspoken joys in life is the rich pleasure that comes with bearing witness to a career politician – a shrew no less – as they fail spectacularly.  Tuesday night served up one of these unique experiences with sumptuous fare.  No doubt, the world is a better place because of it.

Make of it what you will.  Donald Trump’s upset over Hillary Clinton is a repudiation of the entire Washington status quo.  This is something to celebrate, whether you like Trump or not.

There are an abundance of dime a dozen political pundits, all who are way more qualified than we are, working overtime to slice, dice, and pontificate on the outcome.  We’ll leave further interpretations and opinions up to them.  Instead we’ll return to where we left off last week.

If you recall, we mentioned the possible commencement of a reversal in the long term credit market cycle.  Namely, that since bottoming out in July the yield on the 10-Year Treasury note has been rising.  We don’t know if it will last or not. Continue reading

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The One Thing that Will Change Everything

“There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Ticking Time Bomb

The American populace counts down to Election Day with impatient intent.  Will their party man occupy the White House come January 21, 2017?  Or will their party woman occupy a federal prison cell?

These are questions that only the good wisdom of time can answer.  Here at the Economic Prism we watch with indifferent curiosity.  We don’t think either candidate’s worthy of high office.  But we’re eager to know the election outcome, nevertheless.

The real noteworthy thing taking place today, that’ll have a real impact to your life, has nothing to do with who will be the next President.  That’s merely a diversion.  Rather, the real noteworthy thing taking place today – at this very moment – has everything to do with the ticking time bomb beneath the U.S. and world economy.

Indeed, we’re talking about interest rates.  If you haven’t noticed, they’ve been going up as of late.  In fact, they have been going up quite a bit. Continue reading

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