Maybe companies like Armstrong World Industries are doing well for the same reason that AutoZone is doing well – – people are in "repair/replace" mode instead of "buy new" mode. In any case, this is a very handsome long-term pattern.
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Silver Seems Unstoppable. Thanks, RP!
United States Wimperment
For those unfamiliar with my philosophical leanings, let me preface this with a few Tim Facts: I am no fan of government. I have had a lifelong affair with entrepreneurship, capitalism, small business, and low taxes. I'm a child of Reagan. I think governments of all kinds of the most inefficient, wasteful, and feckless organizations ever to curse the planet, largely populated by those who can't hack it in the private sector.
Having said that, I think the U.S. is on a collision course with its debt, and the government's wimpy refusal to do nothing about it only hastens the day of reckoning.
Let's review some recent decision points:
Event: The Bowles-Simpson Commission presents their recommendations on cutting the deficit by trillions through a combination of tax hikes, government cuts, and reduction in "entitlement" payments. Moments later, the lamest duck Pelosi declares it "simply unacceptable", and Obama effetely declares he'll take a look at it for ideas. Effect on the national debt: Negative.
Event: With the Bush tax cuts ready to expire within weeks, Republicans in the Senate stated plainly that, unless the cuts were extended for everyone – – particularly the likes of anti-Christ Lloyd – – they would simply hold all legislation business hostage. Within days, almost everyone rolls over, accepting continued tax cuts for the richest among us to be a foregone conclusion. Effect on the national debt: Negative.
Event: With the minuscule amount of bravado he has left, Obama meekly bleats one contingency in exchange for continued low taxes for the rich……..yet another extension of Unemployment Benefits for the poor! More specifically, those who have been out of work for more than a year get to stay on the dole for the foreseeable future. Are you rich? Keep your money. Do you not work? Here, have some! Effect on the national debt: Negative.
I imagine that big Obama fans who actually read the news must feel deeply betrayed. One would have assumed that a young, handsome, strapping fellow like Obama would have strutted into Washington and kicked some serious ass. Instead, he's a quivering, vacillating, compromising flatfish who brought Change No One Can Believe In.
Yes he did.
