Friday, May 05, 2006

Happiness Test

There is an old golf saying that goes "every shot makes somebody happy". Here are three "shots" to choose from. They all made me happy (in descending order).

Any further suggestions from the past week?


Dow Jones Industrial Average Hits Six Year High

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New York Times Class A Hovers Near Ten Year Low










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Tax Receipts Drop Deficit Projection

6 comments:

Barry Dauphin said...

This can't be. On the Newshour tonight, the PBS poobahs talked deficit, deficcit, deficit and the need to make rules to force budget balancing. Mark Shields wants to see how any tax cuts will be paid for. Don't the PBS people walk on water and would never exaggerate such things!!!!

blert said...

That's a hat trick.

Rick Ballard said...

Barry,

The 'thinkers' at PBS are still trying to figure out why the goals in the USSR's 5-year plans were always reached and the country still went broke.

There is a disconnect at the CBO (and the BLS). They have yet to figure out how to account for all the 1099s being filed, where the money goes and how many jobs are involved. Extrapolating froma 25% tax rate, a $50-80B increase in tax receipts means that profits taken in the 4th qtr were $200-320B higher than estimated which implies (on a 15% net margin) that gross revenues for the 4th quarter were understated by a minimum about $1T. The WSJ reporter did a very weak job on this article - which has a definite (and unpleasant) slant.

MeaninglessHotAir said...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the chart looks to me like the NYT drop doesn't have much more downside in it.

Unknown said...

According to the latest AP/Ipsos poll we are a very unhappy people, the Dow and the NYT aside.

I think that something like 73% do not like the way the country is going.

Of course half are pissy Democrats and a quarter are pissy Republicans who want their wall and want it right now, so maybe a certain amount of unhappiness is inevitable.

chuck said...

I think that something like 73% do not like the way the country is going.

I don't like the way the country is going, either. It has little to do with economics, almost everything to do with culture: education, work ethic, good sense, patriotism. Most particularly, the collapse of quality in education has me worried more about the future of this country than anything else on the list.