You think that we have leadership problems in our country, and then you look around the globe and realize that we are pretty well off, irrespective of who wins any of the elections next month.

We talk about problems in our economy and we debate about the implications of economic indicators moving by fractions of a percentage point.  But you consider the double digit inflation or deflation that lesser (that’s right, I said lesser) countries are experiencing and you have to hand it to our Federal Reserve for maintaining the status quo.  Don’t get me wrong, I still critique (mostly for humor’s sake) and maintain the right to continue to do so, provided that the would-be shark riders back east don’t rescind the 1st amendment anytime soon.

At the close of business today, 3/4 of the year 2016 will be behind us.  While most measures of growth still aren’t in the still-targeted 2-2.5%, we are fairly close.  A measure of household spending, Personal Consumption Expenditures was released today. The study shows that the costs of running a family increased 0.2% last month and 1.7% since this time last year.  Where such spending accounts for 2/3 of our country’s GDP, it’s a big deal.  The good news for all of us is that Personal Income increased in lockstep with our consumption, but once again also shows that it’s pretty easy to spend everything you earn.  Does anybody know where I can buy a shark?