I wouldn’t say the stock market will decline because the Baby Boomers will have retired. It isn’t even entirely because they retire and remove their monies from retirement funds to pay for their current living expenses. It would drop if that happened and nothing else changed. But, our economy is growing and technology improvements and system efficiencies should keep it growing for quite some time. Whether that growth outweighs or counterbalances the reduction of investments by retirees isn’t clear. But, it certainly behooves the Street to find other investors to keep their bubble from bursting.

Perhaps they lack faith in the next generation or maybe they have always been pure cynics who only told us we were great, but always knew it was just the sheer numbers of Boomers which made things go.

On Pakistan:

I’ve heard it said there is a small minority in that country who support Al Qaeda and that if they were active in politics they wouldn’t come close to running the country. But, if certain influential types, like those in the military or ISI, were AQ supporters, then it can only mean trouble for us.

The story about an ISI leader who gave money to AQ people involved in 9/11 is an example of that.

However, many of us have even greater worries, that it is their cooperation with Republican NeoCon Crazies to enable AQ in order to create the political environment for Bushies to be empowered to do whatever they want (”another Pearl Harbor” logic) that is deeply troubling.

Dubya is leaving the next president a very messed up world.

Just think, if we didn’t have war, we could just print up them dollars and have stuff like Universal health care, guaranteed minimum income, no personal income tax. But wars allow the government to get stronger under the guise of national security and keeping us safe, and when people are too busy working 2-3 jobs to survive, they do not have time to monitor their government. But what if there is no enemy? No problem, we create the enemy, and if they do not attack us, we attack ourselves and blame it on them. Smedley Butler was right, war is a racket.

the goal of dismantling Al Qaeda and its hub of operations in the border region has given way to expectations among U.S. intelligence and military officials that the United States and Pakistan face a years-long struggle simply to contain the terrorist network and keep it from expanding.

Government policy is all well and good, but if the boots on the ground don’t feel the same way, the government’s position is meaningless.

[Mod: please provide your blog link with your name at login instead of repeating it at the end of every comment, thanks]

the lost opportunity cost of the bush/cheney/neocon unnecessary, illegal wars of choice are in and of themselves crimes against humanity.
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Hadn’t read the Times yet. Good pick-up, Attaturk. There was this little nugget in the article, too:

United States military officials said the American military was so overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan that it had no advanced helicopters to give to Pakistan.

Oh well. At least The Surge is working, so it ain’t all bad.

Health Care Mandates–Refocus the Debate

Mr. Krugman is writing about unions. He says although the movement is a shadow of its former self, unions still matter politically.

BO is not the Unions’ friend. He and that Chicago talk show host spoke at a venue in NH that does not welcome unions and now he is trying to curb the Unions’ voice in Iowa. Not so good if you are looking for the Dem. nomination. Edwards, on the other hand, has been an outspoken advocate for Unions, a living wage and healthcare for all. HRC, well she is in the pocket of big industry and let us not forget Nafta.

Thank you Marion, my father always made sticky buns Christmas morning. It smells so good in my head right now.