Americans over 30 are more miserable than they’ve ever been

It all goes downhill after 30 — at least when it comes to happiness.

“Adults over 30 are less happy than their predecessors,” concludes a study published online Thursday in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, which examined happiness data from more than 50,000 adults, gleaned from the General Social Survey, carried out by NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan, independent research organization, which has collected information about American adults since 1972.  Read more

Making The World A More Dangerous Place

US foreign policy at work

Without any doubt, the Middle East has been a very long-simmering region of violent religious and tribal enmity.

In that regard, perhaps today is no different than 1,000 years ago. But given the importance of the remaining oil in the Middle East to the next 20 years of global economic health, the violence and chaos seen there recently is hugely important to the entire world.  Read more

Republicans raid the Federal Reserve

MEMBERS OF the House are patting themselves on the back for passing a $325 billion, six-year transportation bill, on a bipartisan basis. “This has been a great week in the people’s House,” new Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) crowed. The long-overdue bill would indeed provide much-needed stability to federally supported infrastructure upgrades around the country. And the process that produced it was relatively open, with members free to submit and vote on more than 100 amendments, as Mr. Ryan had promised.  Read more

Budget Deal Is as Bad as You Think

In Washington, the word “bipartisan” usually means “watch your wallet.”  If anyone needs any further proof, just look to the bipartisan budget agreement announced yesterday.
Hailed in the name of “coming together” and “compromise” to “get things done,” the proposed deal is a dog’s breakfast of every bad budgetary idea to land on the table in recent months.
It’s a deal so bad that even incoming House Speaker Paul Ryan says it “stinks” (although, it appears, he will still be voting for it). Still, current speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who hammered out the deal behind closed doors, can probably put together enough votes to push it through, with a united Democratic caucus and just enough pro-defense spending Republicans.    Read more

Doubters question 'strange' stock market rebound

The double-digit stock-market rebound after a bruising summer has put European shares back into positive territory for the year, but sentiment around the central-bank-fueled rally remains fragile.

Weak trading volumes, a so-far disappointing earnings season and a focus on reliable dividend payouts rather than blockbuster growth have all contributed to the view that investors are being sucked into a market updraft rather than enthusiastically betting on a cyclical upturn.  Read more

Investors avoiding both stocks and bonds looks bearish for market

What do fund flows tell us about investor behavior before, during and after the third-quarter dive in stocks and the direction of markets from here? Even though raw numbers on money moving in and out of funds should be reassuringly concrete, they leave a lot to interpretation.  Read more

Labor Force Participation Remains at 38-Year Low; 94,513,000 Not in Labor Force

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Wedesday that she sees the U.S. economy "as performing well," although "we have seen some slowdown in the pace of job gains recently."  Read more

World's Largest Steelmaker Reports Huge Loss, Suspends Dividend, Blames China

It’s no secret that Beijing has an excess capacity problem.

Indeed, the idea that a yearslong industrial buildup intended to support i) the expansion of the smokestack economy, ii) a real estate boom, and iii) robust worldwide demand ultimately served to create a supply glut in China is one of the key narratives when it comes to analyzing the global macro picture.   Read more

REPORT: $64,370 COST TO RESETTLE ONE MIDDLE EASTERN REFUGEE IN U.S.

The estimated cost to resettle an average, single Middle Eastern refugee in the U.S. over the first five years is $64,370 — or 12 times the United Nations estimates it costs to support a refugee staying in a neighboring Middle Eastern country, according to an analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies.  Read more

$134,730 NIH-Funded Study Explores ‘Risk of Obesity in Food-Insecure Children’

Health awarded $134,730 in taxpayer funding to the University of California San Francisco to understand the “risk of obesity in food-insecure children.”

“Food insecurity” affects 16 million children in the United States, according to the grant. It is a “household condition of limited food availability.”  Read more

America Must Regain World Leadership in Manufacturing and Exports

If you didn’t know better, based on media coverage, you would think that our entire economy is based on the fast food industry.  Every day they are in the news, struggling to contend with minimum wage and union pressures.  

Fast food has become a force to reckon with, but while the debate rages about low wages, no one is talking about manufacturing — the industry that grew America.   Read more

Obama Made At Least 9 False Claims About His Bio That The Media Ignored

The media firestorm that has erupted this past week over alleged inconsistencies in Dr. Ben Carson’s life story has been breathtakingly hypocritical.  Not only is there no evidence that Carson embellished any aspect of his personal biography, this kind of scrutiny was never even remotely applied to President Obama when he was a candidate.

Here is a list of just some of the many inaccuracies in Barack Obama’s personal bio that the media never bothered to investigate.  See the 9

MSNBC GUEST: PEOPLE WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST

Southern Coalition for Social Justice senior staff attorney Daryl Atkinson appeared Saturday as a guest on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” to talk President Obama’s executive order to “ban the box,” which refers to the section on a job application for criminal history.

According to Atkinson, people with a criminal background “face legal discrimination in many areas of life”  Read more

University of Missouri faculty call for class walkout amid protests, football team boycott

A faculty group at the University of Missouri called for professors and other staff to walk out of classes Monday and Tuesday in the latest protest against the university president's handling of a series of racially charged incidents.

