Sad Duty

Ritholtz claims that when adjusted for Inflation, Retail Sales over the Christmas Season will be flat, year over year. He goes on to provide a Reading List of recent News articles vindicating his position. I will ring in to present a slightly more dismal scenario, stating Retail Employee hours were higher at a higher rate of pay, larger Advertising Costs year over year (Inflation-adjusted), with lower Check-Out sales. Must-have Toy items were not as evident this Year, with both Parent and Child ignoring the Hype. Despite the huge Advertising push towards luxury items, Consumer purchase seem (at least initially) primarily Practical-Item provision. Retailers tried a tug-of-war for the shrinking American Consumption Dollar and lost.

Cactus at Angry Bear examines the differences between Corporations and Government. There is insight into the process, but important details have been left out. All Power structures seek insulation from the masses they impact. Citizens of a Country cannot never achieve the Transparency in Government operations they desire; Corporate Stockholders cannot get their own Corporate Boards to inform them of the Pay packages extended to Corporate Executives and Directors. No One has ever gotten a Politician to admit a failure in their policy; Corporate officers never discuss financial losses which occur because of Corporate inefficiency. Corporation continually attempt to claim the right forestalling self-incrimination granted to citizens, though claim of that Right qualifies them under the Rico Act to be a criminal organization. There is finally the definition of a Corporation–a imaginary person as defined by Government; therefore, a Corporation is actually only involvement of Government in the Private Sector, and has nothing to do with Private Enterprise.

William Polley has an excellent article on President Gerald Ford. It lists both his accomplishments and his failures, the first greater than children can understand today, and the later not as bad as the News media portrayed at the time. I backed Ford against Reagan for the 1976 Republican nomination, and would do it again if I had to do it over. I imagine this Country would be far better off if he had defeated Carter; the hard-line Right would not have captured the Republican Party, and the Democrats would have been dragged to the Center with the Liberal Left in retreat. Both effects would have been better for American politics. lgl