Business

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

I can’t figure out why we are so concerned about the Middle East. Can you?

If we are swimming in shale oil and our future is driver-less electric cars, why are we so concerned about the Middle East?

After 15 years in Afghanistan, the opium crop is at record high levels. How could that be? I thought we were there to modernize and democratize their country. At least heroine in the U.S. is now cheaper than a happy meal at McDonalds. 

The confidence in the European banking system is decreasing on an almost daily basis. Six years after the global financial crisis, most of the European banks are still struggling to meet the minimum requirements of the regulatory bodies that are supervising the ‘health’ of the financial system.

By Wolf Richter of Wolf Street

Freight shipments by truck and rail in the US fell 4.9% in April from the beaten-down levels of April 2015, according to the Cass Transportation Index, released on Friday. It was the worst April since 2010, which followed the worst March since 2010. In fact, shipment volume over the four months this year was the worst since 2010.

This is no longer statistical “noise” that can easily be brushed off.

The Army’s latest headcount shows that nearly 2,600 soldiers departed active service in March without being replaced, an action that plunges manning to its lowest level since before World War II, according to ArmyTimes.com.

As we have pointed out many times in the past (most recently here), the jobs "recovery" has gone disproportionately to older workers at the expense of younger workers.

In fact, as Bloomberg points out, the employment-to-population ratio for those 65 and over is at its highest level since the early 1960's.