The only thing that truly works is capitalism which has been thrown by the wayside, spat on, and forgotten. Fortunately capitalism doesn't need to be endorsed, inevitably it will return and decimate countries with socialism, planned government, fake money and demand games, massive illogical social programs, and corrupt communists cloaked as wealthy businessmen and bankers. The sad fact is the general public suffers their indignities to capitalism with slow to no growth, endless downturns, lack of direction or foresight (capitalist signals get replaced by government and bank surprise announcements), and massive corruption.

It is not just Europe that is lost but the US as well. It's just the US has centuries of capitalism to unwind in a few socialists quest to ruin it through central planning, artificial liquidity powers, decimation of real accounting starting with banking, cessation of cause and effect through socialization of special state controlled companies, massive unsustainable government bureaucracies, and the corrupt selling out of the public for personal gain.

The fact that we are on a cusp of a slowdown with zirpish rates still in effect shows how horribly mismanaged our central bank is and bodes ill in how we will get out of the next cyclical downturn. We are looking more and more like Japan because we ingested the QE bug into our system. One must inevitably pay for ones actions.

Good, even if gas prices drop another $0.50 cents and oil prices stay flat refiners and gas station companies will reap a huge windfall between the price of oil and the price they charge you. There is no reason to shed a tear for this sector.

Not just Republicans. Banking generally supports Democrats and is why they have been flooded with money and perks. Although one may say Republicans are the party of the rich because they support business, in reality both parties are involved in the rape and pillage of America for the well connected at the cost of the general public.

Unless both parties wring in each of their giveaways the general public that loses no matter what party holds the top spot which is why it's best to be politically neutral.

Tech and biotech although high are showing weakness putting into question the presumed economic upturn as well as how highly valued the market is on a presumed economic recovery. Of course, this is not much news, it's been the lie for over 6 years now. Although the Fed with cooperation by TBTF banks can keep up the stock market for a while, they can't prop up commodities anymore which is showing the true color of things to come. It is not just oil. There is overproduction and lack of demand in steel, wood, copper, and just about everything else related to energy, metals, wood, and the jobs related to them. If you toss in tech and biotech then you pretty much cover about every sector besides an already bloated government and banking sector that prey on the rest of the economy rather than help now that they are interested in socialization, QE, and shifting all losses onto taxpayers.

More worrisome is the Swiss pulling out of the Euro. If Asia decides to delink with the US due to getting ripped off by the Federal Reserve and QE which they are, that will have a more major effect than Switzerland. In fact, many point out the only reason China, Japan, and others keep a dollar peg and have massive reserves of it is because the US runs massive deficits with them and thus they can feel like the US is the loser.

In a capitalist system it is easy to see who is the real loser, It is those with debt and those holding the debt when the loser, the debtor doesn't pay. In order to deviate from capitalism the US has embarked on QE and other ways of making the cost be completely on the debt owner and none on the debtor. Although with this system the debtor gets paid back in full the value of the money is destroyed through the artificial production of new money. Thus QE is more a outright war on capitalism where it is bad to own capital because it may be worthless at anytime.

One needs to address the move by central banks towards QE simply because it is a outright war against capitalism which inevitably will bring down the whole system because it is not fair, predictable, and to its very core is designed to destroy the whole concept of capitalism by making holding capital a point of weakness rather than being a positive.

This is a clear and natural outcome of the oil price drop and will put pressure on all US housing prices because the whole US is under the socialized hands of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which has artificially pumped up home prices across the nation. If the meltdown looks like Texas in their old collapse these states will be facing a mess worse than the housing price collapse in California during the last downturn.

The good news for them is that the taxpayer will clearly pay the whole cost of the property meltdown and if Fannie and Freddie can't cover it, then TBTF banks can demand the US bail them out or otherwise cover them, which goes straight to the heart of the issue. When the taxpayer is liable for all mistakes how can you say the system is fair or capitalistic. Rather it makes it clear the powers that be are implementing socialism and financing their profit spree off of you and me.

Germany is very benevolent for letting all other Euro members feed off of them already. The sad fact is that, just like kids, unless you teach them that what they are doing is wrong and the ramifications of it, they won't change their behavior. The EU needs something to make their members at least try to have a sustainable budget, we won't even go so far as to say a balanced one, and keep their debt under control. For many such as Greece, their debt is now so big there is really no solution to their woes besides debt relief. And even then, there is no guarantee that they will not just do the same thing tomorrow. Their spending far exceeds their ability and willingness to pay.

Thanks for showing the analysis of trading and gambling as a study in risk and reward. They are essentially the same, however, people are fed lies about how gambling is terrible and how investing in the stock market is great. In reality, it depends on the risk reward structure and sophistication of the trader or gambler. Given gambling is usually designed to offer a negative value if against the house. However, you will find the same thing but more sophisticated going on in the stock market and home buying as well. In the end, its buyer beware, and usually it involves those encouraging you to behave a certain way be in gambling, buying a house, or buying and selling stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc. In the end, those selling to you are hoping you are on the worst side of the trade or that they get a percent of your money like gambling casino houses always.

The big issue right now is not that there isn't enough land, but a growing lack of water. In fact, the US produces way too much food and requires the US to subsidize it, export it to countries that can't pay for it, buy the excess, and try to force people convert farms to corn to use it as fuel.

Seriously, those countries that need food and can't pay for it can't even pay to transform habitable land into farms. If anything, one should focus on how to transform deserts into habitable land, but once again you have the issue of water and fertilizer to get it started. Indeed, vertical farming may have a place in Japan or Singapore, but even in Japan, rice farmers have a hard time not because they can't produce, but to keep in business at a higher price than imported food. Thus, there is really very little economic impetus to find more expensive ways to grow food. If one is serious about future food shortages one should look at countering global warming.