benefits can only be adjusted in one direction - higher
LEFT WINGS FLY IN CIRCLES.. WHILE THEY REMAIN AIR BORNE~!
Illinois is so bad even the lottery is pulling out. 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!
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!
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.