its all about the math....

the parallels between the functioning of the federal government and the public education system are becoming more and more apparent - both are dysfunctional and focused on bureaucracy growing....

Oh, I forgot...the Department of Education is a federal bureaucracy!  

Improving Education Could Pay Off In Economic Growth

August 18, 2015

Developing students who think critically about math could have national economic implications. 

Mathematics not only teaches students how to perform basic math functions, but also it also cultivates problem-solving, refines cognitive ability and develops reasoning skills. (which are important in the 'real world' that we live in....my comment)

A nation's future economic growth can be predicted by student performance at age 15 on an internationally standardized mathematics test, highlighting the need for quality mathematics instruction in U.S. schools. 

• Statistical analysis of student mathematic abilities are indicative of national economic growth.
• Performing 25 points higher than average on the international test correlated to an additional national output of more than $40 trillion in the next 20 years.
• The quality of education is imperative, not the number of years of schooling a student completes.

Inspiring a generation to become competent mathematicians will require a high caliber of teacher that cares more about the student′s quality of learning than yearly test scores.  Instead of focusing on student performance or early childhood education, policymakers would do well to shift attention to recruiting and retaining excellent teachers.  

Increasing requirements for teacher certification, offering enticing wages and competitive benefits, and allocating substantial time for professional development and lesson planning would all serve to provide students with a higher caliber of teachers necessary to improve the national mathematics competency. (not more administrators!!! my comment)

The incentive to improve U.S. mathematics education is clear. If poorly performing student scores could be raised to even 100 points below the international average, the additional output over the next 20 years would equal $72 trillion, roughly four times the annual U.S. GDP. The urgency to develop quality mathematics programs taught by high caliber teachers is necessary.

Source:  Robert Litan, "How Improving Education Could Pay Off In Economic Growth," Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2015.

10 year treasury yield....

With all of the economic indicators reflecting continuing volatile conditions it would appear that the 10 yield movement shall follow suit. 

economic volatility...

Ongoing economic volatility would appear to indicate an environment that continues to lack a solid foundation....cracks continue to show up and global head winds may (will)  create additional fissures within the system. 

Economic prognostication: Volatility is thy name...

quotes for consideration

The ill effects of an intrusive central government reverberate across our economic horizon resulting in less liberty for all...

Bastiat quotes for your consideration: 

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

Frederic Bastiat

Claude Frederic Bastiat was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government. Perhaps the main underlying theme of Bastiat's writings was that the free market was inherently a source of "economic harmony" among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression. To Bastiat, governmental coercion was only legitimate if it served "to guarantee security of person, liberty, and property rights, to cause justice to reign over all."

One of Bastiat's most important contributions to the field of economics was his admonition to the effect that good economic decisions can be made only by taking into account the "full picture." That is, economic truths should be arrived at by observing not only the immediate consequences – that is, benefits or liabilities – of an economic decision, but also by examining the long-term second and third consequences. Additionally, one must examine the decision's effect not only on a single group of people (say candlemakers) or a single industry (say candlemaking), but on all people and all industries in the society as a whole. As Bastiat famously put it, an economist must take into account both "What is Seen and What is Not Seen."

The New Mediocre

The New Mediocre - is this the future for our economy?

Michael Feroli, of JPMorgan economics has been way, way out in front of the story of a new structural slowdown for the U.S. Economy. 

On Surveillance today, he reiterated his call for a sub-2% run-rate for America.

And then he dropped a bombshell.

Feroli suggests that without technological progress, America's demographics and subdued productivity will drive "normal" GDP growth even lower. And the pace of job creation in the coming years will fall to around 75,000.

JPMorgan Economist: Get Ready for the Economy to Produce Way Fewer Jobs in the Future

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-09/jpmorgan-economist-get-ready-for-the-economy-to-produce-way-fewer-jobs-in-the-future

Caterpillar's amazing trend line...

Caterpillar has now reported an unprecedented 28 months of declining global retail sales, with the month of March seeing a 16% Y/Y collapse in China (after a 20% plunge in 2014 and a 24% plunge the year before), while Latin America has seen a 34% Y/Y crash, after a 21% drop the year before.

Or as far as the industrial and heavy equipment bellwether is concerned, the emerging markets (or BRICS) are in an unprecedented economic collapse.

And just to put the 28 months of declining retail sales in context, during the Great Financial Crisis, CAT suffered "only" 19 months of consecutive declines. As of March 2015, this number is now 28!

Or as a more truthful Tim Geithner would have said, "Welcome to the second Great Depression, Caterpillar!"

economic volatility remains....

U.S. housing starts dropped 17% in February, hurt by weather-related weakness.

U.S. retail sales dropped 0.6% in February, hit by weak demand at auto dealers.