Thanks for bringing back memories 
I don’t blindly support America no matter what like some people here do. I’m much more objective when looking at things.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
I see some of you have forgotten these words inscribed on the statue of liberty. As far as I am concerned, barring a criminal or terrorist background, everyone should be welcomed here.
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We didn’t spend trillions a year on social programs back then. If we add too many people to those program without adding enough tax payers, then we’ll go broke. It’s actually already happening in the US and Europe. Math is an inescapable reality.
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Santa is not coming this year. 
The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 2.26 percent to 6,910.66. For the year, the tech-heavy index is now up just 0.11 percent. Friday’s losses also wiped out the gains for the week across the major indexes.
Friday also marked the first time since March 2016 that all major indexes closed in a correction, down at least 10 percent from their 52-week highs.
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How’s your portfolio doing so far?
Are you a grave dancer now? 
The stupidity of some Americans is not only laughable but tragic.
We are in the negative, tax receipts are not fattening the treasury coffers. The big fish have bought themselves their stocks back. They said “we don’t need stinky tax cuts but we’ll take them”. CBO said don’t do it, but hey! What can you convince stupid republicans with?
Republicans, again, will own another bad economic outcome event.
I say this based on the actual or current events. I pray for things to change, but we know we have no captain at the helm. He is going to be golfing for about 2 weeks. MAGA!
You quote me as if anything you posted is relevant or disputes what I said. Here’s a graph that’s actually relevant and proves my point.
Here’s another one:
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Aren’t you just sick of the market? Maybe we should just sell everything and bail out. Come to think of it, sell all those rentals too. Time to cash out and use that money to enjoy life. Life is short and not worth the headaches
Sounds good advice, at least half is really good. What about yourself?
Which half is really good? This advice is good for you as well
Which half? That’s a good question. Let’s leave for the readers to decide 
Thanks Marcus - that graph is helpful. What I didn’t know until you posted that graph is that pensions as a % of GDP has been pretty flat since the 80s, whereas health care has exploded since the 80s.
One thing I’d be interested to know is if the number of people receiving pension entitlements has also stayed flat since the 80s, or has it gone up/down?
Cheers.
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Well reasoned piece. Go read the whole thing. Some excerpts:
The US rarely arrests senior businesspeople, US or foreign, for alleged crimes committed by their companies. Corporate managers are usually arrested for their alleged personal crimes (such as embezzlement, bribery, or violence) rather than their company’s alleged malfeasance. Yes, corporate managers should be held to account for their company’s malfeasance, up to and including criminal charges; but to start this practice with a leading Chinese businessperson, rather than the dozens of culpable US CEOs and CFOs, is a stunning provocation to the Chinese government, business community, and public.
Meng is charged with violating US sanctions on Iran. Yet consider her arrest in the context of the large number of companies, US and non-US, that have violated US sanctions against Iran and other countries. In 2011, for example, JP Morgan Chase paid $88.3 million in fines in 2011 for violating US sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Sudan. Yet Jamie Dimon wasn’t grabbed off a plane and whisked into custody.
And JP Morgan Chase was hardly alone in violating US sanctions. Since 2010, the following major financial institutions paid fines for violating US sanctions: Banco do Brasil, Bank of America, Bank of Guam, Bank of Moscow, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Clearstream Banking, Commerzbank, Compass, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, JP Morgan Chase, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Pakistan, PayPal, RBS (ABN Amro), Société Générale, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Trans-Pacific National Bank (now known as Beacon Business Bank), Standard Chartered, and Wells Fargo. 1
None of the CEOs or CFOs of these sanction-busting banks was arrested and taken into custody for these violations. In all of these cases, the corporation – rather than an individual manager – was held accountable. Nor were they held accountable for the pervasive lawbreaking in the lead-up to or aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, for which the banks paid a staggering $243 billion in fines, according to a recent tally. In light of this record, Meng’s arrest is a shocking break with practice. Yes, hold CEOs and CFOs accountable, but start at home in order to avoid hypocrisy, self-interest disguised as high principle, and the risk of inciting a new global conflict.
