They were getting a bit sloppy even by the late Republic. Pompey was pretty lax in discipline, though Caesar and Lucullus weren’t.

When NYC banks know that their private banker will bail them out, no matter how egregious their behavior, ruin comes begging.

(Lowell wrote the poem in opposition to the Mexican War. The UCC, among other places I’m sure, sing the poem often as a hymn, with some additional words that’ll really put the moxie in ya’.)

You know, at that St. Louis Fed site you can make the usual kind of free account for yourself and just graph away. The only problems are that we can’t yet manipulate the data first, just show time series panels of the standard data, and that it can be difficult to find exactly the right series, even if it’s on site. For that one, I’ll probably download and do the ratios myself, but I just wanted to get it to people’s attention asap.

There are some free possibilities for displaying one’s own graphics online, too. Some people do it at the photo place whose name has fallen into one of my brain’s holes. I just found out about one called drop.in that I may try.

And, I’m afraid I do not share any sanguinity about some kind of cathartic experience on the near horizon. America today is more like the brain-addled drug abuser in need of intervention. But, there’s no one except God himself to intervene in the coming disaster.

Thanks.

mp

And I’ll add a couple other things.

Right around the time of “Morning in America”, the second household income became a necessity vs luxury.

Then, in the 90’s, with no one else left in the household to go to work, home equity became the way to keep the consumer spending.

Now, with housing prices dropping like a stone, that’s no longer feasible and those that chose to use their home equity like a piggy bank are now in a world of hurt.

Your comments are always pithy, to the point and extremely ‘digestible’.

Many thanks and much appreciation.