benefits can only be adjusted in one direction - higher

This will work until the money runs out in short order then like socialism, it fails.

The pension funds are run by fools. I read that if you add up all the pension shortages it runs into the trillions. Who the hell is going to make up for this shortfall? Why you and I of course!

LEFT WINGS FLY IN CIRCLES.. WHILE THEY REMAIN AIR BORNE~!

LEFT WINGS FLY IN CIRCLES.. WHILE THEY REMAIN AIR BORNE~!

I find it interesting that Senator Schumer has called a meeting with republican leaders to discuss healthcare, and the republicans will fall for it probably. Dems know the whole healthcare fiasco is failing and surely they thought it would fail when passed. Case in point, they fixed the CBO scoring by the way the law was initiated so that 10 years of revenue were scored but only 7 years of costs. The plan was to win the 2016 election and move to single payer, but that did not come to pas and they have no fall back strategy. The original bill having passed w/o any republican support means doing nothing and the law failing, there is no way to spin it as the republican's fault as it is all theirs. (This is not exactly true as republican support was required to get the bill past senate cloture.)

Senator McConnell should call a different meeting inviting democratic leadership (a term used loosely) to a meeting at a different  time and location giving a reason why he cannot go to the Schumer meeting. He should very publically take the high road asking dems for their input, actually being a leader. Falling for the dem invite gives the dems a talking point that they are taking a lead in the healthcare fix. Repubs have the trump card, that being doing nothing means the bill fails, and repubs can if they will, hold news conference after news conference pointing out the democratic failure to work in  by partisan way as the founders envisioned pushing the law through and if they refuse the republican meetings, well there is more fodder for press conferences. I doubt republican leadership (again that is a loosely used term for them as well) will make any move to control the narrative and put the dems on defense in an honorable and honest way; and that my friends is absurd.

The tenth Amendment to the constitution reads:"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Avery clear interpretation would be that the rest of the constitution does not give the federal government power to provide health care or insurance, so it is unconstitutional for the bill to be enforceable in the first place. Yes the bill survived all the court challenges, but the rulings were a bunch of black robed sheep trying in any way possible to support the bill and congress, not doing their constitutional function of checks and balances. Even the Chief Justice Roberts made this basic point when the court's decision was announced. Absurd!

If the republicans find the bill so flawed, they should get rid of it, start with a clean slate and legislate the good points back into law. That would ensure all the bad is removed by removing everything. Failing to get that by the democrats is another talking point for republicans if they would man up, but I doubt they would. If this strategy proves unworkable, provide zero funding for the law or let it fail. Yes that is drastic but the law is drastic and unconstitutional and another entitlement program that with the others is going to sink the country financially. Look to the many cities, counties, and even states that are bankrupt for the end game of fiscal irresponsibility. Illinois is so bad even the lottery is pulling out. Absurd!

Illinois is so bad even the lottery is pulling out. Absurd!

Should be fun watching that ball of shit blow up on them. The Dems are history and The Rep are not far behind. The more these clowns oppress the voters the deeper the backlash will be. 

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/27/yellen-banks-very-much-stronger-another-financial-crisis-not-likely-in-our-lifetime.html

Now that is absurd! I will bet these words return to bite her in the rear before she checks out the sod from the rooted side.

" I will bet these words return to bite her in the rear before she checks out the sod from the rooted side."

HA! How about next year? Her and that incomp Draghi of the ECB should go on the same day. A gift to the world from God!

Well here we go again, more fake news from the BEA of all places. In the third and final estimate of first quarter GDP, the BEA upped its assessment of GDP from 1.2% to 1.4%. So lets put a little perspective on the number. From USDebtclock.org, annual GDP is $19,100 billion and 1..4 % of that is $229.1 billion annually or $57.3 billion for the quarter. Conveniently left out of the GDP calculation is the amount funded by increased debt. Using https://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current, debt on March 31, 2017 was $14,370 billion and on December 31, 2016 was $14,435 billion. The difference being $65 billion dollars of debt increase over the period. Without federal government deficit spending GDP would have contracted $7.7 billion, and that does not consider the debt run up by state and local governments, citizens, or business or off book debt and unfunded liabilities. There is no economic growth for the quarter and that is exactly what the bond market is saying with its reaction of lower interest rates. To say we have economic growth is ABSURD!

Remember that Yellen states there will be no serious economic contraction in our (her?) lifetime? That is a paraphrase, but close enough. Considering the reason for incurring debt is to buy now rather than saving and buying later when the item or service can be paid in full. In simpler terms, incurring debt brings economic activity forward at the expense of future activity and the debt service. What is on book government debt signals that a full year of US economic activity has been brought forward. At some point that imbalance will sort itself and it will not be pretty. Now consider all the other debt mentioned in the above paragraph and not pretty moves to outright ugly.

Government and main stream media, especially the business media should be leveling with the citizens, but they are not; ABSURD!

