I know, let's pursue a system that lacks regulation, justice, and transparency, and relies on the 'good nature' of some of the greediest and most ruthless elements in its society to make most of the important decisions. And whoever can collect the dirtiest money through whatever means gets to be in charge.

The sad truth is that old Charlie is just saying what the rest of his moneyed class and their enablers and courtiers have been thinking and saying to each other for quite a while. They are just not old and dodgy enough to blurt it out publicly.

We are living in a time of a general plague in human morals, and a sickness upon the American soul.

Stocks were choppy today, attempting to recover and find a footing among recent declines. They were not quite able to make it.

Indicators are flashing danger signals for an equity market that is likely mispricing the risks in the credit and consumer markeets.

Former IMF economist Olivier Blanchard addressed a meeting at the Boston Fed and suggested that if there is another financial crisis and severe recession that the Fed should engage in 'unusual monetary policy' and intervene in the equity markets to buy stocks in order to artificially prop up their prices and further distort credit risk. 

Well, he didn't say that last part. But that is what he is really saying, along with the understanding that the Fed should provide a more direct subsidy to the wealthiest ten percent and their stock holdings.

And the Boston Fed Chair Mr. Rosengren said that things are just so good that the Fed should start considering 'restrictive' interest rates before something awful like wage inflation can take root.

Gold and silver declined just a bit, along with a weaker Dollar and a lower VIX Clearly, all is well.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Carolinas and Virginia on the approach of Hurricane Florence, which appears to be heading for a direct landfall while strengthening to a robust Category 4. And there are two other hurricanes following this one in their westwardly path across the Atlantic.

Rudy Giuliani is calling for the FBI to investigate the anonymous Op-Ed writer, saying that if they could leak something like this to the Times, then they might leak it to someone else like a foreign power. Sounds like the movie Minority Report, right?

If these jokers are so good at crime fighting that they can spot crimes before they occur, why don't they do something about the robo-call epidemic. It's a good thing that my home phone is on the government 'Do Not Call' list because otherwise, I might get more than the ten or so fake and fraudulent calls that come in each day. Luckily there is a service that my cable provider offers that pre-empts these fraud calls, and it works. But that's beside the real point, isn't it? Fraud protection and law enforcement is not a privilege, but a right that everyone pays for, but not everyone gets.

A visitor from China noted that our public infrastructure, in particularly the commuter rail systems, are remarkably underdeveloped and in poor condition. Perhaps we should create a Patreon page, and try to fund infrastructure development in the US in this way?

Yeah, but does China have a wall better than ours (as it is someday conceived to be)? Uh, oh yeah they have been there and done that. I've even climbed some restored portions of it. Quite impressive. Trump should make a note of it and its durability.

How about a major national infrastructure and public works program to stimulate well-paying jobs and general pubic productivity as FDR did with the highly success CCA and WPA programs? Oh yeah, I guess we have that, but its virtual or something still rattling around in the corporatist black box of the Beltway.

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