Denial Denying Facts On "Black Friday"

Less and less am I able to deny how uncomfortable I feel when denied my "inherent right to denial". Very aggravating. Some interesting and annoying denial denying facts, "borrowed" directly from the Chris Martenson website.......

In 2006, over 12.6 million households were "food insecure" - 10.9% of all US households. Just last week, the USDA released the summation figures for calendar 2007. In 2007, the figure is 11.1%. Given what has transpired to US/ us in 2008, one might only imagine how the numbers will skyrocket this current year. The term "food insecure" was a new one for me. It means "experiencing difficulty in providing the necessary level of sustenance for a household." This is but a lame attempt to spin that well over 35 MILLION people, including over 12 MILLION children, are going to bed hungry. They are worried about where the next day's meals will come from. Such is unconscionable in this land of abundance. Yet... it is the reality even during this week of the normal Thanksgiving feasting!

Holiday Shopping with Deflated Stocks

Still feeling shocked by how much your portfolio has fallen in value in the past couple of months? With the holidays upon us, here is a look at the purchasing power those shares still have. After all, a share of Berkshire Hathaway can still buy you a Porsche 911.

This weekend, I was looking through the circulars in my Sunday paper and found some good uses for those "worthless" shares. First, let's consider Thanksgiving dinner. You can buy a nice 10 lb. Butterball Turkey for just one share of Microsoft. One share of AIG can add some nice frozen vegetables and a share of General Motors is worth 5 lbs of yams. Note: All share prices are as of Friday's close.

Does Anybody Else Think Getting America Shopping Again is Crazy Talk?

I was listening to Robert Reich, once the left end of the spectrum in the Clinton cabinet, talking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer a few days ago, and Reich, who has in the past sometimes made sense, was talking about how Americans' incomes had fallen over the last eight years of the Bush/Cheney administration and that it was necessary to get their incomes back on an upward trend, so that they could "start shopping again."

Now I understand Reich was trying to make the case that the bailout so far has been focused on the banks and the insurance industry, and that none of this will help unless ordinary people start getting some relief, but still, there's something completely twisted and out of whack when the best we can come up with is that we need to get Americans back into the malls.