More trouble coming.

From Fitch

From The Wall Street Journal

"At Lake Wobegone, where all the kids are above average..."

Time to buy corporate bonds and short Treasuries?  History would suggest it. 

Oh, you could just see the intra-day reversal setting up today.  C’mon, strength on Tuesday morning after the Labor Day long weekend set up by the panic in the commodities markets due to the lack of damage from a hurricane?

Oil touched $105 this morning, and the button-pushers predictably did their thing, covering/buying stocks before the open in the futures market, then pushing the Dow up 250 points in the first half hour of trading.  Not surprisingly, the market sold off before stabilizing at 3pm.  The swing top to bottom during the session was 320 points.

As an educated and productive immigrant to the United States, let me say that the immigration system in this country is ridiculous.

The future prosperity of America will increasingly be reliant upon human capital.   This is true of all countries, and other nations such as Canada and the UK are making it easier for skilled immigrants to live and work in those respective countries. 

Thus, the United States should reform its Byzantine and inefficient system for processing immigrants.

From Reason.org

By the CD Howe Institute, via the excellent Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

International ranking by effective corporate tax rates

From Stephen Gordon

The World Bank has adjusted its poverty line assumptions upwards, which has increased the estimate of the number of people living in absolute poverty.  However, the general conclusion that poverty has been in the decline remains.  Summary here.

From World Public Opinion