Wrong Turn

OP,

Yes, check travel fish and other sites. There are a lot of companies offering Halong Bay tours, and you can get current reviews about them on the web.

capping the weakest six months of the recovery that began in mid-2009. Gross domestic product climbed at a 1 percent annual rate, compared with an initial estimate of 1.3 percent growth.

To reiterate an article I read yesterday (that I've forgotten) this is not really the 'Great Recession' but the Great Contraction.

After 3 decades of over-leveraging and higher growth, there is now slower growth and de-leveraging. It's take years to to it.

Any advice on tackling "Capital" by Marx?

Read the follow-up articles, "Easy Implementation of Marxist Theories, Vols I thru IV."

By Lenin, Mao, Kim Il Sung, and Castro.

No reason to go through those people again, and read that. I majored in Political Science, and studied different aspects of communism.

Marx wrote "Capital" about 150 years ago. No one cares, but I vote Libertarian in every election.

Lots of common sense in this one

Nouriel Roubini: Karl Marx Was Right

Good interview Flying, along with the others in that site.

Marx has been getting mentioned more and more since the financial crisis and many state he called it correctly. I just ordered "Capital" by Marx and the companion reader by David Harvey, to clarify some chapters, as it can get deep (I'm told).

Any advice on tackling "Capital" by Marx?

Any exercises available to strengthen arches.

I understand stretching the calf and achilles, but I need to stretch - specifically stretch my arches. My arches are tight, and I also wear orthotics, which have made the muscles and (tendons? Ligaments?) weak in my feet.

When I got my orthotics my Dr. in the US never told me that it make my fee *weaker* in certain areas because of wearing orthotics. When I walk barefoot on my living soft rug, I walk like a duck. I cannot extend my feet or push up on them.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Some talking head on CNN was saying short term treasuries have gone up a tad, but that the longer term US investments have actually fallen. Is that true???

I believe that's called an "inverted J-curve." This happened a few years ago. It's not considered to be good.

Problems in the US for sure, but the alternatives are not great either.

Yes, very BIG problems.

I don't see any alternatives other than to embark on stringent and painful austerity measure. It's already started.

Coming soon to a corporation/district/city/county/state near you.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/08/central-falls-bankruptcy-update-all.html

Indeed.

City bankruptcy. It's happening more and more albeit slowly (for now).

state bankruptcies are a possibility and there are deals being made in DC to get around the "constitutional obstacles."

I think Illinois will go bankrupt within 24 months.

With a state bankruptcy, the pain won't just be felt in a city, but the entire state.

The debt ceiling "deal" is just kicking the can down the road, once again. It's a temporary band-aid. They set this up so it won't be an issue again until *after* the next round of elections in 2012.

A ratings downgrade is still possible. Personally, I a downgrade will happen within 12 months.

PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian: Budget Deal Will Only Bring Short-Term Relief

By IMTIYAZ DELAWALA

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2011

One of the most prominent global investors says that a potential budget deal in Washington will only bring short-term relief, and it won't remove the threat of a U.S. debt downgrade by credit rating agencies.

"I think this compromise will lead to an increase in the debt ceiling, and therefore avoid default," said Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, a global investment firm and one of the world's largest bond investors said today on ABC's "This Week With Christiane Amanpour." "But this relief will be short."

"We have one rating agency out there that said it would downgrade unless certain things happen, and these things are not happening fast enough," El-Erian said of the budget framework being negotiated.

"If the U.S. loses that AAA status, it will be much more difficult for the U.S. to restore growth, so it's unambiguously bad," El-Erian added.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pimco-ceo-mohamed-el-erian-budget-deal-bring/story?id=14199182

Just saw a report on CNN that August 2nd might not actually be the deadline. This date was picked some time ago and now increased tax collections may actually extend the date to the 10th or so. Unreal.

And even if the deadline is extended to the 10th and a deal is reached this all makes a downgrade from AAA very real.

US still designs, develops and produces the best weapons systems in the world

This show where the US's priorities are: funding the bloated and corrupt Military Industrial Complex. Pentagon + corporations such as

Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, L-3, BAE Systems (non-American company) and many others.

A very distorted set of priorities that Eisenhower warned us about. The MIC is a monstor, and Presidents have to kow-tow to it.

but I wonder how much longer we can pay for it.

Not much longer.

Outlook Is Bleak Even for Recent College Graduates - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html

Thanks for the article, Midas. That is a very depressing article. But sadly, it's an article based on empirical evidence.

Most of these young Uni grads will be the "lost generation." As the article states, salary history follows you around, and it's harder to change after 5 years.....

This question/topic has been haunting me since the financial crisis started. I am reminded of it every time the politicians talk about “ creating jobs “-such loose words but no one ever goes beyond that by defining exactly what these jobs would be and how much they would pay?

Yes, these politicians are quite vague. It's very convenient.

The jobs of today (in the US at least) are low paying service sector jobs with little or no benefits.

The problem with the economy is not enough jobs...not the debt ceiling. Though the latter needs to be dealt with for sure!

Every year more and more adults enter the work force, but there are not jobs created. How to deal with it? Hard to say, as it's a private sector matter.

