I'm Back

OK, I'm back. Every year since 1990 my wife, my kids and I have gone to the beach for a week in early July. We live within an hour's drive of a lot of beautiful beaches so naturally we fly 3,000 miles to the coast of Oregon and spend a week there.

I'll be brief today. In a post a couple of week's ago I pointed out that if historical averages had held during the Bush presidency, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was about 10,500 when Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, would now be closing in on 19,000 or so. A couple of weeks ago it was just below 12,000, meaning that it had risen a paltry 2% a year or less while Bush was busy making a mess of everything he touched. Well, the Dow is now just under 11,000.

Think about this. There have been single days, rare and extraordinary to be sure, when the Dow has risen 400 points in a day. Yet, after eight years of Bush economic policies, it now sits about 400 points above where it was when he took office nearly eight years ago! Of course it's not his fault. Nothing ever is.

With John McCain all but declaring we have won in Iraq because the violence is down, but with no end to the U.S. occupation in sight, things in Afghanistan have detriorated and McCain (and Obama) is calling for more troops to be sent there. It's endless, folks. So many people to fight, so few armies to fight them with.

When I collect my thoughts on some subject or other I will be back with a more fulsome new post.