Weekend news

Analysis: U.S. concern on China currency fades as yuan grinds higher

On top of that, the United States has faced fury from other countries for an aggressive easing of monetary policy that critics contend seeks to drive down the dollar, a charge that puts Washington in a tough spot to criticize China.

Hold on there!  Those critics seem to have forgotten that we said we weren't intentionally weakening our currency.  That's just a happy side effect of turning on the printing presses.  After all, in this day, the actual outcome isn't what matters; what matters is what people say, and as long as we don't say we're intentionally weakening the dollar it isn't happening.

Hopefully, anybody reading the above will recognize the sarcasm.

For the middle class, expenses grow faster than paychecks

There's one more big squeeze hitting households: health care. Since 2002, insurance premiums have increased 97%, rising three times as fast as wages, according to Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust.

Yeah, and get ready for even more when Obamacare actually kicks in.  I don't see how anyone can think forcing everyone to have health insurance is going to end up good.  Even if individuals pay less directly, it will only be through taxpayer subsidies. Even basic economics texts explain how insurance has driven up the cost of health care in the U.S.  I suggest the president and his economic advisers try reading one.

Dow record not necessarily a buy signal

I've never really understood why anyone would think that a new record high was a buy signal for anything, so the headline seems redundant.

"If I had to pick a category, I'd still be looking at equities," Fantozzi said. "We still think the market is going to post positive gains for the year."

Me too, but I'm still watching for that bad ending I referenced in an earlier post.  As far as the second part of the above quote, I hope that's either a misquote, or Fantozzi misspoke.  With the S&P up about 6 percent this year, I'd hate to see stocks end down for the whole year.  I suspect Fantozzi meant to say "we still think the market is going to post positive gains in the rest of the year."  Then again, I wouldn't want to read something into a statement like that that wasn't already there.

Global economy: Shafts of sunshine try to pierce thick clouds
I didn't really see the "shafts of sunshine" in the article.

"Private investment is likely to have to play a dominant role if we're going to have a serious economic rebound," Thompson said.

Yeah, good luck with that.  I've been thinking that private investment is heading for greener pastures for a long time now.