Dear William,

My submission for Caydoo competition, titled The Man with the Plan, really should have won but for the small  matter of our sponsorship that weekend get away would have been mine!  Seriously, a large Swedish man in a totally ridiculous wrapped GREEN Smart car with foot prints all over it that's gold medal caliber.

Fixing the economy: We got it wrong LA Times August, 15, 2011 In early January 2009 two White House-bound economists — Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein — predicted that if the stimulus bill were passed, unemployment would peak at 8% by midyear and then start coming down. If there were no stimulus, they said, joblessness might hit 9% and not peak until 2010. Romer and Bernstein had the risky job of hyping policy, but they weren't alone in their optimistic views. Forecasters at the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve and most private banks all thought that the economy had a natural tendency to right itself, sooner or later. What it needed, the activists urged, was a push. Well it's now obvious that the push didn't do the job. Even with it, unemployment is higher than the Romer-Bernstein worst case. The optimistic forecasts now look embarrassing, ranking right up there alongside Irving Fisher's 1929 comment that stocks had reached "a permanently high...

Seems like either the blues or the blahs are going around these days with uncertain prospects mixed with unsettling realities for too many.  Meanwhile, I've got this beautiful song stuck in my head and everything seems alright.

Regardless of the admittedly flawed methodology or self inflicted brinkmanship that led S&P to lower US bond ratings.  As an exercise in focusing markets and the public on the flawed debt ceiling bill and the need to fix it is exactly the medicine Washington needs to begin to take the steps to make the situation right.  If the downgrade has a silver lining lets hope it will be to hold legislators accountable for their votes when they place them not when the bill comes due. The decision was put into motion during the extend debt ceiling debate  when the ratings agency indicated anything short of a $4 trillion plan would prompt it to a lower ratings guidance.  A plan that would have involved sensible revenue increases would have gotten us much closer to that total.  If the down grade comes as a shock it should to those legislators who think their actions are above reproach.  They have been put ...

Dear Capitalist, Here is a recap of this weeks headlines: US debt ceiling limit charade finally resolved with $1 trillion in immediate cuts, days the Dow dropped 500 points, 10 yr Treasuries dropped to 2.61%, while the unemployment rate dropped thanks to continued declines in adult participation. Clearly it is not being dramatic to say the economic crisis continues unresolved.  How individuals rank the headlines is an interesting test of psychology.  Politicians have political agendas.  The media has a dramatic ratings agenda.  So markets and money across the globe in every commodity and via every currency and investment decision are astonishingly the only trusted signal callers.  This is only the case because policy makers have failed to grasp an agendaThe problem lies in the excessively reactionary responses, poorly translating the message...

When you really break it down the debates and abstract policy proposals, weighing the merit and attempting foresight and clarity with measures to better society.   Everything really come down to the method for communicating information and the people who do it.  Of all the critiques rightfully due the media, and there are many growing more incredible by the phone hacking, the inability to administer a debate is perhaps the most grievous. The media failure to police debate has a few other inputs.  Allowing politically  rhetoric and bluster to count as a defensible position without properly identifying the cause, effect relationships of policy proposals is perhaps a necessary precursor.  As any sports fan will tell you the best part about any competition are the match ups, picking the debaters.  To allow those of opposing views to most forcefully communicated so that the nation might decide more clearly together ho...