“The gods are deaf when we pray to them, their fire
Recoils from our offering, their birds of omen
Have no cry of comfort, for they are gorged
With the thick blood of the dead. O my son,
These are no trifles! Think. All men make mistakes,
But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong,
And repairs the evil. The only real crime is pride.”
Sophocles, Antigone
"I think it would be nice just tonight to just acknowledge that this tax cut is really not for the middle class; it’s for the rich. And that whole thing about higher wages, well, it’s a good selling point, but we know companies don’t just give higher wages — they don’t just give away higher wages just because they have more money. Corporations are sitting on a lot of money. They are sitting on a lot of profits now — I don’t see wages going up."
Senator Sherrod Brown (D)
“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing. As opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R)
I think Chuck forgot about healthcare, food, rent, and education. The kinds of little details and modern problems that are not a problem for the elite living within the Washington power bubble.
Apparently some think that only corporations and the already wealthy are smart enough to handle any extra cash. Deserving. The rest can wait for the trickle down effect. And keep waiting.
And you thought you number one on Orange Donny's priority list. This guy and his entourage is all circuses and no bread. It's a club, and you aren't in it.
Don't feel badly if you were taken in. Look how many people were bamboozled by Obama, and the heart of big money clubbiness, Hillary.
Stocks were in rally mode this morning, and there was the usual heavy-handed hit on the precious metals in late London trading and the opening of the Comex.
However, stocks did a rather impressive turnabout, closing flat to down by the end of trading.
Several reasons could be cited for this. Probably the most significant is the usual blundering destructiveness of the GOP Congress in their haste to hit the trough.
The Freedom Caucus in the House is throwing a monkey wrench into the work on a continuing budget resolution that would prevent a government shutdown. These freedom-lovers have demanded that Paul Ryan include no Democrats in any of the budget resolution discussions. The better to avoid a workable solution that might be contaminated by something less harsh and obtuse.
And of course there was the howler, pointed out to me yesterday by my Samoan attorney, that in their zeal to skin the people and please their masters, the Senate GOP accidentally retained the 25% AMT on that new breed of aubermenschen. the corporations. Some say this helped to throw a wet blanket on the big tech rebound on the Nasdaq.
And so the Congress is falling all over themselves to apologize, and to remove this insult to their corporate constituents. As for the regular people, well, they care not so much. They wouldn't know what to do with the extra money if they had it. They would probably blow it on things that would immediately boost GDP, and not on stock buybacks, dividends, and monopolization.
Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.
Have a pleasant evening.