This is interesting:

In a sign of how perilous the ongoing partisan gridlock could be for both parties in Washington, a new poll finds that just 30 percent of Americans are willing to re-elect their current member of Congress.

According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 63 percent of those surveyed say they are inclined to "look around" for someone new to elect. That's the highest anti-incumbency number ever recorded in the poll, which dates back to 1989.

By comparison, roughly half of Americans said they were looking to new candidates ahead of the 2010 midterms, when Republicans claimed 63 new seats in Congress and regained majority control of the House.

The latest poll would seem most perilous to Republicans, since they hold more seats in the House. More broadly, however, the survey underlines just how little esteem the country holds for sitting lawmakers from either major party in Congress.

Still pollster Gary Langer writes in an analysis of the poll that anti-incumbency is particularly high among Democrats, "a possible sign they are stirring as they did not in 2010."

This tends to show how political the debt ceiling vote is. Each party trying to jockey for position in the upcoming elections. Another quote from the NY Times:

Many Republicans oppose abandoning the party’s no-compromise stand against any new taxes, while many Democrats fear a “grand bargain” will undercut their party’s ability in the 2012 campaigns to use Republicans’ support of deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security against them.

Putting elections above the interests of the country at large. Pretty sad...

That was a good snippet to post here, craigt3365.

The entire fiasco of going into this debt was to benefit during the next elections: "we'll spend to 'create' jobs. We are *doing* something." When in fact, it didn't really help at all.

And now, the Debt Ceiling wrangling is another sad game for both parties to position themselves for the upcoming elections.

These are the negatives of 'democracy.'

Do something in the short-term that 'seems' good and beneficial to get re-elected every 2, 4 and 6 years, which will bring the country down in the long term.

Glad I'm in Asia, and not there.

Flying,

Thanks for the Ray Dalio article. The last 2 paragraphs are the way I see it, and I am a layman.

Also, US housing is poised to gown 10-20% next year. QE, high unemployment in US, European Union problems from Greece, to now Italy to the other piggs later.

Tough times coming ahead - for some.

Thanks for the replies.

My location is in Thailand but also Cambodia and Vietnam for work.

I'll check out the option you both posted. Thanks.

You have to laugh as you watch the news these days

regarding the USA debt ceiling. Approaching expiration/default

August 2nd

Actually expired back in May? but, they have been running on

Federal pensions/fumes

But what I find funny is the show they put on...The Democrats & the Republicans

pretending they will not agree to raise it......as if they have that choice.

Spot-on.

I am hearing a lot of talk about this firstly among American expacts, and now also from the Europeans and people of other parts of the world. All this talk about the debt ceiling.

It's political posturing. And it's very stupid. The elections are 16 months away and both parties and their politicians are posturing.

The debt ceiling will will be raised IMO, as the negative consequences are to big. So these games and accusations are just childish actions by incompetents.

Personally, I'd like to the see the debt ceiling not raised, as it would further awaken the public into how screwed up the US is, and will be in the future.

It's a house of cards.

I am having some WiFi trouble accessing the internet.

I've googled, but am looking form more info on the 3g dongle.

You just plug it into a USB port to access the internet?

Unlimited usage time?

So you think the american taxpayer should pay for someone who has never paid a cent into the system ??? Not with my tax dollars, you bought her now YOU pay for her.

But when an American expat files taxes (joint filing w/ Thai wife) her income must be included, so she is paying US taxes but will not get anything from it in terms of SS benefits.

An American expat only pays taxes at the income level of $82,000 per year (I think it's now $85K per year).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a foreigner (non-US citizen) living in a foreign (non-US country) does not pay tax to the US government because he or she is married to an American expat.

Furthermore, the Thai wife does not have an SS number, so therefore the Thai wife AND her employer are NOT paying into SS.

Thank you Sheryl.

I started taking 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with 4 oz. of water in and AM, right after waking up, and the same amount right before bed 2 years ago.

It worked for me. It changed my life.

I believe it's the alkalizing effects that are working.

Baking works for some, but not everyone.

Thanks for the info, oakweb.

I took Voltaren yesterday with food and a glass of water. Just one dosage. It helped.

It seems *almost exactly* or perhaps *exactly* like Indocine when I read it as a non-steroidal NSAID. Same potential side-efftects, and warning and recommendations.

^ The State of Minnesota is one of many, many, states that may go broke.

Bankruptcy deals are being done in DC, to get around the legalities.

I see the state of Illinois, as being the first state to go bankrupt within 2 years.

My friend drinks Cranberry juice and has had no gout attacks since.

Thanks for the info.

I take 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in the AM and in the PM.

That is not the issue now.

It's about Voltaren.

But thanks for the contribution.

When the occasionally gout attack occurs, I have usualy taken Indocine/Indomethacin, as directed.

Only take it while the condition lasts, and take it with food and a glass of water.

Now the pharmacies don't stock Indocine/Indomethacin where I am located, and instead are giving me Voltaren

I've read the label and searched the web for info.

I'm just checking to make sure:

Are these basically the same? They are both NSAIDs.

Thanks to anyone who can help.