USA Today reported that The Concerned Faculty urged its members to stage a teach-in at the plaza where dozens of the school's African-American students and their supporters have gathered for the past week.  Read more

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS RULE OUT ISLAM FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES: MUSLIM LEADERS HIT BACK

The Roman Catholic Church is drawing criticism for ordering its schools to teach Judaism alongside Christianity in GCSE religious studies at the exclusion of Islam or other faiths. Senior Muslim leaders say the move is “disappointing” and hit back by warning that Pope Francis’s inclusive message of greater tolerance between the faiths was being ignored.  Read more

Carter sees Russia, China as potential threats to global order

On my radio program, World Reality with Richard G. Medlock, I asked the question on Oct. 20, 2015, "Who is a bigger threat to the United States and the World, China or Russia?"  In our discussion, we came to the conclusion that both are a threat in their own ways.  Secretary Carter has confirmed many of our conclusions.

Listen to World Reality Oct. 20, 2015

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Saturday slammed Russia, saying it is endangering the world order through its incursions in Ukraine and loose talk about nuclear weapons, and said the U.S. defense establishment is searching for ways to deter Russian aggression to protect U.S. allies.

Carter, speaking to the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, also expressed concern about China’s expanding influence and growing military might. National security experts and defense officials attended a gathering at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.  Read more

Americans less religious? Don't be fooled, believers are holding steady

Americans are less religious than they were eight years ago, according the Pew Research Center’s 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study. 

The study of 35,000 adults found that the religiously unaffiliated are, not surprisingly, becoming less religious in their beliefs and practices. Even so, about two-thirds of religiously-affiliated Americans still continue to pray daily, attend religious services once or twice a month, and describe religion as being very important to them. Not only that, evangelical Christians actually saw slight upticks in activities like weekly scripture reading, participation in Bible study groups, and evangelization.  Read more

Missouri football players to boycott season until university president steps down

Make sure you read all the reasons they want to boycott.  Could this be another "Lets make a big deal out of nothing" situation?  Richard Medlock

University of Missouri football players announced Saturday night on Twitter they will not participate in team activities until the school’s president resigns.

The statement was tweeted out Saturday by several members of the football team, including starting running back Russell Hansbrough.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports defensive backs Anthony Sherrils and Finis Stribling and linebacker Clarence Greene all retweeted the statement along with Hansbrough.  Read more

TSA Chief: 'We're on the Cusp of a Very Different Looking Checkpoint Experience'

Coming soon, a new checkpoint experience for airline passengers.

Testifying before a House Oversight subcommittee on Tuesday, Peter Neffenger, the new head of the Transportation Security Agency, said he envisions "a day where the checkpoint looks very different from what it does today.  Read more

Retail Arbitrage: The Ticket Scalping of Fashion

The growing practice of retail arbitrage is probably not on the minds of most consumers, but nevertheless could be affecting their everyday lives by driving up the price of items on the secondary market as well as causing retailers to run out of popular products more quickly.   

Retail arbitrage involves middlemen who make purchases in brick-and-mortar as well as online shops and resell them for much more through third-party retailers like Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY).  Read more

46,471: Drug Overdoses Killed More Americans Than Car Crashes or Guns

"Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of motor vehicle deaths and firearms (deaths)," the Drug Enforcement Agency announced on Wednesday.

In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 46,471 people in the United States died from drug overdoses, and more than half of those deaths were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin.  Read more

'Slap in the face!': University drops pledge, flag from Veteran's Day service

Patriotic students are infuriated after the Pledge of Allegiance and the Presentation of Colors were removed from Seattle Pacific University’s Veteran’s Day chapel over fears they might offend people.

The university’s Military and Veteran Support Club was outraged by the chaplain’s decision. They called it a “slap in the face” of every soldier who fought, sacrificed and died for our freedoms.  Read more

ISIS Inc.: Goods trickling out of caliphate prove difficult to trace

The Islamic State economy is more than just black market oil, plundered artifacts and stolen money: A steady stream of goods ranging from sesame paste to leather and fabrics is making its way out of the caliphate and onto store shelves around the world, say experts.  Read more

BILL AYERS: ‘BEAUTIFUL’ IDEA TO INDICT NRA IN PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL

Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and James Kilgore—three communist revolutionaries who were part of domestic terror groups and who all spent years on the run from the law—approved as a man called for “citizen’s tribunals” against the National Rifle Association to be held at the United Nations.  Read more

China's Secret Defense Spending: Beijing Paying Up To $65 Billion For Off-The-Book Military Acquisitions

China is secretly spending up to $65 billion on defense acquisitions, making up around 30 percent of the world’s unofficial military spending, according to a November 2015 defense and security report by Transparency International, a Berlin-based nongovernmental organization. The report, which gathers military information and ranks national defenses by least to most corruptible, claims that China’s military risk to be corrupted is “very high” to “critical,” and suggests that it could lead to greater instability and distrust in the region.  Read more