US Economic Recovery: Part XX

July, 2010:
Machinery maker Caterpillar's second-quarter earnings surged 91 percent, helped by gains in sales of its equipment for industries like mining, infrastructure and energy.
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Caterpillar is an industrial bellwether, so its earnings show that the recovery may have some steam.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2012422077_apusearnscaterpillarsummarybox.html

Today. August 20th, 2014:
"[I]n October 2008, the month after Lehman failed and the Great Recession started, industrial bellwether Caterpillar underwent a series of 19 consecutive, record, declines in Global dealer retail sales
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as of July 2014, that record is no longer valid, because starting with a -1% drop in Global retail sales in December 2012, CAT has now posted a new record of 20 consecutive global dealer retail sales declines, after a -9% Y/Y print for the month of July.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/08/CAT%20great%20depression_1.jpg

We Must Remain Vigilant in Safeguarding Press Freedoms

"[I]n a news conference Monday at the White House, the President also said freedoms of assembly and the press must be “vigilantly safeguarded”
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni57623703/

"[I]'ve  been in several conflict zones: I was in the civil war regions in Georgia, the Gaza strip, illegally visited the Kaliningrad region when travel to the Soviet Union was still strictly prohibited for westerners, I've been in Iraq, Vietnam and in China, I've met Cuba dissidents. But to be arrested and yelled at and be rudely treated by police? For that I had to travel to Ferguson and St. Louis in the United States of America."
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-19/veteran-conflict-reporter-had-go-ferguson-get-arrested-first-time

"The New York Times reporter James Risen, who faces jail over his refusal to reveal a source and testify against a former CIA agent accused of leaking secrets, has called President Barack Obama “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/17/james-risen-obama-greatest-enemy-press-freedom-generation


 

US Economic Recovery: Part IXX