WTF?



 

Why is this a "Discontinued Series?" It's a flat line for fifty years, goes parabolic and then the series is discontinued? Chart depicts last data points available. July 2013.

Mission Accomplished

Al-Qaeda now has a stronghold in Iraq:
BAGHDAD — Black-clad Sunni militants of Al Qaeda destroyed the Falluja police headquarters and mayor’s office, planted their flag atop other government buildings and decreed the western Iraqi city to be their new independent state on Friday in an escalating threat to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose forces were struggling to retake control late into the night.

Qaeda-Aligned Militants in Iraq Claim Falluja as Independent State
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/world/middleeast/fighting-in-falluja-and-ramadi.html?ref=world&_r=0

 

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rica and Other Assorted War Criminals Who Cost US Taxpayers $6 Trillion and Much More

President Bush's national security adviser said al Qaeda operatives have found refuge in Baghdad, and accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime of helping Osama bin Laden's followers develop chemical weapons.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bush-administration-links-iraq-al-qaeda/

The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq.

Along with the contention that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials have often asserted that there were extensive ties between Hussein's government and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network; earlier this year, Cheney said evidence of a link was "overwhelming."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47812-2004Jun16.html

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will together cost $4 to $6 trillion, according a new study from Harvard University's Kennedy School.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/03/28/the-total-iraq-and-afghanistan-pricetag-over-4-trillion

And Today:
BAGHDAD — Radical Sunni militants aligned with Al Qaeda threatened on Thursday to seize control of Falluja and Ramadi, two of the most important cities in Iraq, setting fire to police stations, freeing prisoners from jail and occupying mosques, as the government rushed troop reinforcements to the areas.

Dressed in black and waving the flag of Al Qaeda, the militants put out calls over mosque loudspeakers for men to join their struggle in both cities in western Anbar Province, which were important battlegrounds during the American-led war in Iraq and remain hotbeds of Sunni extremism
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/world/middleeast/Al-Qaeda-threatens-Iraqi-cities.html?hp&_r=0

 

US Economic Recovery Part III

2013 saw the pace of income growth fall to the lowest of the recovery.

The US labor force is actively shrinking:

Mortgage rates rise. Home refinancing collapses as do mortgage applications:

Housing Starts already at a lower non-population adjusted level from 1959 collapse further:

Non-defense ex-aircraft durable flatline:

The wealth effect will save us:

H/T: http://www.alhambrapartners.com/2013/12/27/facing-the-headwinds-of-2014/