Tuesday, June 25, 2013

True Unemployment Is 17.6%, Not 7.6%

 Markos Kaminis

The government Friday reported that the unemployment rate was 7.6% in May, but I dispute that for two critical reasons. When incorporating underemployed Americans into the count, and when accounting for the 7.26 million Americans I estimate are missing from the labor force count due to their very long-term joblessness, the real unemployment rate could be as high as 17.6%, and is probably at least 11.7%. Thus, the economy is not as healthy as one might hope based on the government's account. It is also greatly dependent on the Federal Reserve's synthetic aid and is highly vulnerable in its current state. So, considering this, I have to wonder if America understood the current state of affairs, would the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) and the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ) each be up in the mid-teens year to date?

Read Article in Seeking Alpha. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1488832-true-unemployment-is-17-6-not-7-6

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Founding Fathers on the Second Amendment

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Co-author of the Second Amendment
during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …"
Richard Henry Lee
writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic, Letter XVIII, May, 1788.

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full posession of them."
Zachariah Johnson
Elliot's Debates, vol. 3 "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution."

"… the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms"
Philadelphia Federal Gazette
June 18, 1789, Pg. 2, Col. 2
Article on the Bill of Rights

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; …"
Samuel Adams

Make no mistake about it. Those who would take away our Second Amendment rights do so ., i.e., to reduce our citizens to subjects, and to take away any of the rest of the bill of rights without objection of our citizens.