Rule of law? Whose laws?
The unprecedented arrest of Meng is even more provocative because it is based on US extra-territorial sanctions, that is, the claim by the US that it can order other countries to stop trading with third parties such as Cuba or Iran. The US would certainly not tolerate China or any other country telling American companies with whom they can or cannot trade. 1
Sanctions regarding non-national parties (such as US sanctions on a Chinese business) should not be enforced by one country alone, but according to agreements reached within the United Nations Security Council. In that regard, UN Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on all countries to drop sanctions on Iran as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Yet the US – and only the US – now rejects the Security Council’s role in such matters. The Trump administration, not Huawei or China, is today’s greatest threat to the international rule of law, and therefore to global peace.
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The Trump administration’s conflict with China has little to do with US external imbalances, closed Chinese markets, or even China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. It has everything to do with containing China by limiting its access to foreign markets, advanced technologies, global banking services, and perhaps even US universities.
Obvious except to some bloggers here.
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You can’t wake up people whose self interests is to fake sleep.
This piece by Kevin Rudd, ex-PM of Australia, is very good. Great strategic thinking.
This policy suggestion is very sensible, both the immediate term and the longer term ones. Hope Xi can seriously consider it:
Intellectual property protection, however, is deeply problematic. Previous agreements reached under President Barack Obama’s administration could be reconstituted. But the jurisdictional enforcement of breaches is still hopeless. One possible mechanism is to subject relevant contracts between Chinese and foreign firms to international commercial arbitration bodies located in Singapore or Switzerland, designed to deal specifically with the enforcement of IP protection.
If China objected, it might be possible to develop China’s own domestically based international commercial arbitration system. But the country would need to appoint qualified foreigners to its panel of arbitrators to build international credibility. No one has any confidence in China’s commercial courts. For its own domestic reform needs, China needs to move toward fully independent commercial and civil divisions of its court system, even if the criminal division remains subject to political control.
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None of the CEOs or CFOs of these sanction-busting banks was arrested and taken into custody for these violations.
US will arrest CEOs and CFOs as they are accountable for all operations under them.
If US is not strict on CEOs, and CFOs, they will swindle public money and leave the retail investors (like you, me and others) in to poverty.
This is report is somewhat skewed. US has arrested many and put into jail.
Top CEOs who have been arrested and jailed while heading Fortune 500 corporations.
If is equal to criminal offense or heavy financial offense, they will jail them. If it is civil offense, heavy penalty on them
- Martin L. Grass
Company: Rite-Aid
- Joseph Nacchio
Company: Qwest
- Walter Forbes
Company: Cendant
- Richard Scrushy
Company: HealthSouth
- Bernard “Bernie” Ebbers
Company: WorldCom
- Jeffrey Skilling
Company: Enron
- John Rigas
Company: Adelphia
- Dennis Kozlowski
Company: Tyco
- Sanjay Kumar
Company: Computer Associates
- Martha Stewart
Company: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
- Martin Shkreli
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The US claims the company poses a specific security risk through hidden surveillance capabilities in its hardware and software. Yet the US government has provided no evidence for this claim.
A recent diatribe against Huawei in the Financial Times is revealing in this regard. After conceding that “you cannot have concrete proof of interference in ICT, unless you are lucky enough to find the needle in the haystack,” the author simply asserts that “you don’t take the risk of putting your security in the hands of a potential adversary.” In other words, while we can’t really point to misbehavior by Huawei, we should blacklist the company nonetheless.
Jil,
Any trump supporting view?
Why quoting 11 is considered not rare? For all we know there are millions that flout the laws. You can’t use 11 anecdotes to prove a stats. Did you graduate from UCLA?
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Actually the author was not quite right. There is one single bank that faced criminal charges because of the financial meltdown in 2008. That one bank is a small mom and pop bank in NYC Chinatown.
What a coincidence the bank is owned by Chinese… 
all the other banks got fined which were ultimately paid for by shareholders.