Well here we go again, more fake news from the BEA of all places. In the third and final estimate of first quarter GDP, the BEA upped its assessment of GDP from 1.2% to 1.4%. So lets put a little perspective on the number. From USDebtclock.org, annual GDP is $19,100 billion and 1..4 % of that is $229.1 billion annually or $57.3 billion for the quarter. Conveniently left out of the GDP calculation is the amount funded by increased debt. Using https://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current, debt on March 31, 2017 was $14,370 billion and on December 31, 2016 was $14,435 billion. The difference being $65 billion dollars of debt increase over the period. Without federal government deficit spending GDP would have contracted $7.7 billion, and that does not consider the debt run up by state and local governments, citizens, or business or off book debt and unfunded liabilities. There is no economic growth for the quarter and that is exactly what the bond market is saying with its reaction of lower interest rates. To say we have economic growth is ABSURD!

Remember that Yellen states there will be no serious economic contraction in our (her?) lifetime? That is a paraphrase, but close enough. Considering the reason for incurring debt is to buy now rather than saving and buying later when the item or service can be paid in full. In simpler terms, incurring debt brings economic activity forward at the expense of future activity and the debt service. What is on book government debt signals that a full year of US economic activity has been brought forward. At some point that imbalance will sort itself and it will not be pretty. Now consider all the other debt mentioned in the above paragraph and not pretty moves to outright ugly.

Government and main stream media, especially the business media should be leveling with the citizens, but they are not; ABSURD!

Note: I used debt held by public number to avoid accounting gimmicks with intergovernmental holdings. Using total debt makes the government look a little better at running their business, but I do not trust the accounting.

ON Drudge today, an article in USA Today is referenced titled, As it loses in Syria and Iraq, ISIS establishes a new beachhead: the Philippines.

The lead verbiage is "MARAWI, Philippines -- At a crowded center for refugees fleeing the fighting that has ravaged this city, Merlinda Obedencio never lets her most valuable possession out of sight: a blue cellphone.

It is the only link she has to her husband and three of their six children being held by Islamic State-linked extremists.

Obedencio's husband, Raul, and their children were captured by the local Maute extremist group during a siege that started May 23 and has left almost 600 dead.

Almost 400,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Marawi, a city on the southern island of Mindanao, according to the Philippine military. And like Obedencio, most face an uncertain future in a region turned upside down by extremist violence.

This is not deemed newsworthy by the bulk of MSM. I would like to know what Trump administration has to say about this development, but I doubt they could squeeze in a question given the Russia fiasco that is going to ultimately turn on the press' team darlings, the democrats. Seems they may have finally coughed up evidence of some very crooked dealings with their computer malfeasance. All this is ABSURD!

ON Drudge today, an article in USA Today is referenced titled, As it loses in Syria and Iraq, ISIS establishes a new beachhead: the Philippines.

The lead verbiage is "MARAWI, Philippines -- At a crowded center for refugees fleeing the fighting that has ravaged this city, Merlinda Obedencio never lets her most valuable possession out of sight: a blue cellphone.

It is the only link she has to her husband and three of their six children being held by Islamic State-linked extremists.

Obedencio's husband, Raul, and their children were captured by the local Maute extremist group during a siege that started May 23 and has left almost 600 dead.

Almost 400,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Marawi, a city on the southern island of Mindanao, according to the Philippine military. And like Obedencio, most face an uncertain future in a region turned upside down by extremist violence.

This is not deemed newsworthy by the bulk of MSM. I would like to know what Trump administration has to say about this development, but I doubt they could squeeze in a question given the Russia fiasco that is going to ultimately turn on the press' team darlings, the democrats. Seems they may have finally coughed up evidence of some very crooked dealings with their computer malfeasance. All this is ABSURD!

Forgot the link to story, sorry

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/07/26/isis-philippines-marawi-fighting/502025001/

When all the facts are put on the table, "It's an Insane World". All anybody can really hope for is that we (all of us trying to be normal) can keep the peace. IMO.

When all the facts are put on the table, "It's an Insane World". All anybody can really hope for is that we (all of us trying to be normal) can keep the peace. IMO.

I agree. All these radical groups are used for is political purposes which equals who gets a larger piece of the pie. I can see how humanity could kill themselves off.

Humans are sheep because they follow the leader. No wonder I was hated by my bosses all these decades. I refused to buy corporate bullshit unlike my co-workers who believed the propaganda. Same with MSM or CNN. People will follow their own party over the cliff. Unbelievable really!

I havn't much use for politicians and what has been done to our health care system through deliberate action nd inaction. for a great summary article on the situation have a look at the linked post for how much our healthcare racket is ABSURD:

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=232274

Denninger is worth reading.

I feel as you do. The only way this system gets fixed is to have it crash and burn. At some point they have to call in some real experts to fix it without political interference.

America now days does everything badly. Total incompetence.

Yesterday, I mentioned the August employment report for July was not all that good in my dollar diatribe using it as an important factor explaining that the economy is not generating wealth. Karl Denninger has the same take with considerably more detail in this link: 

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=232281

After reading the link you may come to the conclusion that management of our economy by the Fed and US government is ABSURD.