Phoenician Starpuss

It was just last Thursday when we previewed what we said would likely be further downgrades for Brazil on the heels of S&P's move to cut the country to junk in September. Here's what we said: On the heels of the S&P move, the political “dynamics” have become less favorable despite some observers’ contention that the further we move down the road to a Rousseff impeachment, the happier the market will be given her track record.

Can everyone saying “a 25 bps rate hike doesn’t change anything” or “manufacturing is a small part of the US economy today, so the ISM number doesn’t mean much” or “trade with China is only a few percent of US GDP, so their currency devaluation isn’t important” just stop? Seriously. Can you just stop?

Combine this regulatory burden with the decline of entrepreneurship, and you get a bubbling brew that is toxic to self-employment/small business. Why has the percentage of the population that's in the work force declined so dramatically? It's a question many have asked, and Gordon T. Long and I attempt to answer in our most recent video program The Participation Rate Mystery--Solved. Why does the Participation Rate matter?